Ag hockey picks up 2 big wins
The Utah State hockey club beat the USC Trojans 7-4 Saturday, a day after beating the Long Beach State 49ers 4-0, in a key sweep of the California schools.
Aaron Burrell, Robert Hashimoto and Mike Lewandowski each had three goals against the Trojans.
“We executed fairly well,” Lewandowski said. “We scored seven goals. That’s good.”
The players said they still felt they could have done better.
“I’d like to have been a little more solid with them,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “We kind of opened the door for them a few times with penalties. But all in all, it was OK.”
Burrell said he felt the Aggies missed on too many opportunities offensively.
“We could have beat that team 15-4,” he said.
Holding a 5-3 lead, Hashimoto and Nick Thiros teamed up for a goal just 27 seconds into the third period to deliver a knock-out punch to USC by taking a three-goal advantage.
“I have a theory that a two-goal lead is the most dangerous one in the game,” Crossley said. “I like to get away from that. Once you get a lead in a game you want to keep it.”
“A two-goal lead is nice, but it’s not as secure as you’d like,” Lewandowski said.
USC took a 3-2 lead with 4:40 left in a back and forth first period on a power-play goal. The Aggies responded by scoring five consecutive goals until the Trojans scored a final time with 9:22 left in the game.
Friday night, Aggie goalie Adam Lain recorded his second shutout of the season, his last one coming at home against the Weber State Division-II team Nov. 6.
“Adam played great in goal,” Lewandowski said. “We had some guys step up. We played good team defense.”
Crossley said the shutout on Friday helped the team on Saturday.
“That’s always good momentum,” he said. “I would have liked to have another one [Saturday], but it was a good weekend.”
Dave Kuwada, Robert Sutherland, Jordan Francom and Roberto Leo each scored for the Aggies in a must-win situation.
“If you lose to those guys, you’ve dug yourself a pretty deep hole,” Burrell said. “We put ourselves in good shape.”
Crossley said losing to a California school at this point in the season will make it tough to come back and get ahead of them again.
“It can knock you down,” he said. “It’s a tough deal coming from behind late in the season.”
Lewandowski said the Aggies were more prepared to play D-II schools by playing their last four games against D-I opponents.
“Those games were definitely a lot faster,” he said. “It’s kind of a break when you go out there and you’re faster than the team that you’re playing instead of them being faster than you.”
Thursday, the Aggies took a pounding from the Arizona State D-I squad in a 10-1 loss.
“Tonight is the worst effort, the worst game I’ve seen these guys play ever,” Crossley said after the game. “Honestly, I don’t know what the problem was tonight. There was no effort. We weren’t making good decisions. We were just playing poor hockey.”
The loss was the fourth in a row for USU, the last three all coming against ASU. The Aggies dropped a pair of games against the same squad in Temp, Ariz., the previous weekend.
“We knew exactly what we were up against,” Crossley said. “We just didn’t show up for whatever reason.”
The Aggies did not get a single shot-on-goal in the second period. It was the first time this season that happened for USU.
USU missed another chance to beat a D-I opponent and help their resume for the national tournament. The Aggies are now 0-6 against upper division teams.
The Aggies were without Leo and Nick Haase, which shook up their lines and forced forwards who do not normally skate with each other to find chemistry on the ice.
“Having those two missing is a big hole in our lineup,” Francom said. “But we know what we’re capable of.”
“It hurts when you get your lineup messed up a little bit, but at the same point, that’s part of the deal,” Crossley said. “You got to be ready to adjust to the team.”
Francom said the forwards simply couldn’t adjust to the switch.
“The forwards are all used to skating with the same guys and knowing where everybody’s at,” he said. “Once you switch it up, it’s a different mentality.”
Francom scored the only goal for the Aggies in the first period to tie the game 1-1.
Midway through the second period, with ASU up 7-1, Adam Lain replaced Chris Webber at goalie for USU.
“I don’t fault either one of those guys,” Crossley said of his goalies. “They just didn’t have any help.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu
Aggie goalie Adam Lain makes a save against Divion-I Arizona State Thursday night in Logan. The Ags lost their third-straight game to the Sun Devils, falling 10-1. (Photo by John Zsiray)