Ag hockey team looking for crucial road wins
Last week, the Utah State hockey club appeared to be a lock to go to the national tournament, holding a firm grip on the No. 3 ranking in the region.
But after a 2-2 tie to Cal-Berkeley and an 8-0 blowout at the hands of San Jose State, the Aggies find themselves in a must win situation going on the road to play Southern California.
The Aggies, who are now 14-13-2 on the year, will play the Trojans on Friday and Saturday.
“Our team right now is the process of tweaking some things to get back on course,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “It’s going to be tough based on our history lately. Hopefully we can get something going there and do better there.”
Although there have been no new rankings released since last weekend, it is projected that USU will slip behind SJSU and be tied with BYU for the No. 4 ranking and final tournament bid.
Aggie Nick Thiros said a lot rests on the results of this weekend.
“This weekend is still huge,” he said. “If we go out there and lose to USC, then we’ll probably lose our fourth spot.”
Goalie Chris Webber said he does not know why the Aggies aren’t playing as well as they can.
“We’re trying to regroup and take a look at our team as a whole and see why we aren’t clicking,” he said. “Some of the guys think we’re just having bad karma right now. I don’t know if that’s it or what, but hopefully we can get our act together.”
Webber said the team will switch up some of its lines while he and goalie Adam Lain will change their practice routine.
“I don’t think the stuff we’re working on in practice is really helping to prepare us for games,” he said.
Another key factor is the health of Nick Haase and Robert Hashimoto both of whom sat out last weekend’s games.
Haases said he will not be playing because he will have an MRI on his injured knee. Crossley said it is uncertain if Hashimoto will play or not.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu