Aggie hockey 1-1 in tourney
The Utah State hockey club lost a critical game to Oakland University 8-3 Thursday at the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division-II National Tournament.
A day earlier, USU upset the Indiana Hoosiers 11-6 to set up the unexpected showdown with OU.
A win for the Aggies over OU would have sent them to the semifinals for only the second time ever.
OU is the defending national champion and the host team of this year’s tournament.
USU still has hope to advance to the semifinals, but it is a slim chance. It must win its final pool-play game over Siena College and Indiana must beat Oakland. In that scenario, IU, OU and USU would be in a three-way tie which would be broken by the total goals that each team allowed. After Thursday, IU has allowed 18 goals, USU 14 and OU 7.
Wednesday, the Aggies upset Indiana 11-6 by scoring six power-play goals.
“[Indiana] was ranked No. 1 coming in, but they’re going to be going home a little early it looks like,” Aggie Aaron Burrell said. “The power-play goals really made the difference.”
USU scored four straight goals to take a 6-3 lead in the second period after falling behind 3-2.
Going into the third period, USU held a 7-5 lead before Froehle found the back of the net on a 5-3 advantage to give the Aggies a three goal lead.
“That’s a great way to start the period,” Crossley said. “Being able to capitalize on those goals is what won the game for us.”
“I think that going into that [third] period that we knew that we had that game won before we even stepped on the ice,” he said.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu