Aggie hockey club advances to nationals
The Utah State Hockey club qualified for nationals last week by placing third in the West Region in the final rankings released this season.
The Aggies leapfrogged Southern California for the No. 3 spot, a position owned by the Trojans since beating USU in North Logan Nov. 14, 2003.
The Aggies still have two regular season games remaining before nationals and are trying to remain focused.
“We’re not going to let down at all,” said Aggie Jordan Francom. “We’ve got to get geared up and ready to go.”
USU won both of its games last weekend with a 7-3 victory over the Wyoming Cowboys Saturday and a 9-3 win over the Provo Icecats Friday.
With the Aggies leading against Wyoming by only a goal after two periods, USU scored two goals in a 1:09 span midway through the third period to seal the win.
Robert Hashimoto had a hat trick with all three goals coming off assists from all-time USU goals leader Aaron Burrell.
“I guess I had the flow today,” Hashimoto said. “But Burrell has the flow like every other game, so it was nice for me.”
Nick Haase also added a goal and two assists for the Aggies.
Goalie Chris Webber said the Cowboys were talking to him a lot, trying to mess up his game.
“I guess that was their game last year when we lost,” he said. “They talked a lot of game. But this time it was nice to win and show them up.”
Friday, USU overcame an early BYU goal to score five goals in a row en route to a blowout win over the Icecats.
Burrell had two goals and three assists, and Francom added a pair of goals and assists to lead the Aggies.
“Overall, we played pretty good,” Francom said. “We’re preparing for nationals so it’s straight up business from here on out.”
The game would take an ugly turn in the third period for USU as 56 of its 68 penalty minutes came in the final period.
Hashimoto, Burrell, Brandon Lang and Chad Johnson all received 10-minute misconduct penalties.
Head Coach Jerry Crossley was not pleased with his team’s discipline in the third period.
“From a coaching standpoint, that’s us starting to lose our focus again,” he said. “We got control of the game, then you start doing things that maybe lets the other team back into a game or maybe you lose a player for the next game and stuff like that – we can’t tempt fate there.”
Aggie Brett Fryslie said, “We started getting screwed by the refs at the end, but that’s just what happens when a team is just obviously better than the other.”
The Aggies received some bad news earlier in the week when they learned that Nick Thiros will miss the remainder of the season with a collarbone injury. Thiros broke his collarbone in the Feb. 6 game against Colorado when he was hit simultaneously by two Colorado players, according to team athletic trainer Alys Staten.
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