Aggie Hockey gets sweep over Utes
Friday night at the Eccles Ice Center in North Logan was a fitting end to a long journey for several different players on the USU hockey club, as the Aggies defeated the Skatin’ Utes from the University of Utah, 6-5, in overtime on a virtually impossible shot from five feet off the goal line by USU assistant captain Brendan MacDonald.
Before the game began, those who will be departing the USU hockey program were honored. David Wyman, Kent Arsenault, Matt Ferris, Jay McFadden, and Seth Armitage are subject to ineligibility because of graduation and will not return next year.
Senior captain Kent Arsenault said he will continue after this season with many memories close to heart. He said his best memories will be of the loud and raucous USU crowds.
“I played a lot of hockey back home in Canada,” Arsenault said, “and I’ve never seen crowds like this. To this day it still sends chills. It’s unbelievable. Those are the memories for me, just walking out on the ice in front of those crowds. It’s something that no one else experiences in our league.”
As for the game itself, the Aggies started off poorly, surrendering the first goal of the game. USU tightened the ship quickly, though, scoring four straight in 14 minutes. The Aggies headed into the locker room after the second period feeling comfortable, though Utah had managed to get one back near the end of the second.
Utah struggled to maintain possession in the beginning minutes of the third, but finally got the puck into USU’s zone after four minutes of game time. Utah State recovered the puck and moved to clear it to the neutral zone. Rather than send it vertically, the puck was cleared directly into the slot, where Utah’s Josh Carlsberg was waiting. He sent the puck into the backside of an overly exposed net, and the Utes were within one at 4-3. They leveled the score at four apiece three minutes later.
The Aggies continued fighting, but were unable to get past Utah’s defense. Head coach Jon Eccles credited the Utes’ defensive prowess to the excellent play of Ute goaltender Pete Gibb, who saved 53 shots and surrendered 6 goals. By comparison, Aggie goaltender Dan Cornelius only had to handle 33 shots on the night.
“He really anticipated shots well,” Eccles said of Gibb. “We had some guys that should have scored. In normal times, our guys would have buried those, but he anticipated shots like I haven’t seen him ever do before.”
But with 8:48 left in regulation, the Aggies were able to sneak a fifth goal past Gibb. Senior Captain Kent Arsenault flew behind the net with the puck and connected with a hard-cutting Matt Hamilton who sank a one-timer into the netting.
The match was far from done, however. A power-play goal by Utah evened up the tally at five, and suddenly the Aggies were faced with a very sticky situation: overtime on senior night.
Enter Brendan MacDonald.
It took only twenty seconds for MacDonald to take a pass from Jeremy Martin, move the puck down within five feet of the goal line, send a diagonal screamer over Gibb’s left shoulder into the side-netting of the goal, and hear the arena absolutely erupt with applause. MacDonald said the key was playing Gibb’s anticipation to his advantage.
“Marty had given me a nice pass,” MacDonald said, “and I saw (Tyler) Mistel(bacher) going hard to the net, but I took a look at the goalie, trying to look everybody off. I saw him leave some room around the shoulder, so I thought I’d give her a chance, and it went right where I wanted it to.”
Despite the victory, the general consensus in the locker room after the game was that USU should never have been in an overtime situation.
“We were too comfortable sitting in our own barn,” Arsenault said. “Last minute shows, going into the overtime like that, the fans always love that, but for us, we’d rather not be in that position.”
“They believe that they can skate with us and beat us,” Eccles continued. “They’ve taken us to a shoot-out in overtime before, which we won in Salt Lake last year. They are kind of thinking that they’re knocking on the door, and they’re really not. When we give them opportunities like this, it kind of reinforces it and increases their self-confidence.”
The Aggies made good on Eccles’s statement by following up their overtime thriller with a 4-2 win in Salt Lake City Saturday night to end their regular season on the road.
Next up for the Aggies is the regional playoff, which USU is hosting this year. Four games will be held at the Eccles ice arena this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The puck will drop between no. 1 seeded USU and no. 8 seeded Texas A&M at 7 p.m.
– la.hem@aggiemail.usu.edu