Aggie hockey goes from hot to cold
Playing in sunny Arizona, the Utah State University hockey club was unable to pull a win in either of its weekend games.
Down 6-0 to Arizona State University, the Aggies staged a furious rally, eventually losing to ASU 6-5. However, the University of Arizona pummeled the Aggies 12-3.
“I think we played the best game of the season [against ASU],” said USU forward Brandon Lang. “[ASU] is a Division I team and we almost took them.”
Lang said both teams played strong defense in the first period as the score remained 0-0. The second period proved to be disastrous for the Aggies as they gave up six goals to ASU, and lost a key player.
Senior forward Nick Thiros broke his finger and was out for the remainder of the game.
USU’s disastrous third period was too much to overcome, Lang said.
“We really came back in the third period,” he said. “I think we could have beat them if we didn’t allow so many goals in the second period.”
Saturday’s game against the University of Arizona was a more distressing loss for the team.
“We were just outclassed, [and] they had more depth than we did,” said Head Coach Jerry Crossley.
The game was disappointing and many of the players said they felt they could have played better.
“They kicked our a–,” said Aggie Alan Hashimoto.
Thiros said, “U of A basically dominated the entire game.”
The team will not have to wait long for a chance to rebound from its loss to Arizona as USU will play three games at the Eccles Ice Center this week. USU will play Northern Arizona University on Thursday, the University of Utah on Friday, and No. 1 ranked Colorado State University on Saturday.
“After getting beat bad by U of A we’ll come out with lots of hunger,” Lang said.
Crossley said, “Our team should be ready to dish [up] a string of wins. We are ranked No. 2 in the West and plan to build up to Saturday’s game against No. 1 CSU.”
Tickets will be sold Thursday on the Taggart Student Center patio. They may also be purchased at the ice center prior to the game.
As far as Thiros’ finger injury goes, he said he feels confident the team will combine to help fill the void.
“There are so many players on the team, I think that if one role is spread throughout the entire team, there shouldn’t be that big of a change,” he said.
Then again, it isn’t as if USU hasn’t had to worry about the injury bug in the past, Crossley said.
“It’s gonna happen with hockey,” he said referring to the injury.
-bridget@cc.usu.edu