Aggie hockey loses to CU, beat Weber

The Utah State Hockey Club missed a chance to improve its profile for the national tournament by losing to Colorado, 6-3 Friday.

Despite the loss, Aggie Aaron Burrell was still able to celebrate his record breaking goal. That was the Burrell’s 157th goal in his USU career, breaking the previous mark of 156 set by Nate Anderson.

“I’ve played with a lot of great players over the years and they all contributed,” Burrell said. “No one can score 157 goals by themselves. It definitely would have been a lot cooler to win, but I’m happy.”

Goalie Chris Webber was also very excited for Burrell.

“Burrell is awesome,” Webber said. “That was just a sweet goal. I just wish we could have won for him. He deserves a win.”

Burrell’s goal came in the middle of a three goal rally in the third period. After spotting the Buffaloes a four goal lead early in the second period, the Aggies scored three-straight goals in the second and third periods.

But it would not be enough though, as Colorado would score the final three goals of the game, the last of which going into an empty net.

“It’s not good to play a catch-up game,” Webber said. “We were coming strong in the third period. We needed a big boost like that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish it off. Our problem right now is just finishing. We got to learn how to finish.”

Burrell said, “Once we settled down, we started closing the gaps more on defense and started playing the body a little more. We started getting in the game a little more, but by that time it was 3-0.”

Head Coach Jerry Crossley was pleased with his team’s effort late in the game.

“It hurts that we dug ourselves in such a hole to start the game,” he said. “The second and third periods – I was pretty pleased with those. I was really displeased with the way we started with these guys.”

Crossley said that the USU bench was a little tense after falling behind early in the game.

“You get to that point where you need to make a decision,” he said. “You can self-destruct or you can try to rally up. We tempted self-destruction for a few seconds.”

A key point in the game came in the second period when Crossley decided to pull Goalie Josh Groves in favor of Webber after Colorado had built a 4-0 lead.

“That’s one of those tough decisions in a game,” Crossley said. “It just looked to me that he just wasn’t having good luck. He just wasn’t quite on. Every goaltender has those nights.”

A win over Colorado would have most likely moved USU up one or two spots in the West rankings, giving the Aggies a much better seed for the national tournament.

USU is currently the fourth ranked team in the West behind Southern California at third, Colorado at second and Colorado State at first. The top four teams in the region advance to nationals.

The Aggies defeated the Weber State Division II team Saturday, 9-4, behind five second period goals. USU scored three goals in 2:52 and had another one called back just nine seconds later because a USU player was in the goalie crease before the puck.

Ben Froehle and Aaron Burrell both scored two goals.

“Fat kids don’t get a chance to score very often, so it was nice,” Froehle said.

The Aggies will play the Provo Icecats Friday and the Wyoming Cowboys Saturday. Both games will be at the Eccles Ice Arena and will start at 7:30 p.m.

USU has split two regular season games with BYU this season with both games being played in Provo. The Aggies have not yet faced the Cowboys.

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu