Aggie hockey team looks to get Colorado monkey off its back
The Utah State hockey club is looking for two key road wins in Colorado this weekend as they face the University of Colorado and Colorado State.
USU has yet to win in the Centennial state.
“We’ve never won [in Colorado],” Aggie Nick Thiros said. “We’ve come close a few times, but it’s always been a tough road trip.”
But, despite history, the Aggies are upbeat going into their first road trip of the season.
“I think we have a good chance of beating these guys, I really do,” Aggie Robert Hashimoto said. “Our team keeps getting better and better every year. This will be a test of how good we really are.”
“We’re going over there expecting to win,” Thiros said. “We don’t want to come back with anything less.”
Newcomer William Winsa said if USU plays like it did against Eastern Washington on Saturday, then they should win.
“I think it’s much more positive after winning 6-0,” Winsa said. “We have more confidence.”
Unlike EWU, the Aggies know more of what to expect from their opponents this weekend.
“There not huge, but they’re quick and they hit hard,” Hashimoto said. “They’re a tough team.”
“They are a fast team, they’re physical and they play pretty clean hockey,” Thiros said. “So we’re just preparing just like every other team. The only difference is the ice rink is smaller so it makes for a little different type of game.”
The smaller ice has thrown the Aggies off their game in the past.
“Smaller ice makes it a lot more physical and a lot faster,” Thiros said. “We don’t have near as much room to move and spread out on the ice.”
The team has been adjusting its practices to account for the smaller ice.
“We kind of made the rink a little smaller just so we could play the smaller area and we also played a lot of [3-on-3] games,” Hashimoto said. “We also need to make our transitions a lot faster.”
The Aggies can also expect to play in near empty arenas on the road.
“The fans play a big role in the hockey game, but I think we can make it without them,” Winsa said. “We have to.”
The games against the Colorado schools carry extra weight this season in terms of rankings, because USU will not play either team after Thanksgiving.
“We care [about the rankings], but it’s not that important because there’s still a lot of time left in the season to change it,” Thiros said. “CU and CSU, the past few years have been ahead of us so we need to go over there and win.”
But, because this will be the only trip to Colorado for USU this season, if the Ags don’t win, it will be very difficult for them to pass CU and CSU in the rankings.
“If we drop both of these games, there’s no way we can go ahead of them,” Thiros said.
USU will play Colorado again Oct. 29, but will not face CSU any more this season.
“It’s our only chance against CSU,” Hashimoto said. “That kind of bugs me. I don’t think it’s fair.”
The first rankings of the season have not been released yet, but Thiros said that even if they lose both games in Colorado this weekend, the absolute worst they would be ranked is fourth in the West Region. The top four teams in each region qualify for the national tournament.
The USU team feels it is more ready for the Colorado schools this year.
“There’s a lot of veterans on the team,” Hashimoto said. “We’re more mature, and stronger. We’ll come out stronger this year.”
The Aggies are also hoping that Winsa, who has never faced the Colorado schools, can be a secret weapon.
“I’m just going to go and do my best and see what happens,” he said.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu