Aggies finish 3-0 in Provo road trip
The Aggies triumphed this weekend during their Provo road trip.
Opponents included Brigham Young University, University of Northern Colorado and Boise State University.
Although some felt the team didn’t play to their full potential, the ending scores were in favor of USU, as it beat BYU 6-5, UNC 5-3 and BSU 16-3.
USU goalie Cody Palmer, who played in Saturday afternoon’s BSU game, said the team had a good weekend.
“We played well and we’re doing better with penalties,” Palmer said.
Team manager Jon Eccles agreed.
“I think one thing the team did really well was limiting penalties,” Eccles said. “We still need to get them down, but during the BYU game we only had eight penalties.”
Something else the team did well was never giving up, Eccles said.
“I think the team sort of has a history of getting down in a game and then stopping,” Eccles said. “But during the BYU game the team did well in not breaking or letting down. We got down a couple of times but then kept going, kept going, kept going and stayed strong through to the end.”
USU goalie Greg Finatti, who played in Thursday night’s BYU game, said the BYU games are always pretty close because of the intense rivalry, but the Aggies played with confidence.
“We knew what we had to do and we got the job done,” Finatti said. “Everybody knows what it takes, it just took a matter of time to accomplish it.”
Finatti said coming out slow in the first period is something the team has been working on.
USU goalie Dan Cornelius, who played in Friday afternoon’s UNC game, agreed starting slow is a problem.
“Friday, I don’t feel we played especially well,” Cornelius said. “We came out slow like always.”
Cornelius attributed the sluggish atmosphere to the scheduling.
“Since we’re used to playing later, it threw our routine off to play so early,” he said.
Eccles also attributed the struggle to the schedule of the tournament.
“I think a lot of it was the way the tournament was run,” Eccles said. “There were a lot of holes in it and I think that effects the players a little bit. I don’t think they were the best games we’ve played. We played good enough to win, but I think there’s still a lot more the team can give.”
Cornelius mentioned another area the Aggies need to improve on.
“Something else we need to work on is making sure we play hockey the whole 60 minutes. No more taking breaks,” Cornelius said.
Finatti agreed.
“I think we can always play better,” Finatti said. “It depends on who we’re playing that determines our level of play. It’s not hard for our players to get up for games like BYU, but Saturday’s game against Boise State, nobody wanted to play. If you would’ve watched both games we would have looked like two different teams.”
Finatti said the team needs to work on not playing down to a team’s level, but playing to their potential and playing consistently.
Eccles said something else the team can work on is to back check more. This is when the puck is in the opponent’s posession and they are skating toward an Aggie goalie.
Eccles said the team is doing great with scorechecking. This is when the puck is in the opponent’s zone and Aggies keep up pressure so the opponent can’t break out.
But, Eccles said, the USU offense needs to help the defense out more through backchecking.
“As a team we played OK, but we haven’t played to our potential yet this year,” Cornelius said. “When we do, it will be scary how good we are.”
–jodi.burton@aggiemail.usu.edu