Aggies freeze Buffaloes
After a 45-minute delay and a scramble to find referees, the Utah State hockey team came out on top of a physical matchup against the No. 2 University of Colorado 7-2 Saturday, Jan. 21.
“I was very pleased with our intensity and our physicalness,” head coach Jon Eccles said.
The Aggies struck first with two goals in the first five minutes and added another on a shot from Stu Hepburn to put the Aggies up 3-0 early.
From the opening minutes, physicality was key for both teams. Eccles said for a team like the Aggies, which thrives on physical play, the high intensity was nothing new.
“They slash a lot,” he said. “Their sticks are always hitting our sticks and that irritates our guys I think. We tried to be the more physical team. We talked about that. We went out there and laid the big hits, and I think that kind of scared them. They backed off.”
The Aggies listened and delivered big hits to put the Buffaloes on their heels.
“We fore-checked pretty hard,” Aggie forward Cooper Limb said. “We hit them as they hit us, and we probably hit them harder.”
Limb racked up three assists for the Aggies.
“Three assists isn’t bad,” Limb said. “I had a pretty good game.”
With the Aggies’ short roster, Limb and the other young players have stepped up. The Utah native joked that if they had a full line, he might have been able to notch more assists. Limb’s line was without forward Matt Hamilton, who was sitting for the second game of a three-game suspension.
Even without Hamilton and top scorer Tyler Mistelbacher, the Aggies were still able to put the puck in the net. Team captain Brendan MacDonald had two goals and Brian Gibbons added a goal and two assists in the Utah State win.
Goalkeeper Alesandro Mullane had a huge night for the Aggies with 48 saves. The San Jose State transfer allowed two goals in three periods of play, and the Aggies did a good job of helping their goalie out.
“We rebounded after we let them get a goal,” Eccles said. “I thought we stayed focused.”
The USU win keeps the Aggies on track for an auto-bid to nationals.
“It’s a big game for us,” Limb said. “We went out there and played a full 60 minutes, and it paid off for us in the end.”
– meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu