Aggies split series with IceCats
The Provo IceCats beat the Utah State hockey club 4-2 with an empty net goal Saturday night in Provo, a day after the Aggies demolished the Icecats 10-3 in Logan.
It was only the third time ever that the IceCats beat the Aggies with all three wins coming in Provo.
“They came out hard and we came out soft,” Aggie Roberto Leo said. “It’s our own fault for coming out soft. You can’t win them all.”
USU had won the previous two meetings between the teams by a combined score of 22-7 with both games being played in Logan.
“I think we came in after we spanked them, beat them, humiliated them twice and I think we came in expecting to win,” Aggie assistant coach Jon Eccles said. “They played tough and were a little more disciplined.”
Eccles said the game could have gone either way.
“A couple inches one way or another and we would have had a couple more goals,” he said. “A few hit the post, a few just went wide.”
It was the first time USU had played in Provo since Oct. 9.
“It’s always different playing here than at home,” Aggie Mike Lewandowski said. “I think that’s the only chance they have against us is getting their crowd into it. Next time we come here, we’re going to have to come out and score the first two or three goals and take the crowd completely out of it.”
The Aggies are not worried about losing any ground in the rankings after the loss.
“Anybody who understands this game will see that we’ve dominated them every other game we’ve played them,” Leo said. “If this does hurt us, it’s ridiculous.”
“I’m not worried,” Lewandowski said. “We beat them 12-4 and 10-3 then they come back and beat us 4-2 on an empty netter so I’m not worried at all.”
BYU goalie Tamio Stehrenberger, who had given up 15 of the 22 goals in the previous two meetings, had a spectacular night, saving 33 of 35 shots.
“He played really well tonight,” Lewandowski said. “But I think he’s as good as we make him look. He’s a good goalie but we know we can beat him.”
“We didn’t make their goalie move laterally at all,” Eccles said. “If we get him moving laterally we can score a lot of goals on him. Most of our shots were right into him.”
Eccles said the team will try to learn from this game.
“I think it’s a wake up call for us,” he said. “I think it helps us remember that we need to play our best every night.”
Friday night, the Aggies scored four shorthanded goals, three of which came on the same two-minute penalty to crush the IceCats 10-3.
Nick Haase had a hat trick and Robert Hashimoto added another two goals and an assist to lead the Aggies.
“You don’t see [three shorthanded goals on the same penalty] very often,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “That’s just good hard effort.”
Crossley said he does not remember ever seeing that many shorthanded goals before.
This was the first meeting between the two teams this year in Logan where an 11-player brawl did not break out. Haase said he thought everyone was trying to hold their emotions in so they would be eligible to play on Saturday.
If any player were to be disqualified from Friday’s game, they would be obligated to sit out on Saturday.
The split weekend keeps the Aggie’s record even at 10-10-1 on the season. USU will play the Weber State Division-I squad in at home next weekend with the two teams in Logan on Friday and in Ogden on Saturday.
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Aggie Robert Hashimoto fights for the puck Friday in North Logan. (Photo by John Zsiray)