Ags, BYU to resume hostilities
The Utah State hockey club will play the Provo Icecats Saturday in Utah County in the teams’ first meeting since a fight-filled preseason opener.
“I think BYU has got something coming to them,” Aggie Parker Richards said.
“We’re going to take it to them,” USU player Roberto Leo said. “Hopefully, it will be cleaner this time, but we’re going to beat them.”
“We’re just going to go out this weekend and play hard,” Utah State’s Mike Lewandowski said. “I think we both just want a win to start the season.”
In the second period of their preseason game, the Aggies and Icecats got in an 11-player brawl. The fracas started when Leo knocked the BYU goalie on his back. Leo, Lewandowski, Parker Richards, Brett Fryslie and four other Icecats were all ejected as a result.
However, USU is not expecting any serious retaliation.
“Hopefully there won’t be any line brawls or anything like that this time,” Leo said.
“It’s just another game now,” Lewandowski said. “What happened, happened. We worked it out pretty well last game.”
Richards said there will be some physical play, but no more than usual.
“That [fight] was all good because it was preseason, but it’s time to get serious and win,” he said. “I think they learned their lesson.”
“The [BYU] goalie deserved it for sure though,” Leo added.
The Aggies lost their first game in Provo last season 5-3, which was only the second loss in team history to the Icecats. USU rebounded to win 4-3 in overtime on a goal from Lewandowski in their second visit to BYU.
“I think home-ice is definitely an advantage [for BYU],” Leo said.
Leo said he hopes USU will have a crowd for the game, but he thinks the homecoming football game will draw many fans away.
The Aggies are coming off two consecutive losses to the Weber State Division-I team. The Aggies fell 13-1 to the Wildcats on Sept. 25, and fell again 7-3 last Friday despite being tied 3-3 going into the third period.
The team is looking at last weekend’s loss to WSU as both positive and negative.
“It was positive in the fact that we were even with them after the second, but it’s also a bad thing because we let four goals in during the third,” Leo said. “Overall, I’d say it was a good weekend.”
“I wouldn’t say we’re disappointed,” Lewandowski said. “We would have wanted to win, but I think we played well, especially the last game.
The Aggies are pleased that they are closing the gap on their D-I counterparts.
“It’s kind of relaxing, yet motivating,” Richards said. “If we play with them like that, that shows us that we can play with a D-I team, and we can beat any D-II team.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu