Ags look to continue domination
After a one-month break, the Utah State hockey club will hit the ice this weekend against the Weber State Division-II team for a pair of games.
The Aggies and Wildcats will play in Ogden on Friday and then in Logan on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. USU has won all four meetings against the lower division WSU team by a combined score of 44-4.
USU head coach Jerry Crossley said he likes the matchup against a team the Aggies have handled easily to start the second half of the season.
“Under the circumstances, it’s probably perfect for us,” he said. “It’ll be good to get a couple games under our belt.”
Aggie Roberto Leo said it will be nice to ease back into the schedule.
“I like to get back into it nice and slow,” he said. “It was good to just relax.”
USU goalie Chris Webber said the time off was good, but the team needs to get back into shape.
“We all needed some time off,” he said. “We were supposed to be working out and training over the break. We’re looking kind of out of shape right now.”
Heading into the second semester, the Aggies are an even 12-12-1 and are ranked No. 3 in the West Region of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. Of the 12 losses, only one of them was to a team ranked lower than USU.
“I think we’re exactly where I thought we would be at this point,” Crossley said.
In the spring semseter, the Aggies only play two games against a D-I opponent, as opposed to the 11 they played against upper-level competition in the fall semseter.
The Aggies, however, do not see an easy schedule ahead of them.
“I think this whole semester is big,” Leo said. “We have two big road trips to California and BYU and Weber. Our easiest weekend this semester is this week.”
USU is paying special attention to its trips to Cal-Berkeley, San Jose State and Southern California.
“It’s almost like starting the season over again right now,” Crossley said. “The biggest pivot point is going to be the two California trips. We just need to do well on the road.”
The Aggies may be losing players due to academic eligibility issues.
“There are two or three players on the bubble,” the team adviser Rachel Lewis said. “The players that are impacted have incompletes. Those incompletes will be the factor.”
She said the eligibility will be decided next week.
The Aggies are still very confident about qualifying for the national tournament.
“We’re going to nationals,” Leo said. “That’s where we want to be.”
“We have to solidfy some wins, but we’ll make it,” Webber said.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu