Big weekend for Aggie hockey
The Utah State hockey team is calling this weekend as a success.
After three games in three days, the Aggies are returning home from St. Louis with two wins and a tie against three of the best teams in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
“The only thing that could have made this weekend better would have been to walk away with three wins,” said USU head coach John Eccles. “We still walked away undefeated.”
The Aggies took down Lindenwood University, the defending ACHA Divison I runner-up champions, in one of the biggest wins in program history before putting away DePaul University Saturday. USU closed out the weekend tying with Michigan State University.
“This is amazing for our program,” said Aggie forward Matt Hamilton. “People will maybe actually start realizing how good of a hockey team we are and give us credit for the things we do, because we are a great hockey team.”
Utah State players expected the Spartans to be the biggest test of the trip, but that was before the team learned it would be facing Lindenwood.
The Aggies’ first opponent of the trip was scheduled as the University of Minnesota-Crookston, but that team backed out, leaving an open spot.
Lindenwood lost to Davenport University in the National Championship game last year, however the Lindenwood Lions have taken home a national title in four out of the last five years. The Aggies faced the Lions, who are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, in the opening game of the showcase and came out on top 3-2.
“We came out, and we skated with them in the first period,” Eccles said. “We were a little tense and apprehensive at first. Once we got through that first period and it was still 0-0, we realized we could play with them.”
The Lions scored first in the second period, but the Aggies answered with goals of their own.
The Utah State blue-line forwards Hamilton, Chase Allington and Cooper Limb were on the ice for two of the Aggies’ goals and Hamilton added an assist on the third.
“We were up 3-1, and they scored a goal with 40 seconds left,” Hamilton said. “That was one of the biggest wins we’ve ever had.
Eccles said Allesandro Mullane and the Aggie defense played very well for USU. Mullane faced 40 shots in the Aggie win.
“Mullane really stepped up for us in both games,” Eccles said.
In USU’s second game of the tournament, an early morning matchup with DePaul University, the Aggies won 6-5. DePaul took the game to overtime, but the Aggies won in sudden death.
“I don’t think we were as mentally focused for the game,” Eccles said. “We thought ‘OK we just beat DI, and now we have to go play DePaul.’ We didn’t really prepare ourselves to be mentally ready for it.”
Stu Hepburn had his first career hat-trick playing on the Aggies’ orange line, which had five of USU’s goals in the game including the overtime winner.
Utah State lead DePaul 4-2 after 40 minutes of play, but DePaul came storming back to send the game into overtime. The Aggies got help from Billy Gouthro, who scored in OT to give USU the win.
“When we got to the overtime it was kind of a wakeup call for us,” Eccles said.
The Aggies opened up their third game against the Spartans fresh off the overtime win.
Michigan State, who was last year’s ACHA DII runners up, tested USU all night but the Aggies held strong to force a 3-3 tie Sunday.
Mullane faced 48 shots on the night. The tie closed out the Aggies weekend undefeated.
– meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu