COLUMN: Aggie hockey sure to impress
Ladies and Gentlemen – it’s rivalry weekend again. Not in football or baseball, but college hockey. What better way to start the season off for Utah State than a home game against BYU followed by a trip to Ogden to face off against the hated Weber State Wildcats.
USU will play the Provo Icecats Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the George S. Eccles Ice Center in North Logan. On Saturday, the Aggies will play the Wildcats’ division-I squad at 8:15 p.m. at the Weber County Ice Sheet.
USU returns its top four point scorers this season as it begins its quest for a national championship.
Only this year, Weber State won’t stand in the Aggie’s way like last year.
The Wildcats decided to split their team in two and send their better players to Division I leaving the scrubs behind in Division II. Although USU will play games against both teams, Weber State’s division-II team is hardly a threat as far as talent is concerned.
But that doesn’t mean anything in a rivalry.
The Aggies will play WSU’s Division II team six times this season – more than any other school on their schedule. USU also plays WSU’s Division I three times.
And these games will get intense.
Last year, the two teams faced off four times with the Aggies winning the series 3-1.
And penalty minutes will not be rare.
In the last game between these two teams last year there were three 10-minute penalties issued – in just the first period. The referees were continually calling the captains of the two teams together to tell them to calm down.
Combine all this with Weber State’s fire-haired, showboat player Eric Slaughter and his crowd taunting antics, it creates a very hostile environment on the ice.
That’s just one of the games this weekend.
The Provo Icecats (although not officially affiliated with BYU) will return to the Eccles Ice Center on Friday. USU defeated the Icecats in every meeting between the two last season, outscoring them 26-13.
But there was no love lost in this in-state rivalry.
Fights were very common in this series, especially toward the end of the games when USU was pulling away on the scoreboard.
It came to a point on Jan. 23 where a Provo player tried starting a fight with the USU stadium announcer for mispronouncing his name over the loudspeaker. That player was the third Icecat to be thrown out of that game for misconduct.
Despite USU’s dominance over Provo last season, the Icecats still finished the season ranked 11th in the West Region. USU finished the season ranked fourth.
But the rivalry isn’t the only reason to come watch the Aggies. Nothing excited the crowd more last season than the Robert Hashimoto-to-Aaron Burrell combination. Josh Groves was also excellent in goal.
The Aggies have another goalie that’s just as good as Groves in Chris Webber. They also have a new defense, a new attitude and no one standing in their way of a trip to the national finals in March. USU hockey will be a can’t-miss event this season, and it all starts Friday against BYU.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.