Hockey club finding ways to win at right time
There’s no time like the present.
This adage has never been more true for the Utah State hockey club than for this week’s home contests against BYU (Thursday) and Eastern Washington University (Saturday at 7:30 p.m.).
The Aggies are coming off their biggest win of the season, an 8-7 overtime triumph in Ogden over Weber State University.
A loss in that game, tabbed by USU Head Coach Jerry Crossley as one of the top three ever played between the teams, had the potential of shattering any chance of USU making Nationals.
The win doesn’t by any means secure a post-season spot, but now each game will have more of a must-win feel, including next week’s road games against Wyoming, Colorado and Colorado State (on consecutive nights).
Colorado and Colorado State are ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in the current American Collegiate Hockey Association polls, while USU is No. 6.
Crossley said it should be the hardest road trip of the season, and since winning each game is vital, not overlooking this week’s lesser opponents will be difficult to do.
“I think the guys probably do have a little bit of difficulty doing that, and yet, they absolutely cannot lose one of these games this weekend,” Crossley said. “You kind of have that tendency to look to that next weekend, because that is probably going to be the toughest road trip of the year with three solid games.”
The Aggies (13-9-1 overall, 3-0 in overtime) are 8-1 in their last nine contests, including a current five-game winning streak). So, what is clicking for them now that wasn’t during the first half of the season?
“They’re learning how to win,” Crossley said. “It may not always be pretty, but when it comes down to it, these guys are finding ways to win. I don’t think it’s teachable, but a good team has to learn it.”
The victory over the Wildcats was no exception to this.
The Aggies were down 3-0 three minutes into the game, but bounced back to outscore the Wildcats 5-1 in the following 25 minutes, giving USU the momentum it needed to pull out the victory.
“I really think that game last Saturday night might be the one that really tied this group together and made them a real team,” Crossley said. “They rallied around each other.”
–samhis@cc.usu.edu