Hockey club looks to get off roller-coaster
Because of last weekend’s losses, a win in every game from this point on in the season is critical for the Utah State club hockey team.
A post-season berth in February might depend on it.
Going on the road, where the Aggies (4-7-1 overall) haven’t been successful this season (1-5-1), is where the team will have to capitalize this weekend.
USU departed on a 15-hour bus ride to California Wednesday night to face Long Beach State on Thursday night and the University of Southern California on Saturday night.
Due to a schedule change, LBSU was put on the schedule instead of at the University of Southern California on Thursday, but a result for the game was not available.
“Long Beach is probably the weaker of the two,” said USU Head Coach Jerry Crossley. “[But] either way [we’ve] got to win both of these games.”
The Aggies are a young team with five freshmen and six sophomores. This along with taking unnecessary penalties in last weekend’s games (78 total minutes in the penalty box) is why the team has been struggling, said assistant coach Ty Newberry.
“When you take penalties, you put some of your best guys out on the PK and it tires out your key players,” Newberry said. “This whole year, every period has just been an emotional roller-coaster. Whether we get the lead and get confidence or whether we have to bail ourselves out of a hole … it’s just constantly up and down.”
Newberry also said the excessive amount of penalty minutes has put too much undue pressure on the team’s goalies.
“It affects our goaltending,” he said. “We just need to be able to put together a string of wins and get the goaltenders confidence in themselves and get the team confidence in themselves.”
-samhis@cc.usu.edu