Hockey continues home domination
Despite taking the first period of both games to warm up, the Utah State University hockey team finished Friday and Saturday’s home games with two wins against some of Utah’s best high school players. Friday the Aggies defeated the Maple Leafs 9-1 and Saturday the Salt Lake Maple Leafs 6-2.
Friday night after the opening period of the Aggies’ first game against the Maple Leafs, a AAA high school team, it looked as if the match was going to be close.
In the first two minutes of the second period, with the Aggies playing a man down because of a penalty, the Maple Leafs scored their only goal of the game going ahead 1-0. But other than giving the Aggies a physical game, that was about all the Maple Leafs could muster up.
With goals from six different players and an exceptional game from goalie Jake Groseth, who saved the Aggies on numerous occasions, USU began to play their game.
It started with forward Ian Tracy who scored the first goal for USU in the 10th minute, which was followed by four more goals from center Deryk Anderson, left wing Aaron Burrell, defender Ryan Keys and also a second goal from Tracy, respectively, before the end of the period.
“I think what it took was for us to actually get a goal down before we actually realized we had to play to win this game,” captain Paul Amidon said.
The Aggies went into the locker room at the end of the second period with a 5-1 lead.
The third period went much the same way as the second, just as physical, but with the Aggies maintaining control. They went on to score four more goals, including Tracy’s third goal, giving him a hat trick, and forward Don Weisweaver’s first two goals as an Aggie.
“That’s the first game this season I’ve scored more than one goal,” Tracy said. “It feels good because I haven’t been scoring a lot of goals like I’m used to.”
Saturday night’s game against the Utah Stars, another all-star team made up of high school athletes, was played in much the same way as Friday’s game.
The Aggies came away with the 6-2 victory.
The Aggies got off to a slow start and at the end of the first period the score was tied 1-1. Assistant captain Deryk Anderson said it didn’t take long for USU to realize they had to start playing.
“We came out after the first period and we were like, ‘OK, we’re getting embarrassed by a bunch of 18-year-olds. We better step it up,'” Anderson said.
The Aggies controlled the game from the second period on.
Five minutes into the second period with the Aggies up one man, forward Greg Howard got an unassisted goal putting the Aggies up 2-1. Only a minute later Weisweaver put in another goal for USU.
As the minutes went by, the game gradually became more physical, putting the younger Utah Stars at a disadvantage. In the last few minutes of the second period, a player from the Stars got kicked out after trying to defend one of his teammates who had just been double checked by two Aggie players.
In the third period it was all USU again as they scored three more goals from three defensive players, Aaron Sutliff, Amidon and Keys, giving the Aggies a 6-1 lead.
The Stars didn’t give up though and with only minutes remaining, scored their second goal of the game, leaving the final score at 6-2 for the Aggies.
“We should’ve won by 10 goals, if we would’ve played our game,” Anderson said.
Playing younger teams made it hard for the Aggies to come out full speed, Anderson said, hence the slow starts, but nevertheless did get them excited for their next game against the University of Utah.
The Aggies play the Utes Tuesday night in the George S. Eccles Ice Center at 8 p.m., and Amidon said it should be an exciting match.
“We’ll come ready to play,” Amidon said. “It will be a whole different game than you saw [Friday and Saturday].”