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Hockey: Crossley steps down from post

By Jodi Burton

Jerry Crossley resigned as head coach of the USU hockey club Saturday.

The Aggies lost last Friday to Weber, 5-3, and Saturday to Eastern Washington, 8-1. Team manager Jon Eccles said Saturday’s game was full of distractions. He said this is because players found out Crossley, part of the Aggie hockey club team for the last 14 years, would be resigning.

Crossley had little to say on the subject.

“Things just weren’t working well, and I felt it was time to leave,” Crossley said.

Crossley said the decision wasn’t influenced by any one thing. He said he felt it would be better to go. Leaving in the middle of the season, Crossley said he hopes the resignation doesn’t have a negative effect on the hockey team.

“We have a lot of change coming at us right now,” said team captain Kent Arsenault. “Over this next week of practice we’ll be working on a lot of things, but it’s hard to know what exactly to expect. We have a lot of ideas of things we’re going to work on. This is our fifth loss in a row, but we’re going to be working on trying to get back on the winning streak.”

Eccles will be interim head coach, and said the team will be looking for a coach or coaches to help out.

Eccles said he is appreciative of how much Crossley has done for the program.

The losses

“I think the team is feeling pretty down after the weekend, but we need to realize that the losses aren’t so tragic,” Eccles said. “Not everything is lost. We just need to make some changes and get through this hard time and get back on the winning track.”

Eccles said Friday’s game was a close one with the teams being tied 3-3 up until only a minute-and-a-half were left in the third period. Then Weber scored. The Aggies pulled goalie Greg Finatti up to help out on the ice, leaving an open net and allowing Weber to score again in the last 20 seconds of the game.

Eccles said both goalies played well, with Finatti having 30 shots and Weber having 34 shots from the Aggies.

Eccles said it was a good game but Weber just wanted the game a little more.

“We jumped out with a 2-0 lead and were in control most of the game,” Eccles said. “But in the second period we got out of our forechecking system. They capitalized on a few of our errors and it went from there.”

Team captain and defenseman Jordan Francom said it was a game the team shouldn’t have lost.

“We didn’t play our best that night,” Francom said. “We were pretty evenly matched the whole game, but I feel like they’ve been getting better all year while we’ve been getting worse. They’ve got a good coach and we are just uncoachable.”

Team captain and forward Kent Arsenault agreed.

“Weber has definitely improved,” Arsenault said. “They are like a whole different team, dedicated to winning.”

Arsenault said the game was pretty close the whole time, with the teams battling to the end.

“It was just like the old Weber-Utah State rivalry,” Arsenault said. “The crowd was crazy.”

Goals Friday night for USU were scored by forward Billy Gouthro and defenseman Matt Ferris.

Saturday’s goal was scored by Arsenault.

Minutes before Saturday’s game started, freshman Cody Palmer skated into the goalie net after Finatti was found to have a concussion. The Aggies were also without defenseman Brandon Prince.

Eccles said Palmer played a great game with 49 shots and 41 saves.

Francom agreed.

“We had to use our third-string goaltender due to injuries,” Francom said. “He’s just out of high school and the game was rough for him, but he did really well.” Francom said Saturday’s loss was not because Eastern Washington was a better team.

“I think they’re just better disciplined in what they do,” Francom said. “We played terrible, even worse than Friday night. I think it was partly coaching, but a big part of it was our players. We’re undisciplined, not willing to put in the effort, but wanting all the glory.”

Arsenault said, “Eastern Washington is a well-organized team. They have more of a professional step to them.”

–jodi.burton@aggiemail.usu.edu