Hockey made road trip victorious

Ryan Malnar

The Utah State University hockey team traveled to Spokane, Wash., to face Eastern Washington University in two games. The Aggies made the trip worthwhile keeping their record perfect at 4-0. The names of the games were defense and offense as the Aggies only allowed two goals and scored an astounding 19.

USU opened Friday night flying out on the ice led by freshman forward Greg Howard, who scored four times in the game. Ian Tracy followed with two goals. Aggie defense held Washington to one shot during the entire first period and only 10 in the game. Deryk Anderson, Nick Thiros, Aaron Burrell and Aaron Sutliff all picked up one goal in the game. Brandon Lang scored some big points with a Washington player who was slammed to the ice by a Lang hit, late in the third period. The final score of the game was 10-1.

Saturday night was a scary repeat of the nightmare on Friday. Defensiveman Brandon Lang started the tidal wave of shots with a puck which ripped over the shoulder of Washington’s goalie. At the end of the first period the Aggies already held a 5-0 lead. Washington had taken zero shots on the goal in the first period. Additional USU scorers were Deryk Anderson, Greg Howard (5th goal of the weekend), Aaron Burrell, Ian Tracy, Chad Linvill and Chad Johnson with one goal each. Kelly Froerer also added two goals of his own. The final score slipped Washington their second loss, 9-1.

The goal duty was split between Adam Lain and Jake Groseth, both allowing one goal.

“We traveled over 700 miles to Spokane and proved that we were the better team, decisively,” team captain Paul Amidon said.

Washington came out hitting hard and cheap. The Aggies, however, were able to maintain composure and limit the number of fights in order to keep all players eligible for the season’s most crucial games this weekend against Weber State University.