Hockey shows no mercy toward in-state rivals
A week after sweeping in-state rival BYU in back-to-back games, Utah State kept things local with a weekend set of games and two more wins, against the University of Utah and another contest against BYU.
The Aggies never once trailed over the course of the two games, and wasted little time before taking the lead Friday. Tyler Mistelbacher, returning to action after missing the past two weeks with a thumb injury, took all of 22 seconds to put the Aggies up 1-0 on the Utes during Friday’s game.
“He has been dying to play,” USU coach Jon Eccles said of Mistelbacher, who is still healing from his broken thumb that has had him on the shelf. “We’re worried about his hand a lot.”
That early lead was something that the Aggies had made a priority leading up to the weekend.
“All week we just focused on getting quick starts, getting out of the gate early, and we did that tonight,” center Billy Gouthro said. “We were hungry tonight.”
Utah State put its back against the wall just more than six minutes into the contest when Jeremy Martin and Joel Basson were both called for cross checking penalties at 6:11 of the first period, giving Utah a 5-on-3 advantage.
The Aggies responded masterfully behind some quality defensive play and anchored by a stellar performance by goalie Dan Cornelius.
“He came to play,” Eccles said of Cornelius, who also was returning to action for the first time in several games. “He played a great game.”
Late in the penalty kill, defenseman Ty Johns laid an authoritative hit deep in the defensive zone to gain possession of the puck and to kill the remainder of the Utah power play.
Johns wasn’t done yet though. Just 27 seconds after the penalty was killed off, Johns ripped a shot from just inside the blue line that clanked off the inside edge of the top-right post and into the net, beating Utah goalie AJ Boldan to give Utah State a 2-0 lead.
WIth 2:37 remaining in the opening period the Aggies netted their third goal of the game when captain Kent Arsenault redirected a shot from defenseman Jason Moore into the net to give Utah State a 3-0 lead going into the first intermission.
The second period was essentially the Gouthro show. Just more than five minutes into the period, the centerman buried his first goal of the game off assists by Martin and Basson. Just more than a minute later, Gouthro scored again, this time off of an assist by Arsenault to put Utah State up 5-0.
Forward Matt Hamilton added a goal to his stats for the night to go along with his assist on Johns’ first period goal to put the Aggies up 6-0.
Gouthro, needing just one more goal for the hat-trick, slid behind the Utah defense where defenseman Jeff Sanders found him with a bullet pass right up the center of the ice to give Gouthro a breakaway chance for his third goal. Gouthro cashed in on his opportunity to bring on the raining down of hats from the crowd and putting the Aggies up 7-0.
Utah’s first and only goal of the game came with just more than two and a half minutes remaining in the second period when winger Chris York got the only shot of Utah’s 33 on the game to elude Cornelius.
The Aggies, who had 18 total penalties in the game, found themselves in the penalty box on five separate occasions during the third period, leaving USU to battle through much of the period shorthanded. That, along with the time spent killing penalties in the first two periods, is something Gouthro said kept the team from sustaining their offensive momentum throughout the final period.
Neither team found the back of the net during the third period, but Eccles said he was pleased with his team’s 7-1 win.
“I loved the players’ intensity and their sense of urgency. I thought they brought it all three periods,” he said.
Going into Saturday’s game on the road at BYU, the question was looming as to which Aggie team would show up to play that day. USU had dominated BYU on the road during the first game of the prior weekend’s doubleheader, but struggled to hold on for a win the next night.
Eccles was banking on the team that dominated to be the ones who would show up to play on Saturday against the Cougars.
Eccles was right.
Riding a flawless effort by goalie Cody Palmer, Utah State beat the Cougars for the third time in two weeks 5-0.
Gouthro continued his weekend scoring rampage, netting two more goals against the Cougars, the second of which came via converted penalty shot. Hamilton also scored for the second time in as many games, while Dave Wyman and Jay McFadden each scored goals of their own.
Utah State put up 43 shots against the Cougars, while only allowing 24 shots against, every one of which was turned away by Palmer.
The Aggies now stand at 13-2 on the season as they travel to California this weekend for the San Jose Showcase. Utah State will return home Nov. 11 when they face Metro State.
– matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu