Hockey skates to shootout win over nemesis Weber State
The Utah State hockey team held off rival Weber State 4-3 in shootouts Saturday to win their home opener at the George S. Eccles Ice Center in North Logan.
It was a chippy, back-and-forth game against a pesky Wildcats squad that beat USU in the season opener on Sept. 13 in Ogden. There were no all-out fights on the ice, but the teams racked up a combined 11 penalties.
“It was a physical game, but hopefully the fans enjoyed it,” said junior forward Cooper Limb. “It’s more fun to play when it’s that way, so I liked it.”
Limb’s goal in the third period knotted the game at 3 and forced overtime. When the extra session ended without a victor, both teams lined up for a shootout.
Sophomore forward Ian Beckstrom poked the puck behind Weber State goalie Ian Frank to win the game for the Aggies.
“It was awesome to win the shootout,” Limb said. “I wish we could’ve won in regulation, but we’ll take the shootout win, that’s for sure.”
The Aggies got on the board first with a goal by forward Chris Videto with 2:20 remaining in the first period.
Weber got on the board in the second period after Aggie forward Stu Hepburn went to the penalty box for roughing. Weber took advantage of the resulting power play immediately, scoring only 15 seconds into Hepburn’s box time to make the game 1-1.
Weber put up another goal shortly before the end of the period to take a 2-1 lead.
USU tied the game 2-2 in the third period with a goal by freshman defenseman Joe Chase, but Weber didn’t let up, scoring with 14 minutes remaining to take a 3-2 lead.
“I thought we didn’t give up,” said head coach Jon Eccles. “I thought we kept coming back and still doing everything we could to try and win the game, but that effort has to be there for 20 minutes, all three periods.”
With 5:24 remaining in the third, USU forward Rylee Orr crossed the puck to the left side of the net, where Limb was waiting to put it in and tie the game. Some post-goal shoving led to Aggie captain Shaun Gibbons and a Weber player spending some time in the box.
“That was very frustrating,” Eccles said about the team’s six penalties. “Out in Colorado, in a total of three games, we had 10 penalties…Tonight, Weber only had five and we had six, and all that discipline we built up over the last weekend seemed to just fly right out the door.”
With overtime yielding no results, a shootout would decide the victor. After several stopped shots, Beckstrom broke through to win the game for the Aggies. Goalie Bryce Scherschel made several saves to keep USU alive.
“It was nice to see the boys put in two goals,” Scherschel said about the shootout. “It stretched out longer than we would’ve liked, but Ian (Frank) played well over in the other net too, and Beckstrom had a good goal at the end there, so we’re just happy to come away with a win.”
“For the most part, we stayed pretty disciplined today, except for a few occasions,” Beckstrom said. “I think we definitely need to get better at that.”
The team heads to Provo this weekend for the BYU Showcase, Oct. 17-19. The Aggies’ next home game is at 7 p.m. on Friday Oct. 25 against Arizona State.
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