Hockey splits pair of weekend games at home
For the second straight weekend, Utah State hockey split a pair of games at home, beating Colorado University on Thursday, and dropping the second game to the Junior Idaho Steelheads Friday.
Thursday’s game versus Colorado was a rematch from two weekends prior when the Aggies went on the road to beat the Buffaloes 5-4 in overtime to cap off Utah State’s three-game sweep in Colorado. The Buffaloes wasted no time in showing that they were out for revenge, scoring the game’s first goal just 15 seconds after the puck dropped on a goal by Tyler Moore.
Utah State’s first strike wasn’t far behind as the Aggies jumped onto the scoreboard less than three minutes later when Kent Arsenault assisted Billy Gouthro for a goal that knotted the game at 1-1.
The Aggies kept the pressure high on the Colorado defense, totaling 23 shots in the first period alone, but were unable to get anything else past Buffalo goalie Alex Pomerleau for the rest of the first period. Colorado, however, took back the lead with just under seven minutes remaining in the opening frame, sliding another puck past USU goaltender Dan Cornelius for a 2-1 lead that the Buffalos carried into the first intermission.
The second period did not see any letdown by Utah State’s attack, but coincidentally, Pomerleau’s stellar goaltending did not let up either.
“Their goalie played phenomenal for them,” Gouthro said. “I think we hit them with about 60 shots today.”
Pomerleau’s play was the unquestionable standout performance of the game, for two periods at least, in which he faced a total of 48 shots before the second intermission, allowing just one goal. On the opposite end of the ice, Cornelius wasn’t too shabby himself between the pipes for the Aggies, bouncing back from a shaky start to make saves on all 22 of Colorado’s shots through the final two periods.
While Utah State’s offensive pressure was stellar, the Aggies at times in the second period looked to be playing too unselfish as a team, which included several instances of making one too many passes off the rush instead of putting the puck on net, which resulted in a handful of offensive zone turnovers.
Head coach Jon Eccles made a simple plea for his team to shoot more going into the third period in hopes of finally putting some pucks into the back of the net.
“We ended up turning the puck over a few times so we lost an opportunity,” Eccles said of the superfluous passing. “Whether we would have scored or not, we still would have shot on net and gotten a bounce or a rebound.”
Five minutes into the third period, the Aggies finally broke through for their second goal of the game off the stick of Jay McFadden, and took their first lead of the game five minutes later with a power-play goal from Brendan MacDonald to go up 3-2.
The Aggies never looked back.
Late goals by Jeff Sanders and a second goal by Gouthro sealed the deal for Utah State, lifting the Aggies to a 5-2 victory that put Pomerleau’s stellar performance from the first two periods to waste.
Gouthro said, “The guys just stuck to the game plan and then eventually put a couple in, and then opened the gap there at the end.”
In total, the Aggies put 69 shots on net, while Colorado managed just 32 shots against USU. The Aggies also limited themselves to just four penalties on the night, an area that Eccles has been stressing the team to improve upon all season.
Eccles said, “I was proud of the boys hanging in there and not giving up, and also not getting frustrated.”
Friday’s game against the Junior Idaho Steelheads had a much different feel than that of the win the Aggies had to grind out to earn just one night prior.
In a game where Utah State fell behind 3-0, and were out-shot 43-22, Eccles said the Junior Steelheads played a nearly flawless game, in which they executed their game much more crisply than the Aggies were able to.
Jeremy Martin scored the lone goal for the Aggies Friday, with assists from Sanders and MacDonald.
The loss drops Utah State’s record on the season to 9-2 going into this weekend’s games, a doubleheader against in-state rival BYU. The Aggies will travel to Provo to face off against the Cougars for the first time this season Friday before returning to face BYU at home Saturday.
– matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu