Hockey starts official play against Colorado St., Weber
The Utah State hockey club officially starts its season with a big weekend featuring a game against the Colorado State Rams and a rematch against the Weber State Wildcat’s Division I squad.
The Aggies will play the Wildcats Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the George S. Eccles Ice Center.
USU fell to the Rams 5-4 Thursday night at home. A detailed report of the game will be in Monday’s Statesman.”
The hockey team was pummeled in the preseason by Weber State’s Division I team, but rebounded the next week by defeating its Division II team, with many of the same Wildcat players appearing in both games.
USU Head Coach Jerry Crossley said even though the Aggies defeated the Division II team, it’s not the same as defeating Weber State’s Division I team.
“That’s a different team,” Crossley said. “That’s a better team. Our goal will be to beat those guys, too, but we’ll take that when it comes.”
Crossley said there are also a few issues his team needs to resolve going into the regular season.
“Our penalty situation – we got to get a grip on that,” Crossley said. “That’s two games, two wins we’ve had that we’ve tried to give away late in the game by taking penalties that aren’t necessary.”
He also said his team can play with more intensity.
“You know they’ve got it in them,” Crossley said. “They can make those surges, they can go score those goals if they put the energy into it. We have a tendency, for some reason, to just play down, or play in a comfort zone and we got to get out of it.”
The players are also getting themselves focused for the upcoming season.
“We got a couple things we got to work on as a team, fundamentally,” said defender Matthew Lagree. “We’re going to work on that during practice [this] week. We’re going to come out [this] season really fired up, ready to go.”
Goalie Chris Webber said, “It’s coming together, slowly but surely. I think by this next week through practice we should be solid. We’ll be ready for Colorado State.”
Many people think Webber and Josh Groves are in a competition for the regular starting spot in goal, but Webber doesn’t like to look at it that way.
“It’s all up in the air,” he said. “Honestly, I love playing with the guy. He’s a great goalie, and I’m learning a lot from him. Basically, right now it’s the coach’s deal. I could care either way. I love playing with the guy. He’s an awesome goalie.”
The Aggies lost 11-2 to the Wildcat’s Division I team in Ogden during the preseason. Overall, USU was 2-1 in its preseason games, defeating the Provo Icecats and Weber State’s Division II team.
The Aggies had an up-and-down season last year. After starting the year with wins over Weber State and Utah, USU won only three of its next 12 games to drop their record to 5-8-1. But the Aggies rebounded by winning 10 of their next 11 games, stretching from November to late January, to improve their record to 15-9-1.
But a late-season road trip to Wyoming and Colorado ultimately cost them an invitation to the national tournament as they lost four in a row to the West Region’s top teams. The Aggies did, however, win three out of its four games against Weber State last season.
Fans are, again, asked to show up to the game early as tickets have been sold out in both preseason home games before play even started.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edHockey looks to start season in big way
This time it counts
Aggies open season against Rams, Wildcats
By Bryan Hinton
Senior Writer
The Utah State hockey club officially starts its season with a big weekend featuring a game against the Colorado State Rams and a rematch against the Weber State Wildcat’s Division I squad.
The Aggies will play the Wildcats Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the George S. Eccles Ice Center.
USU fell/defeated the Rams X-X Thursday night at home. A detailed report of the game will be in Monday’s Statesman.”
The hockey team was pummeled in the preseason by Weber State’s Division I team, but rebounded the next week by defeating its Division II team, with many of the same Wildcat players appearing in both games.
USU Head Coach Jerry Crossley said even though the Aggies defeated the Division II team, it’s not the same as defeating Weber State’s Division I team.
“That’s a different team,” Crossley said. “That’s a better team. Our goal will be to beat those guys, too, but we’ll take that when it comes.”
Crossley said that there are also a few issues that his team needs to resolve going into the regular season.
“Our penalty situation – we got to get a grip on that,” Crossley said. “That’s two games, two wins we’ve had that we’ve tried to give away late in the game by taking penalties that aren’t necessary.”
He also said that his team can play with more intensity.
“You know they’ve got it in them,” Crossley said. “They can make those surges, they can go score those goals if they put the energy into it. We have a tendency, for some reason, to just play down, or play in a comfort zone and we got to get out of it.”
The players are also getting themselves focused for the upcoming season.
“We got a couple things we got to work on as a team, fundamentally,” said defender Matthew Lagree. “We’re going to work on that during practice [this] week. We’re going to come out [this] season really fired up, ready to go.”
Goalie Chris Webber said, “It’s coming together, slowly but surely. I think by this next week through practice we should be solid. We’ll be ready for Colorado State.”
Many people think that Webber and Josh Groves are in a competition for the regular starting spot in goal, but Webber doesn’t like to look at it that way.
“It’s all up in the air,” he said. “Honestly, I love playing with the guy. He’s a great goalie, and I’m learning a lot from him. Basically, right now it’s the coach’s deal. I could care either way. I love playing with the guy. He’s an awesome goalie.”
The Aggies lost 11-2 to the Wildcat’s Division I team in Ogden during the preseason. Overall, USU was 2-1 in its preseason games, defeating the Provo Icecats and Weber State’s Division II team.
The Aggies had an up-and-down season last year. After starting the year with wins over Weber State and Utah, USU won only three of its next 12 games to drop their record to 5-8-1. But the Aggies rebounded by winning 10 of their next 11 games, stretching from November to late January, to improve their record to 15-9-1.
But a late-season road trip to Wyoming and Colorado ultimately cost them an invitation to the national tournament as they lost four in a row to the West Region’s top teams. The Aggies did, however, win three out of its four games against Weber State last season.
Fans are, again, asked to show up to the game early as tickets have been sold out in both preseason home games before play even started.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu