Hockey takes down Metro State
Friday night was a win for the Aggies with Metro State leaving the ice in an 11-2 loss. Goalie Greg Finatti was still out with a concussion, allowing freshman Cody Palmer the chance to stop 26 of 28 shots.
New head coach Jon Eccles said Palmer did a great job.
“Palmer played great. He stepped in for Finatti and did really well,” he said.
Other highlighted players from the game included forward Matt Hamilton with a hat trick and defenseman MacKenzie York with his first point of the season.
Eccles said that things went smoothly Friday night, considering.
“There were a couple of penalties we shouldn’t have had, but we did well on our penalty kills,” he said. “We were also able to control the puck better than in past games.”
Eccles said his position as the new head coach is a lot different from his last position.
“It’s a little strenuous. Things are happening fast, but the boys worked with me and things are going well,” he said.
Aaron Burrell is the new assistant hockey coach. This will be his first experience with coaching, but Burrell has had past experience with the team. Eccles said Burrell played for the Aggies about four years ago and was a star player.
Although another star player defenseman Brandon Prince was out still with an injury, Eccles said the team played really well together.
“The forwards played a better two-way game, doing really well with backchecking. They did a great job of getting in the way in causing the opponents to mishandle the puck,” Eccles said.
Friday night’s game broke a five-game losing streak for the Aggies. Although the losses mean USU won’t be able to rank in third place, Eccles said they have plenty of time to move up in position and get to nationals.
Saturday night was less successful for the Aggies, with the game ending in an overtime loss 4-3 for San Jose.
The game started off shaky, with the team not knowing until game time the goalie would again not be Greg Finatti, but Dan Cornelius.
However, Eccles said Cornelis played the game of his life, having 31 shots and 27 saves.
Cornelius said it was the most nervous he has ever been for a game.
Eccles said overall the team played well Saturday night.
“It was kind of tentative for the first couple of periods, but we really started playing hard and controlling the puck more towards the end,” he said.
USU and San Jose were tied in the third period, and then Aggies took the lead with 56 seconds left in the game. Then San Jose scored on a power play sending the game into overtime. With only 1:39 left in overtime, San Jose scored and won.
“They’re a good team with some good players,” Eccles said. “We still have more skill, it just didn’t click for us tonight.”
Cornelius agreed.
“We played great up until there were 6 minutes to go. Then we just kind of sat back too much and they took advantage of it. We are better skilled than them, they just didn’t quit while we did. It’s definitely something we need to work on,” Cornelius said.
Eccles said something else the team will be working on is conditioning and breakouts. However, Eccles said he was proud of the way the team played.
Cornelius said the team played the best hockey they’ve played all year during the third period.
Cornelius added that new assistant coach Burrell can bring a lot to the team.
“He is very big in discipline, making sure we don’t screw up out there which is exactly what we need. Playing with a new coach has been really good though. It’s different without Jerry but the transition has been very smooth,” he said.
–jodi.burton@aggiemail.usu.edu