Hockey team beats Montana State 5-2

Despite getting only 26 shots on goal, the Utah State hockey club beat the Montana State Hellcats 5-2 Thursday to snap a four-game losing streak.

William Winsa scored an empty net goal in the final minute and assisted another goal to lead the Aggies.

“Well, it’s a win,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “We could have played better. We’ve been losing for a while. So maybe it’s good to win like this.”

Two of the five Aggie goals came from defenseman.

“When the forwards aren’t scoring, we feel more pressure to score,” Aggie Brett Fryslie said. “We’re not a team that’s going to score 15 goals a game. We’re not built for it.”

USU’s top line of Robert Hashimoto, Roberto Leo and Winsa did not play together Thursday night.

“We’ve been juggling the lines lately,” forward Josh Groves said. “That line has been the only one scoring lately. We’ve trying to dibby out the goal-scorers. Those guys score a lot of goals.”

There were only six penalties called during the entire game.

“That was the best officiated game all year,” Fryslie said. “When stuff needed to be called, he made calls. He let us play the game.”

Crossley said he was pleased with his team’s discipline Thursday.

“We can’t win when we’re shorthanded all the time,” he said. “Tonight, there was an entirely different atmosphere on the bench and we won.”

After two periods, the Hellcats had held the Aggies to only 15 shots on goal.

USU scored the first two goals of the third period to take a 4-1 advantage. Winsa assisted a goal to Mikel Roy and Scotty John threw a wrist shot past the Hellcat goalie to give the Aggies a three-goal lead with seven and a half minutes to play.

Fryslie gave USU its first lead of the game in the second period when he stole the puck right in front of the Hellcat goal and scored to make the score 2-1.

After falling behind 1-0 on a MSU power play goal, the Aggies tied the game when the Hellcat goalie misplayed a Josh Groves shot.

Saturday, the Aggies will face Metro State at home. Crossley said USU will face a challenge from a team it hasn’t played in years.

“It will be a good game,” he said. “We’ll have to play good in order to win that game.”

Crossley said despite the Aggies’ troubles early in the season, they are still right in the middle of the nationals race.

“This has been a funny year,” he said. “There is no leading team that’s dominating. It will be a matter of which team can get on a roll at the right time and win some games.”

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu