Hockey team held winless on road trip
The Utah State hockey club lost both of its games to Colorado and Colorado State last weekend in its only Eastern road trip this season.
The Aggies lost to CU 4-2 last Friday and 5-2 to CSU last Saturday.
“Our team played well both games,” goalie Adam Lain said. “It was two solid games for the team. We just didn’t come out on top.”
“We played good we just had a couple breakdowns that resulted in losses,” Aggie Nick Thiros said.
USU was up 2-0 over CU before allowing the Buffaloes to come back late in the third period on power play goals coming from questionable calls from the referees.
“We might not have gotten the call the right way but it doesn’t justify getting penalties,” Thiros said. “We need to be more disciplined.”
The Ags were much more satisfied with their physical game over the weekend.
“We played real physical,” Thiros said. “We were hitting a lot and we haven’t been doing that.”
“We picked up our hitting game a lot,” Aggie Nick Haase said.
All in all, the team felt it had a good weekend in Colorado.
“They said they were astonished by our play compared to last year and how much better a team we are and how we’re going to be pretty good competition for them,” Haase said. “I think it was a huge improvement from last year.”
Last season the Aggies were swept on the road in Colorado by a combined score of 18-9.
USU struggles in Colorado because both schools there play on NHL size rinks, which are smaller than the Olympic size rinks that the Utah schools play on.
“It’s a smaller ice everyone so everyone bunches up sooner,” Thiros said. “The positioning is different. It hurt some of the lines, but most of the lines managed just fine.”
The Aggies will play Colorado again this weekend in North Logan.
“That’s going to be huge,” Thiros said. “It’s always huge on your home ice.”
“We still have a positive outlook and we look forward to taking them on the home ice,” Lain said.
USU also found out that it will have another chance against CSU. The Rams agreed to come to Cache Valley in January, although an exact game date has not been set.
“We are excited,” Thiros said. “we’ve always been a team that plays a lot better at home.”
The Aggies will face San Jose State Thursday at the Eccles Ice Arena. USU won all three meetings with the Spartans last season. Unlike last season, however, SJSU comes into to North Logan undefeated. The Spartans are 7-0.
Thiros joked, “It’s interesting that San Jose State is a lot better now that Chris Webber isn’t there any more.”
Webber was the Spartans starting goalie for his freshman year.
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USU goalie Chris Webber to keep an Eastern Washington shot from finding the back of the net. Webber played for San Jose State during his freshman year. (Photo by John Zsiray)