Hockey team needs win agains UNM
In many cases, members of an athletic team can do one of two things following a tough loss: Hang their heads and regress or use the defeat as motivation to increase their level of play.
The USU men’s hockey team will be looking to do the latter when the University of New Mexico travels to Ogden for Friday and Saturday night games against the Aggies. Both games are slated to start at 8:30 p.m. at the Weber County Ice Sheet.
When asked about last Saturday’s loss to Colorado State University, forwards Deryk Anderson and Aaron Burrell had mixed feelings.
“Yeah, we were happy with the way we played at times, but any time you lose it’s disappointing,” Anderson said.
As disappointing as the loss might have been, playing a game like that gave the team more of an optimistic than pessimistic attitude heading into its next game, Burrell said.
“I think more optimism because we know we can play at that level,” he said.
The Aggies and Lobos, both 2-2 in conference play, will square off for the first time this season. Although the Aggies have had their way with the Lobos in past seasons, both Burrell and Anderson said this year’s Lobo team is stronger.
According to Anderson, New Mexico is the type of team that doesn’t have one go-to guy, but plays well as a team. However, Burrell said he thinks this year might be different since he discovered UNM has one of the top scorers in the RMCHA upon looking on its Web site.
As for the Aggies, they’ll be looking to build upon the CSU game, Anderson said. He said USU needs to continue to play solid defense and capitalize on turnovers caused by its defensive pressure.
“Our game plan is an extension of our game against CSU,” he said.
With the RMCHA tournament looming in the near future, Anderson said the Aggies will be a force to be reckoned with.
“Come conference tournament time, I wouldn’t want to play us,” he said. “I think we’ve proven that we can play with anyone.”
“The second period (against CSU) showed that,” Burrell said.