Hockey team picks up win in Ogden
The Utah State hockey team beat the Weber State Wildcats for the second time in three weeks Thursday night in Ogden by a score of 4-1.
The Aggies set the tone early with a goal and their physical play, led by captain Brian Gibbons.
“I like to throw my body around a lot,” Gibbons said. “I like to be part of the skill set, but I also like to throw my body around.”
Head Coach Jon Eccles said aggressive plays are part of the team’s style.
“We try and be physical,” Eccles said. “We’ve got so much speed and strong guys that we try to put as much pressure on them as we can so that they get to the point where they don’t even want to touch the puck. And it does help us, because then they start getting scared.”
The physical play opened up opportunities for the Aggies and forward Cooper Limb found the back of the net six minutes into the game with an assist from Gibbons.
“We came out hard at the beginning of the game,” Limb said. “We knew we had to because we didn’t really the last time we played them.”
From that point on, however, both teams struggled to find a groove and the teams combined for 18 penalties on the night.
“We took a couple penalties we shouldn’t have, but overall I think we played pretty disciplined,” Eccles said.
A few of the penalties were matching minors, which lead to a lot of four-on-four hockey throughout the game. With all the open ice, the Aggies kept most of the possession and translated their possession game to their five-on-five play, where they dominated.
“We really pressured them a lot,” Eccles said. “There were times where we were in their zone or the neutral zone for probably 4 or 5 minutes at a time.”
Just one minute into the second period, Limb scored his second goal of the night on a breakaway backhand shot.
“Ty Johns hit me for the breakaway and it couldn’t have gone better,” Limb said.
While USU scored 4 goals, the overall success in the game stemmed from team defense, once again led by the two-way play of Gibbons.
With the score 2-0 in favor of the Aggies going in to the third period, the game became very chippy, as rivalry games tend to do.
“When the other team wants to get chippy, that’s on them,” Gibbons said. “It’s something we can handle and it’s something we’ll give right back to them.”
USU took a 3-0 lead from a deflection goal by Stu Hepburn in the opening minutes of the third period. However, in the final two minutes of the game, Weber State capitalized on their first bit of sustained pressure on the Aggies to notch a goal before the game ended.
“We just couldn’t get it out of the zone,” Eccles said.
Forward Chris Videto added an empty-net insurance goal.
“We’re a bigger team, we’re an older team, and I think we dominated them in every way,” Limb said.
– sean.osullivan@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @Seansy89