Hockey team set for BYU
The Utah State hockey club will play home games against BYU and the Weber State Division-II team this weekend.
After losing to Colorado at home last weekend, USU must win both games at home in order to stay high in the rankings.
“We’re expecting three wins,” Aggie Nate Pierce said. “BYU could be a challenge, but we’re looking at just killing them and Weber D-II.”
The Aggies have played two close games against BYU this season, winning both of them by a combined three goals.
“They have a pretty solid team this year,” Pierce said. “Pretty much, their goaltending is killing us. They have a really good goalie.”
“Their goalie is pretty good,” Aggie Robert Hashimoto said. “Hopefully we can shut him down by taking a lot of shots.”
BYU goalie Tamio Stehrenberger has played two strong games against USU, but was thrown out of the game in Logan for fighting against Aggie Roberto Leo. The incident caused in an 11-player brawl, which resulted in eight players being thrown out between the two teams.
“We’re going to be a little more chilled out, but we’ll still be strong,” Hashimoto said.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Aggie Chad Johnson said. “Having a good crowd would definitely work to our advantage.”
Pierce said he thinks BYU will present a challenge, but USU will come away with a big win.
“I don’t expect it to be close at all,” he said. “We’ve picked it up a lot since we played them last.”
The WSU D-II squad has struggled so far this season, but the Aggies will be ready for anything.
“I wouldn’t put anything past Weber,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what to expect.”
“All games are tough so we need to come out strong and prepared,” Hashimoto said. “We can’t afford to lose a game.”
The Aggies can achieve their first winning record of the season with a sweep this weekend. They currently stand at 5-5-1 and are projected to be ranked third in the West Region when the initial rankings come out Friday. The top four teams in each region advance to the national tournament at the end of the season.
“If we lose any games this week we’re out of the running,” Pierce said.
USU has played a very tough schedule in the early going. All five losses have come to teams that finished ahead of them the last two seasons.
“It’s good to have a strong schedule, but you need to win,” Hashimoto said.
“We need to get some more wins under our belt,” Johnson said.
Johnson did not play last Saturday against Cal-Berkeley because he was at his grandfather’s funeral. The time off is not expected to hurt his game.
“I’m ready to go for this weekend,” he said. “There’s no worries about that.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu