Regionals preview
USU 10, Utah 2
Brendan MacDonald notched the second hat trick of his brief USU career and led the Aggies with five points as USU once again beat up on the Utes last Friday night.
Other leading scorers were Kent Arsenault and William Winsa with three points apiece.
USU’s Robert Sutherland said boredom and complacency are the biggest challenges the Aggies face when they take the ice against Utah, but added there are bright spots.
“It’s not that bad,” Sutherland said. “It’s good to go out and work on stuff. We kind of use them as practice games to work on systems. If we wanted to we could run up the score on them if everyone just shot the puck.”
Freshman Dan Cornelius started the game in goal for USU and turned away 18 shots. Cornelius has driven his goals against average down to 3.19.
Cornelius started in goal for two losses to BYU late in the first semester, allowing seven goals in one. But in the second semester, Corny is sporting a 5-1 record in games he started.
USU 3, Weber 2
By the numbers, Cornelius’ second straight start in goal for the Aggies was identical to his first: 18 saves, two goals allowed, and a win on his record.
But, while 10-2 over Utah is nothing to write home about, a 3-2 win over Weber D1 in Ogden is rare fruit indeed for the Aggies.
Jordan Francom scored a goal for the second straight game and Arsenault was brilliant with two goals-including the game-winner.
During the second intermission, Arsenault told Sutherland, who had been knocked from the game with a separated shoulder, that he would win the game for him.
Arsenault did just that, but that wasn’t what Sutherland wanted to talk about:
“(Arsenault) blew his breakaway chance on a wide-open net to get a hat trick,” Sutherland said. “The goalie had already been pulled and he would have been the first player ever to get a hat trick against Weber D1, but he blew it. He got the game-winning goal but he still blew the breakaway.”
Even though Arsenault failed to make history, the win over the Wildcats is a big deal for the USU players.
“It was just a big win because a lot of the guys who have been here for four years like Francom and Scotty,” Sutherland said. “They used to just destroy us.”
Sutherland also said he was excited by Francom’s recent play.
“Jordan seemed like he was a little rusty after he took a whole semester off,” Sutherland said. “Now we’ve got the Francom train coming through again.”
Winsa and MacDonald had two assists each to help the Aggies bring their record against Weber D1 to 2-2 on the year.
Regionals Preview
If familiarity breeds contempt, then the Aggies must truly loathe their first-round opponent in Oakland, Calif. this weekend.
Four times USU and UVSC have played thus far, and USU has been frustrated by the Wolverines en route to a 1-3 record.
Eastern Washington and Colorado University took the automatic bids to nationals from the Western division this year, meaning eight teams heading to regionals in Oakland are fighting it out for the remaining two tickets to the big show.
The other first-round matchups are No. 3 Colorado State vs. No. 10 Oregon; No. 4 Cal State Long Beach vs. No. 9 San Jose State; and No. 5 Denver vs. No. 8 BYU.
USU is making the bus trip a smaller team than they are, in a very real sense. Maciej Michalik, the team’s 240-pound enforcer, quit the team for personal reasons.
Sutherland said the team is excited for a chance to ruin UVSC’s season.
“Everyone is pretty pumped about it,” Sutherland said. “We’ve got a small team, but everyone is pretty jacked up to go out there. We kind of weeded out all the players who didn’t want to be here.”
If the Aggies are to wreck the UVSC applecart, they will have to shut down three key players: David Wyman, Chris Glen and Seth Armitage, all of whom are listed in the ACHA’s top ten scorers. USU’s Arsenault is in 11th place with 75 points after leading the nation last year. Sutherland said USU will be using a new forechecking scheme against UVSC, a 1-4 trap.
“We have to play disciplined if we want to run it,” Sutherland said. “Everyone’s always looking for us to do the same thing we always do, so we’re trying to throw a curveball at them.”
Whether Finatti or Cornelius will start in goal is a game-time decision for Coach Jerry Crossley.
Corny is the hot goalie right now, but Finatti hasn’t played in two weeks.
“The rest for Finatti might have been really good for him,” Sutherland explained. “We have two of the best goalies in the country when they’re on their game. (When) our goalies play good, we play good.”
USU hosts the University of Utah Feb. 29.
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu