Third period offensive puts Weber hockey past USU for second straight game
The Utah State hockey club gave up four third-period goals to Weber State on its way to losing 7-3 to the Division-I team Friday.
With the score tied at three heading into the final period, the Wildcats found the back of the net twice in two minutes to put the Aggies away for good.
“We kind of spent ourselves on the first two [periods],” Aggie Scotty John said. “It’s hard when you’re that close to a great team like that and you don’t pull through.”
“I don’t know if we got overconfident, or we just kind of backed off a little,” Aggie assistant coach Jon Eccles said. “We stopped skating. We stopped doing what worked on all week. And then we were kind of back on our heels.”
The Aggies stumbled in the third, losing momentum and allowing the Wildcats to capitalize.
“We caught some bad bounces and just kind of lost some of the momentum we had in the first two periods,” goalie Adam Lain said.
Despite the disappointing finish, the Aggies are trying to take what they can from Friday’s game.
“It’s a disappointment when you lose,” Eccles said. “But really, it showed us that these guys really stepped up for two periods. It’s a good building block. [Weber State] can be beat and we’ll beat them.”
Lain said the team has matured and improved even over the course of a week.
“After the first period, they definitely knew we meant business,” John said. “They were definitely trying out there. The second period, they just got outplayed. We outplayed them.”
Lain, who gave up six goals in less than two periods last week, was on his game in the first two periods.
“I contribute it mostly to the team,” he said. “They just really pulled it together – a lot better defense, a lot more quality clearing the puck. There were some rebounds that cost us some goals, but that’s hockey.”
Lain got the start Friday because goalie Chris Webber had pulled his groin in the previous week’s game against Weber State, Eccles said.
In the second intermission, the zamboni machine broke the pane of glass on the USU penalty box, causing a five minute delay to the start of the third period.
“The broken glass and down time – I think that was to their advantage for sure,” John said.
Still, players said they couldn’t fault the downtime for their lackluster third-period performance.
“We can’t really blame it on that,” Lain said. “We just got to learn how to play like that for three periods because two periods won’t win a game for you.”
Despite the rivalry between the teams, players said they are still very impressed with the D-I Wildcat team.
“Weber’s definitely a strong team,” Eccles said. “They are a little bit stronger than us. I think some of our leaders saw that we can skate with these guys. And we can. This week we put two good periods together. And then they kind of fell back into last week’s game where they kind of started shunning away.”
Eccles said the team’s defense is improving and will continue to get better as the year progresses.
“After the way we played tonight, I don’t think anybody has a chance against us this year,” John said.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu