USU Hockey pounds Utah 20-1

The USU Hockey Club soundly defeated the University of Utah 20-1 Friday night at the Eccles Ice Arena.
    Though it seemed like there could not possibly be another game as dominating as the one when USU took a trip down to Salt Lake City and beat the Utes 18-4 on their own ice, it was done Friday. The game was best described by local hockey fan Tim Slocum when he said, “Utah State is just a class apart from Utah. It’s like when Utah State plays football against Oklahoma. They’re just on the next level.”
    To give a little perspective, a 20-1 victory in hockey is comparable to a 70-3 score in football or a 130-10 score in a basketball game. 
    “We knew coming in to this game that we would win,” said Head Coach Jon Eccles. “What we didn’t know was by how much or how we would play. We effectively shut them down, but we expected to. Utah is a new program in this league. The university in Salt Lake suspended their hockey program a few years ago. Getting their program started up again, getting players interested in coming and trying to match up against our program which has 14 years of experience under its belt is really a challenge. They’ll get better with time, though.”
    Dan Cornelius, the team’s goalie, saved 28 shots on goal in the Aggie victory and said the game was such a blow-out win, it wasn’t much competition.

    “A game like this stops being competitive at some point. It’s great for our confidence, but it doesn’t really help us,” he said. “Everyone played tonight, and no one screwed up too much. It was a practice game for us.”
    The first of many Aggie goals was scored about 2.5 minutes in when Billy Gouthro connected with Jeremy Martin. Utah showed some backbone early on, however. Two minutes later, they were able to put together a hard-nosed passing attack that allowed Utah’s team captain, Ben Wilner, to score Utah’s only goal of the night. The Utes completely fell apart after that. Utah State scored two more in the first period, six in the second and a whopping 11 in the third.
    “We’re scorers,” Gouthro said. “We run the system really well. We kept trying to get the passes down throughout the whole game, and we’re there now. We’re consistent. We didn’t want to let up because if we’re playing Colorado or Washington, we need to keep going hard.”  
    Notably, Billy Gouthro scored a game high four goals in the match and had a game-high six points. He was one of three Aggies to score a hat trick, along with Brandon MacDonald and Jeff Sanders. 
    Gouthro’s first goal, and probably his most notable, came at the 9:47 mark in the first period. Gouthro took the pass in the corner from David Wyman, accelerated towards the goal, split two defenders with a smooth deak and snuck it in the near side of the goal. That goal put USU up 3-1, where it stayed for the rest of the first period.
    The second of Gouthro’s goals came on a pass play which displayed a superior Aggie team passing attack. Matt Ferris took control of the puck roughly 20 feet from the goal, but retreated back about 10 feet as he was confronted and challenged by a Ute. Ferris passed it into the right corner to Jeremy Martin, who found a streaking Gouthro headed straight for the goal on a breakaway. The goal put USU up 4-1.
    Gouthro’s last goal would be considered a second-chance goal in any sport. With 2:10 left in the game, Mike Daugalis shot a laser toward the Ute goal from the weak side, which deflected off the Ute goalie’s leg pads. Triple teamed, Gouthro won the puck back and slid it in. It was USU’s 20th goal of the night.
    The biggest strengths of the Aggies in Friday’s game was their work on many set plays, executing a very unselfish passing game and taking advantage of the opportunities given to them. Eccles said this game served USU in the sense that it was good preparation for the regional tournament next week, which will take place in Logan.
    If USU wins both of next weekend’s games, they will have earned themselves a ticket to the national ACHA Division II hockey tournament in Grand Rapids, Mich. The two other teams from USU’s division on their way to nationals already by virtue of the regional standings are Weber State and Colorado State.

Other Notables –

    Kent Arsenault, in his third year of Aggie hockey, scored his 300th point on Friday. A point, not to be confused with a goal, is earned when a player either scores or gets an assist on a goal.
    “I knew it was coming, and I was looking forward to it,” Arsenault said of his 300th point. “It’s great to average about 100 points per season. I really couldn’t ask for a better group of guys. We’re always together, day in and day out.”
    Greg Fenatti, the starting goalie for USU, was not present in this game. Fenatti’s mother passed away on Thursday, and Fenatti left Logan on Tuesday to drive to California to be with his family.
    Eccles said some of the USU players left Logan Saturday night after their game to be with Fenatti and to help support him and his family in this difficult time.
    “It’s good to have both Dan (Cornelius) and Greg (Fenatti) because either one of them can play the big games. Even the players that don’t know his mother went to go be with the family. It just goes to show the friendship we have on this team. They’re really supportive of him. Hopefully we’ll have both those guys available for the next two games at regionals.”

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