USU hockey suffers two weekend losses
Utah State fell 5-3 at home to Utah on Friday and lost 6-5 playing at Weber State on Saturday.
“The guys played hard out there, but we just made some mental errors,” said Jon Eccles, the Utah State head coach. “There were times that we were dominating, but then there were times where we made some errors. We need to play a little quicker.”
Utah State and Utah were tied 2-2 with five minutes to play in the game when Utah took control.
“We took some bad penalties,” said Chris Videto, who had two assists in the game against the Utes. “That gave them some momentum. It was a dog fight until the end, and then we kind of imploded a little bit.”
Following penalties by USU’s Rylie Orr, Stew Hepburn and JoJo Chase, the Utes had a five-on-three advantage and scored three goals in less than three minutes, which left the Aggies unable to recover.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with officiating in the league,” said Stew Hepburn who scored Utah State’s second goal. “We feel like we’re playing uphill. It’s hard. We play hard for 60 minutes, and then we feel like we get robbed at the end.”
Videto said that the refs have called things against them but that it’s the team’s responsibility to recognize how the games will be called, to not worry about it and to keep playing.
The Aggies got off to a quick start against the Utes. Ian Beckstrom scored five minutes into the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Utah State held the lead until the 15 minute mark of the second period when Utah tied things up at 1-1.
Before the goal was scored, USU lost key player Cooper Limb who took a nasty shoot into the boards. A Ute penalty was called, but Limb was gone for the game. Eccles said he was unsure of Limb’s status for the upcoming games and that his knee and ankle would be evaluated each day.
It was a back-and-forth battle against Weber State Saturday night. The Aggies and the Wildcats traded goals, and USU took a 4-3 lead into the third period. Both teams scored power-play goals in the third, and WSU tied up the game at 5-5 to send it to overtime.
Weber State scored on a penalty shot to end the sudden-death overtime period and win 6-5.
“We’ve got to overcome any of the weaknesses we had out on the ice,” Eccles said. “The guys all know what they need to do. It’s all up to them. The coach can’t motivate everyone. They’ve got to motivate themselves.”
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor