USU Rolls over Alumni
Although intensity was visibly lacking in Saturday night’s season-opening USU hockey game against the USU alumni team, fans seemed to enjoy the rare chance to cheer for both teams in the Eccles Ice Arena.
The alumni team, led by Aggie greats such as Aaron Burrell, Robert Hashimoto, Nick Thiros, Chad Johnson and Ben Froehle, hung tough with the modern-day Ags up until midway through the second period, prompting former Ag captain Thiros to say, “We’re has-beens, we’re washed up. Conditioning for the Aggies took over. They didn’t beat us with talent tonight; they beat us with conditioning. And I want you to put that in the paper.”
Jay McFadden, who led all scorers with six goals, replied to Thiros’ jibe thusly: “We’ve got the talent. But conditioning, yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of that in practice and that helped us out a lot too.”
After the Aggies jumped up 4-0 on the alumni behind two McFadden goals, a Walter Voisard goal and a goal from newcomer Ryan Osterheldt, the alumni came chugging back, making it 4-3 by the end of the first period with goals from Hashi, Burrell and Danny Wilson.
Late in the first period, McFadden retaliated for being tripped by pulling another alumnus down to the ice after himself, and he was able to start a shoving match that resulted in a two-minute roughing penalty for Matt Ferris and a pair of two-minuters for USU’s career leader in penalty minutes, Froehle.
When asked about his role in the scrum, McFadden answered, “There was no fight there. That wasn’t a fight.” But when asked if he relishes his role as an instigator, he replied, “I guess. I like to get things mixed up a little bit.”
The alumni opened the second period with an unassisted power-play goal from Tony Haughey that momentarily evened the score and seemed to ignite the Aggie bench. USU rolled off four unanswered goals, with McFadden pouncing on a William Winsa rebound to start the run, Kent Arsenault firing home his first goal of the season, Osterheldt striking again, and newcomer Jacob Guttermson scoring in the Ec for the first time.
Although Thiros would demonstrate the competitive spirit of the alumni by scoring off a Burrell assist to make it 8-5, Osterheldt completed a hat trick before the period was over to put the Aggies in the driver’s seat.
“I didn’t want to lose to these guys, because now I have to hear it all night long that they beat us,” Thiros said later.
The third period was on the dull side, as the clock was allowed to run nonstop and the Aggies piled on five more goals. McFadden achieved a double hat trick with three third period goals, Arsenault scored, and Voisard got his second goal of the night. The score could have been worse than 14-5, as Matt Geer, Arsenault and Winsa deferred to one another on a three-on-nothing break and allowed alumni goalie Quincy Martin to stop the puck in a near-sure goal-scoring situation.
Fan favorites Burrell and Hashimoto said it was a great experience to take the ice in the Ec again.
“It was really fun. It was cool to see the new guys out there, check out the young guns,” Hashi said, although he qualified his remarks with a warning to the new players: “There’s only one (Hashi).”
Burrell, who was serenaded with yells of “Burrell’s house” from both the fans and the Aggie lineup when he was introduced, said, “They’re still saying it, I guess. New generation coming in, I just wish these boys a lot of luck this year. A little hard work and they’re going to go places. They’ve got a good squad there.”
USU’s incumbent goalie and reigning co-MVP, Greg Finatti, was absent from Saturday’s game. In his stead, Scottie Beard played the first period and had 13 saves. Cornelius then took over and had 20 saves. McFadden complemented his double hat trick with one assist to finish with seven points. Arsenault was not his usual explosive goal-scoring self with just two of his shots finding the net, but he compensated with five assists, and the line of himself, McFadden and Geer (four assists) was dominant. Winsa and Ferris both had two assists for the Aggies.
The alumni were led by Burrell, who had a goal and three assists and said he “had to” score in his return to the Ec because it would have been embarrassing if he hadn’t; Thiros, who had one goal and two assists; and Hashi, who scored once and made the outrageous claim that he had actually scored the goal Burrell was credited for.
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu