Utah State hockey club cursed in Colorado
For the second straight year, the Utah State hockey club left the state of Colorado without a win, losing all three road games over the weekend.
The Aggies lost to the Colorado Buffaloes 5-2 Sunday. Robert Hashimoto scored the only goals for USU as penalties plagued the team.
Ben Froehle was ejected from the game as mistakes hurt the Aggies.
“I thought we played well,” said Aggie Roberto Leo. “We just made too many little mistakes.”
Goalie Chris Webber started the game and gave up all of the goals.
Friday, USU lost to the Colorado State Rams 3-1 in Fort Collins.
“We came out strong, but just didn’t finish,” Leo said.
The game was close down the stretch, but the Aggies weren’t helped by the referees.
Twice, with USU in the Colorado State zone and threatening, the referees stopped play saying that the goal was off, but the net was firmly in place.
The referees also called a controversial offsides on a promising breakaway for the Aggies.
On Thursday, the Aggies lost to Colorado State again, 10-6.
“We started off really solid, but the last two minutes of the first period we had a let down,” Leo said.
USU jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the Rams scored when the puck appeared to have never actually gone in the net.
Leo said that it gave Colorado State some momentum and started their comeback.
The Aggies still led 3-2 in the second period, but couldn’t hold it as CSU outscored USU 8-3 the rest of the way.
Colorado State is now 12-1 on the season.
Goalie Josh Groves made his first start since shutting out Eastern Washington.
The three losses dropped the Aggies’ record to 4-6 with only three home games remaining until winter break.
Despite the bad weekend, the Aggies are second in the West Region in the new American Collegiate Hockey Association rankings for Division II.
Colorado State was a unanimous decision for the top ranking.
“We’ll go to nationals with these guys and we’ll beat them,” Leo said.
Eastern Washington ranked third, BYU ranked fourth and San Jose State ranked fifth. USU has defeated each of those teams this year. Colorado is sixth and Weber State is ninth.
The Aggies welcomed Nick Thiros back to the team over the weekend. Thiros has been out with a broken hand since the Sept. 26 game against the Weber State Division I team.
USU was without defender Nate Pierce, who had surgery on his shoulder after falling into the boards wrong at a recreation league game last week. He will be out for eight to 12 weeks.
The Aggies were also without defender Dave Langlois who stayed home for academic reasons.
USU will play the Weber State Division II team twice next weekend, with each team playing a game at home.
The Aggies will play four more games against Division I opponents before winter break.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu