Utah State hockey team preps for final games
After clinching a trip to nationals last weekend, the Utah State hockey club looks to maintain its momentum against the Weber State Division-I team.
The Aggies will play the Wildcats Saturday at the Eccles Ice Arena. The puck will drop at 7:30 p.m.
This will be the final home game of the year for USU.
“Mostly, these last few games are just a tune up for the tournament,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “We’ll just try to polish our game.”
Crossley said this weekend and next weekend’s games against BYU and Weber D-I will be good warm-ups for the competition USU will face at the national tournament.
“They’re going to be good games,” he said. “That’s what we need right now – some good, hard games.”
Aggie Nick Haase said the Aggies need to get used to this caliber of competition.
“I think they will be comparable to what we will see at nationals,” he said. “If we pull off a win this weekend, we can do anything at nationals.”
Lang said the Aggies are on a roll.
“We’re on a six game winning streak and we’re going to come out and give it all we have,” he said.
Lang said he played his first game of his USU career against WSU so he is excited to finish it off the same way.
Thiros also said playing WSU D-I will be a fitting end to playing in Logan.
“It’s significant,” he said. “Every statistic is against us, but that doesn’t matter. We’re playing awesome right now. Hopefully we can come out and steal a win in our last home game.”
The WSU D-I squad has had its way with USU this season, winning all five meetings by a combined score of 35-5. The Aggies have never beaten the higher-division Wildcats.
Thiros said history doesn’t matter.
“We’re just going to come out as hard as we can and hopefully get a win,” he said.
Crossley said a win Saturday would be a perfect ending for this group of seniors.
“I think it’s a good way to go out,” he said. “It will be a good hockey game.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu