Weak performances, lapses cost USU hockey
Utah State hockey club Head Coach Jerry Crossley put the Aggies’ two weekend home games simply: Two teams who are going somewhere each faced one team who isn’t.
The University of Colorado Buffalos, No. 1 in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II West Region, defeated the Aggies 4-2 Friday night.
The Buffalos are going to the ACHA D-II Nationals at the end of February.
The University of Wyoming Cowboys, No. 1 in the ACHA D-III West Region, dominated USU for two-thirds of its game Saturday night with the Aggies, but the game ended as a 6-6 knot in overtime.
The Cowboys also have a trip to Nationals (at the D-III level) on their to-do list.
For the most part, the Aggies, left out of the D-II Nationals because the University of Southern California automatically gets a bid being the host team, played both games as if the season had no meaning left in it.
Is motivation a problem for USU right now?
“Absolutely,” Crossley said after Friday’s game. “But it’s kind of a comparison; one team is going somewhere and the other one’s not. We’re trying to defend the home ice and put on a good game for our fans that have supported us all year.
“We need to finish it out right,” he said.
USU (15-13-2) stayed tight with Colorado for 33 minutes, but then in a breakdown of all defensive breakdowns with 6:30 remaining in the second period, the Buffalos slipped three goals through the Aggie defense in a 41 second span.
The Buffalo’s first goal in that span was a fierce slapshot by forward Zach Sanner from the left point, tough for any goaltender to stop.
But USU netminder Josh Groves knew the latter two goals, easy put-ins from no more than three feet out, are two he should have and could have stopped.
“I just kind of lapsed,” he said.
Crossley said, “Both of those goals were easily preventable if people would just pick up a man and make contact with them. It’s simply a let down and it was three different lines.”
The Aggies put in one more goal in the third period, but it wasn’t enough — though their overall performance was certainly a better showing than last week’s 8-0 loss at Colorado.
Against Wyoming the Aggies started out even worse, falling behind 3-0 13 minutes into the first period.
But USU fought back and tied the score at four, putting in three unanswered goals within 1:30 of each other, five minutes into the second period, due in large part to Wyoming’s Stu Birdsomg receiving a five-minute major for charging.
USU’s Brandon Lang slipped in the game-extender with 53 seconds remaining in the third period.
The D-III in Wyoming’s title certainly hasn’t shown to be a weakness for them.
“Just because they’re a D-III team it doesn’t mean you come and take them lightly like we did when we went down there and they burned us,” said Aggie center Ben Froehle, who collected one goal and one assist Saturday night.
“They’re a very good team,” he said.
The Aggies finish this season 0-4 against the Buffalos and 0-1-1 against the Cowboys.
–samhis@cc.usu.edu