Saturday night the Weber State hockey team took on in state rivalry Utah State Aggies for their first game of the second semester block. Weber looked to change their ways from last semester after going 3-17-1 before the break. "We've only got two lines so we're trying to make the goals fairly easy... Hard work, just not giving up and staying out of the box staying disciplined... it's tough to come out and play against a number two ranked team when you only have 10 guys, a lot of freshman who are inexperienced," said Coach Steve Soto. He also named captains before the game including seniors Tim Brownell and Chris Deitsch as Assistant Captains to newly named Captain Braxton Green.
The Aggies opened up scoring early and often in the first period scoring three goals off their first four shots resulting in Weber Goalie Jonas Torgerson being replaced by the newly acquired Tyler Wolfey. Soto commented, "We need to get lots of shots on goal and also take care of our goalie." Wolfey faced a flurry of 50 shots in his debut and stopped 36 of them putting on a pretty decent performance despite the 16-2 loss. Weber's total shot count reached 35 burying only 2 of those against the Aggies. "The guys in the locker room know the rivalry but just don't grasp it... Utah state wants to bury us every time, we need to be the same way and we're not yet," Said Soto. He attributes this to the overall age of the team.
The shot count and score weren't the only thing that was lopsided, Weber faced a total of 15 penalty minutes against while Utah State faced only 8. Five of those minutes in period 3 were due to a hit from behind into the boards on Aggie Junior #88 David Reeve resulting in a disqualification to Weber's freshman #9 Josh Meyer. After a weary 15 minutes of on ice evaluation by medical staff, Reeve was carried off by emergency medical personnel on a spine board and stretcher showing a thumbs up as he was being rolled off the ice. Reeve was later reported to be Okay by Meyer who, after being DQ'd, went to the hospital where Reeve was being treated to check on his condition.
Despite this loss Weber is looking to be optimistic this weekend against unranked Oregon in their 2 game homestand. The key to the Wildcats success this weekend will be to contain 2 point per game scorer Senior Kevin Trihey and trying to put pucks past the goaltenders for Oregon who collectively only faced 72 shots in 10 games. Game times this weekend are on Friday at 20:30 and Sunday at 19:30, tentatively at the Weber County Ice Sheet, across the lot from the Dee Events Center.
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