November 21, 2002 Athletics
Story
Hockey
Puts Together Complete Game
From the Utah
Statesman (11/20/02)
 Sixty
minutes of solid hockey.
Game after game this season it has eluded the Utah State club
hockey team.
But it was there during the first leg of the Aggies' California
road trip last weekend as they defeated the Long Beach State
University 49ers 3-1 Thursday.
Then Saturday night came against the University of Southern
California Trojans.
USU (5-8-1) held a 4-2 lead through the middle of the second
period but quickly lost its composure and the lead with untimely
penalties. Eventually the Aggies lost the game 7-4, writing
a familiar ending to many of their games this season.
"We came against probably the cheapest team we've played
so far," said Aggies center Jacob Guttormsen, referring
to what he thought was a USC team with a bucket-load of cheap
shots ready for the Aggies.
"A lot of [us] started getting mad," he said. "We
did take some stupid penalties. After a minor penalty [in the
third period] our team kind of fell apart and [USC] beat us."
Guttormsen tallied a team-high three goals over the weekend.
USU left wing Aaron Burrell said Thursday's game was one of
the first games this season the Aggies played a full three periods
and, for the most part, stayed away from the penalty box.
"It was one of the closest games we've played the whole
60 minutes. That's what the coaches [told us]," Burrell
said. "That's one of our goals--trying to play 60-minute
hockey."
Strangely, fatigue wasn't a big factor over the weekend, forward
Roberto Leo said. The team was on a bus for 15 hours Wednesday
en route to California, getting almost no sleep. But they still
beat the 49ers.
"Everybody was tired [but] nobody slept," Leo said.
"You can't sleep on that bus. Thursday night after the
[game] was awesome. You could talk to [members of the team]
and it would take them about two seconds to respond. That was
a good win."
Day off was well worth it
After the bus ride and the win, USU rewarded itself.
Most of the Aggies spent the day between those two games--Friday--at
the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park located in Buena Park,
Calif.
Two of the five USU players who come from California used the
time to go home, Guttormsen said.
"It was fun to be able to see our coaches go on rides
with us and participate in things we would never think they
would," he said. "It was awesome. I would have to
say that was one of the best things this team has done so far.
It made us combine as a team and, for the most part, we stayed
together as a team throughout the whole trip."
By Sammy Hislop; samhis@cc.usu.edu
Photo by John Zsiray
utah
state today/archives/November
2002/archives
prior to Sept 2002/
Brought
to you by Utah State University Public Relations and Marketing
|