The Utah State hockey club (3-8) hosted the University of Utah (13-2-1) Saturday in its second annual military appreciation night in Logan, Utah. The game, played at the Goerge S. Eccles Ice Center, featured a pregame moment of silence and an honorary puck drop by Kelli Kindig, a cadet in Utah State University’s Army ROTC program.
“I was really excited to be a part of it,” Kindig said. “I’m just glad that I didn’t slip and fall on the ice.”
All active or retired military personnel got into the game for free and the ROTC program gave away free military-style backpacks to fans in attendance. The Utes eventually prevailed 2-1 to give the Aggies their first home loss.
Utah State took a 1-0 lead with three minutes to go in the first period. Forward Lane Styers found the back of the net on power-play goal, his third goal of the season. The Aggies held the lead and controlled the puck much of the first period, they played nine minutes of the first period with a one-man advantage.
“It felt good, we came out of the first up 1-0 and it felt like we were pumping them,” Styers said. “Tides started to change, the ice tilted our way and they started taking it to us.”
Utah tied the game five minutes into the second period on an Eric Gausseres breakaway goal. Gausseres fired a shot from the left side which trickled past Utah State goalie Keagan McHenry.
Locked in a tie, both teams began to play more physical in the third period and nine penalties were assessed, seven going against Utah State. The Utes outshot the Aggies 22-13 in the final two periods of the game.
“We kind of got away from what we were trying to accomplish,” said Jon Eccles, the head coach for Utah State. “We took some penalties that we shouldn’t have, when you have to kill off that many penalties you know they are going to score at least one.”
With nine minutes to go in the game, Ute captain Shaymus Bertagnolli capitalized on a power-play opportunity to give his team the 2-1 lead. Anchored by goalkeeper Chris Komma, who is now 11-2-1 in starts with a .901 save rate, the Utes were able to fend off the last effort by the Aggies and get the win.
“We want to pick up the intensity and our physicality,” Styers said. “We’re not showing it as much as we should be right now.”
Utah State plays its next game Friday against Weber State in Logan. According to Eccles, the team will be making some changes before its next game.
“We’re probably going to change up our lines a little bit,” Eccles said. “All of those guys played hard, it just wasn’t a team effort all the time. We’re going to try and get some things fixed.”
—kalen.s.taylor@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @kalen_taylor
