USU rides the Missile past Northern Colorado, 4-1

Coach Eccles Post UNC

Tyler Mistelbacher continued his offensively potent season Saturday night against the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), scoring twice and leading USU hockey to a 4-1 win.

"The Missile" is separating himself from the field in Division 2 of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) in terms of scoring. With a total of 38 goals, Mistelbacher ranks third in scoring on the season in all of D2 ACHA hockey behind only Samuel Wheeler of Northwestern (46) and UNLV's Michael Zenzola (39). Mistelbacher is tied with Kentucky's Tony Valerino (38), and Valerino has played two fewer games than Mistelbacher has this season.

187 teams play nationwide in D2 ACHA hockey, and Tyler Mistelbacher is behind only six players in the entire league in goals per game at 1.44.

"He's just on a tear right now," head coach Jon Eccles said of Mistelbacher, "but he's on a line where we've got some good guys feeding him the puck and setting him up. But he's a natural goal-scorer."

Mistelbacher scored the first goal of the game in the first period and another in the second. UNC, trailing by three after two, managed to get one by USU goaltender Dan Cornelius in the third and held USU scoreless until 0:15 mark. As a matter of fact, Eccles identified Cornelius as the standout player of the game for his excellent performance in the nets. Eccles said the only goal that Cornelius allowed was virtually impossible to defend.

"He played well," Eccles said. "The goal they scored on him was a redirect. It got deflected. It might have even gone off of one of our guys, but Dan played a great game."

The save statistics from this game tell much about the style of the game in addition to how dominant Cornelius was on Saturday. Cornelius had 22 saves on 23 shots made against his goal. By contrast, UNC's goaltender, Phil Tereyla, made 41 saves on 44 shots. Utah State was able to not only maintain possession of the puck and move it around in the offensive zone much more easily than their opponent, but also denied UNC any room offensively.

"We're playing well with team defense," Eccles said. "Everyone's getting back and helping. Our defensemen are chipping the puck out. We're getting good breakouts, and we're also getting enough people back to help. We're doing well in the neutral zone, tying it up and creating turnovers."

In a desperate attempt to generate some offense and hopefully deadlock the game at three apiece, UNC pulled their goalie at the end of the third period, artificially going on the power play. The plan backfired. USU was able to swipe the puck from UNC and made a beeline straight for the open net at the other end of the ice. Jeremy Martin controlled the puck and dished it to Billy Gouthro. Gouthro, in turn, got it to David Wyman, and he sunk the puck into the open net with only 15 seconds remaining in the game, sealing the win for the Aggies.

Also scoring in this game for USU besides Mistelbacher and Wyman was Jeremy Moore. Moore's first period goal put the Aggies ahead by two.

Utah State will next head to Colorado to take on Denver University, a top-10 team in the region, and Metro State. USU's next home game will be Friday, Feb. 19 when Denver University visits the Eccles Ice Center in the final game of the regular season for USU. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m.