USU Hockey Home-and-Home with BYU

Brendan MacDonald's hat trick helped USU obliterate BYU, 10-3, in the second game of a home-to-home series on Saturday night at the Eccles Ice Center.

MacDonald's first goal was also the first of the game, and it came at the 13:50 mark in the first period. Matt Hamilton controlled the puck on the left side of the BYU zone in the power play and passed it low to Kyle Soder. Soder drew the BYU defense to him, which effectively left MacDonald wide open in front of the goal. Soder split the puck between two defenders, and MacDonald one-timed it home through the legs of both the BYU defender and the BYU goaltender.

MacDonald's second goal was the goal that busted the game wide open for the Aggies. Once again on the power play, MacDonald took the pass from his linemate, Hamilton, and buried it. The goal was the first of three in a two-minute stretch in the second period that gave USU a hefty 7-1 lead and the win. Head coach Jon Eccles said he was pleased with MacDonald and USU's overall effectiveness on the power play.

"Our power play was clicking all night long," Eccles said. "They couldn't really stop us. For the most part, I was happy with the way they played. We got a couple stupid penalties again, but for the most part we cleared things up."

MacDonald's hat trick goal was icing on the cake for the Aggies. With 13:24 remaining in the game, MacDonald scored his only goal not scored on the power play. MacDonald took a pass from Kent Arsenault and went on a fast forecheck. BYU's defense couldn't recover, and MacDonald left no doubt. USU led at that point 9-1 and was able to tack on one more before time expired.

Saturday's game came in the wake of part one of the home-to-home. Friday night's game was a 9-5 Aggie beatdown of BYU at the Peaks Arena in Provo. Brendan MacDonald managed to get a hat trick in that game as well. Also notable from the Friday night game were Billy Gouthro's three assists and an unassisted Tyler Mistelbacher goal in the second period. With that goal, Mistelbacher's 40th of the season, he continued his campaign for offensive player of the year in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) western region. Mistelbacher, a freshman, only trails UNLV's Michael Zenzola by three goals but has played three fewer games than Zenzola.

With the pair of wins, USU improves to 25-6 on the season and extends its season-long home undefeated streak to 12 in a row. USU's last home loss was against the University of Denver in last year's regional tournament. During the second game, USU clinched the season sweep against BYU, winning all six games against the rival Cougars from Provo. Eccles said he would prefer to schedule more talented teams to effectively prepare USU for the regional tournament.

"As far as being a strong match," Eccles said, "there's not a whole lot there. It was just a game for us and for the fans. We would have much rather played a stronger team to prepare us. We play Denver next weekend, and regionals are the week after DU. We want to be playing strong teams, because that's what we're going to be playing at regionals. We're not going to be playing teams like BYU."

Despite the lopsided results USU-BYU hockey has provided this year, Eccles said the series is still a rivalry as far as the teams and the fans are concerned.

"I love that intensity out there," Eccles said. "The fans love it. When the U of U, Weber or BYU comes in, it's a big rivalry. You can see the fans and how they help out, especially when they start saying, 'Hey goalie, goalie. You suck.' It's just fun to hear that stuff."

The degree to which BYU and USU hockey dislike each other was in full display in both Friday and Saturday's games. On Saturday, the Aggies were booked for 22 penalties – by far the most this season for USU. Likewise, BYU was booked for 18. The climax came near the end of the first period on Saturday when Jeff Sanders and a BYU Cougar started tussling, wrestling and pushing each other around, after a USU shot was saved by BYU's goaltender, Brent Taylor. While Sanders was venting his frustration and drawing all the attention of the officiating crew, USU's Matt Ferris took the opportunity to lightly crosscheck BYU's Tanner Billingsley, while Billingsley was off-guard. BYU's Todd Jaramillo, who was standing just behind Billingsley and had full view of Ferris's crosscheck, reacted in defense of his teammate by putting Ferris in a headlock and dragging him to the ice. The situation, obviously, did not improve from there. When all was said and done, 10 players were booked into the box at the same time for the altercation – five for BYU and five for USU.

Matt Hamilton, USU's starting center, was disqualified and ejected for facemasking in the third period of the second game. Hamilton, according to the ACHA rules, must sit out the game against the University of Denver for his actions. Also, Billy Gouthro, one of USU's three assistant captains, was given a 10-minute penalty and effectively ejected, for slashing and misconduct at the 9:31 mark in the third period.

While Eccles said he recognized the need for his team to maintain its composure, he also said much of the 22 penalties may not have been as necessary as the referees insisted.

"The ref," Eccles said, "there's probably been a bit of bad blood in the past and so he's not going to put up with any type of harassment or any type of abuse. He told us right up front, 'If you guys start doing that, we're going to start giving 2's and 10's and start kicking them out of the game. Bottom line, some of the guys couldn't quite adjust to that, so that's why they were sent off the ice early."

On a further note, I would like to take a shot at BYU Hockey fans.

With just under 10 minutes remaining in the game on Friday in Provo (Yes, I was present), a group of BYU fans began heckling an Aggie who had been sent to the penalty box. I responded on behalf of the player by yelling out, "Scoreboard!!!" So, naturally, the fans started heckling me.

First, they asserted that USU cheated. I ignored that one because of the stupidity of the argument and continued to repeat the score (9 to 4 at that point) until one BYU fan asked me if I wanted to fight him. At that point, I saw that the situation was getting a bit out of hand, so I waved him off and shut up. The BYU fan continued by asking me if USU had any other sport besides Hockey. I had great pleasure in informing him of the success our Men's Basketball team had against BYU this year. I again began to ignore him, and eventually I heard someone mutter, "You've got to have some class, man. You've got to have some class."

I bit my tongue. I was so tempted to make a strong reference to a certain former BYU quarterback who epitomizes class, but I restrained myself and bit my tongue.

Bottom line, I lost a lot of respect for BYU last weekend. A lot of respect.

I'll link my article to this post as soon as it is placed on the web.
Landon

BYU upsets Oklahoma

At the risk of being lynched by those who read this, I am going to make a quick comment about the BYU upset that went down in the inaugural edition of the Cowboy Classic in Arlington, Texas.

What a game.

This, if anything, helps USU because it now increases their strength of schedule. The biggest upset of week one makes the showdown that's going to be played in a month in Provo that much more of a big deal for USU. A win against what could possibly be a top-10 team at that point would not only be huge for USU, but for the entire WAC. It would validate the entire program and make the Aggies a true talking point for contention in the WAC, especially because Boise State is going to be playing USU in Romney Stadium in November. This is a big deal not only for BYU and everyone that will play them for the rest of the year, but also for the entire state of Utah. No one can deny that there are definite flaws in the BCS system now. Two Mtn West teams have struck gold against legitimate, powerful, historic programs within a two-game stretch. Both were games that were on ESPN, on national TV. BYU not only just validated the MTN west, but also the WAC, the state of Utah, and every non-BCS conference team in the country.

It's a big deal.

View the ESPN recap here

View what SI has to say about it.

I would also like to give a wag of my finger to ESPN's coverage of the game. They are discounting this win because Bradford was injured at the end of the 1st half and didn't return. I would imagine as well that most of the nation's media and coaches, not having watched this game, will also discount this win because of the Bradford injury. That will hurt their ranking. I think it's very important to give credit where credit is due.

Now, USU and Oklahoma do not play the same type of game. USU does not have the weight of Oklahoma, but they also do not play the same type of defense that USU plays. USU plays a man, speed-intensive defense. I certainly still think that USU can stand a chance against BYU, especially if they work harder than BYU leading into that game. BYU is not faster than USU.

That being said, all the questions about BYU's O-line and defense were answered tonight. That spells problems for any opponent barring any injury to BYU, and I don't think in a rebuilding year USU will be able to get the penetration that USU will need to rush Max Hall.

That's about the only bright spot for a USU fan that I can see coming out of this game - if USU somehow manages to pressure Hall, they can make him err. When he was pressured by Oklahoma's line, he threw riskier passes, was sacked aplenty, and threw two interceptions. That really is the key to beating BYU, pressuring Hall into making mistakes.

Also, I would like to eat my words. I went down on the record as saying the USU was more likely to cover the spread than BYU was. Now, both covered the 21-point spread, but I did not think that BYU was going to be within three touchdowns of Oklahoma. I thought their defense would be slower, the injuries in camp would weaken them too much, and the offensive line would give away too much only because of their inexperience.

Bottom line, BYU beat Oklahoma. Western football just got that much better. The nation should recognize

BYU injuries - Does this affect the Aggies?

Click here for a cougar injury report for the year

BYU is suffering and taking hard, hard hits...in fall camp.

You would normally expect the amount of injuries that have occured in Cougar-land to happen halfway through the season. But preseason? Really?

The latest, although it doesn't appear on the above list, is one that had cougar central shaking in its booties. BYU QB Max Hall, entering his senior season, dislocated a finger today in camp. Despite the injury, Hall continued to play and did well. He threw a touchdown pass after he got hurt, and continued to play hard, just like any cougar fan would expect him to.

Enough accolades for Max Hall's toughness. The real question is, "How is this going to affect the BYU-USU game in week 4?"

It could.

I only say that because I don't know how this will affect the first few games of the season, but I will say that if the Offensive Line is seriously affected by all of these injuries, it most definitely will affect the BYU-USU game in Provo.

The injuries in Provo are now getting to be such an issue that BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall has slowed the practices down, as you can tell by reading this article. 1320 KFAN in SLC reported earlier today that there are a total of 24 injuries in BYU's fall camp, and it is clear that in all of the WAC and MWC teams, BYU is suffering the most at the hands of...itself.

Matt Reynolds, the only senior on the line, is out for the showdown with Oklahoma because of his hand. Another starter on the Offensive line, Jason Speredon, is now out for the entire season after tearing a rotator cuff in his shoulder. Clearly, Depth and Strength are now becoming a factor for the BYU O-line.

With Gary Andersen's defensive prowess, if the Aggie D-line can outrun and outfox the Cougars, this game is going to take on a whole new dimension. Without an offensive line to stop any sort of pass rush, Max Hall is going to have to play on an NFL level to progress offensively on the field. We all know what happened last time Max Hall suffered under real pressure... Five interceptions and one lost fumble later, the Utes had stamped their ticket to the BCS. Who was the coach of the defense that provided the unreal pressure that clearly affected Hall? USU's head coach, Gary Anderson.

Anyway, will USU beat BYU? I still am thinking that they won't. They are still a much deeper team than USU. But if the trend continues like it has, the likelihood that BYU meets up with USU with a 1-2 record increases and also increases the likelihood that USU can win.

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