I think game recaps are going to HOCKEY-L these days, right?
I just wrote this for the Utah Hockey club web site at
<http://www.utah.edu/campusrec/spclub/hockey/hockey.htm>; the box
score has been posted on INFO-HOCKEY-L and both will appear on the web
soon.
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions
 
 
The University of Utah skating Utes hosted a tough opponent in their
second game.  The Utah State Aggies were defending champions of the
Rocky Mountain Collegiate Hockey Association and 1-1 after losing to
preseason favorites Weber State on the opening weekend of play.  The
game started at around 6pm, but, psychologically at least, it turned
out to be a long night for the Utes.
 <P>
      Alan Babicky started the scoring early for the Aggies, with an
unassisted goal 24 seconds in from the top of the left faceoff circle,
scored in the aftermath of a collision in the Ute zone.  Utah tied it
up at 4:50 when Mike Knudson won an offensive-zone faceoff and drew
the puck back to Terry Warner, who scored from the blue line.  That
was basically the end of the offense for the Utes in a first period
which saw them outshot 21-7.  Twenty-three seconds later, Brandon
Peterson went off for interference, and Utah State put on a punishing
power play conducted entirely in the Utah end.  The penalty was only
killed thanks to numerous big saves by Ute goalie Jay Stevens.
Halfway through the period, Utah's Fred Marms&auml;ter was whistled
for interference, and Knudson took a bad roughing penalty, giving the
Aggies two full minutes of 5-on-3.  This time Stevens left a few
dangerous rebounds, but his teammates did a good job of icing the
puck.  Utah got a power play at the thirteen-minute mark when USU's
Geoff Sneed was called for interference, but the Ute power play could
muster very little of an attack all night.  The go-ahead goal for the
Aggies came late in the period when Ian Tracy bulled his way out from
behind the Utah goal to fire a hard shot through the defense from
inside the near left hashmark.  Tracy scored again in the final
half-minute of the period to put USU up 3-1 at the first intermission.
 <P>
      In a game that saw plenty of hard checks, legal and otherwise,
the second period featured a parade to the penalty box.  Utah's
Peterson slashed Geoff Sneed off the puck and took a stick to the head
in retaliation to set up a 4-on-4 1:40 into the period; Utah State
scored twice within nine seconds in the next half-minute to open a 5-1
lead.  Four seconds later Aggie Tony Haughey went off for
high-sticking and Utah went on the power play, where they spent most
of the period.  Peterson scored the Utes' second goal in one of the
rare five-on-five moments, taking Ben Curtis assist and sending it
home along the goal line.  The Utes were unable to score a power play
goal in the period, despite spending nearly nine minutes on the
advantage, including almost two and a half minutes of consecutive
five-on-three.  (Two Aggie penalties had to have their starts delayed
so that USU could keep three skaters on the ice.)  Utah had a couple
of chances on the 5-on-3, notably a Mike Tidwell backhand which rang
off the pipe with Utah State netminder Quincy Martin down on the ice,
and another shot by Tidwell which went over the crossbar with Martin
out of position and losing his stick.  The Utes also got about 10
seconds of 6-on-3 opportunity when the Aggies were called for a
delayed penalty down two men, but both of Tidwell's shots were saved.
However, they also surrendered several short-handed breakaways,
including one by Tracy and Anderson on the 5-on-3, and were lucky not
to give up a short-handed goal.
 <P>
Utah's Matt Green was called for interference after colliding with
Martin in the waning seconds of the second period, and Tracy converted
the power play 25 seconds into the third, skating around from behind
the net for the shot.  Jeff Bigelow put the Aggies up by five in the
second minute of the period, skating in alone on Stevens.  Stevens was
replaced at the three-minute mark after Utah State crashed the net,
and his replacement Ben Meibos let in the first shot he faced, as
Tracy capped a five-goal performance for the Aggies.  With the 8-2
lead, Utah State coach also opted to give his backup goalie, Eric
Atkinson, some work.  Atkinson would give up the final Ute goal to
Ryan Snow three minutes later, a shot from the blue line which
Atkinson got just a piece of.  The goal came on yet another Utah
5-on-3 power play, this one set up when Utah State's Sean Walker took
a double major for roughing and high sticking, and then Nate Lemons
felled Utah's Matt Groesbeck with a stick to the head.  Lemons, who
tried to skate to the bench after delivering the blow, earned a
five-minute major and a game disqualification for his actions.  The
five-on-three goal came just over two minutes into the double-minor,
so Walker was able to return to the ice, but Utah had four more
minutes of 5-on-4 power play time, during which they were again unable
to mount much of an attack.  Anderson scored a 4-on-3 goal at the
fourteen minute mark to end the game with two goals and five assists
(both he and Tracy leapt over the RMCHA scoring leaders, who were tied
with four points after the opening weekend).  Utah State continued the
offensive pressure to the end of the game, firing 22 shots in the
third period alone, and the Sneed brothers gave the Aggies their tenth
goal, with Greg flipping his own rebound over a prone Meibos, assisted
by Geoff.
 <P>
      Utah State improved their league record to 2-1 and moved past
1-0 Weber into the points lead with the win, while Utah fell to 0-1-1.
The Utes will look for their first victory on October 25th against
Northern Arizona.  Utah's last home game until December is a 7pm start
at the Acord Center on the Saturday night of the U's homecoming
weekend.
<PRE>
             Score By Periods     Shots on Goal      Pen - Min  Power Play
Utah State    3 - 2 - 5 --10    21 - 11 -22 -- 54      15 - 33     2 - 4
Utah          1 - 1 - 1 -- 3     7 - 10 - 7 -- 24      10 - 20     1 -14
</PRE>
 
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