By Jeremy Twitchell
It will be a battle for superiority over the BYU name Friday Oct. 18 at the Peaks Ice Arena when the Provo IceCats host BYU-Idaho at 7:30 p.m.
Well, sort of.
Both teams are in a state of limbo in relation to their respective schools. After the decision was made to discontinue all collegiate athletics at BYU-Idaho, the hockey team there continued in club form.
The IceCats, on the other hand, have not achieved recognition as a club team at BYU and so therefore cannot use the BYU name.
Despite that fact, the IceCat players said they feel it is their duty to represent BYU as if they were a BYU team, since all members of the team are BYU students and this one is for bragging rights.
“Our biggest rivalry with them is in the name, now that they”re BYU, too,” Provo wingman Mark Kincher said. “We want to go out and show them who the real BYU is.”
Although the IceCats have dominated BYU-Idaho in the past, including last year”s 21-1 blowout victory, the team is preparing as it would for any other team.
“Practices are still hard, and we”re not going to take them lightly,” goalie Tamio Stehrenberger said. “We want to beat them, and we want to stay undefeated in our home arena.”
Team manager Amy Fager also expressed concern about the IceCats looking past BYU-Idaho.
“Hopefully we won”t take them too lightly, because every time we do that, we seem to get beat,” she said.
After playing three games last weekend on consecutive days, the IceCats were a little banged up. Because of that, many starters will be sitting this game out in order to recuperate.
Most of the players sitting out are on defense, including the twin towers of power, defensemen Cameron Treu and Justin Pehrson. Defenseman Dan Haws is also expected to sit out.
The injuries give the coaches a chance to play some of their backups who have not had a lot of playing time and see how well they perform.
Left Wing Miguel Lopez is one of those who will be seeing more time in the game.
“I really am excited,” he said. “We have a couple of guys who will play who haven”t played in a while, and we”re all excited.”
Lopez said the team is not very worried about resting a few players, because they have talent at all levels.
“We have good team depth, and good conditioning, which gives us the advantage,” he said. “Plus our coaches know how to select players for each situation.”
Lopez also said the team is a lot more feisty and physical than last year, and will look to hit BYU-Idaho hard and take control of the game mentally.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
