By Jeremy Twitchell
Two games, two points, and one short overtime. That is all that stood between the Provo IceCats and what could have been the biggest weekend in team history.
The IceCats suffered a pair of one-point losses this weekend against in-state rivals Utah, and Utah State, making for a rough ending to the first half of the season.
“I don”t think it”s a great way to end the first half of the season,” assistant coach Patrick Perrett said. “You never like to end it with two losses, but I think the way we lost doesn”t do these guys a disservice. They know they can play with any team in the state, and this is the first time in three years that we”ve been able to do that.”
On Friday, Utah controlled the game in the first period, but a goal by freshman wing Jason Griffiths kept the IceCats in the game, at 2-1.
Another goal early in the second period gave Utah a 3-1 lead, but in the last two minutes of the period the IceCats took over.
A power play goal by sophomore center Derek Battisti pulled Provo to within one, and freshman wing Mark Kincher rebounded a blocked shot and put it back in the net just forty seconds later to tie the game.
With eighteen seconds left in the period, the IceCats had a chance to go ahead on a power play, but a defensive breakdown allowed Utah to score its second short-handed goal of the night and retake the lead.
The IceCats proved that they were not done yet, however, when senior center Greg Ingram hit sophomore wing Jim Burkart on a crossing pass in front of Utah”s goal, which Burkart put into the net as time expired.
“The last five minutes of the second period was some of the best hockey I”ve seen this team play,” coach Ray Bernier said. “Those five minutes were just tremendous.”
The teams returned for a new game in the third period, but tough defenses on both sides kept either team from scoring and escalated tempers.
A fight midway through the period after a Utah player ran into Provo goalie Tamio Stehrenberger resulted in three penalties, two of them on Utah.
The IceCats were unable to capitalize on the resulting power play and it looked like the teams were heading for overtime, but a goal for Utah with just under two minutes left proved to be the difference as Utah pulled ahead 5-4.
The IceCats nearly tied after a face-off on Utah”s end with just six seconds left, but the final shot was blocked.
“It was an exciting game, it”s the kind you want to be in, but it”s also the toughest to lose,” Bernier said. “This kind of a game sinks deep.”
Bernier said he felt his team played well overall, but made a few mistakes that proved costly.
“What really cost us the game was just fine-tuning,” he said. “At this point, our feeling is that we didn”t have a team over there in the other locker room that came out and dominated us, but I feel it was a team that we made mistakes against, and the puck ended up in our net.”
Battisti said players were upset with losing two close games in a row to their rivals.
“We”re really down right now,” he said. “It”s tough losing to these guys, they”re not the nicest fellows to play against. It”s always been a rivalry when we play like this, so to lose like this twice, we”re not feeling too swell.”
Bernier said he still felt his team will get its first win in three years against Utah this season.
“When it comes down to the bottom line, we want to beat them, and we”re going to get to the point where we will beat them,” he said. “We have two more games against them this season, and I expect to win them both.”
On Saturday night, the team hoped to bounce back against Utah State and avenge their biggest loss of the season, a 9-1 preseason blowout in Logan. But a late Provo rally wasn”t quite enough, and the team lost 6-5 in overtime.
In the first half of the game, it looked like the IceCats would duplicate that earlier performance. Utah State out-skated, out-hit, and basically dominated Provo to take a 5-1 lead midway through the second period.
“They play a different style of hockey,” assistant coach Ed Gantt said of Utah State. “They”re a much more physical team. They”re a little faster and they try to skate through you instead of going around. They don”t rely as much on the passing game.”
Much like the night before, however, the IceCats seized control in the second period and nearly came out on top.
With six minutes left in the period, graduate defenseman Matt Hunsaker scored his second goal of the night, which ignited a four-goal run for Provo.
Both teams had twelve shots in the third period, but while Stehrenberger was perfect in the net for Provo, Battisti, Kincher, and sophomore defenseman Mark Ostebo each got one past the Aggie goalie to tie the game.
Junior wing Travis Little credited Provo”s conditioning with allowing the team to come back.
“For us to come back, it was definitely our conditioning and our training,” he said. “We work harder every week than any other team in the league probably. That”s what got us back in the game.”
At the end of regulation, Utah State players cleared the bench and lined up to congratulate their opponents, while IceCats players tried to convince them to play overtime. In college, teams can decide to play sudden-death overtime or end in a tie. After a few moments the Aggies agreed, much to the delight of fans.
In overtime, the IceCats won the face-off and nearly scored twice, but Utah State stole the puck and scored the other way in a one-on-one breakaway. The goal put a quick end to overtime, just thirty seconds after it began.
“I was disappointed, but when they put it in, I just kind of laughed,” Little said. “We asked for overtime, and it”s a game to us. They wanted to go home because they were afraid they were going to lose, and we just wanted to play.”
“We like close games, but we”re not really happy with the way they”ve turned out so far this year,” Perrett said after the game. “The guys are feeling it right now in the locker room, they felt it last night, they felt it last week, and they”re sick of it. The guys on this team have enough drive and desire that these games will turn around for us eventually.”
Hunsaker said while the team did not like losing two close games in a row, players still felt good about their performance.
“We”re really happy that we were able to play well against a really good team, but it”s a little disheartening to lose there at the end,” he said. “I think that we”ve proven to the other Utah teams that BYU is here, though.”
After practicing this week, the team takes three weeks off for Christmas break before resuming practices next month. The first game of the second half of the season is Jan. 10 at Utah State.
