The BYU hockey team will put to test the time spent during the bye week to perfect the small, yet costly errors, they have suffered so far this season.
BYU Coach Jeremy Weiss mentioned timing to the net, one-on-one defense, defensive pivoting and passing as parts of the game he wanted perfected by his team. The team spent an early bye week working on these aspects. They have shown flashes of brilliance in the early season, but Weiss said more effort will be required to win their first game.
“If we play our systems for the full 60 minutes I think we can be very competitive against Weber,” Weiss said. “We still have yet to put together a fully functional 60 minutes of hockey.”
The Cougars will need such an effort when they face the Wildcats and the Aggies this week in two challenging contests. The last time they met Weber State, BYU dropped a close 5-3 game. Captain Mitch Facer is looking for an increased offensive effort from his teammates.
“We played (Weber) pretty close last time,” Facer said. “I think one of the biggest things we need to do is score. We started picking up our scoring a bit against Utah. We’ve been doing a lot of drills with scrambles up front to help the guys put the puck in the net and get some confidence.”
Captain Tanner Billingsley said the Cougars have used the result from last game to focus.
“We’re more amped to go up against them because we know the last one could have been a win,” Billingsley said. “That’s extra motivation for us to do better.”
Moving to Saturday the Cougars will face the Aggies, a team Billingsley said is usually the best in the state, if not one of the best in the West. Weiss said he is cautiously optimistic for the Utah State game. He knows it will be tough, but he wants a solid showing of execution against Utah State.
“The final score is going to be a reflection of the process,” Weiss said. “I am not as concerned about the final score as I am about the process of development for our team. If we develop and progress properly throughout the season the score will get tighter and tighter.”
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the Wildcats and then the Cougars continue the fight 7:30 pm Saturday against the Aggies. Both games will be held at the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo.
