The BYU Hockey team lost to the Utah Utes 6-2 in an exciting and hard-hitting battle. The Cougars now look to redouble their efforts against Utah State September 21.
The home match started with everyone lined up in attention for the national anthem. Then it was go time.
Players chase after a loose puck during the BYU-Utah rivalry game.
BYU’s goalie, Jared Bussel, was the star player of the game, with over 20 blocked shots against the Utes' high-powered offense. BYU scored once in the first period of play, courtesy of Tanner Bilingsley, and Nick Bartholomew scored near the end of the third period of play.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, the rivalry win went to the Utes. The Utes won the first faceoff and worked the puck around the goal of the Cougars a lot, both teams hitting each other every chance they got. The Utes let off a barrage of shots throughout the game, shooting over 30 times on goal. The Utes had possession of the puck for most of the first two period of play.
“Utah is a great team,' said Tanner Bilingsley, one of the Cougar team captains. “We made some mistakes, and we are just going to have to correct those tomorrow against Utah State.”
At the end of the second period the Cougars were down 1-5, and their spirits seemed to be down as well. But they came out for the third period play with a lot of intensity, and the remainder of the game the Utes and Cougars went back and forth across both ends of the ice, each team showing its best effort and scoring one more goal.
Several small fights broke out throughout the game, and penalties were frequent. Near the end of the second period a BYU player got into a fight with one of the Ute players, and the fight ended on the ground with the Ute in a Cougar headlock. The players were ejected from play for ten minutes.
After the game Jared said there were some things the Cougars look to improve on in their next game against Utah State.
“We've got to work on keeping the defense tighter and getting the puck to offense more and getting more shots,” he said.