Last Modified: 1998 March 4
Joe Schlobotnik / joe@amurgsval.org
Score By Periods Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
Utah State 3 - 1 - 0 -- 4 11 - 8 - 9 -- 28 8 - 16 2 - 5
Weber State 2 - 1 - 4 -- 7 12 - 14 - 14 -- 40 8 - 16 1 - 5
All season long, the Weber State Wildcats and the Utah State Aggies have dominated the rest of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Hockey Association. The two finished the season ranked 1-2 not only in the RMCHA but also in the entire Western Region of ACHA Division II competition. Aside from a tie in a non-conference game between Utah State and San Jose State, the Aggies and Wildcats have won every game this season except those between the two of them. With a 2-2-1 split in the regular season, the WSU-USU battles in the playoffs looked to be epic. Imagine the surprise, then, when the two met in the winners' bracket Friday morning and the Wildcats walked away with the 10-1 victory. The Aggies had to eliminate New Mexico 7-3 in the losers' bracket that night to set up Saturday night's rematch for the league title.
A boisterous not-quite-capacity crowd turned out at the the Weber Ice Sheet, and in the early going, it looked as if WSU might walk away with the game as they had the rest of the tournament. Just under one minute had elapsed when Weber's John Kikel shot the puck into the bottom left corner of the net. Four and a half minutes later, a puck bounced off assistant referee Jeff Smith's skates on the way into the Utah State zone. Levi Clegg, who was the league's top-scoring defenseman, but played on the wing for most of the tournament, collected the puck, brought it to the bottom of the faceoff circle, and shot it home. A few Aggies complained to Smith, but the 'Cats had a 2-0 lead. After that goal, Aggie netminder Quincy Martin, who had given up five goals in under 14 minutes before being removed from Friday's game, grew more solid, while his counterpart Sam Jackson, who had lived up to his nickname "Stonewall" in the previous contest, began to show a few cracks. USU's Kevin Ten Eyck fired a shot which looked to be headed wide of the net, but Jackson, like a cricket player playing a ball onto his stumps, appeared to get a piece of it and knock it into the cage. The play, which had mostly been in the Utah State end prior to the goal, now evened out, and Utah State tied the game at two when an Ian Tracy shot hit Jackson and trickled under the Weber netminder's leg into the goal. With a little more than four minutes left in the period, the Aggies went on a power play, which was eventually converted on another bad goal for Jackson. This time a low Kelly Froerer shot to the stick side bounced off Jackson's blocker and dribbled across the line. Utah State now led 3-2, but within a minute Weber went on a power play of their own when Martin failed to drag a puck to within reach of the crease before covering it and was called for delay of game. At the beginning of the man advantage a Weber shot bounced back from the goal area and the goal light went on, but referee Bart Mallory immediately signalled "no goal" as the puck had come off Martin and never gone on the net. Play continued with the disc loose in the crease, but after a few seconds Martin, lying on his back, managed to scissor his legs closed on the puck. The Wildcats had another near goal at the end of the period when a Levi Clegg blast ricocheted off the crossbar.
The second period saw furious end-to-end action. In the opening minutes, a Weber State shot was blocked out at the Aggie blue; on the ensuing transition play, Jackson came out to poke the puck away from USU captain Nate Anderson and ended up sliding in a sitting position almost to the blue line. A few minutes later, Anderson broke up a long pass for Ryan Prevedel, preventing a sure breakaway. Prevedel and Froerer ended up in a wrestling match in the middle of the period, and Weber State had the better part of the opportunities in the ensuing 4-on-4. Martin lost his stick behind the net in the early going, but Utah State cleared before the 'Cats could take a shot. The pairing of Clegg and Kiyoshi Ryujin had several good rushes with the open ice, but the score remained 3-2 Aggies until Tracy went off for a check from behind along the boards at 13:43. Weber State worked the puck well on the power play and capitalized when Martin saved Todd Nate's shot from the left circle but left the rebound on the doorstep a split-second too long and Kikel tied the contest with his sixth goal and twelfth point of the tournament. In the aftermath, Alan Babicky took a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, putting the Aggies right back on the penalty kill. This one they survived, although Weber State attacked steadily for the whole power play and three and a half more minutes until a scrap between Clegg and Aaron Matern left the Wildcats shorthanded. Anderson went top shelf on the power play to send Utah State into the second intermission up 4-3.
The same score stood when Froerer felled Troy Lorenz with a high stick at 8:14 of the third and Weber State went on the power play. Utah State came up big to kill the penalty, but right after Froerer returned to the ice Nate Mullins tried to stuff a shot inside the right post. Martin got a glove on it, and as had happened several times before the net came off on that post. Before play could be stopped the puck came out to Ryan Prevedel in the slot and he fired the puck past Martin for the tying score. With little protest from the Aggie side, the goal stood. Weber kept up the pressure and a minute and a half later Clegg outskated three Utah State players and backhanded in his sixth goal of the tournament to put the Wildcats up 5-4. Weber did a good job of neutralizing the USU offense for the next few minutes, and then with five minutes to play disaster struck Aggie defenseman Chris Reilly. A long Weber State dump-in bounced off the back boards into the crease area, and Reilly went to shoot the puck back to the boards as Martin got back into position. Instead he ended up putting it into his own net to give Weber the 6-4 lead. Utah State spent the last three and a half minutes of the game with an extra skater or two; first WSU's Sparky Parks took an interference penalty, and as that power play was killed off, Martin skated to the bench for the sixth attacker. With exactly one minute remaining, Weber State was whistled for icing and Utah State called their timeout. Weber won the faceoff in their zone and sent the puck the length of the ice and through the crease to avoid another icing. Keys was tripped into the back boards by Kikel as he headed back to collect the puck, resulting in another Utah State power play. The faceoff came just outside the USU zone, and the Aggies opted to leave Martin on the bench and skate 6-on-4. Brant Bond won the faceoff for the 'Cats and AJ Kapinos sent the puck into the empty net to put Weber up 7-4. Forty-five seconds later that was the final score, capping a tremendous RMCHA season for Weber State with their first ever league championship. Utah State finished second in the tournament, New Mexico third and Provo fourth. The Aggies and Wildcats now head to New Jersey for the ACHA Division II national tournament.