October 12, 2015
Salt Lake City, Utah
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes looked to keep their strong start to the season going and did so by picking up two victories over the weekend to keep their unbeaten streak alive.
On Friday, the Utes took on the University of Wyoming for the first time ever in a late game at the Utah Ice Sheet. The new ACHA Division II team gave Utah some problems early, but the Utes would score the first goal of the game with 13:04 left in the first period as Chase McDonald scored his third goal of the season to give Utah a 1-0 lead. Just a minute and a half later the Utes would strike again, as Shaymus Bertagnolli scored his third of the season to put the Utes up 2-0 halfway through the first period.
The score would remain the same until late in the second period, when newcomer Carl Bombardier would score his first goal at Utah to give Utah a 3-0 lead with 3:47 left in the second period. Wyoming would score a breakaway goal with 2:20 left in the second period to cut Utah’s lead to 3-1, but that would be the last goal of the game as the third period went scoreless and the Utes would hold on for the 3-1 victory.
Utah outshot the Cowboys 49-19 in the contest as Devan Betts picked up his third win of the season in between the pipes for the Utes, tallying 18 saves in the game. Nine different players recorded a point for Utah in the game as well.
After Friday’s victory at home, the Utes hit the road for their final meeting with Weber State in Ogden on Saturday. The Utes handed the Wildcats a 3-2 loss at home last weekend and looked for the season sweep and their sixth win in a row over Weber State on Saturday.
The majority of the first period went by quickly with no goals, until Lane Bridges scored his first career goal at Utah with 3:47 left in the first period to give Utah a 1-0 lead after the first twenty minutes of the game. The Wildcats would have an answer to Utah’s first goal late in the second as LaKoda Coleman scored on a 2-on-1 play to knot the game up at 1-1 heading to the third and final period.
The game would stay tied in third period until Brett Myer found Caden Ottley off of a faceoff play with 9:06 left in the game to give Utah a 2-1 lead halfway through the third period. The teams would trade scoring chances down the stretch but neither team would score and the Utes would once again hold on for a 2-1 victory over Weber State. The Utes would outshoot the Wildcats 23-18 in the game as Betts picked up another win for Utah with 17 saves.
With the two wins over the weekend, the Utes improved their record to 6-0-1 on the season. The win over Weber State completed the season sweep over Weber State and marked the sixth straight win over their rivals from Ogden, which pushed Utah’s record against in-state opponents this year to 3-0-1. Looking forward, the Utes now hit the road for a three-game weekend in California as the Utes take on San Jose State on Thursday and open up their PAC-8 championship defense against Cal on Friday and Saturday.
