November 9, 2015
Salt Lake City, UT
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes hit the road last weekend and picked up two wins against the Oregon Ducks to keep their unbeaten streak alive.
The weekend began on Friday as the #2 Utes and Ducks met for the first time since the 2015 PAC-8 Championship game, where Utah won 5-1. The Utes wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as rookie Sam Bawden scored with 13:32 left in the first period to give the Utes a 1-0 lead. After the Ducks scored a power play goal minutes later to tie it at 1-1, the Utes found the lead once again as Caden Ottley scored to put Utah in front 2-1 after the first period.
Nick Fornelius would score twice in the second period to extend Utah’s lead to 4-1 after two periods and Josh Dangel would add another tally in the third as the Utes cruised to their 11th win of the season with a 5-2 victory. After just missing out on the team record for shots against BYU the last time out, the Utes matched their previous record on Friday, outshooting the Ducks 79-19 in the game. The 79 shots ties the club record which was set last season against the Washington Huskies. Chris Komma picked up his fourth win of the season, tallying 17 saves in the game.
On Saturday, the Utes looked for the sweep of their PAC-8 rivals and once again started out strong Shaymus Bertagnolli scored just minutes into the game to make it 1-0. Unlike Friday’s game, the Utes wouldn’t let Oregon back into this contest as the Utes continued to put up seven more unanswered goals to sweep the Ducks with an 8-0 win in Eugene.
The Utes outshot the Ducks 69-23 in Saturday’s game as they took their 12th win of the season. Chris Komma picked up the 23-save shutout for his first of the season and sixth of his career at Utah, which is now tied for the record for most career shutouts by a goaltender in Utah team history. Komma also picked up an assist in the game.
Rookie Brett Myer continued his red-hot performance as of late, by scoring five times on Saturday to put him at 12 goals on the season, the most of anyone on the team. Julian Cronan and Nick Fornelius also added their names to the score sheet with a goal each.
With the two wins the Utes now push their unbeaten streak to 14 games as they hold a 12-0-2 record and a 4-0 record in the PAC-8 Conference. The Utes have also been in control of almost every game this season as well, as it’s now been 708 minutes and 20 seconds since the last time that the Utes have trailed in a game this season. That control has shown up on the score sheet as well as the Utes have outshot their competition 556-239 this season which averages to 51 shots per game for Utah and 22 shots per game for their opponents.
The Utes return home this weekend for a three-game set against Cal State Northridge and UCLA starting on Thursday at the Utah Ice Sheet.
