November 16, 2015
Salt Lake City, UT
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes continued their hot start to the season by picking up three wins over teams from California to push their unbeaten streak to 17 games.
On Thursday the Utes welcomed in the 12th ranked Cal State Northridge Matadors for the first ever meeting between the two teams in program history. The Utes jumped out ahead early as Brett Myer continued his current hot streak by scoring and giving Utah a 1-0 lead, which they would hold on to as the first period ended.
After the Matadors tied the game up with a power play early in the second period, the Utes exploded for six unanswered goals as the Utes cruised to a 7-1 win over the Matadors. The Utes would outshoot the Matadors 53-8 in the game, which set a new team record for the least amount of shots allowed in a game in team history. Seven different Utes scored in the game as Eric Gausseres, Caden Ottley, Sam Bawden, Julian Cronan, Michael Ahern, and Ryan Jones all joined Myer on the score sheet for Utah. Chris Komma picked up his sixth win of the season, picking up 7 saves on 8 shots in the game.
On Friday the Utes returned to PAC-8 Conference play as they took on the UCLA Bruins. Once again the Utes controlled the pace from the word go, taking a 1-0 lead into the second period. The Utes would make it 3-0 before UCLA would add one to make it 3-1 and that’s what the score would be heading into the third period.
Much like Thursday night, the Utes came out storming in the third by scoring five goals to take an 8-2 win over the Bruins. The Utes outshot the Bruins 67-12 in the contest as six different skaters scored a goal for Utah, with Brett Myer and Chase McDonald each scoring twice. Jared Manzella had a solid start in his college debut in between the pipes for Utah, stopping 10 of 12 shots for his first win of his collegiate career.
On Saturday the Utes looked for the weekend sweep and found no trouble getting it as they steamrolled the Bruins 13-1 to go 3-0 on the weekend. The Utes put up another 73-shot performance with the shot count ending at 73-13. The Utes found goals all over the roster, with Lane Bridges tallying his first hat trick of his college career along with Jack Suel scoring his first college goal in his rookie season. Chase McDonald was the only other one to score more than once with two on the night and Brett Myer led the team in points with a goal and five assists in Saturday night’s game. Devan Betts picked up his sixth win of the season as well, stopping 12 of 13 shots.
With the three wins, the Utes pushed their unbeaten record to 15-0-2 on the season and a perfect 6-0 in PAC-8 Conference play. The Utes now will have to refocus quickly as the team now heads to the Beehive Showcase starting on Thursday against some of the top teams in the ACHA West Division.
