Utes Sweep Wildcats, Beat Aggies

November 10, 2014
Salt Lake City

The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes went on the road this past weekend and were able to pick up another pair of wins against in-state opponents.

On Friday the Utes took on the 7th ranked Weber State Wildcats in Ogden for their final matchup of the season. The Utes won the previous two matchups and were looking for a season sweep against the Wildcats.

The Utes came out strong in the first period, scoring twice early and took a 4-1 lead into the second period. After the Wildcats scored early in the second, the Utes put up four more unanswered goals to finish the game with an 8-2 victory over the Wildcats.

Josh Dangel and Chase McDonald both recorded hat tricks in the game for Utah while Michael Ahern and David Barnes scored the remaining goals for the Utes. Utah outshot the Wildcats 37-33 in the game with Chris Komma picking up his ninth win of the season with 31 saves. With the win the Utes swept the Wildcats three games to none for their first ever season sweep over WSU in club history.

On Saturday the Utes traveled to Logan for the first time this season to take on #6 Utah State and look for their third win over the Aggies this year.

The Utes found themselves in an early hole as the Aggies scored on a 5 on 3 power play with 16:12 to go in the first period to give Utah State a 1-0 lead. The Aggies would take that lead deep into the second period until rookie defenseman Eric Gausseres fired a shot from the point that just snuck past Aggie goaltender Keegan McHenry and knotted the game up at 1-1 going into the final period.

In the third period, the Aggies got in penalty trouble early and often and the Utes would capitalize on it halfway through the period as Shyamus Bertagnolli scored on the power play with 10:24 to go to give Utah a 2-1 lead. The Utes would hold on to that lead for the rest of game and escaped Logan with another victory over the Aggies.

The Utes controlled most of the even strength play in the game as they outshot Utah State 37-25 in the game. Chris Komma picked up his 10th win of the season which is now a career high for him as a Ute. He has 24 saves in the win.

With the pair of wins over the weekend the Utes are now 8-0 against in-state opponents with three games remaining. The Utes will travel to Logan again on January 9th for their final game against Utah State and will play BYU at home on December 13th and in Provo on January 10th. The Utes are also 8-1-1 against top ten opponents in the West Division this season and are now 12-4-1 on the year.

The Utes now return home next weekend as Arizona State’s PAC 8 squad comes into town for the first regular season matchup ever between the two teams.