Utah splits at Beehive

November 25, 2013 Ogden, UT After clinching the PAC-8 North Division title against Oregon, the Utah Skatin’ Utes turned their attention to the best in the west at the 4th annual Beehive Grill Showcase in Logan and Ogden. The Utes ended up splitting the weekend at 2-2 including a win over a top 10 team. Thursday: #4 Utah 6, #7 San Jose State 1 On Thursday the Utes opened up the weekend against the seventh-ranked San Jose State Spartans in Logan. The Utes jumped out to an early lead in the first period with goals by Kurtis Kunz, Ryan Huras, and Dean Wilson to give the Utes a 3-0 lead after the opening frame. The Utes added three more before San Jose found the back of the net for their only goal of the game in the third period. Nine different Utes tallied a point in the game as the Utes outshot San Jose 44-26 in the contest. Chris Komma picked up another win to move to 9-3 on the season with 25 saves. Friday: Boise State 3, #4 Utah 1 The Utes traveled to Ogden for day two of the showcase in their first meeting of the season with the Boise State Broncos. After a scoreless first period, the Broncos were able to strike twice on the power play in the second and added another before the period ended to make it 3-0 after the second period. Josh Dangel was able to score in the third to cut the lead to two, but once again penalties bit the Utes down the stretch and the Broncos pulled off the upset. Komma had 30 saves in the loss as his record dropped to 9-4. Saturday: #4 Utah 7, Montana Tech 1 The Utes responded well to Friday’s loss with a complete performance against the Montana Tech Orediggers. In the first ever meeting between these two teams, the Utes scored the first four goals of the game and led 4-1 after the second period. Utah added three more in the third including Josh Dangel’s hat trick and the Utes cruised to their 17th win of the season. Komma picked up his second win of the weekend to move to 10-4 on the season, but left the game in the third period with a concussion. Sunday: #5 Northern Arizona 6, #4 Utah 5 Early Sunday morning the Utes looked to put a positive stamp on the weekend against the Northern Arizona Icejacks in Ogden. In a penalty-filled game, the Icejacks struck first but gave up the next five goals to give Utah a 5-1 lead late in the second period. But once again, penalties cost the Utes dearly as they gave up two power play goals in addition to three more to give NAU a 6-5 lead with seven minutes to go in the game. Another penalty late cost the Utes their chance to even the score as the Utes lost their second game of the weekend. Devan Betts had 27 saves in his first loss of the season and now sits at 5-1 on the year. The Utes finish the weekend 2-2 and now sit at 17-5 on the season. The Utes ended up 2-0 in Logan and 0-2 in Ogden and have lost four of their five games this year at the Weber County Sports Complex. After having the past week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Utes head to Logan on Friday for the third meeting of the year against #2 Utah State. The Utes are 1-1 this year against the Aggies and the home team has won each contest.