Utah vs Weber Preview

Each in-state rivalry that the Utah Skatin’ Utes have has its own uniqueness. The BYU rivalry has school history and pride on the line. The Utah State rivalry has competitiveness, as USU is a perennial West favorite. Then there’s the rivalry with Weber State.

Both teams have come from the bottom of the league to become West powers. Both play quick and physical games. And when the two teams meet, there’s always fireworks.

On Friday, the Utes will welcome the Wildcats for the second game of four this year to the Utah Ice Sheet. Not only will Utah look to go to 2-0 this year against Weber State, but a win will move their club-record start to 7-0 right before a big road trip next week.

In the first game between these two rivals, it was a penalty-filled mess as Utah spent most of the first period down a man and both teams saw several ejections. But the Utes were able to ride Chris Komma’s 53-save performance and add some key goals to beat the Wildcats 4-1.

Since that meeting, it’s been a tale of two very different teams. For Weber State, the team has lost four of its last six games and bring a 3-5-1 record to Salt Lake City. As for the Utes, the team has remained perfect and now, thanks to last weekend, have outscored their opponents 56-9 in six games.

As expected, sophomore Dax Hobbs leads the Wildcats in points with 15 while his line mate and senior Braxton Green is third on the list with eight. But the ‘Cats have been bit by the injury bug as of late with only 11 of its 23-man squad playing in all contests this year. Ian Frank still remains WSU’s number one tender with a 4.51 GAA and .880 save percentage.

On the home side, freshman Josh Dangel now leads the team in points with 19 and five Utes have double-digit point totals this year. Goalies Chris Komma and Devan Betts have seen even ice time so far and both have 3-0 records, GAA’s under 2.00, and save percentages above .900.

Friday night’s game in Salt Lake City will be at 7pm. Tickets are still available or you can watch the game on our upstream page.

Notes From The U

The Utes set a club record last weekend by scoring 35 goals in two games against Cal-Berkeley. Not only did it break the two-game record set last year against UCLA (32), but it also set the record for most goals in any weekend. The Utes also set a team record for goal differential in a game with 18 and goal differential in a weekend with 31.

Freshman Josh Dangel had a weekend to remember against Cal. The rookie had a hat trick and three assists in the first game against the Golden Bears for six points. He followed that game with four goals and five assists for a total of nine points in the game. That total is one point shy of tying Chase McDonald’s record of 10 points in a single game. Dangel now leads the team in all three categories.

Utah’s 6-0 start to this season is now the team record for the best start to the season. The previous record was back in the 2011-2012 when the Utes were 5-1 at this point in that season.