The Aggies are headed to the
national tournament again — they just don’t know who else will be there.
The
American Collegiate Hockey Association’s West Regional Playoffs will take place
Saturday and Sunday at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex to determine which
teams will join the Aggies in the national competition, which will be held
March 15 to 19 in St. Louis.
Utah State, which is 26-4-1
this season in men’s Division 2 play, has already qualified. Weber State
University and the University of Utah will be among those competing in regional
play this weekend.
“I would like to see Weber
go to nationals over the University of Utah, strictly based on the fact they
have rebuilt their program so well this last year and have given the top teams
in the league really close and competitive games,” forward Chris Videto said.
Utah State has enjoyed
several seasons with impressive win-loss records, but Videto said the team
dominated play this season despite improvements across the league —Weber being
a prime example. “This year the league has really picked up,” Videto said.
“That says a lot about our team.”
During the next three weeks
the team will take a break from scheduled games to prepare for the national
tournament.
Even though they will not
play any official ACHA games until nationals, the players are still expected to
stay in shape and train for the upcoming tournament.
“We are going to try and
schedule a few exhibition games to keep in playing shape,” said Stewart
Hepburn, an assistant captain. “Players are expected to spend at least four
days a week conditioning and doing cardio.”
Coaches and players on the
team expressed confidence in the their chances.
“I just have that feeling
we’re going to win it this year,” Hepburn said.
Coach Jon Eccles believes
the team is peaking at the right time — and that bodes well for future
recruitment.
“The success that we have now will help build
for future teams,” he said. “People will want to join for coming seasons
because of the current team’s winning attitude.”
Ileana Borunda, Clayton
Leuba, Tessa Italasano and Cale Patterson contributed to this article.
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