PREVIEW: #19 Colorado St @ #24 Utah

February 17, 2017 Salt Lake City, UT It’s the final weekend of the regular season for the University of Utah Skatin’ Utes as they honor their seniors at home taking on the 19th ranked Colorado State Rams. With just two games left before the field for Nationals is announced, both teams find themselves on the outside looking in and would love a pair of wins at the Utah Ice Sheet this weekend. ABOUT THE SERIES: This weekend is the first meeting all-time between the two schools as ACHA Division I opponents, and also marks the first time Utah has played CSU’s top team. The Utes are 1-0 all time against CSU’s ACHA D2 team and 0-0-1 against CSU’s D3 team. ABOUT THE UTES: The Utes were dealt a big blow to their chances of making it to Nationals in their first season in Division I of the ACHA after losing to #10 Iowa State 6-2 and 7-0 last weekend in Ames. The Utes now sit at 18-10 on the season and 5-10 in Division I play, good enough for the #24 ranking in this week’s rankings. They’ll need a sweep of CSU and some help to make it into Nationals in a couple of weeks. The Utes are 1-1 this season at home against Division I opponents. ABOUT THE RAMS: The Rams find themselves on the outside looking in as well at the field for Nationals, sitting just one spot out at #19 in the country this week. Colorado State is coming off a weekend sweep over their rival #13 Colorado in a home and home series last weekend and are 16-15-5 in Division I play this season. Despite their success this season, the Rams are just 3-9-0-2 on the road this season. PLAYERS TO WATCH: FOR UTAH: Brett Myer leads the team in points with 38 this season, followed by Julian Cronan with 34 points. Myer leads the team in assists as well with 25 while Cronan and Alex King are both tied for the team lead in goals with 16 each. In goal, Patrick Kasper is 7-2 on the season with a 3.06 GAA and .923 save percentage and Jared Manzella is 2-1 with a 4.08 GAA and .901 save percentage. FOR COLORADO STATE: The leading scorer for the Rams is Nicholas O’Donnell with 31 points this season, and also the leads the team in assists with 16. William Neff is the elading goal scorer for Colorado State with 16 goals on the season. In goal Dax Deadrick has played 31 games this season for CSU, with a 14-11 record and a 3.14 GAA and .894 save percentage. Friday night’s game begins at 8pm MT at the Utah Ice Sheet with Saturday’s game beginning at 7:30pm MT. Saturday night’s game is also Utah’s Senior Night, as the team will honor its seniors after the game. Get your tickets here.