RECAP: Utes Win Twice

October 17, 2016 Salt Lake City, UT The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes returned to the state of Utah after spending the last two weeks on the road and picked up two more wins over in-state rivals this past weekend. The Utes played their first home game since September 24th back on Friday as they took on the Weber State Wildcats for the final time this season. The Utes were able to beat the Wildcats 4-1 back in September and looked for the season sweep at home and their seventh straight win over Weber State. Utah wasted no time scoring in the game, as Julian Cronan scored just 1:02 into the first period to give the Utes a 1-0 lead. Josh Dangel would score halfway through the first period to extend Utah’s lead to 2-0, but Weber State would score just one minute after Dangel’s goal to cut the lead to 2-1. The Utes would outshoot the Wildcats 15-13 in the first period and took their 2-1 lead into the second. After the first period the Utes dominated the scoreboard the rest of the way, scoring five unanswered goals in the second and third period to skate to the 7-1 win over Weber State. Tyler Reble would score his first career goal for Utah in the second period, along with goals from Alex King and Connor Meaney. Cronan would score his second goal of the game in the third period along with Sam Bawden to make up the seven goals for Utah. Despite the lopsided score, the Utes were out shot by Weber State 41-37 in the game. Chris Komma picked up his third win of the season in net for the Utes, stopping 40 of 41 shots on the night. On Saturday the Utes looked to sweep the weekend as they headed north to Logan for the second meeting of the season with the Utah State Aggies. The Utes beat Utah State in September in Salt Lake City 3-2 and much like their streak with Weber State, they looked to extend their unbeaten streak over the Aggies to seven games. The Utes dominated the first period up in Logan, as Connor Meaney, Jackson Barlocker, and Alex King all scored in the first period to give Utah a 3-0 after just twenty minutes of play. King kept the momentum going for Utah in the second period, scoring just 43 seconds into the second period to extend Utah’s lead to 4-0. That lead would be all Utah need to hold off the Aggies, as Meaney scored an insurance goal in the third to give the Utes the 5-2 win over Utah State. The Utes were able to outshoot the Aggies 45-32 in the game and clinched a share of the season series over Utah State for the their year in a row, with a 2-0 series lead with two games to go. The next meeting is December 3rd in Salt Lake City. Chris Komma picked up the win for Utah stopping 30 of 32 shots for his fourth win of the season. The win was also the 47th win of his career at Utah, which pushed him past former goaltender Pete Gibb’s record of 46 wins for the most career wins for a Utah goaltender in team history. The Utes are back at home next weekend as they take on Arizona State’s Division II team Friday and Saturday at the Utah Ice Sheet.