From Michael Myers to a giant whoopie cushion, multiple Chappell Roans, and even three Waldo’s that weren’t hidden very well, ghouls of all shapes and sizes flooded the George S Eccles Ice Arena on Friday night to cheer on the USU Hockey club.
The game started quickly as the Wildcats scored within the first two minutes. Caleb Sandborn leveled the scoreline just three minutes later for USU. But emotions boiled over in the second period as USU's Jackson Ferry and Weber’s Caden Hunter got into a fight on the ice resulting in both players being ejected from the game and receiving an extra game suspension.
“You know, I've seen a lot of bad calls,” said Lacey Udi, a fan dressed as a blind ref. “There's some obvious things I've seen that Weber has done haven't been called out on. I might need to go out and help them. Man, I think I got better eyesight than they do.”
After the second period, a costume contest was held on the ice. The fans made their judgments, and a young child dressed as a dragon won and second place went to a fan dressed as the Lorax, the speaker of the trees.
“Because I'm the Lorax, and I won the costume contest, I think we need to be more mindful of what the trees have to say. And the trees, honestly, are just saying that they hope the Aggies win and that they put forth their best effort.”
Well, the trees were almost right.
In the third period, Dillon Hale scored a powerful slapshot that rang off of the pipes and into the net. The Aggies continued to throw everything they had, even pulling Aggie goaltender Titan Anderson during the last minute of the play, but it was not enough as the Aggies couldn’t find the equalizer and lost the game 3-2.
“The first two periods maybe weren't what we wanted,” Hale said. “But I think, one bright side we can take from this game is we ended on a good note.”
Despite the loss, head coach Jeff Volkman was proud of his team in the third period and thought they controlled the game from that point. However, the Aggies still need to work on a full 60-minute performance.
“That's the team I want to see come out right there,” Volkman said. “I mean, we hit the post. We had so many great chances at the end there. We were taking it to them, and they were flat-footed. That's our identity, right there. There was a lot of heart.”
The Aggies take to the road next week to take on the University of Montana on Oct. 31.