[media-credit id=10 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]The Weber State University hockey team wrapped up its season over the weekend when it lost to Utah State University 9-5 at the Weber County Ice Sheet.

The Wildcats went into the game without Head Coach Steve Soto, who was unable to be at the game. Soto left Reid Meyer in charge of the coaching for this game. Meyer used to play for the team last year.

Despite the loss, Meyer said he felt the team had some successes on the ice.

“I thought we did some things really well tonight,” Meyer said. “We played well as a team.”

Five minutes after the start of the first period, USU scored its first goal to take the lead

Meyer said the team needs to work on getting the puck into its opponent’s zone and also needs to get its fast breaks in tune. Mere said that some members of team played for themselves and chose not picking an open man.

With three minutes of the first period remaining, junior Chris Roberts scored a goal to tie the game for the Wildcats.

WSU wasn’t able to hang on to the momentum, and at the start of the second period, USU scored three goals back to back to put the game four to one.

Meyer said USU is one of the better teams that the Wildcats have played this year but said he feels the team is capable of beating the Aggies in the future if it can play a full game without making too many mistakes.

“USU is always a good team,” Meyer said. “I think if we put together sixty minutes of good hockey, we can definitely win games against them.”

Later in the second period, freshman Tommy Champi scored three consecutive goals for the Wildcats to tie the game.

Champi said that despite the loss, he felt WSU played well. They just weren’t able to keep up with USU.

“I felt that tonight was a great game,” Champi said. “But in the end we were beat by a better team.”

He said WSU stayed in the game with a nationally ranked team, and that the team never gave up.

Two minutes before the period ended, USU scored their fifth goal to take control of the game.

“I thought we gelled as a group and kept our heads in the game,” Champi said.

Starting the third period, USU scored their sixth to put the game out of reach for the Wildcats.

Champi was also responsible for the only WSU goal in the third period. He scored the fifth goal to put the Wildcats close to USU in the scoreboard.

“It was an excellent solid performance,” Roberts said. “We put a full sixty minutes of good hockey together.”

Roberts said WSU had a good game overall, but the team just ran out of gas in the last ten minutes of the game. He also said that he hopes the team will be able to build off of the successes of this season and come out strong at the start of the next season.

“I want to thank the people who came to support us,” Roberts said. “Hopefully, we will start off a good season next year.”