Crunch time

The Weber State University Hockey Team will face off at home against two tough teams this week, taking on Eastern Washington University and Utah State University Thursday and Friday respectively. The games are crucial in determining the Wildcats' seeding in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. Right now the 'Cats are ranked No. 5 in the West Region. Eastern Washington is ranked No. 4 and Utah State is ranked No. 3. "This weekend's definitely the biggest all semester," said WSU Head Coach Steve Soto. "We've got a chance to place a lot higher come the next rankings if we can beat those two teams." The top-five teams in the region are all evenly matched, beating teams they were expected to lose to and losing to some teams they were expected to beat. Eastern Washington, for example, is coming off of two impressive wins at Utah State last weekend. The weekend before that, the Eagles beat No. 1 Colorado State University, lost to No.2 University of Colorado and lost to No. 9 University of Northern Colorado. The Wildcats, on the other hand, have lost twice to Utah State, but beat the No. 2 Buffaloes two weekends ago. Soto said he is expecting a pretty tough game from Eastern Washington. The Wildcats are just glad to face this tough task on their home ice. "It's a huge asset," Soto said. "Eastern Washington is going to be bussing down. We've got a late-start game, high altitude, big ice, our fans, so that right there are elements working against their team." Soto said his team doesn't know a whole lot about the Eagles other than their 10-4 record, they have a solid goaltender and play a "relentless" style of hockey. Facing such a foreign team Thursday night and then having such a familiar team on tap Friday night, Soto said he doesn't think his team will look past the Eagles. "I don't think we'll lose focus," he said. "I think we're going to get at it pretty hard." The Wildcats' matchup against Utah State renews a rivalry that gets more intense with each game. The Weber State-Utah State rivalry can be traced back to when both WSU and USU shared the Ice Sheet in Ogden as a home rink, before one was built in Logan. Soto said the arena would be packed to capacity, lines of fans out the door to get tickets. This season, the Aggies are already 2-0 against the Wildcats. The two teams faced off in the first two games of the regular season. Utah State won the first game 8-5 in Logan and the second game 6-2 in Ogden. There were some common themes exhibited by the 'Cats in those games that they will look to improve on. The Utah State line of Kent Arsenault, Brendan McDonald and Billy Gouthro combined for 14 points in the first game between the two teams and five points in the second game. "We need to match up with them every time they're on the ice," Soto said, "whether it's powerplay or even-strength. We're pretty strong when we have all our lines going. If we can match up one of our strong lines against their weakest lines and our strongest line against their top line we should fare pretty well." The Wildcats also struggled in the two previous games to hold on to leads. The 'Cats were up 3-1 in the first game and 1-0 in the second game before the Aggies' offensive onslaughts buried them. "That's what we've been trying to do all season," Soto said, "is to jump out on teams early, but to protect that lead. The Wildcats will see if they can right the ship when they take on the Aggies Friday at 8:15 p.m. That game will offer free admission to WSU students with a valid Wildcard. The matchup between the 'Cats and Eagles will have a late start, 9:45 p.m. Thursday night. Both games will be at the Weber County Ice Sheet. With such evenly-matched opponents this week, it's anyone's guess as to how the 'Cats will do in these games. Soto said he feels good though. "I feel really confident about this weekend," Soto said.