Coming into Friday night's matchup against the Utah State Aggies, the Buffalo Hockey team had a perfect 6-0 record. The undefeated season continued, thanks to a four point night by
Andy Neitenbach that led Colorado to an 8-0 win over Utah State.
The game was actually a lot closer than it seemed, with the Aggies playing toe-to-toe with the Buffs in the first period. Neitenbach had the only goal midway through the first, to give the Buffs the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for Utah State, things weren't going to get any better.
Andy Neitenbach,
Conor Williams,
Scott Tittle, and Andy's brother,
Jeff Neitenbach all added goals in the second period to give the Buffs a 5-0 lead going into the second intermission.
However, as time was running out, Aggie Goalie
Dan Corniluis was tripped by a CU player, which caused quite a scrum behind the net. When Corniluis got up from the ice, he went behind his net and first pushed the Colorado player to the ice, before throwing punches at him. Corniluis was replaced by Greg Finatti in the third period, and received a Roughing penalty for his actions.
After the game, CU Head Coach
Paul Sisson commented on the scrum: "It's something we could definitely do without, but we didn't have a huge problem with it. It's not the style of our team to get in any brawls or anything like that."
The goalie change didn't help the Aggies as the Buffs added three more goals from
Kevin Alpert,
Chad Wetzel, and
Sean Carpenter to complete the high-scoring and hitting affair.
CU Goaltender
Kevin Litinsky registered his second shutout of the season, stopping all 28 shots he faced. "Every period, I was thinking that it's a 0-0 game, and don't let the puck go in," the CU goalie replied after the game on how he stayed focused.
But the night belonged to Andy Neitenbach who added two assists along with his two goals.
"We came out strong in the first period, leapt out to a lead, and just continued that momentum throughout the game," said Neitenbach, "I had a good supporting cast. Our line 'hit for the cycle' with Jeff and Sean also getting goals."
So what does the team still need to improve on? Sisson feels finishing, and putting away teams that they are better than.