By: Corinne Speckert, The Spartan Daily
Posted: 10/27/08
Senior Sean Scarbrough attempts to score against BYU at the Sharks Ice in San Jose on Saturday night.
With two minutes and eight seconds left on the clock during overtime, Brigham Young University scored to defeat the Spartans' Hockey Team 9-8 at Sharks Ice in San Jose on Saturday.
"We stuck with them, but in the end they got that goal in overtime and that just put us away," said freshman Jeff Sanders.
Saturday's loss appeared to be a letdown for the Spartans after beating BYU 6-2 on Friday.
"I think tonight we were pretty confident after last night's win, and coming into tonight's game, we had a lot of hype and maybe we let it get to us a little bit too much," Sanders said. "But I think after this loss we're going to come together as a team and practice and build off it."
Within the first and second periods of the game the Spartans were ahead 4-3, then 7-5 and tied the game in the third period at 8-8, but fell short in overtime when BYU scored the final point of the night.
Lathan Logan, assisted by Mickey Rhodes, scored during an even-strength play for the Spartans at the beginning of the first period.
Robbie Vaughan, assisted by Rhodes and Andy Dickerson, scored during a power play.
Steven Stichler, assisted by Scott Mattern and Max DeLance, scored during a power play, followed by Rhodes scoring during an even-strength play.
In the second period Skyler Yu, assisted by Jeff Sawhill and Sean Scarbrough, scored during a power play.
Dickerson, assisted by Jeff Sanders and Vaughan, scored during a power play.
Dickerson, assisted by Mike Bodulow and Richie Norris, scored during an even-strength play. Sanders, assisted by Scarbrough and Dickerson, scored during an even-strength play in the third period.
SJSU head coach Ron Glasow said that although the Spartans have talent, they continue making mental mistakes and playing as individuals rather than a unified team.
"We're basically not really a team right now," he said. "We've got a lot of individuals playing that are good hockey players, but we don't play as a team very well. We played really well last night, and then we just became not as focused.
"They think that they can beat anybody, and they just don't stick to the game plan and start making mental mistakes by trying to do things too individually. That's been costing us."
Dickerson, a graduate student and Spartan center, said with the addition of 12 players this season, it's hard for the team to work together when they're still trying to get used to each other.
"For the third year in a row, we have 12 new bodies, so we've had a lot of change and it's been hard for guys to mesh, but we really thought we were coming together after last night's game and this was definitely a step backwards for us," he said.
Dickerson said the team struggled from a lack of effort and from excessive penalties.
"We had some goals that we probably shouldn't have given up, a lot of defensive zone breakdowns," Dickerson said. "It was a team loss, a team lack of effort and it was just night and day from last night to tonight. When we get overconfident, guys start trying to do everything themselves and they stop using their teammates and that's when we get in trouble.
"The problem with this team now is that we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. We don't learn from our mistakes."
In attempts to get back on track for next week's games against Santa Clara and Stanford, Glasow said he plans on picking up the Spartans' training pace.
"It's not that we don't have talent. It's not that we can't be good," Glasow said. "We have good games, and then we do this. They're going to work. We have a price to pay here and we'll pay it."
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