October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Wildcats splashed a little pink into the purple and white on their jerseys.
On Oct. 20, the Weber State University hockey team pulled out a 6–3 victory over Brigham Young
University.
In their “Hockey Fights Cancer” event, the men’s hockey team fought cancer alongside McKay-Dee Dermatology and Plastic Surgery.
With the help of McKay-Dee, event organizers filled the stands with cancer survivors and those presently battling cancer. One such survivors was Weber State alumna Julie Huss, who is a CTE assistant in the Career and Technical Education department.
“Because I work at Weber, I hear about the games,” Huss said. “I made an extra effort to come because I did know about Intermountain (Dermatology and Plastic Surgery unit). I like to support the cause when I can.”
Throughout the game, the ‘Cats pink jerseys were part of a silent auction where fans and supporters could bid on a particular jersey. All proceeds were donated to cancer research.
Assistant Coach Yosh Ryujin described the process of the auction.
“We started the bidding for every jersey at 50 dollars, so people were bidding all night,” Ryujin said. “We got 26 jerseys, and I saw a lot of bids over 100 dollars, so we are going to take that money and donate it back to breast cancer awareness and
research.”
The event’s main sponsor, Intermountain McKay-Dee, helped out with jerseys, pink shirts for the crowd, and invitations sent to cancer patients and survivors.
WSU forward Garrett Hodgson shared his thoughts on playing in front of those fighting cancer.
“It was really special,” Hodgson said. One of the things AJ (Kapinos, head coach) said before the game was how much bigger this was than hockey. The guys next to you are playing for something bigger. It meant a lot to have that support tonight.”
In the main event, the Cats’ hit the ice hard against BYU, scoring in every period. Brian Martinez and Andrew Gorges came up clutch, with two goals apiece.
“We wanted to start off strong, and we did that right off the get go,” said team captain Jon Cosman. “Our power play was clicking. We were putting a lot of shots on, banging bodies, so we were doing all the little things right.”
With two early goals from Gorges in the first period, the Cats’ jumped out to a 3–0 lead.
The evening prior, the team defeated Utah Valley University 8–1 on
the road.
The Wildcats will finish their October schedule this Saturday at 7 p.m. against San Diego State University. SDSU is 3–2 on the year coming into Ogden. Weber State will aim to improve their season record to 6–4.
