The Weber State hockey team kicked off its 2014-15 season with a wild 8-7 win in an exhibition match against the Park City Pioneers.

The Wildcats jumped out on to an early 2-0 lead in the first period off back-to-back powerplay goals by Jesse Collins and Jonathan Cosman. Despite trailing early, the Pioneers kept pace with Weber State throughout the game, never trailing by more than two goals. With 1:42 left in the third period, Park City forward Brian Babbitt scored to bring the Pioneers within one goal of the Wildcats, and then Jeremy Martinez scored a game-tying goal with 28 seconds remaining to force overtime. Junior right wing Dax Hobbs scored the game-winning goal for the Wildcats with 10 seconds left in overtime for the 8-7 win.

“When you play these exhibition games, you don’t really know what to expect, that’s why you play them,” said Weber State hockey head coach Joe Pfleegor. “We definitely got to see a few surprises out there. Good surprises. It went better than we expected.”

Hobbs provided most of the offense for the Wildcats in the win, recording three goals and two assists. Cosman scored two goals for Weber State, while Collins recorded three assists and scored one goal.

“We definitely like the speed of our first line with Cosman, and Jesse Collins, and how they play the game,” Pfleegor said. “I was really impressed with how physical we played the game today. Last year we didn’t really have that, but today we did.”

The next night, Weber State followed up its overtime win with a 7-5 victory in regulation against Park City. Koda Coleman was the second Wildcat of the season to record a hat trick, scoring his third goal of the game just seconds into the third period.

After the win on Saturday night, left wing/center Cody Bomin was excited with how the team performed in its two exhibition matches, saying that he felt like the team was pretty solid.

“I was excited to see today how some of the newer guys worked out, and they played phenomenal,” Bomin said. “Working as a team (is going to be important). There was no one-man show tonight. Both games it was completely playing as a team, passing the puck and scoring goals.”

The Wildcats will begin their regular season schedule on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. when they host Utah State at the Weber County Ice Sheet. Bomin said that he felt being physical as a team was going to be the key for success against the Aggies.

“Utah State, they’re going to come out flying,” Bomin said. “And we really need to bear down, and throw the body around.”