LOGAN, Ut:  The BYU Cougar hockey team secured its second Championship in as many weeks by winning the Mountain West Conference Championship.

Brigham Young University went into the MWCHL tournament as the second seed behind first seed Grand Canyon University from Arizona. Grand Canyon received a bye Thursday night while the other six teams played for favorable games on Friday.

While the tournament was hosted by Utah State in Logan, BYU and UVU played each other in Provo on Thursday evening.  UVU didn't make it an easy game for BYU and jumped out to a 3 to 2 lead at the end of the first period.  BYU came out hard in the second period picking up 3 goals in less than two minutes and finalizing the win with a 4th goal in the third to seal its sixth win against the Woverines this season and advance to the high seed game on Friday.

Providence had it's hands full against Weber State on Thursday, but ultimately won the match to also qualify for the high seed game against BYU on Friday.  Utah State played a normally tough Montana State, but took the win easily scoring 6 goals against the Bobcats who could only respond with 1 of their own.  This put Utah State in a tough game against the top seed Grand Canyon in a battle that went to overtime on Friday night before the Aggies were able to score only seconds into OT to advance to defend the MWCHL Cup in the Championship game.

The Cougars faced the Providence Argos for the first time this season in the semi-final game and were able to set the tone early finishing the first period 2 to 1.  At the end of the second period BYU had added another point to the scoreboard and put up another in just under five minutes of play in the third to bring the score to 4-1.  Providence never gave up however and closed the point differential to 2 with 8:33 left in the game.  They increased the excitement by pulling their goalie.  A long but well placed shot on the empty net from Cougar Captain Ashton Shimbashi finalized the score at 5-2 and secured BYU as the home team in the Championship game Saturday night.

The Utah State Aggies were in familiar territory in the MWCHL tournament as the four time champions and being the host team.  The Cougars were well aware of the difficult task ahead of them having only beat Utah State on their home ice in Logan once in Cougar history; and no surprise, it was a hard fought game from beginning to end.

The first period was exciting as far a play goes, but not much happened on the score board as there were no penalties and no goals. That was not to be indicative of the game however.  The second period opened the flood gates to penalties with both teams getting three apiece.  Only the Cougars were able to capitalize however and CJ Coslette ripped a low flat shot from the left face off circle under the pads of Aggie goal tender Colter Pritchard finally putting a goal on the boards. The second period ended with BYU in a tenuous 1 goal lead.

The final period of the Championship game was a great period of hockey with both teams fighting hard to claim the Cup.  In spite of chances on both sides to score on power plays, neither team was able to make use of the man advantage.  The only other scoring was by the Cougars on a phenomenal display of passing by Ashton Shimbashi and Alex Barrus, ending in a touch goal by Aleks Stroud. Jared Manzella had one of the great games of the season and possibly his career making an astounding 48 saves to shut out Utah State on their home ice and secure the Mountain West Conference Championship for the BYU Cougars with a final score of 2-0.