Showing posts with label Analysis - College hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analysis - College hockey. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Chambers; Stakes are high in University of Denver-North Dakota hockey series

From the opposition media guy; Mike Chambers who covers the Denver Pioneers and writes for the Denver Post and usually has some red meat articles to stir up the masses and enflame the UND hockey fan base. This article is almost too tame.
Mike Chambers, Denver Post --- Each team has four regular-season games remaining. DU needs one victory and a Michigan Tech loss to clinch home-ice advantage for the first-round, best-of-three WCHA playoffs March 9-11. The Sioux could finish anywhere from first to ninth.

The league's top six teams host the bottom six, with the winners advancing to the WCHA Final Five on March 15-17 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The top four seeds in St. Paul will get a quarterfinal bye in the second year of the six-team format. (The name remained the same because there are five games.)

A year ago, North Dakota beat DU 3-2 in double overtime in the Final Five championship game. The following week, the Sioux eliminated the Pioneers 6-1 in an NCAA Tournament regional title game in Green Bay, Wis.

Friday's game at DU is the first this season between the storied programs and bitter rivals.
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Friday, November 04, 2011

Friday 11/4: UND vs. UMN

Here are the lineups for tonight's game:

Already the biggest FAIL is no webcast! How could UND NOT try to find SOME way to webcast this game? I know FSN owns the rights and all but really? REALLY????

UND’s lines

16 Mark MacMillan–10 Corban Knight–7 Danny Kristo
9 Mario Lamoureux–27 Carter Rowney–11 Derek Rodwell
14 Taylor Dickin–29 Brock Nelson–15 Michael Parks
8 Dan Senkbeil–28 Stephane Pattyn–20 Joe Gleason

4 Derek Forbort–24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam–5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness

Minnesota’s lines

14 Tom Serratore–22 Travis Boyd–18 Nick Larson
16 Nate Condon–9 Taylor Matson–17 Seth Ambroz
11 Sam Warning–19 Erik Haula–21 Jake Hansen
7 Kyle Rau–27 Nick Bjugstad–24 Zach Budish

10 Ben Marshall–20 Mark Alt
6 Jake Parenteau–29 Nate Schmidt
4 Seth Helgeson–12 Justin Holl

35 Kent Patterson
1 Michael Shibrowski
30 Jake Kremer


(Schlossman, Brad. http://undhockey.areavoices.com/)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The healing begins; Goon's in studio on 1310 KNOX - Thursday from 4:30 – 5:00 PM

Listen to the Goon live at 4:30 pm – 5:00 pm on 1310 AM KNOX on Thursday April 14th, 2011. R.J. Richards and the Goon will be talking about the Frozen Four that took place last weekend. We will probably break down the debacle that was the Fighting Sioux versus Michigan... If you live out of town you can listen live by clicking on this web link... [Click to Listen]

Call in 701-775-5559, 1-866-KNOX-1310, email: Live@KNOXRADIO.com

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Frozen Four in Canada...

Our friends from the Coming Down the Pipe blog had an interesting topic on their blog this morning. Ironically, I have put some thought into this subject and had this discussion with others in the past. Personally, I think that the NCAA Frozen Four could be a big success if the event was held in Western Canada. First, location of site for a Canadian Frozen Four is going to be key. Second, the arena would also be important when selecting a possible Frozen Four site. Of course I think Winnipeg would seem to be a no brainier; however, the arena, the MTS Centre only seats 15,015 spectators for hockey and the NCAA might want a bigger arena.
The marquee NCAA event has criss-crossed the United States, it's been held in hockey mad markets, football stadiums, cities without Division 1 college programs and in places where the only ice you find is in your drink. Most of the time the Frozen Four has been successful but other times it has not and in some of those cases, it's a bit surprising.

But considering all of the creative ways the NCAA has come up with the celebrate the championship weekend of the sport, it's never left the country. Is it plausible to think that one day, the Frozen Four might be held in Canada?

To me, the answer is YES.
Apparently according to the Coming Down the Pipe blog, there has already been a discussion about the Frozen Four going to Canada.
Would the event draw fans in Canada where the NCAA game goes laregly unrecognized by the media? I don't know so I asked someone who would in Jeff Jackson, former coach of the OHL's Guelph Storm who leads the Notre Dame Fighting Irish into action on Thursday.

"We’ve actually had talks about that," Jackson said, "I think having it in Toronto would be very successful. We have had a lot of players from that area on our team before, or from other parts of Ontario, so I think it would work extremely well there or in other cities like Calgary, Edmonton... Winnipeg, there are lots of possibilities right across Canada."

Jackson's statement that there have been discussions already of a potential Canadian Frozen Four is consistent with what Paul Kelly of College Hockey Inc.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Fire Hakstol… err wait a minute. Sioux 6 DU 1...

I was told by a friend tonight in an email that I should get the "Fire Hak!" thread going again. I laughed pretty hard when I read that email. Just think after losing to the UNO Mavericks 8-4 that there were fans that wanted the head coach of the Fighting Sioux fired for not winning that game and thought that if the Sioux didn't win the Frozen Four that would also be ground for Hakstol's termination. I would bet any money that those same fans that were calling for Mr. Hakstol's head are now firmly on board the Hakstol bandwagon at this very moment as the Sioux are once again going to the Frozen Four. But I digress... Not many coaches in the WCHA can claim to have the success that Dave Hakstol does.

The Fighting Sioux with the victory last night against the Denver Pioneers are making their fifth trip in seven seasons to the Frozen Four. Not a bad coaching job for Dave Hakstol and his staff. There were a lot of doubters in the Fighting Sioux fan base, but I never doubted this coach or this group of hockey players.

Good goaltending

There were people that questioned the goaltender Aaron Dell and said that he wasn’t very good. Those people were proven dead wrong as Aaron Dell took the reins from two year starter Brad Eidsness and won his 30th game of the season (30-6-2, 1.81 GAA and .924 sv%) with the win last night surpassed former NHL All Star and Fighting Sioux goalie Eddie “the Eagle” Belfour… Nationally, Dell is tied for first in the nation with 6 shutouts, number one in winning percentage, eight in save percentage, number one in goals against average. So I ask the doubters, how they can say that Aaron Dell isn’t very good goaltender?” Me personally, I would rather have Dell than any other goalie in the WCHA right now. Where would this team be if the Fighting Sioux didn’t have Aaron Dell, Brad Eidsness is a shell of his former self and couldn’t stop a beach ball earlier this season?

Balanced scoring

The Fighting Sioux were the second highest scoring team in the nation, second only to the EZAC team Yale, who was number one. You know how I feel about that stat so we will leave it at that, it is what it is, Yale racked up points playing a less than impressive schedule (44th SOS) the Fighting Sioux picked up their points playing the seventh toughest schedule. Breaking down the Sioux stats sheet, there are fifteen players on the Sioux roster with ten or more points, three players with twenty or more points, six players with thirty or more points, five players with forty or more points and one player with sixty points. That is some pretty good scoring dept.

Total Domination

Tonight after the first period I thought the Sioux did to the Pioneers what they did to the RPI Engineers, they beat them with their dept, the Pioneers were basically playing three lines to the Sioux rolling four lines and in the end the Sioux took the Pioneers to the wood shed.

An unnamed radio personality was complaining on twitter tonight about the Fighting Sioux still having their top players out on the power play at the end of the game. Like one of my old football coaches said, if you don’t want to get scored on play better defense, the time in the game is relevant. What the hell is the Fighting Sioux coaching staff supposed to do? UND isn’t a one line wonder like some teams and they are deep through the forward lines and the Pioneers were hacking away at the Sioux at the end of the game so I don’t blame Hakstol and co for putting the better guys out on the power play at the end of the game. The best cure for getting a team to stop taking penalties is to score on them on the power play. Just for the record Brett Hextall and Jason Gregoire are second line players. Yeah I know, they would be first line players on other teams in the WCHA.

Goon's three stars of the game
1.) Chay Genoway (0g-3a-3pts)
2.) Aaron Dell 1 GAA
3.) Brad Malone (1g-1a-2pts)

[Box Score]

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sioux 3 Huskies 1

FightingSioux.com Photo 
There is not a lot you can say about the UND Fighting Sioux victory over the hapless Michigan Tech Huskies. The win on Saturday night hopefully is the first step in what could be a run deep into the NCAA playoffs culminating with the Sioux winning number “8” which has proven to be a very elusive NCAA Championship. It’s very hard to win an NCAA title and the Sioux have failed four times in the 2000’s to get number 8. From here on out after the Final Five the Sioux are in the one and done, one loss will end their season like 57 other teams that will not win the NCAA title.

Moving forward, the MTU Huskies had what many would call a historic forgettable season and according to Dave Starman of CBS College Sports, told the Pipeline show from Edmonton, Alberta in so many words that MTU head hockey coach Jamie Russell might not be the coach of the Huskies much longer.

Last night’s game was surprisingly closer than the other three games where the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team had outscored the MTU Huskies 25-3 and saw two different Sioux hockey players get hat tricks in the same game. Last night’s game was a different story with the same ending result. The Huskies came out in the third period and limited the time and space of the Fighting Sioux.

MTU forward Ryan Furne scored at the 6:15 mark of the first period and the Huskies lead the game for roughly seventeen minutes. Then the fortunes changed for the UND Fighting Sioux as junior forward Brett Hextall scored the equalizer at the 3:33 mark of the second period. Fighting Sioux freshman forward Tyler Dicken scored his first career goal 2:01 minutes later and the Fighting Sioux never looked back. The game lacked anymore scoring until the 19:54 mark of the third period when Frattin brought everyone that wasn’t standing to their feet when he scored his 33rd goal of the season into an empty net to send the Huskies back to Houghton, Michigan.

After the hockey game the Fighting Sioux were awarded the MacNaughton Cup, however, the Fighting Sioux barely wanted to even look at the Historic MacNaughton Cup and as far from I could see didn’t even touch the cup as they took their team photo. Incidently, the last time the Sioux touched the MacNaughton Cup they lost their next three games in the playoffs and were sent home in the first round of the NCAA playoffs by the UNH Wildcats.

[Box Score]

Goon’s Three Stars of the Game

1.) Taylor Dicken (1g-0a-1pts)
2.) Brock Nelson (0g-1a-1pts) and (0g-3a-3pts) for the weekend
3.) Aaron Dell 1 goal against, 1 goal against all weekend.

Last night bitter sweet victory?

After the game was over and I was watching the awards ceremony with Sioux7 he turned to me and said this could very well be the last time that UND wins the MacNaughton Cup with the nickname Fighting Sioux. I said, “I don’t know we will find out very soon, we will just have to see.”  

Saturday, March 05, 2011

UND line up changes.


RWD's favorite beat writer is reporting via Twitter that Brad Eidsness and Chay Genoway will be back in the line up tonight. Fighting Sioux defenseman Andrew MacWilliam is out with an undisclosed injury. MTU forward Bennett Royer is back in after getting disqualified for a fight in Minnesota's Jake Parenteau during the MTU and UMN series.

UND’s Forward lines


19 Evan Trupp–22 Brad Malone–21 Matt Frattin
17 Jason Gregoire–10 Corban Knight–26 Brett Hextall
8 Mike Cichy–29 Brock Nelson–20 Joe Gleason
15 Brent Davidson–9 Mario Lamoureux–11 Derek Rodwell

UND's Defense pairing
4 Derek Forbort–24 Ben Blood
3 Derrick LaPoint–25 Jake Marto
18 Dillon Simpson–5 Chay Genoway

Goalies

31 Brad Eidsness
32 Aaron Dell
[UND Stats]

Michigan Tech’s Forward lines

12 Ryan Furne–8 Jacob Johnstone–29 Evan Witt
19 Bennett Royer–11 Daniel Holmberg–18 Alex MacLeod
32 Tyler Gubb–7 Patrick McCadden–13 Aaron Pietila
23 Ricky Doriott–9 Dennis Rix–17 Mikael Lickteig

MTU's Defense Parings
26 Deron Cousens–25 Carl Nielson
21 Tommy Brown–6 Steven Seigo
3 Brad Stebner–24 Daniel Sova

Goalies

30 Josh Robinson
35 Kevin Genoe
31 Corson Cramer
[MTU Stats]

EDIT: Schlossman erred in the lineup listing Rodwell as both a forward and Defenseman, having 2 numbers (11 and 4), and scratching Derek Forbort. I corrected it on the blog so that it would be accurate. To be absolutely clear, this is not a Goon error. [Redwing77]

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Jake Marto wins Red Baron® WCHA Defensive Player of the Week

Congrats to Jake Marto on winning Red Baron® WCHA Defensive Player of the Week. Marto had a goal and two assists against the BSU Beavers on Sunday afternoon to pace the Sioux.
WCHA.COM ---> Jake Marto, a veteran defenseman at the University of North Dakota, has been named the Red Baron® WCHA Defensive Player of the Week for March 1, 2011 after playing a key role at both ends of the ice in a two-game conference sweep over visiting Bemidji State, a pair of wins that guaranteed the Fighting Sioux at least a share of the regular season championship and the No. 1 seed for the upcoming league tournament.

A 6-0, 175-pound senior from Grand Forks, N.D., Marto scored the game-winning goal and had two assists in last Sunday's 5-1 win over Bemidji State, which clinched a share of the MacNaughton Cup for No. 1-ranked UND, and earned him No. 1 star of the game honors on Senior Day. The game-winner was his third of the season, tying a UND single-season record for Sioux defensemen.

Marto also helped key a strong defensive effort for North Dakota in the series, which saw them limit the Beavers to 16 shots on goal in a 5-2 victory last Saturday and 16 shots on goal in the 5-1 triumph on Sunday. The Sioux also limited BSU to one power-play goal in seven series man-advantage opportunities.

Playing in all 35 games this season, Marto has contributed 15 points (6g, 9a) from his blueline spot while his four-year collegiate career totals show 148 games played with 58 scoring points (19g, 39a).

Also nominated this week: Joe Marciano, D, CC; Nick Jensen, D, SCSU.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Union's goal: No foul mouths

Wow! Check out this article from the Times Union… Honestly, you can probably do this in smaller arenas that dot the landscape on the east coast in the ECAC but it’s more difficult in the palaces that make up the WCHA.
SCHENECTADY -- Before every Union College hockey game, the announcement is the same:

"We request your cooperation by supporting the participants and officials in a positive manner. Profanity, racial or sexist comments or other intimidating actions directed at officials, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives ... are grounds for removal from the site of competition and other disciplinary actions."

And they're not kidding.

Students who yell chants the school has deemed vulgar or offensive are getting the boot from Union hockey games. The practice began midway through last season, students said, and while school officials claim it's in the name of promoting sportsmanship, some students said it's gone too far.

"I understand not allowing vulgar language," senior John Russell said, "but not allowing fans to express emotion during games is a bit much."

Students said public safety officers have come down hard on the use of the word "sucks" during games, ejecting any students who use it to jeer opposing teams.

Friday, February 25, 2011

College Hockey tonight breaks down the BSU and UND series...

Listen to Scott and Moose Richards talk about the upcoming series between UND and BSU. [Click to listen]

At about 10:00 minutes Scott Williams took issue with Tyler Buckentine wrote about the BSU Beavers in a USCHO blog post. After reading the article yesterday, I have to agree with Scott... I am pretty sure that BSU isn't trying to find themselves in their 12th season as a D-I Hockey team... In my opinion that statement is so far from the truth it’s not even funny... The BSU program, whether Tyler wants to admit it or not has been successful in every level of hockey they have competed in and the BSU Beavers will continue to strive in the WCHA as well… As was brought up by Scott, BSU has been to the Frozen Four a couple years ago and they made the NCAA tourney as an at large team so this article really misses the mark, while Tyler’s team the MSUM Mavericks have not…
USCHO.COM ----- The Beavers were coming off two straight NCAA tournament bids and built a flashy new arena. They started the season off with a five-game winless streak and were never able to recover. BSU couldn’t put together four straight games without a loss until its current five-game unbeaten streak.

BSU is two seasons removed from its only Division I Frozen Four appearance but has a rich tradition in other divisions, winning five national titles at the D-II level and one in D-III. The Beavers are still trying to find themselves in their 12th season at the D-I level, and the move to the WCHA can help BSU get noticed.

The key is to break out and establish itself as an accomplished program in the WCHA, something teams like Minnesota State and Alaska-Anchorage are still struggling with. MSU has been in the league since 1999 and UAA came into the league in 1993.

“You want to go out and make sure people know you’re not a bottom dweller,” Lowe said. “It was important to come in here and play these teams and make sure we weren’t a team that would just get rolled over.”

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Thursday afternoon links - crunch time!!!

I was thinking about the Fighting Sioux record against the SCSU Huskies which is 0-7-3 in their last ten Friday night games at the National Hockey Center, so according to the record books the UND Fighting Sioux haven’t won a game against the SCSU Huskies on Friday nights in National Hockey Center since the 1998 season. That is kind of unheard of based on how good UND has been since 1998.

So on the flip side of that equation, the Fighting Sioux have been an impressive and almost unbeatable 8-1-1 on Saturday Night in the National Hockey Center since the 1998 season. I believe that something has to give this weekend, Mike Lee has never won a game in two seasons against UND and he has been the better of the two SCSU goalies. SCSU senior goalie Dan Dunn has a 2-4-1 record, .887 save percentage and G.A.A. of 3.27. Sophomore goalie 10-10-3 record, .905 save percentage and a G.A.A. of 2.83

Sioux have dominated the SCSU Huskies

The Sioux have dominated the Huskies as of late, the Fighting Sioux have a 12-4-4 record in the last 20 games dating back to the 2006-2007 season. The Sioux have also won the last four games against the Huskies.

Links of interest

Devils Lake Freshman defensman Keaton Thompson would like to play for the Fighting Sioux one day. [Slightly Chilled]

Husky Hockey Time; has their series preview for Sioux vs Huskies [Husky Hockey Time]

Former DU Pioneer defensman William Wrenn was accidentally given credit for being in the fight against Gopher Jake Hanson. Wrenn left the Pioneers back in January to play in the WHL. [Denver Post]

DU, North Dakota lose captains at crunch time in WCHA [The Denver Post]

There has been some debate about the SCSU Huskies wearing black this weekend but apparently it’s next weekend that the SCSU Huskies are having a Throwback Jersey Night on February 26, 2011 when the Huskies play the Wisconsin Badgers at the National Hockey Center. [SCSU Athletics]

As always, here is the audio from Ryan Cardinal's appearance on 1130 the KFAN [Click to Listen]

Sioux fans favorite hockey analyst Kevin Gorg was on KFAN during the yesterday talking hockey as well with the PA. Personally, I don’t mind Kevin Gorg because I like his take on the game on hockey. I can’t fault someone for being a homer or fan of their favorite team. [click to listen]

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

UND Fighting Sioux hockey: A lengthy drought on Friday nights

Looks like it’s time for the Fighting Sioux hockey team to wear their black jerseys on Friday night in St Cloud when they open their away series with the SCSU Huskies. I think it’s also time for the Fighting Sioux hockey team to end their futile drought on Friday nights.
Grand Forks Herald --- The last time UND won a Friday night game in St. Cloud, defenseman Dillon Simpson was 5 years old.

Yes, it has been that long.

The Sioux are 0-7-3 in their last 10 Friday night games in the National Hockey Center, dating back to a 4-3 victory on Nov. 27, 1998. On that night, the Sioux escaped with a win after Adam Calder broke a 3-3 tie with 5 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the third period.

Since then, it has been more than a decade of struggles to open series in St. Cloud. The Sioux will try to break that streak at 7:07 p.m. Friday, when the teams open a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series.

Some of the best recent UND teams haven’t been able to snap the skid. Consider:

- The 2000 national championship team was blanked 3-0 in its Friday night attempt. It was the only time that team was shut out that season.

- The 2004 MacNaughton Cup champion team tied 4-4. It tied Jordan Parise’s season high for goals allowed in a game.

- The 2009 MacNaughton Cup champion team lost 3-0, snapping the team’s eight-game unbeaten streak. It was one of two second-half losses for that team.

- And the Frozen Four teams from 2005-08 all stayed within a goal of the Huskies on Friday nights, but none of them managed to squeak out a victory.

“It’s a really tough building to play in,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said of the near 6,000-seat facility that has seating on two sides, box seats on one end and a walkway on the other.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Fighting Sioux Hockey WCHA playoffs series ticket packages on sale

Time to get those WCHA first round playoffs series tickets... Get your ticket so you can watch the drive for number 8.
Grand Forks Herald ---- Ticket packages for UND’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association first round playoff series will go on sale to UND students and the general public at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Playoff ticket packages include tickets for all three potential games in the series.

The best-of-three series will be played at Ralph Engelstad Arena on March 11, 12 and 13 (if necessary). Game times are 7:37 p.m. on Friday, and 7:07 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).

Ticket packages for the series are $40 for adults, $20 for youth and $14 for UND students with a valid UND student identification card.

Public playoff ticket packages can be purchased at the UND box office at Ralph Engelstad Arena, all Ticketmaster locations, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or online at Ticketmaster.com.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Herald reads Sioux Sports...

I am the author of the infamous thread, “Fire head coach Dave Hakstol Dusting off an old thread - Actually it's a new one.” In the past we have had fans that after one bad loss or a rough start of a season are calling for the head coach Dave Hakstol. I have been guilty of this in the past as well and till I kind of got a feel for the kind of coach that Dave Hakstol is. One loss or sweep doesn’t’ seem to rattle the head coach and he never seems to lose focus even when it seems like times are bleak. Sure he has lost a few NCAA games over the course of his coaching tenure but so have other great head hockey coaches. The “Hockey Messiah” Jerry York took something like 12 seasons to win an NCAA title at B.C. But I digress… The bar is set pretty high in Grand Forks, ND. It also looks like the local media reads the fan message boards as well.
Apparently, it takes an 8-4 Nebraska-Omaha pounding on UND at Ralph Engelstad Arena to usher fans to their ledges.

Most goals given up in 19 years in Grand Forks? Hakstol’s a hack.

Mavs start 5-for-5 on the power play? Genoway can go away.

Dumb penalty after dumb penalty? Hextall might as well join Hakstol on that first bus out of Grand Forks.

And it just had to be Nebraska-Omaha, headed by former Sioux coach Dean Blais — the leader of the Sioux during their 1997 and 2000 national titles.

That meant as of Saturday afternoon, it was reaffirmed for a good chunk of Sioux fans that coach Blais does indeed walk on both frozen water and water.

The online message board Siouxsports.com even saw its legendary and laughable “Fire head coach Dave Hakstol” thread re-emerge. It’s five pages of babble and counting.

During each game throughout the season, Herald UND hockey writer Brad Schlossman and UND sports information director Jayson Hajdu conduct a live chat online that includes reader comments.

Instead of strictly providing updates Friday night, Schlossman and Hajdu supplied more therapy than Dr. Phil. Their voices of reason soothed a panicky fan base so often that they should have charged for the session.

Where, oh where, has perspective gone?

You’d think UND was scrounging in a season of mediocrity, fending off Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage to battle back to the middle of the pack in the WCHA.

If you happened to just stumble upon some of these fan meltdowns, you wouldn’t think UND was ranked No. 2 in the country at the time. Or in first place in the WCHA. Or that the Sioux are 14-3-1 in their last 18 games after Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Mavericks. (Oh yeah, those UND bums found a way to somehow pick up a win Saturday).[Read the Whole Article]

What brought Sioux fans to the ledge this time? This time it took an 8-4 thumping loss at the hands of former Fighting Sioux head hockey coach Dean Blais to bring out the fans that wanted Dave Hakstol to be fired as head coach of the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team. I posted this thread with my tongue in cheek because I thought would illustrate how impassioned our fan base can be some times, but it’s also silly to expect a hockey coach that has an 18-7-2 record, that’s sitting second in the college hockey’s toughest league having played the toughest schedule to date to be fired from his job. My friend Amy aka LGM’s thinks Sioux fans are cult followers, maybe she is right?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Who is the biggest diver in college hockey; we have a winner...

Earlier this winter Redwing77 and I decided that we should conduct a nonscientific poll of college hockey fans and ask them, "who we think is the biggest diver in all of college hockey is?" It was unanimous, Jacob Cepis A.K.A., C-Piss. All you have to do is breathe on the kid and he falls down like he has been shot, often rolling around on the ice. Cepis is the prototypical Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey player, mouthy, over celebrates when he scores a goal and a major league drama queen. 

Ordered by number of votes:

1. Jacob Cepis (7 votes)
1. Garrett Roe (4 votes)
3. Brett Hextall (2 votes)
4. Harry Zolnierczyk (Brown), J. Connelly (tUMD), C. Smith and J Murray (UW), J. Barriball (UMN), Mike Lee (SCSU) (all with 1 vote each)

Saturday, January 01, 2011

UMD's Olsen leaves UMD for the AHL...

When this story broke yesterday afternoon the first thing that came to mind was ineligible for the academically for second half of the season. Dylan Olsen is a first round draft choice so realistically he isn’t going to sit around at UMD not playing hockey; studying, trying to get eligible academically for the fall semester. Not going to happen folks.

If my memory serves me right Dylan Olsen was recruited by UND but wasn’t able to get into UND so he ended up choosing UMD. The academically ineligible spin was the buzz around this story on the blogsphere and Twitter and it's not surprising what so ever.
Rink and RUN ---- Former NHL first-round draft pick Dylan Olsen, a Minnesota Duluth sophomore defenseman from Calgary, Alberta, signed a three-year, two-way contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday and will join the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Ill., following the World Junior Championships.

Olsen, 19, leaves UMD with two goals and 22 assists for 24 points in 53 career games. This season, he had a goal and 12 assists for 13 points in 17 games before leaving to join Canada for the World Junior Championships in Buffalo, N.Y. Canada finished the preliminary round 3-1 following a shootout loss to Sweden on Friday. The tournament runs through Jan. 5.

“Dylan was having a good year and we were expecting a better, more confident player to return to us after the experience of the junior tournament,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We knew how much making Canada’s team meant to him and that it could only help his play. We’re just disappointed he chose to make a change at midseason.”

Sandelin did note that recent academic developments would likely have left Olsen ineligible for the second semester.
If you can’t stay eligible academically to play for your college hockey team I believe it’s a character flaw a lack of commitment on the part of the athlete because they are not living up to their end of the scholarship deal, Dylan Olson let his teammates down and he let himself down. This one also falls on the coach because they should be evaluating his players academic progress throughout the semester.

Being a former college athlete, I have seen a few people flunk out of college and lose their eligibility to compete in athletics and I don't understand how they can let this happen? Most places all you need to get is a 2.0 or a 2.5 and you can almost do that by just attending class and reading the materials from the lectures. Again, going to the state schools in the WCHA isn't all that difficult, (BSU, UMD, SCSU, UND, MSU-M) isn't like attending the MTU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, AFA and or Yale and Harvard. My advice to young athletes is go to class, study and complete your assignments, ask for help if you need it, get a tutor.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Sioux 5 Dogs 0

Grand Forks Herald Photo
As I posted on twitter the UND Fighting Sioux ruins the Bulldogs building opener. UND is now 3-0 and has scored 15 goals and given up only 4 goals in inaugural games/weekends.

To take a quote from the Viking’s quarterback Brent Favre, “the pieces are in place.” I do think this year’s Fighting Sioux hockey team is one of the better teams that Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol has had here at UND, that's including the teams that had Stafford, Oshie and Toews, this year’s version of Sioux has the UND Fighting incredible depth and are getting great play from all four of the forward lines. Defensively, the Fighting Sioux are getting to be very difficult to play against and held the FCC line pointless in tonight's game. The Sioux didn’t look like a team that had been off for a week and a half.

B2tv.com why bother?

Personally, I was impressed with what I saw tonight or at least with what I could see. I watched tonight's game on the B2tv.com and I am not impressed with the quality of broadcast that they put out, they are ripping people off. I am not sure it was worth the seven bucks that I spent to watch the game. It’s a low quality broadcast and just short of being horrible, the announcers were fine, I thought they did a good job, if you like the Bulldog perspective. Kind of makes a guy long for the student broadcast of KBSU or SCSU.

Both teams not at full stength

At the end of the game there was a mention of the Bulldogs not having all of their players. I am not sure we can use that as a reason why one team won or lost. Both teams were missing key players for this game, the Bulldogs were without Justin Faulk (6g-9a-15pts) and Dylan Olsen (1g-12a-13pts), both players are playing in the World Junior Championships. Senior forward Kyle Schmidt (7g-5a-12pts)was injured in at practice on Wednesday and he was out of the line up as well.

On the other side of the ice the Fighting Sioux were without Brock Nelson (2g-4a-6pts) and Derek Forbort (0g-9a-9pts), who were at the WJC. The Sioux were also missing forwards Jason Gregoire (6g-7a-13pts) and Brett Hextall (2g-4a-6) because of undisclosed upper body injuries. While Falk and Olson might be the Bulldogs best defenders, Hextall and Gregoire are 2/3 of one of the Fighting Sioux’s top two forward lines. Jason Gregoire is one of the best two-way forwards in the WCHA so, if anything, the missing players are a wash. It does appear that UND, who ends the month of December with a record 5-0-0, is heading in a different direction than the UMD Bulldogs who end the month of December at 1-3-1.

Goon's three stars of the game

1.) Aaron Dell 35 saves and records 2 shutout of the season
2.) Danny Kristo (1g-2a-3pts)
3.) Brad Malone (2g-0-2)

[Box Score]

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Potential vs. Current Development, a RW77 Rant

Ok, I am feeling rantish today and I'm in need of some enlightenment from the reader base.

On and on throughout my online fandom, I've read post after post about fans expectations of collegiate players based upon draft status and position. I find this extremely laughable.

Here's my rant:

Draft position, or even the fact they were drafted, is only marginally relevant to the college game. It's not even all that relevant towards junior player-rostered international competition. Why?

The NHL is always trying to draft for "now" talent, but it's not all that often that there are those sitting around beyond, say, the top 5 picks overall, and that's not always the case even so. Those who are good enough for the NHL when they are drafted are usually signed by the NHL right away. There are exceptions, sure, but for the most part, they are drafted based upon potential... or what they're predicted to develop into.

With this in mind, it's amazing on how people can base whether or not a player has done well or is living up to expectations based upon when they were drafted. If they weren't drafted at all, then there is no such expectation. Talk about hypocrisy.

The most recent example is the fact that Finland hung in there with the US WJC team despite the US having more draft picks on the team. What does that have to do with anything?

Sure, the American players have a higher potential towards professional play according to NHL Scouts, but that's hardly what's being graded at the WJC. Remember, Herb Brooks had the option to put even "better" players on his 1980 Olympic team than he did, but he did not. Craig, the goaltender, IIRC, wasn't the best goaltender available to Brooks at the time. BTW, Craig didn't have an altogether stellar pro career either.

Why is draft stock held in so much higher regard towards expectation than the players' current level of development?

I'm reminded of the former Wild GM Risebrough (sp?) who talked about the potential of his team being the key to his system. Yet, year after year, the Wild sucked. Why? Because potential relates directly to the future... a future that isn't guaranteed, just predicted. Teams that want to win NOW sign players who are able to produce NOW. Much like why the Red Wings are so successful as of late. Yeah, they are older than the sky but their potential has been realized and Babcock can better assigned them into roles within the team that should bring the most success.

College Hockey deals almost exclusively in players who have not yet reached their potential. In fact, if they did before they reached DI, they're typically on the watch for being busts... (See Mike Fink, Sioux fans). Yet, if an NCAA player is drafted, especially if it is in the first round, they are expected to be absolute monsters right away. If they're not, or play differently than the expectations the fans build on them, they're usually criticized, more often or not, unfairly so.

It's one of the main challenges of being college fans. We want our players to play fantastic, win it all, etc. We bang our heads against the wall when the NHL takes notice and signs them early. But if the player takes a normal developmental curve, they're open for criticism for not being as good as a player who bolted early.

So what is it? Allow the players to play their game at the current developmental rate and criticize them according to their play or let draft status cloud our judgment and grade them according to what they should be X years down the road today?

It seems rather harsh to me.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ranking the Leagues SOS...

So which league has played the toughest schedule to date?

WCHA

North Dakota 1 232.5
Bemidji State 2 230.0
Denver 3 201.8
Michigan Tech 4 195.6
Alaska-Anchorage 5 192.0
Minnesota-Duluth 6 183.6
Wisconsin 9 166.9
St. Cloud State 11 162.9
Minnesota 12 162.0
Colorado College 13 161.4
Nebraska-Omaha 15 155.3
Minnesota State 20 139.8

Hockey East

Boston College 7 179
Vermont 8 170.1
Boston University 14 159.0
Maine 21 139.0
New Hampshire 23 136.6
Mass.-Lowell 27 121.9
Massachusetts 29 113.2
Merrimack 30 112.9
Northeastern 31 110.5
Providence 39 83.0

CCHA

Notre Dame 10 163.2
Michigan 16 152.4
Alaska 17 148.0
Miami 18 144.6
Michigan State 24 129.4
Northern Michigan 25 127.2
Lake Superior 26 126.5
Bowling Green 34 105.7
Ferris State 36 100.2
Western Michigan 37 92.9
Ohio State 38 91.0

ECAC

Rensselaer 19 140
Brown 22 137.7
Yale 28 113.4
Union 32 108.4
Dartmouth 33 107.5
Harvard 35 105.1
St. Lawrence 40 78.0
Princeton 42 73.8
Quinnipiac 43 67.7
Cornell 45 59.2
Clarkson 46 57.9
Colgate 48 53.4

Atlantic Hockey

Air Force 41 77.9
Bentley 47 54.7
Holy Cross 49 53.4
Connecticut 50 52.8
RIT 51 49.7
Niagara 52 49.2
Sacred Heart 53 46.7
American Int'l 54 45.4
Canisius 55 41.3
Mercyhurst 56 36.1
Army 57 35.7
Robert Morris 58 34.2

INDY

Alabama-Huntsville 44 66.8

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Brad Malone is the WCHA WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for Dec. 14, 2010


The Pony Express delivered. Brad Malone had a good week on the score sheet and in the face-off circle and was rewarded for his good play by receiving the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week.
WCHA.COM ---University of North Dakota center iceman Brad Malone, who propelled his team to a pair of come-from-behind conference road victories at Minnesota State last weekend and into first place in the league race, has been named the Red Baron® WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for Dec. 14, 2010.

A 6-2, 212-pound senior from Miramichi, New Brunswick, Malone led all players with four points and a +4 plus/minus rating in UND's sweep over the host Mavericks, which enabled the Sioux to take over first place in the race for the WCHA regular season title and MacNaughton Cup. In a 4-3 victory last Friday (Dec. 10), Malone matched his career high with three assists, setting up three straight UND goals after his team trailed 2-0. Then last Sunday afternoon (Dec. 12) and with the Sioux trailing 2-1 in the second period, he capped another rally by scoring the game-winning goal at 14:47 to complete the sweep. Malone also earned a +3 in Sunday's game and was named the No. 1 star. In addition to his four points, Malone also won 56.8% (25-of44) of his face-offs in the series.