Hatfields and Mccoys Round Two - Lines (UND vs. DU)

Some lineup changes from last game. Senior forward Coltyn Sanderson and Chris Wilkie, and Hayden Shaw are out of the lineup. For UND. There's some good new, Todd Anderson will NOT be reffing tonight's game. :-)

Shot Charts game one DU and UND

s/t to @StatsOnCrack... With the tie in last night’s game, UND now has a record of 2-0-3. UND is tied for first place in the WCHA for goals scored in overtime.

Senior forward Corban Knight was stellar in the the faceoff circle again last night, going 24-10. Senior forward Carter Rowney was 11-7.

Five out of the last six weeks UND has played a ranked opponent. During those 10 games, UND has gone 5-4-2 (.545). UND’s strength of schedule is fourth overall in Division I hockey. Strength of schedule goes a long ways in determining seeding at the end of the season for the NCAA tourney. If your favorite team has a winning record against opponents that are team under consideration for the NCAA Tourney (TUC) your pairwise ranking will go up.

UND has given up the first goal in seven of the 15 games that they have played in and have a 2-2-3 record. UND has a record of 5-3-0 in the games that they scored first in.

Midday Links Game Day DU and UND

This was on Brad E. Schlossman’s blog and it’s a very good break down of the wins for the WCHA teams the last 10 years. You can see that Denver and UND have had the best records the last 10 years in the WCHA.

Wins since 2003-04 (last 10 years)

250 — North Dakota
236 — Denver
221 — Minnesota
205 — Colorado College
198 — Wisconsin
179 — Duluth
177 — St. Cloud State
172 — Bemidji State (most games were played in CHA)
161 — Omaha (most games were played in CCHA)
136 — MSU-Mankato
105 — Anchorage
90 — Michigan Tech

Here is UND’s record before Christmas and after Christmas, since Dave Hakstol has been the head coach of UND. Since the hockey season is turning to the post-Christmas time, will UND make another second half run?

2004-05: 13-7-2 (.636) - 12-8-3 (.587)

2005-06: 12-7-1 (.625) - 17-9-0 (.654)

2006-07: 7-10-1 (.417) - 17-4-4 (.760)

2007-08: 8-6-1 (.567) - 20-5-3 (.768)

2008-09: 9-8-1 (.528) - 15-7-3 (.660)

2009-10: 9-6-3 (.583) - 16-7-2 (.680)

2010-11: 13-5-2 (.700) - 19-4-1 (.813)

2011-12: 9-8-1 (.528) - 17-5-2 (.750)

2012-13: 7-5-2 (.538) - ?

Totals 87-62-15 (.576) - 133-49-18 (.710)

There are a few things of interest today.

A Tradition of Excellence has his morning links up.

Joe Paisley and Tyler Buckentine have their weekly predictions up and they’re both predicting a split in this weekend’s series.

Now I am worried, Roman Augustoviz has his WCHA picks up and he has been wrong just about every weekend when it comes to the UND series. This weekend, Roman picks a UND sweep.

Chris Dilks of Western College Hockey has his weekend preview up.

The Hockey Writers – Combine has my feature on Drake Caggiula.

DU and UND set to take center stage

This weekend, the University of North Dakota plays one of their bitter rivals the Denver Pioneers. All you have to do is look at some of the hundreds of videos of UND and DU on YouTube to realize the two teams don’t really like each other very much.

Personally, I would liken the DU and UND match-up to college hockey's version the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s feud. Ironically, the head Villain is the head coach of the Denver Pioneers George Gwozdecky.  Personally, I admire Gwozdecky, I think he is a very good coach that expects a lot out of his players.



Ironically, in the modern time, I have only seen one college hockey players get into two fights in a single game and that player was former UND forward/defenseman Kyle Radke.



Whenever these two teams play against each other, it's like throwing gas on a already raging 10 alarm fire. The games are exciting, tense and ussually instant classics.



Here is one of my favorite memories in recent times between UND and DU. Matt Frattin's game winning goal during the 2011 WCHA Final Five. UND would meet Denver again in the regional finals and beat Denver again 6-1, to advance to the Frozen Four.

It's only fitting, that when the B1G made it's announcement that they would begin league play in the 2013-14 season, a new league was formed known as the NCHC. Word has it that the first call Gwozdecky made was to UND athletic director Brian Faison.  

Related articles

• WCHA Power Rankings: 12/02/12 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: 11/25/2012 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: 11/18/2012 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: 11/11/2012 (insidehockey.com)

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.

Related articles

• WCHA Power Rankings - February 21 (insidehockey.com)
• Goon's WCHA Power Rankings 2/19/2012 (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings - February 13 (insidehockey.com)
• Chambers; Stakes are high in University of Denver-North Dakota hockey series (ndgoon.blogspot.com)