Showing posts with label Mike Lee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Lee. Show all posts

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Huskies Mike Lee Signs with the Desert Dogs

This was one of the more shocking pieces of news to surface today as Saint Cloud State Huskies goalie Mike Lee has signed a professional contract with the Phoenix Coyotes. Goon's Notebook: Mike Lee never was able to beat the UND Fighting Sioux in three season of play with the SCSU Huskies, Lee had a 0-6-1 record against the UND. 

With the departure of Lee,  Ryan Faragher is the only goalie with the Huskies with NCAA Division I college hockey experience. Faragher had a 2.77 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. Faragher started 23 games (9-11-3) while Lee was out with a hip injury from October 15th till January 21st.

GLENDALE, ARIZONA --- Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney announced today the Coyotes have signed goaltender Mike Lee to a three-year entry-level contract. As per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Mike Lee
The 6-foot-1, 195 pound Lee posted an 8-6-2 record with a 2.23 goals against average and a .930 save percentage with St. Cloud State (WCHA) in 16 games this season.

The 21-year-old native of Roseau, MN appeared in 74 games with the Huskies during his three-year career, posting a record of 32-29-9 with a 2.59 GAA and a .919 SV%.

He led Team USA to the gold medal game at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship in Saskatoon, Sask., posting an undefeated record of 4-0 with a 2.50 GAA and a .908 SV% in five games. Lee recorded the third-best SV% among tournament goaltenders.

Lee was selected by the Coyotes in the third round (91st overall) in the 2009 Entry Draft.
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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sioux grind out 4-1 win against Huskies

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...
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ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Saint Cloud State Huskies are always a tough draw; they have only been swept once all season long. The Huskies managed to get points every single weekend this season.

Tonight was no different, as the Fighting Sioux had to work hard to get the win against the Huskies. One can markup tonight’s game as another hard fought epic battle tonight as well.

Coming into tonight’s game, Huskies’ junior goalie Mike Lee has never won a game against the Fighting Sioux in his three seasons with the Huskies, going 0-5-1 during that run. With the 4-1 loss tonight, Lee’s record drops to 0-6-1.

While his junior goalie has yet to win a game against the Fighting Sioux, Saint Cloud State coach Bob Motzko described his goalie, “as a big time goaltender.”

The Huskies and the Sioux play a similar style of play as both teams like to limit the other’s time and space and get into the passing lanes making it difficult to generate scoring opportunities. That rang true tonight. At times the Huskies frustrated the Sioux by clogging up the neutral zone and they also did a good job getting the shooting lanes.

The Fighting Sioux also got in the passing lanes, took away the Huskies time and space and frustrated them as well.

Corbin Knight broke the defensive stalemate at the 7:40 mark of the first period, when the junior center curled in front of the net to center the puck. It went off of the SCSU defenseman Sam Zabkowicz and into the net past Lee.

With Knight in the box for charging, junior forward Ben Hanowski made the Fighting Sioux pay with his 23rd marker of the season.

Fighting Sioux sophomore forward Brock Nelson had been a little bit snake bitten as of late, but was able to get off of the snide with his 24th goal of the season as he snapped a shot over Lee’s blocker.
Motzko was impressed with Nelson’s first goal of the game.

“He’s coming down on his off side, a pretty good hockey player to, I think that’s the player in our league that you’re going to watch play in the NHL for a long time,” Motzko said. “He was able to cut back in the middle of the rink and that is where is he is going to go he is on his offside, kind of one on one and you can keep him on his back hand and you keep him down there, and he was perfect. Our guy crossed his feet over and he stepped back into the middle and was able to make a shot.”

The pesky Huskies wouldn’t go away quietly into the night.

With the Huskies goalie out of the net and pressing hard down low, Nelson would get his second goal of the game and his 25th goal of the season to ice it.

Fighting Sioux junior goalie Aaron Dell played well, and was the difference in the game stopping 28 of 29 shots.

When it was all said and done, this was a very even game and either team could have won. Motzko agreed.

“It was an extremely hard fought hockey game,” Motzko said. “It was a tough grinding game; it was a great game down on the bench. I don’t know if there were a ton of plays being made…”

With the win tonight, the Fighting Sioux improve to 23-12-3 and jump up to ninth in the PairWise Rankings.

The Fighting Sioux will play the top-seeded Minnesota Gophers in the semifinal game at 7:07 p.m. tomorrow night.

Coach Dave Hakstol seemed excited about the prospects of playing the Minnesota Gophers again.
“I said it yesterday, we are in the greatest venue possible for post season play in college hockey,” Hakstol said.“Saint Paul… the entire town is electric, this building is an awful lot of fun with the number of fans that are in the building, we have an opportunity to play a rival tomorrow night. If you like competition, you will like the game tomorrow.”

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

SCSU 3 UND 1

Not much you can say about last night’s game other than former Bismarck Bobcat goalie Ryan Faragher was solid in net again for the SCSU Huskies as Saint Cloud State University beat the University of North Dakota 3-1.

I thought UND played pretty well and had some decent chances and showed great speed through the neutral zone. Defensively, I thought they played well in the back end. The forwards just couldn't bury their opportunities when they had them; you're not going to win many games scoring only one goal per game.

The UND forwards are also going to have to catch Faragher who is 6'2" moving because he can stop most of what he sees.

I thought that last night's game was a decent game to watch. I must admit that I am not a big fan of the B2 broadcasts, and I hope when the NCHC start play in 2013-14, that we will be able to see most, if not all of the games on television.

Back to the game, let's give credit where credit is due. Faragher was definitely the difference in the game. Every time UND put a decent shot on net, Faragher was able to see the puck and was in position to make the save. UND didn't get as many chances down low as they could've as well. They are going to need to get a body to the net to cause some confusion in front of Faragher.

The "big story" coming out of Saint Cloud is that Mike Lee is healing nicely and due to return. I don't know how Faragher isn't going to keep getting starts for the SCSU Huskies when Mike Lee returns to the line up for the Huskies. 

Quickly the young Freshman goalie Ryan Faragher is becoming a nemesis for UND. In his first season at SCSU, he is now 2-1 against UND. Faragher has been impressive in both wins against UND this season as he made more than 84 saves and gave up only one goal in the two wins.

Injured starting goalie Mike Lee has never beaten UND and is 0-4-1 during his career at SCSU against UND, but it doesn't seem to matter for the Huskies because they have Faragher waiting in the wings.

Box Score 

Cross Posted at INSIDE HOCKEY...
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Friday, October 28, 2011

Huskies take a bite out of the Sioux 4-0

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...
Image via Wikipedia
CROSSPOSTED AT INSIDE HOCKEY.
Grand Forks, ND --- Going into the weekend series between the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux and the Saint Cloud State University Huskies, there were many story lines. Early in the afternoon on Friday, news broke that Huskies starting goalie Mike Lee was injured this week in practice and wouldn't make the trip to Grand Forks. The extent of Lee’s injury won’t be known until he is evaluated next week.

In Lee’s absence, Husky freshman goalie Ryan Faragher was named the starter and was solid in his second start of his college career. Faragher’s night ended with a shutout, as he stopped all 44 shots he faced.

The second story line of the night was the battle of the MacMillan brothers. Fighting Sioux freshman forward Mark MacMillan played with his older brother, Mitch, when they were in juniors together in the Alberni Valley of the BCHL. The MacMillan brothers had never gotten a chance to play against each other until last night. Mitch’s team, the Huskies, got the best of the Fighting Sioux in that period, as they shutout the Fighting Sioux 4-0.

The highly talented Fighting Sioux freshman forward Roco Grimaldi finally played after being out of the lineup for five of first six games of the season. Grimaldi proved to be an electrifying player, but it wasn’t enough to put the Sioux over the top, as Grimaldi like his teammates, were held off of the score sheet tonight.

The Fighting Sioux, for a second game in a row, put 42 shots on net and outshot their opponent two to one, only to lose both games. The Sioux have outshot their last two opponents by a combined total of 86-38 and yet have nothing to show for their efforts.

With the loss tonight, the Fighting Sioux start the season with a 0-3 record in the WCHA play. This is the worst start for the Fighting Sioux since the 1989-90 season.

The Huskies were given two five minute majors (Nick Oliver checking from behind, and Ben Hanowskit hit to the head) and the Fighting Sioux were unable to cash in on either of the two power plays.

Neither team had any success on the power plays tonight, as the Huskies went 0-2 and the Sioux were unable to cash in on seven total power plays.

The Saint Cloud State University Huskies drew first blood when they scored at the 07:16 mark of the first period,when Jared Festler took a Drew LeBlanc feed and shot the puck past the Fighting Sioux goalie Aaron Dell, who was unable to get across the crease to stop the puck. That was the only goal of the first period. The Sioux outshot the Huskies 15-8 in the opening period.
There was no scoring during the second period, as the Fighting Sioux outshot the Huskies 24-8 and spent most of their time on the power play in the Huskies end, but couldn’t break the Faragher wall.

The Huskies buried the Sioux in the third period with three more goals. Andrew Prochno got the Huskies on the board with an even-strength goal at the 02:54 mark. Huskies defenseman Sam Zabkowicz put the final nail in the coffin when he blasted a shot from the point past Aaron Dell. Travis Novak finished the scoring with an empty net goal for the Huskies.

Overall a good effort by the Sioux, but it takes more than 'effort' to win league games. Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol said, "that they are going to have to start putting the puck in the four foot by six foot space."

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Sioux and Huskies Facts and Info

USCHO Photo
RADIO: 96.1 The Fox (KQHT-FM) • WEBCAST: Fighting Sioux.com
TV: Fighting Sioux Sports Network, Fox College Sports Central, DirecTV 617, Midco SN3

Special teams key

So far this season, the Fighting Sioux have been pretty good on the power play, going 6-for-28 (21.4 percent). On the penalty kill, the Fighting Sioux have struggled at times killing 20 of 27 penalties (74.1 percent). Last season during the run to the Frozen Four the penalty kill was a strength for the Fighting Sioux.

Lee no fan of the Sioux?

Saint Cloud State University junior goalie Mike Lee has a 0-5-1 record in six starts against the Fighting Sioux. Lee has not played well against the Sioux he has given up 25 goals during his career against the Fighting Sioux. EDIT According to Brad Schlossman’s blog, SCSU junior goalie Mike Lee did not make the trip to Grand Forks for the series because of an injury. Word is that the injury could be season ending.

Fighting Sioux have success against the Huskies...

Since the 2008-09 season the Fighting Sioux have a 9-3-1 record against the SCSU Huskies including a win in the Final Five Championship game two seasons ago .

CHN Power Rankings...College Hockey News posted their WCHA power rankings and The Fighting Sioux are ranked 6th. This is what Dan Meyers had to say about this weekend's up coming weekend between the Huskies and the Fighting Sioux.
St. Cloud State at North Dakota
The Fighting Sioux broke with history last season by starting the year red-hot — and pretty much carrying that momentum all the way to the Frozen Four. UND is back to its old tricks this season, but with questionable play in net combined with missed man games from Rocco Grimaldi, climbing out of this hole will be significantly harder than in years past. UND can’t win the MacNaughton Cup in October, but they’ll certainly able to lose it. SCSU is the only team without a conference game played, so any points this weekend will be points in hand on everyone else.
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