OXFORD, Ohio – Coming on the heels of a Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season championship and an NCAA Tournament berth, Miami University Director of Athletics David Sayler announced Monday that head hockey coach Enrico Blasi has signed a new 10-year contract that will keep him at the helm of the RedHawks through the 2022-23 season. Blasi’s original contract expired after the 2016-17 season as the new deal provides another six-year extension.In 14 seasons with the Miami RedHawks, Blasi has compiled an impressive record 311-196-53 (.602). This past season, Blasi’s team also won the regular season CCHA title in final season of the historic CCHA.
Picture by Serena Dalhammer
Showing posts with label NCHC Hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCHC Hockey. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2013
Miami's Blasi Inks New 10-Year Contract with Miami
Looks like the Miami RedHawks don’t want to take a risk at losing their head coach Enrico Blasi and have signed him to a new 10-year contract. Looking forward, with all of the instability in college hockey recently surrounding the head coachs, three have been fired in the last month, this is probably is a smart move by Miami RedHawks. Miami along with seven other teams (C.C., DU, SCSU, UNO, UMD, UND, WMU) begin play in the new NCHC, during the 2013-14 season.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Thursday, March 07, 2013
NCHC logo (by Donn)
I found the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference Logo at www.targetcenter.com/nchc which also has infromation on the 2014 playoff tournament.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
UND recruit Johnson and LaDue garner USHL Honors – Week 18
Official Press Release --- Award winners include Luke Johnson of the Lincoln Stars and Justin Kloos of the Waterloo Black Hawks who were named co-recipients of CCM Forward of the Week; Paul LaDue of the Lincoln Stars, selected as CCM Defenseman of the Week; and Connor Girard of the Dubuque Fighting Saints, who takes home honors as Reebok Goaltender of the Week.The Grand Forks Native Paul Ladue (10g-22a—32pts), leads all USHL defensemen in assists 22 and points 32. Ladue also leads the USHL in shots on goal with 120. Ladue is also a +20 in 38 games played.
Luke Johnson, F, Lincoln Stars: The 18-year-old tallied four goals and an assist over the weekend, leading then Stars to a pair of wins. On Friday night, he scored Lincoln’s first goal mid-way through the first period on the power play and assisted on Paul LaDue’s second period power play goal to help the Stars to a 3-2 shootout victory over the Sioux City Musketeers. After being held off of the score sheet on Saturday, the Grand Forks, ND native responded by recording his first USHL career hat trick, with a goal in each period, to lead the Stars to a 5-0 win over the Des Moines Buccaneers. Johnson currently ranks fifth on the team in scoring with 26 points (11g, 15a) and is tops with 11 points on the power play (6g, 5a).
Paul LaDue, D, Lincoln Stars: The Grand Forks, ND native had a point in each of the Stars’ three games over the weekend. On Friday, he scored a second-period goal on the power play and buried the deciding goal in the shootout [click to view] to lead the Stars to a 3-2 shootout win over the Sioux City Musketeers. He notched an assist in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Fargo Force and added another assist in Sunday’s 5-0 shutout over Des Moines. LaDue is currently riding a four-game point streak, amassing three goals and two assists over that span, and is third on the team in points (32) and second in assists (22).
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Santa Goon handing out thanks and more lumps of coal…
Tis the season to be jolly… For me personally, Christmas is one of the most wonderful times of the year. While I am not a big fan of cold weather and snow, I do love NHL and college hockey and ice fishing.
I have many things that I am thankful for… I am lucky to blog about of the best hockey teams in the nation with best fans in the world. I would like to thank the fans.
I would also like to thank my editor Andrew Eide for giving me an opportunity to write for the Hockey Writers Combine.
Big thanks to UND's Women's Hockey SID Derek Koenen, Matt Schill and @UNDSID Jayson Hajdu for all of their help in the pressbox and after games getting us the players and coaches to interview.
Now I am going to hand out some lumps of coal.
To the University of Minnesota Head coach Don Lucia for not scheduling the University of North Dakota for at least the next four years.
A big lump of coal to the NHL and NHLPA – Unfortunately, we have no NHL Hockey because of this moronic lockout and I would like to extend a lump of coal to the NHLPA and the NHL owners. I find both equally culpable. There is also no reason they shouldn’t have a deal by now. Get your butts to the conference room and get a deal hammered out. Enough is enough. Let’s get this thing figured out before we lose the second full season in less than eight years.
A lump of coal to the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee for not letting the players play with the half shields – if they’re good enough for the junior hockey players to wear – they should be good enough for the NCAA Division I hockey players to wear as well.
A lump of coal for the on ice officials in Division I college hockey – so far this season – I have seen some of the worst on ice officiating that I have seen for a very long time. I know it’s easy to sit in the stand or watch a game on TV and pick apart the officiating but it is what it is. Almost nightly, the officials are blowing the checking from behind penalty, this needs to be called consistently, yet it’s not. The level of college hockey has never been better – unfortunately, the officiating is at an all-time worst. I will be handing out lumps of coal to the NCHC if they hire any of the current WCHA officials.
A lump of coal to Brandon Veal of the Mining Gazette and his hit piece that he wrote about UND Hockey and the NCHC. Here is what UND head coach Dave Hakstol had to say about Veal’s moronic and bufoonish article. “I think honestly the guys read some of the press clippings around here and I don’t think they were real happy with an article that was in the paper here on Friday,” Hakstol said. "There was also all these tweets and twitter and all this, that were predicting that we were going to have packed it in because of a long first half, finished for finals and a big three week break coming. I think If we needed anything extra we certainly had it there.”
A lump of coal to the NHL owners for signing a bunch of player’s right before the lockout and then not wanting to pay the players the full amount of the legal contracts that they agreed to pay the players. The owner of the Minnesota Wild, Craig Leipold should be ashamed of himself.
A huge lump of coal to the commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman – just because – this is the third lockout since he has been the commissioner of the NHL and he will always go down in history as being the Lockout Commish.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Putting a spin on things... handing out lumps of coal...
This past week, the University of North Dakota Hockey team received some very good news as they got commitments from two highly touted and much desired big time recruits (Shane Gersich and Austin Poganski) from the Minnesota Golden Gophers back yard.
Some Minnesota fans seem to think that this is a serious coup d’état and very unacceptable and very even hard for them to stomach.
Yep! Being a UND fan, I must admit that I was impressed by these pickups and want to see more of them in the futre.
Yep! Being a UND fan, I must admit that I was impressed by these pickups and want to see more of them in the futre.
I also predict, that this won’t be the last time this happens either.
I mean seriously, why would a blue chip Minnesota hockey player want to play for the hated villains from the west in North Dakota?
That seems preposterous.
It’s not like UND has a great storied hockey history or anything like that.
I can’t figure it out… It’s not like Hakstol can coach or has ever developed any of numerous players from the University of North Dakota that made it to the next level in professional hockey.
If you’re paying attention for half a minute – I would appear that history had repeated it’s self once again and I believe that it will continue to happen.
Like my father once told me, “you can’t win them all.”
Contrary to the outhouse lawyers – UMN can’t get all of the best recruits from Minnesota – there are only so many roster spots to be given out – other schools are going to get a few of these players as well. Notre Dame’s Roster is beginning to look like who’s who from the Twin Cities Metro area.
Gasp! Some great Minnesota hockey players go to other schools. If you look at Minnesota Duluth, Saint Cloud State, Minnesota State, Wisconsin and North Dakota there are some great players on those teams from Minnesota. A fair number of these players probably played their high school hockey in the shadows of Mariucci Arena as well.
Let’s face facts, not everyone wants to play for the hometown Gophers. On the flip side of that equation; not every potential college hockey player wants to call the palace that is known as Ralph Engelstad Arena home. In coming hockey players need to find their niche where they fit in.
One might also suggest that a highly regarded high school hockey player from North Dakota could very well end up playing for the Golden Rodents as well.
Again, I know it’s very hard to believe that anyone from the Minneapolis Metro would want to play in such a beautiful hockey rink with 12,000 screaming hockey fans. It’s almost blasphemous to suggest something like this.
When you talk to UND hockey players and ask them what it’s like to play in the Ralph, words like incredible and amazing come out of their mouths. Add to the fact that hockey players are treated well in Grand Forks, ND doesn’t help either.
I have been reading some of the comments of the Gopher hockey fans and the Hockey pundits as they have tried to put their own spin on the recent turn of events.
“We didn’t want him.”
“His health is an issue”
“He’s too short.”
“He scored the majority of his goals against A competition and not AA.”
“I wasn't sold he was a must get at this point.”
Things just don’t play out according to script sometimes. I also don’t think that we should be all that shocked by the recent turn of events. The fact that the University of North Dakota will soon be leaving the WCHA to play in the NCHC isn’t going to have that much of an affect on recruiting.
In the end, UND is still going to be UND and that still means something.
Monday, December 03, 2012
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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
NCHC - "very specific discussions" on ice quality
More specifically the WCHA held the Final Five at the Target Center during the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons and the ice condition was really poor, also there are some bad sight lines as well for hockey because the Target Center is a basketball only arena for the most part – hockey is not played on a regular basis at the Target Center.
Eric Stromgren/CHN Writer --- The Target Center has been criticized as a hockey venue from ice quality to fan sight lines, something officials addressed in the press conference and with the media afterword.I have seen it mentioned in a couple of newspapers that the NCHC has a opt out clause with the Target Center if the conference is not happy with the Target Center but I have yet to see it mentioned in the latest press releases that I have received from the NCHC.
Scherr said there have been "very specific discussions" on ice quality.
Mattson has worked at the Target Center since the building opened and said past problems could be attributed to quick turnaround times required from the staff. Ice before the state high school tournaments in 1999 and 2000 were put in a few days before the tournament, Mattson recalled.
"We know we've got to get it made earlier, give it a proper amount of time to get it ready, get it skated on and get it roughed up — that's a challenge we're up for," Mattson said.
Mattson said ice will likely be made in mid-February to avoid potential problems and the Timberwolves would play above the ice with the court placed on a "deck."
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Is the NCHC close to picking the Target Center for their Conference tourney?
It has been rumored for some time now, that the Target Center was in the mix as a possible venue for the NCHC tourney – it’s sounds like that rumor is even closer to becoming a reality.
This is the tweet that seemed to set the twitterverse on fire this morning; UND Fighting Sioux beat writer Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald's posted this little nugget on line.
There seems to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking when it comes to the NCHC. The minute the rumor in question broke on Twitter, the usual suspects immediately starting picking a part the NCHC’s possible conference tourney venue; while I like many would probably rather see the NCHC play in the Xcel Energy Center, the Target Center does make logistical sense – the Target Center is driving distances for the UND, SCSU, UMD and UNO fan bases. I think it’s safe to say that those NCHC schools will probably have the biggest fan bases that are going to be willing to travel and fill the Target Center. Husker Mike has a good blog post on this very subject as well. [Click to view]
As we saw from the 2011 WCHA Final Five, UND and UMD fans filled the Xcel Energy Center when Wisconsin and Minnesota were knocked out in the first round.
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