Showing posts with label NCHC Hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCHC Hockey. Show all posts

Friday, February 28, 2014

This is why the UND vs SCSU game in on at 8:08 p.m.


I am been critical of the NCHC’s television deal with CBS Sports Network. (NCAA Hockey: Current NCHC Television Deal is Unacceptable)

“When” they the broadcast games, they’re awesome. Their hockey coverage is second to none. I would argue that the quality of the CBSSN broadcasts are top-shelf. I also love what Dave Starman and Ben Holden bring to the booth. But, they’re just not on enough. When we don’t have television coverage for away road games, you have to watch the games on a member school's webcasts. Most of them can't keep up with the traffic that UND hockey fans bring to their webcasts. Those for the most part have been less than acceptable this season as well. (NCAA Hockey: There Has to Be a Better Way)

Tonight’s game between SCSU and UND is on at 8:08 p.m. because the game time is being preempted by a college basketball game between Providence and Seton Hall.

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but the NCHC leadership needs to do a better job when they negotiate the next television deal. No more exclusivity deals. So far, exclusive has proven to be fewer hockey games on the tube.
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UND Hockey: Lots on the line this weekend

The table has been set. The stakes are high. The Penrose Cup will be in the Herb Brooks Arena (aka the Concrete Center) this weekend. If either team sweeps, they "would" clinch at least a share of the the Penrose Cup.

The SCSU Huskies (12-5-3-0 NCHC, 18-7-5 overall) and University of North Dakota (13-7-0-0, 18-9-3) are currently tied at the top of the NCHC standing with four games remaining in regular season.

The order is tall for UND, in their last 10 games against the Huskies they hold a 4-5-1 record and they haven’t had much success against Husky goalie Ryan Faragher. The last time UND beat SCSU was on (11/09/2012) when Clarke Saunders shutout the Huskies 3-0.

Records: UND has a 14-2-1 record the last 17 games. SCSU 7-6-3 record the last 16 games.

SCSU goalie Ryan Faragher has UND’s number

Over the last couple of seasons, Husky goalie Faragher has had UND’s number. In the last two seasons, Faragher has a 4-1-1 record against UND. This includes a series sweep earlier this season in Grand Forks. During his career against UND, the junior goalie has 6-3-1 record with a .940 save percentage and a 1.79 GAA.

Second verse same as the first.

At the Ralph Engelstad Arena, Faragher has been nothing short of amazing, compiling a 4-1-1 record, a.957 save percentage and a 1.50 goals against average. UND hopes their fortunes will change this weekend against the Huskies. The Green and White need to emerge from this weekend’s series with at least a series split, to keep their title hopes alive. To be successful this weekend UND is going to have to get pucks past Faragher. Sounds simple right?

Zane Gothberg is no slouch either

From this week’s game notes: In the last 13 games, UND goalie Zane Gothberg is 11-0-2, with a 1.75 GAA and a .931 save percentage. In 21 games this season, Gothberg is 13-5-3, has a  2.12 GAA and a .922 save percentage. Against the Huskies, Gothberg is 0-3-0, 3.10 GAA and has a .902 save percentage. Saunders is 1-1-1, 2.27 GAA and has a .920 save percentage.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Hatten SC Times: Tickets still available for this weekend's games; UND vs SCSU

I am actually surprised that there are still tickets left for this game. Standing room is very good tickets. This will be a great series if you can take in game I would recommend going.
Mick Hatten, Saint Cloud Time -- Tickets for this weekend’s North Dakota at St. Cloud State men’s hockey series are getting difficult to come by, particularly for the Saturday night game at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Tenth-ranked North Dakota and fifth-ranked St. Cloud State go into the weekend tied for the lead in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which is in its inaugural season. There are four games left in the regular season and the teams moved into a tie for the lead last weekend.

“This is always a big series for us and sales are always high,” said Chad Sheetz, St. Cloud State’s assistant director of athletic business & finance operations. “After Christmas, sales really started to pick up.”

As of about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, there were 599 remaining standing-room only tickets remaining for Saturday’s game, which starts at 7:07 p.m.

There are about 450 tickets available for Friday’s game.

Friday’s game has the unusual starting time of 8:07 p.m. because the game will be on a national telecast. Friday’s game will be televised on CBS Sports Network (Charter Channel 412, Direct TV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158).

Saturday, February 15, 2014

UND Hockey: Discovering Your Inner Geek

UND is 15-2-1 when they score three or more goals and is 0-7-2 when score two or less.

Junior forward Mark MacMillan is red hot right now, scoring (5g-6a—11pts) in his last nine games.

Mike Parks has (2g-4a—6pts) in the last three game. During the last 11 games he has scored 14 points (6g-8a—14pts).

With a (1g-1a—2pts) Last night, Mike Parks is now ranked second in “league points” in the NCHC. Parks has (8g-10a—18pts).

Since being put together three games ago, Mark MacMillan (4g-3a—7pts) – Michael Park (2g-4a—6pts) – Drake Caggiula (1g-2a—3pts)have combined for (6g-9a—15pts).

“Real American Hero’s are wearing camo, that’s not me,” Former UND forward T.J. Oshie

UND Holds on to Beat Miami 3-2

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota hockey team has been on a tear during the second half of the season. With the 3-2 win on Friday night against the Miami RedHawks, they improve their record to 11-2-1 in the last 14 games and (15-9-3, 10-7 NCHC) overall. UND is now tied with Nebraska-Omaha for second place in the NCHC with 30 points.

Junior forward Mark MacMillan has been on a hot streak for UND, the junior forward from Penticton, British Columbia, chipped in two goals and an assist to lead UND. During the last nine games, MacMillan has scored (5g-6a—11pts). When asked about his junior forward, head coach Dave Hakstol has this to say.

“He played a good hockey game,” Hakstol said. “He was moving his feet. He used his linemates well. I thought he played a good hockey game. I don’t think there was anything spectacular, but he played a real good hockey.”

Coming into the game, the UND power-play has been ice cold, and hadn’t scored a power-play goal since January, 24, 2014.  On Friday night, UND finally broke through on the power-play going 1-for-6.  After the game, coach Hakstol had this to say about UND’s struggling power-play.

“You guys are making a big deal about it, not me,’ Hakstol said. “We had a bad weekend last weekend, that’s all. You can put that behind you. We did a good job tonight. Tonight’s a new night.”

This past week, UND made some adjustments on their power-play. The coaching staff moved junior forward Stephane Pattyn to the power-play and it seemed to work.

“One of the areas where I thought we were better tonight was gaining possession in the offensive zone,” Hakstol said. “That’s one of the things that Steph Pattyn is pretty good at.  He’s a big body and a strong guy that can go to the front of the net. Maybe that’s something he can bring as well. Probably first thing is getting in and getting that initial possession.

UND’s lone power-play goal wasn’t a thing of beauty, but that didn’t seem to matter to the burly assistant captain.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it counts,” Pattyn said. “We have put a lot of work on power-play and made a couple of changes, so we’ll take it.”

Coming into the game, Clarke Saunders had been lights out on Friday nights and not so good on Saturday nights. Last night, Saunders stopped 31-of-33 shots (.939%). Even with the bad game last Saturday, Saunder’s teammates never lost confidence in their starting goalie.

“He had a good game night tonight, Hakstol said. “Especially when the game was 3-1, I thought he made two or three key saves to keep the game at 3-1. I thought he did a good job tonight.”

“Not at all, He was great all week in practice,” Pattyn said. “We have faith in him. We knew he was going come back and have a great game and if he’s in tomorrow he will do the same thing.”

With the win, the UND head coach surpassed the 250 win mark. After the game, coach Hakstol was asked about his thoughts on getting his 250th win tonight.

“I didn’t know that,” Hakstol said. “No comment. It was a good team win for us. I thought we had some good play out of all of our lines. We’ve got to get ready for a battle tomorrow.”

UND will try to push his win total to 251 when they play the second game of the two-game serious tonight at 7:00 P.M. Central at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

(Official Box Score)

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Sunday afternoon randomness

Just for comparison sake, I thought I would take a look at a few of the top players in our league as well as a few nationally… I think sometimes we don’t give our opponents enough credit, but there’s some good players in division I college hockey.

In the NCHC, the forwards for SCSU, Miami and UNO are very good. Also, I included SLU because UND played them and split with them. That series actually started UND’s good run. I also put the players national rank next to their name.

While there’s a lot of gloom and doom today, Since UND started the season 4-7-1, UND has 10-2-1 record over the last 13 games. That’s not too bad in my opinion.

Boston College – just because

1 Johnny Gaudreau, B.C. (24g-32a—56pts)
2 Kevin Hayes, B.C. (20g-27a—47pts)
4 Bill Arnold, B.C. (11g-30a—41pts)

SLU, because UND played them

3 Greg Carey, SLU (14g-32a—46pts)
28 Matt Carey, SLU (16g-16a—32pts)
40 Jeremy Wick, (13g-15a—28pts)
51 Justin Baker, SLU (8g-19a—27pts)
51 Gavin Bayreuther, SLU (7g-20a—27pts)

Former league opponent

18 Jean-Paul Lafontaine, MSU-M (18g-18a—36pts)
20 Matt Leitner, MSU-M (9g-24a—33pts)

Next Week’s opponent

6 Riley Barber, MU (17g-19a---36pts)
7 Austin Czarnik, MU (10g-24a—34pts)
- Sean Kuraly, MU (6g-12a—18pts)

SCSU league member

37 Nic Dowd, SCSU (15g-12a—27pts)
37 Jonny Brodzinski SCSU (14g-13a—27pts)
40 David Morley, SCSU (8g-18a—26pts)
60 Kalle Kossila, SCSU (12g-13a—25pts)

UNO Mavericks
16 Josh Archibald, UNO, (21g-11a—32pts)
71 Ryan Walters, UNO (6g-18a—24pts)
71 Dominic Zombo, UNO, (13g-11a—24pts)
98 Brock Montpetit, UNO, (10g-12a—22pts)
98 Jake Guentzel, UNO, (3g-19a—22pts)

One of ours

98 Rocco Grimaldi, UND (10g-12a—22pts)

I am sure all of us are frustrated with the results this past weekend... Saturday night was an utter disappointment to the fans, the coaching staff and the players... I don't think one person in the UND locker room was satisfied with the results of that game... Hate to break it to the Hakstol haters, but Hakstol isn’t going anywhere... I would bet even money on it. Even if the UND doesn't make the playoffs, he's going back behind the bench next season.

First, Hakstol is a proven coach that has one of the best coaching records in the NCAA over the last 10-years. Also, he's got a big contract and it would take a lot of money to buy him out.

Second, UND isn't going to fire him, it’s not going to happen, unless he did something criminal. Do any of us think that's going to happen? I don’t. I think Hak is a good coach and will continue to get the job done.
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Saturday, February 08, 2014

Look who's on top in the NCHC


I know there's a lot of hockey left, but the log jam at the top continues.
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UND vs. UNO game one shot charts


As you can see by the shot charts, UND was under attack in the second period and Clarke Saunders kept UND in the game. Many of the shots he faced were in close from the slot. Eight of those 18 shots were from between the faceoff dots. It might not have been UND’s best effort, but UND found a way to win, despite being outshot 33-22.


UND will try to get the sweep against the Mavericks tonight. Hopefully, we will see the traditional circle of sticks at center ice tonight.


Friday, February 07, 2014

UND Hockey: Breaking down the Numbers

Here’s something that sticks out for me. From November 15, 2013, UND has a 10-4-2 record. During the 16 games UND averaged 2.81 goals per game. Also, UND gave up 2.56 goals against per game. Breaking it down further, during the last 11 games, UND compiled a (9-1-1) record. During that time, UND scored an average of 2.90 goals per game and gave up 2.00 goals against per game.

Power penalty-kill struggles  

Here’s something that I would be concerned about. Going into the first series against the Mavericks, UND had killed 32-of-33 penalties. That was tops in the nation. Since that time, UND’s penalty-kill has struggled and ranks 52nd nationally going percent (65-for-86) at 75.6 percent. During those 17 games, UND has allowed two or more power-play goals in seven- of-17 games. During those 17 games, UND has a 11-4-2 record. (UNDSID)

Power-play not much better


UND’s power play has also struggled in recent weeks, having gone 3 for 28 (10.7%) over the last seven games. UND has been held without a power-play goal in four of its last five games. One exception, on January 24, 2014, against DU, UND went 2-for-4. (UND SID)


 UND………………………………………………………………UNO

2.79 (5th)..................................Goals For............................ 3.21 (2nd)

2.71 (3rd)............................. Goals Against.......................3.38 (t-7th)

+0.08 (6th).........................Scoring Margin..................... -0.17 (7th)

18.3% (5th)............................ Power Play..........................19.2% (4th)

81.5% (5th)............................Penalty Kill......................... 76.0% (8th)

14.5 (5th)...........................Penalty Minutes.....................15.0 (3rd)


Record during 17-game special teams skid


Nov. 10 at Nebraska Omaha* W, 3-2 (1-0-0)
Nov. 15 #20 Minnesota Duluth* (Midco SN) W, 4-2 (2-0-0)
Nov. 16 #20 Minnesota Duluth* (Midco SN) L, 6-3 (2-1-0)
Nov. 22 at Boston University (NBCSN) L, 3-1 (2-2-0)
Nov. 23 at Boston University (NESN) (ot) T, 3-3 (2-2-1)
Nov. 29 St. Lawrence # (Midco SN) L, 5-2 (2-3-0)
Nov. 30 St. Lawrence # (Midco SN) W, 3-2 (3-3-1)
Dec. 6 at Western Michigan* (CBSSN) W, 3-2 (4-3-1)
Dec. 7 at Western Michigan* W, 3-2 (5-3-1)
Dec. 13 Northern Michigan (Midco SN) W, 3-2 (6-3-1)
Dec. 14 Northern Michigan (Midco SN) W, 3-1 (7-3-1)
Jan. 10 Colorado College* (CBSSN) W, 5-3 (8-3-1)
Jan. 11 Colorado College* (Midco SN) W, 3-2 (9-3-1)
Jan. 17 at Bemidji State (LPTV) (ot) T, 1-1 (9-3-2)
Jan. 18 Bemidji State (Midco SN) W, 4-2 (10-3-2)
Jan. 24 at #16 Denver* (CBSSN) W, 4-2 (11-3-2)
Jan. 25 at #16 Denver* (Root Sports RM) L, 3-0 (11-4-2)
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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Hey Diddle Diddle, Look Who's in First Place


Pts
GP
W
L
T
SW
Win%
GF
GA
GP
W
L
T
Win%
GF
GA
24
13
8
5
0
0
0.615
39
39
23
13
7
3
0.630
67
62
23
12
7
3
2
0
0.667
39
28
21
12
5
4
0.667
71
51
UNO
21
12
6
4
2
1
0.583
36
29
22
9
11
2
0.455
66
70
DU
21
13
6
5
2
1
0.538
33
32
25
12
8
5
0.580
65
55
WMU
20
12
6
5
1
1
0.542
38
34
24
12
8
4
0.583
65
57
UMD
17
12
5
6
1
1
0.458
34
36
21
10
9
2
0.524
60
59
CC
13
13
3
7
3
1
0.346
29
39
23
3
16
4
0.217
43
75
11
13
3
9
1
1
0.269
30
41
23
9
11
3
0.457
70
65

I didn't think we would be saying this, but look who's in first place in the NCHC. Here's a look at the records the last 10 games.
UND 9-0-1 last 10 games.
SCSU 4-4-2 last 10 games.
UNO 3-5-2 last 10 games.
DU 4-3-3 last 10 games.
WMU 6-3-1 last 10 games.
UMD 5-4-1 last 10 games.
C.C. 2-6-2 last 10 games.
MU 2-6-2 last 10 games.