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

Sunday, March 09, 2014

UND Hockey: Finding the silver lining in a Penrose-less day


Obviously, the UND hockey team is known for its second half surges. This season’s second half surge was the fifth best of Dave Hakstol’s coaching tenure at UND. Looking at the schedule and the results, I think it’s safe to say that on November 30, 2013, this season’s second half surge commenced.
While many of us are disappointed that UND didn’t win last night. There are many things to be excited about as well. This loss didn’t sit well with the players either.

I don’t know if anyone thought this team would own an  20-11-3 record after starting the season 4-7-2. I think this team might have actually exceeded expectations.
Since November 30, 2013, UND is averaging 3.25 goals per game and giving up 2.06 goals against per game.

After the rough start, I didn’t think that they would end up in second place of the NCHC standings. Nonetheless, the loss last night is kind of disappointing. The focus of the team now turns to getting a green banner.  
I think it’s safe to say that this team transformed from a hockey team finding its way, to a team that’s a threat to win a league playoff title and an NCAA title. What happens to them, will determined in the next few weeks.  

During that time, sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg is 13-2-1 with a .935 save percentage and a 1.63 goals against average. It’s hard to believe that Gothberg started the season off with a 2-5-2 record.
Speaking of Gotberg, he won the NCHC GAA title (2.26).  He beat out he beat out Ryan Massa (2.27). He was also tied for second with Lukas Hafner from Western Michigan in save percentage (.924).

Breaking down the numbers: After Saturday night’s game, UND is now 1-9-2 (.167) in games when they score two or fewer goals.
UND is 11-0-0 when they score four or more goals.

UND is 8-10-3 when they scored three or more goals.
UND is 6-7-1 when the opponent scores first.

When UND leads after the first period, they have a 11-1-1 record.

When UND leads after the second period, they have a 15-1-0 record.
When UND is behind after two periods, they have 1-8-0 record

When the opposition leads after the first period, UND has a 6-7-1 record.
UND is 6-6-0 against Nationally Ranked Opponents.

I don’t know what to make of this stat… UND is 6-0-0 on CBSSN.
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Playoff Hockey is here


NCHC first round

No. 8 Miami (12-19-3) – PWR 40 at No. 1 St. Cloud State (21-8-5) – PWR 5

No. 7 Colorado College (6-22-6) – PWR 51 at No. 2 North Dakota (20-11-3) – PWR 10

No. 6 Denver (16-14-6) – PWR 26 at No. 3 Nebraska Omaha (16-16-2) – PWR 34

No. 5 Western Michigan (17-14-5) – PWR 21 at No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth (16-14-4) – PWR  19

The NCHC Playoff bracket is set. predictions and thoughts.

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Saturday Morning Pontifications: Is there a Penrose Trophy in the Future?

Since November 30, 2013, UND goalie Zane Gothberg is 13-1-1 with a .936 save percentage and 1.59 goals against average. During that same time, UND is 16-3-2. Also, senior goalie time Clarke Saunders has a 3-2-0 record during the same time. UND started the season 4-7-2, they were going nowhere fast and they were sitting in the bottom of the NCHC Standings. In looking at the turnaround,  we might be able to credit the player's only meeting in late November. When asked about the turnaround, Gothberg was quick to give credit to the coaches.

“Obviously it starts with our coaching staff,” Gothberg said. “They’ve been through the ropes. They’ve been through everything, throughout the years. And I think it just kind of came down from them.”

Gothberg continued, “Once we figured out how to play our game, each guy bought in. It was a simple mentality change. Just a little bit before Christmas break. It was kind of cool to see what happened. You know what, we’re going out and proving ourselves every night, still. Proving to ourselves, and to our team that we can be even better.”

With the win last night, UND is either going to be playing Colorado College or Miami University. It’s just a matter of with team finishes number one, and which team finishes number two. UND is 2-0-0 against C.C. and 3-1-0 against Miami. Neither team is an easy out. So, we now have the four home teams for the NCHC playoffs, UND, SCSU, UMD and UNO. We'll know exact seeding at about 10:30 p.m.

It’s hard to believe that WMU is the sixth place team in the NCHC. Based on what I have seen, they’re a pretty good hockey team. It was fun to listen to former NHL coach Andy Murray after the game.

Here’s a few statistics to chew on. After finding it hard to score goals earlier in the season, UND is the third in the NCHC for goals for with 75. First is SCSU with 83 and second is Nebraska-Omaha with 78. Defensively, UND is second with 61 goals against, Denver is first with 56.

As I mentioned earlier in the season, I thought UND was a good hockey team that was trying to find their way. Some wanted to abandon the team. Early in the season, I went to a few practices and saw some of the goings on when the team was down. It was not all fun and games around the UND locker room, I can tell you that. You could feel the tension around the UND hockey team. I asked someone if it was stretch run was on already… Their response was, oh yeah. It's on.

That being said, there’s a lot of skill on this team. There’s also a lot of team speed. This is one of the fastest UND hockey teams that I have seen in a very long time. The play starts with the “D” and they lead the breakout, out of the defensive zone, in a lot of cases. If you can, focus on players like Jordan Schmaltz, Dillon Simpson or Paul LaDue, they’re very good with the puck. I think this team gets out of the defensive zone better than last year’s team, and that team had a lot of high-end offensive talent.

The UND hockey team is transforming from being a bruising team that checks you out of the building and takes a lot of penalties, to a team that can skate with the Boston Colleges. This is no accident. UND is changing like the NHL game has.

Tonight, UND will honor four very classy seniors, defenseman Dillon Simpson, forward Mitch MacMillan, forward Derek Rodwell and goaltender Clarke Saunders. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch this week’s “Through These Doors”. There’s some very good stuff.

On my way to work this morning, Simpson was on “Hockey on Campus” and I just can’t get over the fact that Simpson isn’t even 21 years old yet. The senior defenseman came to UND as a young age of 17. There’s freshmen on this team that are older than him. Age is just a number.

Surprising result of the night: After being named NCHC Goalie of the week, Ryan Massa gave up four goals on 27 shots to the UMD Bulldogs. UMD would win the game 8-2. Tony Cameranesi and Justin Crandall paced UMD with two goals each.

Monday, March 03, 2014

NCHC Hockey: Going down to the Wire

42
22
14
8
0
0
0.636
73
61
32
19
10
3
0.641
101
84
42
22
13
6
3
0
0.659
76
59
32
19
8
5
0.672
114
86
UNO
39
22
12
8
2
1
0.591
76
60
32
15
15
2
0.500
106
101
UMD
34
22
10
10
2
2
0.500
60
64
32
15
13
4
0.531
90
91
WMU
34
22
10
10
2
2
0.500
64
66
34
16
13
5
0.544
91
89
DU
32
22
9
10
3
2
0.477
54
54
34
15
13
6
0.529
86
77
CC
24
22
6
11
5
1
0.386
47
64
32
6
20
6
0.281
61
100
17
22
5
16
1
1
0.250
52
74
32
11
18
3
0.391
92
98

 I guess we should take a look at the standings. This is definitely going down to the wire this season. Three teams (UND, SCSU, UNO) have a chance to finish first overall. Tiger’s beat writer Joe Pasiley has the procedures for breaking ties on his blog. This is what happens if teams tie in standings of the NCHC. So, if UND and SCSU win out, UND gets the tie breaker.

1. The team with the greater number of NCHC regular-season wins shall be the higher seed.

2. Head-to-head competition. Among the teams tied in the standings, the team with the highest winning percentage will be the higher seed.

3. Goal differential: Total goals for and against in contests between the teams tied in the standings.
4. Winning percentage of the teams tied in the standings against the remaining NCHC teams, starting at the top of the standings and working toward the bottom until the tie is broken.

5. Coin flip.