Report Cards (Sioux 7)

Univeristy students are at the end of the fall semester, and they all know what that means...Report cards. This is also a good time to grade the hockey teams in the WCHA, since the season is roughly half over. So lets start from with the top and work our way down.

CC - WOW, they have proven my wrong to this point (I picked them to finish 8th in the league). Their freshman goalie, Bachman, has really done well, a saving .939%, and a GAA of 1.77. With those numbers and Chad Rau and Bill Sweatt leading them in scoring they have excelled to this point in the season. We will have to wait and see if the freshman goalie can carry them the whole season, or if the pressure will wear on him. They have earned an A, this first semester.

DU - They are about where I picked them to finish, 3rd. Senior netminder Mannino has returned to his sophomore form with 1.80 GAA and a .932% very similair to CC. No wonder they are tied for the top spot in the top conference. Their top 3 point getters are 2-sophs and a frosh, Trotter, Ruegsegger, and Bozak repsectively. The G-man always seems to get a good group of players that work well together. They too have earned high marks, A.

UMD - Sits alone in the 3rd spot with a 5-6-3 record. Not to often does a team sit at this spot with this record at this time of year in this league. They had been a good team early this season and now have fallen, winless in the last four league games. Goalie Alex Stalock has good numbers .910% and a GAA of 2.42 but they need some more goal scoring to stay in the top 5. They slid the last 10 games (2-5-3) so does their grade, C-.

UND - Has got a pattern developing, W-W-L-L-W-W-L-L-W-W-L...and that leads to their 6-6 record. Not what us Sioux faithful where hoping for, but then again. They have started off slow the last couple of seasons and rebounded in the second half. With the returning talent, their record should be better than this. Goalie JP Lameraoux started the season with 4 shout-outs in 5-games, and has had one since, but the numbers are still good, GAA 1.72 and a .936%. Most of the scoring comes from the top line, they need the other lines to pick it up if they want to go up in the standings. So they earn a grade of C this semester.

MTU - They round out the top 5 with a 5-6-1 record. They are right where I thought they would be, in the middle of pack looking to move up in the rankings. They are like UMD, they started great and then started to back slide, they have only won 2 games since the start of November, ouch! The good news is goalie ML Teslak has had the numbers we all expected, GAA 1.72 and .934%. These Huskies need a some more scoring punch if they want to bite on to a home play-off spot. Their mid-year grade is a C.

UM - The gophers are down this year and they just took another blow, Okposo leaves for the NHL. They need some help in their own end Kangas (GAA 2.63 and .907%) and Frazee (GAA 2.83 and .893%) have not had great success this season. The offensive has been down too, not a good combination. I, like I think many, thought they would be okay/fine offensively and suffer some on defense, but it has been bad. So for this point in the season their troubles have been exposed. Their semester grade C-/D+

UW - They are in the 7-spot with a 4-5-1 record, with a few games in hand on the rest of the league. They are in the middle of the pack with hopes of picking up the offensive scoring and trying to land home ice for the play-offs. (Notice that UMD 3-spot has a 5-6-3 record) The Badgers are about what we all expected some more offense then years past, and the goaltending taking a big hit. Don't get me wrong, Shane Connelly has decent numbers, GAA 2.70 and .906%, but not as high as Elliott's. They need offense, period. They are what we expected, average C.

SCSU - These Huskies ended a 6-game losing streak by beating CC going into Holiday time. And before that were on a 7-game unbeaten streak. ust call them butter, since they are hoping to get onto another roll (I know bad humor). With them skidding just before break it is hard to say what they are going to do. But with an over-all record of 8-8-2 they too are a middle of the pack team, grade C.

MSU-M - I see another trend 7-7-3 overall record, 3-6-3 in WCHA. The Mavericks have been on some streaks to win 3, lose 4, tie, 5-game unbeaten... The upside is they have a lot of home games the second half, so they have to capitilize on home ice advantage. Especially if they want home ice advantage come March. Goalie Zacharias had put up some good numbers this first half, GAA 1.94 and a .929%. He just needs to get more goals from his teammates to help them get over that hump. The way the league is they could suprise some people the second half, but as for the first half, they get a C.

UAA - The seawolves are in their usual position, 10th. They own a 2-7-3 WCHA record, the wins are over UMD and UM... So they did beat some teams above them (okay technically everyone is above them, but you know what I mean). They have been putting some pucks in the net, so scoring is doing so-so, but the goalie numbers are down, GAA 3.10 and .875%, they need to get better if they want to move out of the basement. At the break they get a D.

We will all just have to wait and see how things shake out in the months ahead...

Happy Holidays to everyone who visits GOON'S WORLD.