Showing posts with label Harvard Crimson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harvard Crimson. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Stay in School part three, Louis Leblanc
I am an advocate of college hockey. According to College Hockey Inc., 31 percent of the players in the NHL came from the college ranks. Recently, I have been profiling college hockey players that have left their college teams early, for the lure of the big money in the NHL/professional ranks.
Here’s another example of a player that could have benefited from a couple more years at Harvard. Louis Leblanc was drafted in the first round, 18th overall by the Montreal Canadiens. Last week, Leblanc signed a one-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks.
In 50 NHL games with the Habs, Leblanc scored (5g-5a—10pts). In 163 AHL games, Leblanc scored (34g-34—68pts). In hind sight, I wonder if Leblanc wished he had spent a few more seasons in college? Maybe not!
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Bu's controversial goal against Harvard
BU's forward Danny O'Regan scores a controversial goal against Harvard Crimson goalie Raphael Girard, but after further review it appears that the Hockey East Official Kevin Shea made the right call. I know some of our friends won't like the call but, the call on the ice looks correct. What do you think?
No one saw it but Kevin Shea, but he's in zebra stripes and an orange armband, so he's the only one that matters. 5-2 BU. #ECACHockey
— Brian Sullivan (@SullivanHockey) January 10, 2013
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Fighting Sioux race past Harvard 7-3
Image via Wikipedia Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota has suffered their fair share of injuries this season, and coming into tonight they didn’t even have enough healthy players on their roster to have 12 forwards and six defenseman playing in the series finale.
With all of the players out with various ailments, you could field a pretty good forward line with the players that didn’t dress for tonight’s game between the Harvard Crimson and the University of North Dakota.
Here is the updated breakdown of the injury reserve list for the UND hockey team: Senior forward Mario Lamoureux, upper body injury, Junior forward Corbin Knight, suffered a lower body injury in Friday’s game and is listed as day to day. Freshman forward Roco Grimaldi has been out with an injured knee. Grimaldi has played in a total of four games out of the 20 games that UND has played in this season. Sophomore forward Derek Rodwell was injured in last night's game and is out with an upper body injury. Rodwell is listed as out indefinitely.
You can see where this is going...the University of North Dakota has four important forwards out of its lineup and no room for error or anymore injuries. It would be an understatement to say that it has been a season of adversity for the UND hockey team. One might assume that they are due some good Karma.
The UND hockey team didn’t use injuries as an excuse and with their shorthanded/depleted line-up. Junior forward Danny Kristo did his best impression of Kirby Puckett and took the UND hockey team on his shoulders and lead them to victory. Kristo had two goals and an assist to lead the team to a 7-3 win against the Harvard Crimson.
Kristo was most impressive during the first period where he scored two goals and almost buried his third goal before the first 20 minutes of the game expired. Kristo would added an assist in the third period on Brock Nelson’s 15th goal of the season.
After the game, Kristo was asked about the mentality of the team knowing that the team was playing with 11 forwards and five defenseman. “We didn’t really talk about that too much we just kind of talked about everyone stepping up a little bit. We kind of gave that game away there yesterday and everyone was pretty upset about it. Basically the mentality was to come in hard and play Fighting Sioux hockey and come back and get a victory tonight.”
This season the Fighting Sioux hockey team has had trouble getting scoring from the other forward lines in their lineup. Tonight the all-freshman line of Mark MacMillan (1g-1a—2pts), 21 Brendan O’Donnell (1g-0a—1 pts) , Connor Gaarder (1g-2a—3pts) was a major force on the ice and chipped in three goals on the delayed penalty.
Connor Gaarder was asked about the mentality of the team, knowing that the team was playing with only 11 forwards and five defenseman. "We have a lot of guys out of the lineup, its hard to do, a lot of guys came out and stepped up and made some big plays tonight..." Gaarder also talked about the importance of having a big weekend, “It’s always good to have a big weekend, every weekend I come out and try to play my best and try to get a little bit better come out and it’s nice to back it up a little bit.” The freshman had a very good weekend (2g-2a—4pts), and doubled his point production for the season. On the other end of the ice, Harvard senior forward Alex Killorn had a big weekend for the Crimson as he recorded (2g-2a—4pts) and was a force all weekend.
UND Hockey head coach Dave Hakstol was unhappy with his team’s effort on Friday night. Compare and contrast a difference one night made.
Fast forward to tonight, coach Hakstol was a little more satisfied with the play of his team on the ice and was asked the mentality of his team knowing they were playing with only 11 forwards and five defenseman. Hakstol said, “ I think our mentality was right, we weren’t real happy about our finish last night, the way we came out in the third period last night and squandered the two goal lead, and I think that stuck with us through the day and I don’t think the lineup was really an issue our mind set was focused on how important this game was and how critical it was to get the win. “
The UND hockey team ends the first half of the season with a 10-8-2 record and a 7-7 record in the WCHA. With the loss the Harvard Crimson drop to 4-4-4 and own a 3-3-2 record.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
North Dakota and Harvard Skate to a 4-4 Tie
Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota and the Harvard Crimson have not played each other very often. The last time that UND and Harvard played was December 6th, 2008.
While neither team was very familiar with each other, there was one thing that UND could expect, Harvard, led by Head coach Ted Donato was going to play a tough physical game and be smart in the defensive end of the rink. Donato’s team didn’t disappoint as they got in the shooting lanes and limited UND’s time and space while jumping on turnovers and creating opportunities going to the other way.
It was apparent from the drop of the first puck that Harvard was going to play a defensive 1-2-2 trap style game and try to slow down the Sioux forwards at the blue line.
The Crimson are not a one dimensional team and they brought the seventh ranked offense in the nation to the Ralph Englestad Arena. In tonight’s game the Crimson generated a good counter-attack off of turnovers in the neutral zone and caused havoc in the offensive zone.
Harvard forward Alex Killorn had a big night for the Crimson, as he scored a goal and two assists to led Harvard back from a two goal deficit in the third period, and assisted on the game tying goal at the 13:16 mark of the third period.
The Crimson also came into the game with the nation’s top ranked power play and showed why they are ranked that high, as they scored off the faceoff of their first power play with a goal from Patrick McNally. UND outshot and out played the Crimson in the first period 8-2, but trailed on the scoreboard, 1-0.
The Second period proved to be an exciting period of hockey as UND outscored the Crimson 4-1, and gave the UND fans a glimpse of the team that many think they can be. The Sioux scored their first goal at the 01:25 mark of the second period with a goal from Nick Mattson. UND scored again 14 seconds later with a goal from Brendan O’Donnell.
Harvard answered the two-goal outburst from UND with a goal 1:16 later, at the 02:55 mark of the second period, when Alex Killorn scored his seventh goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2. Nick Mattson became the first UND defenseman since October 16, 2009 to score a shorthanded goal at the 05:12 mark of the second period. Connor Gaarder would finish the scoring in the third period with an awesome wrap around goal at the 12:51 mark of the second period. (4-2 UND after 2).
The Sioux had a comfortable lead going into the third period, but looked like they ran out of gas. After a couple of untimely turnovers, UND opened the door and let the Crimson back in the game. The Crimson scored two goals in three minutes to tie the game. There would be no more scoring from either team as the game would end in a 4-4 tie after the overtime period.
UND forward Carter Rowney, when asked what they [UND] have to do better tomorrow night,replied, “we have to concentrate on playing a full 60 minute game, cannot let up at all. Every team is good in this league, good in this country, and you have to play a full 60...you can’t let up at all!"
Tonight neither goalie was very sharp and both teams appeared to be rusty from the holiday break.
The game would go to overtime and the game would end in a 4-4 tie.
After the game, Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol was not very happy with his team’s effort in the third period and said that his team went out soft in the third period. "We had three shots on goal fifteen minutes into the third period. We didn’t go out and play hard in the third period and that is what cost us the game." Coach Hakstol also said that he thought, "the team didn’t play well in the third period..." He thought "they were on their heels and had their heads up their rear ends. “
The Crimson and UND play game two tomorrow night at 7:07pm at Ralph Englestad Arena.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sioux slip past Mavericks 1-0
After the game, Danny Kristo was asked about the new rivalry with the UNO Mavericks. He said, "it’s already a good rivalry, they are a good team over there and one of the most frustrating teams that I play. They do a good job clogging the neutral zone, they finish every check. They have a really good head coach over there, it’s good competitive series every time. For all three series with them have been splits and all three have been great series, it’s a great new rivalry.”
It would not be an understatement to say that the Fighting Sioux have suffered their fair share of injuries this season, and earlier in the day they learned that they would be even more shorthanded as their first line center Corbin Knight had suffered a lower body injury and would be unavailable for game two of the series.
The majority of play during the first two periods of the game was spent in the neutral zone. Frankly, the game wasn’t exciting at all. I am sure that many of the fans that attended tonight’s game would say the same thing. After two periods of hockey, the game was tied 0-0 with both teams having put 21 shots on net. The game would pick up a little bit during the third period.
If I had to pick out one player that was solid all weekend for either team, it would be Fighting Sioux goalie Aaron Dell. Dell was impressive on the weekend 59 out of 61 shots for a .967 save percentage.
After the game, Aaron Dell was asked how it felt to win a game like this for a goalie, to which he said, “It's huge. We had guys battling hard, we did everything right tonight, made my life easier no breakaways tonight.”
After watching two periods of grind it out boring hockey, the game finally got a little more interesting, and at the 0:44 mark of the third period Fighting Sioux forward Danny Kristo beat a UNO defenseman Jacob Megna into the corner. Kristo picked up the puck skated out front and scored a great wrap around goal, shooting the puck past UNO Maverick Goalie Ryan Massa to give the Sioux a 1-0 lead. That was all the offense the Fighting Sioux would need as the Sioux were able to hold off a late surge by the Mavericks to earn the split in the series against the Mavericks.
After the game Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol had this to say about his team’s play, it was a real gutsy performance by our team, in a real hard fought game, in a real hard fought series, I thought it was a gutsy performance by our team.”
The Fighting Sioux are 7-7-0 half way through their league schedule and Coach Hakstol was asked how he likes his team half way through the league schedule. Coach Hakstol said, "we are growing up, I like the team we are becoming. We are starting to define what we are...we are starting to figure ourselves out a little bit. Quite honestly, I have not seen our entire team together yet. That’s something hopefully we will be able to do during the second half. Hopefully we will be able to get healthy and be able to have everybody available and try to put that together to see how good we can become. I know this, we dug ourselves out of a pretty deep hole, I think we have put ourselves back into a position where we have the opportunity to control our own fate in the second half by our performance.”
The Fighting Sioux have an exhibition game next weekend against the Russian Red Stars on December 17th. The Fighting Sioux will return to action against the Harvard Crimson on the 30th and 31st of December.
The Fighting Sioux have an exhibition game next weekend against the Russian Red Stars on December 17th. The Fighting Sioux will return to action against the Harvard Crimson on the 30th and 31st of December.
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