2013-14 Mankato Free Press WCHA Men's Hockey Pre-Season Coaches Poll

2013-14 Mankato Free Press WCHA Men's Hockey Pre-Season Coaches Poll

Rank Team First Place Votes Points
1 Minnesota State 9 81
2 Ferris State – 65
3 Michigan Tech 1 64
4 Bowling Green – 58
5 Alaska – 54
6 Northern Michigan – 40
7 Bemidji State – 35
8 Lake Superior State – 25
9 Alaska Anchorage – 18
10 Alabama Huntsville – 10

Predicted order of finish (first-place votes in parenthesis). Based on a 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale; coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team.

College Hockey: Jujhar Khaira leaves MTU

Michigan Tech got some bad news yesterday when the school announced that sophomore forward Jujhar Khaira wouldn't be returning for his sophomore season and he would be forgoing his final three years of eligibility to sign a professional contract with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. According to the release by Michigan Tech, academics was not a factor in his decision to leave school early, he sported a 3.38 GPA. Khaira scored (6g-19a—25pts) in his only season with the Huskies.

Thank you to @mtuhky for a great year last year ! Really excited to start my new journey with @EdmontonOilers
— Jujhar Khaira (@jujhar94) August 7, 2013

UND Hockey makes the Final Five for a 11th year in a row with win over Tech

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – With the win tonight, the University of North Dakota (21-11-7) hockey team has made the WCHA Final Five in each of Dave Hakstol’s nine seasons.

What’s even more impressive with UND’s 6-0 win over Michigan Tech, UND has made the Final Five for the 11th-straight year in a row, that’s the longest current streak in the WCHA.

Since coach Hakstol took over the reins in 2004-05, the University of North Dakota hockey team has never lost a first round WCHA playoff series and currently holds 18-4 (.818) record.

Hakstol also holds an impressive 32-9 record in the WCHA playoff games.

After last night’s 2-1 loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies, that streak appeared to be in jeopardy.  In last night’s game, the Michigan Tech Huskies were a miserable team to play against; they clogged up the neutral zone up and gave North Dakota little time and space. Huskies also beat UND to the puck all night long.

Tonight was a different story, the Green and White left little doubt as they were the better team all night long and beat the Huskies to the puck all night long and the Huskies defenders had no answer for UND team speed as they entered the neutral zone with speed and when the Huskies got a chance on Clarke Saunders the UND defense was there to clear the puck.

In the end, UND blew out the Michigan Tech Huskies (13-20-4) and actually ended up pulling the  starting goalie Clarke Saunders with 4:02 left and inserted the backup goalie Tate Maris who’s a very popular third string goalie with his teammates and with the fans as well.

Think about this, Clarke Saunders had a 27 save shutout, when the ever popular Tate Maris entered the game to a standing ovation. That happened. It was a very classy move by the head coach Dave Hakstol.

“I thought the level of play was our most complete of the year, without a question,” Head coach Dave Hakstol said of his team’s 6-0 win over the Michigan Tech Huskies. “We played at a playoff level for three periods tonight and it started right from the drop of the puck.”

An emotional Tate Maris explained what it was like to finally get a taste of game action in the last home game of his college hockey career. “it’s kind of indescribable I guess,” Maris said. I don’t know. I guess I am kind of at a loss for words for it. It’s kind of four years pushed into one night in four minutes there at the end. Pretty surreal, to say the least, it’s just amazing to be out there with your fellow teammates. To be surrounded by those fans, it’s kind of indescribable, just amazing to say the least.”

According to senior forward Corban Knight, tonight was a statement game for the UND hockey team and the head coach challenged the team to be better for 60 minutes tonight.

“We set the bar pretty high tonight with the way we played,” senior forward Corban Knight said. “In order for us to be successful like you said, we need to keep that bar high and make sure we’re working hard to get to that every night, because we’re only going to be playing better teams from here on in.”

Up next for UND is Colorado College who beat DU 4-3. That game will be next Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. central time. UND and Colorado College split the season series 2-2.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

UND finds tough sledding against Tech

“It was a hard fought playoff game and we came up one goal short,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. Well two if you believe the video replay that was shown on television monitors the Ralph Engelstad Arena press box.

We only got one look at “shot” in question and then it was gone from the screen, for some reason we didn’t get a second look at the no-goal in question.

USCHO Blogger Timothy Boger has a gif on his blog that proves otherwise, I guess that is up to you to decide.

We can discuss whether or not Michigan Tech (13-19-4) scored a goal on their first power play of the night, the fact remains that the officiating was equally poor all weekend long for both teams and wasn’t a factor in the game.

Both teams will have to play through it tomorrow night, obviously, and one teams is going to advance to the Final Five next week.

The crowd was barely seated when the Tech Huskies were able to dent the twine first at the 00:20 mark of the second period, with a goal from Tanner Kero.

UND came into the game with a 9-4-5 record when the opposition scores first, you can make that 9-5-5 with the 2-1 loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies.

This was UND’s first loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies since January 28, 2008, when UND lost 2-1 to Michigan Tech in the Great Lakes Invitational.

The game was a carbon copy of the Bemidji State series from a couple of weeks ago. The Huskies collapsed around their net and played a defensive style brand of hockey and made it tough for UND (20-11-7) to generate any offense whatsoever.

Finally, senior forward Danny Kristo was able to break through and got the equalizer at the 14:57 mark on a nice shot. “It was just a good play,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “He came up with the puck; he got a quick shot to the net. I don’t know where it went in, it found a hole. We didn’t find a lot of holes on him [Phoenix Copley] tonight.”

As always, the electrifying, but recently snake bitten Rocco Grimaldi, had a breakaway and a glorious opportunity to take a lead in the game, but was hooked at the last second by a Tech defender, causing him to miss a glorious opportunity.

Michigan Tech Huskies turned a UND turnover into the game winning goal at the 17:58 mark of the third period when C.J. Eick scored the game winning goal sending the fans to the exits and spoiling the UND fans plans for Sunday evening.

Tonight’s game was summed up best by this frank statement. “Its playoff hockey and if you don’t bring your best you won’t like the outcome, senior defenseman Andrew MacWilliam said. We kind of lulled there in the second period and it came back to bite us. We have to regroup and be ready to play tomorrow.”

“It was a hard fought game,” senior defenseman Joe Gleason said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the second period; we didn’t have a very good period. We had a great response in the third period. Definitely our best period of the night, if we can play like that for 60 minutes tomorrow it should be a good outcome for us tomorrow night.”

Nonetheless, UND ended up losing a heart breaker to pesky Michigan Tech Huskies and pushed the series to a game three. The same two teams will face-off tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. central, at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

Related articles

• UND Hockey: Slugs out win against Tech (thehockeywriters.com)

UND vs. MTU game 2 WCHA Playoffs

UND Forward Lines

21 Brendan O’Donnell–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo (A)
19 Rocco Grimaldi–27 Carter Rowney (A)–15 Michael Parks
25 Mitch MacMillan–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
11 Derek Rodwell–28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair

UND Defensive Parings

2 Andrew MacWilliam (C)–18 Dillon Simpson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
5 Nick Mattson –20 Joe Gleason

UND goalies

33 Clarke Saunders

31 Zane Gothberg
35 Tate Maris

Not In the lineup: Andrew Panzarella (22), Dan Senkbeil (8), Drake Caggiula (9), Coltyln Sanderson (26),  Bryn Chyzyk (29).

Michigan Tech Huskies Forward lines

19 Blake Pietila–10 Tanner Kero–23 Alex Petan
12 Ryan Furne–8 Jacob Johnstone–14 Chad Pietila
20 Blake Hietala–7 Jujhar Khaira–28 Milos Gordic
18 C.J. Eick–9 Dennis Rix–13 Aaron Pietila

Michigan Tech Huskies Defense Pairings

16 Steven Seigo (A) –34 Riley Sweeney
29 Walker Hyland–24 Daniel Sova
3 Bradley Stebner (A) –25 Carl Nielsen (C)

Michigan Tech Goalies

31 Pheonix Copley

30 Jamie Phillips

Ref Marco Hunt (15) , Derek Shepherd (3)  Lines Andy Kokken (70) Justin Hill (83)

Related articles

• UND: The Weekend Ahead (3/15-3/17) (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND hockey: Time for crunching numbers is over, it's crunch time (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Slugs Out Win Against Tech (insidehockey.com)

UND vs. MTU game 1 WCHA playoffs

UND Forward Lines

21 Brendan O’Donnell–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo (A)
19 Rocco Grimaldi–27 Carter Rowney (A)–15 Michael Parks
25 Mitch MacMillan–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
11 Derek Rodwell–28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair

UND Defensive Parings

2 Andrew MacWilliam (C)–18 Dillon Simpson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
22 Andrew Panzarella–20 Joe Gleason

UND goalies

31 Zane Gothberg
33 Clarke Saunders
35 Tate Maris

Not In the lineup: Nick Mattson (5), Dan Senkbeil (8), Drake Caggiula (9), Coltyln Sanderson (26),  Bryn Chyzyk (29).

Michigan Tech Huskies Forward lines

19 Blake Pietila–10 Tanner Kero–23 Alex Petan
12 Ryan Furne–8 Jacob Johnstone–14 Chad Pietila
15 David Johnstone–7 Jujhar Khaira–28 Milos Gordic
18 C.J. Eick–9 Dennis Rix–13 Aaron Pietila

Michigan Tech Huskies Defense Pairings

16 Steven Seigo (A) –34 Riley Sweeney
29 Walker Hyland–24 Daniel Sova
3 Bradley Stebner (A) –25 Carl Nielsen (C)

Michigan Tech Goalies

30 Jamie Phillips
31 Pheonix Copley

Refs:  Marco Hunt (15) , Derek Shepherd (3)  Lines Andy Kokken (70) Justin Hill (83).

Head of Officials Greg Shepherd is in the building

Related articles

• Goon's 2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND hockey: Time for crunching numbers is over, it's crunch time (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND: The Weekend Ahead (3/15-3/17) (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (insidehockey.com)

Final WCHA standings

 NEXT WEEK IN THE WCHA

WCHA PLAYOFFS • FIRST ROUND, BEST-OF-THREE

Games for Friday, March 15: #12 Alaska Anchorage at #1 St. Cloud State, 7:37 pm CT; #11 Bemidji State at #2 Minnesota, 7:07 pm CT; #10 Michigan Tech at #3 North Dakota, 7:37 pm CT; #9 Minnesota Duluth at #4 Wisconsin; #8 Colorado College at #5 Denver; #7 Nebraska Omaha at #6 Minnesota State.

Games for Saturday, March 16: #12 Alaska Anchorage at #1 St. Cloud State, 7:07 pm CT; #11 Bemidji State at #2 Minnesota, 7:07 pm CT; #10 Michigan Tech at #3 North Dakota, 7:07 pm CT; #9 Minnesota Duluth at #4 Wisconsin; #8 Colorado College at #5 Denver #7 Nebraska Omaha at #6 Minnesota State.

Games for Sunday, March 17 (if necessary): #12 Alaska Anchorage at #1 St. Cloud State, 7:07 pm CT; #11 Bemidji State at #2 Minnesota, 7:07 pm CT; #10 Michigan Tech at #3 North Dakota, 7:07 pm CT; #9 Minnesota Duluth at #4 Wisconsin; #8 Colorado College at #5 Denver; #7 Nebraska Omaha at #6 Minnesota State.

How some of us voted

Mattew Semisch, Radio Free Omaha

1. Minnesota

2. Saint Cloud

3. Nebraska-Omaha

4, North Dakota

5. Denver

6. Wisconsin

7. Minnesota State

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Colorado College

10. Michigan Tech

11. Bemidji State

12 Alaska Anchorage

Tim Braun, Michigan Tech Hockey Guide

1. Minnesota
2. Saint Cloud 

3. North Dakota

4. Nebraksa-Omaha

5. Minnesota State 

6. Denver 

7. Wisconsin

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Michigan Tech

10. Colorado College 

11. Bemdiji State

12. Alaska Anchorage

Troy Mills, The Beaver Pond

1. St. Cloud State

2. Minnesota

3. North Dakota

4. Nebraska-Omaha

5. MSU-Mankato

6. Wisconsin

7. Denver

8. Minnesota-Duluth

9. Colorado College

10. Michigan Tech

11. Bemidji State

12. Alaska-Anchorage

Andy Johnson, Bucky’s Fifth Quarter

1. Minnesota

2. Saint Cloud

3. North Dakota

4. Nebraska-Omaha

5. Denver

6. Wisconsin

7. Minnesota State

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Colorado College

10. Michigan Tech

11. Bemidji

12. Alaska Anchorage

Eric J. Burton, Goon's World

1. Minnesota

2. Saint Cloud

3. Nebraska-Omaha

4. North Dakota

5. Denver

6. Wisconsin

7. Minnesota State

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Colorado College

10. Michigan Tech

11. Bemidji State

12. Alaska Anchorage

My take in a nut shell...

	WCHA Games								Overall
	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA		W	L	T	GF	GA
St. Cloud State	17	12	5	0	24	58	37		15	10	0	83	62
Minnesota	17	9	4	4	22	57	41		17	4	4	94	47
Nebraska Omaha	17	10	5	2	22	64	52		14	9	2	93	70
Minnesota State	19	10	8	1	21	57	47		16	8	3	84	61
North Dakota	17	8	5	4	20	58	49		13	8	4	82	67
Denver	18	8	6	4	20	57	54		13	8	4	85	67
Wisconsin	17	7	5	5	19	40	38		10	8	5	54	47
Minnesota Duluth	18	8	7	3	19	50	51		10	11	3	64	68
Colorado College	18	7	10	1	15	60	66		10	14	2	88	94
Bemidji State	17	4	9	4	12	39	54		5	13	5	51	71
Michigan Tech	18	4	10	4	12	44	61		7	12	4	63	71
Alaska Anchorage	19	1	14	4	6	33	67		3	15	5	44	78

Last night's game, was probably a game to forget, UND didn't play well at all, there is no other way of saying it. I don't see any reason to panic now, at least not yet. I think the last time I have heard the home crowd boo the boys in green in white was the game against Minnesota State where UND lost 6-0 to the Mavericks on December 1, 2001.

This is what I had to say about last night's game.

Tonight, Corban Knight’s 19 game point streak came to an end. This was only the third game in the last 24 that Knight didn’t at least have a point. Breaking it down further, this was also the first time all season long that Knight and Kristo didn’t have a single point.

There really is no way to sugar coat tonight’s game. It was not a good effort at all for the North Dakota Hockey team, and the head coach Dave Hakstol was not pleased with his team’s effort. “We didn’t play very well tonight,” Hakstol said. “ We got our tails kicked in our own building.”

North Dakota is known for it’s second half surges, currently has a 3-3-1 record in it’s last seven games.

WCHA Web Media Poll: Week 15

Each week, I participate in a WCHA Web Media Poll that is put on by the Tech Hockey Guide with 11 other people that represent both the print media as well as the hockey blogosphere.

The Minnesota Gophers are this week’s unanimous #1 team. The Gophers received all 12 first place votes this week’s poll.  North Dakota, Denver and Omaha all fell one place in this week’s poll.  Places Six through 12 remained unchanged.

Here’s a look at the results the Tech Hockey Guide WCHA Web Media Poll for Week 15:

Place	Team	Pts	Prev	Record	High
1)	Minnesota (12)	143	1	17-3-4	1	1
2)	St. Cloud State	126	5	14-10-0	2	3
3)	North Dakota	125	2	13-7-4	2	4
4)	Denver	102	3	13-8-4	4	6
5)	Nebraska-Omaha	101	4	13-9-2	3	6
6)	Minnesota State	77	6	15-8-3	5	8
7)	Wisconsin	71	7	9-8-5	6	8
8)	Minnesota Duluth	69	8	10-11-3	5	9
9)	Colorado College	47	9	10-14-2	8	10
10)	Michigan Tech	37	10	7-12-4	9	11
11)	Bemidji State	25	11	5-12-5	10	11
12)	Alaska Anchorage	13	12	3-13-4	12	12

Representing  Name Publication Twitter

Alaska-Anchorage, Taylor Hall College Hockey News @thall907

Bemidji State, Troy Mills The Beaver Pond
Colorado College, Joe Paisley, Paisley Hockey @Paisleyhockey
Denver, Mike Chambers, Denver Post @MChambersDP
Michigan Tech, Tim Braun, Tech Hockey Guide @TBraunTHG
Minnesota, Dan Myers, Minnesota Hockey Magazine @1DanMyers
Minnesota Duluth, Bruce Ciskie, The Ciskie Blog @BruceCiskie
Minnesota State, Chris Dilks, Western College Hockey @ChrisDilks
Nebraska-Omaha, Matt Semisch, Radio Free Omaha @matthewsemisch
North Dakota, Eric Burton The Hockey Writers Combine and Goon’s World @goon48
St. Cloud State, Jeremy Larson, Husky Hockey Time @jclarson02
Wisconsin, Andy Johnson, Bucky’s 5th Quarter @andyjohnsonB

Cross Posted at the Hockey - Writers Combine.

Edit: How some of us voted. (6/12)

I like transparency and I have no problem showing how I voted. Every week 12 of us contribute to the Tech Hockey Guide WCHA Web Media Poll. Here's how six of us voted.

Andy Johnson, Bucky’s Fifth Quarter

1. UMTC

2. UND

3. SCSU

4. UNO

5 Mankato

6. Denver

7. CC

8. UW

9. UMD

10. Bemidji

11. Michigan Tech

12. Anchorage

Troy Mills of the Beaver Pond

1. UND

2. Minnesota

3. St. Cloud

4. Nebraska-Omaha

5. Mankato

6. Colorado College

7. Denver

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Bemidji State

10. Wisconsin

11. Michigan Tech

12. Alaska Anchorage

Chris Dilks of Western College Hockey

1. Minnesota

2. North Dakota

3. Saint Cloud State

4. Nebraska Omaha

5. Minnesota State

6. Denver

7. Minnesota Duluth

8. Colorado College

9. Bemidji State

10. Wisconsin

11. Michigan Tech

12. Alaska Anchorage

Eric Burton Goon’s World

1. North Dakota

2. Minnesota Gophers

3. Saint Cloud State

4. Nebraska Omaha

5. Minnesota State

6. Denver

7. Colorado College

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Bemidji State

10. Wisconsin

11. Michigan Tech

12. Alaska Anchorage

Tim Braun of the Tech Hockey Guide

1. North Dakota

2. Saint Cloud

3. Minnesota

4. Nebraska-Omaha

5. Minnesota State

6. Denver

7. Colorado College

8.  Minnesota Duluth

9. Michigan Tech

10. Bemidji State

11. Wisconsin

12. Alaska Anchorage

Matthew Semisch from Radio Free Omaha

1. North Dakota

2. Saint Cloud

3. Nebraska Omaha

4. Minnesota

5. Minnesota State

6. Denver

7. Colorado College

8. Minnesota Duluth

9. Wisconsin

10. Bemidji State

11. Michigan Tech

12. Alaska Anchorage

 

More NCHC Hate

Michigan Tech logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What an awesome idea, insult a whole fan base travels well before they show up and spend money in your hometown.

I actually expected to read more poorly written  editorials like this during the final year of the WCHA as we know it today, but we haven’t so far. Why write this now?

First off, if you’re going to attack someone you should have saved your ire for the Wisconsin Badgers athletics department. Wasn’t Barry Alvarez one of the big cheer leaders of the B1G? Without the Big Ten Hockey Conference none of this would probably ever happened.

Brandon Veale; DMG Sports Editor --- You can probably bet on this being the last time UND slums around here, thanks to they and the rest of the band of mutineers that formed the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. You may remember the NCHC as the league formed to avoid undesirable (and more importantly, untelevised) trips to places like Houghton, Mankato and Anchorage and replace them with occasionally televised places like Oxford, Ohio and Kalamazoo.

They're very excited about this, as the NCHC is already sending out regular releases on each future member's progress, even though league play doesn't begin until next season. It's a job Winston from the book would be proud of.

I'm sure everyone the television industry is beating the door down to go to Grand Forks in January to show the Fighting _____ play Western Michigan, though I wouldn't mind seeing how they're going with uninstalling all the _____ logos paid for, and demanded by, Ralph Engelstad's hard-earned casino money.

First, I don’t have anything against Michigan Tech and appreciate their school and their hockey program so this isn't directed at their team. I have met many great Michigan Tech fans and have enjoyed interacting with their fans during the Final Fives.

Last year, during the Final Five I had a 0:300 am breakfast at Mickey’s Diner in Saint Paul with a Gopher fan, two Tech fans and two other UND hockey fans that I know and the general theme was we’re were going miss days like this when our favorite teams all go different directions in 2013-14.

That being said, this sports column was hardly needed.

Like I have said a few times, the fans are hardly to blame when it comes to College Hockey re-alignment; we had no choice in this matter. These types of conference decisions are made by people in athletic departments that are supposed to be a lot smarter than the rest of us. I don't remember them asking any of us for our feed back when they made these decisions either.

I have always told people if you’re unhappy with the formation of the NCHC send the people that made this happen an email or letter. That’s where your anger should be focused.

Lastly, I also don’t think that it’s necessary to take shots at a dead benefactor. What’s the point? I don’t know any college hockey program that would have turned down a 100,000,000.00 donation/gift to build a hockey arena. Ralph Englestad Arena has been a God send to UND, and helps recruit some the best hockey players in college hockeys. I am just shocked there wasn't a Nazi reference in there. I mean seriously, Ralph Englestad has been dead since November 26, 2002 but yet the hateful comments never cease, ten years later.

Related articles

• Former Gophers Andy Brink's thought's on college hockey and the WCHA (thehockeywriters.com)
• WCHA Issues One-Game Suspension to Wisconsin's Little (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

WCHA no comment on Michigan Tech's Jujhar Khaira penalty

This past week, Ryan Little was given an extra game suspension for his hit on Michigan Tech's Jujhar Khaira, the video of that hit can be seen here. I don’t think many of us have a problem with the extra game suspension, unless maybe you’re a Wisconsin Badger fan.

Player safety should be paramount. Yeah, I am rolling my eyes right now.

What I do have a problem with is the take down move that Khaira put on UW sophomore defenseman Jake McCabe, you can see by the pictures included that this was an egregious and dangerous move and should have warranted at least a five minute major and a game misconduct.  If look at the picture you will notice that the on ice official is looking right at the play.

I do believe that Little’s hit is grounds for a one game suspension, you have a player head hunting an unexpecting player in a vulnerable position that doesn't even appear to be looking at the player that’s bearing down on him. When I first saw this hit, I immediately thought of the Raffi Torres hit on Marian Hossa. The Little hit warrants a suspension in the NHL as well. I don’t think that many of us have a problem with that call.

What I do have a problem with is Khaira’s attempting to remove McCade’s head from the rest of his body and only receiving a two minute minor for holding.  Kind of makes one scratch their head. I have seen on line where some have likened the move to a WWE take-down. 

One question that I have is, did the refs inept response to the Khaira bush league move on Jake McCabe cause Little to take matters into his own hands? 

I asked sent an email to the WCHA’s Doug Spencer and this is the response that I got.

Eric,

We have no comment at this time. But I passed your note on to the Commissioner & Supervisor and if there is we will let you know asap.

Doug

s/t to @CJZERO

Related articles

• Former Gophers Andy Brink's thought's on college hockey and the WCHA (thehockeywriters.com)
• MTU's game winning goal against BSU. (thehockeywriters.com)