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

Friday, February 01, 2013

This weekend's NCAA Division one television schedule

This hockey season, with this absence of the NHL I have focused on the game of college hockey while the NHL and the NHLPA decided to act like a bunch of children, and hence, the two sided ended up causing the cancelation of 40% of the NHL Hockey season.  Now that the NHL is back up, and running, I would urge fans to continue watching the Division I college hockey.

This season, I have tried keeping up with the ever changing NCAA Division I hockey schedule, and for the most part it’s been difficult because the national college hockey television schedule is very fluid, they continually add games, and obviously delete games. So, I have decided to do it more by a week-to-week basis.

Programing note, for UND hockey fans that are looking for tonight’s game to show up on their DirecTV lineup, there is one change, DirecTV is not picking up Friday’s game between the Wisconsin Badgers. This was announced by the UND Sports Information Director Jayson Hajdu.

If you watch the NHL during the week, you will see numerous former college hockey fans lighting up NHL goalies all over the NHL.

On Wednesday  30, 2013, there was a game between the Minnesota Wild and St Louis Blues and it  looked like all WCHA reunion as there were nine former players from North Dakota (2X), Wisconsin (4X), Minnesota State,  Saint Cloud State, Colorado College. What I didn’t mention is the other schools that were represented in that game as well.

Last night, former Minnesota Gopher Thomas Vanek torched Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask for three goals and lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 7-4 victory over the Boston Bruins. Vanek is currently leading the NHL in points with 15. Former Wisconsin Badgers forward Joel Pavelski is sitting in fourth place with 12 points.

In the offseason, The Minnesota Wild signed former Fighting Sioux All-American Zach Parise, the Wild are seeing instance results from Parise, who’s currently leading the Minnesota Wild in scoring with (5g-4a—9pts).

In Toronto last night, former Fighting Sioux forward Matt Frattin scored the game winning goal for the Toronto Maples Leafs as they beat the Washington Capitals 3-2. Frattin is currently third in the NHL with 2 game winning goals.

I think that it’s safe to say, that the future of the NHL is on stage every Friday and Saturday on a television channel near you.

So, if you don’t have the NHL package or you’re one of those fans that have refused to spend the $50.00-$60.00 to get this package, you have options, especially if you have DirecTV.

*NESN = New England Sports Network. FCS= Fox College Sports. NBCSN = NBC Sports Network. DirecTV requires the “Sports Pack” to view the Regional sports Networks.

Fri.Feb. 1Michigan State at MichiganBTN6:35 p.m.610 / 439 (C)
Fri.Feb. 1UMass Lowell at MerrimackNESN7:00 p.m.628 / 434
Fri.Feb. 1Dartmouth at UnionNBC Sports Net.7:30 p.m.603 / 159
Sat.Feb. 2Michigan vs. Michigan State (JLA)FS Detroit3:00 p.m.663 / 430
Sat.Feb. 2University of Wisconsin at UNDFCS/Midco7:07pm626


Cross Posted at The Hockey Writers - Combine...
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Monday, January 28, 2013

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll; UND drops to 7

January 28, 2013

Team(First Place Votes)RecordPointsLast Poll
1Minnesota(28)18- 4-49751
2Quinnipiac(22)18- 3-39672
3New Hampshire15- 6-28714
4Miami15- 6-58356
5Boston College14- 7-27713
6Western Michigan16- 6-47239
7North Dakota13- 8-56335
8Yale12- 5-36058
9Notre Dame16-10-05647
10Denver13- 8-450610
11Boston University13- 9-147911
12St. Cloud State15-10-144616
13Massachusetts-Lowell14- 7-241615
14Nebraska-Omaha15- 9-240613
15Minnesota State16- 9-339314
16Dartmouth11- 7-230212
17Niagara15- 4-518017
18Union13- 8-415119
19Wisconsin11- 8-512720
20Alaska12- 8-469NR
Others receiving votes: Ferris State 42, Colgate 19, Providence 11, Cornell 5, Holy Cross 2, Merrimack 1, Northern Michigan 1.



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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sioux nickname reason UND's not playing UMN

There is an old saying, ‘I guess if you repeat something enough times it becomes true’. Doh’k! I have pretty much covered this subject in this blog post and here as well.
Roman Augustoviz, The Roman Empire --- These strong rivals will not meet in the regular season again until the 2016-17 season, according to what Gophers coach Don Lucia said on his weekly radio show on Monday.

"We are going to get them the first available opportunity back on our schedule," Lucia said.

That opportunity won't come until the 2016-17 season. Yikes. Of course, they could meet in the NCAA tournament, but that's not a given.

Next season the Gophers will be in the new six-team Big Ten Conference, UND in the new eight-team National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Lucia said the Gophers couldn't schedule North Dakota as a nonconference opponent because, at the time the current agreements were being made, UND still had an American Indian nickname. (The U of M has a policy prohibiting its teams from playing nonconference opponents with such nicknames. Now, of course, UND has dropped its Fighting Sioux nickname.)
I think keeping this rivalry series alive, is a no-brainer  I don’t know any UND fans that want this historic rivalry to end. In my humble opinion, this is one of the great rivalries in college hockey. I read some statements from Minnesota Gopher fans this past week that are head scratchers; do they really want to watch a tame, unexciting series where there is no emotion on the ice? That's what you're going to get with Penn State and Ohio State.

If you ask the players, they love playing in these games; I have never heard any of them say that they don’t want to play Minnesota. The UND vs. UMN games for the players, is one of these series that they look forward to. I have hard them say this at the Wednesday press conferences.

This was one of my favorite statements this week, was from a fan on Gopher Puck Live. From a random fan said… “The Gophers are the better team this year, but if North Dakota is allowed to do their usual after the whistle shenanigans I can see this series getting dirty again. I totally understand why Lucia is avoiding playing the dirty Canadians after this season. Why risk one of your star players getting injured over some North Dakota cheap shot.”

By some of the comments I have read this week, you’d think that UND was a bunch of talentless hacks that have a 5-11-2 record and have yet to win a game against an opponent with a winning record. From some of the comments I have read, you'd think that UND spends all of their time skating up and down the ice taking liberties with the opposition. That hasn't happened this season. This year’s UND hockey team is not a bunch of knuckle dragging Nethanderals, UND is only ranked 30th nationally in penalties. So that dog doesn't hunt.

Maybe some need to look up the word rivalry in the dictionary.

I did and this is what Merriam-Webster has to say; a competitive or antagonistic state or condition. That would probably be an accurate definition of the UND vs. UMN rivalry.
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Monday, January 14, 2013

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll

Team
(First Place Votes)
Record
Points
Last Poll
1
Minnesota
(47)
16- 3-3
992
1
2
Boston College
13- 4-2
924
3
3
New Hampshire
( 1)
14- 4-2
875
4
4
Quinnipiac
( 2)
17- 3-3
847
5
5
Notre Dame
15- 6-0
829
2
6
North Dakota
13- 6-3
714
7
7
Denver
13- 6-4
667
9
8
Miami
12- 5-5
623
6
9
Boston University
12- 7-0
617
8
10
Western Michigan
13- 5-4
598
10
11
Dartmouth
9- 5-2
477
12
12
Yale
9- 4-3
432
14
13
Nebraska-Omaha
13- 9-2
359
13
14
Minnesota State
14- 8-2
348
11
15
Niagara
13- 3-4
242
17
16
Cornell
7- 6-2
220
15
17
Union
10- 7-4
219
16
18
Massachusetts-Lowell
11- 7-1
175
20
19
St. Cloud State
12-10-0
135
18
20
Colgate
11- 7-2
118
19
Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 19, Providence 15, Robert Morris 15, Ferris State 12, Lake Superior 12, Holy Cross 5, Northern Michigan 5, Princeton 4, Colorado College 1, Michigan Tech 1.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

NCAA Division I Hockey Top 20 Scorers...


Here is a screen shot of the top 20 NCAA points leaders. Notice, UND's Corban Knight is third nationally in points per game. Knight accumulated that points total against the 5th hardest strength of schedule. In comparison, UNO's Ryan Walters accumulated his impressive points total against the 21st hardest SOS.

This weekend, UND plays the Colorado College Tigers which has a lineup that includes William Rupuzzi, Alex Krushelnyski and Rylan Schwartz.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Corban Knight named Red Baron WCHA Co-Offensive Player of the Week.

MADISON, Wis. – Forwards Josh Archibald of the University of Nebraska Omaha, who scored four goals in a league sweep over Colorado College last weekend, and Corban Knight of the University of North Dakota, who produced six scoring points in a pair of victories over Holy Cross, have been named Red Baron® WCHA co-Offensive Players of the Week for January 8. Knight also earned the weekly award on Dec. 18.
 Archibald, a 5-10, 170-pound sophomore center from Brainerd, Minn., powered the host Mavericks (13-8-1) to back-to-back conference wins over visiting Colorado College on Jan. 4-5 at CenturyLink Center Omaha and into first place in the WCHA race. He notched a three-goal hat trick, the first of his collegiate career, and was the First Star of the Game in UNO’s 8-4 triumph last Friday night, scoring in each period at even-strength, on the power-play and while shorthanded. The following night (Saturday), he scored his fourth goal of the series in the third period, giving him four goals on four shots, as the Mavericks completed the sweep over the Tigers with a 3-1 win. In the two games, he had four goals, four shots on goal and a +4 plus/minus rating.
A draftee of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Archibald is third in team scoring this season with 21 points (11g, 10a).
 Knight, a 6-2, 200-pound senior center from High River, Alberta, put together his second straight six-point weekend and figured in on both game-winning goals as host North Dakota (12-5-3) collected its second sweep in a row with 5-2 and 3-2 non-conference wins over No. 20-ranked Holy Cross at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks. Named the game’s No. 1 star last Friday and the No. 2 star on Saturday, Knight also extended his point-scoring streak to 15 games, UND’s longest since All-American Brandon Bochenski had a 17-game streak in 2002-03. He had two goals, including the game-winner, and two assists on Jan. 4 and then had two more assists on Jan. 5, both in the third period and on the power-play, setting up Michael Parks’ game-tying goal and Danny Kristo’s game-winning goal as UND rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win. Knight also won 21-of-24 (87.5%) face-offs on Saturday and 31-of-40 (77.5%) in the series.
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Tuesday Link around… information over-load


The biggest news of the day, besides the lockout being over, is the defection of UNO goalie Anthony Stolarz to the London Knights of the OHL.

This comes on the heels of the Denver defenseman Dakota Mermis leaving the Pioneers, to play for the London Knight’s as well.
I admit that the Mermis defection to London is also puzzling as well. Mermis was in the Denver lineup and playing on a regular basis with the Pioneers (1g-3a—4pts) in 19 games.
Stolarz defecting to the OHL is kind of a head scratcher for me and many other college hockey fans. Stolarz is a second round draft choice of the Philadelphia Flyers and wanted to go the college route and develop his game.
Obviously, Stolarz is probably a little disappointed with his start with the Mavericks (2-5-0, 2.56 GAA, .898 save percentage) but playing time is earned in division I college hockey. I am not sure how it’s going to get any better with the London Knights who are currently stacked at the goalie position with Jake Patterson (16-1-1-1, 2.20 GAA, .924 %), Kevin Bailie (18-4-0-1, 2.50 GAA, .921 save %).
I also imagine, that you have to earn you playing time on a team lead by former NHL forward Mark Hunter as well.
Of course right away people are going to wonder what Mermis and Stolarz were offered by the London Knights?
Also, the Knights have a two headed monster in goal; Jake Patterson and Kevin Bailie are both ranked in the top six for OHL goalies with the likes of Franky Palazzese, Malcolm Subban, Jordan Binnington and John Gibson.  
The part that is the most puzzling to me is how “some” of today’s athletes have such a small sense of commitment. It’s like they feel there’re owed something.
It’s this entitlement attitude, that I am entitled to top six minutes, top four defensive pairing or the majority of the starts in net. It doesn’t work that way in life. If things don’t go their way, they’ll just transfer to another team or league. What makes them think they’re going to play more at their next team? Whatever happened to working harder in practice?
Back in the day, if you weren’t playing as much as thought you deserved. Said player, might go visit with the coach. The conversation with the head coach would go something like this. Coach, ‘I am not playing as much as I would like.’ Coach would probably say something like this, ‘then practice harder.’ The conversation most likely would end with the player in question thanking the coach for his time and returning to practice.
Links of interest
Roman Augustoviz has a pretty good article on his blog today on the Hobey Baker Candidates in the WCHA. [click to view]
UND Hobey Baker Memorial Award Candidate Corban Knight is leading the Florida Panthers NCAA prospects in points. Knight currently has 10 more points than Kyle Rau and Nick Bjugstad. [click to view]
With the NHL Lockout finally being over, Michael Russo is actually going to be covering NHL hockey again and not the Minnesota Gophers. I am sure that some Gopher Hockey fans will be unhappy because Russo is one of the best in the business.
There is some good news as well. Pierre-Marc Bouchard is now symptom free and will be in training camp. Yay!  It also looks like Wild Defenseman Matt Dumba will be in training camp when the Wild start training camp. [click to view]
NHL fans are asking for cheaper NHL ticket prices. Yeah, good luck with that. [click to view]
Now that the NHL is back on… One of the questions that Eric Duhatschek ask is this it for Jarome Iginla in Calgary? [click to view]


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Monday, January 07, 2013

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll; UND stays at 7.

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll
Team
(First Place Votes)
Record
Points
Last Poll
1
Minnesota
(38)
13- 3-3
979
1
2
Notre Dame
( 8)
14- 4-0
915
3
3
Boston College
( 1)
12- 3-2
914
2
4
New Hampshire
( 1)
13- 3-2
854
4
5
Quinnipiac
( 2)
16- 3-2
812
5
6
Miami
12- 4-4
731
6
7
North Dakota
12- 5-3
707
7
8
Boston University
11- 6-0
636
9
9
Denver
12- 6-3
607
11
10
Western Michigan
12- 5-3
568
10
11
Minnesota State
14- 6-2
440
14
12
Dartmouth
8- 5-2
420
8
13
Nebraska-Omaha
13- 8-1
397
16
14
Yale
7- 4-3
290
17
15
Cornell
7- 6-2
264
12
16
Union
9- 6-4
231
13
17
Niagara
11- 3-4
210
18
18
St. Cloud State
12-10-0
166
15
19
Colgate
11- 7-2
125
NR
20
Massachusetts-Lowell
9- 7-1
64
NR
Others receiving votes: Robert Morris 61, Ferris State 50, Lake Superior 26, Holy Cross 20, Michigan Tech 4, Providence 4, Northern Michigan 3, Mercyhurst 2.