Showing posts with label National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Show all posts

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Saturday Links: Game Day

Here's a few links for you to look at before you head to the game.
















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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

UND Injury Update

This weekend, when the University of North Dakota (4-6-2, 3-5-0 NCHC) plays St. Lawrence University (7-5-2, 2-2-2 ECAC), in a two-game non-conference match-up, they will be without the services of some key forwards, and could be playing defensemen in their place again this weekend.  The move actually seemed to work last weekend against the BU Terriers. 

First, there is some good news. “(Brendan) O’Donnell should be available, he’s practiced all week,” Hakstol said.

“(Derek) Rodwell, (Mark) MacMillan and (Colton) St. Clair are unavailable (this weekend),” Coach Dave Hakstol said. 




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Sunday, November 24, 2013

UND ties Boston University 3-3

Seal of the University of North Dakota
Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last night, the University of North Dakota put a season high 58 shots on the Boston University net, but still had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Standing in the way of a UND victory, was Terrier goalie Matt O’Connor. The sophomore goalie was nothing short of amazing, as he stopped a career-high 55 shots. Many of his saves were of the spectacular variety. Yes, I am cuing the hot goalie storyline.

I didn't know that was a crime? 

If it wasn’t for O’Connor, the game “probably” would’ve been very one sided, as UND attacked the BU net in waves. It was one of UND’s best efforts of the season, as they held a 58-31 shot advantage over the Terriers.

“He’s a good goalie,” UND junior forward Stephane Pattyn said.

According to the UND SID Jayson Hadju, that’s the most shots that UND has put on net in a game since December 30, 2000, when UND put 65 shots on the goal, to beat Princeton 4-1.  

Did I mention the play of the BU goalie? So did UND’s head coach Dave Hakstol.

“That’s the game of hockey,” Hakstol said. “Their guy (Matt O’Connor) played well in net.”
“We played a better game tonight than we did last night,” Hakstol said. “As usual when you come out on an eastern swing you usually run into different challenges. Obviously, we ran into some challenges this weekend, but we probably got better as a hockey team.”  

While some will look at this weekend as a lost weekend, I think you can look this weekend as a building block, moving forward. UND came out last night and was on their toes for most of the game. Rocco Grimaldi was the best player on the ice for UND. Second best player for UND was junior forward Brendan O’Donnell, who looked really good in his return to the lineup, after missing five games due to injury.

I think he was the difference in the game for UND. I would imagine that UND should get Mark MacMillan back soon. Moving forward, I wonder, if we will see the all junior line of Mark MacMillan, Michael Parks and O’D? That line seemed to have some chemistry together before the run of bad luck and injuries took hold for UND.

Stats, stats, stats

On Saturday night, UND was one-for-seven on the power-play, and had 19 of its 31 shots on the power-play. UND was one-for-nine (.10%) on the power-play for the weekend.
After writing an article about UND forward Rocco Grimaldi and Drake Caggiula,  Grimaldi had a six game point streak snapped last night and Caggiula was kept off of the score sheet all weekend long.
After last night’s game, Zane Gothberg’s season numbers 2-5-2, 2.84 GAA, .906 save percentage.
After this Friday’s game, Clarke Saunder’s season numbers 2-1-0, 3.50 GAA, save percentage .910.
This season, UND is 1-1-2 against Hockey East this season.

Looking ahead to next weekend 

With the tie the University of North Dakota is (4-6-2, 3-5-0 NCHC) and entertains ECAC opponent St Lawrence (7-5-2, 2-2-2 ECAC) at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, in an important two game nonconference series. 
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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Ref Humor



Funny story, last Saturday Night, @StatsOnCrack told me to meet him down by the referee's dressing room after the warm up between UND and the UMD Bulldogs. I was introduced to on-ice official Derek Shepherd. That was kind of awkward and I said, "I hope I haven't been too hard on you." Shepherd said, "Don't worry, I talk behind your back as well." He told me to keep up the good work. Apparently, the refs like the videos I post.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

UND's injury situation



Last Saturday night, after the game against the UMD Bulldogs, UND head coach Dave Hakstol said that he would get Mark MacMillan some time off to heal what ails him. It was obvious to all of us that MacMillan was hurt. Hakstol said he's suffering from an undisclosed injury and that he had no choice to play him because of numbers. Mark will make the trip to Boston, but not play against the BU Terriers.


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Saturday, November 16, 2013

UMD Slaps UND 6-3

The University of North Dakota’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde season continues. Coming into tonight’s game the University of North Dakota had a respectable record of 3-1-0 on Friday nights. On the flip side, the UND hockey team has yet to win a hockey game on Saturday nights, 0-3-1 and 1-0-0 on Sunday. 

Tonight, with the 6-3 loss to the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, UND now has a 0-4-1 record on Saturday nights. Through 10 games (4-5-1 – 3-5-0 NCHC), the Green and White has yet to win a hockey game on Saturday night. Tonight’s loss didn’t appear to sit well with UND head coach Dave Hakstol.

“We didn’t play a complete game as we needed to,” Hakstol said. “I thought we had to play really intelligent complete game. Little bit low on energy. I thought…we didn’t manage obviously the last two minutes of the first period very well after playing an excellent first period. After digging ourselves out of that we didn’t manage the last minute of the second period very well. That’s the difference in the game, those three, three and a half minutes. The end of the day it’s the result that counts.”

The UND hockey team faced some adversity this week. Key players are dealing injuries.   Quite a few players missed practice because of the flu. You also have to give credit where credit is due, UMD played a better hockey game than UND did tonight.

“It’s been a bit of a long week,” Hakstol said. “We didn’t cut ourselves any slack. We needed to play very intelligent and full 60-minutes tonight to give us a chance to win this game. That’s the way that I feel. I give Duluth all of the credit in the world, they’re a good hockey team. They made a lot of plays. I don’t think we did everything that we need to do tonight... to give ourselves the best chance to win this game. “

“Obviously there’s some stuff we need to work on as a team,” North Dakota freshman defenseman Paul LaDue said. “We had a few breakdowns and they (UMD) capitalized on them.”

In a night where some might want to look at the negatives, there were a few positive points to build on going forward. Ladue also scored the first goal of his UND career.

“It felt pretty good, but it would feel a lot better with a win right now”, LaDue said. “It’s good to get it off my back and hopefully they will keep coming.”

But another positive to take away from tonight’s game, UND sophomore forward Bryn Chyzyk scored his first goal of the season.

“Just kind of got a loose puck off of the wall,” Chyzyk said. “Just tried to feed it to the net – it must have hit a few sticks or something. I don’t know, but it went in. Obviously it wasn’t enough.”


Next weekend, UND travels to Boston, Massachusetts to play a two game nonconference series against the Boston University Terriers at Agganis Arena.
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Overhead picture of Michael Parks Goal


Can you see the puck? It's right next to the goalies glove.
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College Hockey top 20 Strength of Schedule


Today, I took the top 20 teams for strength of schedule in NCAA for Division I college hockey. If you look at the numbers you can see that Miami, UND, SCSU and Minnesota have played some of the toughest schedules to date. I got these numbers from the KRACH. You can draw your own conclusions from the numbers if you want.
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UND takes bite out of Bulldogs 4-2

English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the Univers...
English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. *Personally photographed by the undersigned May 8, 2007. Elcajonfarms 03:46, 3 July 2007 (UTC) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Grand Forks, ND – Coming into tonight’s game against the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of North Dakota had lost two home games in a row and was looking to right the ship and get their first conference win at home.  In the last three games at home, UND was winless and held a 0-2-1 record.
With tonight’s 4-2 win, make that 1-2-1.
So far this season, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference games have been a war. Six teams are currently separated by three points. With each game, the league standings shift and teams move up and down depending whether they win or lose.
Tonight’s game between UND and UMD is probably what the founding members’ envisioned when they first decided to embark on the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference.  Let’s just say, the game was an exciting 60-minute dog fight. No pun intended.
“Pretty exciting hockey game I would imagine for the fans,” head coach Dave Hakstol said.
UND would jump to a 2-0 lead with goals by Rocco Grimaldi and Michael Parks. Then the momentum swing in the Bulldogs favor.
UMD would come racing back to tie the game on a couple of UND miscues in a 20-second stretch during the third period. UMD would score its first goal of the game at the 06:37 mark of the third period on a goal by forward Alex Iafallo. It appeared that UND goalie Clarke Saunders thought the ref was going to blow the whistle on the delayed penalty, but the ref didn't, and the puck ended up in back of the UND net. UMD would score again 20-seconds later on the power play with a goal by Adam Krause.  Tie game 2-2.
“Everyone is human and I went oh crap for about 10 seconds,” UND goalie Clarke Saunders. “Delayed penalty, I don’t know if that’s defined as possession or not. I thought so. The puck was there and I went for it.”
On the second UND goal, initially, the goal had been waved off after referees Derek Shepherd and CJ Beaurline had reviewed the goal. Upon talking to the UND bench, the officials returned to the penalty box area and reviewed the play again and then awarded UND the goal. The replay in the press box was obvious, it was a good goal. For some reason, the second review of  the goal by the officials took a long time. When head coach Dave Hakstol was asked if he had asked the refs to take another look at the goal.
“Yeah, I did,” Hakstol said. “They don’t come and ask coaches what they should do. They go and make calls on their own. I thought they did a real good job.”
UND goalie Clarke Saunders was under attack all night long and he stopped 34 of 36 shots. After the game coach Hakstol was very complimentary of his starting goaltender.
“Clarke did a real good job tonight,” Hakstol said. “I think that Clarke has been excellent his last two outings.”
Sophomore defenseman Jordan Schmaltz would get the game winner on the power play at the 10:05 mark of the third period and junior forward Stephane Pattyn would ice the game with an empty net goal at the 19:04 mark to round out the scoring for UND.
UND will go for its first conference home sweep tomorrow night 07:07 p.m. when they play the Bulldogs in game two at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. With the win UND improves to (4-4-1, 3-4-0 NCHC) on the season. UND is now tied for the lead in the NCHC, but has played three more games than Nebraska-Omaha and Saint Cloud State.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

UND Hockey: Sunday's Second Period Goals Against Nebraska-Omaha



s/t to Cory Morlock... Here's the second period goals for UND from Sunday's game against the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. Notice the webcast quality is pretty good.
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UND Hockey a bunch of heathens because they bus to and from away games.



Apparently, UND hockey is above riding a bus to and from away hockey games if you were to believe in the mindset of one Boston University Blogger. In my two plus season of covering the team, I have never heard anyone complain about riding the bus.  Yeah, you can't make this up. This is coming from eastern teams that rarely travel very far for league games. The bus rides are actually faster in a lot of instances, they would have had to wait till the next morning to fly home. The bus they rode on, had beds, so they could sleep if they wanted.

The UND Athletic Budget breaks even when you look at revenues and expenses.

As you can see by the screen shots, UND athletics breaks even with their athletic department. The fact that the UND hockey program made 3,318,211.00 in ticket sales for FY12, is just part of the of the whole big picture.

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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Live thoughts from Omaha (RW77)

Hello everyone from the land of Corn.

Goon asked me to give my thoughts on the weekend since I went to both games and live in the great city of Omaha, NE.  What I saw was a mixed bag, but I assure you (since the haters are out in force) that what I'm about to relate is PURELY my opinion and my opinion alone.

The Venue and Atmosphere

If you live in Omaha, you get to see two venues for hockey:  CenturyLink for Mavs hockey and the Ralston Arena for Lancers (USHL) hockey.  CenturyLink is older than Ralston Arena.  CenturyLink is a better environment to watch hockey.  Sure, Ralston is newer and gets you closer to the ice.  One can argue that there really is no bad seat in the Ralston Arena.  But go to a Lancers game and you have an arena full of cow bells and vuvuzelas and NO ONE who has them knows when to silence them!  Not so at the CenturyLink.  I enjoy my time at the CenturyLink Center.  Great atmosphere and fun to watch hockey when you don't have endless noise flowing into your ear.

It seemed more crowded Saturday than Sunday.  Unfortunately, those who didn't come on Sunday missed a far better game (even if I say that knowing UND won).

The Goaltending

I have honestly NO IDEA what got into Gothberg Saturday.  No idea at all.  He was BRUTAL.  He reminded me of his first game as a freshman.  BIG rebound cost him the first goal and the other two was so fundamentally poor hockey play that I was honestly stunned Hakstol didn't pull him.  The second goal itself was one that I think even I could have stopped (and let me tell you, if I can make even ONE save facing DI players, that'd be a miracle!)!  The second one was simply a loss of focus.

Saunders tonight was far better and he had to be.  Why?  Because, in my opinion, UND played far more careless hockey Sunday than they did Saturday.  In the end, Saunders played VERY well and will certainly garner more playing time going forward.  I just wish I knew what the Sam Houston State was going on with Gothberg (and I know what the haters will say.  Too bad I don't care).

Massa for UNO was VERY solid and I'm surprised he didn't play on Sunday.  It turns out it was bad karma because UNO's starter, Thompson, caught the Gothberg bug and gave up two horrific goals (though to be fair the second goal he gave up was simply his defense abandoning him).

Game Play

On Saturday, we looked flat, imo.  We looked especially bad in the first period.  I thought we looked slow, behind the play.  Goon disagrees with me when I say that UNO was clearly the better team and was very solid at even strength.  I truly don't believe Massa was challenged that much.  To my recollection, Massa had to make two great saves and the rest of the night was largely unchallenged.

Let's face it:  I noticed a LOT more defensemen leading the rush on Saturday than on Sunday and ANY time you have a Dman leading the rush into the offensive zone that, to me, speaks VOLUMES about where we are at with our attack.

As for our power play, it still sucks.  IIRC, we only scored 1 goal on the powerplay all weekend.

Our Penalty Kill?  Both of UNO's goals on Sunday came on the Power Play.  Neither goals were weak as far as Saunders is concerned.  The first was where we gave them the center of the ice below the faceoff circles and the second was where we forgot about a man (Archibald) and gave him the center ice below the faceoff circles.  Imagine that.  They scored on both times.

Sunday was a FAR more entertaining game.  UND had to kill off 1:45 of a 5 on 3 PowerPlay after Grimaldi took a stupid penalty... I'd argue that Panzarella's penalty was also stupid.  It also had what had to be the most tense final 2 minutes of the game I've witnessed in quite some time.

The Officiating

I always get a different opinion of the officiating when I view it live at the arena rather than on TV or webcast.  I didn't think the officials were that bad.  I'm a bit baffled as to why UNO came away with a powerplay with 1:10 left in Sunday's game.  Pattyn and UNO #13 clearly deserved penalties.  So did UND's second of the altercation.  But I thought the other UNO participant should've gone as well.

Players that stood out or I thought would stand out:

Archibald (UNO):  I think he was one of the best players for UNO on Sunday.  I'm still a bit confused as to why he wasn't ejected on Saturday though.  He had a ton of energy and he reminded me at times of Mike Prpich.

Grimaldi (UND):  Boy, UNO fans don't like him.  UNO was trying to run him all game long on Sunday and Brady (UNO) nearly took himself off the ice with an injury because of it.  In the end, Grimaldi ended up being a sort of agitator... a role I didn't know Grimaldi was supposed to serve with UND.

Walters (UNO):  Ok, he factored in on one of the goals on Sunday but I didn't notice him much at all this weekend. 

The MacMillans (UND):  Neither stood out to me.... at all.

Caggiula (UND):  I liked the way he played.  Drake and Rodwell impressed me with their aptness to crash the net.

Ladue (UND):  I'll always be a fan of Dmen that aren't afraid to shoot the puck, especially on the PowerPlay.  It started with Nick Fuher and it continues with Paul LaDue.  I LOVE IT when he shoots the puck.

Overall impressions of the Sioux:

We have a ways to go.  With the NCHC being like it is, though, I'm not sure how it is going to work out.  I'm not sure what to expect going forward.  I always hope for the best.  The tools are there.  How fast they mature and get into their stride is unknown.  It's going to be one helluva ride.  The fun times and the haters will make the season an interesting one for sure.

My player of the weekend is Drake Caggiula.  He was noticeable on both games.
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NCHC Age factor

I thought that I would explore this age factor further. Here’s the average age of each team of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and the current standings.

NCHC Current Standings
1     University of Nebraska-Omaha, average age 21.9
1   Saint Cloud State University,  average age 21.9
3   Western Michigan University, average age 21.6
     Miami University, average age 21.1
5   University of Denver, average age 21.1
6   Colorado College, average age 21.1
7   University of North Dakota, average age, 21.2
     Minnesota Duluth, average age 21.3



The average age of a hockey player in the NCHC is 21.4 years old. Looking at the numbers, UND is right there, age wise, with the rest of the teams in the NCHC. Just for comparison sake, UMN average age is 20.9. 
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Friday, November 08, 2013

UND Hockey: The Weekend Ahead (11/09 -11/10)

Seal of the University of North Dakota
Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This weekend, the University of North Dakota travels to Omaha Nebraska to play a two-game series against the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks at the CenturyLink Center.  This is the first NCHC home series for the UNO Mavericks. Also, UND looks to snap a three-game losing streak.  

Matchup: North Dakota (2-3-1, 1-3-0 NCHC) vs. Nebraska-Omaha (4-4-0, 2-0-0 NCHC)
Date: November 9-10, 2013.

Time: 7:07 p.m. Saturday / Sunday 5:07 p.m. Central, CenturyLink Center Omaha (15,959).
Radio: UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast: undsports.com for subscribers. Non-subscribers can purchase the webcasts at Omaha Athletics.

TV: None.           
           
Series History: Record: All-time UND leads the series 5-3-0 (.625). In Grand Forks the series tied 2-2-0 (.500). In Omaha UND leads the series 3-1-0 (.750). Last season, UND was 2-0-0 against the Mavericks. Coming into this weekend’s series, UND has won the last three games of the series against the Mavericks. UND has won four of the last five games they have played against the Mavericks.

Players to watch:

North DakotaForwards: Rocco Grimaldi (2g-3a—5pts), Drake Caggiula (3g-2a—5pts), Michael Parks (1g-4a—5pts), Brendan O’Donnell (3g-1a—4pts), Luke Johnson (0g-3a—3pts), Mark MacMillan (2g-1a—3pts). Defense:  Troy Stecher (1g-3a—4pts), Nick Mattson (1g-2a—3pts), Gage Ausmus (1g-1a—2pts), Jordan Schmaltz (0g-1a—1pts), Dillon Simpson (0g-1a—1pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 0-0-0, GAA 5.06 and .881 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 2-1-1, 2.79 GAA and .910 save percentage.

UND injury: Sophomore forward Colten St. Clair, lower body injury, out six weeks.  Per UND SID: Junior forward Brendan O’Donnell and freshman forward  Adam Tambellini will not play this weekend against the Mavericks and are considered week to week with undisclosed injuries

Maverick Forwards: Forwards: Josh Archibald (6g-4a—10pts), Ryan Walter (3g-7a—10pts), Brock Montpetit (5g-2a—7pts), Jake Guentzel (2g-5a—7pts), Dominic Zombo (3g-3a—6pts). Defense: Ian Brady (1g-5a—6pts), Michael Young (0g-4a—4pts), Jaycob Meqna (0g-4a—4pts). Goalies: Kirk Thompson 3-2-0, 2.00 GAA and .887 save percentage, Ryan Massa 1-2-0, 3.71 GAA and .847 save percentage.


Nebraska-Omaha Official Web Page
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Wednesday, November 06, 2013

SCSU vs. Miami University


This weekend the NCHC spot light turns to Saint Cloud State vs. Miami University match up. The RedHawks invade the Herb for the first ever NCHC home series in Saint Cloud.

Historically, Miami is 8-3-2 all-time against SCSU Huskies, however, the RedHawks are 0-2-1 in its last three games against the Huskies, including a 4-1 loss, last year, in the NCAA tournament. I think the best result for fans of other NCHC teams would be a series split.
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Inside the NCHC - Episode 1 (11/6/13)



I have to say that I am impressed with the NCHC, so far to date. Their social media department is really impressive. I also heard the like-minded institution again, from Miami head coach Enrico Blasi. Thinking of which, historically, SCSU has been owned by Miami, so that should be a good series this coming weekend.
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Drake Caggiula scores the NCHC's top goal of the week



After being carried of the ice on a stretcher the week before against the U-18 team. Drake Caggiula scores one of the dirtiest goals I have seen this season to date to become the top goal of the week. Caggiula's goal also ended up being named the play of the day on Fox Sports 1 on Friday night. That's a pretty big honor as well.
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