Rocco Grimaldi checks in at number two - NCHC Top 5 Goals of the Week - 1/28/14

UND sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi checks in at number two this week.

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(Picture) North Star College Cup

I hate to say this, but we want the NCHC teams in the North Star Cup to win this weekend. So, this weekend we should cheer for the Huskies and the Bulldogs. Shall we say that the tourney has gone to the dogs.

Session 1

Friday, Jan. 24
Game #1: Minnesota State-Mankato vs. Minnesota Duluth - 4 p.m.
Game #2: St. Cloud State vs. Minnesota - 7 p.m.

Session 2

Saturday, Jan. 25
Game #3: Consolation Game - 4 p.m.
Game #4: Championship Game - 7 p.m.

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UND Hockey: Zane Gothberg out for a couple of weeks with injury

The University of North Dakota will face some more adversity this weekend against the University of Denver.  Sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg was injured in practice yesterday and is out indefinitely.

Gothberg has been pretty solid this season and has racked up some decent numbers during the nine-game unbeaten streak. From Schlossman, "Goaltender Zane Gothberg, who has started all of the games in the streak, has a 1.76 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage."

For the season, Gothberg has a line of (10-5-3, 2.20 GAA and a .916 save percentage). The sophomore goalie is third in the NCHC in wins, fourth in the NCHC in save percentage, and third in the NCHC in goals against average.

UND will be without Gothberg, at minimum, for a couple weeks. He has started every game in UND's 9-game unbeaten streak.
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) January 22, 2014

Gothberg out indefinitely w lower body injury
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) January 22, 2014

Sophomore G Zane Gothberg is out indefinitely with a lower body injury sustained yesterday during practice. @UNDMHockey
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) January 22, 2014

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(Video) Derek Rodwell makes the top-five goals of the week in the NCHC

UND senior forward Derek Rodwell scores the third best goal of the week in NCHC play.

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(Video) NCHC Frozen Faceoff 30 Second Spot

Nice video, I really like the way the NCHC is marketing the league.

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NCHC Hockey: Frozen Faceoff Logo revealed

Here's the faceoff logo for the inaugural NCHC Frozen Faceoff. Let the NCHC haters pick it to part. s/t to Joe Paisley.

UND Hockey: Dillon Simpson named NCHC Defensive player of the week

UND defenseman Dillon Simpson was named NCHC Defenseman of the week. This is the second time this season, that Simpson has received the player of the week award.

DEFENSEMAN OF THE WEEK
Dillon Simpson, North Dakota, Senior Defenseman, Edmonton, Alta.

Simpson was strong at both ends of the ice to lead North Dakota to a sweep of Colorado College and extend UND’s winning streak to seven. In the series, he recorded three points on a goal and two assists, while also blocking five shots. In Friday’s 5-3 win, the captain assisted on North Dakota’s first goal while scoring the game-winning goal in the closing seconds of the second period to earn third star of the game honors. The next night, Simpson again assisted on the game’s first goal and blocked three shots. The Edmonton Oilers prospect finished with an even +/- rating in the series and leads NCHC defensemen with 11 points in league play. Simpson has now won NCHC Defenseman of the Week twice this year (Nov. 11).

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UND Hockey: Circle of Sticks

For those that didn't get to see it last night, UND swept at home for the second time this season. Last year, UND only had one sweep at home. That's two consecutive sweeps at home in a row. With the sweep at Western Michigan UND now has three of series sweeps on the season.

Pairwise Rankings not looking good for NCHC

Taking a look at the Pairwise Rankings, it's obvious that the NCHC's non-conference record is killing them right now. This screen shot will show you how bleak the situation is right now. If the tourney started today and UND didn't win it's conference tourney, there's a very good chance that they would be on the outside looking in. If UND keeps winning and they should be in. 

NCHC Hockey: Non-Conference Record Should Cause Some Concern for the NCHC.

The NCHC's non-conference record against the Hockey East 5-9-4 and the ECAC 4-7-3 is not very good. This means that the NCHC isn't going to get many teams in the NCAA tourney. UND has a 4-2-2 non-conference record and has two more non-conference games against BSU to improve that non-conference record. 

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Poll Monday: UND receives votes.

The University of North Dakota hockey team received votes in the latest USCHO poll. The Minnesota Gophers remained at number one.

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Weekend Match-Ups (by Donn)

Here we are the first weekend of play in 2014.  The first half of the season seems to have flown by.

NCHC STANDINGS 2013-2014

Team………………………W-L-T………Points

St. Cloud St……………….6-1-1…………...19
Nebraska-Omaha…………5-2-1…………..17
North Dakota………………5-5-0……….….15
Denver…………………..…4-3-1…………..14
Colorado College……….. 2-5-3…….….….10
Miami………………………3-5-0….…….….9
Minnesota-Duluth…………2-2-0……….….6
Western Michigan………..2-2-0…………...6 

Non-Conference Games

Brown (5-6-1) @ #17 Denver (10-6-2)

The Bears are 1-5-0 away from home, which is Providence, R.I., if you’re wondering. The Pioneers are 7-3-0 at home in Magness Arena this season.  I think the Pioneers will catch the Bears hibernating this weekend.  Pioneers Win.

Brown (5-6-1) @ Colorado College (2-12-3)

With the Pioneers waking the sleeping Bears, I say the Tigers will feel their rude awaking anger.  Bears Win.

#19 Nebraska-Omaha (8-7-1) @ New Hampshire (10-10-1)

The Mavericks are 3-2-1 on the road this season and the Wildcats are 3-4-1 at home at the Whittemore Center in Durham.  SPLIT

Exhibition Games

North Dakota vs British Columbia (Fri.) vs Simon Fraser (Sat.)

Last action for NoDak was the sweep of the NMU Wildcats in Grand Forks. It has been two years since NoDak has played in great country of Canada.

UND is riding a 5 game winning streak and, well, this won’t officially effect it, since these are exhibition games.  But here to starting the New Year off right, NoDak wins both games.

US U-18 TEAM @ Minnesota-Duluth

Since it is an exhibition game, it is hard to say who wins… I’m sure UMD will use the game to get everyone back on the ice and playing at game speed.  TIE.

US U-18 TEAM @ #4 St. Cloud St.

Same as above, except SCSU wins.

BYE

#12  Miami

Western Michigan

Yeah in Review 2013

Personally, I think that 2013 was a crummy year, however, it was a very good year for sports. There's been some really nice stories. When it looked like the Boston Bruins were going back to Chicago for game seven, but it wasn't meant to be, as the Blackhawks scored two goals in 17-seconds to win the Stanley Cup over the Boston Bruins.



The last team in the NCAA tourney, wins the NCAA tourney by going through a bunch of one and two seeded teams. Also, Yale becomes the first Ivy League school as well as the first ECAC team since 1989 to win the NCAA title. With the NCAA title win, the ECAC sheds the EZAC label.

The Minnesota Wild sign the big-time free agents Ryan Suter and Zach Parise in the summer of 2012 and the Minnesota make the Stanley Cup for the first time since the 2006-07 season. However, the Wild playoff drive is short lived as they are quickly dispatched in five games (4-1) by the eventual Stanley Cup champion the Chicago Blackhawks.



After much discussion, hand wringing and teeth gnashing, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference begins play in Oxford, Ohio as North Dakota and Miami play in the first ever game. North Dakota would go on to win game one by a score of 4-2.



The Toronto Maple Leafs looked like they were headed to the second-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Leafs had what looked like a comfortable 4-1 lead. Then the roof fell in on the Maple Leafs during the third period. The Bruins would move on to face the New York Rangers in the second round of the playoffs.



Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, aka the Little Ball of Hate, would get things rolling in round two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Boston Bruins would win in overtime.

Like I mentioned earlier, personally, for me, 2013 has been one of those years that I will soon hopefully forget, but there's been some great sports stories. Happy New Year and see you next year.

Lambert on the NCHC....

This is what Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy fame had to say about the NCHC on CHN. It would be interesting to see how many college hockey games that he has actually watched this season?

NCHC

Colorado College: This would have to be one hell of a “second-half surge.”
Denver: Yeah, 5-3 sounds just about right for a Denver win at UMass. I very much buy that as a reasonable result.

Miami: Riley Barber as captain of the US World Junior team seems like a no-brainer. One of the few returners, and he's very, very good. Given the amount of ice time he's been eating up for the RedHawks this year, he might never come off the ice in Sweden.

Minnesota-Duluth: The reason Justin Crandall isn't a goalie, and instead is the best forward on UMD this season, is that after his brother Aaron and his dad Jeff both played that position, his mom said he couldn't.

Nebraska-Omaha: I guess that yes, it is fair to say Jake Guentzel and Josh Arbcibald have been "key contributors" for the Mavs this season, given that the latter is a point-a-game player and the former is third on the team in assists as a freshman.

North Dakota: Oh a kid from Grand Forks committed to UND? Seems like that was a slam dunk. They've only been recruiting him his whole life.

St. Cloud: The St. Cloud Times gives the Huskies an “A” for the first half, which they say is “grading on a curve.” No need for a curve, they're just one of the best teams in the country.

Western Michigan: Lawson Arena got a scoreboard upgrade over the summer because NCHC rules mandated it, but apparently any talk about a new arena any time soon is just wishful thinking. “Lawson looks very nice,” said WMU athletic director Kathy Beauregard, stretching things a little.

So, we are to  believe that the National Collegiate Hockey Conference was built on entitlement, I find that statement interesting. So, only the Big Ten Hockey Conference was allowed to forward their interests. All others had to stand fast. Actually, if anything, the re-alignment allowed a team (UAH) to find a conference and this will allow for future expansion. I am not convinced that we're done moving teams around, just yet.

This seems not to have stopped the NCHC from trying to make itself more impressive, which is apparently the kind of thing we should have come to expect from a league built on entitlement more than anything else. When the Big Ten was announced, all the “prestige” programs, or whatever you want to call them, that were being left behind in the CCHA and WCHA simply decided that they couldn't be bothered slumming it against these other, lesser programs which were beneath their status and probably contempt, and thus was born the “National” Collegiate Hockey Conference, which is a curious name considering that on a geographical basis it ignores all the parts of the nation not between Ohio and Colorado.

That there was a fan vote to name the finals of the conference tournament is all good and well, and settling on the Frozen Faceoff (perhaps by design not more than a little evocative of “Frozen Four”) earlier this month, which beat out the NCHC Championship, is a little icky but not in the end that big of a deal.

WMU's Josh Pitt goes Coast To Coast Goal vs Michigan

Sweet goal by Western Michigan forward Josh Pitt, as he goes coast-to-coast against the Michigan Wolverines. That was also the game-winning goal in overtime, to vault WMU a 3-2 win. WMU will face MTU in tomorrow's championship game of the Great Lakes Invitational. That's goal number seven on the year for Pitt.

Dave Hakstol Bobbleheads

Sioux presents!! #FightingSiouxForever #SiouxYeahYeah #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/jFl9ghOyV6
— JRoads ™ (@JRoadsreal) December 25, 2013

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Hump Day Links

I just searched the Barns and Noble site and there's not a version for the Nook E-Books yet.

Not done with your holiday shopping? Check out @MickHatten's tale of St. Cloud State's 2012-13 season: http://t.co/vhlPOK6wZK
— Matthew Semisch (@matthewsemisch) December 17, 2013

The Mid Season grades are out on USCHO...

UND gets a B grade. MT @TheNCHC: .@USCHO writer @matthewsemisch grades each of the NCHC teams at the midseason break http://t.co/71Y9liSO6p
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) December 18, 2013

North Dakota leads @TheNCHC in points by defenseman with 47, & the 2.61 PPG provided by the blueliners ranks 3rd nationally.
— Sioux Tradition (@SiouxTradition) December 17, 2013

Nick Mattson clearly not happy with my postgame interview questions pic.twitter.com/h62oMF5ufS
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) December 17, 2013

Bet you didn't know we have pond hockey here in AZ did you? @Buccigross #flagstaff #lakemary #nofilter pic.twitter.com/s5ob32AGGk
— John Isbell (@thejohnisbell25) December 17, 2013

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NCHC Top Five goals of the Week... Luke Johnson 4th

UND forward Luke Johnson with the fourth best goal of the week in the NCHC.

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Stick Salute at Center Ice....

@goon48 a weekend sweep at Church is always worth a salute at the Ralph pic.twitter.com/DrNsy9b1gy
— Scott G (@20gdawg) December 15, 2013

UND with the first sweep at the Ralph since January 4-5, 2013.

UND Hockey: Will UND get to Host a Regional?

Will the UND Men and Women's hockey team(s) get to host a NCAA regional championship? We will find out today. I will have an update this afternoon when I find out.

Cross your fingers, @UNDsports fans; we will find out at 12:30 today if we'll host a future NCAA Women's Frozen Four and/or men's regional.
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) December 11, 2013