UND: The Weekend Ahead (11/2-11/3)

The University of North Dakota plays a two-game non-conference series against the Boston University Terriers this weekend at Ralph Englestad Arena on November 2 and 3.

Friday, #5 USCHO and USA Today poll – North Dakota (2-1-1, 1-0-1 WCHA) versus Boston University (3-1-0, 3-1-0 Hockey East)

Game times: 7:37 pm CT on Friday, 7:07 pm CT on Saturday.

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast and Audio:  UNDSPORTS.COM

Television: TV: Midco Sports Network, FOX College Sports Central (DirecTV 623), NESN (DirecTV 628), DISH Network 434

Series History: UND leads the All-Time series against BU: 11-7-1 (.605), UND’s record against the Terriers in Grand Forks UND leads the series 5-0-1 (.833), UND against BU In Boston, MA UND trails the series 4-6-0 (.400), UND vs. BU at Neutral sites, UND leads the series 2-1-0 (.667), in the Last 10 games against BU, UND leads the series 8-1-1 (.850). UND played against BU in Boston during the Ice Breaker Tourney on 10/10/2008 and UND lost 5-1.

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (0g-4a—4pts), Connor Gaarder (0g-2a—2pts), Corbin Knight (2-g0—2pts), Carter Rowney (1g-1a—2pts), Roco Grimaldi (2g-2a—4pts), Mark MacMillan (2g-0a—2pts). Defense: Jordan Schmaltz (1g1a—2pts) Dillon Simpson (0g-2a—2pts), Andrew MacWilliam (0g-1a—1pts), Derek Forbort (2g-1a—3pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 1-1-1, 1.64 GAA, .940 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .944 save percentage.

Boston University: Forwards: Cason Hohmann (3g-3a—6pts), Evan Rodriques (0g-5a—5pts), Wade Megan (3g-1a—4pts), Danny O’Regan (2g-2a—4pts). Defense: Garrett Noonan 1g-2a—3pts), Matt Grzelcyk (0g-3a—3pts), Alexx Privitera (0g-2a—2pts). Goaltender: Matt O’Connor 3-0-0, 1.75 GAA, 0.945 save percentage.

UND Official Web Page

BU Official Web Page

Game Notes for UND versus UAA 10/26-10/27

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

The University of North Dakota begins WCHA play this weekend when they take on the University of Alaska Anchorage in a two game series at Ralph Englestad Arena on October 26 and 27.

Friday, #4 USCHO and USA Today poll – North Dakota (1-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) versus Alaska Anchorage (2-1-1, 0-0-0 WCHA)

Game times: 7:37 pm CT on Friday, 7:07 pm CT on Saturday.

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast and Audio:  UNDSPORTS.COM

Television: Midco Sports Net, FCS Central both nights.

Series History: UND leads the All-Time series against UAA: 45-17-4. UND has had success against UAA as of late as UND has won five in a row against UAA and has a record of 11-2-1 the last 14 games. UND beat UAA 5-0 last Friday in the first game of the Brice Goal Rush Tourney.

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Connor Gaarder (0g-2a—2pts), Corbin Knight (0-g0—0pts), Carter Rowney (0g-0a—0pts), Roco Grimaldi (1g-1a—2pts), Mark MacMillan (2g-0a—2pts). Defense: Jordan Schmaltz (1g1a—2pts) Dillon Simpson (0g-1a—1pts), Andrew MacWilliam (0g-1a—1pts), Derek Forbort (0g-0a—0pts). Goaltender: Clarke Saunders 1-1, 1.01 GAA, .962 save Percentage.  

Alaska Anchorage: Forwards: Matt Bailey (1g-3a—4pts), Scott Allen (3g-1—4pts), Alex Gellert (2g-1a—3pts) Defense: Blake Leaske (0g-1a—1pts), Quinn Sproule (1g0a—1pts), Derek Docken (1g0a—1pts). Goaltenders: Chris Kamal 1-1-0, 2.40 GAA, .907 save percentage, Rob Gunderson 1-0-1, 2.90 GAA .877 save percentage.

UND 4th in USA Today poll.

USA TODAY PRESEASON POLL              Final record 2011-12                                             

1 Boston College, 476 (20)                    1                 33-10-1
1 Minnesota, 476 (12)                             4                  28-14-1
3 Michigan, 408 (2)                                  7                  24-13-4
4 University of North Dakota, 407         6                  26-13-3
5 Union College, 295                              3                  26-8-7
6 Cornell, 233                                         13                  19-9-7
7 UMass-Lowell, 221                               9                 24-13-1 1
8 University of Denver, 220                      8                 25-14-4 1
9 Miami University, 203                          10                 24-15-2 1
10 University of Notre Dame, 186       NR                19-18-3 1
11 Western Michigan University, 182   14                21-14-6 1
12 Minnesota Duluth, 176                        5                25-10-6 1
13 Boston University, 158                       11                23-15-1 1
14 Ferris State, 123                                   2                 26-12-5 1
15 Wisconsin, 99                                    NR                17-18-2 1

I got a chuckle out of Roman Augustoviz blog post today – apparently Chris Dilks struck a nerve with Roman and he took issue with what Chris said on his blog Western College Hockey.

I actually agree with both men – I agree that preseason polls are meaningless – hockey is settled on the ice and not on paper. The reason I say that is, rewind to last season when UND was ranked very high to start the season last year and UND was a very young team that struggled at first to find their identity and didn’t really play up to their rankings until probably about the middle half of the season and then they actually ascended back to the top half of the rankings at the end of the season.

Based on who Minnesota brings back – the Gophers “should” be pretty good. There is one major unknown facing the Gophers this season – the Gophers have no experience at the goalie position to start the season – that in my opinion is a major factor and that could play out many ways for the Gophers. That being said, their team is pretty decent and has some depth through the forward lines “if” they stay healthy and don't have any more of their players suffer season ending injuries.

Chris Dilks, who writes for the Western College Hockey Blog, is skeptical about the Gophers' high ratings: "I guess unlike me, pollsters didn't have to search through last year's Frozen Four photos for a good Minnesota pic, only to be reminded of how just badly BC obliterated them."

That was then, this is now, Mr. Dilks. I didn't have a vote in the USA Today poll but, if I had, the Gophers would have gotten my vote for No. 1. Who has more returning talent than the Gophers, sir?

The only question mark with the 'U' is in goal. Otherwise, their defense is ridiculously deep, with two talented freshmen joining the mix, and coach Don Lucia should be able to put together two high-scoring lines.

Boston College will play the Gophers in one of the first-day games of the Mariucci Classic which is held during the holidays.

I also think that there are a few teams in this poll that won’t be there at the end of the season. If history repeats it’s self-there will be a couple of team in the season opening poll that will under achieve or not meet expectations and will end up having a season to forget. There will also be teams that no one expected to do well this season that will end up surprising the college hockey world. That's why they play the games.

Tweet(s) of the day... Doom and gloom

Gary Bettman shut down his Twitter account today. That's not the biggest thing he'll shut down this week.
— Down Goes Avery (@DownGoesAvery) September 12, 2012

This is the tweet of the day in my opinion. It's also sad because I do believe that there is definitely going to be a lockout. This afternoon, the NHLPA turned down the owner's latest proposal.

It does sound like this time that the owners did give in a little bit in their latest proposal to the NHLPA - yet the owners are still asking for quite a bit give back by the players.

Under the owners' new six-year phase-in proposal, players would receive 49% next season, and end up with 47% in the sixth year. In immediate terms, players would receive a roughly 9% decrease in salary next season. In the league's previous proposal, the first year loss was pegged at 19%. According to the league's numbers, this proposal is asking for $275 million less in concessions than owners asked for in their last proposal. [Kevin Allen, USA Today]

So it's looks like there is going to be an unprecedented third work stoppage under Gary Bettman. I don't think that history is going to look very favorably on Gary Bettman... I believe that Gary Bettman is one of the more polarizing figures of our time when it comes to sports figures.

I think we can now start referring to Gary Bettman as the lockout commissioner. Also, the mood is starting to get even more toxic as people are beginning to realize there basically is no chance a lockout is going to be avoided it appears that the owners aren't moving very far from their two previous proposals makes me think that they're not going to move very far.

To sum up NHL-NHLPA, no progress was made today, and no progress has been made so far in 2012.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) September 12, 2012

I am wondering what the split will finally end up being when the next CBA is agreed to by the NHL players and the NHL owners? Kind of looks like the owners are trying to get a 50/50 split with the players like the other professional leagues do.

#CBANHL's new deal takes less $ from players but Fehr said it's going from an "extraordinarily large amount" to a "really very big amount"
— Katie Strang (@KatieStrangESPN) September 12, 2012

Wonder if NHLPA understands how weak union looks when so many Euros bolt for home the second labour stoppage announced.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) September 12, 2012

Text from player pal: "NHL offer is a f***ing joke. Sets PA back 20 years. I appreciate what I got, but wake the f*** up buddy."
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) September 12, 2012

Raffi Torres appeals his suspension

I was going to get to this story yesterday but a big bomb shell of a story emerged out of UND and this story kind of got put on the back burner. Big shock, NHL repeat offender Raffi Torres is appealing his 25 game suspensions, apparently unapologetic Torres feels that his 25-game suspension is excessive based on NHL senior vice president Brendan Shanahan's inconsistency in his previous ruling.

Kevin Allen, USA TODAY --- USA TODAY obtained a copy of the memo sent to players, and in it, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr and general counsel Don Zavelo pointed out that Torres is only appealing the length of suspension, and not whether his hit violated the rules or whether he deserved to be suspended. The NHLPA positions spelled out in the memo: • The 25-game suspension is excessive and arbitrary — it is more than double the length of any ever issued by Shanahan and is one of the longest suspensions in the history of the NHL. • Shanahan denied Torres' request to show video evidence at his disciplinary hearing about how similar or worse hits have been treated in the past. He is asking for an in-person appeal hearing so that he can present this evidence to the commissioner.

Personally, I think that Raffi Torres should take his medicine and shut the heck up – he's a repeat offender that doesn’t seem to get it. I've suggested that Torres is an unapologetic sociopath and this suspension was a long time in the making.

The league is not picking on you Raffi – they're trying to send a message to him, telling him that they're sick and tired of your bush-league antics and that they no longer will tolerate them. Torres should have a talk with league bad boy Matt Cooke.

Related articles

• Raffi Torres appeals his suspension
• Raffi Torres Shanahammered - suspended 25 games
• Coyotes' Raffi Torres appealing 25-game suspension
• Coyotes' Raffi Torres appealing 25-game suspension

Notre Dame picks Hockey East

Image via WikipediaThis was posted at Inside Hockey.

Well Notre Dame has “finally” made their decision on what conference they want to be a part of for the 2013-14 season. After weighing all of their options, the Fighting Irish have decided to become member of Hockey East. It had been reported that the Fighting Irish had wanted to be a member of the NCHC because it was in Notre Dame’s geographical foot print, but in the end, the NCHC leadership didn’t want to allow the Irish to have their own television deal with VERSUS/NBC Sports Network and made the announcement last week that they were fine going forward with eight schools.

Honestly it’s a little puzzling to why the NCHC didn’t want to allow the Fighting Irish to have their own television deal and I have been contemplating this move by the NCHC and it’s a bit of a head scratcher why the NCHC wouldn’t let the Fighting Irish have their own TV deal. While it’s not a deal breaker, it would’ve been nice to have the Fighting Irish in the NCHC to start the 2013-14 season.

I have been on record in the past as saying that the newly formed NCHC will be fine with or without the Fighting Irish and that the NCHC has a solid base of schools to work with. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the NCHC will truly be one of the power conferences in Division I college hockey, no matter what the naysayers say.

If you’re not sold on my reasoning yet, let’s break it further, five of the top 10 teams in all three preseason polls (CHN, USCHO, USA Today) are going to be members of the newly formed NCHC to start the 2013-14 season. If your still not convinced, the eight teams that make up the NCHC have a combined 17 NCAA titles among them (DU 7, UND 7, UMD 1, C.C. 2).

The newly formed B1G is only other league that has more NCAA titles than the NCHC (Michigan9, Wisconsin 6, andMinnesota 5). Whether you want to admit it the NCHC has the making of being a pretty good hockey league. So with Notre Dame going to Hockey East this is where we are currently at for college hockey conferences in the west, there could be another addition to the WCHA as the University of Alabama Huntsville is looking for a conference to call home.

NCHC
North Dakota
Denver
Colorado College
Nebraska-Omaha
Minnesota-Duluth
Miami
Western Michigan
St. CloudState

WCHA
Alaska Anchorage
Alaska (Fairbanks)
Bemidji State
MSU-Mankato
Michigan Tech
Northern Michigan
Lake Superior
Ferris State
Bowling Green