Hockey Is a Dangerous Sport - Yikes

Gnarly laceration on Penn State's Dave Thompson @DaveChompson in Friday's game against Alaska-Anchorage(via @ZSaar17) pic.twitter.com/89rJF6m0o8
— Ashley Chase (@AshleyChaseTV) October 20, 2014

Here's a picture of Penn State  defenseman David Thompson's abdomen after he was cut with a skate. Thompson laceration came in last Friday's game against UAA during the Brice Goal Rush tournament in Fairbanks, Alaska. Thankfully, Thompson should be back on the ice soon.

"Yeah, he's going to be great," said Penn State Head Coach, Guy Gadowsky of Thompson. "He's going to be fine. They took really good care of him. It was scary at the start, and we took every precaution, but he's going to be back at 100 percent very soon."

Official update on David Thompson: he was taken to the hospital for an abdominal laceration requiring stiches. He'll be alright. #WeAre
— Penn State Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) October 18, 2014

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.

WCHA Grants Full-Time Membership to University of Alabama in Huntsville

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MADISON, Wis. – The Western Collegiate Hockey Association men’s membership voted today (January 17) to admit the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) as a full-time men’s conference member. 

The vote of approval was taken after UAH submitted an application for membership and made a formal presentation to a WCHA group of member-team Presidents and Athletic Directors at a meeting held in conjunction with the NCAA Convention in Dallas, Tex.

The addition of University of Alabama in Huntsville into college hockey’s most historic and successful conference will bring future men’s league membership to 10 teams. Their membership will be effective as soon as 2013-14.

WCHA men’s membership in 2013-14 currently consists of University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bemidji State University, Bowling Green State University, Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan Technological University, Minnesota State University, Mankato and Northern Michigan University.

In issuing a joint statement on behalf of the Association, Dr. Richard Davenport, President of Minnesota State University, Mankato and Chair of the WCHA President’s Group, and Bruce McLeod, Commissioner of the WCHA, said “The WCHA is delighted to have reached in principle an agreement to officially welcome University of Alabama in Huntsville into the Association family as a full-time men’s member. This is a significant day for the Chargers, the community of Huntsville, the conference itself, and college hockey in general. Growing the game and assisting developing programs however possible has always been a charge of the WCHA and this is another positive evolution in our history.

“Each of our member institutions are 100% committed to keeping the WCHA among the premier conferences in all of collegiate athletics and our respective ice hockey programs both strong and vibrant. The University of Alabama in Huntsville is a dynamic, top-quality institution with an excellent academic and athletic reputation and without question the Chargers are going to be a great fit and a successful, contributing member. 

“Just as the entire UAH campus and the Huntsville community are exhilarated to now have a welcoming home for their men’s hockey program, the WCHA is also extremely proud and gratified to be providing that home.”

Said University of Alabama in Huntsville President Robert Altenkirch, “We’re pleased that our ice hockey team is going to have the opportunity to compete and grow in a NCAA Division 1 conference. We believe that our affiliation with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association will be a tremendous boost to our recruiting, scheduling and our ability to be competitive on the ice.

“We want to thank the WCHA and its member institutions for their confidence in allowing us to be a part of their conference. Their affirmative vote will invigorate our ability to maintain our great hockey tradition.”

UAH Director of Athletics Dr. E.J. Brophy said, “All athletic programs experience special defining moments, and our hockey program’s acceptance today into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is certainly one of those moments. The WCHA is a preeminent hockey conference in America, and I know that our student-athletes, coaches, fans, friends, alums and the people of Huntsville are ecstatic and proud of this giant step for our ice hockey program.

“The last time we were in a conference, we won the conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament, which will be our immediate and ambitious goal when we begin play in the WCHA. It is a banner day for the Chargers.”

The men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association, home to a record 37 national championships teams since it’s founding in 1951, has been operating as a 12-team conference for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. Current members are University of Alaska Anchorage, Bemidji State University, Colorado College, University of Denver, Michigan Technological University, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State University, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of North Dakota, St. Cloud State University and University of Wisconsin.

On March 21, 2011, the Big Ten Conference announced the formation of a new Division 1 men’s college hockey league that would include current WCHA-members Minnesota and Wisconsin and begin play in 2013-14. On July 13, 2012, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha and North Dakota announced they would be leaving the WCHA following the 2012-13 season to form another new league, known as the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which also begins play in 2013-14. Then on Sept. 22, 2011, St. Cloud State announced they were leaving the WCHA for the NCHC.

Steph Pattyn's apparent goal that wasn't

It would appear that WCHA Officials Tim Walsh and Don Adam blew yet another call, this time UND sophomore Stephane Pattyn looked like he had a goal. Look at the video you can see that SCSU goalie Ryan Faragher's stick was behind the red line.

After the game, during the post game interview head coach Dave Hakstol was obviously agitated with the officiating crew. I reviewed the goal no less than six times and I don't see how you can't rule this a goal? What do you think?

@goon48 poor pic but the black object by water bottle is the puck behind the line lockerz.com/s/260765590
— Ryan (@fergy2004) November 12, 2012

s/t to @Fergy2004 for the picture that shows the puck behind the line. Obviously, the refs made a bad call on this play.

Notes from the Wednesday press conference

Here are some of things that I picked up from today’s Wednesday UND hockey press conference for the Men's and Women's teams.

UND Women’s head coach Brian Idalski on his team’s play this past weekend. 

“I think we say a lot – we’re almost good,” Idalski said. “We’ll make a play here – we’ll make a play there and then we just don’t finish it off or something happens, or we’ll make a mistake and it ends up costing us – there is a lot of good things – a lot of things we’re improving on.  But we just can’t seem to put it all together for a full 60 minutes yet. Something we’re working on – I think something that we’re going to get – it’s just going to take a little time… we’re almost really good.”

Coach Idalsk was asked about the status of injured forwards Leah Jensen and Michelle Karvinen.

“I got nothing new on that,” Idalski said. 

UND Freshman Forward Bryn Chyzyk had this to say about playing with Derek Rodwell and Steph Pattyn.  

 “It’s fun,” Chyzyk said. “I am not used to it right now – but I really enjoy it – it’s fun.  I think, I feel like kind of our role is to – maybe when the crowd is sitting down – kind of settled in – to kind of get them on their feet; get them going – to get the guys on the bench – to get them going and scoring some goals for us. So… it’s a fun role to be a part of for sure, I like playing with those two guys and yeah I enjoy it.” 

Chyzyk was asked, how intense of a person is Steph Pattyn. 

It’s funny you ask, I played against him up in Manitoba. I was so scared of that guy, he’s a scary guy to play against, but I defiantly like him a lot better on my team.” 

This is what UND freshman goalie Zane Gothberg had to say about getting his first collegiate start and  also his first win of collegiate career. 

“It felt great,” Gothberg said. “It’s been a long time coming I guess, growing up in Thief River you always dreamed about coming out and stepping on the ice in the Ralph it’s kind of a dream come true. Not only to play your first game; but to pick up the win as well.”  

UND head coach Dave Hakstol was asked if we will see the line of Danny Kristo, Corbin Knight and Rocco Grimaldi will be on the same line this weekend. 

Probably it depends on how the games go, I mean… they won’t play together I don’t think, to start the weekend but you know at any time obviously were going to mix things up when we feel that we need to. we stayed really consistent with our lines throughout most of last weekend’s games until we got to that last ten minutes when we were down by a goal I just felt we need to mix it up a little bit to try to get ourselves back in that game. Probably the flow of the game and the tempo of the game and where we’re at different times in the game will dictate whether or not we will see the three.. Any combination of three guys together.”

UND forward Michael Parks will not play this weekend and his status is unchanged. 

Highlights goals from the UND vs UAA series

Here are three of the goals from last weekend's series that I thought were the best goals. Two of the goals are ones that UND freshman Rocco Grimaldi had his hand in directly. Even to the untrained eye, you can see that Grimaldi is an exciting player and I think that we will see him weekly topping the last weeks goals.

UND 4 UAA 1

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota fresh of their split in Alaska at the Brice Goal Rush Tourney, Fairbanks, Alaska returned to home ice to play the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, a team that they had played and beat last Friday night 5-0.

What was amazing with last Friday's win was UND would beat UAA using only 15 players due to team suspensions and an injury.

Tonight, UND would field a full lineup of players and this time UND would beat UAA 4-1 in front of 11,446 fans at Ralph Englestad Arena.

UND was strong in all three zones of the ice, and played a pretty solid game for 60 minutes. After the game, UND head coach Dave Hakstol agreed.

“For this time of year I thought we played with good pace,” Hakstol said. “Do we want to improve in every area? Yeah! I thought we came out and played a pretty solid game for 60 minutes.”

UND freshman goaltender Zane Gothberg got his first start of his collegiate career and became the first Thief River Falls, Minnesota native to start in goal for UND since the late UND goalie Ralph Engelstad during the 1948-49 season.

UND outshot the Seawolves 14-2 during the first period as Seawolves sophomore goalie Chris Kamal was sharp made many difficult shots to keep his team in the game.

The second period was a wild one, as UND broke the scoreless tie at the 01:10 mark of the second period when senior forward Corbin Knight scored from behind the net. Knight banked the shot off an un-expecting Seawolves defenseman Blake Leask’s skate and the puck ended up in the Seawolves net.

The shot might not have been pretty, but it counted none-the-less.

UND would strike again quickly, three minutes and 26 seconds later at the 04:46 mark, freshman forward Drake Caggiula, would score the first goal of his career, off a nice feed from Rocco Grimaldi.

Senior forward Carter Rowney would add to the lead as he scored at the 06:58 mark off a shot from the point by defenseman Dillon Simpson, 3-0 UND.

The UAA Seawolves would temporarily stop the bleeding as they cut the lead to 3-1, with a goal by senior forward Alex Gellert at the 15:39 mark.

Junior defenseman Derek Forbort would extend the lead to 4-1 when he scored on shot from the point. That would be all of the scoring in the second period as UND outshot the Seawolves 13-12.

After serving a two game suspension – Danny Kristo responded nicely with a three assists and had a strong game in all three zones of the ice tonight.  It looked like Kristo had something to prove tonight and he agreed.

“It was definitely frustrating going up to Alaska and having to sit out of both games,” Kristo said. “But it was just something; some guys had to just sit out one game. Unfortunately I had to sit out of two [games]. But, I thought I felt like I some motivation – some stuff to prove tonight. But it’s over with and I think the team is moving on – we’re just trying to move forward…”

That was all the scoring there would be in the game as Seawolves goalie Kris Kamal was solid in net and keep UND off of the board the rest of the way. UND goalie Zane Gothberg was also solid in net as he turned away 17 of 18 Seawolves shots.

Freshman forward Drake Caggiula was all smiles after the game and had this to say about scoring the first goal of his college career.

“Great feeling,” Caggiula said. “Unexplainable basically – to get that goal on home ice – no better feeling on that.”

UND and UAA will face off in game tomorrow night at 7:07 pm.

Related articles

• Notes from the Wednesday's UND Men's Hockey press conference (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Squeaks Past USNDT U-18 Team (insidehockey.com)
• Nine Men out, UND heads north to Alaska (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND squeaks by USNDT U-18 team 6-4 (thehockeywriters.com)

Redwing77's First Impressions vs. UAA

A Bit of a Sidebar

First off, I want to say hello again to Goon's World and thank Goon for his patience with my idleness with posting.  Life's been busy in Omaha including my admission to the online graduate school for educational technology through... Michigan State (MSU's Educational Technology program is tops in the nation among the schools that don't require the GDP of 90% of the world's small countries to attend).  So my posting has been a bit few and far between.  I'll try to do more as time permits.

Webcast

Tuning into the Webcast today got me a stunning visage of the entryway our color guard used for the National Anthem... with no color guard present.... during the introduction of players.  It's almost as if the production crew didn't realize they were live?  And after that no sound from the booth until just prior to the commercial break before faceoff.  I've read some complaints about picture quality, but I guess my expectations for that aren't that high.  In any case, on with my rambling...

UAA?  What the heck...

I really feel bad for Skyiak and the UAA faithful (even the twink-ish trolls that have plagued us in the past) because I'm just not sure how competitive they can be in Anchorage...or why couldn't they.  Fairbanks have seen their fair share of at least decent players come through their arena and Fairbanks can't be THAT much better than Anchorage can it?  I loved Anchorage when I was there.  Small, but nice.

I'm wondering about the recruiting practices at UAA.  They've always seemed to be "We'll take the best we can get" type mentality but I also think they are very much a risk taking school taking high risk/high reward type players like Dallas Steward, Nathan Lawson, Kevin Clark, and so on.  So what happens if Shyiak recruits one of these players that don't work out?  Well, I think we're seeing it this weekend.  The UAA defense is just dreadful.  Their offense isn't much better.  Some of it is scheme but they just aren't as talented as they need to be to even be surprisingly competitive.  In other words, if they do beat a team like UND, UMN, UMD, DU, CC, or UW it will truly be surprising.  Heck, our second tier might be a surprising win (UNO, SCSU, BSU).

UAA Goaltending

What happens when you recruit a high risk player that does pan out?  Well, I believe Chris Kamal fits that category.  Yeah, we're dominant.  We dropped 4 goals on him in the second period alone.  However, how many of those goals were his fault and not set up by the poor play.  He isn't dynamic in net, so he'll rarely steal a game but that's what it seems it's going to take for Kamal to have success in Anchorage.

I texted Goon this and he seemed skeptical but I'll stand by it:  If Kamal were to play for a team like WMU or SCSU or even BSU or UNO I think Kamal would be getting far more praise as he'd be winning games.  He's truly a good player on a not very good team.

On to UND

We came out guns blazing... and nothing to show for it until early in the second period.  We outshot UAA 14 to 2 in the first period alone and looked like it was only a matter of time.  Again, 14 shots and 14 saves.  If we were THAT dominant, then Kamal looked downright phenominal.  Nevertheless, we took over once the first goal was scored.

The best goal has to be Caggiula's goal only because of the feed by Grimaldi.  WOW.  I haven't seen that kind of ability to feed the puck since Oshie and Toews.  Yeah, I'm going there.

UND Goaltending

Inevitably there's going to be the outcry for Saunders.  Gothberg has looked shaky at times thus far even in tonight's game and Saunders really has not.  Hmmmmm  probably because Saunders is a veteran.  There are all sorts of analogies I could use, but they'd spark arguments that would be beside the point.  Saunders is older, more experienced in the college game.  I expected him to be the steadier and more solid of the two out of the gates.  Saunders hasn't changed.  Just his jersey and the players in front of him.  That's not the same from Gothberg.

So, why get all uppity on Gothberg?  Because many in UND's fanbase, in my observations, seem to rush to judge and pine for the guy who makes the best first impression and rarely are dissuaded to think otherwise.  To me, it makes sense to play both Gothberg and Saunders and see big picture.

I feel that right away, Saunders is the guy that's going to take the reins.  I expect to see Saunders on Saturday night.  I'd be stunned if Gothberg plays tomorrow (even if Gothberg pitched a shutout tonight, which he did not but still...).  However, in the long run, I feel that Gothberg will be the better of the two goaltenders.  Why?  I think Saunders is about as good as he's going to get.  He's darn good, don't get me wrong, but the peak is either right upon us or well within sight.  Gothberg is just past the base starting the initial ascent.

Expect Gothberg to play rocky at times during the game but if you watched the same game I did vs. Manitoba, you would have seen some serious flashes of brilliance.  I can't wait for Goehring to bring it out of Gothberg as he grows.  Gothberg could be someone special.

My three stars for tonights game:

3.  Chris Kamal (UAA) - He doesn't play the way he did, we drop double digits on UAA easy.
2.  Derek Forbort (UND) -  He played solid all over the place
1.  Danny Kristo (UND)  - No goals, but he had 3 assists and he was ALL over the ice doing his best TJ Oshie impersonation.

There were a ton of honorable mentions like Drake Caggiula, Rocco Grimaldi, Carter Rowney, Zane Gothberg...

But anyways, I'm sure my 3rd star will arouse enough controversy for the evening.

Good work UND!

Tickets remain available for WCHA-opening series against UAA this weekend

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Reserved seating and general admission tickets remain available for North Dakota’s series this weekend against Alaska Anchorage, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) opener for both teams.

Tickets for both Friday and Saturday’s games became available as a result of unclaimed student tickets, as well as tickets unused by Alaska Anchorage.

Tickets can be purchased at the UND Box Office at Ralph Engelstad Arena or online at Ticketmaster.com.

General admission tickets are also available for all remaining home games, and some reserved seating remains available for select home games. Visit www.undsports.com or follow @UNDTix on Twitter for ticket availability information throughout the season.

Dates	Opponent	Adult Price	Youth Price (12 & Under)
Oct. 26-27	Alaska Anchorage	$35	$20
Nov. 2-3	Boston University	$40	$25
Nov. 16-17	Minnesota Duluth	$40	$25
Dec. 7-8	Denver	$50	$30
Jan. 4-5	Holy Cross	$25	$15
Jan. 11-12	Colorado College	$40	$25
Jan. 25-26	St. Cloud State	$40	$25
Feb. 1-2	Wisconsin	$40	$25
Mar. 1-2	Bemidji State	$35	$20