UND Hockey makes the Final Five for a 11th year in a row with win over Tech

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

Grand Forks, ND – With the win tonight, the University of North Dakota (21-11-7) hockey team has made the WCHA Final Five in each of Dave Hakstol’s nine seasons.

What’s even more impressive with UND’s 6-0 win over Michigan Tech, UND has made the Final Five for the 11th-straight year in a row, that’s the longest current streak in the WCHA.

Since coach Hakstol took over the reins in 2004-05, the University of North Dakota hockey team has never lost a first round WCHA playoff series and currently holds 18-4 (.818) record.

Hakstol also holds an impressive 32-9 record in the WCHA playoff games.

After last night’s 2-1 loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies, that streak appeared to be in jeopardy.  In last night’s game, the Michigan Tech Huskies were a miserable team to play against; they clogged up the neutral zone up and gave North Dakota little time and space. Huskies also beat UND to the puck all night long.

Tonight was a different story, the Green and White left little doubt as they were the better team all night long and beat the Huskies to the puck all night long and the Huskies defenders had no answer for UND team speed as they entered the neutral zone with speed and when the Huskies got a chance on Clarke Saunders the UND defense was there to clear the puck.

In the end, UND blew out the Michigan Tech Huskies (13-20-4) and actually ended up pulling the  starting goalie Clarke Saunders with 4:02 left and inserted the backup goalie Tate Maris who’s a very popular third string goalie with his teammates and with the fans as well.

Think about this, Clarke Saunders had a 27 save shutout, when the ever popular Tate Maris entered the game to a standing ovation. That happened. It was a very classy move by the head coach Dave Hakstol.

“I thought the level of play was our most complete of the year, without a question,” Head coach Dave Hakstol said of his team’s 6-0 win over the Michigan Tech Huskies. “We played at a playoff level for three periods tonight and it started right from the drop of the puck.”

An emotional Tate Maris explained what it was like to finally get a taste of game action in the last home game of his college hockey career. “it’s kind of indescribable I guess,” Maris said. I don’t know. I guess I am kind of at a loss for words for it. It’s kind of four years pushed into one night in four minutes there at the end. Pretty surreal, to say the least, it’s just amazing to be out there with your fellow teammates. To be surrounded by those fans, it’s kind of indescribable, just amazing to say the least.”

According to senior forward Corban Knight, tonight was a statement game for the UND hockey team and the head coach challenged the team to be better for 60 minutes tonight.

“We set the bar pretty high tonight with the way we played,” senior forward Corban Knight said. “In order for us to be successful like you said, we need to keep that bar high and make sure we’re working hard to get to that every night, because we’re only going to be playing better teams from here on in.”

Up next for UND is Colorado College who beat DU 4-3. That game will be next Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. central time. UND and Colorado College split the season series 2-2.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

College Hockey: On ice officials have to be better

Match penalty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some college hockey officials incorrectly assume that if a college hockey player is a heavy hitter and dishes out “legal” heavy hits, he is somehow a dirty player and worthy of a major penalty even when it was a legal hit.

Hence, said player is incorrectly called for a major penalty.

It’s almost like the onus is on the player instead of the referee. I don’t understand this flawed line of thinking.

If anything the on ice officials need to do a better job calling the game of hockey.

Hockey like football is a physical sport – this is not up for debate – physicality is part of the game. This is a fact, there’s going to be injuries as a result of legal checks.

If I am not mistaken, one NHL player hurt himself eating a stack of pancakes last season.

If you could develop a light set of pads that was 100% able to prevent injuries you could make millions of dollars. There is no such thing.

Unfortunately, with college hockey, they’re forced to use part time officials; the product on the ice is suffering because of this. In the WCHA, the officiating has gotten worse the last couple of years and the league has shown no interest in improving the quality of their on ice officials. In my opinion, transparency is at an all-time low.

Often times, the wrong call is being made on the ice, under the guise of not wanting to be that ref that made a wrong call, when it comes to hard and often legal hits. This problem would be easy to fix, with the aid of video review.  s/t Bruce Ciskie 

If the referee on the ice is calling a major penalty, why not allow that referee to step into scorer’s table to allow him to take a quick look to confirm that he’s not making an incorrect call.

In NCAA hockey, penalties can be increased but never decreased. That rules is one that never seemed to make much sense to me.  If anything that rule is incoherent and the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee should take a look at changing it, next time they meet.  Even the NHL can rescind a match penalty.

The game of hockey like football is fast and sometimes the officials get the calls on the ice wrong, the refs are human and will make mistakes. Some refs in some leagues seems to make more mistakes than others.

Lately, legal shoulder-to-shoulder hits have been called hits to the head resulting in major penalties and a game misconduct to the player dishing legal checks. This is unacceptable in my opinion and could be easily fixed if the ref was allowed to step into the scorer table to review the hit.

The on ice officials already review numerous legit goals to confirm that they were legal. One must ask, can they really slow down the game anymore?

I mean think about it, it’s not like they couldn’t review the few major penalties that college hockey has already. So why not review a questionable hit before the ref incorrectly throws a player out of a game for legal hit? Does that not seem fair? Wouldn’t that be better than taking legal hits out of the game of hockey? Why not change the refs behavior instead of expecting a player to change the way he plays the game of hockey.

UND senior defenseman Andrew MacWilliam is 6’2” 230 pounds and he plays a physical game and he is UND’s best penalty killer and he plays against all of the opposition’s best players.  MacWilliam is a hard checker, but not a dirty player and he has been incorrectly thrown out of two games this season for legal hits, one against BU’s Ahti Oksanen and one against MTU for hitting David Johnstone last Friday Night.

Both hits were legal shoulder-to-shoulder hits and shouldn’t have resulted in a penalty at all. In both instances, the same referee Marco Hunt made the wrong call and MacWilliam was given a five minute Major and a game misconduct, next time MacWilliam is given a game misconduct, he will also have to sit out a game due to a suspension for three game misconducts.

Last season, MacWIlliam was also given a five minute major and a game misconduct in game against theDenver Pioneers freshman forward Matt Tabrum as well, for this hit.

Do you see a pattern here? The officials need to learn the difference between a legal hit and an illegal hit. Hockey is a physical game and the players and the fans deserve better. The level of officiating does not match the level of play on the ice and it hasn’t for some time now.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine. 

(Edit) MTU No goal, the puck went over the net.

Edit: if this was a goal, the puck wouldn't have shot up into the air. Meaning one thing, the puck in question went over the top of the net. There were also people sitting behind the UND net, that said they saw the puck go over the top of the net as well. So, the right call was made.

In looking at these two images, I don't know, it's hard to say. Like I said earlier, the officiating was equally poor all weekend long for both teams and wasn’t a factor in the game. Both teams will have to play through it tomorrow night, obviously, and one teams is going to advance to the Final Five next week. s/t Tim Boger.

Furne beat Saunders, but had his shot stopped by a defenseman. UND full strength. #mtuhky #followthehuskies
— Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) March 17, 2013

Related articles

• UND hockey: Time for crunching numbers is over, it's crunch time (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND hockey: Time for crunching numbers is over, it's crunch time (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND finds tough sledding against Tech (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Slugs Out Win Against Tech (insidehockey.com)

UND Hockey: Slugs out win against Tech

Grand Forks, ND –What a difference a year makes, a year ago it was near 65 degrees sunny and devoid of snow.

Fast forward to March 15, 2013, 10,571 fans braved  near white out conditions to attend  tonight’s game and outside it looked more like a January 15 game; than a game being played in the middle of March.

UND is 14-1-2 when scoring four or more goals this season. Make that 15-1-2 with the 5-3 win tonight.  What is even more impressive, UND has also won 14 straight WCHA playoff game with the win tonight.

That being said, it wasn’t UND best effort tonight.  The win didn’t come easy.

“It was a tough hockey game to find any flow,” UND head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We need to play better and return our focus to doing that tomorrow night.”

UND was outshot 43-24 by the upstart Huskies and they gave the UND forwards fits by getting in the shooting lanes and taking away UND’s time and space.

At the 12:30 mark of the first period UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam was assessed a five minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head of Michigan Tech forward David Johnstone.  After further review of the play, it was apparent that the on ice official Marco Hunt had made the wrong call.  Johnston suffered a broken collar bone on the hit.

The five minute major to MacWilliam threw UND off of their rhythm and it took a while for the Green and White to regain the upper hand. UND coach Dave Hakstol expounded on it a little more after the game.

Michael Parks
Eric Classen, UND Sports

“The five minute major knocked us back,” Hakstol said. “We survived it and recovered. I guess it was the story of the night. We hit a few bumps in the road, but we found a way to win.”

The Tech Huskies took the game to UND until the 15:45 mark of the middle frame when fourth line forward junior forward Derek Rodwell scored his second goal of the year unassisted.

“The Rodwell goal was a big one for us,” Hakstol said.  When the head coach was asked where that goal came from? Hakstol continued, “Derek does that really well. He took the puck wide, drove wide little bit. Pulled it to the middle and snapped it hard at the net. It was well out from, 40-feet out – he put it bar down – it was good timing to get his second (goal) of the year.

Junior forward Derek Rodwell had this to say about his goal. “It was a just kind of a broke play down the center-ice,” Rodwell said. “I saw a little bit room and tried to shoot through the screen, just happened to get a good bounce that happened to go in.”

Senior forward Danny Kristo had a monstrous night on the ice for UND tonight recording (2g-1a—3pts) pushing his season point total to (23g-25a—48pts) three points off of the national leaders Ryan Walters and Greg Carey.

Dillon Simpson
Eric Classen, UND Sports

Danny Kristo was there to answer bell every time the Tech Huskies would score to tighten the game up.  The Senior forward didn’t seemed all that pleased with his team’s effort tonight.

“Friday night is the biggest game of the series,” Kristo said. “I think that we played very average tonight, we didn’t do the things we need to do to keep playing this time of year, but we’re going to move on, and forget this one. We’ll take the win and get ready for tomorrow, it’s going to be tough to end a team’s season, because Tech is playing good hockey – proud of the win – but we got to be better tomorrow.”

Kristo is right, UND is going to have to be better if UND wants to end Tech’s season tomorrow night. Game 2 is set for tomorrow night at the Ralph Engelstad Arena at 7:07 p.m. central.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine. 

(Video) Andrew MacWilliam hit on David Johnstone

s/t to @cjzero UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam was incorrectly given a five minute major and a game misconduct for this hit on MTU forward David Johnstone. Hopefully the MTU forward Johnstone makes a quick recovery, but word is that he has a separated shoulder.

UND vs. MTU game 1 WCHA playoffs

UND Forward Lines

21 Brendan O’Donnell–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo (A)
19 Rocco Grimaldi–27 Carter Rowney (A)–15 Michael Parks
25 Mitch MacMillan–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
11 Derek Rodwell–28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair

UND Defensive Parings

2 Andrew MacWilliam (C)–18 Dillon Simpson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
22 Andrew Panzarella–20 Joe Gleason

UND goalies

31 Zane Gothberg
33 Clarke Saunders
35 Tate Maris

Not In the lineup: Nick Mattson (5), Dan Senkbeil (8), Drake Caggiula (9), Coltyln Sanderson (26),  Bryn Chyzyk (29).

Michigan Tech Huskies Forward lines

19 Blake Pietila–10 Tanner Kero–23 Alex Petan
12 Ryan Furne–8 Jacob Johnstone–14 Chad Pietila
15 David Johnstone–7 Jujhar Khaira–28 Milos Gordic
18 C.J. Eick–9 Dennis Rix–13 Aaron Pietila

Michigan Tech Huskies Defense Pairings

16 Steven Seigo (A) –34 Riley Sweeney
29 Walker Hyland–24 Daniel Sova
3 Bradley Stebner (A) –25 Carl Nielsen (C)

Michigan Tech Goalies

30 Jamie Phillips
31 Pheonix Copley

Refs:  Marco Hunt (15) , Derek Shepherd (3)  Lines Andy Kokken (70) Justin Hill (83).

Head of Officials Greg Shepherd is in the building

Related articles

• Goon's 2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND hockey: Time for crunching numbers is over, it's crunch time (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND: The Weekend Ahead (3/15-3/17) (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (insidehockey.com)

Results of the 2012-13 Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

s/t to A Tradition of Excellence for putting on the Second Annual Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards. This is how the vote shook out.

* Asterik denotes a unanimous selection

All-WCHA First Team:
F - Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Erik Haula, Minnesota
F - Danny Kristo, North Dakota
D - Nate Schmidt, Minnesota
D - Nick Jensen, St. Cloud State
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

All-WCHA Second Team:
F - Drew LeBlanc, St. Cloud State
F - Corban Knight, North Dakota
F - Rylan Schwartz, Colorado College
D - Mike Boivin, Colorado College
D - Joey LaLeggia, Denver
G - Adam Wilcox, Minnesota

All-WCHA Third Team:
F - Matt Leitner, Minnesota State
F - Josh Archibald, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Eriah Hayes, Minnesota State
D - Andrew Prochno, St. Cloud State
D - Andrej Sustr, Nebraska-Omaha
G - Juho Olkinuora, Denver

WCHA All-Rookie Team:
F - Alex Petan, Michigan Tech
F - Tony Cameranesi, Minnesota-Duluth
F - Jonny Brodzinski, St. Cloud State
D - Nolan Zajac, Denver *
D - Andy Welinski, Minnesota-Duluth
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Player of the Year: Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha

WCHA Defenseman of the Year: Nate Schmidt, Minnesota

WCHA Rookie of the Year: Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Coach of the Year: Mike Hastings, Minnesota State


Here's the rundown of the voters.

Ryan, Gopher Puck Live
Matt, Bulldog Country
Joe, Colorado Springs Gazette
Travis, @nodakhockey/Fighting Sioux Hockey Facebook Fan Page
Emily, Beyond the Pond
Taylor, The Hockey Writers Combine
Eric, Goon's World/The Hockey Writers Combine
Tim, Tech Hockey Guide
Matthew, USCHO
Nate, College Hockey News/SB Nation Team Minnesota
Donn, Goon's World
Andy, Bucky's 5th Quarter
Andrew, College Hockey High Horse
Jeff, Mav Mania
Dave, Sioux Sports
Chad, A Tradition of Excellence

Related articles

• My 2012-2013 All-WCHA Ballot (thehockeywriters.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (thehockeywriters.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (insidehockey.com)
• Weekend Match-Ups (by Donn) (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Another 2012-2013 All-WCHA Ballot (thehockeywriters.com)

Weekend Match-Ups (by Donn)

Here we are the middle of March and the playoffs have arrived in St. Could, Minneapolis, Grand Forks, Mankato, Madison, and Denver.  Congratulations to all those teams on a top half finish in the WCHA’s last season as we know it.  This is the first MacNaughton Cup title for SCSU, who are sharing it with UM (their 11^th).

I have included my preseason predicted finish number behind the points, I did okay on a few teams and completely missed on other…

WCHA FINAL STANDINGS 2012-2013

Team………………………W-L-T………Points…..Prediction

1. St. Cloud St……………18-9-1.……….37----------5
2. Minnesota……………...16-7-2……..…37----------3
3. North Dakota.………….14-7-7………..35----------2
4. Minnesota State………16-11-1....…….33---------11
4. Wisconsin…....………..13-8-7………...33----------8
4. Denver…………..……..14-9-5..….......33-----------1
7. Nebraska-Omaha…......14-12-2…....…30----------7
8. Colorado College …….11-13-4..….….26----------6
9. Minnesota-Duluth….….10-13-5……….25----------4
10. Michigan Tech………..8-16-4…..…..20-----------9
11. Bemidji State……..…..6-15-7......…..17-----------10
12. Alaska-Anchorage…....2-19-6.....…..10-----------12


The # numbers below are current PAIRWISE rankings.

1st Round of WCHA Games - Best of 3 Series

Alaska-Anchorage @ #10 St. Could St. 

Last weekend the Seawolves were swept by the Pioneers (7-1, 6-1) in Denver with the Huskies split with the Badgers (4-2W, 3-2L) in Madison.

2012-13 series – tied 1-1-0

These teams clashed back on Nov30-Dec1 in Anchorage, with the Huskies prevailing in the opener 4-3 in overtime, and the Seawolves extracting revenge the next night with a 3-1 win.  I don’t remember if or when the top seed has ever lost in the first round and I don’t see it happening this year.  SCSU has too much talent and depth for UAA to keep up in a three game series, if it even goes three games.  HUSKIES SWEEP

Bemidji St. @ #2 Minnesota

Last weekend the Gophers swept the Beavers in Bemidji (4-3, 5-1).

2012-13 series – UM wins 2-0-0

This is interesting, since these two teams just played each other last weekend in Bemidji.  I don’t care what level of hockey it is, it is hard to beat anybody four games in a row.  The downside for the Gophers is, does playing the same team two weekends in a row cause a problem in the next round for them?  The pressure is on the Gophers to dispose of the Beavers in two games.  The Beavers would like to gnaw on the Gophers this weekend in Minneapolis and stay there for play next weekend in St. Paul.  Remember when BSU made the Final 2011, by beating UNO on the road, and then beating UMD in a play-in game before losing to DU in a semifinal?  Well, I don’t think they are going to be making that trip.  GOPHERS SWEEP

Michigan Tech @ #5 North Dakota

Last weekend NoDak split with MSUM (4-3W, 2-1Lot) in Mankato and the Huskies split (2-0W, 4-3L) with the CC Tigers in Houghton.

2012-13 series – UND wins 2-0-0

These two longtime foes played in Houghton in mid-December with NoDak sweeping by scores of 6-1 and 4-1.  If I’ve looked up the numbers right the last time MTU beat UND it was December 28, 2008 at the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament.  This could also be the last time these teams play for years to come with the new conference changes coming next season.  The Huskies have been playing much better the second half of this season, but they don’t have what it takes to knock off a top tier team in a best of three series.  NORTH DAKOTA SWEEP

Colorado College @ #5 Denver

Last weekend the Tigers split with the MTU Huskies (2-0L, 4-3W) in Houghton and the Pioneers swept (7-1, 6-1) the Seawolves in Denver.

2012-13 series – DU wins 2-1-1

The Pioneers swept the Tigers back in November and in February the Tigers won and tied DU.  This being a rivalry and playoff series at once should be a humdinger to watch, almost makes me wish I was in Colorado.  I think this will be a three game series with the home team prevailing, but I’ve been wrong before.  PIONEERS IN 3

Nebraska-Omaha @ #9 Minnesota State

Last weekend the UNO Mavericks were swept by Bulldogs (5-4, 6-0) in Duluth and the MSUM Mavericks split with NoDak (4-3L, 2-1Wot) in Mankato.

2012-13 series – tied 1-1-0

The red and purple Mavericks locked horns back in mid-December in Omaha, Mankato won the opener 6-3 and Omaha won the closer 5-1.  Omaha has fallen hard the last two months, they have lost 7 of their last 9 games (8 of 10 if count the exhibition against the U-18 USA team) and their two wins are against UAA.  Before February rolled around, Omaha looked to be a top half finisher, and now they just look finished.  MINNESOTA STATE SWEEP

Minnesota-Duluth @ #18 Wisconsin

Last weekend the Bulldogs swept the UNO Mavericks (5-4, 6-0) in Duluth and the Badgers split (4-2L, 3-2W) with the SCSU Huskies in Madison.

2012-13 series – UW wins 1-0-1

It has been a while since these teams shared the ice, it was back in late October they played with the Badgers blanking the Bulldogs 2-0 and then they tied the following evening 2-2.  UMD is on their longest winning streak of the year at 4 in a row, sweeping UNO and UAH, and they tied the UM before to have a 5 game unbeaten stretch now.  UW has been one of the hotter teams in 2013 and have been playing good hockey as of late.  This is going to come down to which team wants it more and neither team is going to back down in these tilts.  I’m giving the nod to the home team, but just slightly.  BADGERS IN 3

2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll (by Donn)

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is how I voted on my ballot.

2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll

All-WCHA First Team
F – Danny Kristo (UND)
F – Erik Haula (UM)
F – Drew LeBlanc (SCSU)
D – Nate Schmidt (UM)
D – Joey LaLeggia (DU)
G – Adam Wilcox (UM)

All-WCHA Second Team

F – Corban Knight (UND)
F – Rylan Schwartz (CC)
F – Ryan Walters (UNO)
D – Nick Jensen (SCSU)
D – Mike Boivin (CC)
G – Joe Rumpel (UW)

All-WCHA Third Team

F – Matt Leitner (MSUM)
F – Ben Hanowski (SCSU)
F – Alex Petan (MTU)
D – Jake McCabe (UW)
D – Dillon Simpson (UND)
G – Zane Gothberg (UND)

All-WCHA Rookie Team

F – Rocco Grimaldi (UND)
F – Nic Kerdiles (UW)
F – Blake Tatchell (UAA)
D – Jordan Schmaltz (UND)
D – Nolan Zajac (DU)
G – Stephon Williams (MSUM)

WCHA Player of the Year – Danny Kristo (UND)

WCHA Defensive Player of the Year – Joey LaLeggia (DU)
WCHA Rookie of the Year – Rocco Grimaldi (UND)
WCHA Coach of the Year – Mike Hastings (MSUM)
*WCHA Goaltender of the Year will be the First Team Goaltender

Updated: Goon's 2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Tradition of Excellence Blog, a hockey blog dedicated to UND hockey, distributed a ballot for the Second Annual 2012-13 Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards Poll to the various fan bloggers and fan message boards from around the WCHA.

The voters were asked to pick the first, second, third and rookie teams just like the WCHA voters from the media. We also picked the player of the year, rookie of the year, defensive player of the year and coach of the year.

The ballots had to be back by today (3/14/2013).  

This is the ballot that I submitted, I stand by this ballot. Your critique is appreciated and welcome; however, if your sole purpose is to attack me, you might want to think twice before posting.

You’re also welcome to include your ballot as well if you want.

Everyone sees the game of hockey a little differently and through a different scope/lens.

First off, this was a tough year, there are so many good players that could have been selected to be on this year’s ballot and I know from posting this ballot on my blog; in some fans’ opinion, I have slighted their favorite player(s).

To those people, I apologize.

For the most part, I have been able to watch most if not all of the players in the WCHA this season. This past weekend, I was able to get a closer look at the Minnesota Gophers live in Bemidji, Minnesota.

In my opinion, Nate Schmidt (8g-22a—30tps) is the best defenseman in the WCHA, if I was a Gophers fan I would be worried, the free agent is going to get offers from professional hockey teams in the offseason. Schmidt is the real deal.

I also think that Ryan Walters (21g-29a—50tps) is the hands down favorite for Players of the Year in the WCHA. Ryan Walters is also the real deal and will garner free agent offers from professional hockey teams in the offseason as well.

My pick for Rookie of the year is Jonny Brodzinski (19g-11a—30pts), this is the same kid that only scored (10g-12a—22pts) in 58 games with the Fargo Force of the USHL the year before. Brodzinski, the undrafted 6’1’ 200 pound forward from Ham Lake Minnesota is becoming an unstoppable force on the ice and the Huskies are 17-6-1 when he scores at least a point.  

Bob Moztko had this to say about his rookie forward after a series earlier this season, when he [Brodzinski] shoots the puck people are going to start see that it’s a big league shot, and it’s just deadly – he’s a big strong kid – he gets open, he reminds me of a kid [Matt Frattin] they had here a couple of years ago – a kid that shot every time he had the puck.”

Coach of the year, I thought Mike Hastings earned the award with his team’s finish, especially after finishing 11^th, the year before. I can see an argument for Bob Motzko from Saint Cloud State as well, but they had a lot of returning players, so the Huskies winning the league title this season wasn’t really a shock to anyone.

All-WCHA First Team

F – Corban Knight, UND

F – Ryan Walters, UNO

F – Erik Haula, UMN  

D – Nate Schmidt, UMN

D – Joey LaLeggia, DU

G – Stephon Williams, MSU

All-WCHA Second Team

F – Drew LeBlanc, SCSU

F – Danny Kristo, UND

F – Rylan Schwartz, C.C.

D – Mike Bovin C.C.

D – Nick Jensen, SCSU

G – Adam Wilcox, UMN

All-WCHA Third Team

F – Matt Leitner, MSU

F – Alexander Krushelnyski, C.C.

F – Nic Dowd, SCSU

D – Andrew Prochno, SCSU

D – Dillon Simpson, UND

G – Joel Rumpel, UW

All-WCHA Rookie Team

F – Rocco Grimaldi, UND

F – Alex Petan, MTU

F – Jonny Brodzinski, SCSU

D – Nolan Zajac, DU

D – Jordan Schmaltz, UND

G – Zane Gothberg, UND

WCHA Player of the Year – Ryan Walters, UNO

WCHA Defensive Player of the Year – Nate Schmidt, UMN

WCHA Rookie of the Year – Jonny Brodzinski, SCSU

WCHA Coach of the Year – Mike Hastings, MSU

*WCHA Goaltender of the Year will be the First Team Goaltender

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

UND: The Weekend Ahead (3/15-3/17)

This weekend, the University of North Dakota entertains the Michigan Tech Huskies in the first round of the WCHA playoffs at Ralph Engelstad Arena, March 15-17, 2013.

Historically, this is also the last WCHA playoff home series before UND moves to the NCHC next season.

Matchup: North Dakota (19-10-7, 14-7-7 WCHA) #4 versus #Unranked Michigan Tech (12-18-4, 8-16-4 WCHA).

Dates: March 15-17, 2013

Times: March 15: 7:37 p.m. (CT); March 16: 7:07 p.m. (CT), March 17: 7:07 p.m. (If Necessary)

Radio: UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast: undsports.com

TV: Midco/FCS

Live Stats: wcha.com

Series History: All-Time: UND leads the series against the Huskies 147-93-10 (.608). UND leads the series against the Huskies in Grand Forks, North Dakota 82-33-5 (.704). UND leads the series in Houghton, Michigan 63-55-5 (.533). At Neutral sites, MTU Leads 2-5-0 (.286) Last 10 games against the Huskies, UND leads 9-0-1 (.950). This season; UND leads the series 2-0 (1.000).

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Corbin Knight (14g-31a—45pts), Danny Kristo (21g-24a—45pts), Rocco Grimaldi (13g-18a—31pts), Mark MacMillan (13g-12a—25pts), Carter Rowney (9g-15a—24pts). Defense: Dillon Simpson (3g-18a—21pts), Joe Gleason (5g-11a—16pts), Joe Gleason (5g-11a—16pts), Nick Mattson (3g-12a—15pts), Derek Forbort (4g-9a—13pts), Jordan Schmaltz (3g-9a—12pts) Andrew MacWilliam (1g-9a—10pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 12-6-4, 2.30 GAA, .915 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 7-4-3, 2.52 GAA, .918 save percentage.

Michigan Tech Huskies: Forwards Alex Petan (15g-18a—33pts), David Johnstone (10g-19a—29pts), Jujhar Khaira (6g-18a—24pts), Blake Pietila (14g-9a—23pts), Tanner Kerio (10g-13a—23pts) Defense: Steven Seigo (6g-11a—17pts) Riley Sweeney (1g-11a—12pts), Brad Stebner (1g-8a—9pts). Goalies: Phoenix Copley 7-14-1, 3.19 GAA, .899 save percentage, Kevin Genoe 2-3-3, 3.09 GAA, .908 save percentage.

UND Officials Web Page

Michigan Tech Web Page

DirecTV will not be able to pick up Friday's game. Still awaiting word on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) March 13, 2013

Cross-Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine

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