Jordan Schmaltz hit on Drew Leblanc

I have had a few requests from readers to put video on-line so why not... I personally can see how the call on UND freshman defenseman Jordan Schmaltz was given a five minute major and a game missconduct. That being said, the refs aren't calling this equally. I don't know how many times this season already a UND player was crunched into boards from behind and the hit was worse than the one on the video and the offending player only got a two minute penalty.

Some fans are wondering why wasn't the Huskies forward Joey Holka given a major penalty for checking Dillon Simpson from behind at the 16:56 mark of the second period? I think both hits are very similar... That's what I have a problem with, there is no consistency in the referee's calls.  I think that is all the fans ask.

Related articles

• UND vs. SCSU Series Notes (11/9-11/10) (thehockeywriters.com)

Are the Portland Wnterhawks the next to be punished?

This past summer the OHL’s Windsor Spit Fires were fined $250,000.00 for breaking the OHL’s recruitment/benefit rules and policies. Now according to Dean Milard of the Pipeline Show, the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League could be the next CHL team to face some stiff punishment for a violations of the recruitment rules. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Dean Milard; Coming Down the Pipe --- The In the case of Portland, here is their latest big recruit and a few situations that some might be suspicious of, and reasons why there might not be anything wrong with it at all. Seth Jones joined the Hawks this year after a trade with Everett during the 2012 post season.

- Did the team speak to Jones before the trade?
- Did he simply realize that the Winterhawks have developed some pretty good blueliners lately?
- Did they offer him more money to play in Portland after the trade?

Depending on who you talk to, Jones is a stud no matter where he plays. Some wonder why Everett wasn't his choice as it didn't seem to hurt Ryan Murray who went second overall. But a case can be made for the likes of Joe Morrow and Derrick Pouliot in Portland. As for his NCAA options, he had narrowed his choices down to the University of North Dakota. Formerly the Fighting Sioux. UND is an unreal program and playing there is never a wrong choice, but Portland isn't exactly second banana. They've been to the final, two straight years and some (like me) have them getting back there again this year. Maybe Jones just saw the writing on the wall that they were going to be good, especially with him and jumped on board.

After this revelation; one does have to wonder how many more CHL teams could be in violation of the recruitment/benefits rules? I am sure that Dean Millard and Guy Flaming will keep us updated on this developing situation.

Ruling from the league on the Pattyn's non goal.

I emailed Doug Spencer from the WCHA to get the official ruling on why Steph Pattyn’s apparent goal didn’t’ count.

From the head of WCHA officials Greg Shepherd …

"The official waved off the goal right away and then reviewed it at the next stoppage. It was not conclusive enough to overturn the no goal call."

How some of us voted...

One of the conversations that popped up on twitter last week was transparency in how the voters voted in the Tech Hockey Guide WCHA Web Media poll. If you’re wondering how three of the 12 voted you can click on the following links. I am hoping eventually that a few more of the writers will post their votes so we know how they voted.

Chris Dilks, Western College Hockey

post 1.) Denver
2.) St. Cloud
3.) Minnesota
4.) North Dakota
5.) Nebraska-Omaha
6.) Colorado College

Matthew Semisch of Radio Free Omaha

1.) Denver
2.) Saint Cloud State
3.) Minnesota
4.) North Dakota
5.) Colorado College
6.) Nebraska Omaha

Goon’s world

1.) Denver University
2.) Saint Cloud State
3.) University of North Dakota
4.) Minnesota Gophers
5.) Colorado College
6.) Nebraska Omaha

Did Bettman over play his hand?

Here is my question as the lockout continues towards day 60 – has the NHL owners and Gary Bettman over played their hand? From reading some of the articles that I have seen the last couple of days it would appear so.

Mark Spector; Sportsnet.ca --- Somehow, commissioner Bettman and his deputy Bill Daly have made it their quest not just to get the players to a 50-50 share of Hockey Related Revenues, but also to dictate when a player can become a free agent, when he qualifies for arbitration, how long he can sign for, what colour his car should be, what he should name his dog…

Bettman wants half the pie for his owners, but also wants to tell the players what kind of ice cream to put on their half. Even people who work with the teams don't see the wisdom in losing games over that, we're starting to learn.

The rest of the hockey world sees it as a sign of unparalleled greed by the owners.

"The dollars are set. Why are the teams so concerned about how the dollars get split up among the players?" a prominent agent asked on Monday. "Why the heck do they care if Player A gets 20 years at 20 million, or 1 year at $500,000? The players' pool is fixed."

 Perhaps it is a snapback from all those previous CBAs in which Bettman failed to close enough loopholes to keep salary escalation from occurring.

Kristo Dive?

If you haven't seen this, UND's Danny Kristo was assessed a 2 minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for diving at the 19:52 mark of the second period of Saturday night's game against the SCSU Huskies. Also receiving a two minute minor penalty, was SCSU Husky forward David Morley. After the period was over, UND head coach Dave Hakstol was given a two minute penalty after giving the on ice officials an ear full. As you can see by the video, coach Hakstol was less than pleased.

Also, if you listen to the announcers, you can see what they thought of the call as well. Former SCSU Husky forward Mark Parish was also a professional hockey player in the NHL so definitely knows the game of hockey.

Related articles

• Shifting through the debris on Monday morning... (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

Results of the WCHA Web Media Poll: Week 5

Each week, I participate in a WCHA Web Media Poll that is put on by the Tech Hockey Guide with 11 other people that represent both the print media as well as the hockey blogosphere. Here’s the week five results of the WCHA Web Media Poll.

During this week’s poll the Wisconsin Badgers were idle and still had the biggest jump of the week, the Badgers moved from 11th place to seventh.   After being swept by the UNO Mavericks, the Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs had the biggest stumble, falling from seventh place to 10^th.

	Team	Pts	Previous	Record	High	Low
1)	Denver (12)	144	1	5-1-0	1	1
2)	St. Cloud State	115	2	5-3-0	2	6
3)	Minnesota	112	4	5-2-0	3	5
4)	North Dakota	110	3	3-2-1	2	5
5)	Colorado College	107	5	5-3-0	2	6
6)	Nebraska Omaha	95	6	4-3-1	2	7
7)	Wisconsin	57	11	1-4-1	7	11
8)	Bemidji State	54	8	2-1-1	6	11
9)	Michigan Tech	48	10	2-6-0	7	12
10)	Minnesota Duluth	35	7	2-3-1	7	12
11)	Minnesota State	34	9	3-3-2	8	12
12)	Alaska Anchorage	25	12	2-2-2	8	12

Representing Name Publication Twitter

Alaska-Anchorage, Taylor Hall College Hockey News @thall907
Bemidji State, Troy Mills The Beaver Pond
Colorado College, Joe Paisley, Paisley Hockey @Paisleyhockey
Denver, Mike Chambers, Denver Post @MChambersDP
Michigan Tech, Tim Braun, Tech Hockey Guide @TBraunTHG
Minnesota, Dan Myers, Minnesota Hockey Magazine @1DanMyers
Minnesota Duluth, Bruce Ciskie, The Ciskie Blog @BruceCiskie
Minnesota State, Chris Dilks, Western College Hockey @ChrisDilks
Nebraska-Omaha, Matt Semisch, Radio Free Omaha @matthewsemisch
North Dakota, Eric Burton The Hockey Writers Combine and Goon’s World @goon48
St. Cloud State, Jeremy Larson, Husky Hockey Time @jclarson02
Wisconsin, Andy Johnson, Bucky’s 5th Quarter @andyjohnsonB5Q

Orgiinally posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine... 

The Sky is not falling; that’s just snow.

Last week, I updated the numbers from a post that Jayson Hajdu did last season, looking at Coach Hakstol’s teams before Christmas break and then the coach’s record after the Christmas Break. I think the record speaks for itself.

2004-05: 13-7-2 (.636) - 12-8-3 (.587)
2005-06: 12-7-1 (.625) - 17-9-0 (.654)
2006-07: 7-10-1 (.417) - 17-4-4 (.760)
2007-08: 8-6-1 (.567) - 20-5-3 (.768)
2008-09: 9-8-1 (.528) - 15-7-3 (.660)
2009-10: 9-6-3 (.583) - 16-7-2 (.680)
2010-11: 13-5-2 (.700) - 19-4-1 (.813)
2011-12: 9-8-1 (.528) - 17-5-2 (.750)
2012-13: 4-3-1 (.563) - ?
Totals 84-60-13 (.576) - 133-49-18 (.710)

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll; UND stays at 6

November 12, 2012

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Boston College	(50)	8- 1-0	1000	1
2	Denver		7- 1-0	934	3
3	Minnesota		6- 2-1	890	2
4	Miami		6- 2-2	817	5
5	New Hampshire		6- 1-1	734	9
6	North Dakota		4- 3-1	696	6
7	Union		6- 2-1	665	8
8	Notre Dame		6- 3-0	646	7
9	Western Michigan		5- 2-1	605	10
10	Cornell		3- 2-1	525	4
11	Boston University		5- 3-0	514	11
12	Dartmouth		5- 0-1	385	NR
13	Michigan		4- 4-1	362	12
14	Colorado College		7- 3-0	343	19
15	St. Cloud State		6- 4-0	327	15
16	St. Lawrence		5- 2-1	228	13
17	Harvard		3- 2-0	211	14
18	Nebraska-Omaha		6- 3-1	149	NR
19	Northern Michigan		4- 4-2	130	16
20	Ferris State		4- 4-2	85	18
Others receiving votes: Massachusetts-Lowell 64, Alaska 36, Niagara 33, Yale 24, Holy Cross 22, Quinnipiac 22, Ohio State 12, Providence 12, Massachusetts 7, Lake Superior 5, Northeastern 5, Minnesota-Duluth 4, Merrimack 3, Michigan State 2, Minnesota State 1, Princeton 1.

 

 

Shifting through the debris on Monday morning…

First off, I didn’t get to watch Friday night’s game; I was deer hunting north of Devils Lake, ND. I did listen to the game and it sounded like UND junior goalie Clarke Saunders was on his game and was very good. Stick tap to Clarke Saunders.

In fact, from what I saw from Saturday’s game, Clarke Saunders wasn’t the problem this weekend, if anything Saturday’s game could have been uglier if it wasn’t for Saunders great play in goal.

I once had an assistant football coach at Upper Iowa tell us, “We win as a team and we lose as a team.”

Obviously, hockey is a team game and there’s a lot of constructive criticism to go around for Saturday’s night’s game. Defensemen missed assignments; forwards didn’t always get back to help in all cases. Forwards and defensemen missed defensive assignments and the Huskies forwards got behind the UND defense a few times.

Also, the five minute major to Jordan Schmaltz hurt and threw UND out of rhythm, because they had to play with five defenseman the rest of the way. I also don’t have a problem with that call per see. You can’t make that hit along the boards, especially if all you see is numbers from the players back.

There is no reason to panic just yet – we have seen this act before. 

Seriously, UND wasn’t going to go 42-0-0 and Saint Cloud State is a good hockey team and should  win a few games in the NCAA tourney this season. 

I believe that we need to give credit where credit is due; the Huskies are going to win a lot of hockey games this season – they’re a veteran team and they have a lot of skill through the forward lines – other teams will have trouble with the Huskies speed through the neutral zone as well.

When it’s all said and done this weekend’s series was an even 5-5 tie. Both teams scored five goals and pretty much played to a draw. Like coach Hakstol said, the National Hockey Center is a momentum building and UND wasn’t able to stop the momentum on Saturday night.

Saturday, I was taking the hide off of my deer and cut my hand and ended up in the Cando, ND emergency room getting three stiches so I only heard the first period. Redwing77 kept me abreast of the situation and s/t to him as well. Also, thanks to Dan for doing the game summaries both Friday and Saturday night.

After my emergency room visit, I was able to hear the postgame comments with Tim Hennessy and head coach Dave Hakstol and I can tell you that the head coach was fired up and it was a passionate conversation.

When I returned home from my hunting trip last night, I watched the Saturday game that I had DVRed from NESN. 

Just of the record, I don’t think that the NESN feed was all that good either. I am not trying to slam anyone I am just saying it’s not as good as it could be. That being said, I am glad we were able to be lucky enough to see a UND away game on the television. 

I can tell you that UND had two power play opportunities all weekend long (1/2) to SCSU’s seven power play opportunities (1/7).

The diving call against Danny Kristo was absolutely brutal; if I get time, I will put it up on YouTube tonight. I can see why the head coach is upset with the call. The part I find funny is even the announcers in the television booth thought the call was a joke as well.

This morning, I have been reading some of the comments on the Live Blog from Saturday’s game and I must admit some of the comments were funny and predictable. I also understand how they feel as well, I am kind of tired of watching them split series they should have won during the first half of the season and make a run in the second half.  None-the-less, UND is traditionally a second half team and has had a very tough schedule to date.

They split two weekend series against two very good teams that will be around when the final 16 teams are announced.

I have seen some things from this season’s squad that leads me to believe that they will be able to skate with the speed teams in the NCAA tourney. This team is built for speed and is very talented through the forward lines and defense and is also very fast. I think this team has only scratched the surface for what they will accomplish this season.

There are also talented players that are sitting in the stands on game night that might be playing on the third and fourth lines of other teams.

My word of advice is to step off of the ledge, UND is going to be fine this season. Let’s not start the fire coach Hakstol just yet. To quote a favorite talk show host of mine, “let not your hearts be troubled.”

In my opinion, this is one of the faster UND teams that I have seen in a very long time. If Michael Parks can get healthy soon, I believe the Mark MacMilian, Carter Rowney and Michael Parks could score a lot of goals. I thought last season they played like a pack of hungry dogs.

During the exhibition game, before Parks was hurt that line was clicking like they had during last season’s run. 

Lastly, I posted a few posts on the goal that wasn’t, but should have been. In my mind I can tell you that was a goal, however, I don’t know if that would have mattered. It might have. Like some have said you get to 2-0 in the NHC which is a momentum building you might be able to quite the building and get to three. Who knows?

Today is a new day… The sun came up, figuratively anyways.  

This should remove any doubt.

If you look at the arrow you will see that the puck is behind the red line and there is day light between the red line and the puck. Also, I you watch the goalies stick you will see that the puck hits it behind the red line. This was a blown call by the officials.

First, I believe that a new rule needs to be enacted that requires the goalies water bottles to be secured on the somewhere on the back of the net where the water bottles don‘t obstruct the view of the overhead camera. Second, the technology needs to be better, if this is the best they can do as far as television pictures go, this is unacceptable. This is a screen shot of the video from the YouTube video that I uploaded from my personal movie camera. That being said, even with the poor video, you can see the puck behind the line.

I want to be clear, I don’t think this is the reason UND lost the game on Saturday night. Saturday night wasn’t the best effort I have seen so far this season. Also, SCSU is a good hockey team, so let’s give credit where credit is due. Given the history of this squad, I don’t think it’s time to jump off of the UND bandwagon just yet.

I also think that think is a perfect example on why I think that Don Adam was the wrong choice to be the head of officials in the NCHC starting next season. This is why many of us were very skeptical if not outright dismissive of the move when Adam was picked to be the head of the NCHC officials. I honestly don’t care if the vote was unanimous with all eight coaches or not, I think it was in retrospect a bad decision. Ironically, the song “How do you like me now” is playing the background as I type this.

WCHA Power Rankings 11/11/2012

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s this week’s WCHA Power Rankings. This season, I will be doing the WCHA Power Rankings with Taylor Seibel who is a contributor of College Hockey Weekly.

1. Denver University – (7-1-0, WCHA 5-1-0) – This weekend, the Denver Pioneers swept (4-3 W – 3-2 W) the Minnesota State University Mavericks in Mankato. This weekend, the Pioneers have a home and home series with their cross-state rival the Colorado College Tigers.

2. Saint Cloud State – (6-4-0, WCHA 4-2-0) – This past weekend, the Huskies split their series (0-3 L – 5-2 W) with the University of North Dakota at the National Hockey Center. This weekend, the Huskies are idle.

3. University of North Dakota – (4-3-1, WCHA 2-1-1) – This past weekend, UND split their series (3-0 W – 2-5 L) with the with the Saint Cloud State Huskies at the National Hockey Center.  This weekend, UND entertains the last place University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

4. Minnesota Gophers – (6-2-1, WCHA 3-2-1) – This past weekend, the Minnesota Gophers took three points (4-0 W – 2-2 T) from UAA Seawolves in Anchorage, Alaska.  This weekend, the Minnesota Gophers entertain the Wisconsin Badgers.

5. Colorado College – (7-3-0, WCHA 4-0-0) – This past weekend, the Colorado College Tigers swept the Bemidji State Beavers (3-2 W – 6-3 W) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This weekend, the Tigers have a home and home series with their cross-state rivals the Denver Pioneers.

6. Nebraska Omaha – (6-3-1, WCHA 4-1-1) – This past weekend, the Red Mavericks swept (2-1 W – 5-3 W) the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in Omaha, Nebraska. This weekend, the Mavericks are off.

7. Bemidji State – (2-3-1, WCHA 1-2-1) – This past weekend, the Bemidji State Beavers were swept (2-3 L – 3-6 W) by the Colorado College Tigers in Colorado Springs. This weekend, the Beavers entertain the Michigan Tech Huskies at the Sanford Center.

8. Wisconsin – (1-4-1, WCHA 1-2-1) – This past weekend, the Badgers were idle. This weekend the Badgers travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to play the Minnesota Gophers in the Border Battle.

9. Michigan Tech – (2-6-0, WCHA 1-5-0) – This past weekend, the Huskies were idle.  This weekend, the Huskies travel to Bemidji to play the Beavers.

10. Alaska Anchorage – (2-3-3, WCHA 0-2-2) – This past weekend, the Seawolves were able to salvage a point (0-4 L – 2-2 T) against the Minnesota Gophers at Sullivan Arena. This weekend the Seawolves are again idle. 

11. Minnesota State Mankato – (3-5-2, WCHA 1-5-0) – This past weekend, the Purple Mavericks were swept (2-3 L – 3-4 L) by the Denver Pioneers. This weekend,  the Mavericks are off.

12.   Minnesota Duluth – (2-5-1, WCHA 0-3-1) – This past weekend, the UMD Bulldogs were swept (2-3 L – 3-6 L) by the Nebraska Omaha Mavericks. This weekend the Bulldogs travel down highway 2, to play the University of North Dakota. 

Taylor Seibel's WCHA Power Rankings

1. Denver – (7-1-0, 5-1-0 WCHA) – The Pioneers took care of business in Mankato this past weekend, and they stay atop my WCHA Power Rankings.  While the games were close (both were 1-goal games), the Pioneers did what they needed to do in order to get the sweep.  Next weekend, the Pioneers play a home and home with arch-rival Colorado College.

2. North Dakota – (4-3-1, 2-1-1 WCHA) – UND can thank Clarke Saunders for their split this past weekend in St. Cloud.  The Junior netminder shutout the Huskies on Friday en route to a 3-0 victory.  North Dakota continues to have its struggles, but a road split against St. Cloud is a solid result.  Next weekend North Dakota hosts Minnesota Duluth in WCHA play.

3. St. Cloud State – (6-4-0, 4-2-0 WCHA) – The Huskies played very well against North Dakota, especially in a 5-2 victory on Saturday.  While many SCSU fans will look at this weekend as a missed opportunity to get more points, a split against North Dakota is nothing to be upset about.  SCSU is off next weekend.

4. Colorado College – (7-3-0, 4-0-0 WCHA) – Another weekend, sweep, and the Tigers are off to a great start in WCHA play.  CC has averaged 4.25 goals/game in WCHA play through 4 games, and they will need to keep up that pace if they want to continue their way up the rankings.  CC plays a home and home with arch-rival Denver next weekend.

5. Minnesota – (6-2-1, 3-2-1 WCHA) – The Gophers have arguably the best powerplay in the country, and that showed this weekend as Minnesota scored 5 goals with the man advantage on the weekend.  Unfortunately for Minnesota, they have struggled to find goals even strength.  They will get another chance next weekend as they host arch-rival Wisconsin.

6. Nebraska Omaha – (6-3-1, 4-1-1 WCHA) – The Mavericks continued their strong play, sweeping Minnesota Duluth at home this weekend.  UNO is a dangerous team, and they are capable of wreaking havoc on the rest of the league.  Omaha looks to rest up next weekend, as the Mavericks get a weekend off.

7. Bemidji State – (2-3-1, 1-2-1 WCHA) – The Beavers stay in the #7 spot for at least one more weekend, thanks in large part to most of the bottom-half teams either getting swept (Duluth and Mankato) or having the weekend off (Wisconsin and Tech).  That being said, getting swept in CC is not a great way to move up in the rankings.  The Beavers host Michigan Tech next weekend.

8. Wisconsin – (1-4-1, 1-2-1 WCHA) – Wisconsin had the weekend off, and the Badger faithful hope that they were able to regroup from a disappointing start to the season.  Surely the issues surrounding Nic Kerdiles’ suspension played a role in that, but if Wisconsin wants to make a serious run at home ice this year, they will need better performances.  That starts next weekend when Wisconsin travels to arch-rival Minnesota for a WCHA series.

9. Alaska Anchorage – (2-3-3, 0-2-2 WCHA) – The Seawolves surprised many when they were able to get a road point at North Dakota.  They backed that up with another strong weekend against Minnesota, getting another point against a strong opponent.  UAA will have to improve their penalty kill if they want to maintain this position (or move up).  The Seawolves have next weekend off.

10. Michigan Tech – (2-6-0, 1-5-0 WCHA) – The Huskies benefit from a weekend off, and they move up 1 spot in my rankings.  Tech had big expectations coming into the season, and they were only inflated with a WCHA opening victory over Minnesota.  Since then, Tech is 0-5 in WCHA play.  The Huskies look to get back on track next weekend with a trip to Bemidji State.

11. Minnesota State – (3-5-2, 1-5-0 WCHA) – The Mavericks could have easily split with Denver this weekend, but were unable to take a point in either of their two close games with the Pioneers.  That will have to change if Mankato plans on making a push for home ice this season.  The Mavericks have a weekend off to regroup before traveling to Madison for a series against Wisconsin.

12. Minnesota Duluth – (2-5-1, 0-3-1 WCHA) – The Bulldogs have the offensive talent to compete for home ice, but Duluth will need to get a better showing from their defense and goaltending to do so.  This past weekend the Bulldogs were swept by Omaha, and the schedule is not getting any kinder next weekend, as Minnesota Duluth will have to travel to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota in WCHA play.

Related articles

• WCHA Power Rankings (11/04/2012) (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings (10/14/12) (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: 10/21/12 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA 2012-13 Season Preview (insidehockey.com)

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.

11/10 Post Game Wrapup: SCSU 5, UND 2 (RW77)

This was night and day from yesterday.  The Huskies looked pretty good but fairly flat on Friday.  Tonight, they came out roaring in the first period and UND, honestly, was lucky to escape the first period knotted at one.

The big calls in the first period were the no-goal on Stephane Pattyn and the Checking from Behind on Schmaltz.  First, the no-goal.  I actually got the webcast tonight and I saw it.  What I saw was one of the most incredible saves I've ever seen.  No one could believe that Pattyn's open net shot didn't go in except Farragher and the goal judge.  They did a lengthy review and judged it no goal.  I saw the replays and the call was 100% correct.

13 seconds from the end of the period, UND Freshman Jordan Schmaltz checked Drew Leblanc from behind into the sideboards.  The hit was not very violent and Leblanc's head did not hit the boards very hard (it appeared to hit forearm first).  Nevertheless, the refs HAD to call it as checking from behind.  The ironic part is that Don Adam called the penalty that he played a key role in creating.

Second Period and Third Period

The second period saw one of the worst periods of UND hockey this season.  It started out well, with UND killing off the five minute major.  However, after that, Drew Leblanc scored two straight goals and UND started a parade to the box culminating with Coach Hakstol getting a 2 minute minor for misconduct for trying to talk to Don Adam after the period had ended.  This probably resulted from a rather dubious embellishment call on Danny Kristo after being tripped.

The Third period only differed from the second period by the fact that the scoreboard said the number "3" where the number "2" was in the second period.  SCSU was all over the ice with crisp passing and just unlucky bounces and some timely saves by Saunders preventing it becoming a laugher.  It was even close until 6 minutes into the third when Garrett Milan (SCSU) got a rather weak goal on Saunders.  We did try a little bit but no good came of it. With 2:30 left in the game, Saunders let a point shot get past him and that's all she wrote.

The Goaltending

Again, Roller Coaster... sortof.  If you are Ryan Farragher, then it was a roller coaster that never seemed to go down the slope.  It just climbed the hill and stayed at the top.  Saunders really had a bad night for the most part..  The first goal SCSU scored he didn't see.  The third goal was a tic tac toe Power Play goal.  The final goal was a point shot.  Can't blame him much for those.  However, the second and the fourth goals were WEAK.  On the second goal, the puck came right to him after making two great saves and he paddled the puck right to Leblanc's stick blade.  Goal.  The fourth went five hole and just seemed to slowly inch past the red line.

 I'm also not sure if Gothberg would have done any better.  I don't blame Hakstol for going with the hot hand, but just like Saturday vs. BU, UND lost this game because they didn't play solid fundamental hockey for 60 minutes.  The thing that made it worse than the BU loss is that UND never even had one solid period of good hockey tonight.  They played ok in the first and got worse and worse as the game progressed.

So I guess Saunders played pretty well, and even Saunders at his best wouldn't have prevented UND from losing, but a game going into the end of the 3rd period down 3-2 looks much differently than entering the final minute down 5-2. 

The officiating

Roller coaster city.  They actually were doing a pretty decent job until the second period when they started missing calls and making bad calls.  The first call I recall was when they missed a pretty overt slashing call that Corbin Knight committed on Ethan Prow.  They made up for it by calling a weak version of it on Mark MacMillan.  He stick checked an SCSU player and the player waited a full second before dropping the stick.  No matter.  The next thing you know, Danny Kristo gets tripped and gets called for embellishment when he did not act like he was shot.  He slid along the ice before getting up and finding out he's sitting two.  The third period starts and UND actually does legitimately slash an SCSU stick and no call.  What awful calling.

Why UND lost

Top 3 reasons:
1.  Sloppy passing.  UND cannot pass even to open guys.  SCSU can.  It was AMAZING to watch.  It got to the point where SCSU didn't even have to clog the lanes, UND did it for them!  I cannot remember worse passing.  They couldn't set anything up because UND kept missing the puck. 
2.  Races to the puck.  UND was out skated all night long.
3.  Corners.  SCSU won almost ALL the battles along the boards.

This was one of the worst played games UND has played this season.  I'm glad this seems anomalous because if it wasn't, UND is going to lose... A LOT.

The America One Webcast

This is the Webcast company SCSU went through for the game.  I'm not sure if it is NESN camera work or what but this webcast's quality was FAR FAR superior to that of the UND Webcast.  The oddity?  SCSU's commentators weren't as big of a homer than I thought they would.  The only negative is that they didn't do their legwork.  They never figured out how to pronounce our players' names (like Rowney's for example). 

My 3 stars:

Third Star:  Joe Rehkamp (SCSU) - He wasn't talked about much during the game on the SCSU broadcast but he is credited with 3 assists on the night.  Not too shabby.

Second Star:  Ryan Farragher (SCSU) - Hard not to give him the first star.  He probably is 1a in this list.  He made some great saves including the best save of the season off of Pattyn's shot in the first period, but despite it looking otherwise, he wasn't really overtaxed in net tonight.

First Star:  Drew Leblanc (SCSU) - 2 goals 1 assist.  He was all over the place tonight.

Honorable Mentions:  Derek Forbort and Drake Caggiula (both acquitted themselves pretty well tonight), Nick Oliver (SCSU), Cory Thorson (SCSU)

EDIT:  I should add:  I am not saying the world is coming to an end.  Nor am I saying Fire Hakstol or that this team isn't special.  I'm saying this was one of the hardest games to watch because of how poorly we played and how much better I know we are capable of playing.

11/10 Game Day SCSU vs. UND

UND has same lines as last night.

For SCSU, Daly is out and Johnson is in.

UND’s lines

7 Danny Kristo–10 Corban Knight–27 Carter Rowney
21 Brendan O’Donnell–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
9 Drake Caggiula–19 Rocco Grimaldi–29 Bryn Chyzyk
28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair–11 Derek Rodwell

2 Andrew MacWilliam–5 Nick Mattson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
18 Dillon Simpson–20 Joe Gleason

33 Clarke Saunders
31 Zane Gothberg

SCSU’s lines

11 Kalle Kossila–19 Drew LeBlanc–22 Jonny Brodzinski
16 Jimmy Murray–26 Nic Dowd–13 David Morley
27 Nick Oliver–8 Cory Thorson–21 Brooks Bertsch
18 Garrett Milan–37 Joe Rehkamp–17 Joey Holka

28 Andrew Prochno–14 Nick Jensen
7 Kevin Gravel–12 Ethan Prow
2 Jarrod Rabey–4 Taylor Johnson

29 Ryan Faragher
33 Joseph Phillippi
35 Rasmus Reijola

Saunders Sinks Huskies 3 - 0 (RW77)

I have said it before and I'm saying it again:  I love what our goaltenders are doing this season thus far.  Tonight, Saunders nails shut an amazing performance shutting out the Huskies while posting 32 saves.  Many of the saves were outstanding scoring opportunities by the Huskies.

The Huskies

The Huskies were without Hanowski so they weren't at full strength, but nevertheless I thought their main downfall was inconsistent play and special teams.  It seemed like SCSU had the edge on Special Teams time tonight but they couldn't make it count.  Ryan Farragher again played a solid game against UND but the Huskies just couldn't get it going.  I also think that Nick Jensen had a pretty solid game despite muffing the puck that set up the final goal of the game. 

The Scoring

Brendan O'Donnell started the scoring just 48 seconds into the game by deflecting a centering pass by Connor Gaarder.

Carter Rowney was next to hit the back of the net, but it wouldn't come until 43 seconds into the second period.  Rowney was left open and Knight won a battle along the boards, centered to Rowney, who buried it.

The final goal occurred in the third period and it was UND's first shorthanded goal of the season at 17:33 mark.  It was made by Mark MacMillan and it appeared it was a breakaway.  Not all that surprising because at that point SCSU was trying to do anything to get something going and got burnt.

Players of the Game:

Third Star:  Derek Forbort - Ok, I could've given it to Rowney, Gaarder, O'Donnell, Mattson, Grimaldi, the entire fourth line, Knight.....I had to go with Forbort because he was ALWAYS around the puck when SCSU was pushing (and he was on the ice).  He always got timely clears on the PK. 

Second Star:  Mark MacMillan - 1 goal, 1 assist.  Helped on the first goal of the game and potted the last goal of the game.  Really good game.

First Star:  Clarke Saunders - DUH.  Shutout.  32 saves.  ULTRA Solid in net.  Do I need to go on?

The Key:

I think the key to this game wasn't really one person on offense.  Overall, I think the entire team played well.  Any opportunities SCSU got was handled by Saunders, Forbort, or Grimaldi (with a nice diving block).  I think the bonus was the shutout, but I think that if UND plays like this every night then us fans can expect great things every night because we won't be losing very often.

Friday Game Day: UND vs. SCSU 11/9

It's ON!!!!!!

Game Day is here... in fact, this post is running late!  Here's the rundown:  UND is winless against SCSU in St. Cloud on Fridays since 1998.

Here are the lines courtesy of Brad Schlossman's Blog:

UND’s lines

7 Danny Kristo–10 Corban Knight–27 Carter Rowney
21 Brendan O’Donnell–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
9 Drake Caggiula–19 Rocco Grimaldi–29 Bryn Chyzyk
28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair–11 Derek Rodwell

2 Andrew MacWilliam–5 Nick Mattson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
18 Dillon Simpson–20 Joe Gleason

33 Clarke Saunders
31 Zane Gothberg

SCSU’s lines

11 Kalle Kossila–19 Drew LeBlanc–21 Brooks Bertsch
16 Jimmy Murray–26 Nic Dowd–17 Joey Holka
27 Nick Oliver–8 Cory Thorson–22 Jonny Brodzinski
18 Garrett Milan–13 David Morley–37 Joe Rehkamp

28 Andrew Prochno–14 Nick Jensen
7 Kevin Gravel–40 Tim Daly
2 Jarrod Rabey–12 Ethan Prow

29 Ryan Faragher
33 Joseph Phillippi
35 Rasmus Reijola

BU Defenseman sophomore Alexx Privitera to sit versus Merimack

LINEUP UPDATE: On defense, sophomore Alexx Privitera will sit Friday vs. Merrimack for breaking an unspecified team rule.
— Boston Hockey Blog (@BOShockeyblog) November 8, 2012

BU defenseman Alexx Privitera made mention to the fact during the post game scrum after Saturday night's game that there had been an incident between Privitera and a UND fan by the penalty box area during Friday's game and now Privitera will sit for their game against Merrimack on Friday night.

Apparently, BU Head coach Jack Parker is big on respect and doesn't hesitate to suspend a player for this type of thing. Last Friday, BU defenseman Ben Rosen sat out after the now famous tweet, where he tweeted upon arriving in Grand Forks, "Just landed in North Dakota...nothing out here but 4 points."

Related articles

• Game notes for UND vs. BU (11/2-11/3) (thehockeywriters.com)
• Terriers bite North Dakota back 4-2 (thehockeywriters.com)

Jacob Trouba destroys NMU's Reed Secke

[click to view video] Ouch!!! Check out this hit by Michigan Defenseman Jacob Trouba as he absolutely destroyed Northern Michigan’s sophomore Reed Secke with a monster hit. Trouba was given a five minute major and a game misconduct and the CCHA gave Trouba an extra game suspension. Secke was cleared by the NMU medical staff but you can tell by the picture that Secke was absolutely lit up.
Originally posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine.

EDIT: So is UMN ducking UND in hockey?

Roman had this article on his blog this morning and I am kind of perplexed why the Gophers and UND wouldn't continue the rivalry?

The first reason really doesn't wash because UW Kept dates open on their schedule with the caveat that if UND didn't change the name the future nonconference games would be canceled.

One has to believe that there are other reasons that UMN doesn't want to continue the series right now.

Roman Augustoviz, Goal Gophers --- The Don tried to explain why on his weekly radio show on Monday. He said, in matter-of-fact fashion, that the U could not schedule a team with an American Indian nickname in a nonconference game by school rules. That dispute -- to keep the Fighting Sioux nickname or not -- at UND has only been settled recently.

In late September, UND and the NCAA agreed which signage could stay and which had to go at Ralph Engelstad Arena. A month later, workers took down the "Home of the Fighting Sioux" sign on the front of the building.

By then, Lucia seemed to imply, the Gophers' schedule, which will include a whopping 14 nonconference games -- the U will have only 20 conference games in the six-team Big Ten -- was all filled up for the next few seasons. The U will be playing the other Division I teams in the state and schools like Notre Dame, where his son Mario is a freshman, Boston College and Northeastern, Lucia said.

UND? They might return to the U schedule in three, four years, Lucia said.

What do "UND" fans think? Do you think somewhere between the Spin and the B.S. is an answer?  I will have to admit that some of the best games that have been on the schedule from a year-to-year basis have been the UND vs UMN games.

Let's examine the logic of this decision, we would rather not play a game that will fill both team arena's every other season. Hum... That makes no sense what-so-ever. I mean seriously, that one doesn't pass the smell test.

Does anyone think that the Gophers are tired of getting roughed up playing UND? Last year was an enigma in recent times where the Gophers got the best of UND and beat them 4/6 games.

Most of the games are very rough and physical and both teams fan bases are at each others throats for a week after. In fact the best weeks on the blog are during the rivalry series between UND and the Gophers... That doesn't happen during any other series in the current configuration of the WCHA. DU and UND are probably a distant second. You don't see UND and UMD fans at each other's throats on the message boards and fan blogs.

What's the real reason, I don't believe some of the meadow muffins that I have read recently on GPL either. I have a hard time believing that most Gopher fans with half a brain would not want to continue one of the greatest rivalries in all of college sports. No matter how you slice it, Penn State and Ohio State isn't going to bring half of the interest that UND vs. UMN will. You could play the game on an area lake and 5,000-10,000 people would show up for it.
Edit: Check out this quote by UMN head coach Don Lucia...s/t to INCH...

A day later, when asked about the high-tension rivalry between the Gophers and North Dakota, Minnesota coach Don Lucia suggested that a cooling off period might be in order starting in two years when the teams are no longer in the same conference.

“We will go back there as a non-conference team,” Lucia said at his weekly gathering with the media. “We have a great rivalry. Sometimes it gets a little over the top and I’m not sure that is healthy for anybody. So we will continue to play, but I doubt we will continue to play each and every year.”

Thanks to Jake in the comments for bringing up this point from last years series between UND and UMN, that got lost in the shuffle. So in retrospect, the Gophers probably are using the Fighting Sioux nick name as cover, but also probably are ducking UND as well.

UND: The Weekend Ahead (11/9-11-10)

The University of North Dakota travels to Saint Cloud Minnesota to play in an important two-game WCHA  series against the Saint Cloud State University Hukies this weekend at National Hockey Center on November 9 and 10.

Friday, #6 USCHO and USA Today polls – North Dakota (3-2-1, 1-0-1 WCHA) versus #15 USCHO Poll Saint Cloud State University (5-3-0, 3-1-0 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 and AmericaOneSports.com

Television: Charter Cable, NESN (Saturday only), DirecTV 628 (Saturday only),
DISH Network 434 (Saturday only)

Series History: UND leads the All-Time series against SCSU: 59-31-11 (.639), UND has a record of 30-13-5 (.677) against SCSU in Grand Forks, ND. UND also has a winning record against SCSU in 23-17-6 (.565) and UND has a 6-1-0 (.857) record against SCSU at neutral locations.  Last 10 games against SCSU, UND has a 7-2-1 (.750) record.

UND has a 26-11-7 (.670) record against the SCSU Huskies since the 2002-03 season.  The last 10 years at Saint Cloud, UND has a 0-6-4 record against SCSU on Friday night’s and a 10-0-0 record on Saturday nights

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (1g-5a—6pts), Roco Grimaldi (3g-3a—6pts), Connor Gaarder (3g-2a—5pts), Mark MacMillan (2g-2a—4pts), Corbin Knight (2-g1—3pts), Carter Rowney (1g-2a—3pts). Defense: Jordan Schmaltz (1g1a—2pts) Dillon Simpson (0g-2a—2pts), Andrew MacWilliam (0g-2a—2pts), Derek Forbort (2g-1a—3pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 2-1-1, 1.73 GAA, .933 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 1-1-0, 2.54 GAA, .902 save percentage.

SCSU: Forwards: Nic Dowd (6g-6a—12pts), Drew LeBlance (3g-8a—11pts), Kalle Kossila (4g-4a—8pts). Defense: Nick Jensen (0g-8a—8pts), Ethan Prow (2g-4a—6pts). Goaltender: Ryan Faragher 4-3-0, 2.23 GAA, 0.926 save percentage.

UND Official Web Page

SCSU Official Web Page

Originally posted at the Hockey Writers – Combine