Goon's World

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Sioux vs. Pioneers Final Five championship game notes

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...

The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux will play the Denver Pioneers in the WCHA Final Five Championship game tonight. This is the rematch of last years Final Five Championship game where the Fighting Sioux beat the Pioneers 3-2 in double overtime.

Game Time: 7:07 pm CT

Records and Rankings:

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux (24-12-3); ranked 12th in both the USCHO and USA Today polls. The Fighting Sioux beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 6-3 in the semifinals of the Final Five on Friday night. Ranked 4^th in the Pairwise Rankings.

The Denver University Pioneers (25-12-4) are ranked 9^th in both the USCHO Poll and USA Today Poll. The Pioneers beat the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 4-3 in double O.T. in the semifinals of the Final Five on Friday afternoon. Tied for 8^th in the Pairwise rankings

Series History: The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux lead the all-time series against the Denver Pioneers 131-116-8. Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol’s teams have a 12-15-1 record against the Denver Pioneers. The Fighting Sioux have won five of the last seven games the Pioneers. The Fighting Sioux and the Pioneers split the season series (4-3 W and 3-5 L).

Radio: UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast Audio: WCHA.COM and Fighting Sioux.com

TV Saturday: Fox Sports North – 668 DirecTV

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (18-25a—43pts), Corbin Knight (15g-23a—38pts) and Brock Nelson (26g-17a—43pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-13a—19pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-17a—20pts), Andrew MacWilliam (2g-5a—7pts). Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .898 save percentage and a 2.74 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

North Dakota injuries: Taylor Dickin (lower-body injury), forward Rocco Grimaldi (season, knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell (season-ending surgery) and Derek Rodwell (season, shoulder surgery) are all out of the lineup.

For DU Forwards: Jason Zucker (22g-24a—46pts), Drew Shore (21g-31a—52pts), Nick Shore (13g-28a—41pts) Luke Salazar (12g-17a—29pts) Defense: Joey LaLeggia (11g-27a—38pts), Jon Lee (3g-11a—14pts) Goaltenders: Sam Brittain .931 save percentage and a 2.39 goals against average, Juho Olkinuora .928 save percentage and a 2.39 goals against average.

Denver University Injuries: Paul Phillips, Beau Bennett (wrist)

Injury Ninja supports Fighting Sioux

Friday, March 16, 2012

Sioux dismantle Gophers 6-3 in St. Paul

Image via Wikipedia

ST. PAUL, Minn. – For the first 30 minutes of play, the Minnesota Gophers were the best team on the ice tonight. Someone forgot to tell the Gophers that hockey games are 60 minutes long.

Tonight, it was a tale of two games.

The Gophers were able to get the first goal of the game at the 12:37 mark of the first period with a Kyle Rau power play goal that was the freshman’s 17th of the season.

Minnesota limited the Fighting Sioux’s time and space and got in the shooting lanes, bottling up the Fighting Sioux in their own end.

Getting scored on first is not uncommon for the Fighting Sioux. They have had the first goal scored on them in 20 of 38 games this season. During those 20 games the Fighting Sioux have a record of 8-10-2.

Make that record 9-10-2 with the win tonight.

The Gophers scored two more goals during the second period with a power-play goal by forward Jake Hanson that was his 13th goal of the season. The Gophers would get an even strength goal from junior forward Zach Budish at the 10:01 mark of the second period.

Then a funny thing happened. The Gophers took the foot off of the gas and the Sioux raced on by them.

The Fighting Sioux called a time out with 5:53 left in the second period, then took over the game. The Fighting Sioux seized the momentum and beat the Gophers at their own game.

Derek Forbort would break the run of three Golden Gopher goals with a blast from the right point at the 14:51 mark of the second period. That was the second goal of the year for the sophomore defenseman.

The Fighting Sioux started methodically chipping away at the Gophers lead in the third period.
They got two quick goals when Michael Parks and Brock Nelson scored 30 seconds apart to tie the game 3-3. They never looked back.

The Fighting Sioux outscored the Golden Gophers 5-0 in the third period and also outshot the Golden Gophers 17-2 in the stanza to send 16,378 hockey fans home in disbelief.

North Dakota was led by senior captain Mario Lamoureux’s two goals and three points. When Lamoureux scores a goal for the Fighting Sioux they have a record of 14-0-0.
The Captain savored the win against the Golden Gophers.

“It was definitely a special win for us,” Lamoureux said. “I think once we went into the intermission in the third period, we just said, let’s go out and give it everything that we got, let’s try and pop an early one in, Parksy did that. We just kind of rolled with the momentum and I think once we got that first one, we got a little confidence in ourselves. Once that happened that game became a little more fun, it wasn’t so frustrating playing in your own end and once you’re out there having fun making things happen, it’s a pretty easy game.”

After the game, Fighting Sioux coach Dave Hakstol was proud of his hockey team.

“Tale of absolutely two worlds tonight,” Hakstol said. “Obviously, we had no gas in the tank the first 30 minutes, we didn’t make any plays and we couldn’t get ourselves going. Its little things in this game and you find a way to survive, when you’re going through some points in the hockey game, our guys did a good job of that tonight. One good thing happened. We got a good bounce in the second period tonight, that gave us a chance and I heard Mario [Lamoureux] talking about it. Let’s just go out and see what we can do and let’s get one and see where it goes. This is where it went. I am proud of our hockey team.”

With the win tonight the Fighting Sioux improve to 24-12-3. North Dakota will try for the Final Five three peat tomorrow night against their heated rival Denver.

UND vs. UMN

Video online for all Final Five Games.
The game is on Midco and 668 on DirecTV.

Fighting Sioux Forward Lines

29 Brock Nelson–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo
16 Mark MacMillan–27 Carter Rowney–15 Michael Parks
Stephane Pattyn 28 –9 Mario Lamoureux (C) – 20 Joe Gleason
8 Dan Senkbeil–13 Connor Gaarder– (No forward).

UND Defensive Pairings

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam (A) – 5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

Fighting Sioux Goalies

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness

Fighitng Sioux Players Stats

Minnesota’s Forward Lines

7 Kyle Rau–27 Nick Bjugstad–24 Zach Budish
11 Sam Warning–19 Erik Haula–21 Jake Hansen
16 Nate Condon–9 Taylor Matson–17 Seth Ambroz
14 Tom Serratore–22 Travis Boyd–13 Nico Sacchetti

Minnesota Defense Parings

4 Seth Helgeson–12 Justin Holl
10 Ben Marshall–20 Mark Alt
6 Jake Parenteau–29 Nate Schmidt

Goalies

35 Kent Patterson
1 Michael Shibrowski
30 Jake Kremer

Gophers Players Stats

Larkin Jacobson hit on Tim Smith

Here is the Larkin Jacobson hit on the Bulldog’s Tim Smith. From watching the video it would appear that the refs made the right call in this situation. What do you think?

UMD vs. DU game three chat

The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs vs. the Denver University Pioneers. Join me for the chat.

Sioux vs. Gophers game notes

Image via Wikipedia

The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux play the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in the semi-finals of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center.

Game Time: 7:07 pm Friday.

Television: FOX Sports North, DirecTV 668.

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox.

Internet: WCHA.COM

Records and Rankings:

The UND Fighting Sioux (23-12-3) UND is ranked 12^th in the USCHO and 12^th in the USA Today Poll. The Fighting Sioux beat the Saint Cloud State Huskies (4-1) in the quarter finals of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five.

Minnesota Golden Gophers (26-12-1); is ranked 4^th in the latest USCHO poll and 4^th in the USA Today Poll. Minnesota swept the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in the first round of the WCHA playoffs (2-1 W, 7-3 W).

Series History: The Minnesota Golden Gophers have compiled a 143-129-14 record against the North Dakota Fighting Sioux in 286 games. The Gophers won the 2011-12 regular season series by winning three out of four games.

Players to Watch:

For UND: Forwards: Danny Kristo (18-24a—42pts), Corbin Knight (14g-22a—36pts) and Brock Nelson (25g-17a—42pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-12a—18pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-16a—19pts). Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .899 save percentage and a 2.73 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

UND Injuries: Taylor Dickin is out (lower body injury), forward Rocco Grimaldi is out (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell is out (season ending surgery), Derek Rodwell is out (season shoulder surgery).

For the Gophers: Forwards: Erik Haula (19g-25a—44pts) Kyle Rau (16g-20a—36pts), Nick Bjugstad 24g-16a—40pts), Zach Budish (11g-19a—30pts). Defense: Nate Schmidt (3g-33a—36pts), Mark Alt (5g-17a—22pts). Goalie: Kent Patterson .914 save percentage and a 2.12 goals against average.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sioux grind out 4-1 win against Huskies

Image via Wikipedia

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Saint Cloud State Huskies are always a tough draw; they have only been swept once all season long. The Huskies managed to get points every single weekend this season.

Tonight was no different, as the Fighting Sioux had to work hard to get the win against the Huskies. One can markup tonight’s game as another hard fought epic battle tonight as well.

Coming into tonight’s game, Huskies’ junior goalie Mike Lee has never won a game against the Fighting Sioux in his three seasons with the Huskies, going 0-5-1 during that run. With the 4-1 loss tonight, Lee’s record drops to 0-6-1.

While his junior goalie has yet to win a game against the Fighting Sioux, Saint Cloud State coach Bob Motzko described his goalie, “as a big time goaltender.”

The Huskies and the Sioux play a similar style of play as both teams like to limit the other’s time and space and get into the passing lanes making it difficult to generate scoring opportunities. That rang true tonight. At times the Huskies frustrated the Sioux by clogging up the neutral zone and they also did a good job getting the shooting lanes.

The Fighting Sioux also got in the passing lanes, took away the Huskies time and space and frustrated them as well.

Corbin Knight broke the defensive stalemate at the 7:40 mark of the first period, when the junior center curled in front of the net to center the puck. It went off of the SCSU defenseman Sam Zabkowicz and into the net past Lee.

With Knight in the box for charging, junior forward Ben Hanowski made the Fighting Sioux pay with his 23rd marker of the season.

Fighting Sioux sophomore forward Brock Nelson had been a little bit snake bitten as of late, but was able to get off of the snide with his 24th goal of the season as he snapped a shot over Lee’s blocker.
Motzko was impressed with Nelson’s first goal of the game.

“He’s coming down on his off side, a pretty good hockey player to, I think that’s the player in our league that you’re going to watch play in the NHL for a long time,” Motzko said. “He was able to cut back in the middle of the rink and that is where is he is going to go he is on his offside, kind of one on one and you can keep him on his back hand and you keep him down there, and he was perfect. Our guy crossed his feet over and he stepped back into the middle and was able to make a shot.”

The pesky Huskies wouldn’t go away quietly into the night.

With the Huskies goalie out of the net and pressing hard down low, Nelson would get his second goal of the game and his 25th goal of the season to ice it.

Fighting Sioux junior goalie Aaron Dell played well, and was the difference in the game stopping 28 of 29 shots.

When it was all said and done, this was a very even game and either team could have won. Motzko agreed.

“It was an extremely hard fought hockey game,” Motzko said. “It was a tough grinding game; it was a great game down on the bench. I don’t know if there were a ton of plays being made…”

With the win tonight, the Fighting Sioux improve to 23-12-3 and jump up to ninth in the PairWise Rankings.

The Fighting Sioux will play the top-seeded Minnesota Gophers in the semifinal game at 7:07 p.m. tomorrow night.

Coach Dave Hakstol seemed excited about the prospects of playing the Minnesota Gophers again.
“I said it yesterday, we are in the greatest venue possible for post season play in college hockey,” Hakstol said.“Saint Paul… the entire town is electric, this building is an awful lot of fun with the number of fans that are in the building, we have an opportunity to play a rival tomorrow night. If you like competition, you will like the game tomorrow.”

UND vs. SCSU quarterfinal game.

Image via Wikipedia

Video online for all Final Five Games.
The game is on Midco and 668 on DirecTV.

Fighting Sioux Forward Lines

29 Brock Nelson–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo
16 Mark MacMillan–27 Carter Rowney–15 Michael Parks
Stephane Pattyn 28 –9 Mario Lamoureux (C) – 20 Joe Gleason
8 Dan Senkbeil–13 Connor Gaarder– (No forward).

UND Defensive Pairings

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam (A) – 5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

Fighting Sioux Goalies

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness

UND Official Players Stats

SCSU Forward lines

10 Ben Hanowski–12 Travis Novak–2 Jarrod Rabey
11 Jared Festler –26 Nic Dowd–22 David Eddy
27 Nick Oliver–8 Cory Thorson–21 Brooks Bertsch
18 Garrett Milan–16 Joe Rehkamp–17 Joey Holka

SCSU Defense Pairings

28 Andrew Prochno–14 Nick Jensen
7 Kevin Gravel–40 Tim Daly
3 Sam Zabkowicz – 4 Taylor Johnson

SCSU Goalies

30 Mike Lee
29 Ryan Faragher
33 Joe Phillippi
Huskies Player Stats

Refs: Don Adam (7) and Tim Walsh (11) AR: Bob Keltie (57), Tim Swiader (88)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

DU vs. MTU final Five

During the Final Five I will be having a chat for the DU vs. MTU game and all games that UND is "not" involved in. Feel free to drop by and talk hockey with the Goon. I will be covering the Final Five for Inside Hockey with Zack Friedli. Serena Dalhammer will be taking photographs for Inside Hockey as well.

Denver Pioneer Lines

12 – Ty Loney – 15 Drew Shore (C) – 18 Luke Salazar

17 Jason Zucker -23 Nick Shore – 19 Daniel Doremus

37 Nate Dewhurst – 26 – Shawn Ostrow – 8 Dustin Jackson (C)

14 Larkin Jacobson – 25 Matt Tabrum – 22 Jarrod Mermis

Pioneer Defense Pairing

7 Paul (A) – 2 Scott Mayfield

21 Joey LaLeggia – 5 John Lee

24 John Ryder – 4 Josiah Didier

Goalies

31 Juho Olkinuora

33 Adam Murray

1 Sam Brittain

Pioneer Player Stats

Michigan Tech Huskies Lines

12 Ryan Furne – 16 Brett Olson- 22 Jordan Baker (A)

19 Blake Pietila – 10 Tanner Kero – 28 Milos Gordic

15 – David Johnston – 8 Jacob Johnston – 18 Alex MacLeod

27 Bryce Reddick – 9 Dennis Rix – 14 Chad Pietila

Defensive Pairings

6 Steven Seigo – 34 Riley Sweeney

3 Bradley Stebner – 25 Carl Nielson

24 Daniel Sova – 5 Justin Fillion

Goalies

30 – Josh Robinson

35 – Kevin Genoe

Husky Player Stats

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Interesting comments from Brendan Shannahan

Boston Bruins bench (Photo credit: slidingsideways)

I find it funny that Brendan Shannahan felt the need to comment on this situation, there is perception around the league that certain teams aren't going to get a fair shake because of his bias against those teams. Whether it's deserved or not, it's a perception that is out there. As a Wild and Bruins fan, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that I have seen things that are questionable and grounds for scrutiny.

Just today the NHL suspended Tyler Meyers for a very similar hit that went unpunished this season, more specifically, these were some of the same kind of hits that the Wild and Bruins players were a victim of but no punishment was levied to the perpetrator. There seems to be one set of rules for Stars and a different set of rules for the goons and third and forth line players.

D.J. Bean, WEEI --- As for the Bruins in general, Shanahan responded to the idea that he has a bias against the B’s when it comes to suspensions. Marchand, Milan Lucic and Andrew Ference have all been suspended this season for various infractions.

“It’s funny, people in Boston might think I have something against the Bruins, which is so absurd and crazy,” he said. “It makes you feel any better I can promise you all I have to do is flip on my Twitter page, or if I ever wanted to venture onto the internet, almost every team in the league thinks there a specific reason I hate their market and hate their city as well.

“I have to defend why I don’t hate Pittsburgh, or why I don’t hate Montreal, or why I don’t hate Buffalo, or why I don’t hate Minnesota. For Boston, it’s even more absurd, quite honestly. Talk about a team I grew up admiring. Cam Neely is probably the one player I tried to model my game after more than anybody. It doesn’t matter if it’s a team you grew up admiring, or a team you played for, there’s so much scrutiny in this job, you can do this job and you can’t sleep at night, if you don’t do it with as much integrity as possible. That doesn’t mean you’re perfect. You would love to have a perfect season in sports. You can objectively look at this hit and disagree with the assessment, and that’s fair. That’s always going to be fair. But it’s absurd to suggest in any market that we have a grudge or have it in against anybody.”

Shawn Thornton vs. Mike Commodore

In this situation, former Fighting Sioux and current Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mike Commodore didn't really need to fight Boston Bruins tough guy Shawn Thornton. I guess some guys will do whatever it takes to make the team or stay on a team.

UND vs. SCSU game notes

Image via Wikipedia

The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux travel to St. Paul, Minnesota to play the St. Cloud State Huskies, in the quarterfinals of the WCHA Final Five, at the Xcel Energy Center, March 15th, 2012.

Game Time: 7:07 pm Thursday.

Television: The Red Baron WCHA Final Five games will be shown live on Fox Sports North DirecTV 668.

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox and or on KNSI FM 103.3/AM 1450

AUDIO: FightingSioux.com, WCHA.com

Records and Rankings: The University of North Dakota (22-12-3); the Fighting Sioux are ranked 12th in both National polls. The Fighting Sioux swept the Bemidji State Beavers in the first round of the WCHA playoffs (4-2 W, 4-3 W). Official Release

Saint Cloud State University (17-16-5); the Huskies are unranked in both National polls. The Huskies swept the Nebraska Omaha Mavericks (4-0 W, 3-1 W). Official Release

Series History: The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux are 58-31-11 (.635) against the Saint Cloud State Huskies in the all-time series. The Fighting Sioux are also 9-2 against the Huskies in the playoffs. The Fighting Sioux are 7-2-1 in the last 10 games against the Huskies. Huskies Goalie Mike Lee is 0-5-1 against the Fighting Sioux during his career.

Players to Watch:

For UND: Forwards: Danny Kristo (17-23a—40pts), Corbin Knight (13g-22a—35pts) and Brock Nelson (23g-17a—40pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-12a—18pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-15a—18pts), Joe Gleason (0g-14a—14pts), Andrew MacWilliam (2g-4a—6pts). Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .896 save percentage and a 2.79 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

UND Injuries: Taylor Dickin is out (lower body injury), Forward Rocco Grimaldi is out (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell is out (season ending surgery), Derek Rodwell is out (season shoulder surgery).

For the Huskies: Forwards: Ben Hanowski (22g-20—42pts), Jared Festler (15g-19a—34pts), Travis Novak (12g-13a—25pts). Defense: Nick Jensen (6g-26a—32pts), Andrew Prochno (5g-23a—pts), Jared Rabey (6g-8a—14pts). Goalies: Mike Lee .930 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average. Ryan Faragher .915 save percentage and a 2.77 goals against average.

"Some" GM's want to reinstate the center-ice red line in an attempt to curb concussions.

This is a horrible idea, it would slow down the game and make the game of hockey less exciting to watch because it would cause more whistles and stoppages.

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP)----The GMs began three days of meetings Monday. Several have said they would like to see the red line and two-line passes return in an effort to slow the game in the neutral zone, which might reduce the rate of concussions by making collisions less violent.
There is opposition, however, with many arguing that the removal of the red line in 2005 made the game more entertaining.

''We're looking at ways to make the game safer without taking away the physical nature of the sport,'' Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher said. ''It's a balance you're always trying to strike.'

Malkin not disciplined

Another questionable hit on a Boston Bruins by a Pittsburgh Penguin and another Penguin escapes punishment by the NHL. So basically, don't expect a player to get suspended if they hit a Boston Bruin with a questionable hit.

I could see how Boston Bruins fans might question the NHL and their judgement. Also, I think that Brendan Shanahan is basically a fraud and no better than Colin Campbell, there are one set of rules for star players and there is another set of rules for tough guys and goons. One could also make the argument that, if Milan Lucic or Brad Marchand had hit Malkin or Sidney Crosby with a hit like this, they would've been suspended or at least fined by the NHL.

Mike Cole, NESN --- The Bruins have been the victim of some suspect hits over the years in Pittsburgh, and once again, the league has allowed the Penguins to skate without punishment.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the league will not discipline Pens star Evgeni Malkin for his hit on Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk which came in the third period of the Penguins' 5-2 win over Boston on Sunday.

While the hit was not nearly as bad as the hit Matt Cooke leveled Bruins center Marc Savard with two years ago, there were some that thought Malkin would be looking at least a fine.

Goon's World Extras

Saturday, March 17, 2012

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

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BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP)----The GMs began three days of meetings Monday. Several have said they would like to see the red line and two-line passes return in an effort to slow the game in the neutral zone, which might reduce the rate of concussions by making collisions less violent.

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