Saturday, October 11, 2014

UND vs. BSU Lines Game Two

UND’s Forward Lines
28 Stephane Pattyn (C)–16 Mark MacMillan (A)–15 Michael Parks A)
21 Brendan O’Donnell –13 Connor Gaarder (A)– 1 7Colten St. Clair 17
9 Drake Caggiula–27 Luke Johnson–8 Nick Schmaltz
29 Bryn Chyzyk– 10 Johnny Simonson  – 
11 Trevor Olson
UND Defense Pairing
5 Nick Mattson– 3 Tucker Poolman
6 Paul LaDue–24 Jordan Schmaltz
20 Gage Ausmus–2 Troy Stecher

UND Goalies
31 Zane McIntyre
33 Cam Johnson
30 Matt Hrynkiw

Scratches:  4 Keaton Thompson, 7 Wade Murphy, 22Andrew Panzarella, 26 Coltyn Sanderson
Bemidji State’s Forward Lines
23 Markus Gerbrandt–11 Nate Arentz–18 Brendan Harms
9 Phillip Marinaccio–13 Cory Ward–8 John Parker
17 Leo Fitzgerald–21 Gerry Fitzgerald–26 Myles Fitzgerald
15 Jordan Heller–27 Mitch Cain–19 Phil Brewer
Bemidji State Defense Pairings
28 Brett Beauvais–4 Sam Windle
20 Sam Rendle–7 Matt Prapavessis
25 Ruslan Pedan–12 Graeme McCormack

BSU Goalies
30 Andrew Walsh

1 Michael Bitzer


Friday, October 10, 2014

Beavers Outhustle UND, Win 5-1

The University of North Dakota hockey team appeared ready to kick off the 2014-15 season. First up for UND, the Bemidji State Beavers in a home-and-home series.

Historically, UND hockey teams have started slow and peaked at the end of the season. There was a sense that this year could be different. 

Hold that thought for a minute.

Friday night was UND's home opener, and nothing went right for UND. You could say that the home team came out a bit flat. UND turned over the puck and the Beavers pounced on the home team's miscues. Maybe UND underestimated the Beavers a bit. Now, before we get excited, this is only one game. 

Also, you have to give credit where credit is due. The Beavers came out and pushed the pace, and played like the team that went to the Frozen Four last season. You could say that the Beavers beat UND at their own game. 

The Beavers were rewarded for their efforts and scored four goals in a 08:41 span to put the game out of reach, squashing any hope of an opening night win at the Ralph. UND would drop the home opener for the first time since the 2001 season when UND lost 7-5 to the Minnesota Gophers.

“We didn’t show up to play,” UND Captain Stephane Pattyn said. “Those guys showed up to play, that’s for sure. They came out hungry and aggressive. Our team just didn’t show up.”

Moving forward, UND must put this loss behind them. This is only one game in a 36 game season. 

“You don’t throw this out,” Hakstol said. “This was a hard lesson learned for our hockey team. Now you have to turn around and go on the road into a real tough building, against a team that is playing real well. That is going to have momentum going into their home opener.”

All-NCHC goalie goalie Zane McIntyre was chased from the game at 17:50 mark of the second period after giving up the fourth BSU goal. I don't know if you can fault the goalie, as he was left out to dry by his teammates all night long. Freshman goalie Cam Johnson relieve McIntyre gave up a goal on his first shot that he faced. 

All-time, BSU has a (3-26-3, .140) record against UND.


BSU vs. UND Game One Lines

UND’s Forward Lines
21 Brendan O’Donnell–16 Mark MacMillan (A)–15 Michael Parks (A)
28 Stephane Pattyn (C) –13 Connor Gaarder (A) –7 Wade Murphy
9 Drake Caggiula–27 Luke Johnson–8 Nick Schmaltz
29 Bryn Chyzyk–26 Coltyn Sanderson–14 Austin Poganski
UND Defense Pairing
6 Paul LaDue–24 Jordan Schmaltz
5 Nick Mattson–2 Troy Stecher
20 Gage Ausmus–4 Keaton Thompson

UND Goalies
31 Zane McIntyre
33 Cam Johnson
30 Matt Hrynkiw

Scratches: Tucker Poolman, Johnny Simonson, Trevor Olson, Colten St. Clair, Andrew Panzarella
Bemidji State’s Forward Lines
23 Markus Gerbrandt–11 Nate Arentz–18 Brendan Harms
9 Phillip Marinaccio–13 Cory Ward–8 John Parker
17 Leo Fitzgerald–21 Gerry Fitzgerald–26 Myles Fitzgerald
22 Charlie O’Connor–27 Mitch Cain–19 Phil Brewer
Bemidji State Defense Pairings
28 Brett Beauvais–4 Sam Windle
20 Sam Rendle–7 Matt Prapavessis
25 Ruslan Pedan–12 Graeme McCormack

BSU Goalies

1 Michael Bitzer
30 Andrew Walsh

Radko Gudas hit on Scottie Upshall

Last night, Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas took out Florida Panthers forward Scottie Upshall with this questionable, high hit. The hit happened during the second period.

Today, it was announced that Gudas will not face a hearing for this hit. Obviously, not every hit si going to result in a hearing or a suspension.

Looking at the hit, it appears to be a violation of the NHl's rule 48. Thoughts?

48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted. However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable, can be considered.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Wild Make Avs Night One to Forget

With a season of very high expectations in Minnesota, the Wild open the regular season at home against division rival, the Colorado Avalanche. The two teams met 13 times last season, regular season and playoffs, and Minnesota advanced against the Central Division champs to the second round of the playoffs after a game 7 overtime victory. 

With a roster deeper than most in the NHL, Minnesota came out flying and made the Avalanche look like they didn't belong on the same ice as Minnesota. Jason Pominville scored the lone goal in the first, but the overall period was dominated by Minnesota. The score made the game seem much closer then it actually was. The period would end at 1-0, but the Wild put up 17 shots to Colorado's 5.

As the second rolled around, the floodgates opened for Minnesota as four different players would tally goals in the period. Just over four minutes in, soon to be breakout defenseman, Jared Spurgeon, finds a lane, takes his shot, and boom, the Wild are up 2-0. Not even three minutes later, the top line strikes again. This time it was Zach Parise who lights the lamp right off of an offensive zone face-off. Minnesota's offensive zone presence in the second period kept on pushing shot after shot on net, and much of this was due to amazing puck support deep in the zone and the wonderful cycle. As the period drew to a close, Nino Niederreiter and Ryan Suter would both find the twine as a total of four of Minnesota's 21 second period shots found their way behind Semyon Varlamov. His night would end here. 

As one would expect, the Wild took a little off in the third, but did enough to maintain a shutout and still have much of the offensive zone play. There were still a couple of great scoring chances right on top of the crease for Charlie Coyle, Zach Parise, and Jonas Brodin, but were unable to put the puck home. As the clock ran down, there were many things you could take from this game and just say wow. Maybe it was the franchise record 48 shots on goal totaled for Minnesota, or the five different players who found the net tonight. 

Special teams was a spot where Minnesota was not that great at last season, but today showed a gigantic improvement. In four power plays surrendered to the Avs, Minnesota would not allow one single shot. This was not the 27th ranked penalty kill from last season. Although the power play did not score tonight, they still looked dangerous with crisp puck movement, and a willingness to shoot the puck multiple times.

Minnesota's top line put on a show tonight as well. the trio of Pominville, Parise and Granlund totaled a combined seven points, and were a combined plus 10 rating on the night. The trio also totaled as many shots, 16, as the complete Avalanche roster could muster up for the game. They looked in mid season form and were controlling the game like they were the best line in the entire NHL. If this keeps up, I could see this tremendous trio to possibly total 200 combined points come seasons end. This line is dangerous and the NHL needs to take notice of this. 

Having a quiet night tonight was Thomas Vanek. The newly acquired forward only put two shots on net, but I expect many great things from him this season. I don't think that he played to his full potential tonight.

The Avs and Wild face-off once again on Saturday night, but this time at Pepsi Center in Denver. Will the Avs have a response to this beating, or will the Wild come in and spoil the home opener party for Colorado?

Mats Zuccarello vs T.J. Oshie



According to Hockey Fights, Former Fighting Sioux forward T.J. Oshie has been in three NHL fights. In his fight with Mats Zuccarello, Oshie held his own.

Justin Abdekader No Goal

Detroit Red Wing forward Justin Abdekader thought he had scored a goal. After further review, it was ruled that the puck never crossed the line. Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask stood his ground and didn't let the puck in the net. Toronto got the call right.


Kendall Hockey Classic Facilities - Rent a Shower and Toilets



Wisconsin Badgers assistant coach, Gary Shuchuk tweeted this picture from Alaska Anchorage. The Badgers are playing in the Kendall Hockey Classic. Apparently, the facilities aren't all that good.

THE SERIES – UAA vs. MAINE
OVERALL: UAA leads, 3-2-1 AT UAA: UAA leads, 2-1-0
LAST MEETING: Oct. 17, 2008 (UAA won, 3-1 at Fairbanks) STREAK: UAA 1
NOTES: UAA played Maine in two series in 1990 with the Seawolves sweeping the Black Bears, 4-3, 6-5 OT, Jan. 6-7 in Anchorage, before Maine responded with a 3-3 tie and a 5-3 win on Nov. 16-17 in Orono ... the last time the teams met in the Classic was on Oct. 19, 2002 with Maine winning, 4-2.

THE SERIES – UAA vs. WISCONSIN
OVERALL: UW leads, 54-15-9 AT UAA: UW leads, 21-7-6
LAST MEETING: Jan. 4, 2014 (UW won, 4-3) STREAK: UW 1
NOTES: UAA and Wisconsin met for a non-conference series last season with UAA upsetting the then-No. 13 ranked Badgers, 3-2 on Jan. 3, before Wisconsin retaliated on Jan. 4, 4-3.

Toronto Maple Leafs: On Kadri's Goal, Leafs Were Offsides



Just saw this video, Nazem Kadri scored his first goal of the season last night against the Montreal Canadiens, but it should have never counted. If you watch the video, at the 1:45 mark you will see that Kadri's linemate Brandon Kozum was offsides. Oh well, it was a bang, bang play and the linesmen are human.

College Hockey News: Northeastern Placed on 3 Years Probation

According to College Hockey News, Northeastern was placed on three years of probation. Per the blog post by CHN, "The NCAA action does not include a post-season ban for any teams; it does not require the university to vacate any records; and it does not place a restriction on competition or student-athlete participation."

Basically, this is a slap on the wrist for Northeastern. If Northeastern had lost a scholarship or two, this probation might have mattered.
College Hockey News -- The NCAA's Committee on Infractions has imposed a penalty of three years probation to the Northeastern athletic department, in part due to actions that took place during the tenure of previous head coach Greg Cronin.

Cronin and then-assistant coach Albie O'Connell were suspended in February 2011 when the school discovered improper telephone and text message contacts with recruits.

They were reinstated one month later.

Northeastern, which was on probation at the time for infractions by its men's basketball team, self-reported the incident to the NCAA. In June of that year, Cronin stepped down and took a position as assistant coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He's now an assistant with the New York Islanders.


Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Milbury, Time to Take Fighting Out of Hockey



Tonight, Mike Milbury said, "it's time to take fighting out of the game of hockey."

I think the days of the one dimensional goons taking up a roster spot are gone. I think moving forward, you’re going to need to be able to play the game of hockey.

Schmaltz Brothers: Making of Something Special

With the regular season right around the corner, one thing to take notice of is how well the Schmaltz brothers, Jordan(Junior) and Nick(Freshman) played in the exhibition opener against Manitoba this past Sunday.

Both these brothers have more in common than people might think. Both were drafted in the first round in their respective draft years to different teams in the Central Division. Jordan went 25th overall to the St. Louis Blues in 2012, and likely would be in their system if it wasn't for brother Nick coming to UND this season. Nick went 20th overall in this years draft to the Chicago Blackhawks, making the brothers the only first round draft picks on UND's current roster. Both also played for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL before coming to UND as well.

Jordan is a puck moving defenseman who likes to shoot from the high slot when he has the opportunity to, especially when quarterbacking the power play. In his two years at UND, the St. Louis draft pick has totaled 36 points, 24 of those coming last season, doubling his freshman year total. He is an every day player and has continued to get better and better in each game. Jordan recorded a team leading three points (Goal, 2 assists) in the exhibition opener Sunday afternoon with two of them coming on the power play.

As for younger brother Nick, in the one game I was able to see him skate, he seems to have a Zach Parise like mentality to drive to the net, which will find him on the score sheet more often than not. Although he did not score Sunday, it was not due to the lack of trying. It seemed as if he couldn't buy a bounce to put one in, including hitting the post on an open net. If this net front presence continues for Nick, look for him to be a potential NCHC rookie of the year and putting the NCAA on notice.

The combination of the brothers will continue to grow chemistry as the season moves along and will make the power play that much stronger. Look for these two to be a factor in every single game this year and will be noticeable whenever they are not on the ice.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

USA Hockey: Campus calling

Here's a good read about US college hockey and the percentage of former college hockey players that end up in the NHL.  
Ryan O'Leary Campus Calling -- Once seen as an “also ran” when compared to other NHL feeder systems (the CHL and Europe to be specific), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hockey, whose season starts up this month, is becoming a premier destination for young hockey talent and one of the largest pipelines directly to the pro ranks.

According to College Hockey Inc., a record 305-college alum played in the NHL during the 2013-14 season – equating to 31% of league personnel. That’s 11% more former NCAA players in the NHL compared to the year 2000.

The recently held 2014 NHL Entry Draft featured 65 U.S. born players, the most since 1991 (67), of which 47 are currently playing NCAA Hockey or are committed to play at a college or university in the future.

In fact, College Hockey Inc. reports that NHL Drafts have featured at least 60 current or future college players for 13 years consecutively.

Women's Hockey Week One: What We Learned

As the regular season opened last weekend for the UND Women's Hockey Team, we saw a lot of things that are needing to be addressed, some good and some bad. With a split on the weekend, the team would take an early big hit in the pairwise rankings seeing as both games were non-conference.

Friday night the offense was put on display as they fired seven goals past the RPI goaltender. Becca Kohler showed a net front presence once again, leading the team with a hat trick. Sophomore Marissa Salo finally was able to find the net Friday night too. The hard working Salo not only would net her first goal, but get two as well. This was a long time coming for her and it showed UND's depth off very well.

The downside to Friday was the penalties. However, as UND Women's Hockey fans, we should be used to this right? Although they did not surrender a power play goal on the 11 opportunities that RPI was given, still 11 penalties is something that no team wants to have. When it comes to WCHA play, there needs to be a stress on discipline, or it could be a very long season that will have an early end.

Shelby Amsley-Benzie looked like she was in mid season form already, making 20 saves on 21 shots against. She was square to the puck, didn't leave out many rebounds, and seemed very relaxed in her junior season opener. Playing like this, she could be stealing a lot of games for UND this season.

There wasn't many good things to say about Saturday night. It looked as if a completely different team was on the ice. Not many passes were being completed. Terrible turnovers in the defensive zone were committed and the offense looked powerless. I am not docking the play of Vermont because they played very well, but if UND was playing their best game, the score would have likely been very different.

Not one player stood out as excellent Saturday night and very few stood out as decent at that. The top line of Becca Kohler, Meghan Dufault, and Josefine Jakobsen did combine for the lone UND goal, but that would be about all they had to offer. They did have a couple of very late scoring chances, however were not able to put one in. Gracen Hirschy is the player who stood out the most for me, playing the most consistent game out of everyone.

Two of the three Vermont goals were the cause of two very terrible defensive zone turnovers giving goalie Lexie Shaw no chance what so ever to make a save. Breakouts were sloppy and passing was way off target in the Saturday night loss.

If we learned anything from opening weekend, is that game play consistency between nights needs to be way better, or this season could be a very long one up in Grand Forks.

CHN: The practice of “de-committing”

Mike McMahon of College Hockey News wrote an article about The Gentleman's Agreement: What Now?... For the most part this is old news from this past summer. Only with a different twist to it. There was something from the article that caught my eye. I found the part about the de-commitment to be very compelling and though provoking. Jeff Jackson is right, that word isn't in the dictionary, but it's become a common word in college hockey.
Mike McMahon, College Hockey News -- As Jackson points out, the word de-commit was practically invented by college hockey. It doesn’t actually exist.

“To me, a commitment is a commitment,” Jackson said. “The word de-commit doesn’t exist in Webster’s Dictionary, it’s breaking a commitment. To me, I won’t do it. I won’t go out and recruit a kid who has committed to another school, I don’t care if it’s a big school or a school at the bottom of the standings.”

Players are committing younger and younger – BU verbally committed a 14-year-old earlier this week and Maine committed a 13-year-old player last January – and recruiting to the NLI would render those “commitments” meaningless.

Of course, some would argue that’s already the case.

“Everyone is involved in it,” Jackson said. “The advisors are involved in it, the parents are involved in it, other players are talking in the locker rooms. I don’t like recruiting 15 year olds. I don’t think we should be in that business. I think we should have an agreement where we won’t commit a kid until he’s 17, but we can’t do that because we’re competing with the Canadian Hockey League.”

By signing with a CHL team, a player gives up his NCAA eligibility. In the eyes of the NCAA, because CHL players can be signed by NHL teams and assigned to CHL teams on loan, it’s considered a professional league.

The number of players de-committing, Jackson says, has increased over the years. Part of it, however, is simply the increased public and media attention being placed upon where players are committing. There is nothing stopping a player from proclaiming on Twitter that he has committed to such-and-such school, well before a school is ready to say the same.

Monday, October 06, 2014

UND Second in USA Today Poll

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll

Rk.      School (1st place)                      Record           Pts.         PR
1.         Minnesota (34)                                  0-0-0         510            1
2.         North Dakota                                    0-0-0         462            2
3.         Boston College                                 0-0-0             428            4
4.         Providence                                         0-0-0            415            3
5.         Colgate                                              0-0-0            319            5
6.         St. Cloud State                                  0-0-0            304            6
7.         Union                                                 0-0-0            293            8
8.         Ferris State                                        1-0-0            279          10
9.         Michigan                                            0-1-0            237            7
10.       Miami                                                 0-0-0            178            9
11.       Minnesota State                                0-0-0            171          13
12.       Wisconsin                                          0-0-0            136          12
13.       Notre Dame                                       0-0-0            118          10
14.       Cornell                                               0-0-0              82          14
15.       Boston University                             0-0-0              43         NR               


Others receiving votes: Denver 21, Michigan Tech 14, Massachusetts-Lowell 14, Minnesota Duluth 12, Northeastern 10, Michigan State 8, Yale 8, Quinnipiac 6, Ohio State 5, Robert Morris 4, Bowling Green 2, New Hampshire 1.

Union Suspends Three Players for Violating Team Rules

This past weekend, Union head coach Rick Bennett threw the book at three of his players. Bennett suspended three players for multiple games, for violating team rules. Looks like the Union coach is sending a message early in the season. Here's the video to this story.  
Ken Schott, Gazette -- Union coach Rick Bennett announced Sunday that three Dutchmen have been suspended for violation of team rules.

The three players penalties are senior forward Max Novak and junior forwards Matt Wilkins and Nick Cruice.

Novak was suspended five games, while Wilkins and Cruice each got three games. The suspensions begin with Sunday’s exhibition game against the University of Prince Edward Island.

"It's just a violation of team rules. I'll leave it at that," Bennett said before the game. That's going to be the protocol for this. I don't want to elaborate. It's a violation of team rules. It's something our staff feels very strongly about. It's nothing the guys didn't know about. They're veteran players. They knew about it. We've moved on."
From last season’s stats, Max Novak (15g-16a—31pts), Matt Wilkins (6g-14a—21pts) and Nick Cruice (6g-1a—7pts). Two of these suspensions are significant. Novak missing five games is a big hit for the Dutchmen.

P.K. Subban Pre-game Ritual



Stick tap to Pete Blackburn. I thought this was funny. If you have ever played football or hockey, or have been around the two sports, you will know that equipment for both sports already smells. Imagine someone dropping air biscuits in front of the net. Maybe this is why the Boston Bruins didn't do so well against the Hab's in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  
P.K. Subban just admitted he intentionally farts in front of the net to annoy the opposition. I'm sure Carey Price must love that. — Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 6, 2014

Subban said his pre-game coffee acts as a catalyst in his stomach, then he holds it in until game time so he can fart on the ice. Great. — Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 6, 2014

Sunday, October 05, 2014

UND vs. Manitoba Exhibition Game Lines

UND Forward Lines
21 Brendan O’Donnell–16 Mark MacMillan–15 Michael Parks
28 Stephane Pattyn–13 Connor Gaarder–7 Wade Murphy
9 Drake Caggiula–27 Luke Johnson–8 Nick Schmaltz
29 Bryn Chyzyk–26 Coltyn Sanderson–14 Austin Poganski
UND Defense Paring
6 Paul LaDue–24 Jordan Schmaltz
5 Nick Mattson–2 Troy Stecher
20 Gage Ausmus–3 Tucker Poolman
4 Keaton Thompson–22 Andrew Panzarella

UND Goalies
31 Zane McIntyre
33 Cam Johnson
30 Matt Hrynkiw

Manitoba’s forward lines
25 Shaquille Merasty–21 Taylor Dickin–27 Jordan DePape
16 Jesse Paradis–15 Chad Robinson–20 Aaron Lewadniuk
17 Warren Callis–23 Joel Schreyer–22 Dustin Bruyere
18 Dylan Kelly–24 Justin Augert–10 Brett Dudar
19 Brendan Rowinski
Manitoba’s Defense Pairing
4 Reid Gow–6 Luke Paulsen
28 Kyle Rous–12 Brock Sutherland
3 Josh Elmes–2 Channing Bresciani
5 Lee Christensen

Manitoba’s Goalies

34 Deven Dubyk
35 Brendan JEnsen
1 Byron Spriggs

Bobby Orr on Speed in the NHL, 'It's Dangerous'

I was reading this article over on the Sports Net site and I found something that caught my eye. According to former Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr, the speed of the NHL makes it dangerous.
Luke Fox, Sportsnet.ca -- Orr on speed: “I played a style that coaches didn’t like. Not many players played like that. When I went to junior, I was 14 (and) owned by the Bruins. But they didn’t ask me to change my style. They continued to let me play my way. They thought I was most effective that way, and it certainly helped me.”

“I think teams are looking at L.A. and teams that are more successful and seeing they need speed. There are a lot more good skaters then there were in the past. Without the centre line, you can wind up, go from one end to the other. Guys are coming through the middle with big speed. I think it’s dangerous. I think with the size of the players and the speed of the players, without the centre line, players are being hurt. Teammates are running into each other, and I think it’s dangerous.