College Hockey - 2011/2012

[solbes]

Yeah sucks about Leblanc. Read a little about the incident and about Drew himself. He sounds like a great kid. He's laid up in a hospital post surgery to correct a compound fracture and he's upset he can't get back to class right away. I hope the best for him.

[cbrooks]

Looking at where all the WCHA teams are in the standings

Minnesota is #1-last time Minnesota was rank #1 was in 2008. Gophers are back

CC #3-Schwartz brothers are averaging 1.5 points per game. Probably have the best line in hockey. Good goaltending with Joe Howe as well.

UMD is 10-only weakness is goaltending

Denver is 12-I expected better from them. They should finish higher later in the year.

MICHIGAN TECH 15!-The big surprise this year so far. I'm pulling for this program. I know freshman Blake Pietila(USDT product) was a good pickup for them. Looking at the stats there goalie ,Josh Robinson has been solid. Interesting to see if they keep it up.

UND #20-They need scoring from some of the other lines besides the Kisto,Knight,Nelson line. There powerplay is terrible. Kisto shouldn't be playing the point IMO. They will give up too many shorthanded goals if that continues. He's better down low.

[solbes]

Alaska Anchorage at Minnesota Duluth

St. Cloud State at Minnesota State

Nebraska Omaha at Bemidji State

Minnesota at Wisconsin

Colorado College at Denver

I say 4 for Duluth, 3 for Cloud, 4 for Omaha, 4 for Gophers, and splitskies in Colorado.

[solbes]

Brooms for Duluth. Maybe getting swept by the Gophers was just what that team needed early on in the year. Kenny is playing really well right now, he just concluded his shutout record on Satruday night.

I didn't get a chance to watch any of the games. Was Patterson finally human on Friday or what? Nothing wrong with 2 points in Madison. 3 points for Omaha, they are playing pretty well also.

[Bear55]

Did get to see either game this weekend so I am not sure what happened on Friday, just glad they came back and took care of business on Sat. UMD has impressed me this year, even when the gophs swept them. I thought they just lost too much but they have a great team this year.

[PierBridge]

Duluth is still the team to beat IMO.

Huge bounce back win for the Gophers~

[solbes]

Looks like Mike Lee is out for the season with a groin injury. He will be having surgery soon. Saint Cloud can't catch a break here. Two very key injuries.

Looking at the numbers, Faragher doesn't look too bad: 2.43 GAA and 0.925 save. Anyone seen him play? Paging Archerystud?

College Hockey News article

[hoppe56307]

I saw him play on the friday game against Wis, he looked pretty good for a freshman.

[archerystud]

I gave up my season tickets a couple of years ago. Couldn't make too many games anymore with the son's hockey schedule.

Sounds like Faragher has done very well. Then again I don't think Lee has lived up to the hype.

LeBlanc is the bigger loss with their young forwards. Still hoping they can be tough down the stretch.......but I'm not holding breath.

[MUSKY18]

Gophers came out flat as a pancake on Friday night. Wisconsin played very well and basically took the game right to them. Patterson gave up a couple of soft goals. The whole team just looked completely off their game, not to take anything away from the Badgers. Not sure what Donnie said to them after the game, but a completely different team hit the ice on Saturday night. Was complete domination by the Gophers. I think Wisconsin only managed 15 shots for the game. At times the Gophers were cycling the puck in the Badgers zone so well it looked like they were on a power play when it was 5 on 5. They are playing so much faster and physical this year. Should be able to sweep the Huskies this weekend, but with #1 on their back, they are definately a target and teams are going to be gunning for them.

[Bear55]

This is kind of out of left field and I'm not even sure I believe my eyes but two former Gophers are the leading scorers in the NHL. Sure Vanek is tied with a bunch of other guys but its fun to see their names at the top of the list.

[BartmanMN]

The Notre Dame rink has the players benches on opposite sides of the rink, has anyone ever seen that at any other rink?

[solbes]

The Notre Dame rink has the players benches on opposite sides of the rink, has anyone ever seen that at any other rink?

Sure, seen it about a 100 times. The old DECC in Duluth. Of course that rink was only 190 feet long which made it the second smallest rink in college hockey (Amsoil is now 200x85). RIT has an ice sheet thats even shorter at 185 feet. And also it has teams on opposite sides of rink.

Weird why they chose to do that at the new Notre Dame facility. I'm pretty sure it's Olympic sized too, so that makes it even more strange.

Link to college hockey arena directory

[scsavre]

I have not seen it very often, mainly youth rinks, which makes sense since they are barely above that.

Obviously Im still bitter about the gophs. Honestly they need to get Haula the heck off the ice and put someone out there that can score. I hope he was sick or hurt cause his effort was terrible.

[solbes]

96 seconds...4 Goals! Haven't seen that one before. If you were at the game and went out for popcorn you'd think the scoreboard was broken or something. Great offensive effort from Duluth last night. Now they go on the road for the next month and a half. I hope they can keep their intensity.

[solbes]

One of the best things about Amsoil Arena is the scoreboard TV. I know the rest of the hockey world already had this 10-15 years ago, but hey it's Duluth.

After the team took care of business in the 2nd, it was time for a little R&R. Check out backup goalie Aaron Crandall with the highlight of the game:

[Bran32]

That's hilarious!!

[cbrooks]

UND needs a sweep this weekend BAD. What the odds they get it with CC? I think our only chance is for Aaron Del to stand on his head the rest of the season since no one is able to score on the powerplay or other three lines.

The game I really want to watch is the Denver Miami game.

[solbes]

That would be a big boost. Really tough start to the year for the Sioux. Grimaldi-Hurt. JT Miller-Wooed by the stupid Canucks. St Clair-Inegligble. Add to the fact that Gregoire and Hextall left when they could of stayed. Just not the same kind of reloading your team typically does.

But your freshman are getting all kinds of experience, so I wouldn't rule out a strong finish. Hak's got his work cut out for him this year. Rooting for Denver on the Miami series. Could help Duluth's pairwise in the end.

[Bear55]

The Sioux might make a small 2nd half run but I really don't see them making much noise this year. They just don't have the horses or depth to keep up. Right now they have one really good line and not much offense behind it. They need a sweep in a bad way this weekend but I just don't see it happening.

[cbrooks]

Hate to say this Bear but I would have to agree. For all the reason that Solbes stated...they just don't have the talent or expirence to go far. It would be a victory if they can make it to the Final Five this year. I also think the WCHA has alot of good teams this year compared to other years. Even Michigan Tech is decent this year. I'm thinking three maybe four teams will be battle for the McNaughton this year.

[Bryce]

Sioux got the sweep. How the rodents liking the competition in that fancy new conference?

[cbrooks]

That sweep was huge for UND. CC isn't as good as thought. The Schwartz line is awesome(Rylan had back to back hattrick)then there second line is pretty good but after that they they have nothing. There D is below average leaving UND in front by themselves. CC is not WCHA's best team. There not a deep team whatsoever. Those Scwartz are as good as I expected. Take them out they have nothing but make a mistake they will score. There special teams weren't that great but that credit could go to Hakstal on the matchup. There was a little bit of cat and mouse with matching up the lines this weekend. UND has Anchrage next weekend with UNO following that. It will be huge if North Dakota can take 6 points the next couple weekends.

Whats happening with Minnesota?

[solbes]

Yeah big weekend for the Green. I really thought CC would have some decent goaltending and defense though. I'm not going to shed any tears for their troubles, that's for sure. Talk about lucky so far, Omaha only has a +3 goal differential but is 6-3-3. Not bad Dean, not bad.

WCHA Standings so far:

Team GP W L T Pts

Minnesota 10 8 2 0 16

Minnesota Duluth 10 7 2 1 15

Nebraska Omaha 12 6 3 3 15

Denver 9 4 2 3 11

Michigan Tech 10 5 4 1 11

Colorado College 9 5 4 0 10

St. Cloud State 10 4 4 2 10

Wisconsin 12 4 7 1 9

North Dakota 10 4 6 0 8

Bemidji State 10 3 6 1 7

Alaska Anchorage 10 2 7 1 5

Minnesota State 10 2 7 1 5

[Bear55]

Big weekend for the Sioux, nice sweep. I'm not too worried about the gophs yet, there are going to be bumps along the way. Hopefully they respond. They really out played State for long stretches but we just aren't super strong on D yet, hopefully that changes down the stretch. Patterson seemed to have an off weekend too, high glove side seems to be his weakness. Our offense is still clicking so that is a good thing. The Gophs started off super hot, no way to keep that kind of pace up all season long.