With 3 weeks under our belts, lets review WCHA teams and how they stand right now.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net/)

1) Denver 4-0-0

The University of Denver Pioneers are on fire.  They’re one of two teams left undefeated with 4 or more wins.  Last week the Pioneers swept Michigan Tech at home, outscoring the Huskies 10 to 3.  Over the course of the season Denver has scored 20 goals and only allowed 6.  Is this how the team is going to perform all year or is this just some streak?   Time can only tell.  But with arguably the toughest schedule in all of College Hockey, Denver is going to have to have some big wins in the near future.

2) Minnesota 4-1-0

Minnesota started off the season just as everyone expected.  They skated by Michigan State like Zach Parise would skate around me.  But since that weekend, the Gophs have slowed down a little bit.  In their last 4 games they’ve scored 9 goals, but also gave up 9.  The Gophers have everything they need to be the greatest, but everything just needs to click.  The recent tie to the US Under-18 Team and the narrow victory over Canisius scare me enough to bump them down to the number 2 spot, but I hope they prove me wrong.

3) North Dakota 2-1-1

I think it’s pretty hard to judge North Dakota right now because they’ve basically played only schools in Alaska.  Actually 3 out of their last 4 games have been against Alaska Anchorage, and that one that wasn’t?  That was against Alaska.   NoDak proved they can bury pucks with 5-0 and 4-1 wins over Anchorage, but they also lost to Alaska and tied Alaska Anchorage in OT one night.  They host Boston University at home this weekend, should be a tough series for team with no name, but will let us know where they really stand.

4) St. Cloud State 4-2-0

After being swept by New Hampshire, no one really knew what to think of the St. Cloud Huskies.  But now we know that New Hampshire is undefeated, and obviously talented.  And also SCSU can score.  In the last 4 games SCSU has buried 22 goals and only allowing 5!  What the heck right?  Given it was against Alabama Huntsville and Mankato State, but this is still college hockey.  SCSU’s true test is this weekend when they travel to Denver to take on a hot Pioneer team.

5) Minnesota Duluth 2-3-1

Inconsistency clouds the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs who after destroying Ohio State opening night, just cannot find a consistent scoring.  tUMD’s most recent series, a home series with Wisconsin, was very disheartening as they lost 0-2 the first night and let a 2 goal lead fall and walked away Saturday night with a 2-2 OT tie.  Goalie Matt McNeely has been playing stellar, but defense mistakes and lack of offensive drive are making the Puppies difficult to gauge.  If the dogs show up, they can skate with any program, but if they don’t, it just might be a longer season than most thought.

6) Wisconsin 1-2-1

Another team that is difficult to gauge.  Wisconsin is coming off a huge 3-point weekend at Duluth where they shutout and then came back to tie the Dogs on the road.  And after starting out with 2 losses to a mediocre team, I’d say they fixed something.  Goalie Joel Rumpel has been playing very good and the Badgers are still finding scoring outlets through upperclassmen without freshman Nik Kerdiles.

7) Michigan Tech 2-4-0

The whole middle of the pack in the WCHA is difficult, including Michigan Tech who people counted out after the first loss to Lake Superior, then counted back in after destroying Lake Superior the next day 8 to 4.  The following weekend MTU was able to outplay the Gophers, winning 5 to 3 but falling the second night 2 to 3 in still, a very well played game.  But Michigan Tech’s recent weekend at Denver is why I rank them so low.  Denver was able to outscore the Huskies 10 to 3 in a sweep against MTU.  This weekend Tech heads to Nebraska Omaha to look for a little redemption for what Denver did to them.  Watch out.

8) Colorado College 3-3-0

The Tigers started the season off very well, winning 3 in a row sweeping Clarkson and beating Air Force before losing to Mass-Lowell and then getting sweeped at Cornell.   Now, in CC’s defense Cornell and UMASS are very good teams that bring a lot to the table, but its hard to say exactly how good this CC team is.  They have potential, so only time will tell.  Colorado College opens their WCHA season up at Wisconsin this week.

9) Bemidji State 2-1-1

The Beavers have been on fire lately.  After starting the season with a loss to Lake Superior, they have been outscoring opponents 11-5.  Goalie Andrew Walsh has been recording fabulous numbers and keeping this team in many games.   The Beavers might surprise a lot of people this year, who counted them out after the loss of Brad Hunt.

10) Nebraska Omaha 2-3-1

I’m just not quite sure how to gauge this Nebraska Omaha team.  They’ve lost to Notre Dame, Northern Michigan and Bemidji State.  Now, it’s not quite like losing to Alabama Huntsville or Canisius but they’re still losses.  UNO should have what they need to be a successful team, they just need to all show up and play 3 periods if they’re going to pull out wins.

11) Alaska Anchorage 2-2-2

The Seawolves beat Canisius 2-0…  Does that make them better then the Gophers?  This is another team that is very hard to predict.  I mean they tied with North Dakota AT ND, they beat Merrimach 6 to 3 but then go ahead and lose to North Dakota 5 to 0.  So how good are you guys?  Huh?  They get a break off this weekend then venture to Minneapolis to play the Gophers.  That series will really help us out.

12) Minnesota State 2-2-2

The Mavericks have had a pretty depressing start in comparison to other teams given the difficulty of their opponents.  St. Cloud State just swept them 5 to 1 both nights and before that they managed ties with Rensselaer and Alabama Huntsville.  The Mavs need to turn it around soon if they plan on competing for home ice in what looks to be a very tough WCHA this year.  MSU takes on Minnesota this weekend in a home-home series.  I have my doubts about this weekend for the Mavs.

Disagree?  Tell me!  :)

GO DOGS!!

This weeks USCHO poll is up.  To sum it up, Boston College takes first with 38 votes, Minnesota sits at the number 2 spot with 3 first-place votes and Denver sits in 3rd with 6 first-place votes.  You can find this page HERE

As for the WCHA, (2) Minnesota Gophers, (3) Denver Pioneers, (5) North Dakota, (17) Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and (18) St. Cloud State Huskies are all ranked.  Colorado College, Wisconsin, Bemidji State and Nebraska Omaha all received placing votes as well.

GO DOGS!!

Drew LeBlanc of St. Cloud State registered 2 goals and 3 assists as the Huskies sweep the Minnesota State Mavericks in a combined 10 to 2 weekend.

Bulldogs scrape 1 points from Wisconsin at home, North Dakota walks away with 3 points after tie with Alaska Anchorage, BSU plays tough against UNO, St. Cloud and Denver run over Michigan Tech and Minnesota State at home, Colorado College falls twice to Cornell and The gophers tie with the US Under-18's and barely skate away with a win against Canisius.

Friday:
Wisconsin 2 at Minnesota Duluth 0
Alaska Anchorage 1 at North Dakota 4
Bemidji State 3 at Nebraska Omaha 3 OT
Minnesota State 1 at St. Cloud State 5
Michigan Tech 1 at Denver 5
Colorado College 0 at Cornell 2

US Under-18 Team 2 at Minnesota 2 OT

Saturday:
Alaska Anchorage 3 at North Dakota 3 OT
Bemidji State 3 at Nebraska Omaha 2
Minnesota State 1 at St. Cloud State 5
Wisconsin 2 at Minnesota Duluth 2 OT
Michigan Tech 2 at Denver 5
Colorado College 2 at Cornel 3

Sunday:
Canisius at Minnesota

Upset Alerts:
(3) Miami 2 at (6) Michigan 4

WCHA Standings:

			WCHA					OVERALL
	Pts	W	L	T	GF	GA	W	L	T	GF	GA
Denver	4	2	0	0	10	3	4	0	0	20	6
St. Cloud State	4	2	0	0	10	2	4	2	0	27	14
Bemidji State	3	1	0	1	6	5	2	1	1	11	7
North Dakota	3	1	0	1	7	4	2	1	1	13	6
Wisconsin	3	1	0	1	4	2	1	2	1	7	8
Minnesota	2	1	1	0	6	7	4	1	0	19	9
Michigan Tech	2	1	3	0	2	16	2	4	0	20	24
Alaska Anchorage	1	0	1	1	4	7	2	2	2	15	18
Minnesota Duluth	1	0	1	1	2	4	2	3	1	14	14
Nebraska Omaha	1	0	1	1	5	6	2	3	1	18	14
Colorado College	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	19	18
Minnesota State	0	0	2	0	2	10	2	2	2	15	19

Scoring Leaders:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Nic Dowd	SCSU	4	6	10
Drew LaBlanc	SCSU	3	7	10
Nick Shore	DU	4	5	9
Kalle Kossila	SCSU	3	4	7
Mike Seidel	UMD	3	4	7
Brock Montpetit	UNO	1	6	7

Freshman Scoring:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Kalle Kossila	SCSU	3	4	7
Nolan Zajac	DU	1	4	5
Ethan Prow	SCSU	2	3	5

Goalies:

Player	Team	GA Avg.	Save %
Sam Brittain	DU	1	0.97
Andrew Walsh	BSU	1.48	0.955
Joel Rumpel	UW	1.3	0.954
Clark Saunders	UND	1.64	0.94
Matt McNeely	UMD	1.64	0.935

Scoring Offense:

Team	Goals/GM
Denver	5
St. Cloud State	4.5
Minnesota	3.8
Michigan Tech	3.33
North Dakota	3.25

Scoring Defense:

Team	Goals/GM
Denver	1.5
North Dakota	1.5
Bemidji State	1.75
Minnesota	1.8
Wisconsin	2

Penalty Minutes:

Team	Minutes/GM
Minnesota Duluth	17.7
Denver	17.2
Minnesota State	16.2
Michigan Tech	15.8
St. Cloud State	15

GO DOGS!!

Well, 1 point isn't what I had originally planned, but I'll take it over 0 anyday, especially after the way we played.

The UMD Bulldogs came out skating tonight and it looked like a transformation from last night.  Freshman looked good and there was a lot more chemistry between lines.  As expected, Sandy made some line changes that seemed to help...  That or we just wanted to win more, but hey whatever works.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net/)

This picture is awesome.

The first period was a fun one to watch.  McNeely got the start for the dogs, as I thought he deserved it after a pretty good game last night.  Both teams came out fighting, and tUMD showed the aggressiveness we all knew that had.  The pups peppered 12 shots on Wisco goalie Joel Rumpel and Tony Cameranesi found the back of the net with help from Andy Welinski and Mike Seidel.

Second Period fires up and its 1 to 0 Pups.  I always enjoy the 2nd period because we can watch our own goalie, in tonight's case McNeely, make some nice saves.  Anywho, dogs came out ready to play for a second period in a row which was fun to see.  Keegan Flaherty was able to bury an assisted goal during the second which put UMD up 2.  With the buzzer sounding the end of the second, shots were 26 to 10 in favor of the pups and things were looking very, very good.

I'm not exactly sure what happened in the locker room between periods or if the gatorade was exchanged for milk or whatever, but the team that skated off the ice 15 minutes early did not come back to play.  There was very little offensive play for the dogs.  With the way the pups skated, it looked like the score should have been 12 to 0.  Complete defensive mode, just more lazy.  Casto made a defensive mistake that lead to Bucky goal and another goal from just a bad net scruff.  They seemed to turn it around at the end, and in overtime it looked as though we were actually going to find the back of the net, but just didn't.  UW was able to leave the north shore with 3 of our points while the Dogs only managed to get 1.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net/)

Unfortunate?  Yes.  It sucks, but we're a young team and we'll get there.  The pups played 2/3 of the hockey game last night which is one hell of an upgrade from Friday night.  I thought McNeely had a good weekend and made some very good saves.  Cameranesi is starting to look a lot more comfortable skating and so is Welinski.  I like Herbert's effort he puts into some plays and most of the time, catches the other team off guard.  Seidel is stepping up nicely into the leadership shoes and so is Hendo, who I think had a good game.  Oh and Herbert had one hell of a hit knocking the Badger right into his own bench.  It was awesome.  Casto is going through a little rough patch, I remember him being more solid last year and hopefully he comes back strong after the bye week.

Dogs have next weekend off.  What are we going to do, right?  But start up on the 10th and 11th of November in Nebraska Omaha to fight Blais and the boys.  Should be a fun series and i'm looking forward to it already.

Welp, thats a wrap for the series recap.  Have a good week folks.


GO DOGS!!!

Pups hoping to get 2 points out of this weekend after losing to UW last night.

Here are your lines...

Seidel - Cameranesi - Basaraba
Crandall - Decowski - Herbert
Danberg - Hendo - Flaherty
Farley - Tardy - Krause

Olsen - Welinski
Bergman - McManus
Johnson - Casto

McNeely - Crandall - Fons

Told ya there would be changes.

See ya all that game and the Curling Club!

GO DOGS!!!

Welp, that sucked.

We suck.

What the heck.

The puppies took the giant L last night against the Wisconsin Badgers in what ended up being a terrible, terrible hockey game.  To put this into perception for ya'll, imagine a local peewee hockey team playing against the Wild.   Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net)

The pups came out flying and it looked like it was going to be a fantastic game, but they soon died off and seemed to coast for the rest of the game.  Literally, it looked as though UMD just didn't want to skate, be aggresive, or even try.  They were looking for easy opportunities until the last 4 or 5 minutes.

To make matters worse, The dogs had a 5 minute power play because Bucky freshman Morgan Zulinick had a brutal checking from behind, which we failed to convert on.  Story of the game for the dogs, it was ugly.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net)

With all the negativity out of the way, there was couple things I did like.  Matt McNeely played very well.  He made a couple of awesome saves for the most part of the game, he was a human wall in there.    Drew Olsen is fast, I definitely noticed that.  The Badger coaches "kissed" on the kissing cam (Not really but they acted like they were, which was a first and absolutely hilarious).  Oh and Austin Farley flipped some badger over his back.  It was awesome, and I did in fact cheer.

Anyway, John Ramage, UW "Captain", has it coming tonight for being an absolute idiot in the closing seconds of the game.  

And, we look forward to tonight.  Expect changes.  UMD, get mad.

GO PUPPIES!

My hearts beating like a phonebook in a dryer!

ITS GAMEDAY!

My Wisconsin preview can be found HERE if you would like to see what the pups are up against!

Probable lines per Kevin Pates  ...

J. Crandall - Herbert - Seidel

Young - Hendo - Flaherty

DeLisle - Decowski - Krause

Farley - Cameranesi - Basaraba

Bergman - Casto

Olson - Welinski

Smith - McManus

A. Crandall - McNeely - Fons


GO DOGS!!

The University of Minnesota Duluth Puppies host the Wisconsin Badgers in what could potentially be the last visit for Bucky to the North Shore.  The pups were inconsistent yet again last weekend beating the 9th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 3 to 1 on Thursday, but falling short on Friday losing 4 to 1.  I'm not gonna cry over last weekend anymore, i've shed to many tears already, so lets move up and remind the Dogs to bring their brooms this weekend and sweep the Little Red back to cheese country.

Bucky Badger has had a lot of luck in past years, but struggled in recent ones.  Last year the Wisconsin went 17-18-2 overall (11-15-2 WCHA) losing to Denver in the first round of the WCHA Final Five conference tournament.  Head Coach Mike Eaves, who also played for the Badgers, has had a lot of luck with the team, winning a National Championship in 2006.

Wisconsin's season looked very bright before the season started, even after losing star defenseman Justin Schultz (who was arguable the best defenseman in all of college hockey last year), until eligibility issues with upcoming freshman and Anaheim Ducks prospect Nic Kerdiles came into play.  The Badgers were looking forward to Kerdiles, along with other notable freshman Morgan Zulinick, to post high numbers this year, adding to the returning firepower of Mark Zengerle and Michael Mersh who combined for 80 points last season.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net)

So, Kerdiles won't be making the trek up north this weekend but either will Derek Lee, who fell off his moped earlier this week (lol).  Obviously this hurts Bucky, as Derek Lee took over Justin Schultz's duties on the Badger power play.  Also, for those of you wondering, Kerdiles who was originally banned for the year from college hockey, got his sentence reduced to 10 games.

The Badgers are 0-2 this year, being swept in a neutral site by Northern Michigan 1 to 2 and 2 to 4.  They did get one earlier win against the US Under-18 Team in preseason play, though.  It was a start that caught Wisconsin fans off-guard as they were hyped up to be a top-end team this year returning much experience.

Wisconsin was ranked 18th overall in the USCHO preseason poll and predicted to finish 4th in the WCHA preseason media poll.  Now I see College Hockey News has moved them all the way down to 10th after the Kerdiles incident and recent struggle to find wins.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net)

Watch out for Mark Zengerle and Michael Mersh to try and find the back of the net, as well as freshman Morgan Zulinick.  Blue line defenders Frankie Simonelli and John Ramage will also play aggressively and hold the line well for the Badgers.  As for goalies, both Joel Rumpel and Landon Peterson both have played, although Rumpel has better numbers and was the supposedly starter for the year from the amount of playing time he had last year.

Should be a fun last series for the two teams and usually is between spooning states.  Badgers should come out playing hard and the Puppies are gonna need to skate both nights if they're going to earn all 4 points!

I'll see ya at Amsoil!!...  And the Curling Club :)

Off Wisconsin, On Duluth!

GO DOGS!!

Andrew Walsh gets his first shutout of the year, blanking Lake Superior 5 to 0.  Walsh has a .984 save percentage so far this year for the Beavers.

Thursday:
Minnesota Duluth 3 at Notre Dame 1

Friday:
Minnesota 3 at Michigan Tech 5
Minnesota Duluth 1 at Notre Dame 4
Alabama Huntsville 3 at St. Cloud State 8
Lake Superior 2 at Bemidji State 0
Northern Michigan 2 at Nebraska Omaha 5
Rensselaer 3 at Minnesota State 3 OT
Colorado College 6 at Air Force 2
North Dakota 5 vs Alaska Anchorage 0
UMass Lowell 1 at Denver 5

Saturday:
Minnesota 3 at Michigan Tech 2
Merrimack 3 vs Alaska Anchorage 6
Alabama Huntsville 0 at St. Cloud State 4
Lake Superior 0 at Bemidji State 5
Northern Michigan 2 at Nebraska Omaha 1
Rensselaer 3 at Minnesota State 4 OT
Air Force 2 at Denver 5
UMass Lowell 3 at Colorado College 1
North Dakota 1 at Alaska 2

Upset Alerts:
(1) Minnesota 3 at Michigan Tech 5
(2) North Dakota 1 at Alaska 2
Minnesota Duluth 3 at (9) Notre Dame 1

WCHA Standings:

			WCHA					OVERALL
	Pts	W	L	T	GF	GA	W	L	T	GF	GA
Alaska Anchorage	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	11	11
Bemidji State	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	5	2
Colorado College	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	17	13
Denver	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	10	3
Michigan Tech	2	1	1	0	7	6	2	2	0	17	14
Minnesota	2	1	1	0	6	7	3	1	0	18	9
Minnesota Duluth	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	12	10
Minnesota State	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	13	9
Nebraska Omaha	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	13	8
North Dakota	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	6	2
St. Cloud State	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	17	12
Wisconsin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	6

Scoring Leaders:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Mike Seidel	UMD	3	3	6
Nic Dowd	SCSU	2	4	6
Matt Leitner	MSU	1	5	6

Freshman Scoring:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Austin Farley	UMD	1	3	4
Nolan Zajac	DU	1	3	4
David Morley	SCSU	0	4	4

Goalies:

Player	Team	GA Avg.	Save %	Saves
Andrew Walsh	BSU	0.51	0.984	63
Sam Brittain	DU	1	0.974	37
Matt McNeely	UMD	1	0.967	30

Scoring Offense:

Team	Goals/GM
Denver	5
Minnesota	4.5
Colorado College	4.25
Michigan Tech	4.25
St. Cloud State	4.25

Scoring Defense:

Team	Goals/GM
Bemidji State	1
North Dakota	1
Denver	1.5
Nebraska Omaha	2
Minnesota	2.25

Penalty Minutes:

Team	Minutes/GM
Denver	20.5
Minnesota Duluth	19.5
Michigan Tech	14.5
Alaska Anchorage	13.8
St. Cloud State	13.2

Well, so much for non-conference sweep i guess...

It was a rough night for the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs as they fell 4 to 1 to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday night, just after they beat the Irish 3 to 1 the night before.

My9 had a very good stream up of the game and was actual nice to watch, although the "louder" and "noise meter" signs in between plays got old, but beggars can't be choosers I guess.

The first period was rough.  To give you an idea, the puppies were outshot 21 to 8.  Defense didn't come out playing tough and honestly the turnovers in our own zone destroyed us, and once we got down, ND kept beating us back down...  Casto gave up a turnover in UMD territory which went right back behind Crandall, who played a pretty decent game, just didn't have any help.

When the puck dropped in the second period, the dogs were already down 2 to 0.  This period went much smoother than the last, though.  Puppies finally got a little bit of offense going and outshot the Irish 17 to 11.  Tony Cameranesi, who I thought played pretty good game, found a way to slip one past Summerhays to finally get the Pups on the board 3 to 1.

The third period was another blah period.  Lots of penalties and physical play due to frustrations.  ND scored, which ended up being the dagger, giving them the W at the end 4 to 1.

There was a couple things in this game I couldn't quite wrap my head around.  First off, why did Austin Farley healthy-scratch?  The kid was leading WCHA freshman in points, and not that Austyn Young played bad, because he did pretty well, I just don't understand why he was scratched.  Another issue was goaltending.  Crandall played well, don't get me wrong, and a couple goals he gave up were not exactly his fault, but McNeely played stellar the night before and Fons is still waiting on his chance, so the logic wasn't exactly there in my opinion, but what do I know, right?

Anyway, sucks to suck, we lost, and thats okay.  Puppies host Bucky the Badger next weekend, going to be a fun series!! 

GO DOGS!!