UND cancels Monday Summit League visit / Big Sky to announce expansion Monday

Draw your own conclusions about what this means about the likelihood of an imminent accepted invitation to Big Sky Conference…

Swing by the forum for the latest discussion

Update… and, according to WDAZ:

Coincidentally, the Big Sky Conference will be making an announcement on Monday and it is “very likely” they will be announcing “additions” to the D-I (FCS) conference, according to Big Sky Media Relations Director Jon Kasper.

Weekend Preview: Denver at North Dakota

Denver was decimated by early departures during the off-season, losing junior goaltender Marc Cheverie (48-18-8, 2.21 GAA, .926 SV%, 13 shutouts), sophomore forward Joe Colborne (32 goals and 40 assists in 79 games), and sophomore defenseman Patrick Wiercioch (18 goals and 44 assists in 75 games). Additionally, Rhett Rhakshani (60-91-151 in 156 games) and Tyler Ruegsegger (56-67-123 in 147 games) graduated, leaving George Gwozdecky standing virtually alone on the dasher, scratching his head and wondering what type of team he has and if the officials are to blame.

The Pioneers return some scoring, notably the “M.O.M.” connection of Maiani, Ostrow, and Martin. The three forwards make up the bulk of the returning scoring for Gwozdecky’s squad and will be relied upon early and often.

The other question mark for Denver is between the pipes. The Pios will look to freshman goaltender Sam Brittain this weekend, as Adam Murray is questionable for this series with a groin injury.

For North Dakota, goaltending is the only issue. The Fighting Sioux are fast, deep, talented, and experienced up front and on the blue line, and should be able to play with anyone in the country. Aaron Dell and Brad Eidsness need to make all of the easy saves and keep the game simple, and the Green and White will compete all season long.

Denver Team Profile

Head Coach: George Gwozdecky (17th season at DU, 375-229-52 .611)
National Rankings: #12/#12
This Season: 2-2-2 Overall, 1-0-1 WCHA (t-4th)
Last Season: 27-10-4 Overall (NCAA East Regional Semifinalist), 19-5-4 WCHA (1st)

Team Offense: 2.33 goals scored/game
Team Defense: 2.83 goals allowed/game
Power Play: 6.2% (2 of 32)
Penalty Kill: 90.0% (27 of 30)

Key Players: Senior F Kyle Ostrow (2-3-5), Senior F Drew Shore (4-1-5), Junior F Luke Salazar (3-1-4), Senior F Anthony Maiani (0-3-3), Sophomore F Matt Donovan (2-0-2), Freshman D David Makowski (0-3-3), Freshman G Sam Brittain (1-1-2, 1.70 GAA, .940 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dave Hakstol (7th season at UND, 158-86-25, .634)
National Ranking: #8/#8
This Season: 3-2-1, 2-0-0 WCHA (t-1st)
Last Season: 25-13-5 overall (NCAA Northeast Regional semifinalist), 15-10-3 WCHA (t-4th)

Team Offense: 3.83 goals scored/game
Team Defense: 3.50 goals allowed/game
Power Play: 25.8% (8 of 31)
Penalty Kill: 78.4% (29 of 37)

Key Players: Junior F Jason Gregoire (3-2-5), Sophomore F Corban Knight (2-5-7), Senior F Evan Trupp (1-4-5), Senior F Matt Frattin (7-2-9), Senior D Chay Genoway (1-2-3), Freshman D Derek Forbort (0-5-5), Sophomore G Aaron Dell (2-2-0, 2.88 GAA, .883 SV%)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: March 19, 2010 (St. Paul, MN). North Dakota advanced to the WCHA Final Five title game with a 4-3 semifinal victory over the #1-seeded Pioneers at Xcel Energy Center. Sioux forward Evan Trupp notched two goals and one assist and was named MVP of the tournament one night later.

Last Meeting in Grand Forks: January 30, 2010. Denver rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the homestanding Sioux 4-2, completing a season sweep of the four WCHA games between the teams. The Pioneers outscored North Dakota 10-4 during the 2009-10 regular season.

Most Important Meeting: It’s hard to pick just one game, as the two teams have played four times for the national title. Denver defeated UND for the national championship in 1958, 1968, and 2005, while the Sioux downed the Pioneers in 1963.

Last Ten Games: Denver has had slight edge lately, going 5-4-1 (.550) in the last ten meetings between the schools.

All-time Series: UND leads the all-time series, 130-114-8 (.532), including a 71-41-5 mark (.628) in games played in Grand Forks.

Game News and Notes

Friday night will be Ed Belfour Night at Ralph Engelstad Arena, as the Fighting Sioux faithful will recognize and celebrate the man who backstopped the team to the 1987 national championship. Denver is the last team to visit Grand Forks and win during the regular season. Sioux senior forward Evan Trupp has nine career points against the Pioneers (four goals and five assists in eleven games).

The Prediction

North Dakota will be looking to atone for a dreadful series at Maine, and will come out with an edge. A game that rolls four lines favors North Dakota, while a parade to the penalty box is a toss-up. I think Denver manages to take a close one this weekend, and the Fighting Sioux take them to the woodshed in the rematch.
Denver 3-2, North Dakota 5-2.

How good is the coaches’ poll? (revisited)

Back in 2008, as the excitement over the impending release of the WCHA polls was building, I found myself wondering how meaningful the polls really were. We all get excited about the predictions, as if they will somehow influence the outcomes, but then forget about them by the end of the year when PWR is all that really matters. So, I decided to look back a few years and compare the coaches’ predictions to the actual outcomes, which I wrote up in the post, How good is the coaches’ poll.

That analysis determined that the coaches were actually pretty good at picking WCHA outcomes. They beat throwing darts at a dartboard by a huge margin, and even consistently beat recycling last year’s finish as a prediction for this year. Since a couple years have passed, I decided to take another look and wasn’t surprised to see that the coaches have done even better in the last two years (here’s the raw data).  In 2008-09, the coaches picked every team within one spot of their actual finish except CC (picked #1, finished T-3).  In 2009-10, the coaches picked every team within two spots of their actual finish except Minnesota (picked #3, finished #7).

However, the “previous year’s finish” predictions also did quite a bit better in the last couple years.  That means that the good teams are staying good and the bad teams staying bad, making things a lot easier to predict.  Here, fully updated, is how far off the predictions were from the outcomes (lower numbers are better):

Year Coaches
Poll*
Previous
Year*
2009** 28 43
2008** 12 42
2007 65 84
2006 52 43
2005 21 48
2004 86 89
2003 62 146

* – calculated as the sum of the squares of the differences of each prediction with the actual outcome
** – new since original post

So, it seems that even in the easy years (the “previous years” outcomes of 42 and 43 were better than the coaches outcomes of the previous two years!), the coaches add significant insight beyond how good the teams were last year.

Once again, here are the coaches’ picks for 2010-11:

1. North Dakota (10), 120
2. St. Cloud State (2), 105
3. Minnesota Duluth, 100
4. Denver, 88
5. Minnesota, 82
6. Colorado College, 67
7. Wisconsin, 64
8. Nebraska Omaha, 55
9. Bemidji State 46
10. Minnesota State, 41
11. Alaska Anchorage, 19
12. Michigan Tech

Weekend Preview: UND at Maine

It’s hard to find a Sioux fan who doesn’t have admiration and respect for the Maine Black Bears. There’s a certain affinity for other great hockey teams that survive and thrive in smaller markets and are the flagship programs for their state.

More specifically, the connection between North Dakota and Maine is well-documented. Former UND head coach Dean Blais is fondly remembered for his tribute to Shawn Walsh during Walsh’s cancer battle. I remember vividly the game played in Orono, Maine on Friday, October 13th, 2000, when the defending national champion Fighting Sioux took to the ice in matching “Walsh” jerseys and donated the game-worn uniforms to defray coach Walsh’s medical costs.

It was only fitting that when the late Shawn Walsh’s shamrock was retired and hoisted to the rafters at Alfond Arena in October 2004, North Dakota was once again on hand as the visiting team.

Turning the page to this weekend’s action, both squads are hungry to pick up key wins that will prove beneficial in the Pairwise Rankings. The two victories Maine picked up in Grand Forks in October 2006 helped propel them to the Frozen Four, and the Fighting Sioux will look to return the favor this weekend.

Maine Team Profile

Head Coach: Tim Whitehead (10th season at Maine, 200-127-38 .600)
National Ranking: #11/#12
This Season: 1-1-2 Overall, 1-0-0 Hockey East
Last Season: 19-17-3 Overall, 13-12-2 Hockey East (t-3rd)
Power Play: 22.2% (6 of 27)
Penalty Kill: 80.8% (21 of 26)
Key Players: Junior F Spencer Abbott (4-3-7), Sophomore F Joey Diamond (3-2-5), Senior F Robby Dee (3-2-5), Senior F Josh Van Dyk (0-4-4), Sophomore D Mike Cornell (1-2-3), Sophomore G Shawn Sirman (1-0-1, 2.60 GAA, .912 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dave Hakstol (7th season at UND, 158-84-25, .639)
National Ranking: #2/#2
This Season: 3-0-1, 2-0-0 WCHA
Last Season: 25-13-5 overall (NCAA Northeast Regional semifinalist), 15-10-3 WCHA (t-4th)
Power Play: 33.3% (7 of 21)
Penalty Kill: 83.3% (15 of 18)
Key Players: Junior F Jason Gregoire (3-2-5), Sophomore F Corban Knight (2-4-6), Senior F Evan Trupp (1-3-4), Senior F Matt Frattin (5-1-6) Senior D Chay Genoway (1-2-3), Freshman D Derek Forbort (0-5-5), Sophomore G Aaron Dell (2-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .919 SV%)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: October 21, 2006 (Grand Forks, ND). Maine sophomore goaltender Ben Bishop held UND scoreless for almost 58 minutes and the Black Bears weathered a barrage of North Dakota 5-on-3 power plays as the visiting squad won 3-1 to complete the weekend sweep. Bishop made 48 of 50 saves on the weekend.

Last Meeting in Orono: October 9, 2004. In a battle of top-five teams, the Fighting Sioux took down Maine for the second consecutive night, winning 3-1 after taking a 4-3 overtime victory in the opener. Rastislav Spirko had one goal and four assists in the series.

Most Important Meeting: April 6, 2000 (Providence, RI). The Fighting Sioux scored twice in the second period and Karl Goehring stopped all 30 shots he faces as UND advanced to the national title game with a 2-0 victory over Maine. Two nights later, the Green and White would claim their seventh national championship.

Last Ten: UND is 5-4-1 (.550) in the last ten meetings between the teams.

All-time Series: North Dakota leads the all-time series 11-6-1 (.667), including a slight 4-3-1 (.563) edge in games played in Orono.

Game News and Notes:

After UND completes their six-game road trip to open the series, they will host Denver and Minnesota-Duluth on back-to-back weekends. Maine forward Gustav Nyquist was a Hobey Baker award finalist last season. Fifth-year senior Chay Genoway is the only current Sioux player to have played against the Black Bears, appearing in a pair of losses to Maine in October 2006. Friday’s game will be broadcast live on CBS College Sports.

The Prediction

It’s hard to see anything but a split out of this series, but North Dakota pulled off a sweep in its last visit to Alfond Arena. The Fighting Sioux are deep, talented, and determined to take points each night on the ice. 3-3 tie, UND 4-2.

Thank you for reading. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

WCHA Preseason Predictions

Here’s how I see the race for home ice shaking out…

1. North Dakota: Locked and loaded for a title run.
2. St. Cloud State: The only question mark is on the blue line. After Lauridsen, there’s not much experience on the back end.
3. Minnesota-Duluth: The Bulldogs have the depth and experience to make a run at the MacNaughton Cup and more.
4. Denver: The Pios lost Rhakshani and Ruegsegger to graduation and three more (Cheverie, Colborne, and Wiercioch) left early for the NHL. I still have a feeling Denver will be a force in the second half.
5. Wisconsin: Wisconsin was decimated by graduation and early departures, so 5th might be high. Call it a hunch that Eaves will secure home ice with his young team.
6. Minnesota: There’s talent on the ice, but we’ve seen more talented Gopher teams finish in the bottom half.
7. Colorado College: Yet another young team with potential; Scott Owens often gets his teams to overachieve.
8. Bemidji State: The Beavers will score, but will it be enough?
9. Nebraska-Omaha: It’s tough to pick a Dean Blais team to finish this low, but I think they’re a year away from really contending.
10. MSU-Mankato: Young up front, but experienced on the back end. If the Mavs can keep games close early, Jutting could have his squad in the mix for home ice.
11. Alaska-Anchorage: Ten freshmen and 40 minutes of returning experience in net means the Seawolves will be lucky to win five WCHA games.
12. Michigan Tech: Goaltender Kevin Genoe will keep them in games, but that’s about it.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment and leave your predicted order of finish below.

Weekend Preview: North Dakota at Bemidji State

It’s a debut in more ways than one this weekend as North Dakota travels to Bemidji to take on the Beavers in the conference opener for both squads. Friday’s tilt will also open the lid on the brand new Bemidji Regional Event Center, the new home for BSU hockey. And this season marks Bemidji State’s first as a member of the WCHA.

For the homestanding Beavers, the top line of seniors Matt Read and Ian Lowe and sophomore phenom Jordan George will need to spark the offense. The three combined for 53 goals last season, 40 percent of the team’s lamplighters.

North Dakota brings high hopes into this season. Although the team said farewell to a couple of outstanding centermen in Chris Vandevelde and Darcy Zajac, the rest of the team returns, and four freshmen join the fold. Two of the incoming freshmen (forward Brock Nelson and defenseman Derek Forbort) were first-round picks in the 2010 NHL draft.

Although UND has had the better of the all-time series, eight of the last eleven games have gone to North Dakota by a single goal.

Bemidji State Team Profile

Head Coach: Tom Serratore (10th season at BSU, 163-128-33 .554)
National Ranking: NR/NR
This Season: 0-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA
Last Season: 23-10-4 (NCAA Midwest Regional semifinalist), 14-3-1 CHA (1st)
Key Player (last season’s statistics): Senior F Matt Read (19-22-41), Senior F Ian Lowe (21-10-31), Sophomore F Jordan George (13-21-34), Junior D Brad Hunt (7-26-33), Senior D Ryan Adams (1-6-7), Junior G Ryan Bakala (19-8-3, 2.33 GAA, .917 SV%, 3 SO)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dave Hakstol (7th season at UND, 156-84-25, .636)
National Ranking: #2/#2
This Season: 1-0-1, 0-0-0 WCHA
Last Season: 25-13-5 overall (NCAA Northeast Regional semifinalist), 15-10-3 WCHA (t-4th)
Key Players (last season’s statistics): Junior F Jason Gregoire (20-17-37), Sophomore F Danny Kristo (15-21-36), Senior F Evan Trupp (8-26-34), Senior F Matt Frattin (11-8-19 in 24 games played)), Senior D Chay Genoway (4-6-10 in 9 games played), Senior D Derrick LaPoint (2-20-22), Junior G Brad Eidsness (24-10-4, 2.11 GAA, .914 SV%, 3 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: January 3, 2009 (Grand Forks, ND). The Fighting Sioux scored a power play goal thirty seconds into overtime to upend the visiting Beavers 4-3. BSU had tallied its own man-advantage marker midway through the third period to tie the score. North Dakota doubled BSU in the shot department, 40-20.

Last Meeting in Bemidji: January 2, 2009. One night earlier, the teams erupted for five goals in the opening frame, with BSU nursing a 3-2 lead. UND took the lead in the middle period with two goals, and although Bemidji outshot North Dakota 10-1 in the last twenty minutes, they could not find the equalizer and the Fighting Sioux prevailed 4-3.

Most Important Meeting: Friday night’s opener is the most important meeting between the two teams. Bemidji State wants to open its arena and first WCHA season with a victory.

Last Ten: Over the past ten games between the schools, UND has won nine and tied once.

All-time Series: UND leads the all-time series, 17-1-1 (.921), including a 4-1-0 (.800) record in games played in Bemidji. BSU’s lone victory over North Dakota came on February 7, 1990.

Game News and Notes:

Trupp leads North Dakota with three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in four career games against BSU. The Beavers have gone 8-19 against WCHA teams over the past three seasons. The Fighting Sioux return five players who notched ten or more goals last season: Jason Gregoire, Danny Kristo, Brett Hextall, Matt Frattin, and Brad Malone. Bemidji State is 41-12-2 in home openers dating back to 1947.

The Prediction

There will be more than a capacity crowd at the BREC this weekend, and the place will be rocking. The first five minutes of each game will be fast and furious. If North Dakota can weather the early storm, they could take three points or more, but I’m going with a split. BSU 3-2, UND 4-2.

Thank you for reading. I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions.

2010 NCAA Hockey Rule Changes

Watching tonight’s game (or any others this season)?  Things may be a little different.  Hat tip to CHN for link, here are the:

2010 Rule Changes (pdf)

Big stuff:

  • If the non-offending team scores during the delayed penalty, the penalty would still be enforced and that team would receive a power play.
  • When a delay of game penalty is NOT called, the team that shoots the puck directly out of play would not be allowed to change its players. (This would provide some penalty for a defending team that shoots the puck out of play directly. If the puck is ruled to be deliberately shot out of play, a delay of game penalty still may be issued.)
  • Require that a hand pass must be “deliberately directed to a teammate or create a gained advantage” for this rule to be in effect. (Too many hand passes are being called that are not truly hand passes. For example, a defenseman is trying to hold the line at the offensive blue line and the puck deflects off of the player’s glove and goes to a teammate in the neutral zone. This was not deliberately directed and therefore should not be a violation of the hand pass rule. This change will assist officials to properly administer this rule.)
  • New rule that mirrors system used in some junior leagues where the linesmen judge which player would touch the puck first if an icing is in effect. (To add an element of touch-up icing used in professional levels and eliminate some whistles in the game without compromising safety.)
  • In exhibition games ONLY, enforce icing at all times of the game. (This change would remove a contradiction in the rules that allows a team that has violated the rules in one area to violate another rule in order to compensate for being shorthanded. This would provide more scoring opportunities for the power play team and could encourage more skilled play from the defensive team.)

And… enhanced guidance about contact to head…

Alter the language to read: “A player shall not target and make contact with an opposing player’s head or neck area in any manner (including but not limited to the shoulder, stick, elbow, etc.) or force the head of an opposing player into the protective glass, boards or goal cage.
PENALTY—Major and a game misconduct or disqualification at the discretion of the referee.”
NOTE: See the additional guidance at the end of this document.