Random updates

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

A few updates on this Monday evening (or Tuesday morning)…

Dustin Byfuglien is no longer the only Roseau product in the NHL. Defenseman Aaron Ness got the call from the New York Islanders on Monday afternoon and will suit up tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers, his agent posted on Twitter. Ness, who left Minnesota after last season, will replace a couple of defensemen who went down over the weekend.

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In the previous post, you’ll see that UND is once again ranked in both national polls. It’s the first time that’s happened since Halloween.

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The Boston Globe wrote about former UND forward Brandon Bochenski, who is lighting it up in the KHL. Bochenski plans to sign an extension to stay there. Read the story here.

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Chris Porter has been a healthy scratch for the St. Louis Blues quite often lately, but he got in the lineup on Saturday and coach Ken Hitchcock was quite impressed.

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Waterloo Blackhawks defenseman Ian McCoshen is choosing amongst four schools and UND is one of them. Read about that here.

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Friday will mark two months since the last time UND has played with a healthy scratch this season. It was Taylor Dickin on Dec. 10 against Omaha. Since then, every healthy body has been in the lineup. And since Christmas, UND has played half of its games (4 of 8) without 18 skaters.

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Poll time

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

The UND men are No. 15/16, while the women reached a new program all-time high at No. 4. This week’s polls:

Pairwise Rankings

1. Boston University
2. UMass-Lowell
3. Michigan
4. Ferris State
5. Minnesota-Duluth
6. Boston College
7. Minnesota
8. Merrimack
9. Maine
10. Notre Dame
11. Union
12. Ohio State
13. Michigan State
14. Northern Michigan
15. North Dakota
16. Colorado College
17. Denver
18. Miami
19. Western Michigan
20. Lake Superior
21. Cornell
22. Colgate
23. Northeastern
24. Quinnipiac
25. Harvard

USCHO poll

1 Boston University         (12)   16- 8-1   930     3
2 Minnesota                 (22)   19- 9-1   922     2
3 Minnesota-Duluth          (10)   18- 6-4   899     1
4 Michigan                  ( 4)   17- 9-4   805     7
5 Boston College                   16-10-1   770     5
6 Ferris State              ( 1)   18- 8-4   760     6
7 Massachusetts-Lowell      ( 1)   18- 7-0   716     9
8 Merrimack                        15- 6-5   704     4
9 Notre Dame                       16-11-3   536     8
10 Colorado College                 15- 9-2   534    11
11 Union                            16- 6-7   507    11
12 Maine                            16- 8-3   445    15
13 Cornell                          11- 6-6   333    14
14 Denver                           15- 9-4   319    13
15 Ohio State                       14-10-5   289    10
16 North Dakota                     15-10-2   253    17
17 Michigan State                   15-11-4   218    NR
18 Western Michigan                 14-11-5   202    16
19 Northern Michigan                12-10-6   108    19
20 Miami                            15-13-2    93    18

Others receiving votes: Colgate 87, Lake Superior 45,
Quinnipiac 12, Air Force 4, Harvard 4, St. Cloud State 2,
Northeastern 1.

USA Today poll

1     University of Minnesota, 474 (16)
2     Boston University, 472 (9)
3     University of Minnesota Duluth, 458 (8)
4     Boston College, 350
5     Ferris State University, 347 (1)
6     University of Michigan, 343
7     UMass Lowell, 317
8     Merrimack College, 315
9     University of Notre Dame, 220
10     Colorado College, 202
11     Union College, 170
12     University of Maine, 138
13     Cornell University, 67
14     University of Denver, 66
15     University of North Dakota, 45   

Others receiving votes: Ohio State University, 42; Michigan State University, 33; Western Michigan University, 14; Northern Michigan University, 6; United States Air Force Academy, 1.

INCH power rankings

1. Minnesota
2. Minnesota-Duluth
3. Boston University
4. Union
5. UMass-Lowell
6. Merrimack
7. Michigan
8. Ferris State
9. Boston College
10. Colorado College
11. Notre Dame
12. Maine
13. Denver
14. Cornell
15. North Dakota
16. Colgate
17. Miami
18. Harvard
19. Michigan State
20. Western Michigan

Women’s Pairwise Rankings

1. Wisconsin
2. Minnesota
3. Cornell
4. North Dakota
5. Mercyhurst
6. Harvard
7. Boston College
8. Northeastern
9. Dartmouth
10. Minnesota-Duluth
11. St. Lawrence
12. Clarkson

Women’s USCHO poll

1 Wisconsin                 (15)   26- 2-2   150     1
2 Minnesota                        24- 4-2   133     2
3 Cornell                          21- 3-0   122     3
 4 North Dakota                     18- 9-2    90     6
5 Mercyhurst                       19- 5-2    78     5
6 Boston College                   18- 8-3    77     4
7 Northeastern                     18- 6-3    66     7
8 Harvard                          16- 7-1    50     8
9 Minnesota-Duluth                 15-12-1    21     9
10 Boston University                16-12-1    14    NR

Others receiving votes: Dartmouth 13, St. Lawrence 6,
Bemidji State 2, Clarkson 2, Providence 1.

 

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Lamoureux twins on torrid pace

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

In the last series before Christmas break, Minnesota-Duluth held both Lamoureux twins without a point in the series. Obviously, that didn’t set well with them.

Since the break, both of them have been crushing the competition. They have combined for 54 points in the 9 games since the break and currently rank first and second nationally in scoring (as of Saturday night).

Here are some of their incredible stats:

***Monique has 28 points in the 9 games since the break. And she’s playing defense. That’s more than three points per game. And yes, that’s at defense.

***Jocelyne has 26 points in the 9 games since the break. She leads the nation with 70 points — currently seven ahead of her sister and Wisconsin’s Brianna Decker.

***Jocelyne and Monique, both juniors, have more points than any junior class in the country by themselves. And that includes the highly regarded Minnesota-Duluth class of Audrey Cournoyer, Jessican Wong, Katherine Wilson, Pernilla Winberg, Vanessa Thibault and Mariia Posa. The twins also have more points than any sophomore or freshman class in the country.

***The Lamoureuxs have scored more goals than six entire Division I teams have this season, and they have scored 20 more goals than St. Cloud State’s team.

***The Lamoureuxs both have 192 career points, which means they are on pace to eclipse the 200-point mark as juniors.

Obviously, postseason awards are coming their way. This is where it gets interesting. What does UND do about the Patty Kazmaier (women’s equivalent to Hobey Baker)? They are arguably the top two candidates at this time, but could split votes, leading to another winner.

Do you nominate just one? And if so, how do you choose which one? Or do you go with both and hope one wins it?

I will write more about this dilemma for Friday’s paper.

 

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Women’s final: UND 3, Bemidji State 1

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

TO ENTER THE LIVE CHAT, click here.

First period

UND 1, Bemidji State 0 — Josefine Jakobsen (Michelle Karvinen, Jocelyne Lamoureux) 1:20. Lamoureux sends a pass back to Karvinen, who spots Jakobsen alone near the crease. Karvinen sends it to Jakobsen, who gets stopped on the initial attempt, but stays with it and scores for the third straight game.

UND 1, Bemidji State 1 –Natasha Kostenko (Kristin Huber, Kimberly Lieder) 3:46. A few seconds after a power play expires, Huber gets a shot on net and Kostenko finds it on the side of the crease to tie it up.

UND 2, Bemidji State 1 — Monique Lamoureux-Kolls (Jocelyne Lamoureux) 4:13. UND gets a two-on-one and has the right players with the puck. Jocelyne gets it to Monique, who completely baffles Tomcikova with a deke on top of the crease and scores.

UND 3, Bemidji State 1 — Monique Lamoureux-Kolls (Michelle Karvinen, Josefine Jakobsen) 10:15. Karvinen uses her blazing speed to catch up to a puck on the right wing, gets past the defenseman and makes a perfect feed to MLK, who snaps a perfect shot in the corner of the net.

Second period

No scoring.

Third period

Scoreless.

UND’s lines

8 Michelle Karvinen–63 Josefine Jakobsen–17 Jocelyne Lamoureux
13 Alyssa Wiebe–2 Mary Loken–10 Andrea Dalen
21 Kelsey Ketcher–26 Monique Weber–6 Allison Parizek
22 Sara Dagenais–91 Ashley Furia–15 Megan Gilbert

19 Margot Miller–18 Monique Lamoureux-Kolls
9 Kayla Berg–32 Candace Molle
16 Tori Williams–12 Ashley Holmes

29 Steph Ney
30 Jorid Dagfinrud
33 Michelle Bonapace-Potvin

Bemidji State’s lines

64 Natasha Kostenko–17 Sadie Lundquist–10 Emily Erickson
11 Whitney Wivoda–16 MacKenzie Thurston–6 Kristin Huber
18 Rachael Kelly–19 Tess Dusik–59 Danielle Williams
13 Molly Arola–3 Abby Williams–22 Lauren Williams

25 Montana Vichorek–15 Marlee Wheelhouse
14 Erika Wheelhouse–29 Kimberly Lieder
91 Jamie Hatheway–27 Kayleigh Chapman

88 Zuzana Tomcikova
35 Jessica Havel

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Women’s final: UND 5, Bemidji State 2

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

TO ENTER THE LIVE CHAT, click here.

First period

Bemidji State 1, UND 0 — Emily Erickson (Natsha Kostenko, Montana Vichorek) :23 (dp). Erickson enters the zone one-on-one, walks Miller and punches it into the net.

Bemidji State 1, UND 1 — Josefine Jakobsen (Michelle Karvinen, Monique Lamoureux-Kolls) 16:29 (pp). Karvinen comes off the left wall and spots Jakobsen backdoor. She makes a perfect pass. Tomcikova is able to quickly get over to the other post, but Jakobsen puts it five-hole.

Second period

UND 2, Bemidji State 1 — Michelle Karvinen (Jocelyne Lamoureux, Kelsey Ketcher) 8:15 (pp). Jocelyne snaps a shot from the left circle that hits Tomcikova high and bounces in the crease. UND whacks away and it’s Karvinen that puts it just inside the post.

UND 3, Bemidji State 1 — Michelle Karvinen (Alyssa Wiebe, Monique Lamoureux-Kolls) 12:48. Karvinen cross the blue line and launches a slap shot from above the dots. Tomcikova makes the save and the rebound popes up in the slot. Lieder attempts to grab it, but it hits off her glove and goes in her own net.

UND 4, Bemidji State 1 — Michelle Karvinen (Jocelyne Lamoureux) 13:10. Jocelyne pulls the puck off the wall and finds Karvinen cutting to the net on the back door and Karvinen taps it home to finish off a natural hat trick.

Third period

UND 5, Bemidji State 1 — Jocelyne Lamoureux (Kayla Berg) 16:51 (sh). Lamoureux scores an unbelievable goal, pulling off a spin move on Lieder, getting around to her forehand and pushing it past Tomcikova.

UND 5, Bemidji State 2 — Whitney Wivoda (Rachael Kelly, Montana Vichorek) 18:40. Kelly’s shot is kicked out to the side of the crease, where Wivoda scores with the backhand on a rebound.

UND’s lines

8 Michelle Karvinen–63 Josefine Jakobsen–17 Jocelyne Lamoureux
13 Alyssa Wiebe–2 Mary Loken–10 Andrea Dalen
21 Kelsey Ketcher–26 Monique Weber–6 Allison Parizek
(no left wing)–91 Ashley Furia–15 Megan Gilbert

19 Margot Miller–18 Monique Lamoureux-Kolls
9 Kayla Berg–32 Candace Molle
16 Tori Williams–12 Ashley Holmes
3 Madison Kolls

29 Steph Ney
30 Jorid Dagfinrud
33 Michelle Bonapace-Potvin

Bemidji State’s lines

64 Natasha Kostenko–17 Sadie Lundquist–10 Emily Erickson
11 Whitney Wivoda–16 MacKenzie Thurston–6 Kristin Huber
18 Rachael Kelly–19 Tess Dusik–59 Danielle Williams
13 Molly Arola–3 Abby Williams–22 Lauren Williams

25 Montana Vichorek–15 Marlee Wheelhouse
14 Erika Wheelhouse–29 Kimberly Lieder
91 Jamie Hatheway–27 Kayleigh Chapman

88 Zuzana Tomcikova
35 Jessica Havel

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Friday morning reading

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

Sure, the UND men are off this weekend, but we’ve still got a pair of hockey games at The Ralph this weekend.

Yes, it is time for a women’s version of the Friday morning reading.

UND hosts Bemidji State this weekend (7:07 tonight, 7:07 p.m. Saturday) in a series that will end up being very important for the Pairwise. UND currently sits at No. 7 in the Pairwise, so the team is right on the border of making the eight-team NCAA tournament field.

Earlier this season, UND split with Bemidji State. UND won the series opener in Crookston, but fell behind early at Sanford Center the next night and couldn’t quite catch up.

One thing going in UND’s favor this weekend is freshman forward Josefine Jakobsen, who is starting to come on strong. Here’s a feature about Jakobsen, who is just as impressive off the ice. She speaks English, Danish, Swedish, German and can understand Norwegian.

Soon, I will write a story about all of the different languages that are spoken on this team. Jakobsen, Michelle Karvinen and Andrea Dalen are all fluent in at least three languages. Associate coach Peter Elander is fluent in six. And I know Sara Dagenais is fluent in two. Pretty incredible.

UND goalie Steph Ney, who has written a journal for the Herald this season, says the team is expecting this to be like a playoff series because this is a rematch of last year’s first round, which went to OT of the third game.

Bemidji State is preparing for another difficult series, though the tough ones don’t seem to faze the Beavers. Last weekend, they went to the Kohl Center and pushed the No. 1 Badgers to the limit on back-to-back nights, losing in OT on Friday and losing 1-0 on a third-period goal Saturday.

In that Bemidji Pioneer story, Beaver coach Steve Sertich says he thinks that BSU goalie Zuzana Tomcikova is a Patty Kazmaier (the women’s Hobey) candidate. I don’t think many in the WCHA would disagree.

If you throw out empty-net goals, Bemidji State has played in six straight one-goal games. So expect the Beavers to play close-to-the-vest hockey.

On the other hand, UND is the No. 3 offensive team in the country and tops among WCHA teams. Jocelyne Lamoureux is the nation’s leading scorer. Monique Lamoureux-Kolls is the nation’s No. 3 scorer — and has been playing defense half the season. Karvinen is the country’s top rookie scorer. It should be a good battle of contrasting styles.

Thursday was a good day for the future of the UND program, too, as recruit Sam LaShomb of South St. Paul was named one of 10 finalists for Minnesota’s Ms. Hockey Award. UND has never had a winner of the award. LaShomb is a defenseman who will come to UND in the fall.

For those who aren’t going to the game, stop back tonight for the live chat. We will have it fired up around 6:45 p.m. Catch you all then.

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WCHA thoughts and notes

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

UND is off this weekend. And with all quiet on the UND front, it’s a great time to look around at what else is going on in the WCHA. So, here are some notes and thoughts from around the league…

Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi announced he’s stepping down from that role this summer. Many fans/media have been heavily critical of Maturi because of the performance of Gopher athletic teams in recent years. But an athletic director’s job goes far beyond that.

Maturi was the administrator who helped get the football team its biggest edge in many, many years with the building of TCF Bank Stadium. I’ve also heard he was a key player in starting Big Ten Network, a major revenue stream for the school. He was a champion for the smaller sports and a huge friend to college hockey.

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Where’s the buzz about Denver rookie blue liner Joey LaLeggia? The former BCHL MVP seems to get zero talk about rookie of the year, but is averaging more than a point per game both overall and in WCHA play. Justin Schultz is the only defenseman in the country with more points than LaLeggia.

Only two WCHA defensemen have come close to averaging a point per game as rookies in the last decade and both are Pioneers — Matt Carle and Patrick Wiercioch.

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Can we attribute Michigan Tech’s turnaroud solely to the hiring of Mel Pearson? I say no, not entirely. I’m of the opinion that Jamie Russell should get a tip of the cap for this season.

Look at Tech’s top scorers this season. Brett Olson is the leader. He was injured for half of last year. Then, it’s Jordan Baker. He got hurt before last season started and never played. Then, it’s David Johnstone, a Russell recruit who was one of the USHL’s top scorer last season. Then, it’s Blake Pietila, a Russell recruit and maybe Tech’s first from the NTDP.

Yes, Pearson should be lauded for Tech’s success. But I believe that some kind of turnaround — maybe not to this extent? — would have happened under Russell, too, and Russell definitely set the table for Tech’s success this year.

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St. Cloud State senior Drew LeBlanc could have an interesting decision to make. If he gets healthy enough to play at the end of this season, he could either rejoin the Huskies for a few games or he could decide to sit out and take a medical redshirt.

It is highly unlikely that St. Cloud State will make the NCAA tournament this season, so you may believe that LeBlanc would be more inclined to take the redshirt. However, LeBlanc was sought after by multiple NHL teams last summer and could decide it’s time to move on.

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Omaha forward Terry Broadhurst was one of the hottest players in the league to start the season. He had 14 goals in the team’s first 15 games. But since his two-goal game against St. Cloud State on Nov. 26, Broadhurst has not scored a goal. That’s an 11-game goal drought for the speedy winger.

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It will be interesting to see how Wisconsin star Justin Schultz responds from a quiet weekend in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Schultz is still a legit Hobey Baker Award candidate, but needs to bounce back quickly.

It also will be interesting to if other teams use Dane Jackson’s PK scheme of denying Schultz passes while the Badgers are on the power play.

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Speaking of Dane Jackson’s penalty-killing unit, it is now No. 1 in WCHA games. UND is successfully killing 85.5 percent of WCHA opponents’ power plays.

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Weekly Wednesday update

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

It’s an off week for the UND men’s team, but there was still a media session at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

UND coach Dave Hakstol said that the team should know next Wednesday whether Brendan O’Donnell will be able to play this season or not. O’Donnell has been out with an upper-body injury for the last four games. He was injured during the Saturday night game against Minnesota.

A lot of players who have been playing injured also will get time off this week to heal. Andrew MacWilliam (who we all projected would finish this season with more goals than Rocco Grimaldi, right?) said he will be one of the guys healing up this week.

Speaking of Grimaldi, he had surgery Tuesday and the operation went as planned. He posted a picture of the bone that was removed and the hole that was in his knee. If you do not get grossed out by stuff like that, you can see the photo here.

Hakstol said that the team can rest but it can’t lose its mental focus and it can’t get too far away from the game this week.

On the women’s side, I will be featuring Josefine Jakobsen, who is the WCHA rookie of the week. Jakobsen had 5 points last weekend at Ohio State. She’s impressive off the ice, too. She speaks English, Danish, Swedish, German and can understand Norwegian.

The UND women will take on Bemidji State at home on Friday and Saturday.

Other happenings around the hockey world…

  • Here’s the Herald story on the recent commitments of Bryn Chyzyk and Adam Tambellini with quotes from both players.
  • Here’s the Herald story on the NCHC TV deal and what it appears to mean for UND.
  • St. Cloud State forward Jordy Christian, son of former UND player Eddie Christian, will have season-ending surgery on both of his knees. Christian sustained the injury against UND a couple of weeks ago. Since Christian is a senior, it means his college playing career is over.
  • Jonathan Toews was activated from IR this week. In his first game back, he had one assists in a Blackhawks loss. Toews missed a couple of games before the All-Star break as well as the All-Star Game.
  • Former UND forward Andrew Kozek is playing in Japan this season and he posted on Twitter yesterday that he spotted a Sioux jersey in the stands at his last game. Read the post here.
  • The last of Tom and Trish’s Zajac’s four sons will join college hockey next at the University of Denver. Fear not college hockey fans, as there will eventually be more Zajacs on the way. Former UND star Travis Zajac and his wife Nicole, who starred at New Hampshire, recently had a son named Zenon.
  • ESPN’s John Buccigross has ranked the top 100 NHL players. Toews checks in at No. 2 behind Sidney Crosby. Zach Parise checks in at No. 14.
  • Speaking of Parise, look for him to remain a Devil the rest of the season. Several media outlets are reporting that the Devils will not trade him before the deadline. New Jersey is in line to make the playoffs this season.
  • Oklahoma City coach Todd Nelson raves about Chris VandeVelde in this interview.
  • Cedar Rapids Roughriders forward Jack Rowe is the UND recruit of the week. Rowe had five assists in his team’s 6-5 loss Saturday night against Waterloo. It was his first multi-point game in the USHL.
  • The Fargo Forum has a blog post on UND goalie recruit Zane Gothberg, who lost his grandmother before the season.
  • UND goalie Brad Eidsness didn’t make the cut for the top 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award (maybe because he’s not really a senior, he’s a grad student, ha). But Fargo South grad Paul Weisgarber of Air Force is on the list.
  • Denver’s top goalie, Sam Brittain, is back. He played Saturday night for the Pioneers against Anchorage. Brittain missed the first half of the season after having knee surgery.
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NCHC signs CBS Sports Network deal

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

The NCHC has signed a three-year contract with CBS Sports Network and the station will broadcast at least 18 games per year.

This is a good news/bad news deal for UND fans.

The good news is that the CBS Sports Network broadcasts will all be in high definition and are available on DirecTV and Dish Network.

The bad news is that the FCS contract is up after the 2012-13 season and will not be renewed. CBS will have exclusive rights for national broadcasts for the conference.

UND will retain rights to broadcast games locally and regionally.

UND spokesperson Jayson Hajdu says that the school also is “working on a plan for the day when the FCS contract expires,” but didn’t detail what that involves.

CBS Sports Network will have an opportunity to choose which games it wants to show, but it is unlikely that any team will be on more than five times per regular season. CBS also will cover the league’s postseason tournament.

This appears to be a good deal for those in the local and regional area, as UND will still broadcast all of its home games and now some will be on HD. But it is a poor deal for those who live in Arizona, Florida, Colorado, etc.

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Tambellini commits to UND

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

Who says this week is just reserved for football recruiting?

UND has garnered a second verbal commitment today — Vernon Vipers forward Adam Tambellini says he’s headed to UND in either 2012 or 2013.

Tambellini is the son of Edmonton Oilers GM Steve Tambellini and the brother of former Michigan star Jeff Tambellini.

He chose UND over Minnesota, Michigan, Penn State and Portland of the WHL.

Tambellini made his official visit during UND’s 2-1 win over Minnesota in Ralph Englestad Arena.

“He’s a high-end, offensively talented player,” Vernon coach Jason Williamson said. “He can get the puck in the back of the net. He was heavily recruited. He could have picked wherever he wanted to go.”

Tambellini gained notoriety last year, leading his team to the championship at the Mac’s midget tournament. He scored all of his team’s goals in a 3-2 victory in the championship.

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