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With the hockey regular season already underway for Marian
University, Lawrence University and Concordia University, players
and coaches alike are eager to start playing for real. The Midwest
Collegiate Hockey Association has begun its 13th season of play,
with Finlandia University and MSOE also getting their 2010-2011
regular seasons rolling this weekend.
The USCHO.com preseason poll was released October 25, and for the
third-straight season, the MCHA has a Top 15 preseason selection.
Adrian has come in at No. 10, while Marian was also listed among
teams receiving votes in the inaugural poll.
It has been a strong start across the league so far, with Lawrence
(5-4 over Stevens Point) and then Marian (6-5 over Stout) both
picking up quality non-conference victories over opponents
receiving votes in the national poll the first weekend.
Season previews for each team below are courtesy of Matthew Webb
and d3westhockey.com.
Adrian
My how time flies.
It seems like just yesterday that Adrian entered the realm of
the MCHA with a crop of freshmen that, for better or worse, were
the talk of Division III. It seems you couldn’t talk
hockey for more than 30 seconds without the Bulldogs being brought
into the discussion.
The Bulldogs have posted a 77-8-1 record since their inception,
but despite the continued success seem to finally have settled in
for the long haul from a perception standpoint. The MCHA
finally got its autobid last season, which Adrian won, and many
questions were answered as after falling down early to St. Norbert
in the NCAA tournament, a late rally wasn’t enough and the
Bulldogs were ultimately sent packing by the Green Knights.
The tact is different this season as, amazingly, that initial
crop of freshmen are now seniors and back for one more
go-round.
“It’s exciting -- as seniors there is a sense of
desperation,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Ron
Fogarty. “The taste of winning three MCHA tournaments
and then having the opportunity to go the NCAA tournament last year
speaks volumes about these guys who started a program just three
years ago.”
“Our mindset is that now we have to have a purpose or a
game plan for each and every opponent we face. Our first year
we didn’t know what to expect, our second and third years our
eyes were on the unrealistic prize of winning the national
championship without going through the process. Now this year
it has to be one period at a time of doing the right things as
there is going to be so much competition in the league.”
Littered with returning production, it will all start in goal
this year with senior Brad Fogal once again being the go-to
guy. Fogal posted stellar numbers a year ago but struggled at
times in higher pressure situations -- especially in a two-game
sweep at the hands of Hamline.
“We need Brad to be our best player this year,”
Fogarty said. “For us to even be close to winning the
MCHA and have an opportunity to go to the NCAA tournament he has to
be the best player, every game. [Freshman Mike] Morrissette
will push him, so for the first time in four years we have guys
capable of replacing Fogal if need be.”
Out in front of Fogal the Bulldogs defensive corps faces a
significant loss as senior-to-be Chris Stansik will miss the year
with a medical redshirt after having surgery this offseason.
Stansik led Adrian blueliners last season in scoring with eight
goals and 30 assists.
“It’s a huge loss to have Stansik out for the
year,” Fogarty said. “But that gives an
opportunity for a guy like Jeremy Klaver to step up.
He’s an excellent defenseman who has been a little
overshadowed, but he’s going to play a lot.”
Klaver is also a senior and him, along with fellow seniors Bobby
Hineman and captain Quinn Waller, are all expected to see
significant ice time this season.
Adrian returns its top seven scoring forwards and six will be
seniors this season. Mike Dahlinger led the Bulldogs in
scoring with 13 goals and 41 assists last season, while Sam
Kuzyk’s 44 points, Shawn Skelly’s 42 and Brad
Houston’s 40 were close behind. Eric Miller is also
back after a 35 point campaign and sophomore Zach Graham, the one
non-senior of the bunch, was second on the team in scoring a year
ago with 16 goals and 29 assists.
Two newcomers enter the fold as well as junior Jordan Watts, a
transfer from Division I Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and
freshman Josh Cousineau are expected to be fixtures somewhere on
the Bulldogs’ top two lines.
Adrian will be highly interesting to follow this year as not
only is it the last chance for the group of players that possibly
garnered more discussion that any group in Division III college
history, but the MCHA is now tougher than ever -- and that’s
saying something considered Adrian survived two one-goal games in
the Harris Cup semifinals and finals last year.
With numerous teams nipping at their heels, will this be the
year Adrian is reeled in, especially considering they open with a
Marian team that was less than ten minutes away from taking down
the Bulldogs in last season’s MCHA title game?
“There are teams like Marian that just beat Stout and
Lawrence who just beat Stevens Point that our team is more than
aware of,” Fogarty said. “Our league has gotten
much, much stronger in the past three years.”
“Our only goal right now is to have a great game against
Marian on November 5th at seven o’clock,” Fogarty said.
“Again, the last two years were a lot of
if’s and should’ves and could’ves and things like
that we paid far too much attention to. Right now, our first
game is going to be Marian’s fourth; it’s going to be a
great test right off the bat.”
“If we even think about looking beyond anything like that
we won’t be having much of a MCHA postseason to talk
about.”
Concordia
Concordia University-Wisconsin enters its fourth season under
head coach Tony Hrkac. As expected, it has been a slow
learning process since the team’s inception in 2007.
The Falcons are only 6-67-6 through their first three seasons, but
Hrkac certainly believes the program has been improving in the
fashion it needs to.
“That first year I had nothing to really go on as I had
just come out of my playing career,” Hrkac said.
“I think we’ve improved a lot these past few
years. We’ve brought in a lot more kids that have
played junior hockey at higher levels. The first couple years
were mostly high school kids from around the area.”
As the program naturally evolves, the Falcons will once again be
relatively young this season, but that’s not to say they have
no experience at all -- especially at forward.
“I think the second half of last year our freshman really
came on -- especially the Douglas brothers,” Hrkac
said. “They really turned it up and have already had a
really good week of practice this year. We have a transfer
from MSOE in Jake Furey, and him, Dustin Partacz and John Smith
have been working together and really seem to have clicked as a
line.”
The Douglas brothers, Joseph Greg and Graylyn, both had strong
freshman campaigns last year and finished with 15 and 11 points,
respectively. Expect the pair to be mainstays on the first
line with Furey, Partacz and Smith together on the second line.
Smith, a senior, led the Falcons in scoring a year ago with 9
goals and 11 assists while Partacz added ten points, including
seven goals, as a freshman.
From there things are bit more up in the air up front, though
freshmen will get ample opportunities at the remainder of the
forward positions.
“I know it’s early in the season and things can
change, but for now it looks like we’re going to go with
them,” Hrkac said. After that the next two lines are
going to be freshmen so it’s going to take them some time to
adjust to the college game but I’m hoping that within six or
seven games they are playing up to their potential.”
Hrkac singled out Dan Shilts, Mark Henke and Joshua Swancutt as
newcomers who he expects to contribute on the scoresheet.
On the back end, the Falcons return a handful of key
defensemen. The unit is led by seniors Jari Sanders and
Stephen Panas, along with junior Michael Zirk. Sophomores Michael
Mulally and Jarred Lucas also garnered ample playing time a season
ago. Hrkac is especially high on Lucas.
“It’ll be a little better than the past couple years
as we have a little more depth now,” Hrkac said.
“Lucas was a kid out of high school last year that was kind
of a surprise. He really didn’t play much in the first
half but by the end of the year he was nothing flashy but he was
very steady; always in the right place. So we’re
looking for him to step up even more.”
Like at the forward position, some freshmen will also be in the
mix on the blue line and Hrkac pointed to Brandon Bayer and Mike
Lezotte as two he expects to get looks early on.
Senior goaltender Michael Wyenn will start the year as the
go-to-guy between the pipes. Wyenn was 0-11-5 a season ago
with a 5.52 goals against average and .884 save percentage.
Junior Everett Devlin also saw action in ten games last season and
will be called upon should Wyenn stumble out of the gate.
“Right now I think [Wyenn] is our guy,” Hrkac
said. “He’s going to start and we’ll see
how he does.”
Overall, the 2010-11 edition should be the best team the Falcons
have yet to put on the ice, largely due to what Hrkac believed is
an improved crop of recruits over the past two years.
After going winless a year ago, there is nowhere to go but up
for the Falcons, but Hrkac is hoping that is exactly where they are
headed.
“We still have a ways to go to catch up to a lot of teams
in our league but I think we’re on the right track with the
guys we brought in. We are improving a lot, but so is everyone else
in the league,” Hrkac said.
“Last year was a tough year. We had five or six ties
and we need to win some of those. I do think we’ve
improved overall and have a little more depth this year so
I’m not going to throw a number out there but we’d like
to get somewhere up near double digit wins and it would be great if
we were able to do that.”
Finlandia
Since winning back-to-back MCHA Harris Cup titles in 2006 and
2007, Finlandia has experienced a bit of a downslide. The
Lions posted 10 wins in 2008-09 and their 4-14-2 league record last
season was not enough to qualify for the postseason.
Some of the struggles last year could possibly have been due to
a coaching change midseason as around Christmas Athletic Director
Chris Salani replaced then head coach Joe Burcar on an interim
basis. A national search for a new head man was conducted at
the conclusion of the year, and enter John McCabe.
McCabe, a former assistant at Division I Alabama-Huntsville,
enters his inaugural Division III season hoping to bring a new
attitude and a plethora of new talent to Hancock.
“I was in Alabama for six years,” McCabe said.
“I worked under some pretty good coaches in Doug Ross and
Danton Cole and I thought I was ready, finally, to take over the
reins of my own program.
As far as Finlandia itself:
“It was one of the jobs that kind of appealed to me, just
because it's such a hockey community here in the Copper Country
area," McCabe said. "Hockey in the Hancock and Houghton area is
huge. The premier sport at this school is men's hockey, and I
thought it was an excellent opportunity to take a team that had
some success in the past and to hopefully build it into a
nationally successful program here in the next few
years.”
In past years the Lions developed a bit of a reputation for an
in-your-face up-tempo style, and under McCabe it appears very
little will change:
“We're going to dictate the pace night in night out; we're
going to be aggressive at both ends of the ice and all areas of the
ice. I think we do have a little skill and we're going to be
organized and be on the same page at all times. We're going to play
a good game.”
With an incoming class consisting of twelve recruits, the head
coach won’t be the only thing new at Finlandia this
season.
“I think we upgraded from last year,” McCabe
said. “We were fortunate to get some of what I think
are high end Diviosion III players here. There are some kids
that I was recruiting at Huntsville that I was fortunate to get to
come to Finlandia."
“If you look at some of the high end teams in the country
you can see that you have to have that nice balance of grit along
with skill guys that can put the puck in the net, and I think we
will have a nice balance.”
Though newcomers figure to play a prominent role for the Lions
this year, the club also has some returnees who will be crucial to
their success.
In goal, Finlandia returns ample experience as senior Ryan
Donovan and junior Mike Wuthrich both saw significant action a year
ago, and which one ends up as the Lions’ number one is a
question that remains to be answered.
“Those two are going to compete for the #1 job,”
McCabe said. “I believe it will be neck-and-neck all
year long. Donovan has a little more experience, while
Wuthrich has done a heck of a job working this summer and really
getting himself into the condition you need to be to be a number
one guy.”
“After them we’ve got a freshman from Finland, Atte
Haataja, who might be a bit of a darkhorse.”
Out in front of whoever is able to claim the starting job will
be a revamped defensive corps as graduation and other losses leave
the field nearly wide open. However, the Lions do return
juniors Cody Gallegos and Matt Wylie as well as sophomore Justin
LaDouce. Junior James Brey also joins the defensive fray this
season after playing forward his first two years.
On top of the returners, McCabe also pointed to sophomore
transfer Warren Webster along with freshman Kevin Smith as
newcomers who could have an impact on the defensive side.
At forward the Lions will feature a bit of an overhaul, but they
do return juniors Nemanja Jankovic and Charlie Benik.
Jankovic, a captain this year, notched 11 goals and nine assists
last season while Benik chipped in with nine goals and seven
assists.
Newcomers Jimmy Carter, Sebastian Rosendahl, Collin Saint-Onge
and Sean Burke are also forwards McCabe pointed to as possible
impact players up front.
The Lions are one of the few MCHA teams that can be decribed as
“new-look” this year, but as far as what to expect from
them? Well, we’ll see, but in terms of what he hopes
Finlandia is able to bring to the table:
“We have the mentality that we're going to go out and take
each game one game at a time, go out and play our style of play,
and we will not go into a game thinking we're going to lose,”
McCabe said. “We're going to expect to win every game we step
on the ice, we're going to go through the right process every week
in practice, and we'll do our best and the boys will work their
hardest.”
“We'll compete at that level every night. I think if we
can do that and get some consistency and some puck management we
can win some hockey games this year. I expect to win a heckuva lot
more than five games.”
Lake Forest
Entering its second season in the MCHA, Lake Forest enters the
2010-11 campaign with a decidedly new look. Gone is long-time
and highly regarded head coach Tony Fritz, who retired at the
conclusion of last season, and in his place is interim head coach
Seamus Gregory.
Gregory, a Harbour Grace, Newfoundland native, had been an
assistant under Fritz since 2008 while he also served as recruiting
coordinator. Heading into his first season as head coach, he
knows he has some large shoes to fill.
“You're obviously never going to replace a guy like Tony
Fritz, that's for sure,” Gregory said. "He's been a great
mentor to me and actually one of the main reasons why I'm in the
position that I’m in.”
“While I don't think you're ever going to replace him, you
just need to instill some of the same characteristics that he
brought to the program and some new additions as well. In regards
to taking over, it's been a little bit of a change but the kids are
taking it pretty well.”
Lake Forest finished in fifth place at 8-10-2 in its inaugural
MCHA season, but scored an opening round playoff win over MSOE
before falling 4-3 to Marian in the conference semifinals.
As far as what to expect from the Foresters in general under
Gregory:
“I think we'll play a little different style. We've hired
a few pretty good coaches here and we've got a young staff with
some new initiatives we want to bring forth. Style-wise we will
still be a hard working team and we’re obviously going to
center on our defense.”
Defense starts in goal and the Foresters expect a wide open
competition for the number one job. Sophomores Brendan
Sullivan, Austin Erney and Mike McDonald all return, and transfer
Mike Stewart also will enter the fold. Sullivan saw the most
action a year ago as he appeared in 19 games for the Foresters.
“It's been a battle for sure,” Gregory said.
“We haven't designated a number one. I think all the guys are
working hard and competing hard. With our long time off here, we
don't play till November 5th against Finlandia so we're still kind
of up in the air right now. It’s possible we share duty
back there until we find a number one.”
Out in front of whoever is able to claim the starting goalie
spot is a group of defensemen that, though young, Lake Forest feels
is the strength of its club.
Sophomore Trent Brown returns after being named to the MCHA
all-freshmen team a year ago, and he is joined by fellow sophomores
Mike Rubino and Chad Thompson. Rubino led the
Foresters’ blueliners in scoring last year with three goals
and 13 assists.
We think our strength is our D, actually, but we're really young
back there,” Gregory said. “We're pretty solid on
the point. It's a battle back there, but all the guys are working
hard just to be in the lineup every day right now.”
He also singled out Ben Finney, a transfer from Division I
Robert Morris, as well as freshman David Cherup as newcomers who
could very well be in the mix.
At forward, the Foresters lose Justin Taylor and Adam Love to
graduation. Taylor’s 26 points were second most on Lake
Forest last season, while Love tallied 18. Aside from that,
however, the entirety of their production returns.
Sophomore Thomas Bark led the team in scoring a year ago with
seven goals and 21 assists, while fellow sophomore Marc Rubino
posted 11 goals and 21 assists. Senior Peter Pfeffer is
coming off a 26 point campaign while seven others, six of whom were
freshmen a year ago, are back after tallying in double digits.
Gregory also specified that numerous newcomers should be in the
fold this year and that production is to be expected, the same as
it was last season.
All told, it will definitely be a bit different seeing the
Foresters hit the ice without Tony Fritz behind the bench, but
Gregory and his staff are young, motivated and have experience
within the Lake Forest system. At the same time, the staff fully
expects to improve further on last year’s significantly
improved team.
“We're not going to give any false sense of who we are and
what we are,” Gregory said. “We came off a couple
of really lean years in the NCHA and we've only been a .500 team
once in the past five years. I hope we can finish a little
higher than fifth this year, but our main goal this season is to
get back to the second round of the playoffs -- we understand there
are some teams ahead of us. We hope to be in the mix every
night.”
Lawrence
Two seasons ago Lawrence appeared to be on the verge of stepping
up and challenging Adrian in the near future. The
Vikings’ 14-5-1 2008-09 conference campaign featured a MCHA
North Division title and overall second place finish.
There was some regression last season, however, as the Vikings
plodded to a 7-11-2 conference record which was good enough for a
5th place MCHA regular season finish. They closed strong with
a playoff sweep of Northland before losing a 3-2 barnburner to
Adrian in the conference semifinals.
If Lawrence wishes to reclaim a spot in the top half the MCHA,
head coach Mike Szkodzinski said it will all start with senior
goaltender Evan Johnson, whose numbers dropped off decidedly last
season after a stellar 08-09 campaign.
“Two years ago Evan was hands down one of the best
goaltenders in our league if not the West Region. I think
last year showed him that it’s not a given that’s going
to happen again,” Szkodzinski said.
While Szkodzinski expects his senior netminder to step up and
regain his form of sophomore year, he also made it clear that
sophomore Michael Baldino will push Johnson for playing time.
“We hope Evan rebounds from what we consider a subpar
year, but [Baldino] had a great summer and by all accounts is ready
to really push Evan,” Szkodzinski said. “To be
honest there isn’t a clear cut number one though I would
expect Evan’s experience to play a big role in who becomes
our number one.”
A defensive corps that allowed a shade over four goals per
contest in league play last year returns nearly completely
intact. Junior blueliner Jameson Raymond led the way last
season and also posted 22 points and spent significant time on the
power play unit. Senior Jonathan Sheridan along with juniors
Corey Garrett and Colin Crowley round out the quartet that
Szkodzinski expects to anchor the Vikings’ back end.
The one crucial loss to graduation this offseason was that of
forward Marc Howe. The all-conference forward led Lawrence in
scoring last season with 19 goals and 13 assists. By the time
his career had finished, Howe had quietly scored more career goals
in MCHA conference games than any player this side of Adrian.
“We’re going to have to see who steps up and puts
the puck in the net. After losing the leading goal scorer in
Lawrence history, we need to fill that void,” Szkodzinski
said. ““We have a number of talented players who
will now have an opportunity to play more minutes due to the loss
of a guy like Marc Howe. It’s going to be interesting
to see who decides to step up and run with the
opportunity.”
Juniors Ben DiMarco and Matt Hughes along with sophomore Gustav
Ahlberg all tallied double digit goals and at least 20 points last
season and will be expected to pace an offense that averaged 3.6
goals per game in conference action.
This season will mark a new frontier for Szkodzinski as for the
first time in his Lawrence tenure the roster will be filled with
entirely his own recruits. In his mind, this year’s
freshman class will be expected to contribute immediately the same
way his previous classes have.
“I think we did a good job with this year’s class by
bringing in a little more speed and a little more stick
skill,” Szkodzinski said. “I think we have more
hockey sense that we have in the past. We are excited to
watch guys like Paul Zuke and William Thoren to see how fast they
can adjust to the college game. Overall there are probably
five or six new guys who will get an opportunity right
away.”
Despite the loss of Howe, it appears Lawrence returns enough
firepower to improve on last season’s disappointing league
finish, but at the same time Szkodzinski knows that, for now,
Adrian and Marian have established themselves as the class of the
league.
“I definitely feel like we can be very completive on any
night, but at the same time we certainly have improvements to make
to catch Marian and Adrian,” Szkodzinski said.
“But I think we’re certainly getting there and have
taken a number of big steps. We are playing the style that we
as a staff had hoped to create at Lawrence. We feel we play
aggressive, we feel we are one of the hardest working teams in the
league and we feel we are ready to compete with anybody right
now.”
"If we can take that next step and get a big goal at a big
moment or a key save at a key time, we feel we can be a very
competitive team in this conference throughout the entire
year.”
Marian
The 2009-10 campaign marked Marian’s best ever conference
performance since joining the MCHA. The Sabres’ rolled
to an 18-2 league record with the only two blemishes coming at the
hands of Adrian.
With the Bulldogs grabbing all the headlines late in the season,
it’s easy to overlook the fact that Marian was less than ten
minutes away from becoming the first MCHA team in the NCAA
tournament. The Sabres actually led Adrian 2-1 after two periods in
the Harris Cup championship game only to see the title slip away in
the waning moments.
“That season was a big accomplishment. I believe
that we did overachieve,” said Sabres’ head coach Jasen
Wise, who is 87-71-10 in seven seasons at Marian. “We
lost a lot of players to injury early in the season, had some
forwards playing defense and had to move some guys around.
The guys had to come together and take on different
responsibilities so to pull off some of those wins and go 18-2 in
conference was huge for us just based on some of the adversity we
faced.”
The Sabres return an overwhelming bulk of their offense this
season, with the only real key loss at forward that of Nick
Cinquegrani who put up 29 points a year ago.
“I’m very excited with our top two lines of
[Brendan] Hull, [Dakota] Dubetz and [Brendan] Roberts as our top
line and [Todd] Collins centering [Lane] Boswell and [Chris]
Thompson as our second,” Wise said.
“We’re real happy with the chemistry there and have
a couple freshmen coming in that have really stood out in Matt
Williams and Robbie Bailey who will probably be playing on our
third line with Justin Cormier.”
Hull, now a senior, led the Sabres in scoring last year with 21
goals and 18 assists while Dubetz and Roberts, both sophomores,
tallied 36 and 21 points, respectively. The
Collins-Boswell-Thompson line was responsible for a combined 58
points.
Graduation hit Marian a bit harder on the blue line, but seniors
Zack Fray and Nathan Brummitt along with sophomores Tommy
Fitzpatrick and Mitch Kriz all return and should provide some
stability early. Fitzpatrick in particular had a stellar
09-10 season as he earned all-conference accolades while his six
goals and 23 assists ranked third on the team in scoring.
“We are young on the blue line, but our two seniors and
two sophomores played a lot of minutes last year, so they will be
expected to lead,” Wise said.
“From there it will be up to our five freshmen to battle for
the last two spots and if they can step in right away and play
competitively we’ll be better off for that, but if it takes
them a while to adjust we could get off to a slow start.”
Sophomore Alex Bjerk earned number one goaltending duties a year
ago and with the graduation of senior Cullen Caldwell, Wise made it
clear that the job is Bjerk’s to lose this season.
“He is our clear number one starter. It’s his
job right of the gates and if he runs the table, great, and if not
we have a freshman we brought in that we are very impressed with so
far.”
All told, it’s difficult to not expect another excellent
MCHA performance from the Sabres as not only do they returning an
overwhelming share of last season’s production, but as in
past years, they are heavily pleased with this year’s group
of newcomers.
“Our freshman class has made us faster,” Wise
said. "That’s one of the things we look for mainly as
we play on an olympic sheet of ice, so we do look for speed and we
will be faster this year.”
And as far as the firepower they have coming back:
“We are very happy with our returnees. They all came
back in great shape. I think it shows that they have been
thinking about that 3-2 loss to Adrian all summer and that they put
in some real time in the weight room this summer.”
Finally, as to the loss to Adrian in the conference championship
game, seeing a NCAA tournament appearance slip away in the final
ten minutes is about all the motivation Wise and the Sabres need
heading into this season.
“I think if Adrian had beaten us 8-2 like they did the
year before we’d be sitting there feeling like we’re
still a long way away. But when they beat us 3-2 and score
with 45 seconds left in the game we felt like we played well enough
to win.”
“It’s definitely a little extra motivation for the
guys knowing that they were that close.”
MSOE
A few short years ago Milwaukee School of Engineering was the
class of the MCHA. The Raiders scored three consecutive
regular season crowns in 2005, 2006 and 2007 as well as Harris Cup
playoff championships in ’05 and ’06.
The Raiders have been unable to replicate such performances over
the past few seasons, partially due to the emergence of Adrian and
Marian as top-flight teams, but it also has not helped that MSOE
hasn’t been able to put a fully healthy team on the ice for
the better part of two years.
As far as the 2010-11 season goes, Raiders’ head coach
Mark Ostapina likes the talent his club will feature, but says
health is going to be a key player.
“Staying healthy is the biggest thing,” Ostapina
said. “We missed 142 player games last year because of
injuries in a 28 game schedule. We’ve got to stay
healthy. Obviously when its broken bones there’s not
much you can do about it, but that’s our biggest
factor.”
The Raiders return a plethora of talent at the forward
position. They did lose Steve Smiddy to graduation and Brock
King to career-ending concussion issues, but aside from that return
everyone, including four sophomores in Bradley Tierney, Jordan
Keizer, Nick Gorup and Sean McGaughy who were all among the
Raiders’ top six scorers a year ago. Tierney’s 26
points led the team in scoring.
They also return senior Michael Soik, who finished right behind
Tierney with 14 goals and 11 assists, as well as junior Todd Krupa
who checked in with nine goals and 16 assists.
“We’re very pleased with the performance of our
freshman last year,” Ostapina said. “We thought
they did an outstanding job and in many, many situations they
carried us. When King went down they really stepped up."
“We’re looking for them to basically continue right
where they left off. Now they understand their role,
understand what they are capable of and there is no feeling out
period this year.”
He specifically pointed to Tierney and Keizer as players the
Raiders’ expect even bigger and better things from.
Aside from 16 point defenseman Michael Johnson who graduated, on
the blue line the Raiders return their entire corps from last
season. Juniors Ryno Linder and Ben Plocar as well as
sophomore Carl Lindblad will be expected to lead the group early,
and Ostapina thinks Lindblad could be poised for a breakout
season.
He also is high on this year’s crop of defensive recruits
and suspects freshmen Devin Schmitt and Mike Thompson could be
major contributors early.
“We think we’ll be really, really good back
there,” Ostapina said. “We’ve got three
freshmen from the North American Hockey League as well. They
are going to play a lot of minutes and play some significant roles;
we are really expecting a lot from them.”
Junior goaltender Connor Toomey saw action in 22 games last
season and held opponents to under three goals per game.
Heading into the season, the job is his to lose.
“Obviously after what he did last year Toomey is our
number one going in,” Ostapina said. “He was
outstanding.”
Senior Chris Keller returns behind Toomey, and Ostapina is also
high on an incoming freshman.
“We are expecting him and Keller to give Connor the rest he
needs and to push him over the entire course of the
season.”
Overall, Ostapina and the Raiders are hoping for big things this
season. High on both a talented group of returnees as well as
with their recruiting class, will this be the year MSOE can stay
healthy and make a push to once again stand atop the MCHA?
“Like always we’re shooting to win it all.
That’s all we want, it’s as simple as that,”
Ostapina said.
“But we know the league is getting stronger and I think
the MCHA will put a tremendous product out on the ice this
season. When it comes to Division III hockey I think the
league is going to see a great season where anyone can beat anyone
on a given night.”
Northland
For lack of a better phrase, Northland has long been a
bottom-feeder in the MCHA. Many of the Lumberjacks struggles
have been due to their inability to retain talent and establish a
true four-year recruiting cycle.
That may have all changed last season as, prior to the year,
Lumberjacks’ head coach Steve Fabiilli spoke at length
regarding his commitment to turn the program around and bring in
players dedicated to his long-term goal of accomplishing just
that.
It appears to have worked.
Northland tallied five wins in MCHA play a year ago and posted
offensive numbers the likes of which they never had before.
Though the five wins don't seem overwhelming, they were enough to
sneak the Lumberjacks past Finlandia and into the final MCHA
postseason slot.
An experienced goaltender and defense played large parts in
that, but so did a crop of newcomers that excelled in their
inaugural collegiate seasons. In news that bodes well for the
Lumberjacks this season, aside from losses to
graduation…they are all back.
"We have seventeen returners this year,” Fabiilli
said. “Off the top of my head this might be the first
time that we've had more returners than incoming guys. We
definitely reached our goal in that regard with everyone coming
back. We did lose some guys to graduation, a couple guys graduated
early, and a couple guys transferred out, but those wanted
something different for academic reasons or to have more
opportunity to play.”
The only significant losses the Lumberjacks face this season are
on the blue line. Matt Tannenberg, Brian Zwawa and Joe
Belanger were all four year staples for Northland, but all
graduated. The Lumberjacks will be young across the back this
year though they remain confident in what they will bring to the
table.
“We have one uppeclassman on the back end, which is
probably going to be something we're going to have to watch,”
Fabiilli said. “Hopefully the young guys can adjust to
college hockey sooner rather than later.”
“At the same time I don't think it's going to be an overly
big concern for us. This year’s group is younger but they
might be a bit more talented than in previous years. Some of them
will make an adjustment really well from the get-go and some will
need more time to develop, but that’s fine.”
Senior Shaun Newman, along with sophomores Brady Vandenberk and
Jamieson Webking will be expected to the lead the way early, and
Fabiilli also pointed to a pair of freshman in Randall Hanlan and
Reed Smith that he expects to see ample ice time early on.
Should the defense stumble, senior goaltender Daniel McIntosh
has proven on numerous occasions that he has the ability to
shine. Included in such performances is a game two years ago
in which he turned back 95 of the 99 shots Adrian put on net.
The total is the highest non-overtime single game number of saves
in NCAA men’s college hockey history.
“We'll see Mac in goal this year,” Fabiilli
said. "I think Daniel will have the opportunity right out of
the gate. His first two seasons here he had really solid save
percentages considering where we were at the time. Last
year that kind of went down a little bit, so [we’re] looking
for him to rebound and have a solid campaign, especially since it's
his senior campaign.”
All that said, what really has Northland excited is its
forwards. The Lumberjacks return four players who tallied
over 20 points a year ago, two of whom posted 30 or more.
Kraig Wright, now a sophomore, led the way last season with 12
goals and 19 assists, while senior Chad Moore was right behind him
with 12 goals and 18 assists. Sophomore Nick Hewko and junior
Colin McIntosh also return and posted 29 and 20 points,
respectively.
The Lumberjacks are also excited about a freshman crop of
forwards that they feel can have as significant of an impact as
last year’s newcomers did.
“I think we’ve added more depth,” Fabiilli
said. “Going back a few years ago we might had one or
two lines that were playing in pretty much every situation and I
know kind of got burned out here and there.”
“Last year we had guys playing some on the PK, some guys
playing some power play, some guys playing both, so I don't think
the burnout was there as much as previous years and I think
we’ll be able to do even more of that this year.”
Overall, the Lumberjacks are no doubt excited about the upcoming
season as for the first time in a long time not only do they return
an overwhelming amount of their production, but also bring twelve
newcomers into the fold that they hope can contribute in similar
fashion. As to what they expect from themselves this
season?
“To make the playoffs last year was a really great thing
for us,” Fabiilli said. “So that’s our goal
again this year. We really aren’t into tossing specific
numbers around in terms of wins, but making it to the postseason
again is our priority and if we can do that we’ll see where
we might be able to go from there.”
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