Poststar.com has a brief video with Cal Heeter and Scott Munroe in which the two Adirondack Phantoms show off their masks for this season. I think Munny’s looks sharp.
Author Archives: Geof F. Morris
Clark Saunders — “Tower of Power”
We all know that Clarke Saunders transferred on over to North Dakota last fall when all the mess went down. How’s he doing? College Hockey News has the story:
At the start of the year, Saunders split time with freshman Zane Gothberg. Recently though, he’s earning more and more minutes.
In 10 games, the junior is 5-3-2 with a 2.38 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. Gothberg has started four games.
“I knew the job would basically be open for the two of us to compete for,” Saunders said. “Zane is a freshman and I had some experience, but I knew that we’d be battling for the job. So far it’s really been great competition and I think it will continue to be.”
Get ’em, baldy.
Steve McKenna — First 2013 Recruit
Steve McKenna is a 6’3″, 195# forward from South Boston, MA, and he’s coming to Huntsville next fall to play hockey. While the University does not discuss recruits prior to enrollment, we can pass along some information. McKenna captains the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs in the EJHL. [The last EJHL recruit that I can remember coming to Huntsville is Bay State’s Blake MacNicol.]*
Steve sure sounds excited to be coming:
I would rank this as one of the biggest accomplishments in my life. I have been playing hockey as long as I can remember and have always dreamed of playing at a competitive college level. I am very excited to commit to UAH. The coaching staff welcomed me right from the start. I look forward to playing in such a big venue and competing against some great competition.
Read more at JuniorHockey.com, including quotes from his coach and more from our new Charger.
* Craig Pierce quickly reminded me that he played in the EJHL. This is what I get for not fact-checking my statements. Sorry 19!
Friday 12/7 Coaches’ Luncheon with Charger alumnus John McCabe
As we noted last week, the Finlandia Lions will be in town. The Division III school is headmanned by our very own John McCabe (’98), who played on both Division II national championship teams and later served as an assistant coach from 2004-10. The Finlandia job has been his chance to show college hockey all that he has to offer, and we’re certainly lucky to have him back in town. Caber will be at the coaches’ luncheon at noon on Friday in the Varsity Room at Spragins Hall. Please RSVP for the luncheon to Tim Flynn to make sure that we have enough for everyone. Lunch is $8. Hope to see you there!
UAH 1, USNTDP U-18 1
1-1 hockey games aren’t much fun to recap: a goal a side, maybe you talk about the goalies, and hopefully there was some crazy end-to-end or something. There’s not a lot to talk about with this one, but I do have three things for you.
- The pace felt slow at times, as if the teams would find their fatigue simultaneously. The effort was there, to be sure, but it’s not as if we saw a lot of breakaways or odd-man rushes. It was just an even-set 5×5 hockey game with just ten penalty whistles. The U-18 goal was on the power play in a close-in scramble. [I will note that a potential UAH goal was blown down; the light went on a half-second after the whistle came down, and it was clear that a goal would not be awarded, although not to some disappointed home fans.]
Lasse Uusivirta’s goal was a rifle shot through traffic. It was hard to tell from the other end whether it bounced off of bodies, but kudos to Lasse for letting rip and seeing what happened. I have enjoyed watching his game mature over the last couple of years, and his pairing with Curtis deBruyn has been a fine one this season.
John Griggs was very good tonight. He flashed leather a few times, but his best moves were redirecting shots, solid pad saves denying the bottom of the net, and a couple scrambling combinations to keep the game tied. Well done, sir. 35-of-36 (.972) garnered him a well-deserved first star, as he kept the increased pressure in the third completely choked off.
The boys face John McCabe’s Finlandia team on Friday night at 7 and Saturday afternoon at 3.
Ain’t It Good to Be Back Home?
AL.com’s Budd McLaughlin has a story about how Coach Kleinendorst and the boys are happy to be back home. [Budd is a Charger hockey alumnus, if you didn’t know.] Here’s a highlight for you:
“The kids are great, their attitude is great; they’ve played hard,” Kleinendorst said. “They are doing everything in their power to win. They’ve represented us well.
“We’re going to win some games.”
Welcome home, boys. Tomorrow night, 7:00 p.m.!
Late Fall 2012 Home Hockey Happenings
Hey everybody! We’ve got a few events coming up that we want to tell you about.
- There will be a Coaches’ Luncheon at NOON on Friday, November 30th in the Varsity Room in Spragins Hall. Tickets are $8, which gets you a solid lunch and the chance to hear from our coach and theirs. If you’ve never been to one of the luncheons, you owe it to yourself to attend. Email tef0001@uah.edu to reserve your spot, as space in the Varsity Room is limited.
- We have home hockey again! 7:00 p.m. starts on Friday, November 30th and Saturday, December 1st. Tickets are available at the VBC Box Office if you are not a season-ticket holder. $10 reserved and $8 general admission.
- We have home hockey again the next weekend, Friday, December 7th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 8th at 3:00 p.m. against Finlandia. The Lions are coached by UAH alumnus and former assistant coach John McCabe. Be sure to bring out your heckling shoes to give Caber a hard time.
We look forward to seeing everyone out there supporting our Chargers!
UNO 8, UAH 0
The UNO radio announcers made a big deal last night about how UAH doesn’t get blown out, even if they’re losing, and they’re right: the worst games were 8-3 at St. Cloud to start this 12-game swing and 9-1 at Bentley. And then there was tonight.
The boys were in this one early. The pace was good, the hitting was up, and the forechecking was solid. Then a blind pass from the corner fed a one-timer in the low slot to make it 1-0 Mavericks. The boys rallied, and it was more of the good things we’d been seeing.
Then Sebastian Geoffrion made a hit that was deemed contact to the head, for which he was given a major penalty and a game misconduct. We were told on the broadcast that it was a disqualification, but the box score says that it’s a misconduct. This is important, as a disqualification would suspend Sebastian from the next game. But for this game’s purpose, he would miss the remainder of the game and Kyle Lysaght would sit out for the last :28 of the first and the first 4:32 of the 2nd.
If you’ll remember, the Chargers killed a major penalty on Anderson White last night. Tonight, a questionable penalty on Alex Allan put the boys down two men, and the Mavericks would score on that penalty and again on the rest of the major to go up 3-0. All was not lost, as a Maverick penalty mid-period gave the good guys a lot of jump that they used to finish out the period well save in the goal column.
Then there was the third: nifty stickwork, a low-angle shot that caromed in, a wraparound, a deft set of dekes, and a power-play goal put a hurtin’ on for certain.
This one was ugly, but the good thing about it is that the road trip is over, and the boys will be home next weekend. Come out Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m. to see the team face off against the US National Team Development Program Under-18 team. You’ll see some NHL draft picks on our ice, and hopefully you’ll see a couple UAH wins.
UNO 3, UAH 2
With their team up just one goal midway through the third period, the UNO TV guys were calling the game “junkyard-dog hockey”. You might presume that this was said in frustration; you would be correct. Nebraska-Omaha just couldn’t stay out of the box in the latter half of the game, a scenario that we’re unfortunately familiar with. The boys applied a ton of pressure, but enough of the shots were stopped, and the good guys couldn’t bring this game level, falling 3-2 on the road.
The start of the game did not augur well for the boys. A tripping penalty at :40 on Lasse Uusivirta led to a quick power-play goal, as Ryan Walters flipped a backhander just under the crossbar to put the Mavs up 1-0.
Photo courtesy UAH Sports Information
But the boys tied it at one when they got numbers and had a nice scoring chance. Shot in, rebound in the crease, and who comes trucking through but Graeme Strukoff! He now leads the team in scoring on the strength of a heads-up goal at 6:31 of the first.
The second period could have been a backbreaker. Anderson White went off on a checking-from-behind major penalty at 2:58. The Chargers held firm, killing the penalty and working hard to make up for being down to five defensemen, exacerbated further by Ben Reinhardt taking a tripping penalty just a minute after the major expired. All in all, the Chargers killed all penalties on the night save that first one.
Unfortunately for the Chargers, killing penalties didn’t mean that they completely shut the Mavs down. Dominic Zombo and Bryce Aneloski picked up goals just 2: Kyle Lysaght saved a fourth goal at 14:14 as a blown point pass gave the Mavericks a shorthanded opportunity. It was a little surprising that a penalty shot wasn’t awarded, but his penalty just brought matters to 4×4 hockey.
Photo courtesy UAH Sports Information
A little post-period festivities in the second left the Chargers up two men for :48 to start the third. The boys capitalized in the second penalty as Alex Allan found Frank Misuraca streaking to the weakside slot. The centering pass moved faster than John Faulkner could slide across the crease, and the freshman defenseman from Clinton Township, Mich., has his first collegiate goal.
Despite another two power-play chances that overlapped for :23, the boys just couldn’t find that third marker despite all manner of pinching by defensemen and hard skating and hitting by the forecheckers. Johnny Griggs picked up the loss despite a 30-save effort.
The two teams finish up the weekend set with a 7:07 drop in Omaha. Check out Catching the Game to follow along.
LSSU 4, UAH 0
After last night’s win, everyone’s hopes bubbled: could this be a sweep? After all, our last sweep had come on February 28th at Niagara, completing a sweep started on February 12th, the day of the Amy Bishop rampage. (Charge on.) Our last two-game winning streak came during the final CHA tournament with wins over Robert Morris and Niagara. The thought on all our minds was this: we’re due.
Not tonight.
Once again, the Lakers came out strong; unlike last night, they lit the lamp in the first stanza. Worse, they did it three times. Whether it was a matter of Gregg Gruehl (13 SV) not seeing the puck (probable) or the boys not being up to the early pressure (more probable), things just didn’t go right from the start.
Speaking of that opening: the Lakers’ first goal came just :24 in, but only because the Chargers were reeling a bit from a hit on Curtis deBruyn that looked like a classic boarding minor to me. He slumped to the ice, and it seems as if everyone—including one Laker—anticipated a whistle that did not come. Ben Power wriggled free and it was a quick 1-0 deficit.
Goals from Chris Ciotti (12:40) and Stephen Perfetto (15:02) made the gap quite wide; the Chargers hadn’t scored four goals in a game since Jan. 14, 2011 over Merrimack in Nashville. A UAH team that’s struggled to score this season could still have done that given the great efforts that we’ve seen in the last two weeks, but it wasn’t in the cards. Kevin Murdock was much stronger tonight than on Friday, stopping all 25 shots, including some high-quality opportunities by the good guys.
Johnny Griggs (33 SV) came out for Gruehl to start the second frame, and the boys were buzzing: forechecking hard, intercepting passes, and laying the wood to the bad guys. The increased activity was rewarded in the shots column, with nearly half the game’s attempts in the middle frame. Sadly, the Lakers held on to their end of things, and a Ciotti goal (12:23) in the third put this one out of reach.
The road warriors are almost done with their brutal stretch! As of tonight, the team has played half of their road games for the season, and the last of the six-straight trips comes next weekend at Nebraska-Omaha. We’re not sure when the bus will leave with classes still in session on Wednesday, but we do know that everyone will miss American Thanksgiving in Huntsville.