Author Archives: Geof F. Morris

Northeastern 3, UAH 1

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On the surface, this was one of those games where you’d say, “Oh well, we competed hard.”  That the boys worked hard is certainly true, but this is a night where you’d better not be saying it sarcastically or roll your eyes.  This game came down to puck luck and two excellent Husky goals.  Unfortunately, it was a one-goal game with an empty-netter tacked on at the end to seal off the doubt.

Even the Northeastern announcers noticed early on that the boys had jump.  You never heard “our guys are playing down to their level” or “we’re just not playing that hard” or “we’re letting them stay in this one”.  The boys really did make their marks all over this game.  The finishes just weren’t there.

Kyle Lysaght scored the Chargers’ lone goal with just 7:01 gone in the first.  Lysaght picked the puck up in the slot and pulled off a spin move to get the puck onto his forehand.  His rip left Chris Rawlings (24 SV) guessing and gave the boys the lead that they’d hold for more than a period.  Alex Allan and Lasse Uusivirta got the assists.

The penalty situation is something that many Charger fans have decried of late, but the ones taken tonight were “good penalties”.  Graeme Strukoff took two penalties that likely saved Husky goals, while Uusivirta took a hooking penalty near the net that certainly slowed things a bit.  Certainly Coach Kleninendorst would prefer that the guys not put themselves into the position of needing to cancel the advantage with two minutes in the penalty box, but at least the penalties were serviceable.

Gregg Gruehl was a revelation for the Chargers in net.  After stopping 20-of-21 on Saturday night in St. Lawrence, he earned Kleinendorst’s confidence and showed up big, stopping 31-of-33—including all 14 in the third, when the Northeastern announcers kept praising his work.  The two goals he allowed were difficult saves: a tip-in from his stick side that went between his mask and glove, and a point-blank shot through the five hole on the power play.  A third marker on his card was disallowed when a Husky was found to be in his crease, impeding Gruehl’s progress going from right to left.

Gruehl now sports a .944 SV% and a 1.82 GAA.  Will he start to eat into Johnny Griggs’s minutes?

The boys played with good pace and intensity for most of the game.  Coach Kleinendorst talks about the process and how that will drive wins.  If you watched both last night’s game and tonight’s, you’ll see how that process has driven progress, but at 0-9-1, the boys aren’t seeing the results they want.

The Chargers next travel to the Soo to play Lake State on Friday night and Saturday night.  That’s a tough week on the boys, who will fly out of Boston on Monday morning, practice and go to classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then leave out that night for the long bus trip to the UP.  The end of this road string is in sight!  After a weekend series at Omaha right after Thanksgiving, the Chargers return to Huntsville for a couple of weekends.

Happy 22nd Birthday, Brice Geoffrion!

The 6’0″, 195-lb junior from Brentwood, Tenn., followed his older brother Sebastian to Huntsville but has proved himself to be a player in his own right.  His career highlight to-date has to be two goals in UAH’s 3-1 victory against UNO in front of a hometown crowd in Nashville.  Brice wears #5 in honor of Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, a Hockey Hall of Famer who was a top player for the Montréal Canadiens in the 1950s and 60s.  Happy birthday, Brice!

UAH to Host Oklahoma Club Team

As UAH continues to work during the season to fill out gaps in the schedule—thanks again, Dr. Portera—we are taking advantage of a sudden opening on the Oklahoma club team‘s schedule.  UAH will host the Sooners on January 11th and 12th at the VBC.  With just eight games (counting these two) in 2013, the Chargers need to stay sharp.

Vanderbilt Ice Hockey to Play UAH?

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InsideVandy.com is reporting that, well, we’ll be playing Vandy’s club team this year:

The Vanderbilt men’s club ice hockey team’s strength of schedule just got a little stronger. The Commodores added the University of Alabama-Huntsville to their schedule on Jan. 5 of 2013. UAH is the only NCAA Division I ice hockey team located in the southern United States. Vanderbilt currently plays in the Southeastern Club Hockey Conference with other club teams.

“The biggest benefit from playing this game is getting an awesome experience,” Club President Kyle McCann said. “It’s a shot at ‘living the dream’ for a day, and seeing how we match up against some of the best college hockey players in the nation. We’re not expecting to win the game, but I’d like to think one of the boys will pull off a sick dangle or two and embarrass some D1 athlete.”

Right now it’s not on their schedule, and it’s not on their site, and it’s not on our schedule, and it’s not on our site, but … hey, maybe it’s happening.  Why?  Adrian, whom we’re scheduled to play January 4 & 5, will surely be better competition for the boys, but Vanderbilt is clearly a bigger name, and when you look at the fact that we get more Saturday night fans after football season is over, it may make a good bit of sense.  If you look at Vandy’s schedule and ours, this is the only time that the game could be scheduled, as the ‘Dores’ schedule gets busy, well, the same time that everyone else’s gets busy.

Update (1520 CDT, Fri 10/26): We have confirmed that UAH will indeed play Vandy, replacing the game against Adrian for that night. There was a conflict on the Bulldogs’ end that kept them from playing both games.

Catching the Game: @St. Cloud State, 10/19-20/2012

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Oh, we’ve got a few questions:

  1. Can Craig Pierce keep up his goal-a-game pace?
  2. Will Johnny Griggs have his A-game this weekend?
  3. How will the boys adjust to the first road trip of the year?
  4. How does Coach Kurt Kleinendorst like his eggs?
  5. Can the boys get a win?

My answers?  I hope so; I hope so; I bet they do well; scrambled; yep.

We’ve seen the improvements that this team has made in a short period of times in knowing Coach’s systems better each game.  Yes, Johnny saw a lot of shots on Saturday, but he told me that they were mostly perimeter shots that he saw very well.  Can the Chargers go on the road and face a St. Cloud team that has to be smarting after to road losses to UNH?  That is the big question.  The USCHO people sure don’t think so; they ranked Mankato toward the bottom of the WCHA pre-season, and both have St. Cloud #4 in the league.  I will undoubtedly be a tough test.  Oh, and there’s the fact that Huntsville’s Nic Dowd is a Huskie.

Anyway, here’s how you catch the game:

I will try to do recaps of road games whenever possible this season, but I am definitely out for tonight and probably out for tomorrow night with other commitments.  Michael, you’d certainly be free to do one if you wanted—it definitely doesn’t have to be me.

Go Chargers!

Happy 22nd Birthday, Craig Pierce!

Photo Credit: UAH Sports Information

Today is Craig Pierce’s 22nd birthday! The sophomore forward from Roswell, Ga. has had a hot start to the season, scoring goals in each of the Chargers’ first two games to lead the team in scoring out of the gate. Pierce had a quick start as a freshman last year, scoring in the season opener against Lake State. Here’s to more goals and more smiles.

Going Forward

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You’ll have noticed that we’ve been busy in the last couple of weeks in the run-up to our first four home games. Y’all can ready the schedule just as well as I can: it’s seven weeks between home games for us, as the boys start this weekend at St. Cloud State for six straight road weekends. While we’ll be doing Catching the Game posts and some recaps of road games as our schedules permit, things will necessarily slow down here for a little bit.

But with that said, we want to know what you want to see from us. Some ideas that are rough plans: catching up with former Chargers; video interviews with current players; interviews with Coach Kleinendorst and Dr. Brophy about the state of the program. You may have ideas that we haven’t even thought of! That’s why we’ve opened this post to comments if you catch us on the Web; I’m sure that we’ll see some traffic on Facebook and Twitter, too. We earnestly request your feedback.

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UAH 2, MNSU 2

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Johnny Griggs peers through traffic as UAH kills one of its seven penalties. (Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin)

Boy, did we ever see a lot of that tonight.  Johnny Griggs was in full-on beast mode Saturday night in Huntsville,  stopping 51 of 53 shots, and Craig Pierce scored his second goal in as many nights, but it was not enough as a late goal brought Minnesota State level with UAH in a game that ended in a 2-2 tie in front of 1,431 at Propst Arena.

[Hey, 1431 is about average for a Saturday night during football season.  Don’t knock it.]

Mavericks coach Mike Hastings saw this one coming. “I thought that what was going to happen did happen: they were going to come out with a little bit of bite. I thought that they played with a will tonight more than our guys did early.”

Craig Pierce (Photo Credit: UAH Sports Information)

“I think we came back today with a little chip on our shoulder from yesterday’s loss hungry for that win today,” said Pierce. Results came at 5:53 of the first period when captain Curtis deBruyn shot one through traffic and in. What followed was a penalty-filled first period for the Chargers, who picked up four minors in 9:32, including :55 of 5-on-3. Unlike Friday night’s tilt, the team’s penalty killers were up to the task.

“I thought the difference from last night to tonight is that we didn’t cash in on our power play,” Hastings said. “You have [seven] opportunities, and I know that we had a lot of shots, but we didn’t finish.”

Johnny Griggs (Photo Credit: UAH Sports Information)

Griggs was happy with the support that he got from his teammates. “I felt good out there tonight. They were doing a good job in front of me, keeping shots out on the perimeter. They guys played their butts off tonight.”

Chargers coach Kurt Kleinendorst was pleasantly surprised with what he saw from his netminder. “You don’t win at any level if you don’t have goaltending. It’s only two games, and you don’t want to get carried away, but from what I’ve seen so far, he’s pretty impressive.”

Johnny McInnis and Pierce scored two minutes apart to keep the affair a one-goal matter with just 4:57 gone in the second. Kleinendorst was happy with the results that he saw from his team. “We played our hearts out, and for me as a coach, that’s where it’s got to start. If you watched that game closely, there are a lot of things that we’ve been working on that will jump out at you.”

UAH Coach Kurt Kleinendorst (Photo Credit: UAH Sports Information)

Eriah Hayes’s goal with just 2:14 left in regulation brought the Mavericks level against a fatigued Chargers squad. “It’s unfortunate,” Kleinendorst said. “We ran out of gas in the third period against a pretty darn good club.”

Griggs was positive about the strides that he and his teammates have made to-date. “Tonight’s a good step for us. Obviously, the past few weeks have kinda been crazy around here. This is a good start for our team, to have a little adversity and build on that.”

The Chargers will travel to St. Cloud State in the first of six straight road weekends.

Johnny Griggs makes one of 51 saves on the night in a 2-2 tie with Minnesota State. (Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin)