Author Archives: Geof F. Morris

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MNSU 4, UAH 1

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Documentary proof that you can fill the VBC for a UAH game. (Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin.)

The top story of this game is the attendance. The second story is the actual game. Let’s talk about the game second.

I think that we all may be a little tired about haranguing you about coming to last night’s game.  But y’all came.  Boy, howdy.  If you read what I wrote or what Mark McCarter wrote and decided, “Yeah, I should go and support that,” then thank you.  If you came because a friend told you to come, thank them for the invitation.  If you were there because you were cajoled to be there, were you not entertained?

What I’d really love to see is a follow-up tonight of about 2,000-2,500 people.  That’s not a number that we normally get on Saturday nights during college football season: we’re usually around 1400-1500.  But I really get the sense that a lot of people enjoyed the magic last night, and my hope is that they’ll have enjoyed it enough to pay $8 for a GA ticket 10+ times a year.

Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin.

What follows below is the bones of what I wrote for USCHO.  Normally I take that and re-write it a good bit, but since I’m writing this three hours before puck drop on Saturday, I’m working with what I have.  However, I’m getting you photos from Nick Franklin to go in the mix, so hopefully that works for you!

Chase Grant didn’t show any rust from having missed most of the 2011-12 for Minnesota State. The junior forward doubled his career power-play goal on Friday night, scoring three goals and assisting on the Mavericks’ fourth as they pulled away from the homestanding Alabama-Huntsville Chargers, winning by a 4-1 margin.

Alex Allan grinds down low. (Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin.)

Grant led off scoring during a penalty-filled first for the Chargers, which saw three minor penalties and a major + misconduct to Alex Allan for checking from behind. UAH coach Kurt Kleinendorst said, “The first period was nothing but penalty kill, and that’s just putting yourself in a tough spot.”

The Chargers ended up killing Allan’s penalty, which rolled over into the second period, but the next Charger penalty saw Grant strike again. “Those two guys were really good in the exhibition game against Lethbridge,” Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings said. “With their other winger, Bryce Gervais, they’re really got a lot of chemistry. And if you go back, they played juniors together in Fargo. We’ve decided to put them together at the beginning of the year, and they’ve really had chemistry.”

The boys celebrate Craig Pierce’s goal. Craig noted post game that he scored in the first game last year off of an assist from Graeme Strukoff as well. (Photo Credit: Nicholas C. Franklin.)

Photo Credit: UAH Sports Information

The Chargers struck back, with sophomore Craig Pierce finding a seam to score a power-play goal at 15:32 to bring it to 2-1. “Doug Reid dumped it in, and he and I just started cycling the puck, waiting for something to open up,” Pierce said. “Reid finally rolled it up and passed it to [Graeme] Strukoff, who shot it in. I was out front looking for a tip, and it went off of my stick and in.”

UAH had a Division I-era record crowd of 5106, which greeted WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod and other league representatives at the game. “I thought that the atmosphere in the building was outstanding,” Hastings said. “To me that showed quite a bit. They scored a goal to make it 2-1 and this place started hopping.” Pierce said, “[The crowd was] unbelievable. We appreciate the support from everybody, and we hope that it keeps coming.”

Grant powered a response to Pierce’s goal with an early power-play marker in the third. Grant then broke up a Charger power-play, poking the puck out into neutral ice, chasing it down, and feeding Leitner for a short-handed goal to take the Mavericks to the final score.

Kleinendorst was disappointed in the finish. “We just weren’t able to go out and finish the job. We had a bad line change on the third goal, and that’s all it took.”

The two teams face off at 7:00 p.m. at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville for the concluding match of the weekend series.

For full size versions of any of the images in this post, click the image.  All photos are Copyright 2012 Nicholas C. Franklin.  Please contact me with any requests for commercial use.

Catching the Game: UAH v. Mankato — Saturday, October 13th, 2012

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Holy moly, 5106 people at the rink last night. While I’m writing my recap, I want y’all to be ready for tonight if you’re not at the rink:

The live audio feed was wonky for Mac users, but people on Twitter found a better one. I retweeted it, but I wasn’t in a position to update last night’s CtG post while I was at the rink. Speaking of that, follow us on Twitter @uahhockey; if you don’t do Twitter, just pull the page up and you’ll see our tweets in real-time on the Web without having to sign up for an account.  @UAHChargers will update the game as well; they’re on press row and have full access to game scoring. We tweet more, though.

I made the command decision last night to try to tweet less about penalties and such because you already have live stats with you. I’m going to try to put a little meat on the bones of that. I’m aware that some of you don’t have access to live stats and are following the game solely via Twitter (most likely on your phone), but I can sometimes get backlogged trying to tweet about things that I don’t get to watch the game so I can tell you things about what’s going on.

Happy 22nd Birthday, Mike Webley!

UAH forward Mike Webley turns 22 today.  The 6’0″ sophomore is in his second campaign as a Charger, following up a 1-3—4 freshman season in which he played 25 games. The Stittsville, Ont., native is an Ottawa Senators fan. Happy birthday, Mike!

Catching the Game: UAH v. Mankato—Friday, October 12th, 2012

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So it’s GAMEDAY!  We’ve told you what to expect.  We’ve told you why you should be here.  We’ve told you that tickets to the game are free.  We’ve done all we can to make a case for why you should be there.

But you may not be able to be there.  You may not live in Huntsville.  You may be stuck working on console at the Huntsville Operations Support Center, telling astronauts how to run an experiment on the International Space Station.  You may be sick.  But you still want to follow the game.

Here’s how.

There’s also Twitter, where yours truly will make wiseass comments in between giving scoring updates.  Follow us @uahhockey; if you don’t do Twitter, just pull the page up and you’ll see our tweets in real-time on the Web without having to sign up for an account.  @UAHChargers will update the game as well; they’re on press row and have full access to game scoring.

Why Friday Night’s Mankato Game Is So All-Fired Important

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Friday night’s hockey game against Minnesota State-Mankato may be the most important game in UAH hockey history.  It’s so important that UAH and the VBC have come together to give away tickets to the game.  It’s so important because representatives of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, including WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod, will be in town to assess our request to be in their league.  Having a great fan turnout is a key component of our presentation to the WCHA.

You may be asking, “Why are we stuffing people into seats if we don’t normally get this kind of turnout for games?”  That’s a great question, but here’s the great answer: the WCHA can read a box score just as well as you can.  They can see that our attendance is dwindling.  But they can also see on Friday night that this community still cares about this hockey program.  That’s what all this is about: bringing people together for the common purpose that is varsity hockey in the South.

In fact, fan support the very point of Mark McCarter’s column today:

If there is a message to the fans, it’s a bit blunt, but it’s not inappropriate.

It’s put up or shut up time. For those who wailed in anger, who made pledges to help, who pleaded what a disgrace it was for an interim president to try to eliminate the hockey program, this is time to show you meant what you said.

You know the story: UAH hasn’t been affiliated with a conference the last two seasons. It’s nearly killed the program. Flatly, UAH director of athletics E.J. Brophy says, “Conference affiliation is essential to hockey’s future.”

The WCHA would be perfect for UAH — and vice versa — when the league shrinks after this season, losing teams to the Big 10.

If there is a message to McLeod and his colleagues, it would be this:

You have been here when UAH was a first-class program with conference affiliation. You have seen the support, the excitement, the talent level. You’ve felt the energy in the building. You know what a unique story Huntsville is in the hockey world.

It’s time for a little history lesson. Let’s look at last year and a decade before that in an effort to learn from our history. In short: attendance was >25% higher a decade ago because 1) we were winning, especially at home, and 2) we had more consistent home schedules.

Let’s look at the attendance numbers for last year, 2011-12, a season where we went 2-28-1, far and away the worst campaign of the program’s history: Lake State—2485, 1060; Bowling Green—1486, 1358; Air Force—1893, 996; Ohio State—2519, 1351; Mercyhurst—1056, 1062; USNTDP U-18 1105, 1089.  That’s an average of 1455 fans.

To give you context and provide a little analysis:

  • The Lake State series was Sat-Sun because you can’t start your season before October 1st; all other series were Fri-Sat.  We always have a hard time getting people in for Sunday afternoon games.  This past Saturday’s game against BAMA’s club team had 1929; Sunday’s game had just 804.  Some of that may have come from the fact that people did not expect a competitive game on Sunday after watching Saturday’s affair.
  • Bowling Green did surprisingly well despite being up against BAMA at Ole Miss and Auburn at home against Florida.
  • Air Force was against Auburn at LSU and BAMA v. Tennessee, which definitely explains the disparity.
  • Ohio State was against BAMA v. LSU—the biggest regular season game in 2011, and a prelude to the national championship game—but Auburn was off.  That game was at 7:00 p.m. Central, right up against our game; we pushed hard to let people know that they could watch the game in the concourse.  Even so, we were just over 100 fans below the average.  Thanks, Aubies!
  • Mercyhurst (12/30-31) and U-18 (2/24-25) had even attendance, but those games come after football is over and after there’s been a long layoff between home games: 54 games for Mercyhurst, 55 for U-18.  Our front-loaded schedule is a direct result of us playing an independent schedule; teams don’t have time for us in January and February while they’re barreling through conference play.

Let’s compare these results with 2001-02, a decade earlier.  That team went 18-18-1, 12-4 at home.  Jared Ross was a freshman.  You could tell that team was going to be even better the next year, but they were very good and faced a standard 20-game CHA schedule along with trips to Canisius, Cornell, UNO, and St. Cloud State and home series with Bentley, Sacred Heart, and Mankato.  In the football world, BAMA went 7-5 and Auburn went 7-4.

  • Bentley (10/12-13): 2180, 1406.  BAMA played at Ole Miss, while Auburn hosted Florida.  CNN’s TV listings for 2001 are incomplete for this weekend; according to CNN’s SEC schedule for 2001, Auburn played at 7:45, so they were probably the night TV game.
  • Air Force (10/26-27): 2170, 1945.  BAMA was off, and Auburn played at Arkansas in a 12:30 game that was probably televised.
  • Niagara (11/9-10): 1945, 1408. BAMA was at State at 12:30, and Auburn was at Georgia at 2:30, likely the ABC game.
  • Sacred Heart (11/23-24): 1612, 1341.  Both schools were off.
  • Wayne State (12/28-29): 2113, 1555.  Both schools were playing bowl games, but neither on the day of the hockey game.  These two games were half of the home losses that season.  Blame David Guerrera.  That WSU team was very, very good.
  • Mankato (1/4-5): 1824, 1862.  Football is a non-factor from here on out.
  • Findlay (2/8-9): 1963, 2102.
  • Bemidji State (3/8-9): 1993, 2283.  It’s a little surprising to see the Bemidji games this low, but again, we’re talking about a month’s lapse between games.

What we’re again seeing is a gap on attendance that’s driven by football; in the second half of the season, we did better on Saturday nights, probably because people weren’t rushing from work to the game.  We’re also seeing 16 home games, 10 of which were conference affairs.  Finally, the average attendance is 1856, 28% higher attendance than a decade later.  You can watch the attendance just fall off as the wins fell; this is no different than any other school.

So what’s the point in this history lesson?  We do better with regular home schedules, with games either on consecutive weekends or with just one or two weekends off.  We struggle when we compete against college football, and our Sunday problems are probably driven by the NFL as well.

Can the WCHA bring us some stability?  The answer is clearly yes: the league wants to play a 28-game schedule, which means 14 home games for UAH.  Those will have to be spread out more than the 2001-02 schedule was: we had a 20-game conference slate in a league that was focused on out-of-conference scheduling, so back-loading our schedule with league games wasn’t realistic.   Those seven home weekends would include some in January and February.  Avoiding football will solve some of our attendance woes, and hopefully it will continue to build a fan base that loves this program.

The WCHA is our way forward.  It is our best hope for the future.  If this doesn’t work out, it’s not entirely clear what will.  The WCHA gives us stability; when we have had stability, we have prospered.

The CHA started having problems in 2005-06, when Air Force announced that they would leave for Atlantic Hockey.  UAH’s record began dipping at that point, and you can easily attribute that to UAH being less attractive to both recruits and potential opponents—who wants to play (at) UAH when their conference might not exist in a few years?  Those naysayers were right, as 2009-10 was the last year of the conference.  Starting in 2005-06, the winning percentages: .588, .403, .258, .250, .409.  Instability has made it hard for UAH to be a successful program; a lack of a conference has made it even harder.

If you want to see UAH hockey succeed in Huntsville, you will be at the Von Braun Center on Friday night; and if you can’t make it, you better get three people to go in your stead.  I cannot stress that enough.  You wanted us to stay, and we need you now more than ever.

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Facebook Cover Photo for Mankato Series

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Hey y’all — if you want to help spread the word about Friday’s game, we have a way you can help: donate your Facebook cover photo for this week!  Just click and then save the image below and upload it to your page.  UAH Sports Information pulled this together, and I think it’s great!

Thanks for your help!  Go Chargers!

P.S.: If people have questions about ticketing for Friday night, please point them to our Q&A.

UAH 10, UAT 0

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It was more than a little bit “same song, second verse” on Sunday afternoon at the VBC. After a 12-1 rout on Saturday night, the Chargers came out and shut out the Frozen Tide, 10-0.

It took the boys a little while to get started on the goal column, even though they were working Coach K2‘s system pretty hard. Jack Prince (London, England) kicked the scoring off with an unassisted goal, leading a barrage of five goals in 3:13. Following Prince were Doug Reid (Innisfill, Ont.) from Craig Pierce (Roswell, Ga.) and Stephen Hickey (Ancaster, Ont.), Pierce from Reid and Mat Hagen (Ottawa, Ont.), Prince unassisted, and Tyler Kotlarz (Hudsonville, Mich.) unassisted. Reid and Pierce’s goals came in such quick succession that PA announcer Taylor Flatt was unable to get Reid announced before Pierce scored.

The second period was another slow start for goal scoring before Hickey scored at 12:47 on an assist from Pierce. Prince picked up his hat trick at 14:55 on assists from Kotlarz and Michael Webley (Stittsville, Ont.). The Frozen Tide held the Chargers to just nine shots on goal while making five of their own count. Junior netminder CJ Groh (Cincinnati, Ohio), having not seen a shot in the first frame, stopped all five.

Scoring in the third was a little more spread out. Hickey scored at 7:14 on assists from Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alta.) and Reid. The final Charger goals came 18 seconds apart: Kotlarz from Prince at 12:45, then Webley from Hagen at 13:03. Freshman goaltender Gregg Gruehl (Dublin, Ohio) saw just one shot in the final frame. On the weekend, the Chargers outshot the Frozen Tide 108-11.

Coach Ken Kleinendorst was happy after the game. “We tried to work on some things that will help us move forward.” When asked how the team is progressing, Kleinendorst, said, “I think so. I think that we definitely have the bodies to put together to put a pretty solid lineup on Friday night [against Mankato]. I’m getting a good feel for the guys, but I still need a better feel.”

When asked about the start to his career, Prince said, “It’s been a long wait. It’s hard to watch junior teams get ready to play and have to wait longer.” He was happy to have the opportunity to get to know his teammates’ tendencies on the ice, saying, “It was nice for us freshman. We got to see what everyone else was going to be doing. It helped us play along. We sorta know where to be based on watching video, but when you get into a game situation, it’s different. It was nice to have two games where to figure out where to be at the right time.” Asked about the speed of the college game, he said, “It’s a big step up from juniors. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

The Chargers have four days of rest and practice before facing Minnesota State University, Mankato on Friday night at Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center. Tickets at all levels of the arena are FREE, so please come out and support your Chargers and bring all of your friends (and some of your enemies).

Quick Hits

Have a great rest of the week, and be sure to come out to the game on Friday night! It’s free, you know.

Ticket Q&A for Friday, Oct. 12th Game v. Mankato

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As many outlets—including us on Facebook and Twitter—have noted, tickets for any seat in the Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center on Friday night at 7pm will be FREE. Any seat, upstairs or downstairs is FREE. I’ve had a number of questions via email, phone, and Facebook, so this is your Q&A on the ticket situation.

Q: Are tickets really free?

Yup. Would I lie to you? [I get this question in incredulity, and it’s a fair question.]

Q: How do I get tickets?

This answer depends on where you’d like to sit:

  • General Admission (Upper Bowl): You can get a ticket at the door. All we’re doing there is counting noses.
  • Reserved Seating (Lower Bowl): There’s a number of ways these go.
    1. Season ticket-holders have already been sold their seats, and please don’t take their seats. Cool?
    2. Your best bet is to call (256-551-2345) or visit the VBC Box Office (M-Th 10a-5p and F 10a-gametime). The tickets will still be free, but you’ll get a printed ticket with your seat assignment on it, and you’ll have the rights to your seat.
    3. Watch for open seats early in the game and move down from general admission if you like. Be prepared to relinquish your seat to someone with a ticket for it. Please be pleasant if this happens.
  • Ice Suites (at glass): The University has bought the remaining ice suites. I believe that these will be distributed to faculty and staff. Please plan on viewing the game from one of the bowls.

When should I try to get Reserved Seating?

I’d say that you should do it as soon as possible. I do not know for sure if the VBC will put reserved tickets at will call, but I fully expect that they will do so. You can always ask when you call—256-551-2345 is the number.

Where should I sit in General Admission?

Anywhere is fine. There’s a lot of noise from Sections 304 (Pep Band) and 305 (Crazy Alumni, including the TALAH Boys). These sections are a lot of fun, but the commentary can veer into off-color at times, so attendees with impressionable ears would best be staged no closer than 307 on the penalty box side. The VBC has a handy seating chart for the Propst Arena (PDF).

People generally accumulate along the sides opposite the player benches (307, 308, 309) and penalty boxes (322, 323, 324). This gives you a general view of the ice, but it does put you equidistant from each goal, meaning that you never see either goal terribly well. If you sit in the corners (303-305, 311-313, 318-320, 326-328), you’ll have a great view of action at one goal. If you want to see the goal that UAH shoots on twice, 303, 305, and 326-328 are your choice seating locations. The Pep Band sits in 304 because that gives them a reflector behind them to project throughout the area. Also, our sections like being in the goalie’s earhole.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or call me at 256-542-1436.

Happy 24th Birthday, Curtis deBruyn!


Calgary’s Curtis deBruyn turns 24 today. The Chargers’ captain is a senior defenseman with a right-handed shot and a 23 on his back. Curtis is 3-17–20 in 95GP as a Charger, and when he’s not playing hockey, he is a Brad Pitt lookalike.

UAH 12, UAT 1

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Less than a year after retired UASystem chancellor Mack Portera relegated the program to club status after February 2012, and ten months to the day that UAH President Dr. Robert Altenkirch extended the varsity life of the program for the forseeable future, it just so happened that a team from Big Bad UAT would come to Huntsville to try and beat up on Little Sister UAH.

While the Chargers and Crimson Tide have tangled a little of late—men’s basketball has held their own in exhibition games each of the last two seasons, after which the Chargers would progress to the Division II Elite Eight—this was Huntsville’s chance to shine brightly, with UA’s Frozen Tide club team coming to play the varsity Chargers. It was the one-sided contest that everyone expected it to be; I’d joked for a good three weeks that it would be Alabama (+6.5) on the road, just to see if football fans noticed. Saturday night’s game would prove to be a 12-1 stampede of the sort that Nick Saban would appreciate.

With Kurt Kleinendorst still in his first month as UAH’s head coach, everyone was excited to see what would transpire. K2‘s charges scored early and often. Nashville’s Sebastian Geoffrion lit the lamp with just :30 gone with a back-hand shot between Sean Vinson’s pads. Atlanta’s Kyle Lysaght followed his linemate’s lead, scoring the first of his five goals just 2:17 later.

“I saw a lot of things that I liked,” Kleinendorst said. “We’ve only been together a little while, and we did some good things. We did some things that we’re going to have to find a way to do better. … It’s a win. We’ll take it, but I don’t want to get carried away with it.”

The Chargers kept building momentum, with goals from Lysaght and Curtis deBruyn (Calgary, Alb.) followed by shorthanded goals from Nashville’s Brice Geoffrion and Lysaght. From there, the Chargers cruised to victory. Freshman Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alb.) scored twice, freshman Steve Koshey (Trail, BC) scored once, and junior Alex Allan (Calgary, Alb.) scored late in the second after knocking a guy through the corner door in the first period. The three stars of the game were deBruyn (1-3–4), Justin Cseter (Menomonie, Wis.) (0-4–4) and Lysaght (5-0–5).

Neither Charger netminder saw much work in the game. Freshman Gregg Gruehl (Dublin, Ohio) got the win, seeing only three shots on goal in two period, all in the second. Junior CJ Groh (Cincinnati, Ohio) saw one shot on goal in his 20:00 of action.

Alabama coach Mike Quenneville (UAH ’90) was clearly excited about the opportunity that playing the Chargers presents to his team. “We preach stuff every day, and when we get an opportunity to play a team that does everything so right, and have got the speed, it’s going to make us a better hockey team.”

Alabama scored midway through the second period, as 5’4″ Huntsville native Mark Wysock, an aerospace engineering student in Tuscaloosa found open space in the slot to push in a tumbling rebound for a power-play goal.

Kleinendorst seemed happy with his team’s effort. “For the most part, the guys went out and executed the plan that we’ve put in place up to this point. This is not about winning. This is about the process. When you play the game the right way, when you work your way through the process, winning is a by-product of that.”

The teams play the second game of the series at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, and Quenneville is ready to see his team face the challenge. “[The Alabama players] are going to get faster, they’re going to be smarter, they’re going to move the puck quicker. We’re definitely going to get better for this experience.”