USCHO.com takes a good look at the current situation with UAH hockey, its difficulties, and how the program charges on (pun intended, of course) as it tries to join the WCHA. Includes quotes by Kurt Kleinendorst and Dr. E.J. Brophy.
Category Archives: 2012-13
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.
USA Under-18 Team 6, UAH 2
Well, that was a rude homecoming.
Back at the VBC for the first time in 48 days, the Chargers lost 6-2 to the USA Under-18 National Development Team on Friday night.
It was nip and tuck early as both teams were feeling each other out to begin the game. Even with the first two power-plays, the Chargers could not mount much of an offense, and were outshot 3-2 halfway through the period.
And it was the U-18 team that would get on the board first with a goal by Hudson Fasching at 15:32.
The Chargers poured on the shots to finish the frame, including a six-shot power play. But U-18 goalie Thatcher Demko would not be beaten.
The U-18 team come out strong for the second period, dominating possession and posting the first 10 shots on goal. They would score twice before the Chargers could stop the momentum: Tyler Kelleher at 4:16 and Fasching’s second of the night at 11:14.
Once UAH steadied the onslaught, the Chargers were able to get back into the game. Jamie Kendra took a Graeme Strukoff pass in the right circle, and wrested the puck past Demko’s stick side to cut the U-18 lead to 3-1 at 14:11 of the period.
The U-18 team poured it on again to start the third, but this time it wore the Chargers down. Goals by Connor Clifton, Will Butcher, and JT Compher scored goals to put the game away at 6-1 before the halfway point of the period.
Craig Pierce scored UAH’s second goal with 3:58 to go for the final tally.
John Griggs made 24 saves on 30 shots. He was pulled at 8:32 of the third for CJ Groh, who stopped all seven shots he faced. The U-18 team outshot UAH 37-19.
The two teams square off again Saturday at 7 p.m. as Military Appreciation Weekend continues. Note there’s no live video for tomorrow’s game, so head out to the VBC as UAH tries to even the series.
Catching the Game: vs. U.S. Under-18 National Team, 11/30-12/1
The boys are back at home for the first time in six weeks. It’s Military Appreciation Weekend. You can trade another school’s shirt for a free Charger T-shirt. Predators’ PA announcer Paul McCann (Saturday) and another troupe from Nashville are coming down. So what else do you need? Come see the Chargers take on America’s brightest young hockey talent at the VBC! Friday night at 7. Saturday night at 7. If for whatever reason you can’t make it, there’s live video, live stats, and Twitter updates. But make it anyway!
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.
Catching the Game: at Nebraska-Omaha, 11/23-24
Finally! The last of six straight road weekends! The final stop is against a club that UAH has given fits: Nebraska-Omaha. The Chargers stunned the Mavericks with a win in Nashville last season and an overtime victory in Omaha the season before. UNO is ranked 15th in the latest USCHO.com poll. Watch tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 7 on America One (PPV), listen on 1180 AM in Omaha, or follow the game with live stats or UAH Hockey on Twitter.