Tag Archives: Carmine Guerriero

Thoughts As We Gear Up for the BG Series

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[Hi, remember me?  I still write for this site.]

Today was the first of the season’s coaches’ luncheons.  Not only did we get a chance to hear from BG’s Chris Bergeron — always a pleasure — but we heard from new WCHA Commissioner Bill Robertson, who is visiting the Rocket City for the first time.  After we heard from both men about the weather — de rigueur — it was time to get down to business.  Among the commissioner’s comments were these nuggets:

  • “I’m having a lot of fun in my first year as Commissioner.  … I want to be a very good listener.”  Funny, sir, the Internet has a lot to say about WCHA.tv…
  • “The league has a great plan, a great name, and a great history. … We’re looking to build new traditions, and one of those is here tonight with Bowling Green and UAH, both new entrants into the league.”
  • Since we’ve heard his clarion call for two or more teams in the NCAAs, I’ll finish with this one about the league post season.  “Who knows?  [The WCHA Final Five] could be down here someday.”  It sounds to me that the league is thinking about downsizing the tournament after the 2017 visit to the X.

Next up was BG boss Chris Bergeron, who noted that “this is the first team of guys who wait to me and my staff, ‘I want to be a Falcon, Coach.’ ”  This is what every coach wants, to be sure.  Make no mistake: this is Bergeron’s program, and after an 18-win season last year, they look to be on the way up.

In talking about recruiting, Bergeron says that they often have to answer the question, “What does 1984 (the year BG won their national title) have to do with 2014?”  This is a common refrain from all coaches whose programs’ past success is in their rear view mirror.  We know about that ourselves: the D-II days are long set in stone, and Jared Ross, Scott Munroe, and Cam Talbot are not walking through that door.  Lastly, in discussing the scuffle for recruits, Bergeron said, “Well, I wouldn’t want to get into a (physical) fight with Gavin Morgan, that’s for sure.”

 

Lastly, we heard from Coach Corbett, the man who is inspiring confidence all through the Tennessee Valley. The team lost a couple of close games last weekend at CC, 3-2 and 4-3, and of the weekend, Corbs said, “Last weekend was a culmination of everything that we started last spring.”  He mentioned the turnover in the locker room between graduation and the release of a handful of players.  Returning players were pushed through a grinding physical regimen combined with team-building exercises.  When the players returned, “everybody passed the eye test, and we picked up where we left off.  They held each other accountable, and we threw eight freshmen right there with them.”

It isn’t just that new blood that is sparking the team.  “There’s a little swagger and a glint in some guys’ eyes,” Corbett said, “especially with Vandy (Jeff Vanderlugt) and Doug Reid.”  Of the big man, Corbett said, “Jeff Vanderlugt had the best weekend that he’s had since I’ve been here,” a sentiment echoed to me later in the hallway by UAH assistant Matt Thomas.

But that new blood is important.  “The five freshmen saw the ice, and they just need more experience.”  Cody Champagne, Max McHugh, Brandon Parker, Brennan Saulnier, and Josh Kestner generally stayed out of the box (a slashing minor to McHugh on Friday followed by hooking minors to Saulnier and Kestner on Saturday), took some shots (six on Friday, five on Saturday), and were a combined -2 on Friday and -5 on Saturday.

When it comes to goaltending, Corbett is still really thrilled with what he has in Matt Larose and Carmine Guerriero.  “They’re both going to play this weekend because they’re both pretty damn good.”  Corbett mentioned that Rick Ice has been coming in as a volunteer goaltending assistant coach, which has made an impact on their development, “especially because Gavin doesn’t have to speak to Carmine in half-French, half-English on the side.”  Corbett also praised Jordan Uhelski as “more than just a third goalie”, saying that “he’ll make it very hard for us to recruit another goalie for next season, because he’s that good.”

 

Some thoughts:

  • BG is a solid program on the rise.  They lost a lot this offseason, but they will be looking to prove themselves early in the season.  They have to view coming into Huntsville as a chance for a road sweep, since two close games against a team that won just seven games last year doesn’t mean instant respect (unless you’re a USCHO poll voter).  Also, BG is one of the two teams that the Chargers defeated last season, and you know that losing in OT on home ice still smarts for those guys.  Corbett likened this game to “two freight trains heading down the same track,” and I think that’s what you’ll see.
  • Graeme Strukoff is apparently out with a lower body injury.  Get well, Struky.  His injury opens the ice for appearances by Anderson White and Richard Buri.  I would expect Ben Reinhardt to get top-four minutes alongside one of the freshmen, and my guess would be Champagne.  I’m probably wrong.  I wouldn’t be surprised for White to see the ice one night while Buri gets it on the other one.  Hopefully they’re both willing to make their physical presence felt on the ice, as that’s definitely how they’ll continue to get ice.
  • Corbett noted that the team has increases in both speed and puck possession, to which I can only say, “Hallelujah.”  I’m really excited to see McHugh, Saulnier, and Kestner in the flesh.
  • The native-son cheers won’t be for Kestner only, as Bryan Siersma is on the roster to provide needed depth after a couple of committed players were unable to be on this year’s squad.  Welcome home, Bryan.  Hopefully you’ll get some ice time at home soon.
  • Seriously, we need a home win, and it would be amazing if that came off of a Josh Kestner goal.  No pressure, Kesty.  None at all.  (Top shelf, stick side, please.)
  • Lastly, I can’t confirm this, but I have heard that one of Michael’s colorful suggestions for this season has come true.

See everyone at the rink!  I’m not broadcasting this year, so you can find me in my game-worn Cam Talbot black third jersey upstairs by the pep band.  Michael and I will figure out tweeting as the games go by.

CHARGER PRIDE!

Bemidji State 4, UAH 1

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Well, the first period was enjoyable.  Jeff Jubinville scored two goals on senior night to lead the homestanding Bemidji State Beavers to a 4-1 over our beloved UAH Chargers.  Carmine Guerriero (44 saves, Montréal, Québec) did everything that he could to keep his teammates in this game: all four goals were on Grade A scoring chances.

Jubinville scored his first goal on a redirection on the power play.  :22 later, Chad “Fats” Brears banked a goal in off of the back of a Beaver defenseman’s leg to tie the game at one.

Cory Ward found time and space in a soft spot in the Chargers’ defense to drop a bomb past Guerriero.  His 18th goal came after a goal early in the period was disallowed after the officials ruled that Ward had too much contact with Guerriero before making the scoring swat.

After the first intermission, it was all Bemidji.  Jubinville scored again when a centering pass from John Parker through the crease gave him just enough room to one-time it.  Graeme McCormack added the final goal with a point shot that at first looked as if it tipped off of Parker’s lumber.

While tonight wasn’t as fun as last night, there are positives to take away, especially Brears & Co. working hard on their next shift after the goal, Guerriero playing well, and the effort staying up to the end.  There were a couple ugly plays by Bemidji in the end, but the boys kept their cool.

As for the weekend, well, the Beavers thought that they’d easily sweep.

Carmine Guerriero 61, Minnesota State 4, UAH 0

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Who cares who scored for Mankato?  Freshman goaltender Carmine Guerriero (Montreal, Que.) stopped 61 of the 65 shots that he faced tonight.  He got peppered all night long, including 28 shots seen in the third period (a school record), stopping 27 of them (a school record).  Guerriero’s 61 saves set the modern D-I record, breaking Clarke Saunders’s 58-save record in a 2-1 win over Nebraska-Omaha on Jan. 29, 2011.  Saunders retains the modern and school records for most saves in a winning effort.  Guerriero falls just one short of the all-time, all-classification school record set by Barry Friedman at Geneseo State in Nov. 1986 (68 SOG).

We’ll probably do something on records after the season is done.  Michael is a wizard at these things.  But when we talk about a school record, we mean that: no one else has done it better. You’ll also see us talk about the modern D-I record, which is games starting in the 1999-2000 season, the first one playing a full-time Division I schedule.  Most schools who’ve played at multiple classifications do this, and it’s our standard as well.

But man, 61 saves.  Sleep well tonight, Carmine.  You earned it.

Carmine Guerriero set the modern record for saves with 61 in a 4-0 defeat by Minnesota State-Mankato. (Photo courtesy UAH sports information.)

Carmine Guerriero set the modern record for saves with 61 in a 4-0 defeat by Minnesota State-Mankato. (Photo courtesy UAH sports information.)

Michigan Tech 10, UAH 4

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If you’d told me at 2:00 p.m. today that UAH would score two power-play goals and four overall, I’d have felt pretty good about the boys’ chances of winning.  Instead, the Michigan Tech Huskies (12-14-6, 10-8-4 WCHA) potted seven second-period goals, which set the UAH school record for most goals allowed in a period.  In all, the teams combined for a modern D-I record 14 goals, with ten of them going to the Huskies (tying the UAH season high for goals allowed) while the boys in Blue and White (1-28-1, 1-18-1 WCHA) scored just four, also a season high.

Let’s just not discuss the goals allowed.  It’s better that way.

The UAH goals were scored by:

  1. Regan Soquila (Maple Ridge, B.C., 2nd goal), who took a feed from Jack Prince (Leicester, England, 3rd assist) low in the slot that gave him an open net for a hot wrister just :44 after the Huskies’ first marker.  Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alta., 2nd assist) also picked up an assist.
  2. Prince (4th goal), who picked up a feed from Steven Koshey (Trail, B.C., 6th assist) behind the net, skating just along the top of the crease while waiting for Pheonix Copley (19 sv, 8-8-5) to open up; when he did, the Prince of Huntsville back-handed the puck along the ice and into the Tech net.
  3. Prince again (5th goal) on the power play early in the third, tipping a Brears (3rd assist) shot from the point set up by a feed from Koshey (7th assist).  The boys thought that Chad had scored this one, but it was credited to Jack on the video review.
  4. Brears (5th goal) scored a power-play goal on a rebound of a Prince (4th assist) shot.  Alex Allan (Calgary, Alta., 2nd assist) picked up the other assist.

But otherwise, it was a nightmare.  Matt Larose (Nanaimo, B.C., 0-14-1) picked up 35 saves on 42 shots on before leaving the ice in favor of Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, Québec, 12 sv on 15 shots).  Larose was visibly upset as he left the ice, and that’s understandable.

This one was ugly.

Michigan Tech 4, UAH 1

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Blake Pietila and Tanner Kero each scored two goals to lead the host Michigan Tech Huskies (11-14-6 overall, 9-8-4 WCHA) over UAH (1-27-1 overall, 1-17-1 WCHA) by a 4-1 score at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton, Mich.

The Chargers’ lone goal came at 9:28 of the third period just as a Husky penalty expired.  A shot into the pads of MTU netminder Pheonix Copley (20 sv, 7-8-5) settled at the feet of senior winger Alex Allan (Calgary, Alb.), who skated right-to-left across the goal mouth to beat Copley to the left-wing post to net his team-leading fifth goal of the season.  Jack Prince (Leicester, England) and Doug Reid (Innisfil, Ont.) picked up the assists, their third and fifth, respectively.

Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, QC, 38 sv, 1-14-0) got the start in net for the Chargers, leaving for an apparent groin injury with 11:05 left in regulation.  Matt Larose (Nainaimo, B.C., 9 sv) came in to relieve his fellow freshman, allowing Pietila’s second marker.

In all, the Chargers killed four of their five power plays, including a checking-from-behind major on Chad Brears just 0:40 into the second period.

The Chargers face the Huskies at 4:07 p.m. Huntsville time on Saturday afternoon.

Notre Dame 5, UAH 0

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This one just wasn’t in the cards.  As with last night, the Irish skated out to a 3-0 first period lead and then added two more in the 2nd.  In all, the home squad peppered UAH goaltender Carmine Guerriero (1-11-0, 37SV) with 42 shots, while the Chargers mustered just 13 shots, all saved by Steven Summerhays (10-7-1, 13SV).

All weekend, we heard ND announcers talk about rebuilding, and let’s further that conversation just a little bit with some historical perspective.  I think that we need that right about now.

UAH has played varsity men’s ice hockey since October 1985.  In the first few years of the program, they played .500 hockey — in fact, the last time at .500 came when the Chargers defeated RIT on November 19, 1993.

From that point, the Chargers got as high as 132 games over .500, with the peak coming after a 6-1 win over Wayne State on February 25, 2006, a night where the boys scored five power play goals in eight opportunities, all by a unit of Bruce Mulherin (1-3—4) – Chris Martini  (1-0—1) – Brett McConnachie (3-0—3) / Jeff Winchester (0-2—2) – Jeremy Schreiber (0-4—4).  That’s an insane night.

That’s a blowout win that came against a team that no longer exists.

That was a conference game for a league that no longer exists.

UAH’s present woes aren’t due solely to Mac Portera and dropping players and scheduled games two seasons ago.  UAH’s struggles don’t come from the CCHA kicking us in the teeth in August 2009.

No, they start before that, and the roots are in the instability of College Hockey America, UAH’s first D-I conference home.  The league never made it past six teams, and two programs left (Army and Air Force, both for what is now Atlantic Hockey) while two programs folded (Findlay and Wayne State) and another was roped into being in our league (Robert Morris) to keep the membership number up.  The CHA automatic qualifier bid was approved when UAH met the NCAA minimum of six teams.  As membership dwindled to five and then four, we got grandfathered in around the rule, as the CHA was the only route for western expansion, given that the WCHA and CCHA seemed pretty stable.

But the CHA gave way, as Bemidji State found a home in the WCHA with the UNO Mavericks joining them.  It seemed that UAH might replace the Mavs in the CCHA, but it wasn’t to be, mainly because the rumblings of the Big Ten Conference becoming real.  That shift changed the landscape of college hockey, and frankly, it’s why UAH exists today.

So all the losing didn’t start when Chris Luongo became coach, or when Kurt Kleinendorst took over.  No, it started because the CHA was an unstable league, and young men don’t want to base their collegiate choice on a maybe.  They want to know that there will be stability, continuity, and progress.  Starting back in probably the 2004 timeframe, you haven’t been able to sell UAH hockey to student athletes as a given: this is who we are as a stable and building program, this is the stable and growing league that we play in, and this is what we play for.

That blowout of Wayne State was a high water mark for the program to be sure, but the cracks in the foundation were getting wider by the day.  Since that game, UAH is now 47-180-19 in its last 246 contests.  That’s dreadful.

However, those games include both of the school’s NCAA tournament appearances.  They include Cam Talbot’s entire UAH career.  It’s a pile full of hard times, but we’ve gotten through it together.

So if you’re a long-time fan staring at 1-23-0 and wondering, “Why bother?” I respond, “You know where we’ve been.  You’ve hung in this long.  Keep hanging.”

To someone that only remembers the (second round of) D-I days, I say, “We saw the peak, and we’re going back down, but hang with us.  You know the story.”

To current students and recent graduates, I say, “Do you see those banners?  Do you see those NCAA tournament appearances?  The championships came in times of stability, and the appearances came in time of strife.  Don’t you think that we’ll do better in time?”

Don’t quit on the Chargers, because they won’t quit on you.

[This post isn’t possible without Michael’s work in diving throughout the history of the program to find those two inflection points.  Thanks, Michael.]

UAH 4, BGSU 3, OT

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Somewhere under there, Frank Misuraca cries for everyone to get off of him because he can't breathe. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Somewhere under there, Frank Misuraca cries for everyone to get off of him because he can’t breathe. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Oh, you want to see the man of the hour? Okay.

(Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Wow.  What a game.  That would be an exhilarating game even if it wasn’t that first win all of our young men have been working and working and working to get.  But to have all of the frustration of this season to be decided on a last-second overtime goal?  COME ON.

So how did we get here?  I mean, it was tied at three after regulation time expired.  So there was some fun, yeah?

Yeah.

Sean Walker started off the scoring in the first for the Falcons, flinging a puck through traffic that I’m not sure Carmine Guerriero ever saw.  But after a few minutes, it was a Charger power play and …

… tic-tac-GOAL for Cody Marooney, his first collegiate marker.

The Chargers couldn’t pull ahead even with 1:06 of 5×3 late in the first when Brett Mohler (hooking) and Connor Kucera (boarding) took minor penalties.  Guerriero was still sharp after not a lot of pressure, and he stopped a couple of chances to end the frame.

Unfortunately for partisans in blue and white, the Falcons struck early in the 2nd, with Brent Tate slipping the defense to find a Cam Wojtala pass in the slot for a goal.

A couple of penalties on Marooney left the Chargers scrambling to cover Falcons, but the Chargers were crashing the point pretty hard.  BG countered by taking the puck wide to the boards while looking for cross-ice passes to the bottoms of the circle.  But they took their eyes off the puck for a second, and …

… it’s Matt Salhany time!

Who cares that the Falcons scored 52 seconds later?  Okay, we should all care, but the key thing is that the home side didn’t go up 3-1 late in the 2nd.  Instead, the margin was just one, and the boys knew that they had a very good chance at winning this one.

I will let these two tweets stand to vent my frustration with a broadcaster that was … sub-par but has a career that should have him be better.

Sorry, you mess with my alma mater and I’m gonna say something about it.  Back to hockey!

There were a lot of times where I could’ve tweeted this:

We're calling him CG35, and we're hope that he's okay with that. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

We’re calling him CG35, and we’re hope that he’s okay with that. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Then at the 12:30 mark of the third, Jack Prince had the puck just outside of the slot.

After that point, the boys were flying all over the ice.  There was a puck that ended up in the net before being taken back out and flipped in the air, but no amount of Prince arguments got the referees to change their mind, even with a review.  Presumably Jack tried a Cockney accent while he was at it.

A late tripping penalty on Brent Fletcher led to a BG power play with just 2:49.  Did the boys quit?  Hell no they didn’t.  Have you seen these guys quit?  Every WCHA coach praises their intensity.  Intensity is what made the PK happen.  The boys were again pressuring the D and looking for breakaways, and Joakim Broberg was tripped up.  4×4 for :31, and the penalty carried into overtime.

Overtime is a bit of a haze for me, but that’s mainly because it was just wide-open, end-to-end hockey, great goaltending at both ends, solid back-checking, strong passes through neutral ice, and good shots.  In other words:

But nothing, nothing, nothing replaces what Frank Misuraca did.

Oh, wait, yeah, this:

That “charge the hashes” stuff was pure Tim Thomas.  Steve Koshey helped out just enough to make sure that the puck was fluttering and rolling past BG sticks.  That the puck didn’t go in told you that this just might be the night.

MisuROCKET.

Good night, everybody.