NCHC Playoffs: Miami @ St. Cloud - 3/14, 3/15, (3/16)

Unread post 10 Mar 2014, 16:15

I won't be able to make it up to St. Cloud for the Friday night game. Maybe Saturday. Anybody interested in organizing a viewing party? I'm in the north metro. I imagine any random BWW would suffice.

Unread post 10 Mar 2014, 22:20

Probably not if you mean Friday but possibly Saturday. Will be in Coon Rapids covering MN Hockey tourney, don't really know the area though.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 11:56

Stretch (the dude who made the Husky Hockey Song) is gonna be playing an acoustic set in the atrium an hour before puck drop, then doing an electric version of the Star-Spangled Banner on the ice.

Also: the Cup will be there every night and Thunder Sticks are back on Friday.

http://www.scsuhuskies.com/news/2014/3/ ... 42743.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Can't wait for this weekend, gonna be a GREAT Series!
We NEED to Sweep (I only was able to get Friday and Saturday off my overnight job >.>)!

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 12:39

According to the seating charts there are still a ton of tickets left for each night... Tickets are $20.If you are a student $5. Some sections you can get the Family Plan or 4 for $50
Order Tickets Men's Hockey vs. NCHC 1ST ROUND PLAYOFFS/GAME #1
03/14/2014 7:37 PM

Order Tickets Men's Hockey vs. NCHC 1ST ROUND PLAYOFFS/GAME #2
03/15/2014 7:07 PM

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 13:03

Glad to see the league is going with $5 student tickets, should help the crowd a bit over past years.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 13:08

mikecgrimes wrote:Glad to see the league is going with $5 student tickets, should help the crowd a bit over past years.

Probably not much different since they are on break. Wish I could make it and bring my son to the games but it's moving weekend for us. Great that Fox Sports Plus will be carrying the game. I expect close games with these teams playing on Sunday.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 15:14

I love that it is on FSN+, and all the extra TV coverage that we've gotten. Unfortunately, I think it has hurt ticket sales a little, but not as much as prices. I really would rather Prochno sit this series out, unless he is at true 100%. The NCAAs are more important. Time to "hunker down" and make a couple playoff runs.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 19:30

At first I thought drawing Miami might be a bit of a Pyrrhic victory as a result of winning the conference -- I'd probably rather play every other team in the NCHC in the first round. But then again, I'd hate to play CC again, as it's tough to beat the same opponent four times in 2 weeks.

More importantly I think Miami is going to be a great challenge heading into the NCAAs. We know Motzko will properly focus the team going into next weekend, and their 2-2 record against Miami should also take away any chance that they take them lightly. Last year we coasted by Anchorage (even though SCSU did not play all that great that series) and then got handled pretty thoroughly by Wisconsin in the Final Five, which may have been the result of not preparing mentally after playing a very weak Seawolves team. So I welcome the competition and I do look forward to what promises to be a very good series this weekend.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 20:09

I know the team probably has to approach this weekend looking to advance, and as a fan we want to see it, but a 3-2 and 4-3 loss really wouldn't be a bad thing. That third place game at Target Center really bothers me from a team health standpoint, plus it could be a knockout punch for a team in North Dakota's position if they happened to lose it.

Unread post 11 Mar 2014, 22:10

SC Times Mick Hatten...
SCSU's Prochno back on the ice as hockey team prepares for Miami
20 SCSU players receive academic honor from league

Congrats to all the Huskies receiving the Academic awards!

Mar 9th...
Men's hockey: SCSU enjoys NCHC title, prepares for Miami (Ohio)
Miami is only team to beat St. Cloud State twice this season

Unread post 12 Mar 2014, 06:36

Blake Coleman (24 p in 23 games) has had 8 goals in 6 games since coming back from a lower body injury.
He is averaging 5.333 shots per game in the last 6 and had an unbelievable 10 SOG in the last game against Denver. He leads the team with a +8, second is Paulides with a +6, Loe with a +5, Mullin, Hamilton +3, M Joyaux, Barber and Czarnik +1.

They have 2 W and 4 L since Coleman's return. They split with St. Cloud, were swept by Duluth and split with Denver. Coleman also plays with a lot of grit and tenacity which has carried over to the rest of the team - I guess a little bit why I like Garrett Milan in our lineup but he's small so he doesn't draw the penalties. Coleman should have been called for hooking on his takeaway on Dowd that led to a goal- but it also showed he doesn't give up on a play.
Anyway Coleman also has 24 penalty minutes in those 6 games, a major against Duluth, Note: Kuraly also had a major in the other game against Duluth- big reason they were swept.

Others to watch out for are Kuraly (22 pts and hot lately), Barber - tied with Coleman leads team in Goals with 18, second in assists with 20, Czarnik -leads team in points with 43 (32 Assists- the distributor), Louis (19 p), Caito (15 p), Wideman (14 p) and Murphy (12 p). Barber leads the team in SOG per game 4.23 followed closely by Coleman's 4.17. Kuraly is the next highest at 3.38, Czarnik 2.84, Murphy 2.73 ,Louis 2.59 and Wideman 2.22.

Penalties led by Coleman 63 min in 23 games, Kuraly 57 min in 34 games, Paulides 47 min in 34 games and Matt Joyaux 29 min in 31 games.

Barber has 4 short handed goals.

Caito leads the team in blocked shots with 66 in 34 games, followed by Matt Joyaux 51 in 31 games, Czarnik 39 in 33 games, Richart 36 in 24 games and Hamilton 31 in 24 games.

McKay has been strong in net, 22 games, .913 save %.

I couldn't find any faceoff stats.
In our four games from the SCSU site...
MI SC
25 29
27 44
34 37
38 26

Czarnik and Kuraly take most of the faceoffs followed by Coleman.

Link- Miami University Men's hockey site...
Miami Hockey Stats

Unread post 12 Mar 2014, 11:16

Curious to think who you all feel has more pressure on them this weekend. SCSU with the pressure of being the number 1 seed and possibly losing in embarrassing style to the last place team, or Miami who's season is on the line?

Unread post 12 Mar 2014, 11:21

Where is Red Cloud with his amazing, thorough, and clear analysis of the pairwise and region tournament placement predictions?

Unread post 12 Mar 2014, 11:38

Rev wrote:Where is Red Cloud with his amazing, thorough, and clear analysis of the pairwise and region tournament placement predictions?

It's nice not being on the bubble.

We'll be seeded somewhere between #4 and #8. If we're #4, we'll be in Cincinnati. If we're #7 or #8, there's a chance we'll be in St. Paul. My guess is that we'll have to go 4-0, 4-1, or maybe 3-1 to get the #4 seed. I don't think 3-2 gets us there. I'll let Red Cloud do a more thorough breakdown if he likes, but it might be a lot to ask with very little on the line for the Huskies.

Unread post 12 Mar 2014, 13:00

Husky4Life wrote:Curious to think who you all feel has more pressure on them this weekend. SCSU with the pressure of being the number 1 seed and possibly losing in embarrassing style to the last place team, or Miami who's season is on the line?

I don't think losing to Miami would be embarrassing. They were picked for 1st in the conference and were the #1 ranked team in the preseason for a reason. That's a good team. The season hasn't worked out and they have not gotten the goaltending they did last year but it's not like losing to these guys would be like dropping a playoff series to Tech or UAA in the old WCHA. The #1 seed didn't lose often in the WCHA, but I won't be shocked to see it happen every other year or 2 out of 5 if the teams in this league keep getting talent like they have.
I think Miami is going to come in hard and view this as a chance to wipe the slate clean and try to be what people thought they were. For us, we know we are in the tourney and we have a nice big shiny piece of hardware and even losing this series would not diminish that. I don't think either team will feel a lot of pressure Friday, but that will change after game 1.