NFL
By Jason Gulden
Hello again, NCHC fans. I’m back with another NCHC article. I know you might think you missed an article; however, you haven’t.
This is, in fact, the first article this week following last weekend’s games. Because of a chaotic week at work, I didn’t have the energy to write the weekend recap earlier this week. Don’t worry, you won’t miss anything.
This week, the article is going to look a little different compared to other weeks. All the information you would have gotten from the article earlier this week will be in this article, along with everything you would have gotten from the weekend preview article.
Moving forward, I plan to write two articles each week when there are games on the previous weekend and the coming weekend. That said, I want to give a heads-up that December won’t be like that for a couple of weeks, as the NCHC will be out of action for Christmas break.
As I mentioned in the first article for this season, be on the lookout for that article, which will be published sometime between December 18th and December 26th.
Now that I have things covered, it’s time to recap last weekend’s NCHC action.
November 6th-8th Recap
As with every NCHC weekend, last weekend was no different, with exciting action all around. Two of our teams earned weekend sweeps. St. Thomas beat Alaska Anchorage 5-2 and 7-4. St. Thomas forward Lucas Van Vliet had himself a monster weekend. More on that in the Players of the Week section, as he was named Forward of the Week.
The other team to earn the sweep was Denver University, which extended its conference lead to 5 points with a 6-3 win in regulation on Friday and a 1-0 overtime win on Sunday.
Like Lucas Van Vliet of St. Thomas, Daxon Rudolph and Johnny Hicks had big weekends, earning NCHC Defenseman and Goaltender of the Week honors, respectively.
Omaha would take on St. Cloud State. Omaha won Friday’s game in a shootout and Saturday’s game 5-3. Friday night’s game would go in the record books as a 2-2 tie. Omaha’s Gavin Hodnett had a breakout weekend, earning him NCHC Rookie of the Week.
The same thing took place up in Grand Forks. Western Michigan won in the shootout on Friday, but it still went into the record books as a 2-2 tie. North Dakota would win Saturday night’s game 4-1.
Duluth and Miami (OH) would split the weekend, with Miami (OH) winning 3-2 on Friday and then Duluth winning 2-1 on Saturday. Duluth’s Saturday win was also a big one for Duluth’s coach Scott Sandelin.
Saturday, Scott earned his 500th career victory behind the bench, with all 500 coming at Duluth. He is the 18th coach in NCAA Division I history to reach the mark and the 9th to do so at one school. Congrats to Coach Sandelin on an amazing accomplishment.
Colorado College would beat Lindenwood 4-2 on Friday night and then beat them in a shootout on Saturday, with the score going into the record books as a 2-2 tie.
Rankings
USCHO and US Hockey released their updated rankings on Monday. In both polls, a new NCHC member joins the rankings as Miami (OH) debuts at #17.
Denver is ranked #3, up from #4, in both polls. Western Michigan is ranked #6, down from #5 in both polls.
Duluth is ranked #7 in both polls. Down from #6 in the USCHO. US Hockey, it stayed ranked #7.
North Dakota would move up 2 spots in both polls to #8. Colorado College would drop 1 spot in the USCHO to #12 and 2 spots in US Hockey to #13.
In the USCHO, the only other team receiving votes is Arizona State.
Players of the Week
As I mentioned, in the games from November 6th-8th, Lucas Van Vliet of St. Thomas, Daxon Rudolph and Johnny Hicks from Denver, and Gavin Hodnett from Omaha all earned weekly honors announced Tuesday by the NCHC.
Lucas Van Vliet scored not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5 goals over the weekend. 3 of those goals came in Friday’s game. He also had 3 assists over the weekend: 1 on Friday and 2 on Saturday.
Daxon Rudolph scored 3 goals over the weekend. On Friday night, he scored 2 power-play goals in 3 minutes for Denver. Sunday, he scored Denver’s only goal in overtime. Johnny Hicks doesn’t know what it feels like to lose in the NCHC. He improved his record to 21-0-1. Friday night, he stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced before earning the shutout victory on Sunday for his 4th shutout of the season.
Gavin Hodnett of Omaha would score his first two goals in his college career while posting a +3 plus/minus rating.
Congratulations to all 4 NCHC players on their weekly awards.
Standings
With every team now having played at least 2 conference games, the standings heading into this weekend are as follows: Denver, with 4 games played, leads the conference with 11 points, a 4-0-0 record, and a 1-0 OT record. Miami (OH) and Minnesota Duluth have both played 4 games and have 6 points each with a 2-2-0 record. Omaha has 5 points, 4 games played, a 1-2-1 record, and 1 shootout victory.
North Dakota, St. Cloud State, and Arizona State each have 4 points. Dakota has played 2 games with a 1-0-1 record. St. Cloud State and Arizona State each have played 4 games. St. Cloud State has a 1-2-1 record, while Arizona State has a 1-3-0 record with 0-1 in OT.
Colorado College and St. Thomas both have 3 points, with each going 1-1-0. Western Michigan rounds out the standings with a 0-1-1 record in 2 games, including 1 win in the shootout.
Remember, each win in regulation earns the team 3 points. 2 points are awarded for an overtime or shootout victory, and 1 point is awarded for an overtime or shootout loss.
Weekends Games
This weekend we have the normal Friday/Saturday matchups. There is no home-and-home series this weekend. The only non-conference game will take place in Denver, where Lindenwood will return to Colorado, but this time against the University of Denver.
Colorado College will hit the road for the first time in NCHC play when they travel to Western Michigan to take on the Broncos.
Omaha will travel to Oxford to take on the newly ranked Miami (OH) Redhawks.
Minnesota Duluth will stay in Minnesota but will travel to St. Cloud to take on the Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
North Dakota will take its first conference road trip to St. Thomas to take on the Tommies at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.
With Denver out of league play this week, every team except Arizona State, which is idle this weekend, can inch closer to Denver in the standings. Which teams inch closer to the top after the weekend?
Check back next week to find out the results of this weekend’s games.
Closing
Well, NCHC fans, it’s the weekend, which only means IT’S TIME FOR SOME NCHC ACTION. A lot of good games this weekend, as we only have 1 more weekend after this before we have another weekend of all non-conference games over the Thanksgiving Weekend in America
Grab your favorite beverage and snack, sit in the comfy chair, and cheer your favorite NCHC team on to victory, like I will be doing.
Until early next week, NCHC fans, have a great and safe weekend. Talk to you all next week when we return for double the articles.
