Hello Johnnie fans. As we closed out the first half of our season we have an overall record of 4-7-2 with a conference record of 3-3-0. We have completed 13 games so far this season out of a total 25 regular season games.
We opened the first half of our season playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. Of our 13 games, 7 of them have been against nationally ranked opponents. A few highlights came when we swept #14 Hamline and beat #15 St. Scholastica 7-2 just before break. With all of that said, we have a winning record against nationally ranked opponents this year with a 3-2-2 record. It has been a very difficult schedule, but I feel that with players coming off injuries, our freshmen class gaining game experience and our overall improvement throughout this first half, this tough schedule will help us in the second half of the year.
Game Summary VS Nationally Ranked Teams
#2 UW-Steven’s Point Loss 3-2
#7 UW-Eau Claire Tie 1-1
#14 St. Thomas Tie 4-4
#14 Hamline Win 2-1 Win 4-3
#13 Oswego Loss 0-2
#15 St. Scholastica Win 7-2
We have a great mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen this year on our team. We have strong leadership in our upperclassmen with guys like #7 Andrew Commers (Captain), #15 Joe Freemark (Assistant Captain), #18 Neal Smith (Assistant Captain), and #16 Dan McNamara (Assistant Captain). We also have a talented group of young players led by #10 Huba Szekesi (sophomore) and #19 Tyler Dunagan (sophomore) in addition to our strong and talented group of twelve freshmen.
On any given night we have 6-10 freshmen in the lineup. Of the twelve freshmen, ten of them have played at the tier 2 level of junior hockey or higher. All of these players have the ability to be impact players for our team. A few of the freshmen that have stood out so far this season have been #23 Matt Colford, #24 Joe Chittwood, and #2 Sean Lang. All have played significant minutes and in different roles. Colford is an offensive forward and is tied for second on the team with 8 points. Chittwood is an energy forward that is one of our penalty killers and plays a physical/energy role on the team. Lang is a very good all-around Defensemen that quarterbacks our top power play and plays a lot of minutes.
Unfortunately we entered the season with three freshmen on the injury list. Connor Kelly, Mitch Fritz, and Zach Glienke all missed the start of the season with injuries. Since the start of the season, we have also lost a couple more freshmen due to unfortunate injuries. Connor Thie and Garret Riebling have both missed games while Riebling will miss the rest of the season with a tough leg injury. It’s unfortunate that our team has experienced all of these injuries with our first year guys, but I feel that this is a great class of freshmen who will serve our team well during the second half of the season and for years to come.
We also had a couple of our players recognized for their outstanding play this season by being named MIAC Players of the Week (Saxton Soley, Hamline series, and Tyson Fulton, Scholastica game). Congratulations to them for their outstanding contributions.
This has been a challenging start to the season both mentally and physically, but I believe it’s about developing the players and building chemistry so that our team is playing its best January through March. In 2012-13 we started the season 1-4-1 and 0-3-0 in the MIAC. That same year, we won the MIAC playoffs and played in the NCAA tournament. I feel we have the same pieces in place to accomplish those same goals.
Thanks for following and supporting Johnnie Hockey and I hope to see you at a game soon.
