Looking back at last weekend we didn’t get the results we were hoping for, but we definitely took a huge step towards knowing what it would take to accomplish our ultimate goal of winning a national championship.
Friday night we did not play very well and got outshot, 41-20. With that said, we still came away with a 3-3 tie at #13 UW-Eau Claire in a very difficult building to play in. Senior Tyler Nelson played a great game in net for us and got the tie to remain undefeated on the season. The story of the game was great goaltending and the fact that we took advantage of our opportunities. Freshmen Brady Heppner and sophomore Joey Lindberg got career first goals. Sophomore Matt Colcord continued to find the score sheet with two points, one goal and one assist. It is always better to win, but we got out of there with a big tie.
Saturday night was another tough building and another tough opponent. Stevens Point was and remains the #1 ranked team in the country. They play a very dynamic brand of hockey and have a lot of skill to back it up. I thought we played a much better game than the night before. With that said we ended up losing the game 5-2, but the shots were 28-25 in favor of Stevens Point. I thought we had opportunities to climb back into this game, but some unfortunate penalties and some power-play goals by Stevens Point took us out of the game. With all that said, I was happy with the steps we made from the night before and feel that we got better over the weekend.
Looking forward, we have a very quick turn around with SJU Hockey’s home opener this Thursday night at the National Hockey Center against Hamline. It is exciting to get back into MIAC hockey and to get that feeling of playoff hockey again. Hamline enters the weekend undefeated and having just beat UW-Superior and tied UW-River Falls. Both of those teams are strong teams and Hamline will definitely have some confidence coming into the weekend.
Hamline is a team that lost two of the top forwards in the league last year in Brandon Zurn and Charlie Adams. Those two players combined for 40 of Hamline’s 92 goals last season. This is obviously a huge hole to fill, but thus far into the season they seem to be playing a more complete team game and are undefeated to this point with a 4-0-2 overall record.
This is going to be another great weekend of hockey and the entire team is really looking forward to getting in front of our home fans and playing on our home ice. The game this Thursday will start at 7pm and there will be student buses provided by the SJU Senate to help bring Johnnie Hockey fans to the rink. We hope to see you there and we appreciate all of your support and interest in our hockey program!
Go Johnnies!
