We finished the first half of the season with a 7-4-2 overall record. Last year (2015-16) we flipped the wins and losses and had a 4-7-2 record at the halfway point. This is also the first time since the 2005-06 season that SJU has reached seven wins before the winter break. Looking at those numbers, you have to be pretty happy with the overall record so far this season.
I would have to say that we have definitely fought through a lot of adversity this season to get to those seven wins. I do not know of another season that I have been a part of that we have lost more man-games to injuries than we have this season. I have listed some players below that have missed games due to injury.
Kevin Becker – 10 games missed
Dan Tripicchio – 8 games missed
Mitch Fritz – 6 games missed
Dan Voce – 5 games missed
Garrett Riebling – 4 games missed
Dan McNamara – 2 games missed
Brady Heppner – 2 games missed
Tyler Dunagan – 2 games missed
Matt Colford – 1 game missed and will miss the rest of the season
Matt Perry and Evan Okeley – both missed the last game.
If you add all of that up, we lost 42 man games in the first half of the season. That is a crazy number when we only played 13 games. With that, we were short six forwards for the last game of the first half against St. Scholastica and we had nine defensemen in the lineup for that game.
Here are some things that I feel we need to improve on from the first half:
1. Better defense – We gave up 403 shots on net for an average of 31 shots against per game. We also averaged about 2.9 goals against per game.
2. Better starts – We got outshot in the first two periods by 27 shots. We also got outscored in the first two periods by 4 goals.
3. Better Consistency – We had a hard time putting 60 minutes of hockey together. We need to find a way to play a complete game. The good news is that the last game was our most complete game.
4. Penalty Kill – We have given up 11 power play goals against and only have an 80% penalty kill. This is the second worst in the MIAC.
Here are some things that I thought we did well in the first half of the season:
1. Next-man-up mentality - With all of the injuries we have had a number of guys step up with big games to help us win. Robb Stautz (Hamline series), Brady Heppner and Dan McNamara (St. Scholastica), Cole Souto (Lawrence).
2. Offense – We are averaging about 3.5 goals per game. That is good for second in the MIAC.
3. Finishing Games – We have outscored our opponents 22-11 in the third period. This is five more goals in the third period than any other MIAC team.
4. Power Play – Our power play in #1 in the MIAC and currently #3 in the country at 28.3 percent.
Overall, I thought we had a pretty good first half of the season. We found a way to win some games when we weren’t playing our best, and that is a sign of a good team. We know that there is a lot to improve on, but we also know that we will be getting a lot of players back from injury that will compete for playing time and push everyone to play better.
Have a great Holiday Season and a very Merry Christmas! I hope to see you at a game in 2017!
