The Johnnie hockey team had a great weekend down in Winona facing Saint Mary’s and coming away with a SWEEP! Saint Mary’s has a very strong team and their rink is not an easy place to play. We started off slow on Friday night, giving up a 3-0 lead. A late, second-period goal and four third-period goals helped our team climb back to win the game 5-4. Saturday’s game was hard fought, the game remained 0-0 until very late in the second period once again, but #10 Huba Sekesi got the Johnnies on the board with under two minutes left to play in the period to spark the team. The Johnnies then took a 4-0 lead in the third only to give up a couple late goals to come away with a 4-2 win on Saturday afternoon. We had two players get their first career goals with #5 Daniel Tripicchio scoring the first goal on Friday night and #12 Robb Stautz scoring the game-tying goal in that same game. We got big performances on the weekend from freshmen #17 Mitch Fritz (1g-3a-4pts) and #10 Huba Sekesi (1g-3a-4pts). Saxton Soley also had a great weekend in net making crucial saves throughout. I need to mention another highlight in that we scored seven third-period goals this weekend, and we lead the MIAC with 26 third-period goals and a +15 scoring differential in the third.
The final regular-season weekend is upon us as we are set to play against top-seeded Augsburg. I must admit, it is nice going into this weekend knowing that we are in the playoffs. It is not an easy thing to accomplish in the MIAC and I am proud of how our guys have been playing. Cory Thorson (assistant coach) and I stopped in and watched Augsburg play St. Thomas last Saturday night on our way home from Saint Mary’s. It was impressive how Augsburg handled the Tommies in their building. Augsburg won the game 4-0 to clinch the MIAC championship with a week left in the season.
The season is reaching its peak and we have a lot to play for this weekend against Augsburg. The Johnnies are currently sitting in third place, one point behind St. Thomas for the second spot. St. Thomas plays St. Olaf, who is playing for their playoff lives, and we play top-seeded Augsburg. In order for us to get the two seed, we need to win a game this weekend and we need St. Olaf to knock off UST at least once. There is also still the possibility to finish fourth as Concordia is the only other team that has a chance to jump us in the standings. Concordia is currently four points behind us, but they hold the tie breaker against us. We need one win or one Concordia loss to clinch the third spot. Concordia hosts Bethel for two games in Moorhead this weekend.
To put it bluntly, we need to win this weekend. It would be great to host a MIAC semifinal game against the Tommies or the Cobbers. It would also put us in a good position to possibly host a MIAC championship game if there is an upset of the top-seeded Auggies. There are only two games left, but the road still seems long but our boys are playing great hockey. Below is the playoff schedule depending on the seeding.
Thursday, February 25th
MIAC Play-In Game
#5 seed at #4 Seed
Saturday, February 27th
MIAC Semi-Final
Winner #5/#4 at #1 Augsburg
And
#3 Seed at #2 Seed
Saturday, March 5th
MIAC Final
Top seed remaining hosts
Looking ahead to Augsburg, they are a team with great depth and a great work ethic. I watched them outwork St. Thomas last Saturday and they blocked a ton of shots. The other thing worth noting is they definitely got under the skin of the Tommies. Augsburg does a lot of talking and there was a lot of extra activity after the whistles. Not my favorite type of game to watch, but it was very effective for Augsburg. Augsburg also has the best special-teams’ stats of all the teams in the MIAC. They are a +9 on the power play and are working at a 33.3% rate. Even more impressive is their penalty kill. They are also a +2 on their kill only giving up two goals against and scoring four shorthanded goals. Their kill is working at a 95.7% rate. These are two of the biggest reasons that they have already clinched the MIAC championship.
In order for us to be successful this weekend, we are going to have to have great composure and discipline. We need to keep the game at 5-on-5 and we can’t get caught up in their talk. The key to this weekend is controlling our emotions. If we get caught up in the antics, and the game gets out of control, I would place that advantage to Augsburg. We need to play a fundamentally-sound game and we need to find a way to make them play our style of hockey.
This weekend we play at Augsburg at 7pm on Friday night and at the National Hockey Center on Saturday night at 7pm. Saturday night we will also be celebrating the six seniors with “Senior Night.” It is shaping up to be a great three weeks of MIAC hockey and any team that makes the MIAC playoffs has a chance at making it to the NCAA tournament. Hope to see you at a Johnnie hockey game soon and thanks again for following the season.
Go Johnnies!!
