SJU Hockey finished the regular season on a nine game unbeaten streak having a record of 8-2-2 after Christmas break, finishing in third place, one point behind St. Thomas and three points behind Augsburg in the MIAC. We had a great final weekend sweeping top-seeded Augsburg, beating them at their place 5-3 on Friday and at the National Hockey Center 4-2 on Saturday. They were both great wins, and will really give us a lot of confidence moving forward into playoffs.
One thing that became very clear this season and especially in the second half of the season was that we are a third-period hockey team. There is no doubt that we need to find a way to start games better if we want to accomplish the ultimate goal, but how we have responded and played in the third period is pretty impressive. This past Friday we found ourselves down 3-0 just six minutes into the game. After a timeout and a little motivation, the team picked up their play and finished the next 50 minutes of hockey scoring five unanswered goals to get the win. You would think we would be more focused on Saturday night to have a better start, but once again, Augsburg scored the first goal 50 seconds into the game. We tied the game up going into the second before getting scored on again in the second to go into the third period down 2-1. At this point in the season, we have so much confidence going into the third period that this did not phase us and we scored three third-period goals again to get the win, 4-2. On the weekend we outscored Augsburg 5-0 in the third period.
With another strong weekend, and another strong third period showing, SJU is now a +20 in MIAC play in the third period. The next closest team is St. Thomas with a +12. It’s been working, but we need to find a way to start games better and put together a 60-minute game in order to keep things rolling. We are currently a -3 in the first period, a +5 in the second period and a +20 in the third period. I like the fact that we get better as the game goes along, but we need to find a way to be more consistent.
Another stat that was strong over the weekend was our special teams’ play. We went 3-for-6 on the power-play this weekend against a team that had one of the top penalty kills in the nation (prior to Friday Augsburg had gone 11 games and 44 penalty kills without being scored on). These power-play goals propelled us to have the best power-play percentage for the season at 28.6%. On the weekend, we also went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. This took our penalty kill to 90% and to second in the league. The weekend’s play propelled our special team’s net to a +10 and #1 in the league.
So it is pretty clear that our third-period play and our successes on special teams have been key to our second half of the season and our overall success in the regular season.
Moving forward, the key in playoffs in dictating our success will be playing full 60-minute games and improving how we start games, continued success on our special teams, and most importantly, the confidence we have built in this team in all situations.
Thanks once again for following Johnnie Hockey and for your continued support. We play St. Thomas this Saturday in the semifinals of the MIAC playoffs. The game will take place at the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights (across from St. Thomas Academy) at 7pm. I would suggest getting there early, wear red, and take all the open seats before the Tommie fans even get there! Have a great week.
