We are now five games into the season and are fortunate to have a 5-0 record. The team is playing well, but as any coach would say, there is still a lot that we can improve on, especially early in the season. This past weekend we travelled to River Falls and Stout of the WIAC. Friday night against River Falls, we were able to get a 6-2 win and on Saturday night against Stout, we were able to get the win 4-1. Both games were interesting in their own ways.
Friday night, we left the National Hockey center at 3pm giving us 2 hours to get to River Falls, Wisconsin. It just so happens that on this same evening the first snowfall of the year arrived. It’s amazing how people in MN forget how to drive in the snow that first time every year. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to River Falls, which is usually a hour and a half drive. When we got there it was all business. I felt that the team had great focus from the start of the game. I felt that this game was our best of the season. We played a good 60minutes of hockey. We had a great night from Andrew Lindgren in net again and had multiple point nights by Brady Heppner, Huba Sekesi, Sam Valerius, and Adam Orn.
On Saturday night, we were able to get the 4-1 win against Stout. This time we gave ourselves two and a half hours to get there and it only took us two hours. We got to stout a half hour early and had a little too much down time before the game if you ask me. We battled through a lot in this game losing two players in the first half of the game to concussions. I felt the game got a little out of control and that there were way-too many dangerous hits. I am thankful we didn’t lose any more players after losingthe two guys to the concussions. We fought through the adversity and got the win. We had a big night by Mac Bergolvein net, while getting multiple point nights by Garrett Riebling and Travis Brown.
It was tough to lose the two players to injury because we had a very short turn around to our first MIAC game against Bethel on Tuesday night. We managed the situation and came away with our first MIAC win with a 4-2 win over Bethel. This was not our best game of the year, but the win was what counts. It was an odd game in that we are not used to playing games mid-week and I just did not think our guys knew how to handle it. We came out slow but managed to score two-second period goals and two third period goals. We have yet to lose a period this year, but, we had to come back from our first deficit in this game when Bethel scored the first goal of the game. I was proud of our players getting the win, but I look forward to watching the video with the guys to improve our play.
We have one game this weekend on Saturday against Hamline at 7pm at the National Hockey Center. The game that was originally scheduled for Friday night at Hamline had to be rescheduled for January 16th when they move to their new rink in downtown St. Paul. Hamline will be playing in the Tria Center that will be the practice facility of the Minnesota Wild. I am excited to play in that facility, but to be honest, I would have liked to play them this Friday and Saturday to stay away from the mid-week games the rest of the season.
I hope to see you in the rink this Saturday, November 11th at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Thanks for following Johnnie Hockey and for your support!
