Team Lined Up

MENOMONIE (November 20, 2009) – UW-Stout will play host to UW-Stevens Point in a weekend series, hosting the Pointers, Friday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and again Saturday, Nov. 21 at 4 p.m.

UW-SP’s leading points man is Travis Erstad, a Stevens Point native and 4th round NHL draft pick of the St. Louis Blues.

The games will be available in a Live Video Stream by Blue Devil Video with Matt Kaskavitch on the call, along with Dan Walenski and Matt Morin. Live audio streams are also available by Stevens Point radio stations both days.

The Blue Devils (2-2-2, 0-2-2 NCHA, 0-0-0 WIAC) have won both games last year, 4-3, 6-3, and Stout has an 8-1-1 record over the Pointers (2-5-0, 0-4-0, 0-0-0) over the last 10 games. The games will be conference games for both the NCHA and the WIAC standings.

Stout will travel to Vermont to participate in the PrimeLink Shootout in Northfield, Vermont, next weekend. Stout will take on host Norwich University, Friday, Nov. 27, then will meet either Middlebury College or SUNY-Plattsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 28.

————-  Courtsey of Layne Pitt, SID

UW-Stout’s student section, better known as the Devils’ Advocates issued a ‘call-out’ to UW-SP’s student fans last week via an online video.  UW-Stevens Point’s students have not responded officially, but they were invited to come to the Dunn Co. this weekend to battle for student section supremacy.

“Get your popcorn ready,” said Brian Stutz, a UW-Stout senior and DA leader. “because the Dunn Co. is gonna be cooking” he added.

Point On Paper…

SHOT STATISTICS...............
              Goals-Shot attempts.........       20-204
              Shot pct....................         .098
              Goals/Game..................          2.9
              Shots/Game..................         29.1
              Assists.....................           33
            POWER PLAYS...................
              Goals-Power Plays...........         8-32
              Conversion Percent..........         .250
            GOAL BREAKDOWN................
              Total Goals.................           20
              Power Play..................            8
              Short-handed................            0
              Empty net...................            0
              Penalty.....................            0
              Unassisted..................            1
              Overtime....................            0
            PENALTIES.....................
              Number......................           71
              Minutes.....................          191
              Penalties/Game..............         10.1
              Pen minutes/Game............         27.3
              Minor.......................           46

UW-Stevens Point Points Leaders

 ## INDIVIDUAL (by pts)   GP   G   A Pts
 ---------------------------------------
 97 Travis Erstad          6   3   4   7
 20 Garrett Suter          7   2   4   6
 18 Donnie Hallmark        7   2   3   5
 81 Johnny Meo             7   2   3   5
 21 Luke Nesper            6   1   4   5
 23 Nick Polaski           5   2   2   4
 96 Alex Handy             7   1   2   3
 44 Korey O'Brien          6   1   2   3
 91 Justin Johnson         6   1   1   2
 10 Taylor Kuypers         6   1   1   2

The Blue Devils lose several players off last year’s roster, most notably goaltender Matt Koenig. But the core of their scoring punch is back, including the reigning conference point champion Derek Hanson (Bemidji, MN / Danville). Hanson racked up 45 points in 08-09 on 17 goals and 28 assists. He’s joined by fellow snipers Joel Gaulrapp (Owatonna, MN / Owatonna), who bagged 21 goals, and Scott Motz (Lake Elmo, MN / Tartan), who added 14 among 37 points.

Second in the poll was St. Norbert, followed closely by last year’s regular season champ UW-Superior. The Green Knights bring back All-American defenseman Nick Tabisz (Kettering, OH) to lead a team that nearly made the NCAA tournament last year. UW-Superior has a big hole to fill in the graduation of goalie Chad Beiswenger – last year’s NCHA player of the year – but it brings back two of its top three scorers.

Read the full release from the NCHA.

This use to be how the scheduling system was set before the adoption of the travel partner system.  Matthew Webb of USCHO.com explains…

When the NCHA adopted the travel partner system ten years ago, many long-time NCHA fans lamented the fact it meant the elimination of the two-game weekend sets against the same opponent.

Though the travel partner setup made sense in terms of both geography and finances, gone was the potential for storyline development that could only exist when the same teams met on back-to-back nights.

I suspect the NCHA may be looking at the ECACW as a model for this. The ECACW, a six team league, currently plays 15 conference games. The ECACW has also been able to land three teams in the NCAA tournament (a clear goal of the NCHA) the past two seasons. The ECACW’s ability to to this has largely been fueled by very high strength-of-schedule ratings league-wide, thanks in part to a relatively insular league schedule and some fairly significant non-conference success.

The nuts and bolts: If the NCHA can continue to dominate the MCHA and MIAC the way it has the past four seasons, it’s conceivable that more games against itself will only bolster the selection criteria (particularly SOS) for the top NCHA teams come selection time.
Read the full blog from Matthew Webb

So why should fans be rejoicing?  The two-game series scheduling can make for some real great Saturday games!  Words are exchanged, faces are washed and jabs are thrown all of which typically boils over into game two of the series on Saturday night, not to downplay any Friday night game of course!

“We have the best league in the country and the kids get to play great games every single weekend.  It’s not like you have a weekend off and then a tough weekend, every weekend is a battle.” said UW-Stout head coach Terry Watkins via telephone.

This series schedule will bring back old rivalries and maybe even spark some new ones. 

“I think there are so many rivalries in our league that I don’t know that one is any bigger than another one.  All the teams in the conference are just so good.  I think it’s awesome.” Watkins added.

You can check out UW-Stout’s series-formatted schedule for 2009-2010 here.