This week in the wild west, we saw another player join the 100-point club and a massive upset in the NCHA occur. Meanwhile, a team I highlighted earlier this season is in the process of having a program-best season with their 3rd year head coach at the helm. We also take a deep dive into the USCHO poll to analyze some of the recent movements, particularly involving a specific western team.
Tina Press Joins the 100 Point Club!
Gustavus’ Senior Forward from Cottage Grove, Minnesota Tina Press reached the 100-point milestone this past weekend in the 6-1 win over St. Catherine’s. Entering the game, Press had 99 points and needed only one to reach the milestone, she decided to get three, tallying two goals and one assist to end the game with 102 career points. She becomes the 13th player in Gusties program-history to reach this mark. Tina is also now 11th on the Gustavus women’s hockey history all-time points list.
#2 Gustavus (16-2-0) visits #1 UW-River Falls Tuesday January 31st (Today) at 7:05pm CT.
Lake Forest pulls off the massive NCHA upset
This past weekend Lake Forest (9-7-3) faced #5 Adrian (17-2-0) twice in a weekend home series. Adrian shutout the Foresters 4-0 in game one, however, in game two things were different as the Foresters pulled off the huge upset winning 3-2 in overtime. In this game, the 1st period was quiet, no scoring, but things turned up from the 2nd period-on. Adrian’s Une Bjelland scored the first goal on the powerplay at 9:06 of the 2nd period, while Lake Forest would tie it quickly after at the 10:22 mark (Samantha Shoebottom) and take the lead at the 15:00 mark on the powerplay (Abby Meyer). In the 3rd, Adrian tied it up early in the period as Jessica VonRuden scored a quick 1:35 into the period. We needed overtime, and it delivered us a winning goal scored by Danielle Selby at the 2:09 mark to win it and take down #5 Adrian.
Something must be in the Lake Forest water; the women’s & men’s team have both pulled off their fair share of upsets this season. On the men’s side, the Foresters (ranking was at the time of game) defeated #14 Aurora 7-0, tied #11 Aurora 3-3 & 5-5, they then tied #3 Adrian 4-4 and defeated #3 Adrian 5-3. The women added to this total with a 1-1 tie vs #14 Aurora, a 3-3 tie vs #15 St. Norbert, and now a win over #5 Adrian… Yes, I’m considering a tie an upset due to the huge difference in records. Crazy stuff going on.
An appreciation for St. Olaf
I made sure to highlight early in the season St. Olaf’s great start and how they were on pace for a program-best season. In case you forgot, during the years 2013-2020, the Ole’s had a record of 21-137-17… going winless in the 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 seasons. Well, things have changed, the Ole’s currently sit at 12-5-2 and are on an eight-game unbeaten streak. I spoke to 3rd year Head Coach Tracy Johnson earlier this year and her words have stayed true to this day considering the success story she’s leading thus far.
Not to go off topic of St. Olaf, but I think with recent controversies such as Adrian’s 19-0 & 11-0 wins over Finlandia (0-21-0) who have a record of 39-382-13 since the established year of 2004. We need to realize that these programs aren’t completely doomed but won’t improve just because you put new heads in helmets, and you begin each season undefeated at 0-0-0. It’s about investing in the program and getting the right people at the helm. St. Olaf went 0-55-5 from 2018-2020 and just two-three years later, they’re 12-5-2. The program seemed to really make an attempt at becoming competent and even more so, a winning program. I know there are currently other great coaches that are turning around programs such as St. Norbert’s A.J. Aitken or Suffolk’s Taylor Wasylk, but Coach Tracy Johnson should be in a conversation for some sort of most improved or coach of the year conversation considering the program is now at a .684-win percentage, taking over a historically bad (outside of a few years) team.
Analysis of the recent USCHO polls
I understand everyone involved here is qualified and competent to the degree that a very good poll can be created based on the current voters’ thoughts and/or opinions. However, this week’s poll (along with some others), has me confused and I’m not sure how to comprehend some aspects of it. I’m going to keep the focus mainly on a single west team here as it’s the most concise way to explain the thought process.
Let’s talk about UW-Eau Claire, sitting at a pretty good record most would say of 17-3-1, holding one poor loss (statistically) to Concordia (Wis.), but other than that, they’ve won all their games and only lost to #1 UW-River Falls & #13 St. Norbert, with a tie to #15 Augsburg. Most recently this past week, winning three games (two vs UW-Stevens Point, and one vs St. Scholastica). After all this, they managed to fall a spot to #9 and sit behind #8 Middlebury (10-5-2) & #7 Norwich (14-5-1). UW-Eau Claire’s SOS (strength-of-schedule) is rated 25th, not bad, not great, Norwich is 32nd, also not exactly honorable. So, I simply ask how UWEC wins three games in a week and are tied with Norwich in the previous poll at #8, but now fall a spot and Norwich rises not one, but two spots for beating a team twice with a total record of 4-16-1 (New England College)?
We now move to Middlebury who sits at #8, this past week Middlebury tied 1-1 and lost 2-1 to Connecticut College (9-7-1). I understand they’re in the NESCAC and it’s arguably the best conference in women’s hockey, but at the same time, we can’t act as if this conference is the SEC of D-III women’s hockey where the mid-tier teams are automatically better than other conference’s top teams. There’s also something to be said for beating the teams on your schedule, by this logic, you’re asking UWEC to nearly go undefeated and not lose a game, nor tie, meanwhile, we have teams getting rewarded for losing and tying nearly double the number of games as another proven team who in case you forgot, has made the NCAA tournament four times in the past five years. Coach Erik Strand is 138-51-16 (.712), it’s not as if his Blugolds are a one-hit-wonder… I understand we’re talking about 2 spots here and not 10, but the poll should have credibility and principle, I don’t enjoy seeing it lose that by the week. Just a thought.
