{"id":30299,"date":"2009-02-05T17:11:13","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T23:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2009\/02\/05\/this-week-in-the-wcha-feb-5-2009\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:22","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:22","slug":"this-week-in-the-wcha-feb-5-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2009\/02\/05\/this-week-in-the-wcha-feb-5-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the WCHA: Feb. 5, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the season slowly begins to wind down, it’s only natural we keep getting some exciting hockey games, right?<\/p>\n
Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week:<\/b> Kael Mouillierat, MSU, M.
\nWhy:<\/b> Scored two goals and had one assist, including Friday’s game-winner to help his Mavericks to their first ever sweep of Minnesota.
\nAlso Nominated:<\/b> Andrew Kozek, UND.<\/p>\n
Red Baron WCHA Defensive Players of the Week:<\/b> Alex Stalock, UMD and Mike Zacharias, MSU, M.
\nWhy:<\/b> Stalock stopped 61 of 64 shots and pitched a shutout to help his Bulldogs split Wisconsin. Zacharias, on the other hand, stopped 57 of 60 shots to help his Mavericks earn their first ever sweep over Minnesota.
\nAlso Nominated:<\/b> Trevor Hunt, UAA; Chay Genoway, UND; David Carlisle, SCSU.<\/p>\n
Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week:<\/b> Curtis Leinweber, UAA.
\nWhy:<\/b> Played both positions and scored the game-winning overtime goal on Saturday night to help his Seawolves split a road series against Denver.
\nAlso Nominated:<\/b> Mike Louwerse, MSU, M; Mario Lamoureux, UND.<\/p>\nOn the Other End of the Spectrum<\/h4>\n
Last week, we talked about how the North Dakota Fighting Sioux always seem to turn it on in the second half under coach Dave Hakstol.<\/p>\n
On the flip side of the coin, if you look at the numbers, it appears that the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves under Dave Shyiak falter in the second half.<\/p>\n
The numbers have been bad enough for the Seawolves where their record is concerned, but here are their first halves under Shyiak (not including exhibitions):<\/p>\n
2005-06 — 5-14-1
\n2006-07 — 10-8-2
\n2007-08 — 6-7-5
\n2008-09 — 7-7-2<\/p>\n
Here are the second halves (not including playoffs):<\/p>\n
2005-06 — 1-11-2
\n2006-07 — 2-12-1
\n2007-08 — 1-12-3
\n2008-09 — (in progress) 2-4-2<\/p>\n
Except for Shyiak’s first year, the first halves have been relatively respectable. However, why does the team go downhill? Much like his same first-named counterpart in Grand Forks, Shyiak thinks that it’s just a myth.<\/p>\n
“Everybody talks about that, the casual fan looks at it that way but if you really look at it, you’re a hockey person and you look at it, we’re in a lot of those games,” he said, particularly of last season. “We were the youngest team in the league last year so we really didn’t have those difference-makers.<\/p>\n
“Right now, we’ve exceeded that as far as wins and points in the second half.”<\/p>\n
This year, if the Seawolves slide, it could be blamed in part on their long break between games (previously mentioned in this space). Still, Shyiak doesn’t want to use the break as an excuse.<\/p>\n
“I don’t like to use that as an excuse — 30 days off,” he said. “Our travel’s our travel, it is what it is and you just deal with it. Like I said, last year, we didn’t get the results we wanted, but we were in a lot of those games and when we needed a difference-maker to score a goal, we didn’t get it, we didn’t get that timely save and now, we’ve exceeded that. <\/p>\n
“[Saturday’s overtime win over Denver] is two points we have to build upon and forget about what’s happened [in the past].”<\/p>\n
Just six days after we all saw ugliness rear its head in the CCHA in Michigan, we saw some ugliness in our own league Friday night in Mankato, though it didn’t get nearly the coverage — at least nationally. <\/p>\n
From what I gathered, the game was an intense battle with two distinct hits\/incidents amidst the deluge of Maverick goals. Late in the second period, MSU’s Trevor Bruess hit UM’s Tony Lucia with a forearm\/elbow, giving the Gopher a concussion and getting 15 minutes in penalties in return — five for excessive roughness and a 10 minute game disqualification (therefore earning a suspension).<\/p>\n
Later in the game, six other players — three per side — were all called for roughing minors.<\/p>\n
About seven minutes into the third is when everything else went down. The long version of the hit on YouTube is now a private video that, if you have an account, you can view<\/a>. Otherwise, you can search “schack boe hit” and get the short version.<\/p>\n In any case, MSU’s Channing Boe checked UM’s Jay Barriball from behind into one of the benches. As the official’s arm was up, signifying the call, the play went into the far corner along that same side. The camera then quickly panned back to a point right around the hashmarks where a scuffle broke out.<\/p>\n In the midst of the scuffle, UM’s Brian Schack and Boe appeared off to the left, almost falling out of the pile. Boe’s helmet was off and Schack was punching Boe in the head. Boe left the ice on a stretcher for somehow breaking his ankle in the midst of the scrum — what is, as we know now, a season-ending injury.<\/p>\n That one incident garnered 48 minutes of penalties doled out at the 7:26 mark. Among them are the original five-minute major and game misconduct that Boe was going to receive for checking Barriball from behind. Barriball and Kevin Wehrs from Minnesota both received double-minors for roughing, as did MSU’s Jerad Stewart and James Gaulrapp. Schack was given two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and a game disqualification, sitting him out for Saturday.<\/p>\n According to the myriad of game stories written about the game, neither coach apparently had much to say afterwards.<\/p>\n From the Mankato Free Press<\/i>‘s Shane Frederick’s blog:<\/p>\n “Emotions were running pretty high,” Mavericks junior forward Rylan Galiardi said. “Hockey is a pretty intense sport. I think teams were just trying to protect each other, protect their teammates. No one wants to see guys get hurt.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Later:<\/p>\n “The hits we had tonight, I don’t know if that’s part of hockey, but it was tonight,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said. Later, he added, “That didn’t look like college hockey out there to me.”<\/p>\n About the physical play in general, [Mavericks coach Troy] Jutting said, “Those were two proud hockey teams out there. I thought both teams played pretty physical tonight for the most part.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n From the St. Paul Pioneer Press<\/i>‘s Bruce Brothers:<\/p>\n Asked about the game turning ugly — this was the first meeting between the teams at the Alltel Center since Gophers forward Tommy Pohl suffered a fractured skull during that WCHA playoff series in March — Jutting said, “No comment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There has been a lot of discourse on what happened among fans, ranging the gamut from “Pfft, whatever, the Mavericks are just goons anyway though still not as bad as the Sioux,” to “Man, that was as bad as Bertuzzi\/Moore. Why hasn’t Schack been kicked out of the league yet?”<\/p>\n