The future has been seen, and other tidbits from the big upset

The spring semester of Brockport hockey has been a successful one, even though the Eagles have been eliminated from the playoffs. Since January 7th they have put together a 3-4-2 record which, in most instances would not be all that impressive. However, when you consider the fact that prior to that date the Eagles were 1-12-1 in the fall semester, I call that progress.
The corner was turned with the two intersession wins over WNEC. These two wins occured just three games after the first win of the season as well as two tight match-ups with powerhouses Hobart and Neumann.The first official games of the semester were during the road trip up north, a trip that isn't easy even when your team is on a roll. Once the Eagles returned home to Tuttle North things began to pick up even more. The first game back was a match-up against a red hot Morrisville team, despite losing the game the team showed the firepower that we have been waiting to see all year. They buried six goals against one of the better goaltenders in the SUNYAC. The following night, at the Saves for a Cure game, the Eagles played a different style of hockey, shutting down Neumann and holding them to a 2-2 tie. I still have doubts about a no goal call in this game however it is over and nothing can be done about it now.
As a result of the leagues decision to suspend James Cody for two games for his beautiful hit on Matzel, the Eagles were without him for the match-ups against Buff State and Fredonia. The energy was lacking in the first game against Buff State, which resulted in a 4-1 loss. The next night though, they came ready to play against an always tough Fredonia squad. Freshman Joey Reagan stood on his head to make 47 saves, including 20 in the third period. Fellow freshman Brendan Rothfuss and Sean Wallace got the two goals for the Eagles and they stole an important point from Fredonia with the 2-2 tie.
This brings us to last nights game of the year for the Golden Eagles. They went into Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena to take on bitter rival Geneseo. The rivalry didn't stay to the ice though as our group of Eagles Nest Crazies, about 10 of us, had to deal with their fans all night. This included a fan from their student section who stole one of our signs and attempted to change its meaning, with the help of the rink staff he ungratefully returned it and was escorted from the arena. Another fan stood behind us and used plenty of profanities to get his point across that we were a "safety school" in his eyes.
The actual game was outstanding, junior Oliver Wren matched Reagan's performance from the Fredonia game with a 41 save showing of his own. Scoring in the game came from all over the place for the Eagles, senior Justin Noble got the first Brockport goal 1:16 into the second period on a breakaway after a Geneseo shot was blocked and bounced out into the neutral zone. Later in the period junior James Cody got a short handed goal, you could feel this one coming. The penalty kill team had kept the puck in the Geneseo zone for a while and eventually the hard work of Cody paid off as he ripped one past the Geneseo goalie  Rubeniuk. Senior Chris Berardini got what turned out to be the game winning goal on a shot from the outside 9:40 into the third period.
The officiating in this game was probably among the worst that I have ever seen. In the first period a Brockport player was slashed hard enough that it broke his stick, yet no call was made. There were several knee on knee hit throughout the game on both sides that were not called as well. In the third period Brett Jendra was going hard to the net and was hit by the Geneseo defenseman into the goalie. Once he got up Rubeniuk landed at least 5 visible punches to the back of Jendra's head resulting in a scrum around the net. Somehow the call ended up being; Jendra two minutes for charging, Rubeniuk two minutes for roughing and then one player for each side got matching roughing penalties. The calls that were made were even more questionable; Noble received a ten minute misconduct for something he said to the official. I have no doubt something was said but after playing hockey for 20 years I have come to realize that something over the top has to be said to receive a ten minute misconduct.
I have yet to decide what the biggest botched call was yet in this game. The first nominee is the second Geneseo "goal," play was to the right of Ollie right near the net, the post was knocked out of position but the peg stayed in, lifting the net close to two inches off the ice. The puck was pushed under the goal and ruled a goal. This coming despite the fact that the Geneseo student running the goal light was shaking his head no and everyone could see it. The rink staff that escorted us after the game even admitted to us that the puck went under the net, they were standing at ice level when it happened. The end result of this seemed to favor Brockport though, they came out fired up for the next faceoff, Luckily the call didn't cost the Eagles the game, it would have been a terrible solution to a great game. The other nominee actually benefited Brockport, with about 40 seconds to go in the third the teams had lined up for the faceoff however Geneseo had seven players instead of six (they had their goalie pulled). The official dropped the puck and the back official immediately blew the play dead, I assumed to reset the faceoff with the correct number of players. He however, called a penalty on Geneseo for too many men on the ice. Unless the rule has changed since I played the official is responsible to correct this before the drop of the puck and at most should have been called delay of game, if a warning had already been given. Regardless the Ice Knights went a man down and more importantly the faceoff went into their zone as a result of the penalty. The Eagles killed off the rest of the time and upset the number six team in the nation!
I love attending games at Ira, the atmosphere is awesome. The pep band does an excellent job of knowing what to play and when, and they have a few hard core fans of their own that try to get the crowd of 2000+ going. Last night was no exception, though coming out of there with a win in such a situation was awesome, and hopefully will carry on for a long time.

Up and Down We Go, the Wild’s Path to the NHL Playoffs

The New Year has pumped some life into fans such as myself, as well at the chances at a playoff spot for the Minnesota Wild. During the month of January, the Wild went on both a three and four game winning streak while closing out the month with a win. The problem occurred between the two winning streaks where the Wild dropped three games in a row. Despite that streak the month was a success, an 8-4 record helped to propel the Wild from thirteenth place in the west to tenth. The Wild sit just 5 points out of fourth place with at least a game to play on each team above them. On the same note the Wild cannot fall back to old habits, they are only four points away from falling back into fourteenth place, ahead of only the Oilers. Vancouver has remained out in front in both the Western Conference and the Northwest division compiling 71 points with a 4-2-4 record in their last ten.

In terms of the wins and losses I would have preferred the losing streak to have happened against the Eastern Conference part of the January schedule but the Wild did go 3-1 on the month against the teams in their division. The most notable stretch in January was the three game winning streak against the division opponents, the Wild seemed to find their offensive power which in turn tuned up the defense. Rookie goaltender, Anton Khudobin, strung together two excellent performances; shutting out Vancouver while making 32 saves and holding Edmonton to just one goal on 31 shots. The following night Niklas Backstrom returned between the pipes and answered the performance by Khudobin with a shutout of his own. During the winning streak the Wild provided their goalies with 14 goals of support, one of the strongest performances of the season so far.

The balance of the offense has been shifted a bit as well; I would not be surprised at all if the Wild have one of the most balanced stat books in the league. Four players currently are tied for the team lead in goals with 14; Martin Havlat, whose groove lately found him an all star spot, Mikko Koivu, Brent Burns, and Cal Clutterbuck. Havlat and Koivu are supposed to score goals but Burns is a defenseman and Clutterbuck is the definition of a grinder. Andrew Brunette currently has 12 goals and Matt Cullen has added 10 of his own, making both players capable of joining the list of leaders on any night. The overall points lead is a bit more spread out, Havlat and Koivu are the only two players with at least 40 points with 44 and 43 respectively while Cullen and Burns are the only two in the thirties with 31 a piece.

The month of February will be a true test for the Wild, while they only have four games against division opponents they play 13 games against teams that will also be trying to move into and or improve their playoff position. Matchups include two of the three current division leaders and three games against teams who currently tied for the final playoff spot in the West (positions 7, 8, and 9). Time will tell if another month similar to last month's 8-4 record will result in more positive movement or a neutral wash but either way if the Wild can find a way to repeat that success the beginning of March will hold a lot of promise.

The other big event in January was the all-star game, which ended up including two Wild players; Martin Havlat and Brent Burns. Both players were on Team Lidstrom, who won the game 11-10. Havlat picked up three assists despite being a -1 rating overall, Burns added an assist of his own while being a -2. Congratulations again to both of these players on their selections as well as to all who were involved with the game.

Tonight is also a big night in Minnesota hockey world as Andrew Brunette(Bruno) will take the ice for his 1,000th NHL game. Tonight's game against the Kings will be number 457 for Bruno in a Wild uniform.
Brunette is the team's second all time leading scorer with 303 points, trailing only Marian Gaborik in that category. Congratulations to you as well Bruno and may you have many more games left, preferably in the Wild uniform.