Reasons To Watch: LSSU, Northern Meet With Scores To Settle
Reasons To Watch: LSSU, Northern Meet With Scores To Settle
Hockey players have long memories, and as CCHA league play begins, there is quite a bit of unfinished business between rival programs.
It’s November, and that means league play dominates the college hockey landscape, the CCHA in particular. All eight schools will be matched up with one another, each series containing its own unique history and drama.
Northern Michigan Vs. Lake Superior: “War, Game 4”
The last time these two teams faced each other was in a brutal three-game quarterfinal in March, a series played by Hudson Bay Rules: “Guns and Knives Only.”
Refs Brady Johnson and Derek Berkebile simply let the boys play. And it got ugly. The three games were marred by hostilities before and after every whistle, culminating in a major penalty for kneeing by NMU’s Alex Frye. The incident resulted in a season-ending injury for LSSU’s Jake Willets and a game misconduct for Frye.
The “old-time hockey” nature of that series was discussed at length at college hockey’s off-season meetings in Florida. CCHA commissioner Don Lucia professed a silver lining in that both Johnson and Berkebile worked their way into the championship game based on their performance in the semifinals. Lucia and the Wildcats were the only ones who found sunshine after the vicious quarterfinal that generated so much collateral damage. And now it resumes.
It remains to be seen how much of the animus carries over six months later. Most of the marquee players remain: Andre Ghantous and A.J. Vanderbeck for Northern Michigan; Louis Boudon and Jacob Bengtsson for the Lakers. One late hit should revive the bad blood.
LSSU is the most difficult team to gauge in all of college hockey. After a troubling start, Boudon and the Lakers smoked Clarkson last Saturday for Lake State’s first official victory of the season. Northern proved to be a consistently tough out in October, splitting three series.
Prediction: Another split for Northern, another series painted in black and blue.
Michigan Tech Vs. Bowling Green: “Beyond Thunderdome"
The Madhouse on Madison has earned its moniker. When 5,000 brown and orange fans pack the Slater Family Arena, the low-lying aluminum roof rains decibels down on every skater. It is not for the faint of heart. And that’s just the way Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan likes it.
“I like sleeping giants,” said Shawhan, “when the crowd can wake those guys up.”
The player Shawhan has tabbed to thrive in that hostile cacophony is the aptly-named Jack Works, a heavy-shooting forward who hails from Yellow Knife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The kind of guy you want alongside you in a dark alley.
The player to watch for the Falcons is rugged sophomore Austen Swankler, who leads BG with five goals. He will be surrounded by four fifth-year seniors and five elite freshmen.
Don’t be fooled by Bowling Green’s 2-6 record this season, they gave No. 6 Minnesota State all they could handle last weekend and came within minutes of sweeping Northern in Marquette. Their last four games have been played against ranked opponents playing peak hockey.
An outfit that was fooled by BGSU’s 2-6 record was DraftKings, who gave the home Falcons a goal and a half on Friday. Take the goals and enjoy the action.
No. 6 Minnesota State Vs. St. Thomas: “A Glimpse at the Future”
If you happen to catch Rico Blasi in a forthright moment, he will admit to still being chafed by last year’s massacre during Hockey Day in Minnesota. Just when his Tommies were clawing their way back into the game, they were swarmed by an avalanche of goals and snow. After the final flakes fell, Blasi’s club was overwhelmed 7-1. That will not be the case this weekend in a home-and-home series that foreshadows a splendid rivalry.
When last seen on FloHockey, St. Thomas poured in five goals against Ferris State, four against accomplished goaltender Noah Giesbrecht. The weekend prior, Blasi’s Tommies took undefeated Penn State to the limit in Happy Valley. And so confidence builds for this fledgling team in St. Paul, particularly after the Tommies gained a true victory last Saturday, not just a moral one. Whether or not they are ready to puncture the kings of the CCHA remains to be seen in this all-Minnesota home-and-home.
"You want to make sure you're making progress and actually seeing something for all of our hard work."
— St. Thomas Men’s Hockey (@TommieMHockey) November 2, 2022
Hear from Coach Blasi in this week's press conference 🔊#RollToms pic.twitter.com/wT8Fqa0rkD
After being swept by St. Cloud and struggling with Bowling Green the past two weekends, some pundits are looking at Mankato with a raised eyebrow. Those eyebrows can all return to their respective brow ridges after some sobering news from the world of analytics. In more than half of the 21 periods of hockey played by Minnesota State this season, the Mavericks have held their opponents to five or fewer shots (12 out of 21 periods). And that’s against the best teams in the country. Rest assured, the Hastings kingdom remains on solid ground.
Both Minnesota State and St. Thomas are stocked with Minnesotans, guys who know each other from high school and Da Beauty summer league. Both have two premier coaches. Both know it is only a matter of time before they will be battling each other for local bragging rights. The time might not be now, but it’s coming.
Prediction: St. Thomas will scrape a point off the vaunted Mavericks.
Ferris State vs No. 20 Bemidji: “The Big Payback”
Cue up your James Brown greatest hits, payback is coming this weekend in northern Minnesota. Last season, Bemidji suffered a brutal stretch of games, losing eight out of nine, which cost them home ice in the CCHA semifinals.
The low point of that stretch was being swept—at home—by seventh place Ferris State. By the end of February, however, the Beavers had gotten off the canvas, and then put together an impressive month of hockey which brought them within a goal of returning to the NCAA tournament.
Coach Tom Serratore has rebuilt his team behind retiring stars goalie Mattias Sholl and all-league defenseman Elis Rosen, adding three quality transfers and a handful of promising freshmen. After sweeping Michigan Tech in Houghton (5 points) and picking off then No. 2 St. Cloud on consecutive weekends, Serratore is currently a frontrunner for CCHA coach-of-the-year honors. This is clearly the wrong time for Bob Daniels Bulldogs to be journeying 13 hours to play a hot team with a long memory.
Prediction: Beavers return the favor, sweeping Ferris for a hefty six points.