Friday, October 17, 2008

A Quick NMU Preview

The Kampfer thing and real-life got in the way so I didn't get to write the customary 10 Things To Know About NMU. I could do it now, but since faceoff is about 20 minutes away, there's probably no point and the game would be going before I finish anyway. So here's a quick and dirty preview of NMU:

-They're 1-1-0 on the season. They came out like gangbangers* against Michigan Tech, scoring on 5 of their first 9 shots en route to a 5-2 win. The next night? Not as pretty. They lost 5-0 to Minnesota-Duluth. Granted losing 5-0 to a WCHA team is like beating the Soviets with the KLM line, so you can't take too much from that.

-Brian Stewart is back in net for the Wildcats. He's got a 3.50/.883 thusfar in the young season. Last year he had a 2.62/.918.

-The only big loss from last year (at least upon a quick skim of the roster) was Matt Siddall who had 18-18--36 for them. Olver, Gustafsson, Sirota, Butcher, and Brown are all back.

-Freshman Andrew Cherniwchan has 2 goals and 3 points in the two games thusfar. Justin Florek from the NTDP is on the roster as well.

-Olver is definitely the guy to watch. He had 21-17--38 in 39 games last year (18th in goals per game) and chipped in 8 on the PP. Sirota was 3rd in the country with 4 shorties. Gustafsson had 27 assists as a freshman defenseman.

-They were 36th in offense and 31st in defense a year ago, and yet were a strangely good team. I'd love to see the breakdown by half of the season.

-Also numbers you wouldn't expect out of a team that darn near made the NCAA Tournament: PP #42, PK #52.

-Tim Miller is actually our leading point-getter vs. NMU with 9 points in 12 games. Billy Sauer is 8-1-1 all-time vs. the Wildcats (2.30/.905). Louie Caporusso has 5 points in 5 games.

The games will be available on the B2 Network for like $7 apiece. I was impressed when I used B2 last year.

*Edit: I forgot to explain. I was listening to XM the other day and Jordan Leopold definitely describe the Avs has having "come out like gangbangers" in the first period. He prooooobably meant to say "gang-busters". Changes the meaning just slightly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who would've thought that our offense would have been more suspect than our defense Friday night?


Here's some food for thought, because you just know someone's going to mention it sooner or later...

CCHA Non-Conference Record YTD
1-1-1 CHA (.500)
6-2 AHA (.750)
2-4-1 HE (.357)
1-4-1 WCHA (.250)
2-0 ECAC (1.000)
(.519 total)

WCHA Non-Conference Record YTD
4-0 CHA (1.000)
1-5 HE (.167)
3-0 AHA (1.000)
4-1-1 CCHA (.750)
(.658 total)

I won't bother with Hockey East, because they're smoking everybody and generally don't play the conference superiority game.

Packer487 said...

Heh, yeah we're not off to a good start. But at least the CCHA didn't completely fall on their asses in the tournament last year :)