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NEXT GAME: The Blue Devils (6-3-2, 3-3-0 NCHA, 1-3-0 WIAC), fresh off a weekend sweep of St. Scholastica, will travel to UW-Stevens Point (5-5-1, 2-5-1 NCHA, 2-2-1 WIAC) for a pair of games, Dec. 7-8. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. starts.
WEBCASTS: All UW-Stout home games are scheduled to be broadcast in a live video stream by
Blue Devil Video. Live Stats should also be available for most home games.
TERRY WATKINS INTERVIEWS: Throughout the season, Jimmie Kaska of Sports Radio 1400 AM will speak with hockey coach
Terry Watkins. Listed are each of the interviews throughout the season. |
Listen to Interviews
2012-13 BLUE DEVILS (6-3-2): Stout is coming off a pair of home wins against St. Scholastica this past weekend to get back to .500 in conference play. After a slow start, the Blue Devils have really turned their season around by winning six of their last seven games. That streak included five home victories, two of which were over ranked teams.
Nick Hopper has been instrumental in their hot streak and is still unbeaten on the season. Of their six wins, Hopper has five, and their only loss in the last seven games came on Hopper's night off. He is maintaining a GAA of .180 and a .945 save percentage, numbers that, if the season ended today, would both be school records. Stout is out-scoring their opponents, 35-29, despite being outshot by a 5-to-4 ratio. Stout has converted on one-fourth of their power plays, while they have killed their opponents' power plays well, allowing just a .143 success rate. Through nine games, 16 players have scored goals for the Blue Devils and all 20 have recorded at least one point.
Zach Vierling is coming off a sensational weekend which included a game-winning goal in overtime on Friday and two more goals on Saturday. He, along with
Kevin O'Donnell, leads the team with five goals.
Garret Grimstad joins the two of them as the three Blue Devils with a team-high 10 points.
Sam Carr has added nine points (five goals, four assists), while
Jordan Tredinnick, and
Jason Cohen have each added eight points. Cohen leads the team - and the WIAC - with a plus/minus of +13.
Tom Lescovich has spent four games in the goal, collecting one win and three losses. He has a GAA of 3.75 and a save percentage of .904. |
2012-13 Statistics
STOUT'S LAST TIME OUT: The Blue Devils pulled their NCHA record back to .500 this past weekend with two home victories over St. Scholastica. On Friday night,
Zach Vierling scored his first career game-winning goal to break a 1-1 tie in overtime. Both teams had opportunities over the first two periods, but the Saints' Rundell and Stout's
Nick Hopper stopped everything sent their way. Hopper was especially tough early and throughout the game. Hopper finished the game with 38 saves, making 13 saves in the first period, 12 in the second and 13 in the third. The Stout defense held Scholastica to no shots on net in the overtime period. The Saints twice sent shots clanging off the pipe during the game. Trailing 1-0,
Sam Carr evened the score at 12:53 in the third period, getting an assist from
Tate Rusk, which set up Vierling for the game-winning opportunity |
UW-Stout 2, CSS 1 | Vierling and Hopper kept the hot hand overnight, and both delivered outstanding performances Saturday night as the Blue Devils took a far more comfortable 5-2 win. Vierling scored two more goals, both in the first period, as Stout jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one period.
Jason Cohen added the second period's only goal and
Ricky Doriott gave Stout a 5-1 lead in the third.
Nick Hopper finished with 35 saves to remain unbeaten on the season. |
UW-Stout 5, CSS 2
SCOUTING UW-STEVENS POINT (5-5-1): Stevens Point has been all over the map so far this season. They started with a blowout, 5-0, win against Lake Forest, but followed that up with two shutout losses to top-ranked St. Norbert. They got two wins against MIAC schools, but then went to Superior for two games and came back with two losses, dropping to 0-4 in the NCHA. Since then, however, they are 2-1-1, with their most recent win coming over third-ranked UW-Eau Claire, a 4-3 road win. Their power play conversion rate is a dreadful .070, but they are still only being outscored by two goals overall on the season.
Johnny Meo leads the team with eight points despite only playing in eight of the team's 11 games. He has four goals and four assists.
Kyle Politz and
Kyle Heck both have four goals as well, and have seven and six points, respectively.
Nick Kenney is the other Pointer with seven points (three goals, four assists).
Nick Graves and
Brandon Jaeger have shared duties in the net. Jaeger has started six games while Graves has gotten the nod for five. Although their numbers are relatively close, Graves has the better GAA (2.42) and save percentage (.908). Jaeger's GAA of 2.73 and save percentage of .880 are not far behind. |
2012-13 Statistics
THE POINTERS' LAST TIME OUT: Stevens Point traveled to UW-Eau Claire this weekend to take on the third-ranked Blugolds. After a 5-2 loss on Friday, Stevens Point completed the upset on Saturday, handing Eau Claire their first loss of the season. In Friday's contest, Eau Claire started the second period with three straight goals, stretching their lead to 4-1 heading into the final period, in which they were easily able to hang on. Kurt Weston scored two consecutive goals in the second and Daniel Olszewski finished with three points on the night (one goal, two assists). |
Friday Box Score | Stevens Point came out with a vengeance Saturday and Kyle Politz delivered two first period goals to put the Pointers up, 2-1, at the first break. Eau Claire answered back in the second, however, scoring the period's only two goals, and took a 3-2 lead going into the third. Scott Henegar tied the game at 3 apiece, and neither team was able to break the tie in regulation. Jon Bockmann tickled the twine midway through the overtime period to hand Eau Claire their first loss of the season. |
Saturday Box Score
THE SERIES: Overall, Stout leads the series, 38-27-3. Stevens Point won the teams' three meetings last year, but Stout swept the three meetings the year before. In the past 10 matchups, each team has five wins. Stout is 15-5-1 in the 21 meetings since 2007.
LAST TIME WHEN THEY MET (Feb. 11, 2012): UW-Stevens Point scored four goals in both the first and second periods and went on to a 9-3 win over UW-Stout. The Pointers got goals in rapid succession in the first perod, tallying goals at 5:07, 5:52 and 6:08. They added another at 10:29 before
Joe Beaudette scored for Stout with less than two minutes remaining in the period. The second period was a near repeat, with the exception that Stout scored twice. The Pointers Dylan Wizner scored at 10:18, but Stout's
Jordan Tredinnick scored unassisted at 10:51. The Pointers answered back with two quick goals, one at 11:29 and the next at 11:44. The Pointers added a shorthanded goal at 16:28 and Stout got a power play goal by
Branden Gay at 16:44. The Pointers scored the only goal of the third period as Wizner scored his second goal of the night, this one four minutes into the final stanza. Shots were relatively even, with the Pointers holding a 32-30 advantage. The Blue Devils dropped all three games to the Pointers last year, including a pair of games in December in Menomonie, 4-1, 5-1. |
Story and Stats
HOT HOPPER: Blue Devil goalie
Nick Hopper has been the cornerstone for the Blue Devils' success over the past month. Hopper is currently 5-0-2 and has won the last five games he has started. After giving up three goals in the season opening 3-3 tie at Marian, Hopper has dropped his goals against average to 1.80, currently third in the NCHA. His saves percentage of .945 is best of the top 10 NCHA goalies and he has recorded 222 saves so far this season. His last three outings he has kicked away 32, 38 and 35 goals, respectively. The only goal scored against him in a 4-1 win over nationally ranked UW-Superior, Nov 16, came on a 6-on-3. Hopper has allowed one goal against St. Thomas (Nov. 13), UW-Superior (Nov. 16) and St. Scholastica (Nov. 30). He allowed two goals in the second St. Scholastica game (Dec. 1). Over his last four outings, Hopper has allowed five goals, of which three were power play goals. In that four-game stretch, Hopper is posting a GAA of 0.98. On a non-hockey note, Hopper's father, Elmer, was a member for more than 10 years of the nationally known doo-wop group, the Platters.
ON THE POSITIVE: The Blue Devils have turned their scoring around. After going 0-2-2 over the first four games, Stout has gone 6-1-0 over the past seven games. Not surprisingly, over the first four games, Stout was outscored in every period, but over the last seven games have outscored their opponents in every period. Over the past seven games, Stout has outscored their opponents 9-3 in the first period, 8-5 in the second, 9-8 in the third and 1-0 in overtime. Defenseman
Jason Cohen has been having a solid senior season, with three goals and five assists. His plus/minus is a plus-13. Thirteen Blue Devils have a postive plus/minus, while six have a negative reading.
RECORDS AND MILESTONES: Tom Lescovich is currently 233 saves shy of 2000 for his career. Only two Stout goalies have ever reached that milestone: Tad Larson (2480) and Jeff Dotson (2226)...
Sam Carr needs to duplicate his assist total from last season in order to pass Joel Gaulrapp and current head coach
Terry Watkins for fourth all time in assists. He currently has 5 assists, and 12 more would put him at 55 for his career. Also, Carr needs to match his jersey number, 24, in games played this season in order to hit the 100-game milestone for his career. The last player to do so was his brother, Robert Carr, along with two others in the 2010-11 season. Coincidentally, Robert played in 27 games his final season, which matched his jersey number as well...
Charles Lachance has previously spent 163 minutes watching from the penalty box in his Blue Devil career. Lachance moved into fifth place earlier this season and could grab the fourth spot with 27 more. He needs 37 minutes to move into elite company, as the 200-minute club is currently occupied by just three Blue Devils. Lachance was quickly moving towards infamy as he spent 27 minutes in the box in Stout's first five games, but has recently been a bit more tame.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Zach Vierling was named the NCHA player of the week, Dec. 3, after scoring two game-winning goals against St. Scholastica. Vierling scored his first collegiate game winner in overtime, then the following day scored a pair of goals in a 5-2 win, including the unassisted game winner. Vierling was also named the UW-Stout athlete of the week...
Nick Hopper was named the NCHA player of the week, Nov. 19, after posting a pair of wins over nationally ranked St. Thomas and UW-Superior. Hopper was also named the UW-Stout athlete of the week.
THE COACHES: UW-Stout: Terry Watkins (203-221-28) is in his 17th season as the head coach of the Blue Devils' varsity program. Watkins spent eight years coaching the club team (104-102-16) as Stout prepared to return to varsity status in 1997. Watkins was the 2006-07 NCHA coach of the year when Stout finished in a three-way tie for first. Watkins had a Hall of Fame career at Stout as a defenseman. Stout won a WIAC title in 2010-11, and an NCHA title during the 2006-07 season
. |
UW-Stevens Point: Chris Brooks is in his second year as Stevens Points' head coach. In his first season, he led the Pointers to their first Peters Cup appearance in over 10 years. A native of Stratford, Ontario, Brooks has years of hockey experience, both playing and coaching. He occasionally speaks at USA Hockey seminars and during his summers in Stevens Point, runs the Chris Brooks Elite Hockey Camp.
THE CONFERENCES: Stout and
Stevens Point are both members of the seven-team Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA). They are also both members of the five team Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). The WIAC is made up of Stout, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior and UW-River Falls. The NCHA includes the five WIAC schools as well as St. Norbert and St. Scholastica. This is the final year of the existance of the NCHA.
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE: Since the 2006-07 season, UW-Stout is 54-23-5 at the Dunn County Ice Arena.
2011-12 BLUE DEVILS: UW-Stout was all over the map last year, as they kept fans guessing which Stout team would show up. The Blue Devils started the season 4-1, and were 4-2 after three weekends of play. They went 1-5-1 over their next seven games, however, and went into the Christmas break 5-7-1. Stout showed signs of life later in the year as they split of pair of closely-contested games with then fourth-ranked UW-River Falls, and played a lot of close games down the stretch. The Blue Devils grabbed just one win in their final eight regular season games before being bounced in the first round of the NCHA playoffs by the College of St. Scholastica. Stout returns seven of their top eight scorers from last season, but lose All-American
Branden Gay, who served as the team's leading scorer the past two years.
Sam Carr, an All-NCHA selection a year ago, led the team in assists and will look to distribute the puck again in his senior year. Carr also scored four goals, giving him 21 points on the season, trailing only Gay. Teammate
Mike Hartviksen gathered 20 points on 10 goals and 10 assists. Four other Blue Devils scored at least 16 points, all of whom will return this season.
Kevin O'Donnell collected 19 points,
Jordan Tredinnick, 18, while
Garrett Grimstad and
Charles Lachance each added 16.
Nick Hopper and
Tom Lescovich, who will both return for their senior year, split time between the pipes last season. Each appeared in 15 games, and had very similar stat lines. Lescovich finished 5-8-0 with a save percentage of .891, while Hopper ended the season 3-9-2, with a .907 save percentage. |
2011-12 Statistics
STOUT'S RANKED HISTORY: Stout finished the 2008-09 season as the second ranked team in the USCHO.com poll. With the exception of the Nov. 17, 2008, USCHO.com poll, Stout had been ranked in the top 15 since the Nov. 13, 2006, poll. Stout made their first appearance in the poll on Nov. 27, 2000, when they received one vote, then moved up to 10th the following week. The 2008-09 season ending poll matched Stout's previous high mark of second in the Jan. 29, 2007, poll. Stout opened the 2009-10 season ranked third, their highest-ever season-opening ranking, but fell out of the polls midway through the season and returned to the top 15, Nov. 22, 2010. Stout was in the 2011-12 USCHO.com poll early in the season, dropped out, returned again, but dropped out. Stout first received votes in the Nov. 19, 2012, USCHO.com poll, and has been in the receiving votes category ever since. |
USCHO.com Division III poll
UP NEXT: After the pair of games at Stevens Point, the Blue Devils will take a break until they host Bethel University, Friday, Jan. 4 and Hamline University, Saturday, Jan. 5, opening a four-game homestand.
