St. Scholastica Live Video |
St. Scholastica Live Stats |
UW-Superior Live Video |
UW-Superior Live Stats
THIS WEEKEND: UW-Stout (9-8-2, 4-8-0 NCHA, 1-7-0 WIAC) will be at
St. Scholastica (7-12-1, 3-9-1 NCHA), Friday, Jan 25 for a 7 p.m. game, then will host
UW-Superior (11-8-1, 6-6-1 NCHA, 5-3-1 WIAC), Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. The weekend games begins the final one-third of the conference schedule.
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 (9-8-2): The Blue Devils' are one game removed from one of their biggest wins of the season, a 4-3 upset over top-ranked St. Norbert College, Jan. 18. The Blue Devils got two goals from
Kevin O'Donnell and
Tate Rusk in the win. The next afternoon, the Blue Devils fell to the Green Knights, 4-1. Stout is being outshot, 649-519, by their opponents, but are only being outscored, 59-56. The Blue Devils have a power play percentage of 19.4 percent (13-67) and have decent penalty kill percentage of 84.5 percent (15-97). Through 19 games, 17 players have scored goals for the Blue Devils and 20 have recorded at least one point.
Kevin O'Donnell leads the team in scoring with 10 goals and nine assists for 19 points.
Garrett Grimstad and
Joe Beaudette have a team-high 10 assists. Grimstad has 15 points, while Beaudette is one of five players with 13 points. Beaudette has three goals.
Zach Vierling (7-6-13), Sam Carr (5-8-13),
Jason Cohen (5-8-13), and
Jordan Treddinnick (4-9-13) join Beaudette with 13 points. Cohen's plus/minus of +14 is the best on the team, trailed by
O'Donnell, who boasts a +11 rate.
Nick Hopper has an 8-4-2 overall record with a goals against average of 2.55, the best of his career, and a .921 saves percentage. Hopper has played in 847 of the total 1160 minutes of action (70 percent). |
2012-13 Statistics
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE: While it's never been labeled one of the nicest or prettiest venues in sports, the Dunn County Ice Arena has been a comfortable place for the Blue Devils this season. They are 7-2 at home this season, including wins over their only two ranked opponents. Further validating their home ice advantage is their 1-5-2 record away from the Dunn Co. Since the 2006-07 season, UW-Stout is 56-23-5 at the Dunn County Ice Arena.
STOUT'S LAST TIME OUT: St. Norbert College jumped out with early goals in the first and second periods and went on to defeat UW-Stout, 4-1, Saturday at Cornerstone Center. The Blue Devils handed the top-ranked Green Knights the night before, but this time Stout could never get a lead. St. Norbert opened the game with a power play goal by Erik Cooper two minutes into the contest. St. Norbert doubled the score early in the second period when Derek Donohue scored three minutes into the period. The Blue Devils did cut the lead in half when
Jason Cohen scored at 15:39 of the second period, with assists by
Tate Rusk and
Charles Lachance. But St. Norbert returned the game to a two-goal contest less than two minutes later when Sam Higgins scored at 17:08 of the period. The Green Knights got an empty net goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game for the 4-1 win. Stout's
Nick Hopper recorded 34 goals. Mike Martin got the win for the Knights, working the first 35 minutes of the game for eight saves. Stout did come at David Jacobson, who entered in goal for the Green Knights in the second period. Jacobson allowed the single goal and had to record 20 saves. |
Saturday: St. Norbert 4, Stout 1 | Stout withheld a late furious rally by St. Norbert and went on to down the top-ranked Green Knights, 4-3, Friday at Cornerstone Community Center. Holding a 4-1 lead with about six minutes remaining, the Blue Devils saw St. Norbert score two goals within a 10 second time span to narrow the gap to one goal. But Stout goalie
Nick Hopper shut out St. Norbert for the rest of the game to give Stout their sixth win over the Green Knights in the all-time series. Stout's last win over St. Norbert came Feb. 12, 2011, but Stout's last win in Green Bay was Feb. 7, 2009.
Kevin O'Donnell and
Tate Rusk each scored a pair of goals to highlight Stout's offense. O'Donnell scored the first goal of the contest, getting the marker five minutes into the game, with assists by
Danny Ray and
Joe Beaudette.The Green Knights knotted the score at 16:44 of the first period on a goal by Joe Perry. Stout took the lead for good two minutes later when O'Donnell scored his second goal of the night, with assists by
Jake Useldinger and
Jordan Tredinnick. Rusk built on Stout's lead with a goal in the second period and another in the third, the second and third goals of the season for the freshman. With a seemingly comfortable Stout lead late in the game, St. Norbert cut into that comfort zone. Mason Baptisa scored unassisted at 14:45 of the third and Brandon Hoogenboom scored off the ensuing faceoff 10 seconds later. Hopper finished with 29 saves, including 11 in the third period.. |
Friday: Stout 4, St. Norbert 3
SCOUTING ST. SCHOLASTICA (7-12-1, 3-9-1 NCHA): The Saints have put together their best string of hockey over the last four games, going 3-0-1 after opening the calendar year at 1-2 and going 0-3 in December. The Saints have shifted to Tyler Bruggeman in goal over the past four games. Bruggeman had been the goalie of record only once previous, that a 6-4 loss to UW-Superior in October. Bruggeman has a 3-1-1 overall record and has played 416 minutes. He has a GAA of 3.31 with a saves percentage of .889. Colin Rundell, who was in goal both times against the Blue Devils earlier in the season, has a GAA of 3.54 and a saves percentage of .893. Brandon Nowakowski leads the Saints with 10 goals and eight assists. Brother Dylan Nowakowski leads the team in assists with 12 and has three goals. Brett Corcoran (6-10-16), Brandan Kotyk (7-8-15), Tyler Miller (4-10-14), Alex Valenti (6-6-12) and Paul Marcoux (6-5-11) are among the Saints's scoring leaders. The Saints have a power play percentage of 18.8 percent (18-96) and a penalty kill percentage of 75.3 (23-93). |
2012-13 Statistics
ST. SCHOLASTICA'S LAST TIME OUT: The Saints lost to UW-Superior, Thursday, Jan. 24, 4-3, in Duluth, Minn.. A night after finishing off UW-River Falls, 5-2, in convincing fashion, the Saints gave up three unanswered goals and had to settle for a 3-3 tie with the Falcons, Jan. 19. In the series opener, clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Saints scored two goals in the final six minutes of the game. In the tied game, the Saints scored three first period goals and kept the Falcons silent for the first two period before River Falls erupted for three third period goals. |
St. Scholastica 5, River Falls 3 |
St. Scholastica 3, River Falls 3
THE SERIES: Stout leads the series, 23-14-5. Over the past five games, the series is tied at 2-2-1, but the Saints eliminated Stout last year from the NCHA playoffs.
LAST TIME THEY MET (Dec. 1, 2013/Nov 30, 2013): Stout swept the series in Menomonie, winning 2-1, Nov. 30 and 5-2 Dec. 1 at the Dunn County Ice Arena.
Zach Vierling scored the winner 53 seconds into overtime in the 2-1 win. Vierling scored twice the following day. |
Stout 2, St. Scholastica 1 |
Stout 5, St. Scholastica 2
SCOUTING UW-SUPERIOR (11-8-1, 6-6-1 NCHA): The Yellowjackets broke a five-game losing streak that stretched back to Jan. 5, when they defeated St. Scholastica, 4-3, in Duluth, Minn,. Thursday night. The Yellowjackets are led by Pat Dalbec, who is among the scoring leaders in the NCHA. The junior has amassed 14 goals and 12 assists. Joey Massingham and Jeff Forsythe have each counted 12 assists. Massingham has nine goals, while Forsythe, a defenseman, has four goals. The Yellowjackets have 18 players who have scored at least one goal and 24 players who have scored at least one point this season. Drew Strandberg has worked 15 games for the Yellowjackets and has a GAA of 2.85, with a saves percentage of 87.2 percent. Ryan Pinoniemi has worked the last two games and has a GAA of 2.97 and a saves percentage or 87.7 percent. Dennis Nordmark has worked three games, with a GAA of 3.80 and a saves percentage of 81.1 percent. |
2012-13 Statistics
UW-SUPERIOR'S LAST TIME OUT: Josh Kesler scored two third period goals to lift the Yellowjackets over St. Scholastica, 4-3, Thursday night in Duluth, Minn. The Yellowjackets held a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, but the Saints' Brett Corcoran tied the score, 2-2, with a goal two minutes into the third stanza. Kesler scored unassisted at 9:03 to break the tie, then put Superior up for good at 14:14 with an assist by Michael Rey. The Saints got a power play goal from Dave Williams with three minutes left to pull to within one goal. Scholastica pulled their goalie with about a minute left to go with the extra attacker, but could not force overtime. Ryan Pinomeini made 27 saves in the win. The Saints' Tyler Bruggeman had 29 saves. Last weekend, the Yellowjackets were swept by UW-Eau Claire, falling 5-2, Jan. 18, and 3-1, Jan. 19. |
Superior 4, St. Scholastica 3 |
Eau Claire 5, Superior 2 |
Eau Claire 3, Superior 1
THE SERIES: Superior leads the series, 49-16-4, and have gone 3-2-0 over the last five meetings.
LAST TIME WHEN THEY MET (Nov. ): The teams both won on their own ice when the teams played in November. Stout took a 4-1 win in Menomonie, Nov. 16, but Superior came back the following night to take a 6-4 win. In Stout's 4-1 win, the Blue Devils scored the first four goals of the game, with
Sam Carr and
Garrett Grimstad scoring power play goals in the first period and
Zach Vierling and
Kevin O'Donnell scoring even-strength goals in the second. In Superior, the Yellowjackets jumped out to a 4-1 lead after two period, but Stout stormed back to tie the game in the third period. Cody Hotchkin scored the game winner at 13:03 of the third period and Tanner Dion notched an empty net goal. |
Stout 4, Superior 1 |
Superior 6, Stout 4
USCHO.com POLL: The Blue Devils received eight votes in the Jan. 21 USHCO.com poll, while UW-Superior received 17 votes and are ranked 16th. Stout is ranked 19th with the eight votes. Six of the seven NCHA teams have received votes and all all five WIAC teams have received votes. St. Norbert is ranked second (275 votes), UW-Eau Claire sixth (206), Superior 16th (17), UW-Stevens Point 17th (13) and UW-Stout 19th (8).
THE NCHA: The end of the regular season is quickly approaching, with only six games left for the seven teams. The quarterfinals of the NCHA tournament are set to begin Feb. 15-16, with the quarter-finals of the Peters Cup. The semi-final is Feb. 23 and the championship game is March 2. St. Norbert and UW-Eau Claire are tied for the top spot with identical 9-2-1 conference records and 19 points. The top seeded team receives a first round bye in the tournament, and the second, third and fourth place teams will host a quarterfinal game. Heading into the week, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Superior are tied for third with 5-6-1 records (11 pts). UW-River Falls (3-6-3, 9 pts) is in fifth, UW-Stout (4-8-0, 8 pts) is sixth and St. Scholastica (3-8-1, 7 pts). Superior moved into second with their win over St. Scholastica.
THE WIAC: The WIAC is just as tight, but the order flips around a bit. Stevens Point (4-2-1, 9 pts) and Superior (4-3-1, 9 pts) are tied for first, Eau Claire (4-2-0, 8 pts) and River Falls (3-3-2, 8 pts) are tied for third and Stout (1-7-0, 2 pts) is fifth. The WIAC has no conference tournament, but with the demise of the NCHA after this season, the WIAC will play a tournament format beginning in the 2013-14 season.
RECORDS AND MILESTONES: 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 eight assists, and nine 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 169 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 21 more. He needs 31 minutes to move into elite company, as the 200-minute club is currently occupied by just three Blue Devils.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Tate Rusk was named the UW-Stout athlete of the week Jan. 22 after scoring two goals and one assists in a weekend split with top-ranked St. Norbert College...
Kevin O'Donnell was named the WIAC player of the week, Jan. 8, after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against Hamline University and scoring two goals the day before against Bethel University...
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 (206-224-28) 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
. St. Scholastica: Mark Wik is in his ninth season with the Saints.
UW-Superior:
Dan Stauber is in his 13th year as the coach of the Yellowjackets.
THE CONFERENCES: Stout, St. Schoalstica and UW-Superior are both members of the seven-team Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA). Stout is a member 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 existence of the NCHA.
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 returned to the poll after a win over top-ranked St. Norbert, Jan. 18, garnering eight votes in the Jan. 21 poll, effectively ranking the Blue Devils 19th. |
USCHO.com Division III poll
UP NEXT: Stout will be at UW-River Falls, Thursday, Jan. 31, then return home to finish the regular season with a three-game homestand, beginning Friday, Feb. 1 when the Blue Devils host UW-Eau Claire at 7:30 p.m.
