Hockey Preview: Stout to host Finlandia, Lawrence Friday, Saturday

Live Stats | Live Video | Live Video at Northland

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (0-5-0, 0-0-0 WIAC) will be looking for their first win of the seaaon as they conclude a four game homestand by hosting Finlandia University, Friday, Nov. 21 and Lawrence University (4-2-0, 4-2-0 NCHA), Saturday, Nov. 22. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.  The Blue Devils will play a rare middle of the week game Tuesday, Nov. 25 when they travel to Northland College (1-5-0, 1-5-0 NCHA) in Ashland.

WEBCASTS: All UW-Stout home games are scheduled to be broadcast in a live video stream by Blue Devil Video. Brady Burzynski and Hayden Bowe will be on the call throughout the season. Live Stats should also be available for most home games.

THE 2014-15 BLUE DEVILS (0-5-0, 0-0-0 WIAC): The Blue Devils have gotten balanced scoring, getting goals from 10 different players this year, but each player has one goal apiece. Patrick Regan, Jordan Tredinnick and Jake Useldinger have each scored a goal and have contributed a pair of assists.  Danny Ray, Matt Millis, Tyler Cayemberg, Justin Moody, Riley Colvard, Craig Lindegard and Shayne McLaughlin have each scored a goal, with Cayemberg and Moody adding an assist. Joey Haydock has two assists. The Blue Devils are a young team with four seniors, two juniors, 13 sophomores and six freshmen. Defenseman Jordan Tredinnick returns as the team's leading scorer. All three goalies on the roster have seen time between the pipes. Spencer Viele has worked nearly 200 minutes over four games, with three starts and has a GAA of 3.41, with a saves percentage of .908.  Chase Hollander has started two games and has seen ation in three games, with a saves percentage of .853 and a GAA of 6.68. Gustav Griborn has seen limited action so far, with a GAA of 5.26.. | Blue Devil Statistics

STOUT'S LAST TIME OUT: The Blue Devils could not find the back of the net in a 4-0 loss to St.Thomas last Saturday. The Tommies managed to score on the power play, shorthanded, even strength and with an empty net.  Spencer Viele made 34 saves for the Blue Devils, who were outshot,  38-26. Last Friday, Stout scored three third period goals, but it wouldn't be enough as Augsburg College scored four in the final stanza and spoiled Stout's home opener with a 7-3 win over the Blue Devils.. Stout got third period goals from Patrick Regan, Danny Ray and Matt Millis. The goals by Ray and Millis were power play goals. The Blue Devils killed off four of five Augsburg power play opportunities throughout the game.  The Auggies outshot Stout, 46-21, for the game, including a 22-3 advantage in the second period. | Augsburg Story and Box Score | St. Thomas Story and Box Score

FINLANDIA UNIVERSITY: The Lions had one of the most challenging schedules in NCAA Division III to open the season, starting off with No. 2 UW-Stevens Point then a pair games at top  St. Norbert College to open their conference schedule. Finlandia took their lumps early, eking out only one goal during the three games, losing to the Pointers, 11-0, then falling 7-1, 12-0 against the Green Knights. The Lions were poised to do something when eighth ranked St. Schlastica game to town last weekend, and took a 4-3 win over the Saints, then had St. Scholastica on the ropes the following night before before the visitor limped out of town with a 3-2 win. In the first contest with the Saints, Finlandia jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by freshmen Lucas Lahnala and Tim Santopoalo. The Saints cut the lead in half in the second, but Finlandia took a 3-1 lead on a goal by Chuck Marco. Scholastica tied the score with a late second period goal and an early third period goal. The Lions took the lead back on a marker by Justin Scott. four minutes into the third and Andrew Brownlee shut the door, finishing the night with 37 saves. The following night, Jesse Parker scored a pair of goals for the Lions, including the goal to tie the game with three minutes left. But the Saints slipped the puck past Brownlee with just over a minute left to avoid back-to-back upsets.  Parker leads the Lions with two goals and two assists. Brownlee has made 152 saves,with a GAA of 5.73. | Lions Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND FINLANDIA MET: Stout captured a 5-2 win in the teams' only other meeting, Nov. 26, 2005.. | Game Story and Box Score

THE SERIES: Stout leads the series, 1-0-0.

LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY:  The Vikings are scheduled at UW-River Falls, Friday, Nov. 21. Previous to that, they were coming off a sweep over Northland College, taking a 4-2 win the opening night of the series, but then needed overtime to drop the Lumberjacks. 5-4.  The Vikings needed to come from behind to force overtime, scoring twice in the final 1:27 to send the game into OT. The Vikings twice pulled their goalie, and were able to score twice with the extra attacker on the ice. Renato Engler got the game-winner two minutes into overtime. Engler leads the Vikings in points, with three goals and six assists. Blake Roubous leads the team in goals with four and has added four assists. Lawrence has a truly international feel to it's roster. The Vikings have nine players from outside the United States and from five different countries, including three from Canada, three from Sweden and one each from Switzerland, Finland and Austria.   | Viking Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND LAWRENCE MET: The teams last met Oct. 27, 2006, with Stout coming out on top with a 4-1 win. | Game Story and Box Score

THE SERIES: Stout leads the series, 8-0-1. The teams met nine times between the 2001-02 season and the 2006-07 season. The teams played to a 3-3 tie Oct. 30, 2004.

NORTHLAND COLLEGE: The Lumberjacks are scheduled to be at UW-Superior, Friday, Nov. 21, and at UW-River Falls, Saturday, Nov. 22. Northland beat Lake Forest College, 4-3, a team that beat the Blue Devils earlier this season. | Lumberjack Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND NORTHLAND MET: Stout handily won both meetings between the two programs, taking a 9-1 win Oct. 26, 2007, in Menomonie, and an 11-2 win, Nov. 4, 2008, in Ashland.  | Game Story and Box Score

THE SERIES: Stout leads the series, 2-0-0.

USCHO.com TOP 15 DIVISION III POLL: UW-Stout ranked opponents include: UW-Stevens Point (6th); UW-Eau Claire (9th); UW-River Falls (10th); St. John's (15th); St. Thomas, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, receiving votes.

AWARDS AND HONORS: Jordan Tredinnick was a WIAC honorable mention choice in 2013-14.

TEAM CAPTAINS: info coming

THE COACHES: UW-Stout: Terry Watkins (215-256-28) is in his 19th 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. Watkins reached 700 games as the head coach of a UW-Stout hockey team (varsity and club) when the Blue Devils played UW-Stevens Point, Dec. 7, 2013. FINLANDIA UNIVERSITY:   Dane Litke is in his first year as the head coach of the Lions. comes to Finlandia with a head coaching record of 158 wins, 103 losses, and 25 ties in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). During his time in the NAHL, he also coached one National Championship Runner-up and two Division title teams while earning himself an NAHL Coach of the Year honor. Litke played his collegiate hockey at North Dakota from 1993-97, where they won an NCAA Championship in 1997. That same year they were the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) regular season champs and won the Final Five Championship.  Individually, Dane was a two-time captain and was named to the All-Academic Team for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. He also earned All-WCHA Third Team Defenseman in the 1996-97 season. Litke played five seasons of semi-professional hockey, four seasons in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and one season in the Central Hockey League (CHL).   LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY:  Mike Szkodzinski took over the Lawrence University hockey program for the 2006-07 season and is already the most successful coach in Vikings' history. Szkodzinski, who has more wins than any coach in Lawrence history, coached the Vikings to the 2009 Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association North Division title. Lawrence is now one of the up-and-coming programs in Division III hockey. Szkodzinski also has served as Lawrence's director of athletics since July 2009. Szkodzinski came to Lawrence from St. Norbert College, where he had been an assistant with the Green Knights for two seasons.

THE CONFERENCES: UW-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. Finlandia, Lawrence and Northland are members of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (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: The Blue Devils will  take to the road to close out the 2014 calendar year, going to Northland College, Tuesday, Nov. 25, to UW-River Falls, Thursday, Dec. 4 and to UW-Stevens Point, Saturday, Dec. 6., and won't return to the Dunn County Ice Arena until Friday, Jan. 9.