Hockey Preview: Stout to host first year Aurora, Friday, Saturday

Blue Devil home games: Live Stats | Live Video vs. Aurora University Friday | Live Video vs. Aurora Saturday          


THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (5-9-1, 2-2-0 WIAC) had their thiree-game winning streak ended with a 4-2 loss at  St. John's University (8-5-4, 4-3-1 MIAC) Tuesday. Stout will turn their attention to their final non-conference opponent of the season when they return home to entertain first year program Aurora University,  (1-13-1) Friday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m  and again Saturday, Jan. 24 at 4 p.m.

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 will also be available for home games.

THE 2014-15 BLUE DEVILS (5-9-1, 2-2-0 WIAC): The Blue Devils saw their three game winning streak come to an end Tuesday night. Justin Moody leads the Blue Devils with a eam-best eight goals and has five assists for 13 points. Jake Useldinger has five goals and a team-best seven assists. Joey Haydock has six assists to go with three goals. Senior captain Jordan Tredinnick matches Haydock's six assists and has a pair of goals. Forward Tyler Cayemberg has five assists and four goals. Craig Lindegard has four goals and four assists, while Danny Ray has three goals and four assists.  Shayne McLaughlin scored against St. John's to raise his goal totals to three goals. The Blue Devils have gotten goals from 15 different players, assists from 16 different players and total points from 19 different players. The Blue Devils are a young team with four seniors, two juniors, 13 sophomores and six freshmen. Defenseman Tredinnick returns as the team's leading scorer. All three goalies on the roster have seen time between the pipes, but Spencer Viele has now worked 11 starts and has a GAA of 3.67, with a saves percentage of .893. Chase Hollander, after a solid weekend over UW-Superior, has started four games and has seen action in seven games, with a saves percentage of .899 and a GAA of 4.17. Gustav Griborn has seen limited action, with a GAA of 5.26. | Blue Devil Statistics

PENALTY FREE: When Jordan Tredinnick was whistled for tripping against Concordia University, Jan. 10,  it was the first time he was sent to the penalty box since Jan. 31, 2013 against UW-River Falls. That is 42 consecutive games without getting an inside view of the penalty box.

LENDING AN ASSIST: When Chase Hollander was awarded an assist for his pass as Danny Ray scored against UW-Superior, Jan. 17, he was not the first Stout goalie, and won't be the last, to get an assist. Since the Blue Devil hockey program returned to varsity play during the 1996-97 season, six goalies, including Hollander, have earned at least one assist. Corey Koop did it last year. Jeff Stone during the 2008-09 season, and Jake Schuman during the 2004-05 season each recorded an assist. Jeff Dotson did it in 2000-01 as a freshman, then did it again as a senior in 2003-04. Kelly Elde did it twice during the 1996-97 season.

POWER PLAY: Even with the fewest wins in the league, the Blue Devils are competitive on the power play and rank second in the league in number of power play goals with 14. Only UW-River Falls has more (20). Craig Lindegard has three power play goals, and Joey Haydock, Danny Ray and Tyler Cayemberg each have two. The Blue Devils have a power play pecentage of 22.6, again second behind River Falls (33.9 percent). Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they have also given up the most power play goals in the league with 15 for a penalty kill of 79.1 percent. The Blue Devils are also second in the league in shorthanded goals with three. UW-Eau Claire has four. Jake Useldinger has two shorthanded goals and Jordan Stejskal has one. But conversely, the Blue Devils have given up six shorthanded goals and no other WIAC team has given up more than one.

STOUT'S LAST TIME OUT:  The Blue Devils were coming off a weekend conference sweep of UW-Superior, but then dropped a 4-2 decision to St. John's University Tuesday night. The Johnnies outshot Stout by a nearly 2 to 1 margin (44-24). The Johnnies opened the scoring in the first, but Stout's Tyler Cayemberg scored a power play goal midway through the second period. The Johnnies tacked on another goal and Stout pulled to within 3-2 on Shayne McLaughlin's third period goal. The Blue Devils picked up their first two conference wins with a weekend sweep of UW-Superior. Chase Hollander had a solid weekend in goal, getting both wins. Hollander posted his first collegiate shutout with 2-0 win Jan. 16 at the Dunn County Ice Arena, then came back in Superior with a 3-2 win. Hollander recorded 37 saves in the shutout, then nabbed 36 saves in the rematch.  Justin Moody scored in each game. Derek Sand scored his first collegiate goal in the opener. Trailing 2-0 midway through the first period in Superior, Hollander recorded an assist on Stout's first goal by Danny Ray.  Moody tied the game in the third period and Matt Millis got the game winner with a few minutes remaining in the game. Hollander was selected as the WIAC and the UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual athlete of the week.  | Game One Story and Box Score | Game Two Story and Box Score


SCOUTING AURORA UNIVERSITY: The Spartans have played a number of WIAC and MIAC teams, this season, playing UW-River Falls tough the weekend of Jan. 2-3, falling to the nationally ranked Falcons, 4-3, 3-1, in River Falls. Aurora's only win of the season came over St. Mary's University, a 6-3 win in Geneva, Ill. Aurora is actually carrying two men's hockey programs, the NCAA level team, both varsity and junior varsity, and a club team that participtes in the ACHA. The games with the Blue Devils are the final games of the season for the NCAA program. Rihards Marenis leads the Spartans in points with six goals and nine assists. Michael Mikulan and Trevor Hoth have each scored six goals. Mikulan has eight assists and Hoth six.  Ryan Davlantes has eight assists. Six goalies have seen action throughout the season, with Griffin Strain starting a team-high seven games. Strain has a saves percentage of .878 and a GAA of 4.89. The Spartans are being outscored 5.4-2.6.    |  Spartan Statistics

AURORA'S LAST TIME OUT: The University of St. Thomas outshot the Spartans 50-25 in a 4-1 win, Sunday, Jan. 18 in St. Paul, Minn. The Tommies jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Rihards Merinas put the Spartans on the board five minutes into the second period.  Matt Bartells made 46 saves for Aurora.  | Box Score

LAST TIME WHEN STOUT AND AURORA MET: This is the first meeting between the two teams.


SCOUTING ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY:  Neal Smith has six goals to lead the Johnnies, and he also has four assists. John Haeg is the points leader with five goals and nine assists. Tyler Dunagan and Huba Sekesi each have five goals. Nick Vatnsdal  has seven assists along with his three goals. Saxton Soley  has the majority of time in net, posting a 6-3-4 record with a GAA of 1.94 and a saves percentage of 93.7. | Johnnies Statistics

ST. JOHN'S LAST TIME OUT: The Johnnies lost a weekend conference series of games in Moorhead, Minn., to Concordia University. The Cobbers took the first game in overtime, 3-2, then controlled the Johnnies, 4-0. In the opener, the Cobbers jumped out to a 2-0 lead. John Haeg scored twice in the second period to tie the score. The Cobbers won the contest midway through the overtime period. Saxton Soley had 26 saves for the Johnnies, Jordan Kaufer 16 for the Cobbers. In the rematch, the Cobbers scored two goals in each the second and third periods. | Game One Story and Statistics | Game Two Story and Statistics

LAST TIME WHEN STOUT AND ST. JOHN'S MET:  UW-Stout matched St. John's University goal-for-goal, but then allowed two power play goals within five minutes of playing time and the Johnnies carried a 5-3 win out of the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center Jan. 9 2014.  |  Game Story and Stats

THE SERIES: St. John's  leads the series,11-5-1.


USCHO.com TOP 15 DIVISION III POLL: UW-Stout ranked opponents include: UW-Stevens Point (6th); UW-Eau Claire (14th); UW-River Falls (3rd); Lake Forest (15th) St. Thomas (13th)

TEAM CAPTAINS: Captains for the 2014-15 season include Jordan Tredinnick, Jake Useldinger and Tate Rusk.

AWARDS AND HONORS: Chase Hollander was selected as the WIAC and UW-Stout athlete of the week after sweeping UW-Superior Jan. 16 and Jan. 17...Spencer Viele was selected the WIAC player of the week Nov. 25 after recording wins over Finlandia (4-1) and Lawrence (2-1)...Jordan Tredinnick was a WIAC honorable mention choice in 2013-14.

THE COACHES: UW-Stout: Terry Watkins (220-259-29) 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. St. John's: Doug Schueller is in his seventh year with the Johnnies. Aurora University: Ryan Buchanan was tabbed to run the Spartan Hockey program in the summer of 2012. He joined the Aurora University athletics staff in the fall of 2007 as the events manager and assistant baseball coach. He was given the distinction of building the AU hockey program from the start as a ACHA program to the debut as an NCAA program for the 2014-2015 season. In his first two seasons ruhning the bench for the Spartans he holds a 35-12-1 overall record and reached the ACHA National Tournament in 2014.

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.

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 be at UW-Eau Claire, Friday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Jan. 31. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.