This past weekend out west was a fun one as we wrap things up in the regular season. We had a huge series out on Adrian to essentially determine the NCHA regular-season champion, determining home-ice for the playoffs. We also saw Gustavus and Hamline go at it in the MIAC, another pair of teams looking to make the NCAA push. We also look ahead to the biggest WIAC matchup of the year thus far.
Here’s your week 15 recap, showcasing some notable events!
#5 Adrian vs St. Norbert (Adrian 2-1 & 7-1)
These two have battled back-and-forth the past few years, Adrian winning the last 24 games between the two, which doesn’t always show the whole story in terms of St. Norbert’s recent breakthrough as a true NCHA contender, but for now, the NCHA remains through Adrian.
Game two was a blowout, featuring six 2nd period goals (one from Norbert and five from Adrian). Adrian went up 2-0 after the 1st, 7-1 after the 2nd, and scored a trio of powerplay goals.
Game one was a close matchup, 2-1 was the final in favor of the Bulldogs, but this is more what we came to expect in the series. Funny enough, all goals in this game were scored on the powerplay, considering the game had nine penalties on SNC and six on Adrian, not a shocker we saw a special teams showing.
Adrian outshot Norbert 43-23, SNC goaltender Brynn Waisman despite the loss, made 41 saves, while Adrian goalie Michaela O’Brien made 22. The winning goal in this one came from Maya Roy in the last minute of regulation (19:13.5), giving her Bulldogs the win and nearing them closer to the eventual regular-season title.
Adrian with the sweep, had won the NCHA regular-season title once again. The playoffs will run through Adrian assuming Adrian gets out of round one which is a near-lock based on how things have gone so far. Hopefully this year the weather doesn’t take out the power at Arrington ice Arena and the games can be played on the originally intended date.
#2 Gustavus vs Hamline (Gustavus 3-1 & 2-1)
Gustavus, the defending MIAC & NCAA champions, have been in a battle as of late, not showing the dominance of last season, but still of course are a tournament contender. Hamline on the other hand, is looking to get back to their glory seasons featuring numerous NCAA tournaments and a finals appearance in 2018 where they fell to Norwich in the semifinals.
Both games were close, like our last one in Adrian, a game-winner was scored in the final minute of the game (19:47.2).
Game one: This one featured a pair of goals by each team in the 1st & 3rd period of the game, both teams taking the 2nd period off from scoring. Gustavus’ Sophia Coltvet scored midway through at 11:11 and her teammate Hannah Gray netted a powerplay goal at 17:42, making it 2-0 Gusties after a full 20.
Hamline would then come back as mentioned, Elizabeth Valley at 12:19 and Sydney Lemke at 17:31, both scoring at near the same times as Gustavus in the opening frame. It was then the hero for Gustavus, Emily Olson, scoring in the final 13 seconds of the game to get the Gusties closer to another MIAC regular-season title with home-ice for the playoffs.
Game two: Like the first game, it was close, but the Gusties got the better of it in the end, scoring three unanswered and essentially locking up the MIAC regular-season title unless some shocking events occur in back-to-back weekends for them.
Hannah Gray opened it up 9:29 into the opening period which ended 1-0. Gustavus added a pair in the 2nd, Hailey Holland (7:44) & Macy Janssen (8:42), making it 3-0. Morgan Wohlers would tally one late in the 3rd at 15:29, but it wasn’t enough at that point. Gusties take it 3-1 and complete the MIAC sweep.
Game Preview: #1 UW-River Falls vs #6 UW-Eau Claire
Tonight February 7, 2023, at 7:05pm CST in River Falls, the year-in and year-out top duo in the WIAC will face for the second time this season, River Falls winning the first game early in the season 5-2 in Eau Claire. These teams will also face off for the final game of the regular season on Saturday February 17 in Eau Claire.
Eau Claire (17-4-0) and River Falls (23-0-0) have had their battles of course, RF sitting with a two-game win streak, while the Blugolds have been known to take a few games from the Falcons each year.
The WIAC is the least of the issues in this game for both teams, more importantly the Blugolds, who sit in 7th currently in Pairwise (as of 2/7/24) and cannot receive an auto bid due to the six-team league minimum for an auto bid. The Falcons look to be a lock unless the world ends and they lose their remaining games.
Story of this game would seem to be special teams and goaltending, River Falls entering at the top, or near the top of most statistical categories, with Laura Hurd frontrunner Maddie McCollins leading the country in points (all stats via USCHO) at 54 (28G, 26A) and her teammates Megan Goodreau in 3rd with 42 (14G, 28A) and Alex Hantge T-5 with 35 (12G, 23A). Sophie Rausch for Eau Claire sits in 4th, she’s got 36 points through 21 games (20G, 16A).
Goaltending has been a strength of River Falls, however, with a team like that in front of you, it’ll certainly help their stats, but nevertheless, starter Jordan O’Connor is 15-0-0 with a .948 save%.
Meanwhile for the Blugolds, we’ve got Josie Mathison & Alexa Backmann splitting time. Beckman with a 9-2-0 record, Mathison with 8-2-0. We’ve seen some shaky play at times, against River Falls, that cannot happen or they’ll end it quite briskly.
Eau Claire needs to play their most complete game of the season tonight and then in the regular season finale and take at least one of them if they want to keep their NCAA at-large hopes alive with all the upsets happening out east. Anything can happen, it should be fun.
