Monday, February 11, 2008

Happy Hockey Monday!

Happy Hockey Monday Wildcat Nation!

Woooo!

What a weekend!

Mike Radja puts up 4 goals (a hat-trick, all three goals in Friday's game, plus one the next night) and 2 assists up in Orono. That brings his scoring to 6 goals and a 6 assists in the last 6 games! And 9 goals, 10 assists in his last 9! Whew!

And you can't overlook the contributions of our Captain who has 4 goals and 5 assists in the last 5 games and 5 goals, 12 assists in the last 11! Good enough for 11th in all of Division I!

Kevin Regan tops all Hockey East goaltenders in every in-conference stat and is only ever-so-slightly behind a couple in GAA overall. His .925 save-percentage is good enough for 10th in Division I college hockey - among a VERY stingy field. And amongst all goalies Kevin Regan sees the most vulcanized rubber per game, a near ridiculous, 28 shots per game. For comparison, the top five ranked goalies average just 23 shots per game with the highest at just 24 shots per game.

All in all, a great effort by our 'Cats as we look to close the regular season in the next four weeks. I'm certainly looking forward to this weekend's match-up with Providence College. One of my pre-season favorites for a home ice spot the Friars have lived up to, well at least my billing. They've been getting excellent goaltending from Tyler Sims and we fought them, or more accurately, Paul Thompson and James vanRiemsdyk fought them to overtime for the victory earlier in the season. But we're a different team now. Providence has always been a tough team but I think that they're going to see a really tough Wildcat team that will present a different look than before. We've got the fire in our belly and the chip on our shoulder and we're not going to back down and we will punish you.

Well, on to the pros where Ty Conklin improved to 14-3-3 and is still ranked first in save-percentage in the NHL with a win over James vanRiemsdyk's future team, the Philadelphia Flyers. And speaking of the National League, Daniel Winnik recorded another goal yesterday giving him 7 on the year. Combined with his 9 assists, good enough for a solid 9th in scoring on the Phoenix Coyotes roster in his rookie NHL season and just his second, full professional season.

Jason Krog is pulling away in the race for the American Hockey League scoring title. Some of his competition has been called-up to the NHL but he has maintained his great scoring pace and is currently at 24 goals, 48 assists for 72 points in 49 games.

Teammate Darren Haydar, last year's scoring champion, has been snake bitten recently but has a very respectable 27 points in 22 games.

Bryan Muir has continued to battle injury but has put together a string of very nice games lately from the blueline. He's cobbled together and incredible +16 rating in 25 games this season along with a goal and eleven assists!

Garrett Stafford returned from injury and had an assist in his first game back. He has 5 goals and 16 assists in 43 games maintaining his nearly .5 points per game professional average over his 5 year career thus far.

In the ECHL, to round out this cursory look at our Professional Wildcats, it's the goaltenders who are coming on strong.

Mike Ayers with his Charlotte Checkers and Jeff Pietrasiak now with the Texas Wildcatters have both put up phenomenal numbers themselves lately. Both winning in their last game.

Upfront, Kevin Truelson, Sean Collins (returning from a brief absence), and Preston Callander continue to put up excellent numbers. Of the rest I would note Andrew Leach who never really played a lot in the Blue and White but contributes mightily to his Trenton Devils. He has 5 goals and 8 assists in 43 games - that's near his career numbers at the University of New Hampshire, 6 goals, 10 assists in 93 games.

Time to get this post out to Wildcat Nation!

If anyone reading has any men's Wildcat Hockey News they'd like to share, be sure to comment. And if there's anything else you would like to let Wildcat Nation know go ahead and send it in and if it passes muster I'll be sure to pass it along!

Go 'Cats!

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