Tuesday, February 18, 2014

UPSET anyone? its that time where it normally will happen.

First potential upsets are in place.  Feeling the sting of having been swept by BGHS for the first time in a while, the Trojans are out looking, as they do every year, to make some playoff noise.  I awoke this morning with that thought in my head and it keeps circling back around and around.  Tonight at 6pm at TamOshanter, I believe Findlay will upset the Knights of St. Francis.  No good reason other than historically some one always gets upset, and Findlay is always strongest in these games.

The only other truly upset game, has yet to be arranged and that would be Liberty over St. Charles in Columbus.

In WCHA hockey the Bowling Green Falcons look to be in a death spiral.  A tie and a humiliating loss to Alaska, is now being followed what should be even more humiliation at the hands of Team USA 18U, in a game that does not count in the season.  The real story here are the  four games that follow (2 at Northern, 2 home vs Bemidji)  loosing here will see the Falcons fall to 9th place RAPIDLY from 5th and be out of ALL post season play.  The WCHA is exceptional tight this year, with Alabama not winning anything.  Leaving a 7 team log jam from 3rd place down, where  all teams are with in two wins of each other. While the WCHA is arguably the weakest NCAA D1 conference, it is currently about the most exciting overall, heading in to the close. The best team in the WCHA is Ferris State is ranked 6th in the nation, with no other WCHA teams receiving votes.
In overall college hockey action, Dalton Carter and the U Mass Lowell River Hawks remain in 7th place this week.  Mychal Montith and Merchurst remain in First Place in the Atlantic Conference.

In EHL news, the  Philadelphia Little Flyers won their division and are closing in on 2nd overall  heading in to the play offs.  Lots of Ohio talent on this Little Flyers team, and head Coach Rocky Russo is pushing them every step of the way.  Zach Felser remains in 4th place in scoring with 17 goals and 39 assits for 56pts.  What is exciting here is that it is not a one man show.  the Flyers have scoring every where you look

# PLAYER P GP G A PTS PIM PP PPA SH SHA GWG
15 Felser, Zach   F 41 17 39 56 41 3 14 1 1 2
10 MacIntyre, Jesse   RW 39 24 19 43 20 6 7 1 0 3
12 Warner, Jude   LW 39 14 21 35 76 2 7 2 0 4
22 Gannon, Drew   F 24 15 15 30 24 6 2 0 1 2
28 Potemkin, Oleg   LW 32 12 17 29 45 5 4 0 0 1
9 Majul, Hector   RW 29 16 10 26 27 5 2 0 0 3
27 Chuckran, Gabe   D 37 3 20 23 8 1 8 0 0 0
7 Grahl, Troy   D 32 5 15 20 40 2 7 0 0 1
14 Kelly, Austin   C 39 9 10 19 10 3 3 0 0 2
26 Day, Matt   D 36 2 15 17 22 0 5 0 1 0
17 Berry, Cameron   F 9 8 7 15 2 2 1 0 1 1
3 Browning, Beau   D 35 1 10 11 37 0 1 0 1 1
16 Gielarowski, Stephen   C 20 3 7 10 12 0 1 0 0 1
21 Woods, Colin   C 41 6 2 8 29 0 0 0 1 0
19 Racicot, Andrew   LW 34 1 6 7 32 0 0 0 0 0
5 Gallagher, Garrett   D 32 2 4 6 38 1 2 1 0 0
25 Pierce, Cole   D 10 0 6 6 6 0 2 0 0 0
24 Rigsby, Chase   RW 29 2 2 4 39 0 0 0 0 1
23 Lukenda, Carter   F 6 1 3 4 16 0 0 0 0 0
18 Nugent, John   F 4 1 2 3 14 0 0 0 0 1
11 Bandura, Austin   RW 25 0 2 2 10 0 0 0 0 0






The Flyers have 3 season games remaining.  Then enter the EHL playoffs.  Open Tryouts for the Little Flyers have been announced, April 11th-13th.  Check in at the ICE WORKS Aston PA, 4pm Friday the 11th.  Preregistration  IS required and that application can be found here Little Flyers Tryout aplication


In the NAHL, Nolan Culver and the Minnesota Wilderness advanced to 28W13L 6OTL for 62pts and are solid 3rd in the NAHL rankings.  Culver has 3 goals 8 assist and 41 PIM.  he has really identified himself as PK specialist,  helping the Wilderness maintain their #1 ranked PK at 93.82% this season.  Having shut down 178 Power play attempts.  The Wilderness are closing out their season with 12 more regular season games to play, before entering the post season.