NCAA March Madness!!! Stout at Tommies
MENOMONIE (March 10, 2008) - The UW-Stout hockey team earned their first ever NCAA bid Sunday. Stout secured one of the three at-large bids and was the number three team in the west region. St. Norbert and St. Thomas both made it by winning their conference playoffs. Stout will take on St. Thomas on Wednesday, March 12 at the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minn. Game time is at 7 p.m. and tickets will be available for sale starting Tuesday, March 11 at 8 a.m. at the UW-Stout Athletic Office. The Blue Devils moved up to ninth in the USCHO Division III poll this week.
UW-STOUT BLUE DEVILS: Derek Hanson (So, Bemidji, Minn) leads the team in scoring with 21 goals and 41 points. 13 of his goals have come on the power-play and he also leads the team in game winning goals with five. Joel Gaulrapp (So, Owatonna, Minn) is second on the team in scoring with 18 goals and 35 points, he also has ten power-play goals. Jack Wolgemuth (Jr, Anchorage, Alaska) has the team high 23 assists, for a total of 30 points and is the Blue Devils highest scoring defenseman. Scott Motz (So, Lake Elmo, Minn) has 21 assists for a total of 29 points. Mike Stone (Sr, West St. Paul, Minn) is now 7-4-2 on the year and has a 2.12 GAA and .922 save percentage.
LAST TIME OUT: Luke Schroeder (Sr, Minneapolis, Minn) had a goal and assist in the 4-3 overtime loss to St. Norbert's in the NCHA Championship game on Saturday, March 8. The Blue Devils battled back from a 2-0 deficit to go up 3-2 with 15 minutes left in the third period. Brad Herman tied the game back up for the Green Knights to send it to overtime. Mike Stone and Kyle Jones were busy in their nets by making 35 and 31 saves respectively. NCHA all-conference selection Marc Belanger got the game winning goal with 2:57 left in overtime. Motz and Robert Carr (Fr, Roseau, Minn) also had goals.
MARCH MADNESS: This is the first time in program history that UW-Stout has made it to the NCAA tournament.
NCHA/WIAC HONORS: The Blue Devils had five players named to the NCHA team this season. Joel Gaulrapp and Jack Wolgemuth were named to the 13-person first team. Wolgemuth earned this honor last season as well. Derek Hanson, Bobby Kuehl and Mike Stone were on the honorable-mention squad. Kuehl earned this same award last season, while Stone was on the first-team squad a year ago. Gaulrapp and Wolgemuth were WIAC first team selections, while Hanson, Kuehl and Stone were named to the honorable mention squad, along with Andy Sternberg. Sternberg was also named to the All-Sportsmanship team.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS: Seven Blue Devils were named to the NCHA All-Academic team. To be on this you must have at least a 3.2 GPA and a minimum of 50 credits. Jeff DeFrancesca (Sr, Mt. Prospect, Illinois), Jake Erickson (Sr, Rochester, Minn), Andrew Hasbargen (Jr, Warroad, Minn), Luke Schroeder (Sr, Minneapolis, Minn), Scott Sikkink (Sr, Chippewa Falls), Glenn Walker (Sr, Verona) and Jeff Wheeler (Jr, Bainbridge, Washington) all earned this honor. DeFrancesca, Schroeder and Walker have all earned this award three years.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: St. Thomas: Has a 19-6-2 overall record and finished second in the MIAC with a 11-4-1 record. Their power-play is running at 26 percent and they are killing at 88.6 percent. They are scoring on average 4.22 goals/game and giving up 2.13 goals/game. The Tommies are ranked sixth in the latest USCHO.com poll.
TOMMIES LAST TIME OUT: St. Thomas beat Hamline 4-1 in the MIAC playoffs championship game one week ago on March 5. Four different Tommies scored and Tyler Chestnut made 19 saves. Nick Nelson and Ryan Hoehn each had a goal and an assist. St. Thomas went 0 for 5 on the power-play.
JUST THE STATS: St. Thomas: Nick Pernula leads the team in scoring with 41 points, assists with 29 and power-play goals with 6. Nate Ryan is first on the team in goals with 20 and second in points with 39. Tyler Chestnut has seen 1520:30 minutes of time in the net and has posted a 17-6-2 record with a 2.13 GAA, .907 save percentage and notched 4 shut outs. Five St. Thomas players were named to the MIAC all-conference team, which included Pernula, Ryan, Chestnut, Andrew Panchenko and Adam Davis. Rob Johnson was named to the MIAC rookie team. The four Tommies named to the honorable-mention squad were, Garrett Gruenke, who was also named to the all-sportsmanship team, John Jacques, Johnson and Tom Knutson.
THE COACHES: Terry Watkins (140-170-18) is in his 11th 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. Watkins had a Hall of Fame career at Stout as a defenseman. Terry Skrypek (389-171-38) is in his 21st season as head coach for the Tommies. In 2005, he was name NCAA Division III Coach of the Year. His teams have won 12 MIAC Championships and have made it to the NCAA playoffs 9 times. He coached Hill-Murray high school to 17 winning seasons. During his playing days he was a stand out player for St. Mary's.
TWO TERRY'S: These coaches have a lot of history with each other since they have known each other since 1962 and graduated from the same high school in 1966.
LAST TIME THEY MET: The Blue Devils battled back from a 3-1 deficit to tie St. Thomas 3-3 back on Nov. 20. Joel Gaulrapp scored the second and third goal with assists from Derek Hanson on both and Scott Motz on one. Matt Koenig (Jr, Lakeland, Minn) made 36 saves in the tie. Tyler Chestnut made 22 saves for the Tommies and Adam Davis, Nick Pernula, and Alex Coles all had goals.
THE SERIES: Stout is 7-4-1 against St. Thomas and has gone 4-0-1 against the Tommies in the last five meetings.
THE CONFERENCES: UW-Stout is a member of the eight-team Northern College Hockey Association (NCHA) and 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. The NCHA includes the five WIAC schools as well as St. Norbert, St. Scholastica and Lake Forest. The NCHA also has a seven-member women's league. St. Thomas is a member of the nine-team Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).
DROPPING THE GLOVES: The Blue Devils were able to raise over $1000 for the American Cancer Society during their Dropping the Gloves in the Fight Against Cancer Night. Blue Devil hockey and its supporters greatly appreciate your help and generosity in support of a cause they are passionate about. The American Cancer Society is a nonprofit organization that is committed to fighting cancer through programs of research, education, patient service, advocacy, and rehabilitation.
HOCKEY HUMANITARIAN: UW-Stout's Jeff DeFrancesca (Sr, Mt. Prospect, Ill) is one of eight finalists for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented by BNY Mellon Wealth Management. The 13th annual recipient of the award will be named at the 2008 NCAA Division I Frozen Four at a ceremony in conjunction with the NCAA Skills Competition and the Hobey Baker Memorial Award on Friday, April 11 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo.
UP NEXT: The winner of this NCAA play in game will head to Green Bay to take on St. Norbert on Saturday, March 15; game time is at 7 p.m. The winner of that agme will head to the NCAA Division III Championships which will be held in Lake Placid, New York, March 21-23.
ON THE AIR: All UW-Stout home hockey games will be broadcast either by Blue Devil Radio or Blue Devil Video, with Tom Coyne on the play-by-play and Matt Kaskavitch handling color commentary. All home hockey games will also be available on Live Stats. Links to opponents' broadcast streaming media will be provided for Stout away games, if available.