UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

[5thYearFreshman]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Here is an older article regarding his brother's health that may shed some light on why Avery is leaving for "Personal Reasons".

http://mnhockeycoach.sportngin.com/n...rrer_id=644000

[The Exiled One]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

SCSU offered him before UNO offered him. With some other potential developments to SCSU's next incoming class, the Huskies are likely on the shortlist of Avery's potential destinations.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Here is an older article regarding his brother's health that may shed some light on why Avery is leaving for "Personal Reasons".

http://mnhockeycoach.sportngin.com/n...rrer_id=644000

Looking at this article, and the timeline of the events involved, and the fact that his brother's condition is terminal, one could reasonably infer that this is at least partly what this is all about. You could also just as reasonably infer that it isn't.

Current UNO Freshman Forward Steve Spinner is one of Peterson's closest friends. They have known each other and played hockey together since they were little boys. If his leaving is about his brother that makes the whole thing sadder than it already is, since he loses out on playing hockey with his friend in college as well.

Me and Mrs. Red Cows had the pleasure of sitting next to Steve Spinners' sister Shelby and her fiance' at the Saturday night game UNO played against Minnesota State Mankato in Mankato. We talked a bit about her brother's relationship with Avery Peterson, but, THIS topic certainly didn't come up.

Best wishes to Avery Peterson and his family and a prayer for his brother.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Interesting game tonight.

For starters, an astounding turnout considering the Huskers were playing Texas (the most hated program on the planet in Nebraska) on the other side of town at UNO's former home, the CenturyLink Center, for (and winning) the National Championship in Women's volleyball in front of the largest crowd to ever see a volleyball match in North America (to the tune of 17,561). I am sure there will be numerous suicides here tonight since beating Texas for a title in anything on home ground is as good as it gets and numerous Husker fans will off themselves since the pinnacle of their existence has now been achieved.

In the mean time, I was at the UNO hockey game.

Kudos to UNO for continuing to announce fannies in seats instead of tickets sold. On paper, the game was a sellout (outside of student tickets "sold"). That said, I would have guessed the attendance as a fair bit more than the announced attendance. No competition, either, from the Lancers tonight, who were home last night.

UNO won.

Bad news? UNO got NO even strength goals.

Good news? UNO got 3 power play goals out of their horrific power play (out of 3 attempts).

UNO played this game without two of their best players. Jake Guentzel is injured and Frederick Olofsson is in Finland playing with the Swedish National team in World Juniors. And, we lost the 2014 "Mr. Minnesota Hockey" award winner this week as well, which, to a man, was a shock to the entire team, whose brother has a terminal illness.

That said, even though it was 3-1, it was as about as one-sided a 3-1 game as you'll ever see. We "played" the first period and looked bored the rest of the way and played like it. No way is Dean Blais happy about this game. We really got out-hustled for a pretty significant portion of the 2nd period.

ASU needs to take way better care of the puck. The number of stupid giveaways they had in their own zone and in neutral ice was amazing. If they had really had our full attention this would have been a merciless pounding. We really should have played better and beaten them worse than this and the only thing I can say in our defense is that the loss of the three aforementioned guys blew up our regular lines and we didn't have the sort of offense I would have expected in a game like this as a result.

Their goal was fluky. In off the back of Weninger from a bad angle. I'm sure he isn't wishing himself back on that one.

Ortega was the #1 star and he easily could have had 5 goals tonight. An absolute man amongst boys.

One victory away from a perfect non-conference season.

[gomavs#1]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Interesting game tonight.

For starters, an astounding turnout considering the Huskers were playing Texas (the most hated program on the planet in Nebraska) on the other side of town at UNO's former home, the CenturyLink Center, for (and winning) the National Championship in Women's volleyball in front of the largest crowd to ever see a volleyball match in North America (to the tune of 17,561). I am sure there will be numerous suicides here tonight since beating Texas for a title in anything on home ground is as good as it gets and numerous Husker fans will off themselves since the pinnacle of their existence has now been achieved.

In the mean time, I was at the UNO hockey game.

Kudos to UNO for continuing to announce fannies in seats instead of tickets sold. On paper, the game was a sellout (outside of student tickets "sold"). That said, I would have guessed the attendance as a fair bit more than the announced attendance. No competition, either, from the Lancers tonight, who were home last night.

I was fairly surprised by the size of the crowd as well. The fact that it wasn't a normal Friday/Saturday series made me think that people wouldn't even know there was a game, especially since the opponent was a non-conference, starter program. Throw in the volleyball game down the road and UNO being on winter break, and it was a pleasant surprise. I was surprised to see that many students.

Second period was brutal....until 4 minutes left we had three total shots on goal. Yikes. That was after peppering ASU in the first with 21.

Ortega with another game winner. That guy was all over the ice, put on a couple nasty moves on ASU defenders.

I would put money that the crowd will be extremely sparse for a 2 p.m. game today.

[gomavs#1]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

And one more thing....how does Weninger not start on a Friday night against St. Cloud, but appears like he will play both ASU games? Shake my head....

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

And one more thing....how does Weninger not start on a Friday night against St. Cloud, but appears like he will play both ASU games? Shake my head....

If Weninger actually IS in goal this afternoon I think it means that Coach Blais finally has pulled the plug for good on Kirkers.

I think it is mostly a team politics situation.

A junior who has "paid his dues" (even though he stinks) and then he has a freshman who is making people forget Ryan Massa in a hurry. Even so, eventually, common sense wins out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the numbers of the two. I mean, do you want to play your best players and have a chance to win or don't you? We sure aren't winning a title with Thompson in goal. At some point even the players get to the point of knowing this or realizing it. No matter the politics, or, how well Thompson might be liked by his teammates.

Thompson has already played too much, IMHO. I think it has long been established who the far superior goalie is.

[gomavs#1]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Well, that was a bigger crowd yesterday than I thought would've showed up. I just hope with a shutout against ASU that Blais still sticks with Weninger. Was surprised that Nogard or Gallo didn't go to blows with a couple of ASU players. Got pretty chippy and it looked like those two were getting ready to take on Masters and Schmidt. Undefeated in nonconference and still haven't lost at home. Best first half in school history. Not a bad start.

But now we reach the meat of the schedule. We'll see what this team is made of.

[purpleinnebraska]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Went to the Saturday game, to see the new arena and to drag out some of my old ASU gear that I don't get much chance to wear in Nebraska. Was very favorably impressed, with the arena itself and even more so with the development of the surrounding neighborhood. Parking was a little difficult, but it is a reasonable walk to the parking garage to the north. When I lived in the area years ago, UNO was almost exclusively a commuter/part-time adult learners school. The school has changed a lot since then, and made a big PR push to change that perception, but I think the arena and the development of the surrounding area make a much better case to the public than a university-led PR campaign.

Good view from almost anywhere in the arena. The upper deck is a little steep ("It's like Duluth all over again!" my daughter complained.) but it gave us a pretty decent view of all the action.

In preparing for the game, I found a Sun Devil hat I hadn't worn since 1994, when I saw ASU football lose to the Huskers 77-28. So at least the hockey game was slightly closer than that.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Went to the Saturday game, to see the new arena and to drag out some of my old ASU gear that I don't get much chance to wear in Nebraska. Was very favorably impressed, with the arena itself and even more so with the development of the surrounding neighborhood. Parking was a little difficult, but it is a reasonable walk to the parking garage to the north. When I lived in the area years ago, UNO was almost exclusively a commuter/part-time adult learners school. The school has changed a lot since then, and made a big PR push to change that perception, but I think the arena and the development of the surrounding area make a much better case to the public than a university-led PR campaign.

Good view from almost anywhere in the arena. The upper deck is a little steep ("It's like Duluth all over again!" my daughter complained.) but it gave us a pretty decent view of all the action.

In preparing for the game, I found a Sun Devil hat I hadn't worn since 1994, when I saw ASU football lose to the Huskers 77-28. So at least the hockey game was slightly closer than that.

FYI, my sister is an ASU grad, of all things ('82), but I could not talk her into driving up from Kansas City (I grew up there) for either of these games and I volunteered to pay her way.

Parking at Baxter Arena is a breeze in the south lots. Much less an issue that I ever dreamed it would be.

Do you know that UNO now has more than 5,000 students living on campus? It definitely is not a commuter school like it was any more. Enrollment is just shy of 15,000, currently, and the school has a publicly stated goal of getting that over 20,000.

My wife thinks the upper level at Baxter Arena is steep, too. I've been in Amsoil as well and I think Baxter Arena is steeper. However, UNO's just-previous home, the CenturyLink Center, has the steepest upper level I have ever set foot in, anywhere, indoor or outdoor facility (the upper deck of Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City is mighty steep as well).

The surrounding development around Baxter Arena (Aksarben Village) is far from a done deal and the arena has caused the announcement of lot of other things down there. UNO's own master plan includes baseball and softball facilities, as well as tennis facilities, just across the creek, to the SW of the arena, on the vacant land to the south of the Baxter Arena parking lots, on land owned by the University. I've heard Trev Alberts say that he wants to get cracking on these facilities in the next 5 years.

My guess has always been that anybody that has yet to see the arena would be favorably impressed with it but would be equally impressed by what is around it, something that in 1-3 years will be even more impressive than it already is.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

UNO is now promoting the possible breakage by Austin Ortega of the NCAA all time D-1 career record for game winning goals.

From a press from them release today:

Ortega also picked up his sixth game-winning goal of the year on Dec. 19 which leads the NCAA. He has 18 career game-winning goals and is now just five game winners from tying Colorado College’s Brett Sterling for the NCAA record.

Ortega broke the all time NCAA single season record last year. If he doesn't break the career record this season, the school better hope Ortega sticks around for his senior season. He's been an absolute man amongst boys every time he is on the ice (with Geuntzel right behind him in that regard, I might add). So far, this entire season, watching other teams players try to cover him/skate with him has been pretty hilarious. Many have tried. Few have succeeded. He got skunked at Western Michigan earlier this year, (wow, UNO was swept) and in the SCSU game we lost (he didn't play in the win because of his allergy issue).

He has points in every other series this season and there is only one other game where he had none, beside the games I already mentioned, and UNO won that game.

With conference play on deck, he is about to embark on making or breaking his Hobey Baker candidacy.

[The Exiled One]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

FYI, Avery Peterson is transferring to either BSU or UMD. I don't know which yet.

[SJHovey]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

UNO is now promoting the possible breakage by Austin Ortega of the NCAA all time D-1 career record for game winning goals.

From a press from them release today:



Ortega broke the all time NCAA single season record last year. If he doesn't break the career record this season, the school better hope Ortega sticks around for his senior season.

Of all the stats a player might consider returning for in order to set the record, I have to believe this one ranks pretty much at the bottom.

This isn't intended as a slight against Ortega, who is having a fine season, but the GWG stat is such an arbitrary and generally meaningless statistic. I remember noting once that Evan Trupp at UND had 5 GWG's in his freshman year, and only scored something like 7 total goals. Those 5 were more than Zach Parise scored in his career at UND.

With the metric the way it's used now, you can score the third goal in a seven goal outburst by your team, then watch as two garbage goals by the opponent go in during the last minute to finish with a 7-2 victory, and some sort of accolade for scoring the GWG??? Until they change that, the rest of the college hockey world is going to go "meh" if or when Ortega breaks Sterling's record.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

FYI, Avery Peterson is transferring to either BSU or UMD. I don't know which yet.

If true, this would seem to belie the notion that he left to be close to his brother and that situation. These are the two Minnesota hockey schools that are the farthest from the Twin Cities.

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Of all the stats a player might consider returning for in order to set the record, I have to believe this one ranks pretty much at the bottom.

This isn't intended as a slight against Ortega, who is having a fine season, but the GWG stat is such an arbitrary and generally meaningless statistic. I remember noting once that Evan Trupp at UND had 5 GWG's in his freshman year, and only scored something like 7 total goals. Those 5 were more than Zach Parise scored in his career at UND.

With the metric the way it's used now, you can score the third goal in a seven goal outburst by your team, then watch as two garbage goals by the opponent go in during the last minute to finish with a 7-2 victory, and some sort of accolade for scoring the GWG??? Until they change that, the rest of the college hockey world is going to go "meh" if or when Ortega breaks Sterling's record.

Generally agree.

But, to be sure, its going to take a pretty decent player to have 23 or more game winning goals in his career no matter how they were obtained or what the criteria for them is.