Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.
I can't believe how excited I am to be going to Detroit. Like the ad says, it's not the Windy City, Sin City or even the Emerald City, but it is the city my team will be playing in this weekend.
First up is Miami. They are led by senior Hobey Miele, er um, Andy Miele with 65 points on the strength of 21 G and 44 A. He's their top set up guy. Reilly Smith is their top goal scorer with 26. Carter Camper is the man on the man-up situation with 8 PPG's. Miami has 13 players with at least 10 points. Cody Reichard and Connor Knapp have virtually split time in net, but Reichard has a few more nods in net. Reichard (.911, 2.06) should start Friday with Knapp (.909, 2.03) possibly going Saturday.
ND is led by freshman T.J. Tynan with 49 points; however, Anders Lee leads the team in goals with 22 and Ryan Guentzel leads in assists with 30. Lee and Jeff Costello lead the team on the PP with 6 PPG's each. ND has 17 players in double digits. Mike Johnson (.907, 2.48) will start both games.
WMU is led by senior Max Campbell with 35 points. He is also their top goal scorer with 18 G's. Greg Squires leads in assists with 18. Matt Tennyson and Campbell lead their team in PPG's with 6 each. They have 14 players in double digits. Jerry Kuhn (.912, 2.34) has been their netminder of note.
Michigan is led by senior Carl Hagelin who has 47 points. He also leads the team in goals (17), assists (30) and PPG's (7). Michigan has 17 players with 10 or more points. Shawn Hunwick (.923, 2.20) will be in net.
Miami leads the pack in special teams. They are 24% on the PP and 89% on the PK. ND is 16.3% on the PP and 82.7% on the PK. WMU's PP is 16% effective and their PK works 79.9% of the time. Michigan's PP sits at 17.8% while their PK is at 83.3%.
Miami averages 3.72 GF and gives up 2.17 GA. They are 14-6-4 when scoring first. ND scores 3.54 and gives up 2.64. They are 20-2-3 when lighting the lamp first. WMU averages 2.74 while giving up 2.41 and Michigan registers 3.45 GF while surrendering 2.24. WMU is 15-4-3 when they score first while Michigan goes 20-1-3 if they score the first goal of a game.
Miami and ND are the only teams of the 4 who had winning records against the others this season. Miami went 5-2-3-1 this season against the other 3. ND went 4-3-3-2 while WMU has a record of 2-6-2-1 and Michigan, playing the others only one series each, went 3-3.
It's nice to know that even if ND doesn't do well this weekend, only a perfect storm keeps ND out of the regionals next weekend, so that should make for a more relaxed weekend. But I sure would like a couple wins anyway.
I'm still amazed at how impressed I am with this team. Half of them were not in Irish sweaters a mere 15 months ago. They weren't supposed to be this talented. They weren't expected to finish 2nd. They had an untested and new-to-the-program captain. They had so many freshmen. T.S. Eliot said, "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
) recommend calling ND's ticket office (631-7356) as JLA outsources and those people have no seating chart for team sections and only have upper level tix to sell. Calling JLA directly is a crap shoot as you have to leave a message with someone who apparently never comes back to his desk.
Of course, don't forget the fan fest (free food and booze) at the RenCen after the games Friday.
I'm told he has a sports package on his dish TV that carries Fox Detroit, so we're tuning in and he's getting an education. In more ways than one. I mean, I can understand not liking Notre Dame. Sometimes I don't like Notre Dame. But hockey? Yup, school will be in session.
) The ticket search for the Semis is still on going