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I think hed had an assist this past weekend. Our freshman have yet to show much spark. With Guentzel injured we might see some people climbing the ladder this weekend.
In no particular order:
UNO is 2nd in Pairwise although it is really a month or so too early to be looking at it and 11th in the meaningless USCHO poll.
The Mavs have wins against two different teams that both swept what was then the #1 ranked team in the country.
UNO has won the NCHC's "Rookie of the Week Award" 2 out of the last 3 weeks (Avery Peterson & Tyler Vesel). With 11 freshmen (seven of which are getting significant ice time) they ought to be in at least contention for this award on almost a weekly basis.
Ryan Massa didn't get his 3rd NCHC "Goalie of the Week Award" ("other nominees") even though he clearly deserved it over Miami goaltender Jay Williams. Massa played a substantially superior foe (UMD), as opposed to Miami, that played hapless Western Michigan. Plus, 2 of the 4 goals he allowed this past weekend were friendly fire, deflecting in off UNO players sticks.
Massa is now 5th in the NCAA in goals against average and 2nd in the NCAA in save percentage. If he can even remotely begin to sustain this level of performance, he is on his way to what would easily be the greatest season in goal by a UNO netminder in school history. To give you an idea, the all time UNO record for a single season for goals against average is by Jared Kaufmann in '08-'09 at 2.13, and, save percentage by Dan Ellis in '01-'02 at .919. Massa is clipping along at 1.49 and .953, respectively. He could fall off some and still threaten both these marks. And, Ellis is a player that ended up in the NHL.
This team is also currently 11th, nationally, in team defense, something that, besides goaltending, has not heretofore been hallmarks of any team Coach Blais has had here.
The scoring has been quite balanced, as well, with 12 different players having scored in UNO's 10 games, including 5 different freshmen.
And, in the plus/minus department, every single freshman except one is plus on the season except for one player, Grant Gallo. You know things are going well on the freshman side of things when one of the "stars" of your incoming freshman class, Jake Montgomery, is having a hard time getting much ice time, even.
Our power play could use some work but we sure aren't having any problem killing the other team's. And, for such a young team, we sure haven't taken a whole lot of penalties, either.
This weekend in Grand Forks provides an even further litmus test for this team. While UNO has historically played well there (they are, all-time, .500 at the Ralph) I will be happy to walk out of there with a split on Saturday night. If they can do that I will become an even bigger believer in this team than I have already started to become. The one nagging thing, though, is the overall season opponent's record of the teams we have played, 28-27-2. However, UNO is an unbeaten 5-0-1 on the road so far this season and that is pretty significant in my book, no matter the opponent(s).
Bring on the team whose nonconformist fans apparently didn't get the message and throw out all their Fighting Sioux gear, like the NCAA told them to.
