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

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.
Click to expand...

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

Red Cows said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

The Exiled One said:
FYI, Avery Peterson is transferring to either BSU or UMD. I don't know which yet.
Click to expand...

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

SJHovey said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

Random thoughts/predictions/ideas about this season at the half way point.

1. We really haven't played anybody, yet (but, neither have you, North Dakota).

2. Sorry to say it, but, I really don't give 2 sh*ts about the conference title. All I care about is making the NCAA tourney and obtaining as high a seed as possible.

3. Even though Avery Peterson was not playing well, I think we'll miss him, down the road. Nobody on the current roster that is going to get his minutes has his hockey pedigree.

4. I sincerely believe that we have NOW seen the "last" of Kirk Thompson. We would have beaten ASU both nights with him in goal. I'd bet some mighty big money that Alex Blankenberg is in goal for UNO against Trinity Western on January 2nd. Thompson's 4 wins in goal this season have come against teams with a cumulative 24-37-8 record and his shut-out came against what is arguably the worst team in college hockey. With Kris Oldham (currently on leave from the Omaha Lancers playing in the World Junior A Challenge) arriving next year and with Weninger already on the scene (along with Alex Blankenberg) I have a real wonder about his future here after this season. His career (to-date) numbers are an .893 SV% and a 2.85 GAA average. Awful. He has a 14-12-2 record in his career (a minor miracle with his numbers, a testament to the team playing in front of him). UNO's record in games he did not play, to-date, for his career? 37-22-7.

5. My guess on UNO's record in it's final 16 games (after beating Trinity Western on 1-2-16)? I could see us winning 10 of them. I can also see us going .500 or something like that the rest of the way, too. Either way, barring some sort of utter collapse, we're going back to the tourney. At worst, I see us being a 2 or 3 seed. Worth mentioning is that 10 of those 16 remaining games are at home. The only games that concern me much on the road are at North Dakota and that is a place we have acquitted ourselves pretty well at. Speaking of UNO/North Dakota, for somebody that we've played only 16 games against, ever, they have been a pretty epic 16 games that have featured some crazy stuff.

6. Somebody else besides UNO is going to finally find a way to win in Baxter Arena.

7. If UNO wins 10 (or more) games the rest of the way that isn't happening without Austin Ortega being a Hobey Baker finalist or outright winning it, methinks.

8. Baxter Arena has literally turned UNO into one of the "haves" in college hockey today. Our coach and that facility puts UNO in play to to recruit just about anybody, anywhere, now.

9. This is the first time in Coach Blais career that he has coached a team that went undefeated in non-conference. None of his North Dakota teams ever did this and, needless to say, no UNO team, Blais coached or otherwise has, either.

10. UNO has followed up the best season in the history of the program with the best start to a season in the history of the program. Everything (mostly) is beautiful in the neighborhood.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

One other thing that is sort of interesting.

In this, the 19th season of UNO hockey, we've managed to scratch two more teams off the list of teams we'd never played before. Arizona State (obviously) and Vermont.

The only reason this is notable is because of how small the list of programs we have never played before already was.

The only teams that remain on the list are:

Brown
Northeastern
Penn State
Rensselaer
Robert Morris
Sacred Heart

Looking at this list, I gotta think UNO is going to try and get Penn State on their schedule, sooner rather than later.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

If UNO and UND haven't played anyone this year, then they'll continue to play nobody. They've both split at SCSU and they are above both UNO and UND in the PWR. If that doesn't count, what does?
 
Red Cows said:
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.
Click to expand...
Avery Peterson is from Grand Rapids. Those are the two schools closest to his hometown.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Alex Blankenberg will play in the exhibition game regardless of Kirk. I'm sure Dean wants to see him in a real game even though it doesn't count. If Kirk was playing good we might lose Oldham. 4 goalies 1 of them will get the nudge this summer or Oldham decommits. We really need him though. We won't miss Avery very long. Plenty of others wanting to play here. I wish we could get at least one of those losses back from Western Mich.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Dirty said:
If UNO and UND haven't played anyone this year, then they'll continue to play nobody. They've both split at SCSU and they are above both UNO and UND in the PWR. If that doesn't count, what does?
Click to expand...

Sheesh, that's the only real opponent that's been on either team's schedule. Hence, they cancel each other out. :D

I'd hate to see what our or North Dakota's SOS would look like with those games off our respective records. North Dakota's sure isn't going to get any better playing the 57th ranked team in Pairwise New Year's weekend, that's for sure. Just as it didn't for UNO playing the 51st ranked team this past weekend here in Omaha.

Our non-conference 10-0-0 record?

Achieved against teams with a combined record of 27-49-8.

Really hard to say at this point to what extent SCSU has been any sort of bellwether when neither team has really played anybody else. The only OOC team UNO played that has a winning record (Mankato) really didn't right their ship until conference play started. I don't know if that says more about them, or, their conference, frankly. They are 1-5-0 OOC despite being 10-6-4 overall. In 4 games with us and SCSU, they managed to score only 2 goals, total.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

MAVFANJEFF said:
Alex Blankenberg will play in the exhibition game regardless of Kirk. I'm sure Dean wants to see him in a real game even though it doesn't count. If Kirk was playing good we might lose Oldham. 4 goalies 1 of them will get the nudge this summer or Oldham decommits. We really need him though. We won't miss Avery very long. Plenty of others wanting to play here. I wish we could get at least one of those losses back from Western Mich.
Click to expand...

I'll be stunned is Blankenberg isn't in goal on January 2nd. If he isn't, that would tell me the coaches think little of him and he might be the odd goalie out this summer. I'm like you. I think somebody is disappearing

If I am Dean Blais and I am given the choice between what I have already seen of Kirk Thompson and what Kris Oldham MIGHT have to give that would seem to me to be a pretty easy choice.

Agree about Peterson although more so as it pertains to next season than to this one.

I still don't understand how we lost both those games in Kalamazoo. They have beaten nobody before, or, since. Easily the high point of their season so far. By a mile.
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

Kind of an interesting tidbit from Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald from a Sunday article there:

Austin Ortega continues to score game-winning goals at an astounding rate. He has six already this season and 18 for his career. He set the NCAA record for 11 last season. How absurd is 18 game-winning goals? UND only has two players on the roster with more than 18 goals of any kind in their careers (Drake Caggiula, Luke Johnson).
Click to expand...
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

5thYearFreshman said:
No thread for the Trinity game? :(
Click to expand...

LOL.

Wasn't going to even go to this game and give my tickets away, but, now we are going. I really thought the NCAA Bowl playoffs would be this night. Instead, they are on New Year's Eve. Hence, we will be going after all. Chance to see a team we've never seen before (and may not ever again). Maybe the only chance to get a look at Alex Blankenberg, too, (maybe ever, given the lay of the land, goalie-wise, at UNO the rest of this season and Kris Oldham being on the horizon, next) since my guess is that he will be in goal for this game.

They are the "Spartans", by the way. They played their first two games against D-1 competition last season, ever, against Mankato and SCSU and were utterly destroyed in both games, getting outscored 20-1. Against Mankato, it took them less than 2 minutes to be down 3-0 and ultimately losing 12-1 and got outshot for the game 53-5. SCSU shut them out 8-0 and outshot them 62-17. Dunno what that might bode for this season for them against NCAA competition, but...................

They play Wisconsin at the Kohl Center the night before playing us. Be interesting to see how many people show up there to see that game. New Year's day night, and an exhibition game at that, against a not very good Wisconsin team. I don't think the Kohl Center will be rocking.

Conversely, Ticketmaster shows UNO's game with them this upcoming Saturday night being 70 tickets from a sell out (although I expect to see a ton of empty seats).
 
Re: UNO 2015-16 Season Thread: Frozen Four, New Barn, What Next?

UNO has benefited mightily from Ohio State's win of the Florida College Classic last night (defeating BC & Cornell in doing so) and from Providence's 1st round loss (to Cornell) in the same tourney.

Even before Ohio State beating Cornell last night to win the tourney, this was enough to move UNO to #2 in Pairwise. Ohio State's win last night did pad UNO's RPI some, though. That tourney's outcome could be really significant to us, down the road, as far as Pairwise is concerned.

If UNO is to overtake Quinnipiac at #1 in Pairwise any time in the near future, it's going to take UNO to keep on winning and hope for an upset somewhere along the line since QU doesn't have a very tough schedule at all during the month of January with no games against a team in the top 16 of the current Pairwise at all.

That could work out well, the other way, though, since UNO has games with North Dakota (there), coming up in January, and with DU (here), who is just outside the top 16.
 
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