Huskies getting national media attention

This week in 1993, George Gwozdecky was in his last season with the Miami "Redskins." Don Lucia was in his first season at Colorado College after leaving "Alaska-Fairbanks," with Scott Owens as his assistant coach. More than one-sixth of the current Division I membership had yet to play a D-I hockey game, including Nebraska-Omaha, Mercyhurst, and the entire CHA.

Simply put, it's been a while since Michigan Tech was 2-0 in WCHA play.

However, the significance of the Huskies' wins over Alaska-Anchorage last weekend transcends the WCHA standings. Last Saturday, Michigan Tech moved to 5-1-0 on the season, and the Huskies are No. 18 in this week's USCHO.com/CSTV rankings.

"It's been a great start for us," Huskies' head coach Jamie Russell said. "The last two years, we've had very young teams. We brought 18 kids in our first two recruiting classes. We played all our young kids in tough situations, and we took our lumps, but it's paying dividends for us now. We're getting great leadership and it's just one game at a time here."

More HERE from CSTV.

Broncos get Muskegon's Paeth for '07

Des Moines Buccaneers' forward Travis Paeth has verbally committed to Western Michigan University.

Paeth, a native of Muskegon, was a fourth-round draft pick by the Buccaneers in the 2006 USHL Entry Draft. He came to Des Moines after spending last season playing for the Traverse City North Stars of the NAHL.

The 19-year-old Paeth currently has two goals and three assists in seven games for the Buccaneers and has helped the team to get off to a 7-1 start in its first eight games.

More from Michigan Junior Hockey HERE.

MiCHO Power Poll 10.31.06

Michigan State takes over the No. 1 spot in our weekly MiCHO Power Poll by virtue of their sweep of St. Lawrence and Sacred Heart last weekend. The surging Michigan Tech squad jumps to No. 2 after posting two wins over Alaska-Anchorage, while Michigan's sluggish weekend dropped them two positions to No. 3.

1) Michigan State, 3-1-0 (swept nonconference opponents)
2) Michigan Tech, 5-1-0 (swept Alaska-Anchorage)
3) Michigan, 4-2-0 (split with Northeastern)
4) Northern Michigan, 4-3-1 (split with Ohio State)
5) Lake Superior State, 4-2-0 (swept American International)
6) Ferris State, 3-5-0 (swept at Alaska)
7) Western Michigan, 2-4-0 (swept by Nebraska-Omaha)
8) Wayne State, 1-5-0 (swept by nonconference opponents)

Each week, MichiganCollegeHockey.com editors Matt Mackinder and Tom Balog will compile the MiCHO Power Poll. The poll will comprise the eight Division I teams in the state of Michigan.

CHA honors Melissa Boal

Wayne State sophomore Melissa Boal was honored as the CHA Offensive Player of the Week. It is the second time this season that Boal has received the CHA's weekly honor.

While the Warriors lost both games at Connecticut last weekend, Boal had a brilliant weekend of scoring. She notched her second career hat trick in Friday's game and added a goal and an assist on Saturday for a five-point weekend.

Fellow Warriors Tegan Schroeder and Brandi Frakie were nominated for Defensive Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week, respectively.

The Warriors face off against Cornell this weekend in Detroit for their home opener.

Adrian names men's coach, will join MCHA

Adrian College made more news last week when it named Ron Fogarty (left) head coach of its first men's team and announced the Bulldogs will play in the MCHA.

"To say that we are thrilled to attract Ron Fogarty to this position is an understatement," said Adrian athletic director Mike Duffy. "We have been excited about the construction of our ice arena and building ice sport programs from the beginning. Attracting Ron Fogarty, with his experience of developing talent, creates an opportunity for our future student athletes to be coached by one of the best around.

"Other than the day that we dedicate the ice arena, I cannot imagine a bigger day for Adrian College men's ice hockey. We landed a head coach from a Division I university this morning, and have been accepted into one of the premier college hockey conferences this afternoon."

Fogarty, 34, is currently an assistant coach with Bowling Green, but will leave the Falcons immediately for his new position in southern Michigan.

"My coaching style will be up-tempo, which encompasses a positive and energetic team that is accountable and takes ownership," said Fogarty. "I envision a team that will have a relentless work ethic on and off the ice."

Prior to coaching at Bowling Green, Fogarty served as the top assistant coach at Clarkson University and helped lead the Golden Knights to a 17-15-6 record in 2001-02, and coached Erik Cole, a future Carolina Hurricaine, Randy Jones, a Philadelphia Flyers free agent signing, and Rob McFeeters, the 2001 ECAC Rookie of the Year. With BGSU, Fogarty worked with NHL draft picks Jonathan Matsumoto (Philadelphia), Jonathan Sigalet (Boston Bruins), Alex Foster (Toronto Maple Leafs), Jordan Sigalet (Boston) and Kevin Bieksa (Vancouver Canucks).

Adrian named Chandy Kaip its first women's coach two weeks ago.

As for the MCHA, that decision came the same day as Fogarty's hiring.

"This was a unanimous decision that was made by our members," MCHA commissioner Terry Brand said. "The addition of Adrian College to the MCHA is a big step forward and allows us to take greater control of our own destiny. Now that we have eight members - seven of which are NCAA DIII programs - we can start a process to apply to the NCAA for conference recognition and hopefully an automatic qualifying bid someday soon for postseason national tournament play."

Michigan Tech dominates Alaska-Anchorage

Michigan Tech improved their overall record to 5-1-0 and opened their WCHA season with two wins at home against Alaska-Anchorage.

Friday night, Peter Rouleau notched a hat trick and Michael-Lee Teslak recorded his first career shutout making 22 saves. Alex Gagne added two goals and Phil Axtell, Derek Kitti, Jimmy Kerr and Ryan Angelow also tallied in the 9-0 shellacking of the Seawolves. Captain Lars Helminen chipped in with two assists and Tyler Shelast contributed three helpers.

"The guys did a really good job," said Huskies head coach Jamie Russell on USCHO.com. "Our power play is coming along, and I was really happy for Teslak between the pipes."

Shelast scored twice and added an assist in Saturday's 5-3 win. Rob Nolan made 23 saves for the win and Jordan Foote, Jake Wilkens and Kerr were the other goal scorers.

"We didn't have the jump tonight," said Russell on USCHO.com. "We were in the hockey game in the third period and found a way to win."

The last time MTU swept a home series was January 24-25, 2003, ironically enough against Alaska-Anchorage.

Michigan Tech is at Colorado College this weekend for a pair of games continuing WCHA play.

Bulldogs caged in Alaska

Article by Bob Hendrickson

The long trip home from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Big Rapids became even longer for Ferris State as the Alaska Nanooks swept the Bulldogs by 2-1 and 4-2 scores in their Friday-Saturday series played in the 49th state last weekend.

On Friday, Kyle Greentree scored during a two-man advantage with 4:21 remaining in a tight game to give the Nanooks a 2-1 victory.

Alaska took a 1-0 lead at 4:38 of the second period on a Brandon Gawryletz goal as he beat Bulldog netminder Mitch O'Keefe on a breakaway after coming out of the penalty box.

Ferris knotted the score at 1-1 on a goal by defenseman Jim Jorgensen assisted by Justin Lewandowski and Brendan Connolly at 17:04 of the third period.

The Bulldogs outshot the Nanooks, 29-23.

The Nanooks completed their sweep Saturday as they jumped out to a three-goal lead before defenseman Joe Van Culin scored during a Bulldog two-man advantage with 4:12 remaining in the third period. Chris Zarb and Zac Pearson got the assists.

With 2:32 remaining in the contest, Lewandowski scored an even-strength goal on assists by Matt Frank and Connolly to narrow the gap to 3-2, but Alaska got an empty-net goal with 11 seconds to play. The Bulldogs were only able to convert on one of 14 power-play chances during the two-game set.

The Bulldogs (3-5-0, 1-3-0 CCHA) next take on the Michigan State Spartans next Tuesday in East Lansing before hosting MSU on Friday, November 10 in Big Rapids.

WMU swept by UNO Mavericks

Western Michigan went out west last weekend and came home swept by Nebraska-Omaha.

Friday, Mark Letestu (pictured) tallied a hat trick, but it wasn't enough as the Mavericks took a 7-5 win. Dave Krisky and Brian Bicek also scored, while Daniel Bellissimo stopped 21 shots.

Former Michigan State forward Nenad Gajic had a goal and an assist for UNO.

"It was an entertaining game for the fans, but as a coach gives you grey hairs," said Broncos' head coach Jim Culhane. "We can draw a lot of positives from this game. I thought we played with energy and attacked their goal pretty well."

Saturday night, the Mavericks pasted the Broncos, 6-0. Bellissimo made 20 saves for WMU (2-4-0, 2-4-0 CCHA).

Portage native Scott Parse recorded a goal and two assists and Canton native Brandon Scero scored the opening goal that proved to be the game-winner.

"UNO is a good offensive team and they executed well on the power play," said Culhane. "There wasn't much five-on-five play, which I felt we needed to have in order to be successful. We took too many penalties tonight and we will address that as a team."

Western Michigan hosts Wayne State Saturday night at Lawson Ice Arena in a homecoming for WSU head coach Bill Wilkinson, formerly WMU's head coach from 1982-1998.

MSU tops St. Lawrence, Sacred Heart

St. Lawrence and Sacred Heart both beat Wayne State this weekend, but as part of their weekend Michigan swing also fell to Michigan State.

The Spartans topped St. Lawrence Friday night and Sacred Heart on Saturday night, both at Munn Ice Arena.

"I thought we made progress this weekend," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "We really have to get better at faceoffs. We have to do more with the puck inside our goal line. We ring the puck (off the goal posts) so much our poor forwards are digging it out in traffic. We need to get them to play with a little more skill rather than easing passes. I thought our power play was better (Saturday) and we got some good movement that way. I thought Jay Sprague had a real good weekend and Mike Ratchuck played well."

In Friday's 5-3 win over the Saints, Sprague, Chris Mueller, Bryan Lerg, Kurt Kivisto (pictured) and Jim McKenzie scored for the Spartans (3-1-0, 1-1-0 CCHA) and Jeff Dunne added two assists. Jeff Lerg made just 14 saves for the win in net.

Kivisto's goal was his first NCAA tally.

"It was thrilling," said Kivisto. "I didn't play much last year (just one game), but I put a lot of time in practicing. Finally getting an opportunity to help the team in an early season win is really rewarding. We aren't the line that is supposed to go out and score all the goals, so to actually help the team offensively feels good. It felt really good to actually put a puck in the net."

Saturday, Nick Sucharski scored twice for Michigan State, while Tim Kennedy and Ethan Graham led the offensive charge with a goal and pair of assists each.

"It's a great start to the season, compared to last year when I was struggling," said Sucharski. "It has been a real confidence boost which helps me when I'm preparing for the next game. It also shows that Coach Comley has confidence in me, which is a real character boost."

Ratchuck, Lerg and Tim Crowder also scored for MSU to go along with 15 saves for Lerg.

Next up for the Spartans is a home-and-home with Michigan Friday and Saturday. The two teams will face off on Friday night at Munn and Saturday night in Ann Arbor.

"I think we need to concentrate on being consistent," Graham said. "We'll have a good stretch and then we'll have a couple of down shifts. We need to make sure we stay on an even plane."

Wolverines split with Northeastern

Michigan ran into a hot goaltender Saturday night and suffered a 3-2 upset loss to Northeastern.

The Wolverines (4-2-0, 1-1-0 CCHA) had taken the first game of the series, 4-3, on Friday night. Both games were on home ice at Yost Ice Arena.

Michigan went 0-for-12 on the power play and fired 47 shots on goal Saturday night, but Huskies' goalie Brad Thiessen came up with 45 saves.

"You have to give credit to the goalie, obviously," U-M head coach Red Berenson said. "He made the saves he had to make. Their defense kept us away from any loose pucks. I think we had one rebound goal in the game. I give credit to their overall team. They check hard. We generated good offense, but we needed to put one behind the goalie particularly to get the game tied up, but we just couldn’t get that one goal. As you can see, the power play wasn’t effective. We couldn't score when we had the chances, and that's when you really need your power play to bear down."

T.J. Hensick had two assists and Jack Johnson and Kevin Porter (pictured) scored for Michigan. Billy Sauer made 17 saves.

Johnson earned himself a game disqualification and a five-minute major for jumping NU forward Joe Vitale after he ran Sauer. He'll sit out Friday night's game at Michigan State.

"It was a hard hit on our goalie and I know the nearest player would have done the same thing," said Berenson. "I couldn’t tell you if it should have been a disqualification, but it was a serious hit on our goalie and it was a serious retaliation. You've got to protect the goalie and we ended up coming out on the short end of that."

Friday night, Porter scored the second of his two goals on the night 1:01 into overtime for the victory. David Rohlfs and Chad Kolarik also tallied to back Sauer's 20-save outing.

"It felt great to finally score a goal," said Porter. "In the second period, it was great and then to get that last one was awesome."

After Friday's game in East Lansing, the series will return to Yost on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN 360. Friday's game at 7:05 p.m. will be on Comcast Local.

Wayne State women drop two at UConn

The Wayne State Warriors lost twice to the University of Connecticut this weekend. Their record now stands at 1-5-0 overall.

Friday's game ended in a 4-3 victory for the Huskies, but it was a bright night for Melissa Boal, who registered her second career hat trick. All three of Boal's goals came on the power play. The first two were assisted by Lindsay DiPietro and Sam Poyton and the third was unassisted.

Valery Turcotte tended goal for the Warriors on Friday and finished with 27 saves.

Boal was also critical in keeping Saturday's game close for the Warriors, who were on the losing end of the 3-2 decision. UConn got on the board early in the second, but Boal once again took cues from Poyton and DiPietro to tie the game at one. While the Huskies scored two consecutive goals in the third period, freshman Brandi Frakie (pictured) notched her first collegiate goal in the final minute of play. Boal assisted on Frakie's goal.

Tiffany Thompson stopped 22 shots in her first start of the season.

The Warriors host Cornell in their home opener next weekend.

Grizzlies suffer road sweep at Iowa State

Oakland continued their struggle against top five ACHA teams in falling 4-3 on Friday and 5-4 on Saturday to Iowa State on the road.

Brent Cooper (two goals, assist) and Will McMahon (goal, two assists) each turned in three points Friday night and goaltender Andrew Hansen suffered his first career loss.

"The game really could have gone either way," OU assistant coach JR Dunn said. "We played tough, we played well and we are progressing rapidly."

Saturday, McMahon turned in a hat trick in the losing effort and OU netminder Jim Sardelli suffered his second loss of the season. Cooper netted the other goal. Kyle DeMaggio chipped in two assists.

"I think we proved we can skate with anyone in the country," said McMahon. "One bounce here or there and it is a different result."

Oakland will take on Davenport University in a two-game series this weekend. Friday's game is at the ONYX at 8:40 p.m. and Saturday's is in Grand Rapids.

Davenport has had a very successful season so far in ACHA DII and is a favorite to take home the DII title.

"This rivalry is a heated battle," Oakland head coach Sean Hogan said. "There is a great deal of respect between the two clubs, but both teams will settle for nothing less than a series sweep.

"I'm sure we have both been looking at the schedule and waiting for this weekend."

Lake Superior sweeps American International

Lake Superior State University swept American International College, 5-0 and 4-1, as LSSU celebrated Great Lakes State Weekend in Sault Ste. Marie.

Friday night, LSSU jumped out to an early lead with senior Jeff Rainville scoring on the power play. Nathan Perkovich added his fourth goal of the season to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead heading into the lockerroom for the first intermission.

Barnabas Birkeland and Rainville added goals in the second period to give the Lakers a 4-0 edge over the Yellow Jackets. Josh Sim scored his fourth goal of the season in the third period to give the Lakers the 5-0 win.

Lake Superior goalie Jeff Jakaitis recorded his eighth career shutout by stopping all 23 AIC shots.

Saturday night, Dan Eves gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal in the first period. AIC tied the game with Jereme Tendler scoring an even-strength goal midway through the second period.

Perkovich was able to regain the Lakers one-goal lead less than a minute later, scoring what would end up being the game-winning goal. Perkovich has scored a goal in each of the Lakers past five games. Rainville gave the Lakers an insurance goal before going into the locker room for the second intermission with a power-play goal, his third goal of the weekend.

Sault native Jason Blain scored his first goal for LSSU at the beginning of the third period to give the Lakers a 4-1 lead.

LSSU freshman goaltender Pat Inglis saved 14 of the 15 shots he faced.

Next weekend the Lakers travel to Bowling Green, Ohio, to resume CCHA play by taking on the Falcons of Bowling Green State University. Friday and Saturday's games both start at 7:05 p.m.

Photo by Mike Burrill