It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
This past weekend was interesting to say the least. We won Friday night 9-1 against Concordia, and then lost to the same team 4-2 the next afternoon. On the weekend, we had 104 shots (60 on Friday and 44 on Saturday), 11 goals and went 5-for-7 on the power play. With all that said, we only got a disappointing split with Concordia on the weekend. We did have great performances on the weekend by Brady Heppner with 5 points (2G/3A) and Andrew Lindgren, who stopped 32 of 33 shots against in his game Friday. We also had 13 different players record a point on the weekend.
After this past weekend, we are still in a tie for first in the MIAC with Augsburg and Gustavus. All three teams at the top have a bye week left in their season. St. Thomas is only 5 points behind the leaders with two games in hand, so they are also in the mix. Saint John’s also leads the MIAC in scoring offense with 4.1 goals per game, power play with a 37% conversion rate in conference games and combined special teams with a +8 in conference games. All of these stats should build our confidence moving forward, but we know it starts with our compete level in games.
Moving forward to this weekend, we have a bye week this week, but we do have an exhibition game scheduled against the U.S. Under-18 National Development Team. This team is made up of the best players in the country born in the year 2000. All but four players on the team are committed to a Division I program, and many of them are projected to be selected in the upcoming NHL Draft. The game is this Friday at 7pm at the National Hockey Center. We will be letting in all youth hockey players in for free to this game and will have a skate with the Johnnies after the game on the ice. This is a great opportunity to see some of the best young players in the country while supporting your Johnnie Hockey team.
Finally, I want to mention Senior Night and the Alumni Hockey Game and Social coming up on February 17th. We will have an alumni game starting at 2pm at the National Hockey Center with a social event following (Click here for more info or to register). We will then honor our four seniors prior to the game that night at 7pm against Gustavus. This will be a fun night with alumni and friends of Johnnie Hockey.
Thanks for staying connected to SJU Hockey and I hope to see you at a game soon. Go Johnnies!
