It is amazing how fast this season has gone by. With four regular-season games left, only one team has clinched a playoff spot and the MIAC championship is completely up for grabs. In our last four games, two wins will guarantee a playoff spot and four wins will win us the MIAC. We completely hold our fate in our own hands. We have an opportunity in the next two weeks to accomplish one of our goals heading into the season.
This past weekend we came away with a split against Augsburg. We had a tough night on Thursday in our home building, taking two major penalties and three minor penalties, which accounted for 16 minutes of hockey shorthanded. We gave up three power-play goals in the first two periods and just could not recover. The game was 6-2 in favor of Augsburg heading into the third period. In the locker room, we discussed having to set the tone for the game on Friday. We came out in the third period and even though we had to kill a five-minute major penalty, we out-shot Augsburg and won the period, 2-1. This led into our game on Friday and we were able to go down to Augsburg and earn the split with a 2-1 win to keep us in the MIAC championship race.
Moving forward, our push for a MIAC championship starts this weekend against St. Thomas. We need to take this one game at a time and look to have a great performance this Friday night against the Tommies. This is not going to be an easy task, as they are currently on a seven-game winning streak. I was able to watch their game this past Saturday and they play a very honest game. We are going to have be disciplined in how we play as well. We need to keep the game simple and use our depth to wear them down. Currently, St. Thomas has six players with 10 or more points and SJU has 12 players with 10 or more points. At the same time, St. Thomas has three players with 20 or more points and SJU has one. In my opinion, this game is going to come down to us shutting down their top guys and attacking them with our depth. I feel that we have four lines that can contribute on any night and I feel that is the strength of our team. Every forward line that we have has a combined point total over 30. This is how we win games and this is our identity, we can play four lines and you will not get a break.
Reminder that we have our Johnnie Hockey Alumni Game on Saturday, February 17th along with it being Senior Night. If you are interested in joining us for the hockey alum gathering, here is a link to the details. Register Here
I look forward to seeing you at the rink this weekend and thanks for continuing to follow SJU Hockey. Go Johnnies!!
