This past weekend we traveled to Wisconsin for two games against WIAC opponents, UW-Superior and Northland. These games were both very important for us to give us some positive feelings moving into the final 11 games, all conference games against MIAC teams.
Unfortunately, the game against Superior did not accomplish that for us. We didn’t come out in that game and compete as hard as we needed to. They came out and played a very physical game and we didn’t respond very well. Ultimately, we got out-shot 47-26 and lost the game 6-2. Superior came out in the first period and got out to a 4-0 lead. We fought back in the game to make it 4-2 before they scored a couple more and regained the 4-goal lead. The game was even 2-2 after the first period, but we did not play very well and knew we had to figure some things out heading into Northland.
The game against Northland was challenging for us in a lot of ways. We had a different lineup and their home rink was not very nice. The rink was small and had a lot of unique features that made it a very hard place to play. With all that said, the guys battled a lot harder than the night before and found a way to win. We got out-shot again, but we ended up winning the game 3-2 in regulation. This was a much-needed win and made the bus ride home a little better.
The star player of the weekend was Freshmen Danny Wieber. Danny played one game at defense and the other at forward. He was our most consistent player and scored a big goal on Saturday against Northland. Senior Adam Orn also had 1 goal and 2 assists on the weekend, and Freshmen Brett Meister scored his first career goal as a Johnnie.
We had a hard, physical practice this past Monday to help set the tone for our game this Friday against Hamline. We only have one game this weekend as we played Hamline earlier this year at home. In that game we won in overtime, but only got 2 of the 3 possible points. We know this game is going to be very tough and we need to find a way to start out-working teams to earn our wins. Hamline is a good team that plays very well at home. They beat us last year in their building, so we need to prepare ourselves for a tight, physical game.
It is going to be a challenging path the rest of the season with all our 11 remaining games coming against MIAC opponents. We have not had the season we have wanted to have, but we have a lot still in our reach. The goal is to become a harder team to play against so we make the MIAC playoffs and so we are playing our best hockey when we get there. We can still accomplish all our goals we set for ourselves.
Thanks for following Johnnie Hockey and I hope to see you at a game soon.
