Sunday, October 28, 2007

Three points in Anchorage

First of all, congratulations to the two of you that correctly voted in the poll this week and guessed the Mavericks would get 3 points this weekend in Anchorage. Using my MSU math, that breaks down to 8%. Kind of sounds like the success rate of my score predictions thus far.

Anyways...

Minnesota State — powered by a first-period goal by James Gaulrapp and a power-play marker by Mick Berge in the second period defeated Alaska-Anchorage 2-0 tonight at Sullivan Arena...

• It was the first goal of the season for both Gaulrapp and Berge...

• It was the Mavericks first goal with the man advantage this season. MSU started the season 0-for-19 with the extra attacker...

Trevor Bruess had an assist on the Berge goal. He also had an assist in last night's game meaning the sophomore has scored a point in three consecutive games...

Mike Zacharias made his claim to be the full-time starting netminder by stopping 25 shots Saturday – including nine in the final minutes. His line for the weekend was solid — 52 saves on 54 shots. That averages out to a .963 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.00 for the weekend...

• The shutout was the Mavericks' and Zacharias' first goose egg since the Mavs blanked St. Cloud State Jan. 13 at the Alltel Center. Unfortunately, the Mavericks only earned one point that night...

• Beggars obviously can't be choosers, but is anybody still worried about the Mavericks lack of offense? There are a couple ways to look at : first, one could have general concern about the offensive output. 1.25 goals per game will not get it done most nights in the WCHA. On the other hand, the Mavericks have made two of their longest WCHA trips of the season, scored five goals in four games, yet has three points to show for it. That's not too bad.

• Points wise, MSU is ahead of last season's pace, when MSU defeated UAA on Nov. 11 to get to four points.

• Meaningless stat of the weekend — Minnesota State now stands in fourth place in the WCHA standings with three points. Michigan Tech and Minnesota-Duluth both split this weekend and have six points. Colorado College is next with four points, but was swept in nonconference play by New Hampshire. Denver and North Dakota each had two points this weekend and stand tied for fifth. UAA has one point in seventh. Minnesota, St. Cloud State and Wisconsin each have zero points — but the Badgers (who were off this weekend) have yet to open conference play.

• Next weekend's opponent Alabama-Huntsville is off to a slow start this season. The Chargers (1-3-0) defeated Canisius 4-3 at UAH in their season opener. Huntsville has since lost three consecutive road games to Nebraska-Omaha (5-1) before a pair of losses this weekend at UMass-Lowell (4-1, 3-1). The last time the team's hooked up was in Mankato during the 2004-05 season. MSU won 4-2 Friday before tying the Chargers 3-3 Saturday.

Be sure to check back Monday for my full weekend breakdown! Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of the weekend!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great post, almost as good as PucKato. I'd write more but I haven't eaten anything all day.

Dan Myers said...

Thanks C.J. :-)

Anonymous said...

In your poll you say this is the first ever trip to Huntsville Alabama for the Mavericks. Better check your archives.

Fri 01/04/2002 L 0 @ Alabama-Huntsville (nc) 2 7:05 CT
Sat 01/05/2002 W 5 @ Alabama-Huntsville (nc) 1 7:05 CT

Dan Myers said...

You're absolutely right... I totally blanked on that one. I apologize for the mix-up, it was late last night.

Thanks for correcting me. I have made the changes.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't in attendence for this series, but anytime you can take 2+ points on the road in the WCHA you consider it a good weekend. Good job rebounding from last weekend Mavs.

Hey Dan, has anyone from Tech or Anchorage made any comments on the new jerseys? Also, does anybody know if they are for sale yet, and if so where at?

Anonymous said...

I was still eatin while the game was going on so I have nothing to say. Next time I'll bring food to work or hopefully the game will be on TV.