College Hockey:

This Week in MIAC

MIAC Showcase

The inaugural MIAC Showcase was held at the Bloomington Ice Gardens this last weekend. From Friday through Sunday, all nine teams from the MIAC got to go out and face off against each other.

It wasnt a tournament format: there were no playoffs or seedings, no champion declared or trophy won, nor was there an all-showcase team. What there was though, were nine games of fast paced, end-to-end hockey.

Attendance for the showcase broke the 2,000 mark, even though the event was not at any teams home rink. With day passes costing $5 and giving access to all three games, its easy to see why the event was still able to draw so many fans.

While on the surface it seems like itd be difficult to fairly schedule nine teams each playing twice over three days, the system in place minimized the work for each team.

Teams were divided into pods of three, with each school playing the other two in their pod. When there was a game going on, the third team in the pod administered the game, being responsible for scorekeeping, ticket collecting, and any other necessary tasks. This spread the workload around evenly. On a game day, teams only had to worry about playing their game, and only had to deal with the other work on the day they werent playing.

The format of the event also reduced the costs for every team. Normally a weekend away from home means paying for travel expenses without getting anything in return. By splitting the income, each team would only have to put in a small amount of money for the event to break even, and if enough tickets were sold, each team would actually profit on the weekend.

From an administrative standpoint, the event was a huge win. Every team in the conference got to play two games at little to no cost, no teams had to put in more administrative work than any other team, and no one had to spend time trying to schedule games to start the season.

Oh yeah, there was some excellent hockey too.

The second day of games alone saw three shorthanded goals, a natural hat trick, and a shutout. It may have been the first games of the season for the MIAC, but every team came out playing hard and flying up and down the ice for the whole weekend.

Gustavus Adolphus’s Brad Wiek (19) scores the game tying goal against Bethel.

St. Olaf and Augsburg were the only two teams to come out of the weekend 2-0, although St. Johns and St. Thomas both came out undefeated (1-0-1) after tying in the final game on Sunday. Augsburg defeated Bethel and last years MIAC playoff champion Gustavus Adolphus. St. Olaf beat Concordia MN and Hamline. The Oles probably had a little extra motivation after last seasons playoff loss to Hamline.

Bethel, Concordia (MN), and St. Marys were the only schools to finish the weekend without a win, but all three showed they can compete with the rest of the league. Concordia was leading for much of the game until two quick third period goals put Hamline ahead for good.

Bethel stormed out to a 3-1 lead over Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday, but a shorthanded goal drew the Gusties within one, a power-play goal tied it, and Gustavus would go on to win after scoring the game winner with less than seven minutes to play in the third period. Despite giving up two goals within 1:13 of each other, St. Marys hung with St. Thomas right until the end of their game, with a third period goal putting the Tommies up 4-2.

While this was the first showcase the MIAC has put on, several coaches hoped that it would continue next year as well, with some possible changes including a different venue and all-tournament team, but still keeping the format used this year.

All in all it was a great weekend of hockey any way you look at it. It allowed the conference to highlight their talent and put on a show for potential recruits. It allowed the teams to schedule a hassle-free weekend of games. And of course, it was great for the fans to be able to easily and inexpensively see so many games, with some great fast paced hockey being played.

Augsburg Auggies

Augsburg finished last season with mixed results. On one hand they were the leagues highest scoring team, scoring over 4.50 goals per game. They finished out the regular season on a 6-1-1 tear, and even though they finished in the fifth and final playoff spot, they had their sights set on making some noise in the playoffs.

On the other hand, they had the leagues third worst scoring defense, giving up exactly four goals per game, giving up only one tally less than the last place MIAC team (in conference games). As confident as they were in their offense, they had to be just as concerned about their defense.

In the playoffs, Augsburg faced Hamline, and despite holding 2-1 and 3-2 leads, the Auggies werent able to hold on, and eventually lost 5-4 in what had to be a disappointing end to their campaign.

Flash forward to this season, and the Auggies are once again excited and looking forward to making some noise. They have every reason to be as confident (if not more) about their offense to start this year. They brought back virtually every scoring threat from last season, including their top two lines.

When asked about some of the benefits of bringing back so many players, coach Chris Brown said Experience is the biggest thing, last year on the penalty kill we were somewhat passive, because we didnt have enough experience. This year well be able to try new things and be more aggressive.

Despite being on the power play for over 10 full minutes, Gustavus Adolphus never really seemed to look comfortable against Augsburg, who constantly applied pressure and possibly forced the Gusties to make quicker decisions with the puck than they wouldve liked. This pressure helped Augsburg to kill off three early penalties before finally giving up a power play goal during a five minute power play following a checking from behind major.

Their only question mark to start the season was their biggest question mark last year as well: their defense. While only graduating one blueliner last year, the Auggies also graduated their starting goalie. If the Auggies were on the ice, the odds were pretty good that so was Andrew Kent — of the 1,568 minutes Augsburg played hockey last year, Kent was on the ice for all but 52 of them.

Losing their workhorse meant that coming into opening weekend, Augsburg had two sophomore goalies and two freshmen netminders on their team . . . and none of them had ever started a college game.

You can never really be sure what youre going to get from someone making their first start, Brown said of his young goalies. Sure, you see them in practice and warm-ups, but once the game starts, they could be lights out or they could give up 10 goals, you just never know until youre out there.

He ended up starting each freshman goalie in one game this weekend, and they did not disappoint. In Augsburgs first game of the season, Justin Lochner got the nod. He faced 34 shots from Bethel and stopped them all, recording a shutout in his first collegiate game. Against defending conference champion Gustavus Adolphus, Brown started Nate Pellegrino, who allowed three goals on 32 shots while getting the first win of his career.

After the games, Brown specifically pointed to the defense, especially the freshmen.

David Hines, Kristof Reinthaler (both freshmen), and Nikki Holt did a great job, he said. Two of them were playing their first college games and really played well. As for the goaltenders, I think the games speak for themselves out there. We still havent gi