July 31, 2013
Who's Number 1? 2012-13 Season Review
Who’s Number 1?: 2012-13 MCRHL Season Review
By: Kyle Jones
We are at the latter half of the summer and a new season of college roller hockey is right around the corner. Before we look into our crystal ball for next season, let’s rewind last season.
Due to the different divisions in the NCRHA and MCRHL, it is sometimes difficult to compare every team in the league against one another. But, the one common factor across all the divisions is the relative success of a teams performance in the given season. Determination of a successful season is in the eye of the beholder but certain factors must be considered. Obviously wins and losses are a large factor, but exceeding preseason expectation is another factor that must be considered. This ranking will examine all the MCRHL teams and they will be graded on the following factors: total wins, quality wins, success in the postseason, and how well the team did compared to preseason expectations.
Just to keep everyone engaged, we will be releasing the next team in the ranking each day until we decide “Who’s Number #1”.
Needless to say, the Blue Demons struggled this past year. The lack of a true goaltender coupled with very little veteran leadership led to the school’s first ever winless season. Not a whole lot was expected from DePaul but it’s hard to justify their season when they were outscored nearly ten-fold.
Season Highlight: It’s hard to find a true highlight in the DePaul season. The only thing that resembles a highlight is their weekend in Grandville, Michigan. They scored 13 of their 19 goals (yes, they scored a total of 19 goals the whole season) that weekend including a 6-9 loss to Michigan Tech; their closest game of the season. I guess thats a highlight...?
Season Lowlight: DePaul had seven forfeits on the season. But the most embarrassing forfeit came when they didn’t show up to an early game right in their back yard. The rink in Palatine, IL is their home rink and is about a half hour from campus, yet they still didn’t show up on time and were forced to forfeit. Weather may be a factor, but Cincinnati (who they were scheduled to play) made it to the game and their campus is roughly 5 hours and a time zone change away.
Released July 29th, 2013
The Eagles from Ypsilanti, Michigan had a tough 2012-13 season and found it tough to gain any positive ground. Eastern Michigan can usually be counted on to be right near the top of the B division each season, but it was not the case this past year. Even though they lost their top scorer, Mitch Macleod, to their DI team, they hoped their 2011-12, eight win season would translate to the following season, but unfortunately fell significantly short of that mark. EMU settles in at #15 because they fell short of their preseason expectations and ended the season on the wrong note.
Season Highlight: If you watched senior Scott Kaptanowsky play goalie for the “Dirty Birds” you would be as impressed. Even though the numbers may not reflect it, Kaptanowsky had a really great season. He made some great saves even though he was left out to dry by his defense at times. If it was not for him, Eastern may have had a winless season.
Season Lowlight: The season lowlight would have to be the lack of commitment. Eastern Michigan was invited to play in the MCRHL regional tournament, but they were unable to pull together all their guys and were forced to forfeit. It would have been nice to have them at regionals and who knows, maybe they could have pulled off something magical.
14. Michigan (DI)
Michigan finished with fewer wins than any other Division I team in the MCRHL, which is the main reason they are ranked 14. With that said, the MCRHL proved to be one of the top conferences in the nation and it’s tough to play teams like Ohio State, Michigan State, Grand Valley and Eastern Michigan on a regular basis. Michigan had an overhauled roster with ten new guys and only two returning starters. Due to this, it’s really no surprise they finished with only three wins on the season. But with all these new faces, the future looks bright for the Wolverines.
Season Highlight: As mentioned before, Michigan had a inexperienced team and that may be the silver lining in their season. Eric Johnson, Noah Ongart and Max Schwein were three of their top scorers and were all in their first season with Michigan. Although the team finished at the bottom of Division I, Michigan has the highest ceiling of any team in the league.
Season Lowlight: Michigan allowed 299 goals in only 26 games. Let that sink in for just a minute... This can be attributed in large part to never having a true goalie. Also, besides a 6-7 loss to Ohio State, Michigan never even came close to beating any team not named Central Michigan all year. I understand the MCRHL is tough, but something has to change next year if the Wolverines want to be competitive and possibly make it to Nationals.
Released July 31st 201313.Ohio State B
Ohio State B comes in at number 13 on our list for a number of reasons. The Buckeyes only won three games all year, each of which were against Eastern Michigan B (another bottle dwelling team in the B division). They lost five of their top six scorers plus a starting goalie from the 2011-12 season but OSU has been known to have a grind-it-out team and always play opponents tough. They set a precedence in the first game of the season, pounding Eastern Michigan 11-1 but followed that up with 7 straight winless games. Despite the record, they never forfeit a game and also traveled to Mt. Pleasant, PA to play three teams who were invited to Nationals: Temple, East Carolina and eventual National Champs, Lindenwood.
Season Highlight: Besides the terrific play from Brandon Nazek (who was elected to the All-MCRHL team), Ohio State’s season highlight actually comes in a loss. Ohio State had Michigan State on the ropes in a knockout game at the MCRHL regionals. OSU was down 2-1 after the first period, but Nazek caught fire in the second and found the back of the net four times. Ohio State took a 5-3 lead and looked like they were about to send Michigan State home. OSU eventually lost, but the Buckeyes looked really solid against a very good MSU team.
12. Western Michigan (DII)
Of all the teams in the MCRHL, Western Michigan may have the most disappointing season of them all. This is a team who finished second in the MCRHL, lost four games during the regular season and got an invite to Nationals during the 2011-12 season. Needless to say, expectations were pretty high for the Broncos entering this past year. With a team led of mostly second and third year players, Western planned to build off their previous year’s success but never seemed to reach their full potential. Even though Western Michigan scored the second most goals in Division II, those goals didn’t always translate into wins and finished with an even .500 record. Due to this, Western Michigan slips into the #12 position.
Season Highlight: Mike Vandenberg was fantastic once again. He was a first team All-Conference (again) and scored 50 points in 19 games. If opponents did not gameplan for him and failed to keep an eye on him all game, he was scoring. Vandenberg did have some help on the offensive side. In his second season with the team, Blake Mikolajewski had 19 assists in as many games and finished on the MCRHL’s second team All-Conference.
Season Lowlight: The of the most noticeable points was Western’s inability to turn close games into wins. Western played in 12 games (exhibition included) within three goals. In those games they finished 2-5-4 and those two wins came against Michigan Tech. A team that made it to Nationals the previous year should be better at closing out games, but that was not the case this past year for the Broncos.
Released August 2nd, 2013
Another year goes by and it’s another year Michigan Tech just sort of goes through the motions in the the MCRHL. They win a few games but lose more. They have some key wins against teams like Northern Illinois and Cincinnati (both Nationals teams) but not enough to get an invite to Regionals, let alone Nationals. Tech had a very solid defensive team which kept them in nearly every game they played, but in this case defense doesn’t win you championships. Maybe it’s the cold weather in Houghton, MI (Fun fact: the most northern by far in the NCRHA).
Season Highlight: As mentioned before, Tech had a few signature wins against Nationals teams but the Huskies season highlight has to go to their leading point getter, David Weyland, and solid goaltending from Kyler Witting. Weylands finished with 39 points which accounted for over a third of the teams total points. Last year was Witting first on the team and he was very impressive boasting a 4.87 GAA which ranked second in the league. Both made the All-Conference team and were the bright spot for Michigan Tech’s season. If not for these two student athletes, Michigan Tech’s season would look much different.
Season Lowlight: Michigan Tech finished 5th out of six teams in Division II. They were able to beat teams like Northern Illinois and Cincinnati (twice), but they fell just shy of a Regionals invite. The glaring blemish? They went 0-3 against Western Michigan who finished in fourth place. If they were able to beat Western just one time, Tech would have made Regionals and had the opportunity to use their stellar defense to get an invite to Nationals.
Released August 3rd, 2013
It was a Jekell and Hyde season for Central Michigan. Fresh off their 2011 Division II National Championship season, Central was forced to move up to Division I. The first semester was rough for the Chips, essentially losing all their guys from that National Championship team. As the calendar turned from 2012 to 2013, Central’s roster got a facelift and got back some of their skaters and star goalie Mason Henige from the previous year. Once they recouped some of their guys and were able to game plan for each game, Central was able to turn around their season. With expectations being so low to start the season and only winning two games during the regular season, Central is able to climb up to the number 10 spot due in large part to their play in the playoffs.
Season Highlight: There is absolutely no doubt, Central Michigan’s season highlight was their magical run made in regionals. After losing their first game in the double elimination playoff, Central nearly played themselves into Nationals. They played a picture perfect passive box, relying heavily on Henige in net and picked all the right times to strike on offense. With this nearly perfect game plan, the Chippewa’s were able to mow down Michigan, Ohio State, Grand Valley and Eastern Michigan. They met up with Michigan State in the Regional Championship for a one way ticket to Ft. Myers. Central was one goal in a sudden death overtime away from being the MCRHL representative at Nationals. Unfortunately for them, the clock struck midnight for this Cinderella and they ended up losing 2-1. Even still, Central Michigan had one of the most memorable runs in MCRHL history.
Season Lowlight: As impressive as Central’s regional run was, the rest of the regular season was unimpressive. They did not have a stable team until regionals and their record reflected that. They had two wins all season and allowed 163 goals in their first 8 games. If they would have pulled together a respectable team all year and got a few more wins during the season, they would have had the opportunity to have a magical run not only at Regionals, but at Nationals too.
The Ohio State team from the 2011-12 season did not look all that different from the team they had this past season. Besides losing a starting goalie, the starting line-up featured many of the same faces: Alex Durinka, Dan Dukart, Zach Fleissner and Drew Tappan. With a solid foundation built, Ohio State was looking to make a run at some hardware this year. They looked like they were in the hunt early in the season and cracked the top ten in the NCRHA Coast to Coast rankings. But as time went on, wins were hard to come by and the Bucks finished with an overall record of 13-15-3 record.
Season Highlight: As mentioned above, Ohio State looked good to start the season. They shot to the top of the standings winning six of their first eight games. Even in those two games they lost, Ohio State had a chance to win. A 2-5 loss to Grand Valley was due in large part to two late goals with under a minute in the game by Grand Valley. The other loss came at the hand of Michigan State in which Alex Palomba displayed some great goaltending for the Buckeyes and stood on his head giving his team a chance to win.
Ever since their glory days of the 2009 and 2010, Cincinnati has struggled to put together a winning season. The Bearcats entered the 2012-13 season in hopes to turn things around. Their team was made up predominantly on second year veterans such as Corey Kadash, Matt Fischer, Chris McFarland and Rob Apple. Fortunately for the Bearcats, they were able to finish with their first winning season in three years, but finished third in both the regular season standings and at Regionals. They were also invited to Nationals as an alternate bid but were were fell just shy of preseason expectations and walked away from the 2012-13 season with no hardware.
Season Highlight: Cincinnati’s season highlight is a lot like Ohio State’s. They started off the season on fire. They started the season 6-2 and looked like they were the only team capable of knocking off Miami for the top stop in Division II. They were also the only MCRHL team to defeat Binghampton from the ECRHA when they came to town during a November tournament. The season looked bright and expectations were high for Cincinnati.
Season Lowlight: Cincinnati really struggled down the stretch. When they needed to win and the games meant the most, Cincinnati could not find a way to win. They went 0-3 against Northern Illinois in games that matter (i.e. playoffs and regular season). Of those 3 games, Cincinnati lost each game by 2 or less, including a heartbreaking overtime loss at Regionals. If any of those losses turned into win, Cincinnati season would rank higher on our list.
By seasons end, Northern Illinois had raised the most eyebrows of any team. The Huskies lost three of their top scorer from the previous year and that year they only won seven games. As the 2012-13 season rolled in, NIU only had six skaters and four of them were new to the team. If this was any other team, the MCRHL would be happy if they were able to finish off the season. Instead, Tom Budzynski (the Huskies leading scorer) and Co. stunned the masses. NIU finished the season strong, won the games they needed to and were invited to their second ever Nationals (their first in 2007).
Season Highlight: The Huskies ability to never give up is the most impressive part of their season. When the first half of the season ended, Northern Illinois was near the bottom of the standings. But by the second half, something clicked and they finished the season with a 5-2-1 record. This hot steak was just enough to eek out a second place finish in Division II. They were also able to use the regular season momentum during Regionals, in which they were runners-up to Miami.
Ever since moving up to Division I in 2010, Grand Valley has steadily improved every year and the past year was no exception. With full of season veterans 2011-12, there was no doubt Grand Valley was going to have a solid team and make a run for the MCRHL title. They had a very solid year, hovering around number 10 in the NCRHA Coast 2 Coast rankings all season long. Lead by the stellar play of third year players David Oswald and Kyle Novak, Grand Valley finished with a 13-5-2 regular season record which was good enough for a second place finish in the regular season. In addition, Grand Valley was invited to participate in their second consecutive National Tournament.
Season Highlight: Grand Valley was impressive as hell during pool play at Nationals. Prior to the start of Nationals, it seemed no one was picking Grand Valley to finish first in Pool C. Not only did the Lakers finish 3-0 in pool play, they did it in very impressive fashion. They shutout Illinois and the favored George Mason 5-0 and 9-0, respectfully. They finished pool play with a 5-2 victory over West Chester and had everyone thinking Grand Valley had a chance to play Cinderella for the rest of the tournament.
Season Lowlight: As soon as the masses thought Grand Valley had something magical going in Fort Myers, they ran into a roadblock. The Lakers were matched up with Pittsburgh in the first round of the elimination bracket. Pitt went 1-2 in Pool F and finished in last place. With their great play and stifling defense in pool play, Grand Valley was heavy favorites entering the game. But as the saying goes, “that’s why they play game.” Grand Valley got away from their game plan that worked so well earlier and rushed their offense (not to mention ran into a hot goalie). And for the second straight year, GV was eliminated in the first round. This game marked the only upset in the first round, which may be the hardest fact to swallow.
The countdown keeps rolling on and the Eastern Michigan Eagle have cracked the top 5. Fresh off their unexpecting final four visit at the 2012 NCRHA Nationals, Eastern looked to one up themselves entering the 2012-13 season. Their high powered offense was anchored by Brandon Dare and Sam Nixdorf along with a few more key role players. In their first year in Division I, Mitch Macleod and Kevin McKane had fantastic years scoring 50 points on the season. By the end of the season, Eastern was able to brag about a third place finish in the regular season, Regionals and the ECRHA Winterfest. Eastern had a good season, but were a few key wins away from their season being great.
Season Highlight: There are two games that stood out more than any other that highlighted the Eagles season. The first was at Winterfest against at very good Neumann team. It was a back and forth game that found Eastern down, 4-5, in the third period. It wasn’t until second year player, Kyle Pinkney, scored on the power play to tie the game at 5. The game transitioned into overtime and another power play opportunity for the Eagles proved to be the difference. Macleod was able to blast a one-timer from the dot and propel Eastern into the next round. The second game was in Fort Myers. In pool play, Eastern was down 3 goals in the third to UNLV. Brandon Dare turned on the jets and was able to score three consecutive goals to tie the game. Following a UNLV goal with under a minute left in the game, Eastern looked done. But Robert Gasser said, “NOT SO FAST” and with milliseconds left on the clock, he got one past UNLV and tied the game.