The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Interesting article on our opponent this weekend. The writer even re-named our arena. It's now Logan Ice Arena. Neat trick.

St. Cloud has been having trouble scoring 5 on 5 goals.

Men's hockey: SCSU's looking for even-strength goals

Quote:The Huskies have lost three straight games and have scored one 5-on-5 goal in that stretch. Of its last six goals, St. Cloud State has four power-play goals and a 4-on-4 goal.

Two of the three losses have been in overtime and another was a a one-goal game until the Huskies gave up a late empty-net goal.

"We need added 5-on-5 goals. How many? More than one in four games," St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said.

Quote:A silver lining for the Huskies has been special teams.

St. Cloud State is fifth in the nation on the power play (26.3 percent) and has killed 84.8 percent of its short-handed situations. The Huskies were 6-for-7 on the penalty kill in two losses last weekend and are 15-for-17 (88.2 percent) in their last five games.

The Broncos should take a page out of UMD playbook from last weekend and look to create a lot of 1 x 1 battles along the half walls, down low and in front of thier net. Win the battles here, they'll control the game and limit SCSU scoring chances.

SCSU wants to beat you with thier transition game. Take that way like we did last year, they are forced into puck battles in which we have the upper hand

Looks like they paired thier top two forwards (Benek and Brodzinski) on the same line in an effort to get some more 5 x 5 goals. That leaves them with the "smurf" line of Murrey, Kasille and Russel.

With out their power play, SCSU a very beatable team. They kind of remind me of Denver last year. I know our PK has not been as good as it was last year (79.4 PK), but it sounds like they are going to be a little more aggressive this week and apply more pressure.

Combine PP/PK special teams percentage:

SCSU @ 111.2
WMU @ 102.3

I read somewhere that NHL teams strive for a 105% or higher, which basically means you are scoring more goals that you are giving up on special teams. Last year SCSU was not very strong on their PK (25.3 PP + 76.9PK) but still ended with a 102.2 % combined special teams rating. WMU was a 98.1 % (13.3 PP + 84.8 PK)

WMU holds the all time record over SCSU with a 2-1-1 record

Oh lord, I hope we don't get those toolbag refs this weekend.

I hope the logan lunatics give em hell!

(11-14-2014 10:27 AM)bronconick Wrote:  Oh lord, I hope we don't get those toolbag refs this weekend.

Referees: Dan Dreger (2), Brad Shepherd (33)

Linesmen: Paul Carnathan (93), Brent Gawlik (71)

St.Cloud has what is probably the best computer based game broadcast in college hockey! Anybody want to bet that we will look very bush-league to the St.Cloud fans who tune in? Do we have any hope in h**l that our guys will finally get the audio synced to the video? Any body heard anything or will it be the same old crummy crap?

(11-14-2014 04:19 PM)Ubish Wrote:  I hope the logan lunatics give em hell!