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2021-22 University of North Dakota Hockey Season


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30 minutes ago, tnt said:

Denver sharing the cup could possibly cost us an all league player, as the league winner usually gets the benefit if it is between two players.

I’m not sure if we’d have many all league players even if we won the league outright. 

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3 minutes ago, brianvf said:

I’m not sure if we’d have many all league players even if we won the league outright. 

Gaber and Frisch, don’t know if Sanderson’s number of games will hurt his chances.  I could see both Brink and Savoie getting spots which could hurt Gaber.

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2 hours ago, tnt said:

Gaber and Frisch, don’t know if Sanderson’s number of games will hurt his chances.  I could see both Brink and Savoie getting spots which could hurt Gaber.

UND has too many to pick from this season, I can think of at least 3 or 4 besides Frisch, Gaber and Sanderson. I do think that Driscoll deserves a look!

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14 minutes ago, mattim said:

UND has too many to pick from this season, I can think of at least 3 or 4 besides Frisch, Gaber and Sanderson. I do think that Driscoll deserves a look!

If we're looking at NCHC-only stats, UND only has 2 players (Gaber and Ford) in the top 30 for points.  Gaber in 7th and Ford 17th.  DU has four of the top six in points.  In a normal season, Sanderson or Frisch should for sure get a look for dman spots, but both missed a few (Frisch) or a ton (Sanderson) of games, which will obviously hurt.  Heck, if Sanderson played all season I would've guessed he'd be in the running for some national honors on top of all-league awards.

Driscoll was second in GAA to Chrona (2.16 vs 2.17) but did lead the league in save % with .919.  I could see the league giving it to either Driscoll or Chrona...Chrona does have one more league win and of course 6 shutouts compared to Driscoll's one.

I'd say Berry is a shoe-in for CotY after everyone that UND lost last year and being predicted to finish 4th and then winning the league.

Looking at the player stats, it's clear that UND won the league with a team effort and everyone buying in to the team goal.  This certainly is not like other UND teams that have one line that carries the load.

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All-NCHC first team

F — Bobby Brink, Denver
F — Ethen Frank, Western Michigan
F — Riese Gaber, North Dakota
D — Ronnie Attard, Western Michigan
D — Nick Perbix, St. Cloud State
G — Ryan Fanti, Minnesota Duluth

All-NCHC second team

F — Carter Savoie, Denver
F — Drew Worrad, Western Michigan
F — Kevin Fitzgerald, St. Cloud State
D — Jake Sanderson, North Dakota
D — Mike Benning, Denver
G — Zach Driscoll, North Dakota

All-NCHC honorable mention

F — Cole Guttman, Denver
F — Noah Cates, Minnesota Duluth
F — Connor Ford, North Dakota
D — Brandon Scanlin, Omaha
D — Michael Joyaux, Western Michigan
G — Magnus Chrona, Denver

All-NCHC rookie team

F — Carter Mazur, Denver
F — Massimo Rizzo, Denver
F — Matteo Costantini, North Dakota
D — Sean Behrens, Denver
D — Shai Buium, Denver
G — Jakob Hellsten, North Dakota

 

Good for Gaber getting on the 1st team!
Surprising for Sanderson getting on 2nd team despite only playing 10 of 24 league games.
No Frisch, that's a bummer.

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Frisch not making 2nd team is a travesty. He took over on the back end when UND made their run.

Jake making 2nd team is just embarrassing. Deserving talent....yup but if you can't lace em up in at least half of all league game you shouldn't even be on the ballot. 

Driscoll.....well deserved. Hot mess first half. IMO league MVP in 2nd half.

Gaber.....that was a no brainer.

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25 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

Frisch not making 2nd team is a travesty. He took over on the back end when UND made their run.

Jake making 2nd team is just embarrassing. Deserving talent....yup but if you can't lace em up in at least half of all league game you shouldn't even be on the ballot. 

Driscoll.....well deserved. Hot mess first half. IMO league MVP in 2nd half.

Gaber.....that was a no brainer.

Embarrassing? Kind of an odd thing to be embarrassed about.

He's a point per game player in the games he played. That equals an all-conference pick, IMO.

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2 hours ago, skateshattrick said:

This from a guy who can't look at a game while sober. 


That and I don't recall gf ever adding content about the game of hockey itself--only about banner tallies.   He may never have even watched a game in any color glasses.  

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20 hours ago, brianvf said:

All-NCHC first team

F — Bobby Brink, Denver
F — Ethen Frank, Western Michigan
F — Riese Gaber, North Dakota
D — Ronnie Attard, Western Michigan
D — Nick Perbix, St. Cloud State
G — Ryan Fanti, Minnesota Duluth

All-NCHC second team

F — Carter Savoie, Denver
F — Drew Worrad, Western Michigan
F — Kevin Fitzgerald, St. Cloud State
D — Jake Sanderson, North Dakota
D — Mike Benning, Denver
G — Zach Driscoll, North Dakota

All-NCHC honorable mention

F — Cole Guttman, Denver
F — Noah Cates, Minnesota Duluth
F — Connor Ford, North Dakota
D — Brandon Scanlin, Omaha
D — Michael Joyaux, Western Michigan
G — Magnus Chrona, Denver

All-NCHC rookie team

F — Carter Mazur, Denver
F — Massimo Rizzo, Denver
F — Matteo Costantini, North Dakota
D — Sean Behrens, Denver
D — Shai Buium, Denver
G — Jakob Hellsten, North Dakota

 

Good for Gaber getting on the 1st team!
Surprising for Sanderson getting on 2nd team despite only playing 10 of 24 league games.
No Frisch, that's a bummer.

I like the tribute here to breadth and depth of competition in the NCHC.   FIVE different teams represented in All-NCHC first team, and SIX in total.   Its been another year where you strap your pads on tight and play a full 60 minutes to win.  

Lot of players would be a good choice for POTY.  

And for COTY, yes Berry is up there, but if I had a vote I would have to think long and hard about if Pat Ferschweiler at Western Michigan as a first year coach got my vote.  

Wish there was an award for Assistant Coach of the year ... some interesting possibles there too.

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2 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

I like the tribute here to breadth and depth of competition in the NCHC.   FIVE different teams represented in All-NCHC first team, and SIX in total.   Its been another year where you strap your pads on tight and play a full 60 minutes to win.  

Lot of players would be a good choice for POTY.  

And for COTY, yes Berry is up there, but if I had a vote I would have to think long and hard about if Pat Ferschweiler at Western Michigan as a first year coach got my vote.  

Wish there was an award for Assistant Coach of the year ... some interesting possibles there too.

Agreed on Fersch. But we shall see how he does when he doesn't have a stacked roster of super seniors.

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8 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

I like the tribute here to breadth and depth of competition in the NCHC.   FIVE different teams represented in All-NCHC first team, and SIX in total.   Its been another year where you strap your pads on tight and play a full 60 minutes to win.  

Lot of players would be a good choice for POTY.  

And for COTY, yes Berry is up there, but if I had a vote I would have to think long and hard about if Pat Ferschweiler at Western Michigan as a first year coach got my vote.  

Wish there was an award for Assistant Coach of the year ... some interesting possibles there too.

So much goes into success, it would be fitting to call it Coaching Staff of the Year.   But assistants don't take all the heat when things go badly either.  

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NCHC player of the year finalists:
Ronnie Attard, D, Western Michigan
Bobby Brink, F, Denver
Ethen Frank, F, Western Michigan
Riese Gaber, F, North Dakota

Herb Brooks Coach of the Year finalists
Brad Berry, North Dakota
David Carle, Denver
Pat Ferschweiler, Western Michigan

NCHC Rookie of the Year finalists
Carter Mazur, Denver
Massimo Rizzo, Denver
Max Sasson, Western Michigan

NCHC defensive forward of the year finalists:
Connor Ford, NoDak
Drew Worrad, WMU
Tanner Laderoute, Minn. Duluth

NCHC goaltender of the year finalists:
Zach Driscoll, North Dakota
Ryan Fanti, Minnesota Duluth
Magnus Chrona, Denver

NCHC defensive defenseman of the year finalists:
Ethan Frisch, North Dakota
Jake Sanderson, North Dakota
Justin Lee, Denver

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My guesses:

Brink PotY
Mazur RotY (same pts as Rizzo but more goals)
Fanti GotY (would love to see Driscoll get it but they gave Fanti 1st team, so my guess is he gets GotY too)
Frisch or Sandy DDotY (would take either over DU ;) )
Ford DFotY (but they'll prob give it to Worrad)
Berry CotY (I've seen mentions for the WMU coach, that's crazy with all the super seniors/Attard they returned...UND lost half their roster and still won the league...we'll see how the WMU coach does next year when they lose all their top players this offseason to compare)

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4 hours ago, brianvf said:

My guesses:

Brink PotY
Mazur RotY (same pts as Rizzo but more goals)
Fanti GotY (would love to see Driscoll get it but they gave Fanti 1st team, so my guess is he gets GotY too)
Frisch or Sandy DDotY (would take either over DU ;) )
Ford DFotY (but they'll prob give it to Worrad)
Berry CotY (I've seen mentions for the WMU coach, that's crazy with all the super seniors/Attard they returned...UND lost half their roster and still won the league...we'll see how the WMU coach does next year when they lose all their top players this offseason to compare)

I agree with almost all your picks above, but since I've started the crazy talk here about WMU's coach as a deserving candidate for COTY, I'll go through the rationale in a little more detail.   And yeah as a UND fan I bleed green and would love to see UND's staff rewarded for their accomplishments in bringing together a pile of new players and a goaltender who needed to listen to Karl for a while before getting his thinking into his head.   (And I'm going to ignore Carle for this discussion, even though I think he and Berry may split the votes that go to the Title Team.)

Let's start with # years experience in the job  Ferschweiler 1.  Berry 6.   First year coaches always get a bonus there.

Preseason expectations vs actual/current rankings.   NCHC:  WMU Preseason #6 Actual #3.  UND Preseason #2 (tied almost) Actual #1 tied.

Nationally (USCHO Preseason vs current Pairwise.  WMU Preseason Not Ranked (#24)  Current #5.  UND Preseason #7  Current #6.   UND has met preseason expectations, while Western Michigan has clobbered them.

Average Age of roster  WMU 22.3  UND 21.8 (Source CHN, I didn't check their calculation.)

Average # Seasons of College Playing Experience (Fr 1 So 2, etc to 5 years for some)  WMU 2.50  UND 2.33

# 5th Year players on the roster WMU 2 (Ethan Frank, Josh Passolt)  UND 2  (Connor Ford, Zach Driscoll)  Not sure where you think they have a pile of super seniors, but that number looks equal to me.

Number of New Players on the Roster   WMU 5, all Freshmen.  UND 14  (9 Freshmen and 5 Transfers including 3 WCHA All Conference)  Big edge to UND coaching staff here turning that chaos into cohesive team chemistry.

"Talent" on the roster aka NHL Draftees WMU 2  UND 9.    Yeah Western coaches have a lot less talent to work with.   

Maybe there are other factors that real voters consider.   As I look at all the data above, I see Ferschweiler sorting through Andy Murray's mess and getting everyone on board.  And I see Berry sorting through a pile of players - and I remember how painful 1980-1981 was, the last time we had 13 new players - and getting them all on board.  Berry has a lot more talent to work with, and preseason expectations mirror actual pretty closely.  Ferschweiler has a bit more age to work with, but only 2 draftees is a fair reflection of their overall NHL-level talent.  Tough tough call.  I wouldn't be surprised if the award goes to Ferschweiler.

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