Axtell Axed?

The rumor on the street is that freshman forward Phil Axtell has been dismissed from the hockey Huskies for "repeated violations of team rules". No specifics have been gleaned and there has not yet been an official announcement.

Truthfully, I was a bit unimpressed with Axtell's play. 10 pts. is decent for a freshman campaign, but I felt he should have been throwing his massive physical size around a lot more. He was also forced to sit out all of the WCHA playoff games against CC and the F5 game against Bucky for poor grades, so something tells me the issue is likely academic.

If this turns out to be true, then I wish Phil the best of luck in any future endeavors.

Michigan Tech 2007-2008 Preliminary Schedule

The annoucement has not yet been made so this is still subject to change, but this is what some people have been able to determine, through deductive logic...

Home games are denoted in bold

Oct. 12 - eNeMa U (Superior Showdown)
Oct. 14 - Lake State (Superior Showdown)
Oct. 19 - Minnesota State-Mankato
Oct. 20 - Minnesota State-Mankato
Oct. 26 - North Dakota
Oct. 27 - North Dakota
Nov. 2 - @ Wisconsin
Nov. 3 - @ Wisconsin
Nov. 9 - St. Cloud State
Nov. 10 - St. Cloud State
Nov. 16 - @ Minnesota-Duluth
Nov. 17 - @ Minnesota-Duluth
Nov. 30 - @ Minnesota
Dec. 1 - @ Minnesota
Dec. 14 - @ eNeMa U (nc)
Dec. 15 - eNeMa U (nc)
Dec. 28 - vs. Michigan State (GLi) (nc)
Dec. 29 - vs. Michigan/Providence (GLi) (nc)
Jan. 4 - @ Mercyhurst (nc)
Jan. 5 - @ Mercyhurst (nc)
Jan. 11 - @ North Dakota
Jan. 12 - @ North Dakota
Jan. 25 - Colorado College
Jan. 26 - Colorado College
Feb. 1 - @ Alaska-Anchorage
Feb. 2 - @ Alaska-Anchorage
Feb. 15 - Minnesota-Duluth
Feb. 16 - Minnesota-Duluth
Feb. 22 - @ St. Cloud State
Feb. 23 - @ St. Cloud State
Feb. 29 - Denver
Mar. 1 - Denver
Mar. 7 - @ Minnesota State-Mankato
Mar. 8 - @ Minnesota State-Mankato

Pros

1. No trips to Colorado
2. String of early home games to (hopefully) build some momentum.
3. NMU rivalry series in the middle of the season, instead of wasting it right away.
4. For that matter, a second home game against Northern.

Cons

1. LOOONNNGG stretch of road games in the middle of the season. If it weren't for the H&H against Northern, we'd be going two months without a game at the JMSIA.
2. Ending the regular season on the road (at least it'll be against Mankato)
3. Watered-down OOC schedule (MSU? Good. NMU? Tradition, and perhaps they'll bounce back next season. Mercyhurst? C'mon!)
4. No visit from UAA (can't heckle Nathan Lawson again)

Overall, this proposed schedule feels a bit unbalanced, even though the number of games is correct and the opponents are accurate. When the finalized schedule is announced (hopefully soon), we'll see how close the actual dates are to this mock up.

And The Winner Is...

Congratulations to the Michigan State Spartans, 2007 National Champions. After the woes your football program has been suffering recently, it's nice to see at least one MSU team do well, especially after being underdogs through it all.

That would be MSU's third title - Christ they're tied with Tech now. It's alright though, we're gonna win our fourth in the next two or three years. If State can break a 21-year titleless streak and BC can break a 50+ year titleless run (back in 2001), then MTU is due to end 38 years of suffering (as of 2008) soon. ;)

And with that, hockey is officially over for about the next six months...

*ahem*

...

So...is it October yet?

One Last Quick Wrap...

I guess it's only appropriate that my first 'real' post here reflects upon our team's accomplishments this season.

After going 7-25-6 in the '05-'06 campaign, the Huskies got their shit together this year and earned their first winning season since '92-'93, going 18-17-5 overall. The biggest change that allowed them to achieve this crucial first step in the direction of a rebuild is the defense. I don't know what Coach Russell did with the defense during the off-season, but whatever it was, the Huskies went from allowing 148 goals last season, to just 86 this year. This made the majority of our games much closer - in fact, many of our losses this season were by just a single goal. So while the defense is good, our offense is mediocre at best. We have a couple of consistent playmakers in Peter Rouleau and Tyler Shelast, and everyone else just seems to contribute when they can.

I witnessed several offensive plays this season that were very well-executed, but the pass was fired just a bit too high or too fast, and bounced right over the stick of the player sitting in front of the net, waiting to bury it.

In summary...

The Good

*Shot-blocking, puck-stealing defense
*Penalty kill (87.3% - among the nation's top 10)
*Goaltending (Teslak - 2.00 GAA, Nolan - 2.26 GAA)

The Bad

*Anemic offense (prone to little mistakes that add up)

The Ugly

*Pitful power play (9.3% - we really need snipers)

Moving forward, I'll take a more in-depth look at recruits another time, but this year's class looks promising.

Up & Running!

My new hockey blog is now rolling, off-season updates will follow as I deem them necessary.