MCHA Players of the Week
Plenty of storylines remain in place as the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association enters the final month of the regular season. In the Southern Division, Adrian College and MSOE both swept weekend series to remain deadlocked heading down the stretch. The Bulldogs (6-1 and 9-2 winners over Finlandia) and Raiders (2-0 and 4-2 over Lawrence) are now tied at 12-1-1 in MCHA play and, coincidentally, 15-3-1 overall. A head-to-head series to close out the regular season looms the final weekend.
| Adrian Snaps Skid; Marian Tightens Division Race |
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| Written by Chris Zills |
Monday, January 18 2010 |
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Marian picked up a pair of victories, topping Northland, 10-2 and 9-1, to improve to 6-2 in league play, just one point behind Northern Division-leading Lawrence. Speaking of the Vikings, they improved to 6-1-1 with two overtime games against Finlanida. After a 4-4 tie Friday, Marc Howe made some history with an OT-winning goal - not only giving LU the 4-3 win Saturday - but also giving Howe his 104th career point to become the all-time leader at Lawrence.
In the other league series, Lake Forest followed up an 8-3 win Friday against Concordia with a 5-5 OT tie Saturday to make it a three-point weekend.
Players of the Week -Marian University Sabres sophomore forward Chris Thompson (Woodbury, Minn.) wins a tightly-contested race for MCHA Player of the Week. After a one goal/one assist game Friday, in which it was noted that he started on the fourth line, he earned a start Saturday. He responded with an impressive performance, adding four more points (1G/3A) in Saturday's sweep to get the Sabres one point closer to first in the division. For the weekend, he was +4 and did not take a penalty. Other nominees: Marc Howe (Lawrence), Kyle Watson (Adrian), Justin Taylor (Lake Forest)
-Lake Forest College freshman defenseman Trent Brown (Ayr, ONT) is this week's MCHA Defensive Player of the Week. Brown assisted on three crucial goals in slightly more than seven minutes of Lake Forest’s 8-3 victory over Concordia Friday night. After the Foresters fell behind 3-1, Brown helped set up a power play goal late in the second period and even-strength scores at 28 seconds and 5:22 in the third. He also assisted on the game-tying goal with just nine seconds to play in regulation of the team’s 5-5 tie at Concordia Wisconsin the following night. Other nominees: Chris Stansik (Adrian), Zach Fray (Marian)
-Adrian College Bulldogs freshman forward Zach Graham (Palmerston, ONT) earns the MCHA Freshman of the Week award for his weekend performance against MSOE. He made his only goal of the game count Friday, netting the game-winner. He was at it again Saturday, recording the game-winner in both contests in a 2G/1A outing Saturday. Other nominees: Dakota Dubetz (Marian), Marc Rubino (Lake Forest) |
It was business as usual for the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association, as all eight teams were back in league play this past weekend. No. 11 Adrian got back on track, sweeping past MSOE by scores of 7-1 and 5-2. In a strange twist of events, the Bulldogs somehow managed to fall one spot in today's USCHO.com national poll, coming in at No. 12 despite the unbeaten weekend.
