What good is having the DU blogger ruin you're blog, unless you can milk him for information and find out how to defeat his team. Since Coach Shyiak is probably busy with the "walk-ons" right now, I guess we can slip you a few juicy nuggets.Four or five weeks ago DU switched Penalty Kill strategies and the payoff was immediate. The Pioneers turned in a 12-for-12 effort on the penalty kill last weekend and remained unbeaten at 5-0-1 when holding opponents without a power-play goal. It appears that DU lets you play with the puck around the edges uncontested, but ferociously block shots and swarm the puck when you move in.
DU basically stinks on the Power Play. Losing Carle, Skinner, Stastny & Gauthier over the past two seasons will do that. Those guys were exceptional puck handlers and could control errant passes and skipping pucks. DU's power-play improved to 14.9% (20-for-139) after last weekend's 4-for-18 (22.2%) effort. DU is 8-3-2 when scoring on the power play. The Pioneers have tallied at least one power-play goal in eight of their last nine games.
Wanna beat DU, stop Ryan Dingle. Dingle not only is an awesome player but he possesses what all great players seem to have. He can elevate his game in the last two minutes of a period, when DU falls behind or is on a "must score" Power Play. He leads DU in goals (15), power-play goals (7), game-winning goals (3) and shorthanded goals (2). He also led the Pioneers in all four categories last season.
Senior Glenn Fisher (.928 Sv%) and Peter Mannino (.906 Sv%) have held opponents to three goals or less in 13 of the last 14 games.
Pioneer freshmen led by Brock Trotter (20 pts.), Tyler Ruegsegger (17 pts.), Rhett Rakhshani (15 pts.), Keith Seabrook (7 pts.) & Brian Gifford (7 pts.) accounted for 48% of DU's scoring points.
Senior captain Adrian Veideman (concussion) and senior forward Ryan Helgason (hand) are out for the second consecutive weekend with injuries. Rumor has it that Veideman may return on Saturday, but I'll bet against it. He's a warrior, but why mess around with a concussion.
5 comments:
Gwoz is on the phone for you.
Tell him I'm not here...
I'm glad Gauthier is gone. That little pest was always camped out near the crease.
hey when that pic says traitor, are they talking about Carle?
I swear I thought that was Carle getting stabbed. :p
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