In a month, the University of Wisconsin-Stout hockey team has transformed itself from a 1-3 team of fledglings to 7-3 road warriors.
The Blue Devils’ latest coup as visitors came in a two-game sweep over No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 4-1 and 5-4, Friday and Saturday in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association matchup.
In Saturday’s victory, senior Bobby Kuehl scored 23 seconds into overtime to extend UW Stout’s winning streak to six games. Senior Danny Ryan’s unassisted tally with 4:46 left in regulation forced OT.
The victories lifted the Blue Devils (4-2 NCHA) to second place behind No.3 St. Norbert (7-1, 6-0). UW-Stout is off until December 3, when it hosts University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The Blue Devils’ next seven of eight games are at home, while eight of its first 10 contests were on the road.
“We’re having fun, we’re working hard,” coach Terry Watkins said. “I think there is some in luck in there, too.
“Sometimes you work hard and you earn your luck.”
UW-Stout needed a rub of the green after losing four of its leading scorers, including NCHA Player of the Year Joel Gaulrapp, from last year’s 10-13-4 team. This year’s edition features 10 freshmen and two sophomore transfers.
The team is also down to 21 players after 10 players were suspended — two indefinitely — stemming from an off-campus incident in which another student died.
Those suspended indefinitely were Jedidiah McGlasson and Jared Britton, who have been charged with assault and felony murder in the death of Bradley Simon, 21.
Despite the team’s youth, seniors Branden Gay and Robert Carr have led offensively. Gay has a team-leading six goals and eight assists for 14 points, while Carr is second with four goals and six assists for 10 points.
Carr was the NCHA Player of the Week on Nov. 16 after the Roseau, Minn., product netted three goals and and an assist in the team’s two-game sweep over St. Scholastica Nov. 12-13.
“They both worked very hard over the summer,” Watkins said. “We graduated some really good kids and (Gay and Carr) said, ‘Hey we got to step up. We’re seniors next year and we need leadership.’ Both are lunch-pail kind of guys that worked their butts off.”
Gay also leads the team with four power-play goals as the Blue Devils are a league-leading 12 of 48 for 25 percent in man-advantage situations. On the penalty kill, UW-Stout’s opponents are an anemic 6-for-56 for 10 percent.
Superior special teams play has bolstered sophomore netminder Tom Lescovich, who has a commendable 2.90 goals-against average and .915 save percentage as a starter in all 10 games.
Lescovich’s biggest battle came against No. 3 St. Norbert October 29, when he turned away 46 shots in a 3-1 loss. He faced 40 shots in the team’s 6-3 setback the previous night.
Though losing both encounters, UW-Stout’s overall performance against the NCHA behemoth boosted his team’s confidence, Watkins said.
“The kids understood (St. Norbert) were a veteran team while we were a young team,” the coach said. “We did some good things and you take the good things out of there. I think we learned from that.”
Hamline’s new (old) digs
The No. 8 Pipers’ 6-2 victory over Saint Mary’s Saturday marked the team’s return to a familiar haunt.
The 60-year-old Lee and Rose Warner Coliseum hosted the Minnesota Intercollegiate Hockey Conference tilt. The Minnesota State Fairgrounds structure served as Hamline’s home home rink for 30 years from the mid-1970s until 2005 when the team moved to Drake Arena.
Some 367 people attended Saturday’s game, which featured a two-goal performance by Pipers defenseman Tim Olson. Ryan Kupperman, Brian Arrigoni, Chris Berenguer and Cory Belisle also scored for Hamline, which raised its overall record to 5-1.
The 5,250-capacity coliseum is about a mile away from Hamline’s St. Paul campus, and serves as a state hockey high school sectional playoff site as well as a municipal rink.
Prior to Saturday’s win, the Pipers had to wait for a youth team to evacuate before moving equipment into the locker room, coach Scott Bell said.
“I like it that the kids like it ,” said Bell, whose team’s opened MIAC play with a 4-3 win over the Cardinals in Winona, Minn., on Friday.
Warner Coliseum is about a mile from the Hamline campus while Drake Arena is three miles. The coliseum’s ice surface is slightly larger than the standard 200- by 85-foot NHL sheet, but is not full Olympic-sized.
“We have a skating team and it is a little bigger sheet of ice, so that helps us,” the coach said.
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