MIAC Hockey Notebook

BETHEL | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | Bethel alum leads U-18 Women’s Hockey team to gold Back in mid-June USA Hockey announced that Bethel University alum Joel Johnson was named the head coach for the 2015 U.S. Women’s National U-18 Team. Just under seven months later Johnson and those competing on the squad made international headlines by defeating rival Canada in the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championship at HARBORCENTER in Buffalo, N.Y. Read more

CONCORDIA | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | A shutout, a sweep, and a lead in the MIAC A pair of goals in each of the second and third periods led to a 4-0 win for Concordia over No.14-ranked St. John’s and the first sweep of the Johnnies since 2000. The Cobbers received goals from three freshmen and a senior in their ninth overall win of the season. First-year players Dalton Mills,Jon Grebosky and Zach Doerring all continued their outstanding play in their first collegiate seasons while Andrew Deters showed why he is the team’s leading scorer. The win is the third straight for the Cobbers. CC is now 9-5-3 on the year which is the most overall wins for any conference team. The win also moves the Cobbers into first place in the league standings. Concordia is 4-2-2 in the MIAC and has 15 league points.

GUSTAVUS | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | Gusties capture Golden Shovel A team made up of former Gustavus Adolphus College women’s hockey players captured the coveted Golden Shovel in the Women’s Division of the 2015 Labatt Blue U.S. Pond Hockey Championships held Jan. 15-18 on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis. The team “Consistently Cuatro” made up of Gusties Sara Yungner ’11, Mollie Carroll ’12, Gina DeNucci ’12, Grace Olson ’12, Allie Schwab ’12, Jenna Christensen ’13, Kelsey Kennedy ’13, and Meagan Wanecke ’13 earned earn a berth in the Women’s Division Championship after recording 12 points in pool play with an unblemished record of 4-0-0. On the Mountain Khakis rink Sunday afternoon, Consistently Cuatro faced off against Shenanigans – a team that also entered the championship game with a record of 4-0-0 following pool play. With clear skies over Lake Nokomis and temperatures dancing around an ideal 35 degrees, the flannel-clad Gusties skated to an 11-7 victory to claim the Golden Shovel on what was the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.

HAMLINE | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | Men’s hockey remains undefeated in MIAC play Thanks to some yeoman work by goalie John Sellie-Hanson, the HU men’s pucksters remained the lone team to be unbeaten in MIAC play. Hamline improved to 3-0-3 and a tie for second place (7-4-4 overall) after a 4-2, 3-0 sweep of St. Olaf. Sellie-Hanson stopped 33 the first night. That’s a nice number but it paled in comparison to the next night when he swept aside 44 for the shutout. It is believed to be the most saves ever for a HU goalie in a shutout effort. The three MIAC wins is one more than Hamline had the past two seasons. Verleye leads women’s hockey to three-point weekend It was a weekend that Hamline senior forward Jordan Verleye… and St. Olaf … may not forget for a long while. In the opener of the two-game series, the senior’s breakaway goal in OT lifted the Pipers to a 3-2 win, their first MIAC victory of the season. The next night, Verleye had two goals and two assists in a 4-4 OT tie. In the process, she moved into eight place all-time in school history with 59 points.

SAINT CATHERINE | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | Wildcats tie defending MIAC Champs After St. Thomas snapped a five-game losing streak by beating St. Kate’s 4-0 Friday, the Wildcat hockey team rebounded by again flexing its power play muscles with a goal from Karly Nelson in the first period. The Tommies scored with 0.2 seconds remaining in the opening period to force at 1-1 tie. Abbi White had a career-best 35 saves in goal for the Wildcats.

SAINT JOHN’S | MIAC Member Page | Athletics home page | Young line fuels SJU to win Down five starters due to injury for a non-conference, weeknight game against Wisconsin-Stout, SJU head coach Doug Schueller turned to a number of underclassmen to step up, and step up they did in a 4-2 win. The Johnnies’ fourth line consisting of sophomores Ross Stecklein (Roseville, Minn.) and Dan Voce (Princeton, Minn.), and freshman Sam Valerius (Maple Grove, Minn.), entered the game with a combined one point in 12 varsity games, but was responsible for the team’s first goal and the game-winning tally. All three are high-school recruits that did not play junior hockey prior to enrolling at SJU.

SAINT MARY’S | MIAC Member Page | Athletics home page | There’s hot, and then there’s Gruse-hot Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) scored a career-high four goals in the Cardinal men’s hockey team’s sweep-clinching 5-2 win over Bethel last Saturday. Gruse’s four-goal effort was the Cardinals’ more since Mike Glaesmer netted four against Hamline on Dec. 6, 2008. With his five points vs. the Royals, Gruse—the conference’s leading scorer—has now recorded 14 points (9 goals, 5 assists) in his last six contests. Home sweet home With their 1-0 win over Bethel at the Saint Mary’s Ice Arena last Saturday, the Cardinal women’s hockey team improved to 4-0-1 in their last five home games against the Royals—with all five games being decided by one goal or less.

SAINT THOMAS | MIAC Member Page| Athletics home page | Hot streak Over the last eight weeks, St. Thomas is a combined 27-0-1 in the sports of men’s basketball (10-0), women’s basketball (11-0) and men’s hockey (6-0-1), including five victories over nationally-ranked teams during that span. That includes a 15-0 record in January. The Tommies are ranked nationally in all three sports at No. 3 (men’s hoops), No. 4 (women’s hoops) and No. 12 (men’s hockey). St. Paul-Paloooza It will be a lively weekend in St. Paul. Saturday alone there’s the Winter Carnival parade, Crashed Ice competition, Garrison Keillor radio show, a Sam Smith concert, and even the Saintly City Cat Show. The MIAC will contribute to the fun as Tommie-Johnnie basketball tips off at 3 p.m. Saturday at Schoenecker Arena; Hamline and UST have interesting men’s and women’s hockey games Friday and Saturday nights (St. Paul’s Oscar Johnson Arena, suburban Mendota Heights).

LEGENDARY GUSTAVUS MEN’S TENNIS COACH STEVE WILKINSON DIES Steve Wilkinson, longtime men’s tennis coach at Gustavus Adolphus College and founder of Tennis and Life Camps, passed away on Wednesday, January 21 at the age of 73 after courageously living with cancer for nearly seven years. Wilkinson spent 39 years (1971-2009) at the helm of the Gustavus men’s tennis program. His teams compiled 929 wins overall, the most victories in the history of collegiate men’s tennis. Wilkinson’s squads won two NCAA Division III titles (1980 and 1982) as well as 35 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) titles. His teams compiled an overall record of 929-278 (.769) and an MIAC mark of 334-1 (.997). In addition, his players claimed six national doubles titles, and four national singles titles. He coached 46 players to 87 ITA All-America honors, 103 players to 226 All-Conference honors, and five CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. He was named NAIA National Coach of the Year twice (1974 and 1984) and Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Coach of the Year three times (1982, 2001, and 2003). Full Story

MIAC HONORS RECORD NUMBER OF FALL ACADEMIC-ALL CONFERENCE SELECTIONS Two of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s (MIAC) four core values are Quality Athletics and Academics and, Thursday, the conference celebrated those tenets with the announcement of the 2014 Fall Academic All-Conference team. Despite two sports moving their honor from fall to spring, the MIAC still recognized the most Fall Academic All-Conference honorees in conference history. This fall, a total of 356 student-athletes earned the prestigious honor, which recognizes combined excellence in academics and athletics. The previous record of 334 was established just one year ago (2013) and included men’s and women’s golf selections. This year, MIAC administrators voted to alter golf’s athletic requirement and move the honor to the spring, so the MIAC racked up 22 more Fall Academic All-Conference honorees despite two fewer sports included this time around. | Full Story & Academic All-Conference List |Academic All-Conference Archive |

MIAC ATHLETES-OF-THE-WEEK The MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week awards honor the top performances in each conference sport throughout the regular season. The awards are nominated and selected by the MIAC sports information directors. The MIAC will recognize Athletes-of-the-Week in each sport throughout the 2014-15 season. Throughout the winter, basketball and hockey will be announced each Monday with swimming and diving to follow on Tuesday and indoor track and field on Wednesday. | Men’s Hockey | Women’s Hockey |

MIAC WEEKLY Each week, Host Mike Gallagher delivers a new episode of “MIAC Weekly.” The podcast covers all the top news, scores and standings from around the league, and features guest appearances each week from MIAC coaches, student-athletes and administrators. All episodes are archived on the MIAC Weekly home page, and the podcast is also available on iTunes.

Episode 86 – 1.15.15

The latest edition of the MIAC Weekly podcast takes to the ice, as Host Mike Gallagher welcomes first-year Hamline Head Men’s Hockey Coach Cory Laylin to talk about his team’s big improvement. Mike also takes his usual look at the top stories throughout the conference.

MIAC MEDIA MIAC Media is an online initiative devoted to providing additional multimedia coverage of the conference through. The three main MIAC Media features are the MIAC Media Weekly Podcast (more info above), theMIAC Media Blog, and the MIAC Media Video series, which can be found on the MIAC YouTube Channel.

CONNECT TO THE CONFERENCE The MIAC’s new web site – MIACathletics.com – offers several new ways fans can stay connected to the conference. Visit the MIAC scoreboard on game days to follow all the action, and download the MIAC mobile app to have all the information with you anywhere you travel. Also, connect to the conference on its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages for updates and interaction throughout the 2014-15 season. The MIAC also just joined Instagram and will share photos through that new social media site.