Hockey Gearing Toward Playoff Push
Sam Tikka
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Sports
SNC Hockey is right where they want to be heading into the final two games of the regular season. The Knights are two points up on second place St. Scholastica College. They will need to win one of the final two home regular season games to be the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) regular season champions. The Knights just finished a tough two-game road trip where they tied games against St. Scholastica and UW-Superior. The Knights may have tied those teams, but they played very good hockey on each night.
Senior defensemen Jason Nopper felt those games were very important and the game against St. Scholastica is a possible preview of the Peters Cup Playoff Championship final.
"This game was a great test for our team walking into their home rink. We played a great road game and scored early to take the life out of the arena. The tie was very important and we felt good about the game and we might see them down the road in the Peters Cup Championship at home," said Nopper.
Heading into this final regular season weekend the Knights will host UW-Stout and UW-River Falls. Against UW-River Falls, the Knights will be honoring the seniors, as it will be their last regular season home game as Green Knights. There are seven seniors on the team, and they all have had a very successful career. These seniors have a career record of 88-16-10, a winning percentage of .816, two NCAA frozen four appearances and one national championship. Not only have they been great on the ice this season, they have been great in leading the team to their record of 17-3-3. Senior forward Tyler Allen feels the seniors have been great leaders this season.
"With the preseason NCHA league pool not expecting us to do much, we always felt like we had good upperclassmen leadership. We have shown good leadership with our top three scorers being seniors. Coach has leaned on us and challenged us every game to perform and so far I feel we have done a good job."
The team is playing some of its best hockey leading into the last four games of the season, including an 8-1 win against UW-Eau Claire, who had beaten the Knights at UW-Eau Claire for their only loss of the new year.
Senior defensemen Jason Nopper felt those games were very important and the game against St. Scholastica is a possible preview of the Peters Cup Playoff Championship final.
"This game was a great test for our team walking into their home rink. We played a great road game and scored early to take the life out of the arena. The tie was very important and we felt good about the game and we might see them down the road in the Peters Cup Championship at home," said Nopper.
Heading into this final regular season weekend the Knights will host UW-Stout and UW-River Falls. Against UW-River Falls, the Knights will be honoring the seniors, as it will be their last regular season home game as Green Knights. There are seven seniors on the team, and they all have had a very successful career. These seniors have a career record of 88-16-10, a winning percentage of .816, two NCAA frozen four appearances and one national championship. Not only have they been great on the ice this season, they have been great in leading the team to their record of 17-3-3. Senior forward Tyler Allen feels the seniors have been great leaders this season.
"With the preseason NCHA league pool not expecting us to do much, we always felt like we had good upperclassmen leadership. We have shown good leadership with our top three scorers being seniors. Coach has leaned on us and challenged us every game to perform and so far I feel we have done a good job."
The team is playing some of its best hockey leading into the last four games of the season, including an 8-1 win against UW-Eau Claire, who had beaten the Knights at UW-Eau Claire for their only loss of the new year.
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