PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut

This weekend the Cards travel to Middlebury College for the Primelink Great Northern Shootout, which is one of the best division III tournaments in the country. Plattsburgh will battle with Norwich in the 4pm game and host Middlebury will lock horns with St. Thomas at 7pm. This week’s blog is going to be a little different, we all know who Plattsburgh will play on Friday afternoon, but nobody knows who the boys will play on Saturday or even at what time they will play.

The Norwich Cadets come into the tournament with an early season record of 2-0-0 (19-17-3 all time against Plattsburgh). Coach Mike McShane enters his 12th season behind the bench for the Cadets. McShane has already turned some heads with last weekend’s Cadets line-ups. Junior goaltender David Thompson started a majority of the games in nets for the Cadets last season, finds himself backing up junior Ryan Klingensmith. Thompson did see time in the teams opening exhibition blowout game against Southern New Hampshire; he started the game allowing 1 goal in his 30 minutes in net.

This season, Norwich’s forward group will be led by senior forward Nakita Kashirsky. In two games this season Kashirsky has 6 total points (2-4-6), his career point totals so far are 116 (58-58-116) and that’s in just 87 games! Junior forwards DJ Fimiani (2-2-4) and Rico Piatelli (1-3-4) are both names to also watch for this weekend.

Ok, so back to the Goalies, coming into the year it looked like David Thompson was going to be the brick wall between the pipes for the Cadets. I don’t think many people expected to see Klingensmith take over that job for the early part of the season. Junior Ryan Klingensmith enters the weekend with a 2-0-0 record on the season, a save percentage of .881 and goals against average of 2.51. In 16 career games Klingensmith is 9-2-0 with a .906 save percentage, 2.08 goals against average and 2 shutouts. Thompson, also a junior, has only played the 30 minutes in the exhibition game so far this year. In his career Thompson is 32-9-0 with a .903 save percentage and 2.05 goals against average with 4 shutouts.

The Cadets power play is 4/12 (.333 success rate) while the penalty kill is 9/12 (.750 kill rate). Norwich is averaging 5.0 goals per game while giving up just 2.5; 6.5 penalties for 13 minutes per game and averaging 2 power play goals per game. Their opponents are averaging 7 penalties for an average of 18 minutes per game while scoring 1.5 power play goals per game. Norwich has won the Primelink Great Northern Shootout a total of 5 times to currently lead all teams in Tournament wins.

The Middlebury Panthers enters the Primelink at 2-0-0 (19-9-3 all time against Plattsburgh) and are coached by Bill Beaney, who also coaches golf for the school. Beaney took over the hockey team in 1986, his teams won 5 straight NCAA Championships (’95-’99) and then 3 more straight (’04-’06).

Leading the way up front for the Panthers are sophomore forward Ken Suchoski (1-5-6), senior John Sullivan (4-1-5) and senior Jamie McKenna (2-3-5). McKenna has played in 74 games in his career and has a point total of 33-53-86. Doug Raeder is the senior goaltender and the man between the pipes for the panthers. So far this season Raeder is 1-0-0 with a shutout. In his career he’s 32-7-1 with a .909 save percentage and 2.09 goals against average with 4 shutouts. Freshman John Yanchek has also seen time in net this year and is 1-0-0 with a .864 save percentage and averages 3 goals against.

Middlebury’s power play is 5/14 (.357 success rate), and their penalty kill is 4/6 (.667 kill rate). Middlebury is averaging 6.5 goals per game while giving up just 1.5 goals; 4.5 penalties per game for an average of 9 minutes per game and they are averaging 2.5 power play goals per game. The opponents are averaging 8 penalties per game for 16 minutes per game and averaging one power play goal per game.

The St. Thomas Tommies fly into Vermont from St. Paul, Minnesota for their first opportunity to play in the Primelink. The Tommies are coached by Terry Skrypek who is in his 22nd season behind the bench. St. Thomas enters the weekend with a 3-2-1 record (1-0-0 in their only meeting with Plattsburgh).

Sophomore forward Andrew Kappers (1-5-6) and junior forward Parker Burgess (3-2-5) lead the way up front for the Tommies. In the nets for St. Tomas is Tyler Chestnut, the junior goaltender is 2-2-1 this year with a .864 save percentage and 3.22 goals against average. In his career he is 20-9-3 with a .904 save percentage, 2.26 goals against average and 4 career shutouts.

The power play for St. Thomas is currently 7/34 (.206 success rate) while the penalty kill is 26/31 (.839 kill rate). The Tommies are averaging 2.83 goals per game, while giving up 3.33; they are averaging 6 penalties per game for an average of 12 minutes and are scoring 1.2 power play goals per game. The opponents are averaging 6.5 penalties per game for an average of 14.8 minutes, and are scoring an average of just 0.8 power play goals per game.

The newest USCHO.com online poll came out Monday November 24th and Plattsburgh has jumped to #1. The Cardinals look to build on their come from behind effort in Potsdam last Saturday night. This weekend marks the end of a six game road trip for the Cardinals.

Plattsburgh looks to repeat as Primelink Champions this year, but will face a familiar foe in Norwich in the opening game of the tournament. Leading the way for the Cards offensively so far this season is senior defenseman Nick Rolls (3-9-12) who has a game tying, game winning and power play goal; junior forward Joey Wilson (6-4-10) and sophomore forward Dylan Clarke (5-5-10). The Cadrs hope to have Ward Smith back in the lineup this weekend, as the team may be without leading scorer Nick Rolls who was banged up last weekend in Potsdam.

Between the pipes it has been all Bryan Hince. Hince, unbeaten on the season at 6-0-1, now boasts a .917 save percentage, 1.98 goals against average and 2 shutouts on the season. For his career Hince is now 28-5-1 with a .915 save percentage, 2.05 goals against average and 4 shutouts. In last season’s Shootout in Plattsburgh, Hince was named to the All Tournament Team.

The power-play struggled a little last weekend against Potsdam going just 1/9 while scoring a short handed goal for the first time this season. The power play on the season is now 14/60 (.233 success rate) while the penalty kill is now 35/43 (.814 kill rate). Plattsburgh is averaging 5.29 goals per game while giving up just 2 goals a game. The penalty numbers have slowly begun to come down as Plattsburgh is now averaging 6.6 penalties per game for an average of 14.3 minutes; they are also averaging 2.0 power play goals per game. The opponents are taking 9.4 penalties per game for an average of 23.9 minutes; and averaging just 1.1 power play goal per game.

Predictions are tough to make for such a weekend like this. Any one of the four teams could win it all, I think each game will be a close one, and we may even see a couple of overtime periods. But I think I have to go with the homer picks this week.

Plattsburgh 4-2 over Norwich
Middlebury 3-2 over St. Thomas
Norwich 5-3 over St. Thomas in the consolation game
Plattsburgh 4-2 (with an empty netter) over Middlebury in Championship game

Hopefully we will see lots of Cardinal fans across the lake this weekend in Middlebury!

Till next week,
Jim