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 Tyler Ruel leads the WSU freshman class with eight points. |
Dec. 12, 2007
GAME STORYLINES
The Wayne State University men's hockey team (3-11-2, 1-3-0 CHA) will see its first College Hockey America action in a month with a series at Niagara (8-4-1, 2-3-1 CHA) this weekend. Both Friday's game and Saturday's rematch at Dwyer Arena are slated to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET.
Wayne State, which suffered losses of 5-2 and 5-1 last weekend at Western Michigan, is looking to stop a four-game skid. Niagara has been idle two of the last three weekends but in between had its 22-game home unbeaten streak end Nov. 30 in a 5-1 setback to Bemidji State. The Purple Eagles salvaged a 2-2 tie the following night.
The Warriors will continue their nine-game road swing in 2008 with series at Minnesota (Jan. 4-5) and Northern Michigan (Jan. 11-12).
BEHIND THE BENCH
Bill Wilkinson is in his ninth season as Wayne State's head coach and his 26th year as a collegiate head coach. Wilkinson's overall record stands at 429-455-81, while his mark at WSU is 116-154-28. He entered the 2007-08 season ranked 23rd on the NCAA all-time wins list.
In his seventh season with Niagara, head coach Dave Burkholder has a career record of 114-100-19.
THROUGH THE YEARS
Niagara holds a slim 15-14-4 advantage in the series against Wayne State dating back to 2001. The Warriors went unbeaten (10-0-1) in the first 11 meetings with the Purple Eagles, but since then WSU is 4-15-3 against NU. The Warriors, who snapped a four-game losing streak in the series with a 6-1 win followed by a 4-4 tie at the Coliseum last February, have lost 10 of their last 12 encounters with the Purple Eagles at Dwyer Arena.
IN THE POLLS
Wayne State was selected to finish fourth in the College Hockey America preseason coaches poll, while Niagara was predicted to repeat as the CHA regular-season champion.
ON THIS DATE
Wayne State has played just once on Dec. 14 in its history, a 3-2 loss against Notre Dame at Joe Louis Arena in 2002. The Warriors have never played on Dec. 15 prior to this Saturday.
SCOUTING NIAGARA
Despite possessing the ninth-best winning percentage in the country, three of Niagara's four losses this season have been to College Hockey America opponents.
Senior Matt Caruana (8-7--15) and junior Vince Rocco (4-9--13) rank second and fourth, respectively, in the CHA in scoring. Caruana is tied for the league lead with eight goals, and Rocco's nine helpers rank third.
Caruana, Ted Cook, and Egor Mironov have combined for 10 power-play goals this season. The Purple Eagles' power-play unit (17.8 percent) ranks second in the league and 17th in the nation.
Junior netminder Juliano Pagliero is 6-3-1 and has the fourth-best save percentage (.943) in the country. His 1.99 goals-against average is second in the CHA and 12th nationally.
LAST TIME OUT
Wayne State battled back from a two-goal deficit but proceeded to surrender three unanswered tallies in Friday's 5-2 setback at Western Michigan.
Seniors Tylor Michel, playing in his 100th career game, and Stavros Paskaris each scored their third goal of the season for the Warriors. Tyler Ruel, Matt Krug, and Jon Grabarek all earned helpers in the game, while Brett Bothwell totaled 33 saves, his second game with over 30 stops this season.
Western Michigan took a 4-0 lead into the third period on Saturday before Jared Katz scored Wayne State's lone goal from Paskaris, who has a point in each of the last three games. Kyle Funkenhauser made 17 saves as the Warriors fell to 0-3-0 all-time at Lawson Arena.
WSU NOTES
Sophomore defenseman Jeff Caister leads the Warriors and all CHA blueliners in scoring (1-10--11), while ranking tied-for-fifth in the league overall in points and second in assists. He is sixth all-time at Wayne State in both points (27) and assists (24) by a defenseman.
Krug is just behind Caister in both defensive categories at WSU, as his assist Friday moved him into a tie for seventh all-time with 19 career assists and gave him sole posession of seventh on the all-time points list for a defenseman (26).
Ruel leads the Warrior freshman class and is third among CHA rookies with eight points. He has notched a point in each of the last six series for Wayne State. Collectively, the WSU freshmen have accounted for 17 of the team's 80 points this season (21.3 percent).
Paskaris, Wayne State's active leading scorer, is second on the team in scoring this season (3-7--10). He is ninth all-time at WSU with 69 career points and needs one more to tie Chris Vail (2000-04) for eighth. Paskaris also ranks seventh all-time with 45 assists and tied-for-13th with 24 goals.
Alabama-Huntsville (1.58) is the only team in Division I with a lower scoring offense than Wayne State (1.81). The Warriors have been held to two goals or less in 14 games this season and have a 1-11-2 record in those games.
Special teams have presented a problem for the Warriors as well this season. After scoring a power-play goal in each of the first four games, Wayne State has just six power-play tallies in its last 12 contests. The WSU power-play unit ranks fourth in the CHA and 47th in the nation (12.2 percent), while its penalty-kill percentage (72.9) is last in the league and 57th in the country, ahead of Lake Superior State (69.7) and Northern Michigan (68.2).
This Saturday will mark the 300th game in the nine-year history of Wayne State men's hockey. Wilkinson, who has been at the helm of the team since its inception in 1999, will coach his 967th game in a career which includes 17 seasons at Western Michigan.
LOOKING AHEAD
After completing its nine-game road trip, the Warriors will return to Detroit to host Niagara (Jan. 18-19), the latter of which will be played at the Palace of Auburn Hills as part of a doubleheader also featuring Michigan against Notre Dame. The Jan. 18 contest as well as the following weekend's series against Alabama-Huntsville (Jan. 25-26) will be played at the Taylor SportsPlex.
