Friday night is fight night at Mars Lakeview Arena.
No, Duluth’s resident boxer Zach “Jungle Boy” Walters won’t be in the house (at least not as anything more than a spectator), and this fight will take place in a rink rather than a ring.
It’s all because of the “Bridge Battle” which will go down this weekend, as the St. Scholastica Saints host the Wis.-Superior Yellowjackets in a weekend conference series for the first time in over a decade.
The Saints enter the weekend coming off a weekend split with the top team in the conference, St. Norbert College, taking their first conference loss of the season while earning an impressive overtime victory over the then-No. 3 team in the country.
“We were happy to have left with two points that other teams haven’t gotten,” said Saints Head Coach Mark Wick. “St. Norbert had three sweeps so far this season, and we took one. But at the same time, we always tell our guys not to be satisfied. We can always be better.”
The Yellowjackets also split their weekend series against Wis.-Stevens Point last week in exciting fashion, but not without cost: a post-game tussle with the Pointers has ’Jacket senior Chris Wilson and sophomore Tom Budziakowski disqualified from Friday night’s game. Wilson is currently tied for the team lead in scoring with 14 points on the season.
“Even with Chris [Wilson] out, they still have talent,” said Wick. “You can’t look at it like that, that they are at disadvantage missing him. Both teams will have guys out of the line-up, but all the teams in the conference, including us, have to have depth.”
The Saints, now second in the conference and just six points behind idle St. Norbert, could make up serious ground in this make-or-break weekend series, but it won’t come easy.
It’s no secret that the Saints have had their fair share of difficulties against the Yellowjackets, sporting a 29-71-5 program record against UWS which includes a 12-year-long winless streak, but the Saints are 2-2-1 against their cross-town rivals in their past five meetings including a dominant 7-2 victory in front of the Saints Army at Mars last Jan. 17.
“One of the things we, as a coaching staff, stressed was putting the past behind us,” said Wick. “These guys weren’t part of the losses, and they bought into the fact that we should be able to compete with anybody.”
Despite losing ten players from last year’s NCAA Tournament team, the Saints have picked up right where they left off with a group of 13 newcomers including 12 freshman stepping up and filling holes.
One question mark that was quickly answered for the Saints in 2009 was who would play goaltender. Losing all-NCHA standout Steve Bounds, the Saints had four goalies with little to no experience entering this season, but they have performed admirably.
Senior Zach Kleiman and sophomore Brennan Poderzay have combined for a goals against average of 2.64 while stopping 89 percent of opposing shots for 236 saves.
“It’s a nice situation. Both of them have played really well,” Wick said. “At some point, we might have to make a decision, but right now, we have some blemishes on our record, but none of them were because of goaltender playing. Rotating goalies isn’t always a bad thing, and they’ve done good with it.”
The Yellowjackets found themselves in basically the same position as they graduated all-conference goaltender Chad Beiswinger after last season, but they have had trouble finding consistency as all four goalies on their roster have seen ice time.
Most recently, freshman Garrett Tinkham has fallen into the starting role in four of the ’Jackets’ last five games, earning wins against Wis.-Eau Claire and Marian as well as the split last weekend with Stevens Point. Tinkham has a 3.01 GAA and has stopped 89 percent of the shots he has faced.
CSS is known to pepper the net like no other team though, averaging over 35 shots per game compared to 23-per for past Superior opponents and 28-per for UWS itself, which will no doubt prove to be a challenge for the young goaltender.
Despite that, UWS is second in the league in scores with 44 while CSS has 33 goals as a team this season.
“That’s an interesting statistic, I didn’t know that,” said Wick. “We’re not going to be concerned as long as we’re getting shots. Sometimes, it goes in streaks. Eventually, they’ll find the net.”
The Saints are in the bottom half of the conference in power play efficiency, while Superior sits atop the league, making good on one quarter of all man-advantages. Both teams are below the curve in penalty killing with success rates of 75.5 percent for CSS and 83.3 for UWS.
Special teams play will likely be huge in this showdown, and what the Saints lack in efficiency they make up for in discipline. They have the fewest penalty minutes in the league, while UWS has the second-most, including the post-game antics after last Saturday night’s game.
“We actually had this conversation as a coaching staff earlier,” said Wick.”We have the fewest penalties, but also the fewest opportunities. We talk a lot about discipline and how we’re at our best when it’s five-on-five. We have the fewest penalties, but again, we’re still not satisfied. We still need to get better on penalty kill and powerplay.”
Whatever it comes down to, fans can expect one thing this weekend in Duluth: great college hockey. The Saints and Yellowjackets always put on a show, and this weekend should be no different.
Both Friday and Saturday night games begin at 7:05 p.m., and Coach Wick has just three words of advice to those looking to see the game in what should be a full house at Mars Lakeview:
“Get there early.”
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