DULUTH, Minn. (
csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's hockey team will face Northland College in the quarterfinals of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) Harris Cup on Wednesday at Mars Lakeview Arena.
Where:
Mars Lakeview Arena – Duluth, Minn.
When:
Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Live Video/Stats: http://www.csssaints.com/ssn
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St. Scholastica Saints
Stats
Record: 12-12-1, 10-9-1 NCHA
Northern Collegiate Hockey Association: Standings | Stats
Last Action: The Saints dropped both games to NCHA regular season champion No. 5 Adrian College (Mich.) over the weekend … Friday night's score was 6-2 and Saturday's loss was 4-2 … CSS had 10 power-play chances in Saturday's loss, which was the most in a game since Halloween of 2015 against the University of Wisconsin-Stout …
Brett Radford (Campbell River, British Columbia/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (Canmore-AJHL)) had an assist in both games.
Harris Cup Schedule: Marian University (Wis.) will host Lake Forest College (Ill.) in the other quarterfinal on Wednesday … Adrian and St. Norbert College (Wis.) have byes into the semifinals by winning their divisions and will host semifinal contests Saturday night … The two-game (mini-game, if necessary) format has been eliminated this year as each round will only be one game … Also changed this year is the tournament will no longer be re-seeding after the quarterfinals as the winner of each quarterfinal will play their respective division champion in the semifinals.
End of Season Struggles: In the last four seasons, the Saints have a combined record of 5-14-1 in their final five games of the regular season … However, in each of those seasons they have advanced past the opening round of the NCHA playoffs … Also of note, the last two seasons they have played eight games against nationally-ranked top 5 teams during that span.
Postseason Success: The Saints have advanced to the NCHA Tournament semifinals nine times in the last 10 seasons … The last time they failed to do so was in 2011.
Leaders: Senior
Brandon Millin (Port Moody, British Columbia/Heritage Woods HS (Notre Dame Hounds-SJHL) ) has a team-high 28 points on 14 goals and 14 assists … He is tied for the second in the league with 14 points on the power-play … Freshman
Brett Radford (Campbell River, British Columbia/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (Canmore-AJHL)) and senior
Steven Phee (Balzac, Alberta/George McDougall HS (Canmore-AJHL) ) are second on the squad with 20 points … Radford ranks third among all NCHA freshmen in points, while Phee is tied for second in the league with seven power-play goals … Junior defenseman
Mark Whiteley (Surrey, British Columbia/Holy Cross HS (Marian University)) is tied with Millin with a team-high 14 assists … Whiteley ranks sixth among all NCHA defensemen with 17 points.
In Goal: Senior
Peter Megariotis (Anaheim Hills, Calif./Canyon HS (Adrian)) has seen almost 60 percent of the action during the regular season, while freshman
Zane Steeves (Red Deer, Alberta/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (100 Mile Wranglers-KIJHL)) has seen the other 40 percent … Megariotis has a better goals-against-average at 3.05, but Steeves has a better save percentage at .901 … Megariotis was in net for both games against Northland during the regular season.
Special Teams: Both St. Scholastica and Northland rank in the top four of the NCHA in power-play success, but both teams rank in bottom three of the league on the penalty kill … CSS and Northland are also two of the three least penalized teams in the league.
Upcoming Opponents
Northland LumberJacks
Record: 11-12-2, 9-10-1 NCHA
The LumberJacks are in the postseason for the first time since the 2012-13 season when the league was called the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association (MCHA) … Northland picked up key road wins over Lawrence University (Wis.) and Concordia University Wisconsin the last two weekends to earn a spot … The 'Jacks are led by sophomore forward Lucas DeBenedet, who has 10 goals and a team-high 16 assists for 26 points … Senior Michael Berens has a team-high 11 goals and is second on the squad with 25 points … Freshman Kalib Ford is another player with at least 20 points this season with seven goals and 14 assists … Ford is second among NCHA freshmen with 21 points … Sophomore AJ Smith has seen the majority of the action between the pipes … He has a 3.40 goals-against-average and a .906 save percentage.
Series Record: CSS leads 18-2-1
(Last Meeting: 8-2 CSS – 11/19/2016)
Series History: This will be the first-ever postseason meeting between the two programs … The Saints and LumberJacks split the regular season series with each team winning on home ice … After CSS won the first 15 games in the series, the Saints are only 3-2-1 in the last six games.
Looking Ahead: The winner of the Wednesday night's game will face No. 4 St. Norbert College (Wis.) in the Harris Cup semifinals on Saturday in De Pere, Wisconsin.
