A Year to Remember 2009-2010

Before I begin discussing the upcoming season, I believe we first need to take a look into the past. Last year was an historic one for the Huskies and with only a handful of players leaving last spring, it is sure to be another one this year. First, let's look at where the Huskies finished in the 2009-2010 season:

• Finished 3rd in the always competitive WCHA
• Finished 5th in the national USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine Poll
• Finished 5th in the national Inside College Hockey Power Rankings
• Finished 6th in the national KRACH ranking
  
• Finished 7th in the national USCHO.com Poll

Next, let's take a look at the records:

• 15-9-4 in the WCHA
• 24-15-5 Overall
• 12-4-5 Home
• 10-8-0 Away
• 2-2-0 Neutral

Here is a quick look at some highlights from the '09-'10 schedule:

• Similar to the upcoming '09-'10 season, last year the Huskies played some preseason games against Miami University. In the preseason polls last year Miami was ranked #2 in the nation. The Huskies forced the Redhawks into OT on Oct. 9th. Unfortunately we lost that game, but it was an early showing of some serious talent.
• Our first conference opponent was the University of Minnesota Duluth. We tied the Friday night game and won the Saturday night game taking 3 points in the series.
• On Nov. 13-14 the Huskies played against division rival North Dakota. UND won the Fri. night game, but the Huskies came back on Sat. and beat UND 3-2. It was at the Fri. night game that SCSU player Aaron Marvin hit UND player Chay Genoway from behind...ending Chay's season last year (instantly giving Marvin the "goon" title by all Sioux fans). I am glad to report that Chay will be back this year and very possibly serving as team captain.
• The next two weekend series with Wisconsin and Denver were both splits.
  
• Our first WCHA sweep of the season came against UAA on 12/4-12/5.
• Our next WCHA sweep came against MTU on 1/8-1/9
• Our first and only meeting with division and I-94 rival the University of Minnesota resulted with a Huskies sweep on 1/22-1/23. This is after a terrible record with the Gophers the year before. Everything suggests that the Huskies should dominate against the Gophers again this season.
• The 2/5-2/6 games against UAA were a couple of big ones. The Fri. night game provided some riveting play when Ben Hanowski scored with .1 seconds left to force the game into OT. The game ended as a 4-4 tie. This helped the Huskies continue its home dominance against the Seawolves. The Huskies have never lost a game against UAA in the National Hockey Center (it has been well over 20 years). The Sat. game the Huskies came back from a bit of an embarrassing tie against UAA and won 6-0. This was Lee's first shutout.
• The next two weekends resulted in splits against UND and UW.
  
• In the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Huskies played against the MSU Mavericks. The Mavericks put on an incredible show and played much better than anyone would have expected. The results were a Fri. OT loss for the Huskies, a Sat. win for the Huskies, and a Sun. OT win for the Huskies.
• The Huskies then played Wisconsin in the WCHA semi-final. The Huskies won 2-0. This was Lee's second shutout of the year. (A pretty impressive game considering Wisconsin's talent).
• The Huskies then played UND in the WCHA Broadmoor Trophy Championship game. Unfortunately the Sioux won.
• On to the NCAA West Regional Semi-Final where the Huskies played against Northern Michigan. The Huskies won the game in the 2 OT with a goal by Tony Mosey. This was the Huskies first national tournament win (despite a respectable 8 appearances in about 20 years as a D-I program).
• The Huskies then went on to play Wisconsin in the NCAA West Regional Final. Unfortunately the Huskies lost this game 3-5. The Badgers went on to the NCAA Final Championship game only to lose to Boston College (in a somewhat embarrassing fashion).
  

General accolades for the Huskies last year:

• The Huskies were not swept once last year by a WCHA opponent.
• The Huskies swept division rival University of Minnesota.
• Played in the WCHA Final Five title game.
• Went back to the NCAA tournament for the 9th time
• Won our first NCAA tournament game
• Senior Ryan Lasch leaves the school ranking 1st in 5 career stat categories (including points)
• Junior Garrett Roe had 49 points on the season. He only needs 42 this upcoming season to become SCSU's top scorer (has never scored less then 45 points in his 3 years).
  

Now I am sure there were other great things in last season that I have not highlighted, so please add them in the comments as you see fit.

Coming up...I will soon be adding some video highlights of this incredible season.

Go Huskies!