Gustavus Adolphus College

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Friday, January 18, 2008 (7 months ago)

The Gustavus men's hockey team will face Bethel University in a key conference series this Friday and Saturday night. Friday night's game will be played in St. Peter, Minn. and the game will be broadcast through the Gustavus athletics website.

Men's Hockey vs. Bethel Game Notes

The Gustavus men's hockey team will face the Bethel Royals in a key MIAC series this weekend…Friday night's game will be played at Don Roberts Rink on the Gustavus campus and Saturday night's game will be played at Bethel's rink which is part of the Blaine Super Rink complex…The Gusties enter with a record of 7-7-1 overall and 4-2-0 in the MIAC, while the Royals enter with a mark of 8-4-1 overall and 3-2-1 in the MIAC… Last weekend, Gustavus defeated St. Scholastica 8-3 in Duluth and then tied UW-Superior 3-3 in Superior, while the Royals, who are not a part of the NCHA interlocking schedule this year had the weekend off…The Royals have only played once in the last month and that was a 6-3 loss to UW-River Falls on January.

The Gusties finished their NCHA interlocking schedule with a 3-3-1 mark and will now focus on conference play the rest of the season…Sophomore forward Joe Welch (Hastings, Minn.) was named MIAC Player of the Week for his four goals in the Gusties two wins last weekend…Welch recorded his first career hat trick in the 8-3 win at St. Scholastica…He scored one goal in each period…Welch then scored one goal in the Gusties 3-3 tie at Superior…The goal was a big one as it was a power play goal with two minutes remaining in the third period, which allowed the Gusties to tie the game and force the overtime…Welch increased his season totals to six goals and four assists for 10 points…David Martinson leads Gustavus in scoring with 8 goals and 13 assists for 21 points…In conference play, Martinson ranks sixth in scoring with 2 goals and 6 assists for 8 points…The Gusties have been alternating goaltenders all season long with Coach Brett Petersen usually putting junior Matt Lopes (4-2-0, 1.88 gaa) in the nets on Friday night and freshman Josh Swartout (3-3-1, 2.40 gaa) between the pipes on Saturday night… In conference play, Lopes leads the MIAC in goals against average at 1.34 and is second in save percentage at .927…Gustavus has struggled on the power play since the holiday break as the team has converted on just two of 19 power play opportunities in its last four games…The Gusties did pick up an important power play goal against UW-Superior by Joe Welch that tied the score at 3-3 late in the third period…Gustavus leads the MIAC in scoring defense allowing just 11 goals in six games…The Gusties are also last in the league in penalty minutes with a total of 58 minutes in six games (9.7 min. per game)… Gustavus has gotten off to slow starts in all of its six league games scoring only three goals in the first period, however the Gusties have come out of the first break with a lot of energy scoring 13 goals in the second period…Coach Brett Petersen's squad has been outscored 6-3 in the first period of its six MIAC games, but has rebounded to outscore its opponents 13-4 in the second period and 6-1 in the third period.

Bethel is led in scoring by Jeff Balvin who has tallied 4 goals and 15 assists for 19 points…Brad Peterson has contributed 7 goals and 11 assists for 18 points, while Matt Hall (7g, 10a) and Kent Bostrom (8g, 9a) have recorded 17 points…Hall ranks the highest in MIAC scoring as he ranks fifth with 4 goals and 5 assists for 9 points…Aaron Damjanovich has played almost every minute in the nets for the Royals posting a record of 8-3-1 and compiling a goals against average of 2.93…Bethel leads the MIAC in penalty kill stopping 23 of 27 power play opportunities for their opponents…The Royals are the second least penalized team in the MIAC behind Gustavus with 72 penalty minutes in six games (12.0 min. per game)…In league play, Bethel is scoring 3.33 goals per game, while allowing 2.67 goals per game.

Gustavus is currently in a three-way tie for first place in the league standings with 8 points (4-2-0), while Bethel is in fourth place with 7 points (3-2-1)…This will be the 63rd meeting between Gustavus and Bethel in men's hockey…The Gusties lead the all-time series with a record of 46-15-1…The Royals swept the series last year winning 4-3 in St. Paul and 3-2 at Gustavus…Bethel has won five of the last six regular season meetings (including four straight) over the past three years…The Royals also claimed a 7-5 win in the MIAC Playoffs during the 2005-06 season…Brett Petersen has compiled a record of 8-7-0 against Bethel since he became the head coach in the 2000-01 season.

Gustavus Statistics

Bethel Statistics

MIAC Men's Hockey Page