WHY SO MANY PENATLIES??

With the help of Theresa Spisak over on USCHO, this will help you in understanding why there are more penalties so far this season..Those of you familiar with the USA Hockey Standard of Play Initiative, it looks like the NCAA is trying a similar system..

• Adjustments to the hooking rule. A player can put his stick on the puck carrier, but if he imposes an action (that is, a tug or pull), a penalty will be called.

• Two seconds/two strides. If a defenseman is backing into the zone with a forward, once the forward gets rid of the puck, the defenseman has either two seconds or two strides to hit the forward. If he doesn’t make contact, he has to go play the puck. This basically eliminates defensemen tying up forwards/riding them into the zone.

• Slashing. If Player A uses his stick to make any sort of slashing motion on any part of Player B’s person/stick, it is a penalty.

• Tripping. A trip seems kind of basic, right? Well, there’s a new addition to the tripping rules. If Player A leaves his feet at any time to stop Player B and Player B falls down, it is a tripping call. Example: If Player A, a defenseman, dives to stop Player B and Player B falls down, Player A gets called for tripping regardless of whether he got the puck or not.

• Whistle-blowing. This one’s a bit weird. Before, if there was a mess of bodies in the crease and the puck was missing and somehow found its way into the back of the net, all we cared about was whether the puck went in before or after the whistle, right? Now, not so much. Now, if the puck disappears in the same situation and the puck goes in the net, it may be waved off if the referee was, at some point, in the act of blowing his whistle. This means, that if the puck goes in the net and the ref’s arm is halfway up his body while he’s getting ready to blow the whistle, the goal does not count.

Mavericks Look Forward to Red-Hot Rodents

After a disappointing split two weekends ago with North Dakota, the Mavericks look forward to avenge their season ending losses to Minnesota in one historic WCHA playoff series that featured a combined five overtimes for Minnesota to finish off the Mavericks 2-1 in the series, and advance to the WCHA Final Five in Saint Paul. Even worse, the Mavericks found out a week later that they were on the outside looking in when it came to be NCAA Tournament time, and they sat and watched Notre Dame, a team who may have squeaked into the tourney ahead of the Mavs, advance to the National Championship game. The MAvericks have played 11.5 good periods of hockey so far this year, and look to stop a red-hot Gophers team led by a trio of Juniors in Ryan Stoa,(4-2-6) Mike Carmen,(2-2-4)and Jay Barriball,(2-2-4)as well as well as sophomore goaltender Alex Kangas, who has a GAA of 1.71, and has put up a .936 SV%. The Mavericks are hoping to continue to get point production from Senior captain Mick Berge,(0-6-6) sophomore Kurt Davis,(1-5-6) and Junior Trevor Bruess(3-2-5). The Mavericks also hope that Senior goaltender Mike Zacharias continues to play well in net(GAA:2.25, SV%:.928). Friday's game will be at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, with Saturday's played at the Xcel Energy Center for the first ever Minnesota College Hockey Showcase.

"I smell varmint poontang, and the only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang."

Harrison's hat-trick leads Mavs past Sioux 5-1.

The Minnesota State Men's Hockey Team, led by Forward Zach Harrison's shorthanded hat-trick picked up its first WCHA victory of the '08-'09 campign tonight in front of a crowd of 5004 at the Alltel Center in Mankato. Early in the game it looked as if the Sioux had finally found what they had been looking for, when Matt Watkins lit the lamp for the first goal of the game at 4:36 of the first period, on a turnover by a Mavs player in his own zone, giving UND a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later at 6:16 of the first, Geoff Irwin found the back of the net for his third goal of the season, on a pretty goal top shelf. Assists were given to Mick Berge and Brian Kilburg. 1;07 later, the Mavericks took the lead on a power play goal by Kael Mouillierat, who was playing in his first game of the season coming off of a two game suspension. Defenseman Kurt Davis and Mick Berge were credited with the assists. Tha Mavericks wouldn't look back from there. The Mavs continued the scoring at 8:25 of the second period when Jerad Stewart fed Zach Harrison the puck, who then used a Sioux defenseman as a screen and scored a beautiful shorthanded goal that went cross bar and in, giving the Mavs a 3-1 edge. At the end of two, the Mavs led 3-1, and in the last six minutes of the second period or so the sioux generated some chances, but Senior goaltender Mike Zacharias was up to the task. It didn't take long for Harrison and the Mavericks to get going, when Zach picked off a pass and raced around a Sioux defenseman to score another pretty goal, this time deking and going glove side on Sioux netminder Aaron Walski, at :53 of the third and final frame. Harrison capped off the scoring with a clear on a 6 on 3 penalty kill, that found an empty North Dakota net, helping the Mavs win 5-1, and improve to 3-0-0 (1-0-0) on the year. The Sioux dropped their third straight game, and are now 0-3-0 (0-1-0.) Special Teams were key tonight, as the Mavs were 1-5 on the PP and had 3 shorthanded goals, and the Sioux were 0-9 on the PP. Mike Zacharias improved to 3-0-0 on the year, making 34 saves on the night. The same two teams faceoff again tomorrow night in the series finale, when the puck drops at 7:07 at the Alltell Center.