Friends of STU Hockey Newsletter

Thanks to the Friends of STU Hockey, Harold DeCourcey, and Coach Troy Ryan for the following newsletter. We would like to wish them and YOU a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

What Would You Do??

So with all the recent changes in the Tommies line-up over the last week, what would you do??  Coach Troy Ryan is sitting in a tough spot.

Currently the Tommies are sitting in the last spot in the AUS Men's Hockey standings, going into the second half with only two wins on the year. The playoffs and the chance to extend the season are not completely un-attainable but are going to take hard work and determination from the young team.

Here is where the big kicker comes into effect, the Tommies are currently down forward Randy Cameron #17 and defenceman Christian Morin #2, both due to injury. Cameron should be back in January when the Tommies take to the ice, hopefully Morin won't be too far behind him. Also with the news coming from the program last week that forwards Mike Reich and Alexandre Leduc will not be returning after the Christmas break, this could leave the Tommies with a depleted bench.

Coach Ryan has said that his efforts are going into recruiting players for next season and not bringing anyone in after the Christmas break. He is currently building the program slowly and not over spending beyond his means.

In the recent four games when the Tommies have been on the ice against opponents they have been playing much better, is the shorter bench making them a bettter team?

The Tommies have had two wins (UdeM 4-1, St. FX 5-4 S/O), a shoot-out loss (SMU 3-2) and a close game (UPEI 4-3).  To me this is a great argument in Coach Ryan's favour for leaving the team the way it is and looking forward to the future.

My biggest concern would be the injury bug that may hit later on. But have no fear that Coach Ryan I'm sure has looked at this as well, he did make a move in placing Yuri Cheremetiev #9 on the blue line, a move that seems to have revitalized the forward this season, he is a great mover of the puck and has not been caught out of position,  he is fast back on the puck and has the ability to carry it into the offensive zone if need be.

One thing I know I can say, is that this fan is excited on the upcoming next half of the season with the exciting end to the first half.

Happy Holidays Everyone,

Go Tommies Go!!

Murph


@WyldeMurph on Twitter

Leduc and Tommies Part Ways

In an article in December 6th's Daily Gleaner by Jamie Ross the Tommies Men's Hockey Program have announced they have parted ways with Forward Alexandre' Leduc #7. Head Coach Troy Ryan had commented by saying that it was related to the players attitude. Leduc was also suspended earlier in the season after an altercation with Saint Mary's Forward Brad Smith and resulted in Smith ending up with a broken ankle. Leduc sat out for three games for behavior un-becoming of a student athlete.

With the two recent roster spots opening up on the Tommies bench, Coach Ryan is sticking by his guns by saying that he is focusing on recruiting players for next season and that he won't be picking up any new players over the Christmas break this season.

Murph

@wyldemurph on Twitter

All Good Things Come To An End....

In an article in Friday's Daily Gleaner written by Justin Marshall it was announced that STU Tommies forward Mike Reich is moving on and will not be returning to the Men's Hockey program in the New Year.

The forward from Craik, SK said in the article that he has been away from home since he was 15 years old playing hockey and that it's time for him to go home. Reich has taken a position with Syngenta Canada Inc. as a territory manager. Mike informed the team at their annual Christmas party. He graduated this semester with a double major in economics and criminology.

Reich joined the program in the '09-'10 season, he is leaving the program having played 97 games, scoring 20 goals, and assisting on 27 more, as well as having 212 penalty minutes in his three and a half year career.

Mike is going to be missed from the forward lines of the Tommies, and we are wishing him all the best with his future endeavors.

The Tommies return to the ice on the road after the long Christmas break on Jan. 4th, 2013 against the Saint Mary's Huskies as they look to avenge the shootout loss on Nov. 30.

Murph

@wyldemurph on Twitter

A Little Late But Not Forgotten...

St. Thomas announced its male athlete for the month of November and it was the Men's Hockey programs very own Jonathan Groenheyde. The rookie goal-keeper stopped 247 of 267 shots on net with a record of two wins and five losses. Jonathan has made some impressive saves since donning the Green and Gold of the Tommies.

Congrats and keep up the great work!

Murph

@wyldemurph On Twitter

All I Can Say Is Unreal!

On the last night before the Christmas Break the St. Francis Xavier X-Men rolled into the Grant-Harvey Centre to face-off against our St. Thomas Tommies Men's Hockey team. The X-Men came into  town after an overtime win over U de M. The Tommies coming off a shootout loss to the Saint Mary's Huskies and were coming in to tonights game hungry for a win.

The Tommies were still missing Randy Cameron #17 and Christian Morin #2 from tonights active roster, the X-Men were missing a few regulars off their blue line with Spencer McAvoy #5 and RD Chisholm #4 not in tonights line-up.

The Tommies had starting goaltender Jonathan Groenheyde #31 between the pipes and the X-Men placed Joey Perricone #31 in the crease for tonights match-up.

The X-Men were pouring on lots of early pressure on the Tommies, Groenheyde stood his ground though and held St. FX off the scoreboard till the 12:09 mark when Stephen Sanza #23 was in the penalty box for an interference call, Josh Day #11 had a power play goal assisted by Pageau and Struthers. The 16:46 mark the Tommies answered back on a goal from Jonathan Bonneau #51 assisted by line mate Stephen Sanza. X regained the lead just over a minute later off the tape of Gabriel O'Connor #45. The period ended with X putting 19 shots up in the first frame to STU's - 3.

The second period started with Kyell Henegan #20 scoring his first goal as a member of the Tommies, helpers came from Colin Martin and Jordan Thomas. Later on in the period the Tommies added a go ahead goal on a wired shot from Captain Felix Poulin #8 (Labonte, Bernier). X was not to be shown up though and had the Tommies under pressure during a penalty kill situation and scored a short-handed goal on a play from Jason Bast #20 assisted by Brad Cuzner, this tied the game up at 3 a piece going into the third period.

A little over 5 minutes into the third period Jon Bonneau scored his second goal of the game with the helper coming from Sanza again. The Tommies carried the lead very late into the third period when the X-Men pulled goalie Joey Perricone in favour for the extra attacker, the move by Head Coach Brad Peddle seemed to be very valuable when Josh Day scored the tying goal (Bast, Struthers) which forced the game to overtime.

The overtime frame solved nothing but gave the Tommies fans a lot of excitement. The Tommies held X to 3 shots in the extra frame while only getting 2 themselves. On to the shootout!! The X-men sent Stephens, Kirkpatrick, Bast and the extra shooter Maschmeyer all to get turned away by Groenheyde. The Tommies answered the call with Colin Martin who beat Perricone but found the post, Jon Bonneau who also beat the X goal keeper but found the post, Marc-Andre Levesque and Yuri Cheremetiev who had the game winner.

This is a Tommies team that looks like they are building up some steam going into the second half of the season they are playing with fire in the belly and are making it exciting to watch.

A side note from the game Jordan Thomas left the game from what looked like an upper body injury and did not return, we wish him a speedy recovery.

Also in case any of you missed it the Squirrels lost down in Acadia figured I should throw that out there.

Good luck to both the Men's and Women's Tommies teams as they go into exams and have a great Holiday season!

Murph

@WyldeMurph on Twitter

UPDATE:

Unfortunately our webcast chose the beginning of the shootout to freeze up on us, so the limited video is very choppy, then we switched to audio only and a little throwback to our radio days.  The call of the winner got lost a bit in the eruption from the Grant-Harvey Centre crowd (watch out for volume spike around 3:30), but for what it's worth, here's the entire shootout from tonight's first-ever Tommies' Men's Hockey win in the new building.  Enjoy.  And on behalf of myself and all of us on Tommies TV, happy holidays!

~ Randy Corey (@RandyCorey)

Video streaming by Ustream

Huskies bite Tommies in shoot out

It took a shoot out but the Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the Tommies 3 to 2 this evening at the Grant Harvey Center.

The first period saw John MacDonald (Thomas, Morehouse) open the scoring on a breakaway at 7:35 on a great feed from Jordan Thomas.  Saint Mary's would tie the game in the last minute of the period off the stick of Lucas Bloodoff.  

The Tommies were the only team to hit the score sheet in the second when Alex Labonte sent a perfect pass to Mike Reich, who was all alone in front the Huskies net an made no mistake with the shot.  Alex Leduc with the other assist.  

The Huskies would tie the game at 7:35 of the third when Cory Tanaka got one by Jon Groenheyde but it was the Tommies goalie that held the fort for the rest of the third and overtime to force a shoot out. Shots on goal were 42 to 28 in favour of SMU through four periods of hockey.

In the shootout, Stephen Johnston was the only shooter to score but it was enough to propel the Huskies to the win.  Jonathan Bonneau, Colin Martin, and Steve Sanza all shot for STU but could not beat SMU's Chris Perugini.

The Tommies will be back at it tomorrow night against ST-FX looking for their first home win.