BETWEEN THE PIPES

Saints end Falcons season for second year in a row

Posted on Feb 23, 2009

The UW-River Falls men’s hockey team season is all about done… unofficially that is.

A pair of 2-0 losses to No. 4 College of St. Scholastica (CSS) has put an end to a season that seemed to have a lot of promise when it started.

UWRF was a preseason No. 8 ranked team in the nation and picked by NCHA coaches to finish second in the conference.

However, teams such as CSS, UW-Superior and UW-Stout shocked many by becoming the beast of the NCHA.

Superior won the conference regular season title by a game over Stout in what proved to be one of the toughest conferences in Div. III this year.

The mighty St. Norbert College Green Knights had a little downfall this season. Losing an All-American goalie can do that to a team though.

Needless to say, an unexpected season for a Falcon team that is use to being near the top of the standings rather than jockying for position with the bottom feeders.

Last weekend UWRF could have erased a lot of the pain that went through the regular season if it could have managed to beat the Saints, but Steve Bounds would not surrender any Falcon goals.

He stopped 25 in the series opener and was stellar the following night as he made 38 saves to close out UWRF’s season.

Falcon goalie Stephan Ritter was a busy man all night last Friday. He faced 39 shots, but the two he let by were more than enough for the Saints.

Tyler Czuba, who was the leading goal scorer for UWRF, did not play in the series. Huge part of its success missing right there. Derek Hansberry was doing it himself for the most part in his abscense, but the 74 career goal scorer could not do it alone.

There is a lot to look forward to next season. Even though there is no more Hansberry, Czuba will be back, Ritter will be between the pipes and an abundance of freshmen will be experienced sophomores come next year. Should make for a fun season and the Falcons should be able to be in the thick of things with a lot of seniors leaving among the top squads in the conference.

A complete wrap of the Falcons hockey season will be coming up in next week’s issue of the Student Voice.