Force sweep, win game 3-1

The Fargo Force were able to sweep the Sioux Falls Stampede at the Urban Plains Center tonight.  Ryan Massa was the big factor in the game posting 32 saves on 33 shots in the win.  Massa showed that he is able to rebound from his struggles as he was pulled after giving up 4 goals in last night's game and getting pulled in the 2nd period, to allowing only one goal in his last four periods since being pulled.  That's exactly how you are going to need your goaltender to be in the playoffs.  Goalies need to have a short memory when it comes to goals against and I think Massa just proved he can do that.

Nick Oliver started the scoring off for the Force in the second period on the power play on a nice tic-tac-toe play from Eamonn McDermott to Corey Leivermann to Nick Oliver who buried it to make it 1-0.  Garrett Allen extended the Force lead with a spin-o-rama backhander on a nice feed from Matt Leitner.  Matt Bailey would put the Herd on the board on a shot over Massa's glove to cut the Force lead in half.

Chase Grant would finish the game off with an empty netter to make it a 3-1 final with the Force sweeping the series 3-0 and giving the Force a 9-0 all-time record in the West Division playoffs.  The Force will now take on the Omaha Lancers in the West Division championship for a chance to get into the Clark Cup finals.

USHL has made its mark on U.S. hockey squad

There are a number of former USHLers that are competing in the Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Check out this article in the Argus Leader out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota on the five players currently competing for the United States in the Olympics here.

The five former USHL players playing for USA in the Olympics are:

David Backes (Lincoln Stars)
Ryan Malone (Omaha Lancers)
Joe Pavelski (Waterloo Blackhawks)
Paul Stastny (Omaha Lancers)
Brian Rafalski (Madison Capitols)

From streak to slump

The Fargo Force went from a 9 game winning streak to a two game slump in which they have only scored three goals in two games.  The Force are now on a 2 game losing streak and will look to stop the slump on Friday when they take on Team USA at the Urban Plains Center.

Is the two game losing streak anything to get worked up about?  Most definitely not, but hopefully the Force are able to get back to the winning ways this weekend.  They still inched even closer to Omaha for the top spot in the West Division after Omaha picked up two points in two games over the weekend.  Fargo was able to squeak out four points in three games over the weekend and climb to within three points of Omaha.  Green Bay has now climbed to the top of the USHL with wins over Cedar Rapids and Waterloo this weekend.

Force make a leap

From USHL.com:


The Fargo Force have jumped into sole possession of second place in the West Division standings thanks to a five-game winning streak.  Four of those victories have been by a single goal.  The team overcame a 4-1 deficit on Saturday when they tallied four goals in the second period and eventually defeated Omaha 6-5.  Chase Grant netted two goals in the win bringing his total to eight goals over a five-game goal streak.  Goaltender Dayn Belfour earned his first USHL victory on Saturday when he played the final two periods and stopped 12-of-13 shots he faced.  He stopped 30 shots the following evening for his second straight win.  Team leading scorer Matt Leitner scored three goals over three games during the week.  He now has 14 goals through 24 games, matching his total through 56 games last season.  John Stampohar and Nicholas Romanick each scored their first goal of the season in Sunday’s 6-5 win vs. Sioux Falls.  Corey Leivermann dished out five assists during the three-win week.

CHRISTMAS BREAKdown

Christmas break has begun across the USHL and games won't start up until December 29 and your Fargo Force won't play until December 31.  It's time to reflect on what has happened in the first half of the season...

Force fans expected a lot going into the year returning fourteen players that led them to the Clark Cup Finals in the inaugural 2008-09 season.  The preseason roster had 16 players committed to Division 1 programs and it was looking as if the Fargo Force would be headed to the Clark Cup Finals once again.  We had two solid goaltenders locked up (we thought) in Cody Campbell and Zane Gothberg before the season started.  Gothberg decided to stick around his high school team for one more year in TRF and the search for a solid backup had begun.

The month of October was terrible for Fargo and Force fans that had set expectations high going into the year.  They finished the month of October with a 5-6 record and a big question mark in between the pipes.  Cody Campbell struggled and the backup goaltending was questionable which forced the coaching staff to look that much harder for any form of solid goaltending.  From preseason to present, we have seen Martin Janzons, Keegan Asmundson, Ryan Holfeld, Cody Campbell, Dayn Belfour and Ryan Massa in between the pipes in a Fargo Force uniform.

From November until now, the Force have been one of the best teams in the league and the team that everyone had thought they should be going into the season.  Fargo is 11-3-1 since November 1.  They have seemed to found their niche in net with Ryan Massa putting up solid numbers in 9 games played with the Force.  Massa is 6-1 with a 2.59 GAA and .913 SV%.

Fargo has the fourth best power play and third best penalty kill in the USHL.  They have scored the third most goals in the league and if Massa is able to keep it up, the Force may see themselves among the league leaders in goals against by the end of the year.

There are a lot of good signs going into the 2nd half of the year.  We have seen many players like Nate Condon, Nate Schmidt, Corey Leivermann and Johnnie Searfoss step up their game.  Matt Leitner and Eamonn McDermott have done what we expected them to do all along.  Leitner is the team leader with 25 points and McDermott has been solid all year on the blue line.

The young guns like Brian Cooper, Garrett Allen, Alex Lippincott, and the new addition in Marek Hrbas have been all you can ask for in young USHL players.  Allen is among the team leaders in scoring.  Hrbas and Lippincott are plus players and Brian Cooper has played well as the youngest player on the Fargo Force roster.

There are many improvements that can be made going into 2010, but there are a lot of things to be happy about if you are a Fargo Force fan...

The growth of USHL players in the NHL

The USHL has been producing more and more NHL players, the Behind the Net Blog has provided us with some interesting information that shows the growth of hockey in the United States and the USHL.  This is a very interesting article that proves that the quality of the USHL is among the top in the world.

(This is just a portion of what was posted at their blog - only information regarding USHL players going on to play in the NHL.)

From the Behind the Net Blog: Checking Back in with the USHL:

Two years ago, I looked at how the USHL had gone from producing an insignificant number of NHL players to accounting for almost 10% of the pros in less than a decade. Forget the 'Miracle on Ice' - the growth of the USHL is the most significant success story in the history of American hockey.

I thought I'd take another look at how the USHL is doing and whether it has continued to produce NHL players at such a high rate. The pertinent plots are after the jump...

First, has the USHL continued its seemingly inexorably path to filling the entire NHL with its players? Sure looks that way to me:

We don't yet see players jumping directly from the USHL to the NHL like we do with Canadian junior leagues, but by age 21, it's difficult to argue with the results: on a per-team basis, the 12-team USHL produces as many NHL players as the 60-team CHL. Canada has achieved hockey saturation, so the number of players going from AAA Midget or Tier II Junior to the CHL and on to the NHL is unlikely to increase in the near future. The USHL, on the other hand, continues to expand its reach as previously-untapped areas of the country like California grow their youth hockey programs.

Back to the Fargo Force Blog:

The Behind the Net Blog used a 12-team USHL because that has been the consistent number of teams in the USHL.  If the USHL is able to maintain the 14, soon to be 15-team league, the number should be able to increase.  Also, with the addition of the USNTDP, the number of NHL draftees coming from the USHL is bound to increase dramatically, which is good for the league.  It is interesting to see how the blog stated that on a per-team basis, the 14-team USHL (soon to be 15 with the addition of Dubuque) produces as many NHL players as the 60-team CHL.  Maybe there is hope for the USHL in becoming the elite junior hockey league in the world. 

Here's to wishful thinking for the USHL and USA Hockey...