Horde Fights Off Pesky Loons

Golden Valley (Breck) – Sunday, January 24, 2010.  Playing with a short bench, the Northern Horde fought off a sleepy first period to beat the Fighting Loons 6-2.  In the first period, the Loons controlled the puck and kept it in the Horde end, but only managed two shots in the period against Pete Morrow who stopped one but let the other by at 10:18.  After looking sluggish the rest of the period, Jon Nygren took a Chris Haack pass and buried it with authority to tie the game up.  The second period was back and forth with no one scoring until Liam Monahan won the first face-off of his career right to Gary Speier who deposited the puck in the back of the net before Liam knew he won the face off.  Finally, in the third period, after Dana Cudo left the Horde with 11 skaters, the team woke up from its slumber.  Gary Speier opened the period with his second goal of the night set up by a strong defensive play by Suneel Arora.  Then, Liam Monahan caught a nice pass into the slot from Jeff “I Can Pass Too” Nelson and beat Jon Scholten to put the Horde up 4-1.  Five minutes later, Tyler LaMont sent a nice pass behind the Loons net to Chris Haack in the right corner who fed Jon Zimmerman for a one-timer.  After giving up a goal to the Loons, 10 seconds later Liam Monahan beat three Loons defenders to put the Horde ahead 6-2.   Monahan had 4 points on the night and Speier had three, with each scoring two goals.  At the post-game press conference, defenseman Brian Hinderks noted “We all thought Liam and Nygren could score, they just kept telling us they didn’t want to hurt the goalies.”  Will Schultz, who miss 4 open nets on the night remarked “We were lucky to get out of there with a win – the Loons brought their A game and I am scoring adverse.”  Jeff Nelson commented  “Our one-legged center finally decided to shoot the puck, who knew it would go in?” 

Up next, the Horde face a hot Chaos team that has been crushing opponents of late.  This figures to be a low scoring game as two of the best defenses in D2 go head-to-head.  The teams skated to a 2-2 tie to open the season, but this time around 2 goals may be enough to win it.  The puck drops at Yackel/West Side at 4:50 pm next Sunday. 

 

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AHA D2 Playoff Format Release

The AHA has finalized the playoff format for the 2009-10 D2 season and now 6 teams are in.
Dates of Tournament:  Tuesday, April 6th - Sunday, April 11th
Location: Most weekend games played at Bloomington Ice Gardens
Championship Games: Sunday, April 11th,. Bloomington Ice Gardens, Time TBD
D2 Format:  Top 6 Teams from Regular Season Advance to Playoffs. One Pool with all 6 Teams, Round Robin. Higher Seeds have favorable schedule in Round Robin Play as not all teams will play each other.  Top Two Teams from the 3 Round Robin games will Play on Sunday for D2 Tier Title.

Currently, the Horde are tied at the top of the division, but with half the season to go all 12 teams are still in the playoff hunt.  The Horde will need to play well to make the playoffs at season end.

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Horde Tame Icedogs - Tied for Top of the League

St. Paul (SPA-Drake Ice Rink) – Saturday, January 16, 2010.  On a warm, Minnesota January night, the Northern Horde returned to St. Paul Academy/Drake Arena to face the top-ranked Icedogs, a week after defeating the top-ranked Nighthawks.  Once again, the stout Horde defense led the team to victory.  The Horde played very well in the first period and, with some intense pressure on the Icedogs goalie, opened the scoring at 12:02 of the first when Jeff Nelson followed a Tyler LaMont shot.  Dana Cudo picked up the other assist on the goal.  Just two minutes later, Mark Paska crashed the net to give the Horde a two goal lead – assists to Dana Cudo and Jeff Nelson.  The second period was all Icedogs for the first 12 minutes as they scored one and kept up the pressure against goalie Pete Morrow; however, all that would change when Dan Bolles got a long pass from Brian Hinderks and but a nice move on the Icedogs goalie to put the Horde up 3-1.  After an Icedogs goal, Liam Monahan liked what he saw from Bolles and did the same thing with a Jon Nygren pass two minutes later.  The Horde opened the third period with a power play and Dan Bolles scored again off a pass from Liam Monahan and Jeff Nelson.  Yes, you read that right, Jeff Nelson actually had two passes in this game (leading to two assists for him and three points on the night). 

After giving up another goal to the Icedogs, the Horde D was strong the rest of the period.  With 2:24 to go in the game, the Horde committed two silly penalties.  When the Icedogs pulled their goalie to give them a 6-on-3 advantage, the Horde’s chances to hold on to victory looked bleak.  However, Cudo, Hinderks, LaMont, Zimmerman and Bolles stepped up defensively and Pete Morrow stood on his head to preserve the win before a pro-Horde crowd in that numbered in the 30s, perhaps exceeding 40.  Ryan Chester looked good in his return to the lineup following a shoulder injury that has sidelined him all season – the Horde will need his intensity at wing in the second half of the season.  Unfortunately, the Horde will lose Bill Messinger to a shoulder injury for a few weeks, but look forward to his return to the lineup.  Next Sunday, the Horde take on the Fighting Loons, which are one of the highest scoring teams in D2 and have one of the best goalies in the league.  This one should be high scoring if the Horde can muster some offense. 

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Horde Beat Nighthawks - Move into 2nd Place Tie

Eden Prairie – Sunday, January 3, 2010.  The battle for the playoffs heated up Sunday night with the Northern Horde venturing out to the western suburbs to take on the Nighthawks who were holding on to the top spot in the league having soundly defeated the Puck Hounds last week.  This week, the Nighthawks would not be so lucky.  To compensate for the Olympic ice sheet, both teams brought 15 skaters and this contest would sap the energy from all of them.  The game was scoreless until the Nighthawks scored with 2:21 remaining in the 2^nd period.  While the Horde’s efforts to that point were valiant, nothing could beat the talented Nighthawks net minder.  The third period opened with the Horde brining sustained pressure.  Finally, after killing a Jeff Nelson roughing penalty, the Horde evened the game when Mark Paska found Gary Speier at the left post with 4:40 remaining.  The goal fired up the Horde faithful (Brian’s girlfriend, out sole supporter).  1:40 later, a Chris Haack pass to Will Schultz hit the stick of Dan Kline who slid it past the Nighthawks goalie from the right point to put the Horde out in front.  After Jon Zimmerman missed an empty net from 10 feet out, the Nighthawks earned a face-off in the Horde end with 16 seconds remaining.  Following a timeout, the Horde D stoned the Nighthawk skaters and Pete Morrow made his 18^th and most crucial save of the night to preserve the victory and move the Northern Horde into 2^nd place in the standings.  Once again, the Horde defense was stout as the Horde outshot the Nighthawks 22-18.  Suneel Arora, Brian Hinderks and Tyler LaMont kept the feared Warlick/Errigo/Brown line away from the nets and Dan Kline blocked numerous shots diving all over the ice (that could have been him tripping on the goal line as well).  Jon Nygren was huge blocking a number of Nighthawk passes and creating changes for the Horde.   Next up are the Icedogs in a battle for the top of the table.  The Icedogs’ goalie leads the league in GAA and save percentage and the Icedogs have scored the most goals in D2.  The Horde D will need to play big to come out with a victory in this one.

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