GPCIHL today.....

[JLambertUMSL]

- The biggest story was SLU's come-from-behind 7-5 victory over Truman State. Newcomer Shaun O'Rourke's third-period natural hat trick brought SLU back from a 5-4 deficit. O'Rourke had five goals and seven points while leading SLU to two wins Saturday. SLU is back. O'Rourke gives them a tremendous boost.

- Mizzou B tied Lindenwood Gold 2-2 this morning. That's a team who could win it all. Kevin McFarland is one of the best goalies in the GPCIHL, all divisions.

- St. Charles put a scare into UMSL this evening. UMSL had a 5-0 lead, but SCC scored four unanswered goals to make it 5-4 before UMSL pulled away to win 8-4. UMSL won both games today, and has one tomorrow (noon vs. Meramec...Illinois isn't going to stay for the 4:00 game). PJ Tallo had 9 points today, IIRC.

- Lindenwood mercied Illinois State in the season debut of Travis Fudge. LU has a light weekend -- their second and final game is tomorrow against UM-Rolla. Next weekend they'll play five games, including a cross-divisional clash with Truman State.

- Mizzou survived back-to-back games (4:00 vs. UM-Rolla and 5:00 vs. Meramec) to improve to 9-5-0. Their third and final game of the weekend is against St. Charles, who will be looking for revenge after losing 8-3 in the teams' previous matchup.

- With three wins, Missouri State (10-0-2) rolls along as the only undefeated team in GPCIHL DII. They play SLU on March 1.

Truman and MSU will get higher seeds, but SLU now has the best player in the league, plus the experience of last season's Nationals run. DII regionals could be very interesting.

[JLambertUMSL]

And Sunday....

Backstopped by freshman goaltender Steve Cash, UMSL B knocks off undefeated Lindenwood Gold 7-4. Alex Nebrig's third-period shorthanded goal was the biggest clutch play of the game. Nebrig is second in the nation in regular-season points, and first in assists.

Washington University topped SLU 4-2 to throw the GPCIHL DII race completely out of whack once again. It's amazing to think about how exciting and unpredictable GP DII regionals could be.

Lindenwood, in their final game of their first weekend with their entire DI squad on hand (Lindenwood opponents, beware the Fudge Factor), mercied UM-Rolla in 10:45. Rolla had just four skaters.

Mizzou and St. Charles tied 5-5. The third period of this game was as intense as any period I've seen played this season. Mizzou scored on the power play with less than a minute left to draw even. SCC's Gus Maloney had two goals and two assists, and now leads GPCIHL DI/III with 31 goals and 46 points. He is amazing.

The GPCIHL DII race took another unexpected twist this afternoon when Wash U tied Missouri State 5-5. Wash U captain Andrew Stern scored with :47 to play to tie the score. MSU is still undefeated and in first place, but Wash U has suddenly taken center stage with an impressive performance today.

[tsuG0alie]

Truman and MSU will get higher seeds, but SLU now has the best player in the league, plus the experience of last season's Nationals run. DII regionals could be very interesting.

I think the best players in the league are at the top of the leaderboard. I don't think you can call him the best after one weekend. Look at Dougherty, James. Hands-down best all-around player in the league, and that I've ever played with. Just because he doesn't put up 3 goals in a period doesn't take away from that.

Secondly, the last year's playoff run was also held together by the experience of one James Cash, who is no longer with them. I'd say (although it did hold down a struggling Truman team) the goaltending situation negates part of that experience you speak of. Not that they couldn't make it interesting, but I think the impact will be determined next weekend.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions after one weekend.

---------------------
John Pecher - #30
Truman State University
Club President

[catch]

well we finally have a scandal brewing in the great plains. I watched the Truman-St. Louis U. game. my understanding is truman played sick. when it was 4-4 truman missed an empty net. SLU barely eeked out a win on turnovers thereafter. SLU then lost to Wash U and barely beat Southeast. Washington U. played impressively this weekend. However, their tie with MSU came in a game where they possessed the puck rarely and converted a number of odd turnovers.

I note Mr. Pecher is not only the Truman State goalie, but also the team president. Please note MSU goalie, Cole Murphy, is not only the MSU goalie, but also a sanctioned ultimate fighter. I believe Mr. Murphy will decide who is the MVP and no one else will be allowed to vote. If there is any disagreement please see Mr. Murphy at the next game.

The step up of SLU and Wash U is great for the division. However, when it comes to nationals lets remember that SIU has put together a full season of work and deserves a lot more credit than a team who benefited from its ice hockey team quitting and joining the roller billikens. SLU did not follow up its work after they played Truman. Moreover, MSU remains undefeated. I note in the schedule SLU has ducked playing any division I opponents and I question comparing their record to the teams above them. For that matter, despite being a big bear (WashU is the baby bear) Truman plays Lindenwood and UMSL while we played Middle tennessee. I love the cross divisional play, but I question why UMR, Mizzou and Illinois did not partake. Is it once again that Mizzou will only play MSU in Columbia and only in football because of the fear of defeat.

[JLambertUMSL]

I think the best players in the league are at the top of the leaderboard. I don't think you can call him the best after one weekend. Look at Dougherty, James. Hands-down best all-around player in the league, and that I've ever played with. Just because he doesn't put up 3 goals in a period doesn't take away from that.

Secondly, the last year's playoff run was also held together by the experience of one James Cash, who is no longer with them. I'd say (although it did hold down a struggling Truman team) the goaltending situation negates part of that experience you speak of. Not that they couldn't make it interesting, but I think the impact will be determined next weekend.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions after one weekend.

---------------------
John Pecher - #30
Truman State University
Club President

I'm not looking at the stats at all. I know from seeing him play roughly 30 times in the past 12-15 months that O'Rourke is the best all-around player in GPCIHL DII. I said before the season, once I learned that he would be attending SLU, that if they could get him to play inline, he'd be the best player in Great Plains DII hands down. (And you are fully aware of how much I love JD's game.)

When Josh Matteo joined Wash U's team at semester break in '05-06, everyone knew he'd be one of the top players....and once Regionals rolled around, it didn't matter how many points Jake Shepard or Adam Clarke or James Wetton had...Josh Matteo was the skater who made the biggest difference. (Only Dave Garland was more clutch that day.)

O'Rourke is a dominant player. He's arguably the second-best '89 in Missouri behind Tallo. He was injured for much of last season, but saw some action in PIHA Pro once he got healthy, and more than held his own as an 18-year-old high school senior. He was also the best player on the Tier 1 state championship team at Lafayette.

Regarding SLU's championship experience, I'm talking about the fact that a lot of those guys saw it up close and lived through it -- not that they contributed to it (except for Kessler, who scored the goal that seemed to ignite the whole thing, in the first round against Emory at Omni, and was outstanding throughout the tournament). SLU always has a handful of extras on the bench who never play.....and the guys who sat and watched Nationals last year are now playing. They've seen it up close, have waited their turn, and won't freeze up when the time comes. Plus, in Dan Hurt they've got a head coach who in addition to leading his team to the finals last season, also guided them to an upset of an undefeated UMSL team at Regionals in '03-04, and a surprise national final-four appearance in '04-05.

(As I'm sure you know, it's nice having a head coach who's older and wiser than any of the players.)

Brendan Vail can stop the puck...that's a DeSmet boy we're talkin' about here. He stopped a barrage on Saturday in the third period that allowed his team to squeak past a quality opponent that was bringing everything it had. Kinda like the Truman-UMSL game last February, when one John Pecher put up a wall against an unbeaten team that suddenly realized it needed to get desperate.

(For the record, Pecher has been battling some kind of illness lately....I think that was a factor in Truman's loss on Saturday. From an UMSL perspective, one could argue that he's the best goalie we'll face this season other than maybe Lindenwood's Dustin Brown. The game this coming Saturday is going to be a LOT of fun!!)

[TSUMoody89]

when it was 4-4 truman missed an empty net.

Yeah. How pathetic was that? I think whoever that was should quit the game forever.

[JLambertUMSL]

well we finally have a scandal brewing in the great plains. I watched the Truman-St. Louis U. game. my understanding is truman played sick. when it was 4-4 truman missed an empty net. SLU barely eeked out a win on turnovers thereafter. SLU then lost to Wash U and barely beat Southeast. Washington U. played impressively this weekend. However, their tie with MSU came in a game where they possessed the puck rarely and converted a number of odd turnovers.

I note Mr. Pecher is not only the Truman State goalie, but also the team president. Please note MSU goalie, Cole Murphy, is not only the MSU goalie, but also a sanctioned ultimate fighter. I believe Mr. Murphy will decide who is the MVP and no one else will be allowed to vote. If there is any disagreement please see Mr. Murphy at the next game.

The step up of SLU and Wash U is great for the division. However, when it comes to nationals lets remember that SIU has put together a full season of work and deserves a lot more credit than a team who benefited from its ice hockey team quitting and joining the roller billikens. SLU did not follow up its work after they played Truman. Moreover, MSU remains undefeated. I note in the schedule SLU has ducked playing any division I opponents and I question comparing their record to the teams above them. For that matter, despite being a big bear (WashU is the baby bear) Truman plays Lindenwood and UMSL while we played Middle tennessee. I love the cross divisional play, but I question why UMR, Mizzou and Illinois did not partake. Is it once again that Mizzou will only play MSU in Columbia and only in football because of the fear of defeat.

I had an entire spreadsheet put together back in October with several schedule modifications that would have allowed for competitive cross-divisional games, and "showcase" afternoons with a four or five hour window featuring the best matchups of the weekend all in a row....it was just a suggestion, not really solicited, but nonetheless it got nixed.

Any cross-divisional play is tough to incorporate while maintaining competitive balance. I'm glad we got what we got, but I'd have liked to see MSU get in on it, and maybe match up against a team like UMSL, Mizzou, SCC, or Lindenwood to help prepare them for what they're going to see from Neumann (for example) at Nationals.

MSU plays Western Illinois three times in the second semester.

When you don't get pushed to the limit more than two or three times during the entire regular season, it is very difficult to perform under the pressure that a team like Neumann brings. We were completely clueless for the first period and a half against them in '06.

SLU-MSU on March 1....should be interesting!

[catch]

i couldn't agree with your analysis of the scheduling any more. you know the disdain between MSU and Mizzou is very deep. Mizzou refuses to play MSU in basketball. It was Mizzou curators who fought long and hard against MSU being called MSU. However, MSU has been playing and will continue to play division I schools under the cover of night at unknown locations. In fact MSU has played more than one game against a Division I school and has yet to suffer defeat. While this may be a deliberately misleading statement we are looking forward to a scrimmage with certain members of the Lindewood Lions in the forthcoming weeks leading to Nationals. At that point I antricipate recanting my statement regarding the undefeated record versus Division I. Between now and then I maintain MSU is the only other school undeafeted versus Division I competition in the great plains.

We will be looking forward to the game with the Billikens as well after not overlooking the Wash U. Bears this coming weekend.

[Ben Lambert]

I'm sure that if you guys want to come up for a Tuesday night game, we'd be all for it. Our practice is 8:30 to 9:30 at msg.

[train]

I'm sure that if you guys want to come up for a Tuesday night game, we'd be all for it. Our practice is 8:30 to 9:30 at msg.

i can't imagine anyone on the team wanting to play during the week.

[catch]

we would love to play you guys. wouldn't expect to continue our unbeaten streak against division I either. Appreciate the invite. However, the train is on track. it is a 3-3 1/2 one way trip. 44 is not the greatest highway, particularly at night filled with trucks. i use make that trip for blues playoff games once a series, back in the days when they made and lost playoff series. those were thursdays and saturday games. a tuesday night would leave us dead the rest of the week. maybe we can come up with a time between regionals and nationals.

[JLambertUMSL]

Washington U. played impressively this weekend. However, their tie with MSU came in a game where they possessed the puck rarely and converted a number of odd turnovers.

That's how Wash U wins. It's by design.

March 5, 2006...when they beat us 5-4 in OT in the league championship...they scored three goals off of horrendous turnovers leading to clean scoring chances. IIRC, we outshot them about 44-19, something ridiculous...

(That's right, OVERTIME...not shootouts...sudden-death overtime periods, like hockey is supposed to be. I am hoping that this year, the GPCIHL changes it back to the way it was in '05-06, when, at Regionals, we decided hockey games by playing hockey instead of having a damn skills competition.)

[JLambertUMSL]

we would love to play you guys. wouldn't expect to continue our unbeaten streak against division I either. Appreciate the invite. However, the train is on track. it is a 3-3 1/2 one way trip. 44 is not the greatest highway, particularly at night filled with trucks. i use make that trip for blues playoff games once a series, back in the days when they made and lost playoff series. those were thursdays and saturday games. a tuesday night would leave us dead the rest of the week. maybe we can come up with a time between regionals and nationals.

Fussner thinks it's hilarious that I keep bugging him to try to schedule us a matchup during a game weekend....but it's just not gonna happen.

Maybe we could play sometime during spring break. Refs, full uniforms, regulation everything...that would be fun.

[train]

Fussner thinks it's hilarious that I keep bugging him to try to schedule us a matchup during a game weekend....but it's just not gonna happen.

Maybe we could play sometime during spring break. Refs, full uniforms, regulation everything...that would be fun.

I'm not sure we need to have refs. We played UMR a while ago at All-American in a scrimmage. Nothing too official, but it was still a good game and fun.

[catch]

Train. Have you not surmised from my posts that I have deliberately left vacant who the other Division I team we defeated was. Now you have disclosed it its all over the forums. I already have 5 emails from UMR demanding that any forthcoming games we play be contducted strictly in Rolla and they will provide the refs. You have destroyed the home and home series. Train you are making this harder and harder. The only way to keep you on track is to again move up the time of departure Saturday. Again, Fritz will pick you up after work at midnight and this time we will depart at 2 a.m. All right, I'll admit it doesn't work it is only Tuesday and I'm in desperate need of sleep from last weekend. We'll leave a 5 p.m.

In all seriousness it would be a great experience for us to scrimmage or play UMSL before nationals or any time for that matter. You guys have a first class team and I respect the way you play and run your program. I meant nothing to lessen Wash U. either. They have a disciplined game plan and work hard.