Saints Host Bucs and Steel to Open 2021
January 1, 2021 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release
Coming off of arguably their best effort this season, the Fighting Saints will look to build off of their win over Muskegon when they hit the ice for the first time during the New Year. The Saints will take on Des Moines Saturday night and Chicago Sunday afternoon for their first two home games since mid-December. Dubuque has struggled at home, winning just once. Get set for the first two games of 2021 with your pregame primer:
-Hobie Hedquist came up big for Dubuque with their best goaltender performance of the season thus far. For a team that has struggled to find consistency between the pipes this year, Hedquist provided just that making 22 saves in the win. He made two stops on shorthanded breakaways that really changed the game for Dubuque.
-The Saints power play has been rolling heading into the weekend, scoring in each of their last three games. Dubuque scored three times on the power play in their win over Muskegon. On the season the PP is 24% for Dubuque.
-On Saturday, the Saints will battle Des Moines for the second time this season. In their only other matchup with the Bucs, Dubuque was shorthanded and lost 9-3.
-The Bucs are a dangerous team a man up, as is evidence by their Western Conference leading power play which sits at 25.5%. Dubuque will have to stay out of the box, which they have done well most of the season.
-Sunday will feature the second installment of Dubuque and Chicago this season as the Steel roll into town again. Their first trip to Dubuque went well for Chicago as they came away with a 4-1 win. The Steel still sit in first in the East, two points up on Green Bay.
-Chicago is rolling coming into the weekend. They had secured points in nine straight games coming into their final game of 2020.
-When you look at the USHL scoring charts, all you see is Steel. The top three-point getters are all from Chicago and they possess four of the top six. Matt Coronato leads the league by a sizable margin, leading his teammate Sean Farrell by seven points in the league race. At 2.23 points per game, he is well on pace to smash the USHL record in that department.
-Dubuque will have a chance to beat each team for the first time this season. The game against Des Moines might be particularly important as the Saints have yet to string back to back wins together this year.
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