USHL Notes: February 13, 2024
February 13, 2024 - United States Hockey League (USHL) News Release
Model of Consistency: League-leading Fargo picked up a win in its only game last week in extending its winning streak to five games.
The Force, who enter this week's action boasting a 34-5-2-0 record, have racked up 70 points for the season and in addition to owning a large edge over the team with the second-best record in the USHL (Dubuque is 26-9-3-3), own a 14-point lead over second-place Sioux City (25-12-6-0) in the Western Conference standings.
The Force have allowed the fewest goals in the league (87) and have scored more goals (192) than any other team. Fargo continues to lead the league on the penalty kill with an 84.1 mark (14 power play goals allowed in a league-low 88 opponent chances) and have moved into the top of the heap in terms of power play percentage (33.3). Fargo leads the league with a 38.17 shots on goal per game average and its 22.10 shots allowed per game is a league low.
Fargo's goaltenders - rookie Hampton Slukynsky (18-1-0-0, 1.97, .916) and veteran Anton Castro (16-4-2-1, 2.29, .894) - either lead or stand amongst the league leaders in every goaltending statistical category and Leo Gruba (16-26--42) is the top-scoring defenseman in the USHL. Forwards Zam Plante (19-31--50) and Mac Swanson (16-33--49) rank third and fourth in the USHL in points, respectively.
Dubuque, which ranks first in the Eastern Conference with 58 points and has gone 6-2-2-0 in its last 10 games, ranks second in the USHL with 179 goals scored. Forward Jake Sondreal (18-34--52) leads the league in points and assists.
Muskegon (26-14-1-1) is second in the East with 54 points and enters this week's action having won its last four games. The Lumberjacks have three of the top 10 scorers in the league in #2 Matvei Gridin (2nd, 20-30--50), #6 Ethan Whitcomb (13-33--46) and #7 Sacha Boisvert (27-18--45).
Players of the Week: A University of North Dakota commit, Mac Swanson (Fargo/USHL Forward of the Week) scored three times and had four assists in helping Fargo to a 12-4 win over Sioux Falls last Friday. Swanson, who had a power play goal and the game-winner in the home victory over the Stampede, has moved into fourth place in the USHL in scoring with 49 points on 16 goals and 33 assists in 35 games played
Joona Vaisanen (Dubuque/USHL Defenseman of the Week) registered three points on a goal, land two assists in two games last week. The Espoo, Finland native scored the game-winning goal and had an assist in a 6-1 home win over Waterloo last Saturday and had an assist in a 6-5 overtime loss to Cedar Rapids Friday. Vaisanen, who has had six multiple-point games this season, leads Dubuque defensemen in scoring with 28 points on seven goals and 21 assists in 33 games.
Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (Muskegon/USHL Goaltender of the Week) has been named USHL Goaltender of the Week in back-to-back weeks after going 2-0-0-0 with a 2.88 goals against average and a 0.922 save percentage last week. The Lumberjack netminder stopped 32 shots in a 4-3 shootout win over Youngstown last Friday and had a career high 39 saves in a 5-3 win vs. Youngstown Saturday. Gadzhiev has won his last four games and stands 7-4-0-0 on the season.
#CarlyWatch: Cedar Rapids head coach Mark Carlson's career record with the RoughRiders entering this week stands at 781-586-138.
Carlson, who has stood behind the bench at Cedar Rapids since the 1999-2000 season, ranks only behind P.K. O'Handley's 783 victories in terms of most career coaching wins in the USHL. O'Handley served as head coach of the North Iowa Huskies from 1991-98 and the Waterloo Black Hawks from 2002-21.
For Those of You Keeping Track: Fargo has amassed 34 wins in its 41 games played this year. The USHL single-season record for wins was set in 1998-99 when Des Moines won the Anderson Cup with 48 victories in 56 games. Green Bay had 47 wins in 60 games in 2011-12 and Tri-City had 47 wins in 62 games in 2021-22.
Rolling: A quartet of players head into this week's action riding double-digit point-scoring streaks in Tri-City's Trevor Connelly (11 games, 8-11--19), Green Bay's Julian Lutz (11 games, 6-13--19), Muskegon's Matvei Gridin (10 games, 5-11--16) and USA Hockey NTDP's James Hagens (10 games, 5-13--18). Sioux City's Brian Nicholas has tallied at least one point in eight straight games (4-8--12).
Mac and Mike: The last seven-point game in the USHL prior to last Friday when Mac Swanson and Michael La Starza accomplished the feat in Fargo's 12-4 win over Sioux Falls, was on March 7, 2020 when Waterloo's Joe Cassetti (Waterloo) had 2-5--7 in 8-3 win over Sioux City.
Overhead Cam: Tri-City netminder Cameron Korpi leads the league in games (32), minutes (1,898), wins (19), ranks second in saves (761) and is sixth in goals against average (2.91). The Michigan commit, who's in his third season in the USHL, has gone 3-0-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and .918 save percentage in his last three games.
Streaming: Just a reminder that all league games are streamed live via FloHockey.
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