USHL Notes: February 20, 2024
Published on February 20, 2024 under United States Hockey League (USHL) News Release
Resolute: League-leading Fargo picked up a pair of victories last week in extending its winning streak to seven games and have become the first team in the league to clinch a berth in the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs.
The Force, who enter this week's action boasting a 36-5-2-0 record, have racked up 74 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 29-9-3-3), own a 16-point lead over second-place Sioux City (26-13-6-0) in the Western Conference standings.
The Force have allowed the fewest goals in the league (91) and have scored more goals (199) than any other team. Fargo continues to lead the league on the penalty kill with an 84.3 mark (14 power play goals allowed in a league-low 89 opponent chances) and rank second in terms of power play percentage (32.9). Fargo leads the league with a 38.60 shots on goal per game average and its 22.92 shots allowed per game is a league low.
Force forwards Zam Plante (20-34--55, tied for second in the USHL in scoring) and Mac Swanson (17-34--51, fifth in the USHL in scoring) rank amongst the top scorers in the league. Leo Gruba (16-26--42) is the top-scoring defenseman in the USHL and rookie Hampton Slukynsky (19-1-0-0, 1.88, .915) leads the league in goals against average and save percentage and is tied for second in wins.
Waterloo, which has gone 7-2-0-1 in its last 10 games, owns a 19-2-0-1 mark when scoring first this season and stands third in the Western Conference with a 27-15-0-1 mark.
Dubuque, which ranks first in the Eastern Conference with 64 points and has gone 7-0-2-0 in its last nine games, rank second in the USHL with 195 goals scored. Jake Sondreal (22-36--58) leads the league in points and is second to teammate Juraj Pekarcik (7-36--43) in assists.
Muskegon (27-14-1-1) and Green Bay (25-10-4-2) are tied for second in the East with 56 points each. The Lumberjacks enter this weekend having won their last three games, while Green Bay is 5-0-0-0 in its last five outings.
Players of the Week: A Boston College commit, Jake Sondreal (Dubuque/USHL Forward of the Week) scored four times and had two assists in helping Dubuque to three wins last week. He scored twice and had the game-winning goal in a 6-3 victory over Cedar Rapids last Friday and scored a shorthanded goal and assisted on the game-winner in a 3-2 win at Des Moines Saturday. He also had a goal and an assist in a 7-2 win at Lincoln Sunday. He leads the USHL in scoring with 58 points on 22 goals and 36 assists in 43 games played.
Andrew Strathmann (Youngstown/USHL Defenseman of the Week) is now a three-time USHL Defenseman of the Week this year after racking up five points on a goal and four assists in three games last week. A University of North Dakota commit, Strathmann had two assists, including one on the game-winning goal, in a 4-2 victory at Madison last Saturday and assisted on both of Youngstown's two goals in a 3-2 shootout loss at Waterloo Sunday.
Quentin Sigurdson (Chicago/USHL Goaltender of the Week) made his USHL debut in a 3-1 home win over Madison last Sunday. The lone goal for the Capitals in the game came on a power play and the Sartell, Minn., native stopped 38 of the 39 shots he faced to pick up the win.
#CarlyWatch: Cedar Rapids head coach Mark Carlson's career record with the RoughRiders entering this week stands at 782-587-138.
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.
On Pace: Fargo has amassed 36 wins in its 43 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. Fargo has 19 games remaining on its 2023-24 regular-season schedule.
Quarter Flash: A quartet of players head into this week's action riding double-digit point-scoring streaks in Tri-City's Trevor Connelly (13 games, 11-12--23), Green Bay's Julian Lutz (13 games, 7-14--21), Muskegon's Matvei Gridin (11 games, 7-12--19) and USA Hockey NTDP's James Hagens (10 games, 5-13--18).
Turn of the Calendar: Since the beginning of January, the top five scorers in the USHL are: Charlie Major (CHI, 8-17--25), Zam Plante (FGO, 6-18--24), Mick Thomson (CHI, 7-16--23), Trevor Connelly (11-12--23) and Jake Sondreal (DBQ, 8-15--23). Noah Powell (DBQ) and Myles Hilman (WAT) have both scored a league-high 13 goals during this time. Chicago forward Michael Hage and Sioux City's Kaden Shahan have both tallied 12 times during this time.
Land Grant: Youngstown forward Grant Young had scored at least one goal in five consecutive games before he was held scoreless in a 3-2 loss at Waterloo Sunday. Young, a Harvard commit who has tallied 11-15--27 this year, has a six-game point-scoring streak during which he's racked up 8-3--11.
Streaming: Just a reminder that all league games are streamed live via FloHockey.
United States Hockey League Stories from February 20, 2024
- Stampede Acquires Goaltender Christian Manz - Sioux Falls Stampede
- USHL Notes: February 20, 2024 - USHL
- Waterloo Black Hawks Weekly Preview - Waterloo Black Hawks
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