USHL Notes: February 6, 2024
Published on February 6, 2024 under United States Hockey League (USHL) News Release
Eye on the Prize: League-leading Fargo picked up a couple of road wins at Sioux Falls last week in extending its winning streak to four games.
The Force, who enter this week's action boasting a 33-5-2-0 record, have racked up 68 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 25-9-2-3), own a 16-point lead over second-place Sioux City (23-11-6-0) in the Western Conference standings.
The Force have allowed the fewest goals in the league (83) and have scored more goals (180) 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). Fargo leads the league with a 38.03 shots on goal per game average and its 21.88 shots allowed per game is a league low.
Fargo's goaltenders - rookie Hampton Slukynsky (17-1-0-0, 1.76, .919) 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. Forward Zam Plante (17-28--45) ranks fourth in the USHL in points.
Dubuque, which ranks first in the Eastern Conference with 55 points, ranks second in the USHL with 169 goals scored and own the top power play in the league with 47 power play goals and a 32.0% mark with the man advantage. Forward Jake Sondreal (18-33--51) leads the league in points and assists.
Green Bay (22-9-4-2) and Muskegon (24-14-1-1) both have 50 points to tie for second in the Eastern Conference.
Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Nominees: A "Watch List" of 32 first-year NCAA men's hockey players was announced by the Hockey Commissioners Association for the Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year and several former players from the USHL appear front and center. 23 of 32 the players appearing on the list are former USHL players.
Including last year's winner, Adam Fantilli, who played for the Chicago Steel from 2020-22, 13 former USHL players have won the Tim Taylor Award since its inception in 2007.
Players of the Week: A Providence commit, John Mustard (Waterloo/USHL Forward of the Week) had four goals and an assist in helping Waterloo to two wins last week. The Oradell, N.J., native scored four times and had the game-winning goal in a 6-2 victory over Sioux City last Saturday. He leads all USHL rookies with 38 points on 21 goals and 17 assists and has had 10 multi-point games over the course of the season.
Leo Gruba (Fargo/USHL Defenseman of the Week) led all USHL defensemen with four assists and five points last week in helping Fargo to two wins. The University of Minnesota commit, who has established a franchise record for points in a season by a defenseman, is the top-scoring blueliner in the league with 16-26--42. This is the third time he's been named USHL Defenseman of the Week this year.
Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (Muskegon/USHL Goaltender of the Week) went 2-0-0-0 with a 2.13 goals against average and a 0.925 save percentage last week. The Makhachkala, Russia native came on in relief and stopped 17 of 17 shots in a come-from-behind 5-3 win over Chicago last Saturday. He also had 33 saves in a 7-4 road triumph at Madison Saturday.
#CarlyWatch: Cedar Rapids head coach Mark Carlson's career record with the RoughRiders entering this week stands at 779-586-138.
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.
257 Pages: The 2023-24 USHL Media Guide & Record Book is available online HERE. Chock full of great information!
For Those of You Keeping Track: Fargo has amassed 33 wins in its 40 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.
Streaking: A quartet of players head into this week's action riding 10-game point-scoring streaks in Dubuque's Jake Sondreal (4-13--17), Sioux City's Kaden Shahan (9-4--13), Tri-City's Trevor Connelly (8-10--18) and USA Hockey NTDP's James Hagens (5-13--18).
Shahan, who leads the USHL with 27 goals, has scored a goal in four straight games. Green Bay's Julian Lutz, who's in the midst of a nine-game point-scoring streak (3-12--15), has recorded at least one assist in eight straight games.
Streaming: Just a reminder that all league games are streamed live via FloHockey.
United States Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2024
- Hawks Outscore Musketeers 4-1 - Waterloo Black Hawks
- USHL Playoff Picture: February 6, 2024 - USHL
- Stampede Adds Delaney to Roster - Sioux Falls Stampede
- Montgomery Makes College Commitment - Lincoln Stars
- USHL Notes: February 6, 2024 - USHL
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