2019-20 Season Preview
In less than three weeks, Bulldog hockey will be played once again at Arrington Ice Arena as the seven Bulldog Hockey teams will hit the ice for the thirteenth season of hockey.
There were a number of coaching changes and exciting happenings this off season, so let's get caught up on the off-season and get a preview of what we can look forward to this season.
Men's NCAA
Despite six of nine members of the Class of 2019 making their pro-hockey debuts this spring, the most exciting off-season news for the Men's NCAA team came this summer after everyone had hung their skates up for the summer. Former Bulldog Captain Mat Thompson ('17) became the first Bulldog Alum to sign an AHL contract when he signed with the Rockford Ice Hogs of the American Hockey League this summer.
Brian Bachnak ('17) signed in the Southern Professional Hockey League with the Knoxville IceBears this summer while classmate and goaltender Kevin Entmaa inked a contract with the Macon Mayhem, also of the SPHL.
Assistant Coach Kevin Moore was named an assistant coach for the Under-18 USA Select Team this summer that travelled to the Czech Republic to compete in the Gretzky-Hlinka Memorial Tournament in August. Moore coached alongside Red Wings Assistant Coach Pat Ferschweiler, Binghamton Devils (AHL) Assistant Coach Mark Dennehy and USA Hockey Regional Manager Roger Grillo.
The Men's NCAA team brought in six freshmen and three NCAA DI transfers this season and you can catch a first look at the Class of 2023 and the rest of the team on October 27th during the Black and Gold scrimmage.
The Men's NCAA team opens the regular season on the road November 1st against Nichols and will be back at Arrington Ice Arena on November 15th against Finlandia.
Games to Watch:
vs. Utica 1/4 & 1/5: The Bulldogs and Pioneers squared off in a two game series at Utica last season and the Bulldogs came out with two victories, one by a score of 3-1 and the other 3-2. The Pioneers are a non-conference opponent that have not made the trek to Arrington Ice Arena in at least the past seven years, if not ever, so any games against non-conference opponents are good games to watch. Utica comes to town for the first two games of the new year on January 4th and 5th.
vs. USNTDP: The NTDP typically only scrimmages against NCAA DI schools, but have been squaring off against the Bulldogs either every season or every other season for as long as I can remember. Not only do we get to see the Bulldogs play a highly skilled opponent, but we also get to see future NHL draft picks and D1 commits come play at home at Arrington Ice Arena. Last season, the NTDP produced eight first round draft picks, the most in any junior team's history, three of which were top ten and one of those being first overall pick Jack Hughes. The National Team Development Program comes to town Saturday, December 14th.
Players to Watch:
Dino Balsamo: Everyone knows when Balsamo is on the ice. If he's not creating offensive opportunities or killing penalties in the defensive zone, he's aggravating any and every one of his opponents and trying to draw a penalty by being a complete and total pest. What some may think he lacks in size, he certainly makes up for in speed, skill and grit and the combination of both skill and girt that he possess makes him a dangerous opponent to play against. Balsamo shows up on the scoresheet, he finished second in points and goals last season, and off the scoresheet on a nightly basis.
Matt Eller/Joey Colatarci: Eller, a sophomore, and Colatarci, a senior, were the number two defensive pairing last season and saw penalty kill and power play time behind graduated seniors Cory Dunn and Braden Hellems. With the absence of the Dunn/Hellems pairing this season, the top defensive pairing is up for grabs, if so to speak, and I can see Eller and Colatarci filling those roles as the Bulldogs top D-pairing. You can't really separate them, in my opinion, because of how well they seem to read each other and play together after only one season on the ice together so I'm eager to see them play one more season together.
Women's NCAA
The Women's NCAA team finished the season coming in third place in the NCAA after capturing their fifth Slaats Cup and the 2019 Regular Season title for the NCHA.
Trips to the NCAA Tournament and the Frozen Four are an expected thing now for the Women's NCAA team just as they are with the Men's team and that change has seemed to happen since the Class of 2020 first took the ice as Bulldogs in the 2916-17 season when the Bulldogs dropped the National Championship game in a heartbreaking overtime fashion when the Frozen Four was hosted at Arrington Ice Arena. The Class of 2020 has seen a trip to the NCAA Tournament all three seasons of their career and made it to the Frozen Four twice, the only two times the team has made it that far in the tournament in the program's history.
Kaylyn Schroka ('17), former Bulldog captain turned NWHL forward for the Buffalo Beauts, joined Shawn Skelly ('11) behind the bench before the start of the season last year and will join Skelly once again this season as an assistant coach.
In alumni news, former standout forward turned NWHL player, Kristin Lewicki joined the historic Professional Women's Hockey Players Association this summer, opting out of playing in the NWHL as the PWHPA sits out of North American Women's Pro Hockey to set a higher standard for the treatment and compensation of female hockey players. The PWHPA will be heading around the country for the Dream Gap Tour this fall, you can find more info on the PWHPA and the Dream Gap Tour here.
Games to Watch:
vs. Hamline: A first time opponent at Arrington Ice Arena for the Women's NCAA team, Hamline finished the season second behind Plattsburgh, falling in the national championship game to the Cardinals. The Women's NCAA team has done a fantastic job of finding strong opponents for non-conference games the past few years to help their strength of schedule and it's always great to watch the Bulldogs, who took over the #1 spot in the USCHO poll for the first time in program history, play an evenly matched opponent like Hamline. Hamline comes to town for the first regular season home game of the year on November 1st at Arrington Ice Arena.
vs. St. Scholastica: The Bulldogs and Saints battled things out into double overtime for the NCHA Playoff title and Slaats Cup last March where the Bulldogs came away victorious. The game, all 85 minutes of it, was an intense battle down to the end. There were eleven penalties in total, including one for the Bulldogs in the first overtime and one for the Saints in the second overtime period that eventually lead to the game winning goal. The Saints and Bulldogs have played in the same conference for a number of years and have definitely established a rivalry after last season's Slaat's Cup Final. The Saints come to town for a pair of games on January 17th and 18th.
Players to Watch:
Deniska Jandova: The sophomore goaltender took over the net with a force last January, playing in every game but one after January 20th and only lost one game, one game. She finished the season with a 12-1-2 record, .98 GAA, .952 SV% while playing 918 minutes in net. Jandova played a huge part in the 2019 Slaats Cup victory, standing on her head in regulation and both overtime periods as well as in the third-place game in the Frozen Four game where she shut out St. Thomas to secure third place for her team. The best part is, she has three more seasons left at Adrian and the only direction I can see her going is up from here.
Brooke Schembri: Junior forward Brooke Schembri has only missed three games in the last two years, all three her freshman year, and appeared in every contest this past season. Schembri is a reliable forward that you can put out on the ice on both the powerplay and penalty kill (that's if she's not the only getting the penalty, she came in third last season in penalty minutes with 20). She came in third in game winning goals last season with two to go along with her 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 31 games.
Men's ACHA D1
The MD1 team finished the season last year with a loss in the ACHA Men's D1 Quarterfinals, dropping their final game to the eventual national champions, but won their seventh GLCHL regular season title and followed it up with their fifth GLCHL Playoff title, winning in a commanding fashion on home ice in March.
2018-19 captain and 2018 National Champion, Justin Fisher, was added to the Bulldog bench as an assistant coach and Head Coach for the D3 team this off season.
It seems to be the year for exceptional senior classes, the Class of 2020 for the MD1 team is another one of those. Their first season as Bulldogs, they helped take the team to the Final Four for the first time in program history and followed it up with the program's first national championship their sophomore year. The Class of 2020 is also the first class for Coach Gary Astalos, who brought in his first class of players his first season in 2016-17.
Games to Watch:
vs. Liberty: The Bulldogs took on the Flames four times this past season, hosting them twice before heading to Virginia in February. The Flames are a great opponent to strengthen the Bulldogs schedule and a great game to come out to during the season. The Bulldogs may have pulled away by a few commanding scores last year, but games against the Flames are tough and close no matter the score. Liberty comes to town on the 25th and 26th of October. All youth hockey and AOTHA players get in free on Friday the 25th as a part of Minor Hockey night.
vs. Michigan Dearborn: Perhaps one of the fiercest rivalries with the MD1 team, you more than likely can't get anyone on either team to say something nice about their opponents, except for maybe that games against each other are always gritty, tough and close in score. The Bulldogs went 1-2 against the Wolverines in three contests last season and the two teams will square off in a home at home series this December. The Wolverines come to town on December 5th.
Players to Watch:
Brenden Stanko: Stanko found a place on the first/second line of the MD1 team last season as a freshman and did not dissappoint in his rookie season, he was even named the GLCHL Rookie of the Year this past season. I mentioned it prior in my mid-season recap last season, but some of his skills such as his ability to hold off defenders and cut through defensemen can be compared to those of former Bulldog Brad Kobryn, a comparison that I wasn't sure I'd ever confidently throw out there. After his first full season, it seems that you can put him on the ice with nearly anyone and he'll do fantastic, so we'll see how he does without lineman Joe Costello this season.
Class of 2020: You could pick any of this year's seniors and say they're going to have a phenomenal senior year and you'd probably be correct. This year's class is special (and I'm not just saying that because they're the group I came in with in 2016 😉) and, as I mentioned before, Head Coach Gary Astalos' first class that he brought in as freshmen and will coach through graduation. I knew their first season that they were a special group, much like the Class of 2018. Mike Barrett has been a brick wall between the pipes his entire career. Marcus Rose, Dominic Moore and Rainer Glimpel have this magical connection and are all some of the most entertaining players to watch. Mark Fratarcangeli is going to be carrying the Bulldog penalty kill this season with Cooper McLean and Justin Fisher gone and there aren't many players on the ice who will outwork him at any point in the game. Marcel Kottek and Steven Szekesy are going to be the core of the Bulldog defense this season and I personally am excited for Kottek to make his return from injury this season. I see big things for the Class of 2020 and I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing them finish their careers the same way that the Class of 2018 did.
WACHA D1
This off season, WACHA D1 saw their Head Coach Brett Berger, the first Adrian College coach of any sport to win a National Championship with the D3 Gold Squad in 2012 (#GoldSqaudGloryDays), leave his position as head coach. Hannah Griffin, WACHA's first captain in their inaugural season, was named his successor in July. Griffin played three seasons with the Women's NCAA team before captaining WACHA in their first year as a program and has been a volunteer assistant coach since 2016.
WACHA is coming off of their fourth straight season of making the National Semifinals at the National Tournament, the Bulldogs have not missed the National Tournament in over five years now and have set the bar high for their program in their first seven seasons. Each season it seems that the graduating class is even better than the last and the best in the team's history and the Class of 2020 is no exception. There is no doubt it will be hard to replace the members of the Class of 2020 next year, but we'll take one more year from them before we start thinking about when they leave the program.
Games to Watch:
vs. Liberty University: The Flames are becoming the fiercest rival for the WACHA Bulldogs after the former rivalry with Miami-OH faded away. The rivalry goes back to the early days of WACHA when the definite under-dogs, the Bulldogs, topped the Flames 1-0 off of a penalty shot that the Flames deemed "controversial". Ever since then, the two teams have continuously battled it out in the fiercest games of the season and both teams are typically trading off of rate #1 ranking in the ACHA each week. The 2018 National Championship game was taken by the Flames in the Bulldogs' first appearance in the Championship game and undoubtedly fueled the fire of the rivalry to have it continue for years to come. The Flames come to town on February 8th and 9th.
vs. Lindenwood-Belleville: The Bulldogs and Lynx are new rivals and there already is obvious grit and physicality in games between these two teams this regular season even before the Lynx beat the Bulldogs in the National Semifinals this March. The Lynx are a rising program in the ACHA, now in a newly formed league and coming into the season with a new head coach, and this non-conference opponent is always a great contest. The Lynx don't make the trip to Michigan this season, but make sure you tune in when the Bulldogs travel to Missouri this November.
Players to Watch:
Brittany Levasseur: It's a good thing Levassuer is a strong player and probably the most clutch player on the WACHA Bulldogs, because I think I'd hear from her if I wrote any platers to watch features without her in it. Levassuer comes into her senior year third all time in goals and points for her team and the highest scoring active player on the Bulldogs. Even though she isn't the flashiest player, she gets it done when she needs to and is a reliable player to have on the ice no matter the situation. Not to mention, she has the physicality that many women's players lack that brings another edge to her game that makes her tougher to play against and fun to watch.
Dana Columbo: I wrote in last season's season preview that Columbo had big shoes to fill going into her junior year and she did not disappoint. She filled those shoes and more, appearing in all but five games last year and only dropping three games the entire year, not losing a game until February. Not only that, but she posted seven shutouts and only allowed 30 goals in 21 games. Columbo is solid and dependable and has filled the shoes of Alison Dungey more than adequately and leaves her underclassmen with even bigger shoes to fill when she graduates.
Men's ACHA D2
The MD2 team had a coaching change as well this off season, Tyler Prater, former coach with the Meijer AAA hockey club, was named the second head coach in the Men's ACHA D2 team's history this past week. Prater takes over in the third season of play for the MD2 team where they have made it to the Regional playoffs both seasons and to the National Tournament in their first season in 2017-18.
The MD2 team will have majority upperclassmen for the first time in their team history, now that their first recruiting class is in their junior year. Maturity always makes a team better, so I am eager to see a more mature team on the ice this season after the results a team made up of sophomores and freshmen have accomplished the past two seasons of play.
The Men's D2 team hits the ice for the first time this season on September 29th against the University of Michigan.
Players to Watch:
Phil Pugliese: Pugliese was phenomenal in his rookie season, cementing his place on the top line on the team alongside seniors Jack Clary and Adrien Sebag. With Clary and Sebag graduating this past spring, I have no doubt that Pugliese with bee MD2's go to guy this season on the offensive end. After watching him keep up with the returning D1 players this past weekend at D1 training camp, I have no doubt he'll fill the go-to spot for the D2 team easily this year.
Hayden Winch: Junior Hayden Winch is probably best described as a one man wrecking crew on the ice, and probably the biggest instigator on the team (and that's saying something...). Winch is quick and hits hard, despite not being close to being the biggest guy out there, and fearless, which is a pretty good trait to have when you're almost the shortest guy on the ice with the biggest attitude. Winch can score when he wants to and pick a fight whenever it's needed (or not needed...). Look for Winch creating problems on the ice all season long, and in the penalty box too....
WACHA D2:
The WACHA D2 team is another mostly young team who's inaugural recruiting class are now juniors (and one senior). This is only the third season in program history for WACHA D2 and now the fourth head coach in program history.
Kelsey Dupuis ('16), former defenseman for the Women's NCAA team was the third alumni to be named to the Bulldog hockey coaching staff this off season, taking the helm of the ACHA WD2 team. Dupuis spent the past season as a volunteer assistant coach for the ACHA WD2 team as they won their first CCWHA Playoff title in their second season of play.
Games to Watch:
vs. Northern Michigan: NMU was the only team to top the Bulldogs in regular season play last season in their first game of the year. Most of the Bulldogs CCWHA league games were won by large margins, but their games against the Wildcats were close, one of them going into overtime and the other a one goal game. The Wildcats come to Adrian on December 7th and 8th this season.
vs. Loyola: The Bulldogs and Ramblers battled things out for the CCWHA D2 Playoff Title this past February as the Bulldogs brought home their first title in program history. The Bulldogs won 2-1 in that contest and bested the Ramblers 4-2 in round robin and 3-2 and 3-1 in the regular season.
Players to Watch:
Olive Stevens: Olive Stevens is more than likely the smallest player on the ice during any given game but you'll be hard pressed to find a player out there with a bigger attitude and more grit. She's fearless and talented, playing both forward and defense this past season and excelling at both. Like Levasseur on WACHA D1, she brings a physicality to her game that most women's players lack that sets her apart.
Katie Hayward: Katie "Clutch" Hayward is one of the members of the inaugural team for WACHA D2 that's a mainstay in the lineup for the Bulldogs. It seems effortless when she goes end to end and it's almost funny to watch as she lackadaisically skates the puck from end to end and buries it.
Men's ACHA D3
The Men's D3 team only graduated four seniors this past year and has an advantage that they haven't had in the last few years, the majority of their team will be returning for the season. They'll have that same advantage next season as they only have two seniors on their roster this year.
Former Men's ACHA D1 Captain and 2018 National Champion, Justin Fisher ('18), was named head coach of the ACHA DIII team this summer as well. Fisher played for five seasons with the MD1 team and captained the team last season after winning the 2018 MD1 National Championship the season prior.
The Men's D3 team opens their season late this year, not hitting the ice at Arrington Ice Arena until October 20th.
Games to Watch:
vs. Oakland: Oakland and Adrian D3 teams have always been a good game to watch and that hasn't changed in these last few years. Each team came away with a win in the first month of the season last year. Oakland has always been a solid team and a solid contest for the Bulldogs and the Bulldogs have improved over the last two or three seasons and closed the gap when it comes to game scores in the last two seasons. The Golden Grizzlies play at Arrington Ice Arena on November 17th.
vs. Indiana Tech: The Indiana Tech Warriors weren't always a great opponent in the past for the Bulldogs, but their team has gotten better as the years went on and games between the two teams aren't only physical anymore, but close and gritty as well. The Bulldogs took the only game against the Warriors that they played last season by a score of 6-4. The Bulldogs take on Indiana Tech on October 24th this season at Arrington Ice Arena.
Players to Watch:
Henry Gabriel: One of the many juniors on the MD3 squad, Gabriel lead his team in points this past season and came in second his freshman season. Now an upperclassmen and one of the older members of the team, there is nowhere to go but up for him as he finishes out his last two seasons as a Bulldog and an upperclassman and leader on his team.
Michael Butler: Butler, one of only three seniors this season for the Bulldogs, has been a consistent player year in and year out all three seasons he's played for the MD3 team. As a senior, he's definitely seen the ups and downs that came with the team going from a two D3 team program to a D3 and D2 team and remained a constant on the D3 team when it seemed that the entire team was made up of freshmen.