Boom, Baby!!
Wait…can I steal an Indiana basketball phrase from Slick Leonard and reconstitute it for hockey purposes? I mean it’s still Indiana, and all. Or maybe I could steal a line from the incomparable Frank Barone and scream “Holy Crap!”
We'll save that debate for another day and I’ll just bask in the glory of last week’s Game of the Week pick, where I chose Adams/Marian to win over the Riley Wildcats. I called for a 3-2 victory but Adams/Marian did one better and beat the Wildcats 4-2 at the Icebox in South Bend. I was a little worried when the game went scoreless through two periods of hockey, but the third period bailed me out with a crazy finish where all 6 goals were scored late.
That, Hockey Faithful, is enough to raise my record to 4-3-2 on the season. Holy Crap!
Now we turn to the Game of the Week, for the week of February 6th, 2017. As we wind down the season and get ready for year end tournaments, finding games with a good story line is a little tough. In fact, I thought I was going to have to skip the Game of the Week this week...seriously!
The high school games are mainly inconsequential, as the teams have already been seeded for the year end tournament (posted on the ISHHA website here). With that being said, there are a few games that should be fun to watch including Penn vs. Lake Central Blue, Carmel Gold vs. Columbus, Bloomington vs. HSE A, and Zionsville vs. Westfield. But, I can’t say any of these games caught my attention as prime choices for Game of the Week. I expect Penn, Carmel, Bloomington, and Zionsville to walk away as winners this weekend. If I were pressed, I’d say Penn might have their hands full with Lake Central Blue and Bloomington might run into a rowdy HSE team. Either way, you wouldn’t be disappointed watching any of these games.
So, then I decided to look at some of the youth games around the state. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to pick the Jr. Fuel AA Bantam team against the Fort Wayne Komets AA Bantam team a few weeks ago. The game was absolutely wacky, ending in a 5-5 tie and even had a fire drill in the middle of the game. This week the Jr. Fuel AA bantams take on the Irish AA bantam team (#1 in the INHockey.net rankings), but this one isn’t quite as compelling as the Jr. Fuel vs Fort Wayne match-up. The South Bend AA team is solid with a record of 19-8 and should be a very formidable opponent for the Jr. Fuel. Outside of that, we’re hard up for compelling games between state opponents at the youth level.
My last bastion of hope was for the college hockey scene and....
Holy Crap!
See what I did there?
It’s the Indiana Collegiate Hockey Conference (ICHC) Cross Roads Cup weekend! Not familiar with the ICHC? Let me bring you up to speed.
The ICHC is made up of club teams from Indiana, Purdue, Ball State, Butler, Xavier, and IPFW. They compete in conference and non-conference play and it is great local collegiate hockey. If you haven’t been able to catch any games, and you happen to be in Fort Wayne this weekend, this is your chance.
As far as the tournament goes, all teams qualified except for Ball State. The Hoosiers come in undefeated in conference play and are looking to get their third straight Crossroads tournament win. The schedule is laid out like a typical playoff bracket, with Xavier (#4) playing Butler (#5), Purdue (#2) playing IPFW (#3), and of course, Indiana (# 1) getting the first-round bye, playing the winner of the Xavier-Butler game.
I’m going to break from my normal routine of only highlighting games in which both teams are from Indiana and choose Butler vs. Xavier as my Game of the Week, for the week of February 6, 2017. Both teams are closely matched, with Butler’s record of 4-11 overall and Xavier a tad better at 6-10. However, Butler has won both regular season match-ups against Xavier and the last game was a 5-2 beat down back in November. On that note, I’m calling for Butler to show up and shutdown the Xavier Musketeers with a 4-3 continuation of their Alpha-Dawg status.
The Bulldogs are led by freshman forward Riley Rentz, who has 16 points in 13 games played this season, and senior forward Kyle Kortebein who has 9 points in 12 games played.
There you have it, folks. The Butler Bulldogs are my team this week. You heard it here first!
