2010-2011 Tryouts

Tryouts for the upcoming 2010-2011 season will be held at the Pineville Ice House in Charlotte on August 29th (Sunday). Tryouts will run from 10:45a.m. till about 12:30. They are open to any student currently enrolled (for the Fall semester) in 9 credit hours or more at ASU. Everyone MUST BRING $20 for a tryout fee or else they wont be admitted on the ice. For anyone who wasn't on the team last year feel free to contact myself (Noel) at herlandnj@appstate.edu or Mitch at vogeljm@appstate.edu with any questions about the tryouts or eligibility. If you wish to tryout for the upcoming season and haven't contacted us yet, please do so we can have an approximate headcount.

Mountaineers 2009-10 BRHC Champions

The Mountaineers entered the BRHC playoffs, February 26-28th, as the number one seed and had a first round bye.  The Mountaineers must wait till after Friday's night game as they would face the winner of the UNCC/UNCW game.  UNCC would defeat the Seahawks by the score of 4-3 and set-up Saturday's semi-final match-up between ASU and UNCC. 

Entering the game the Mountaineers looked forward to getting a rematch against UNCC, as it was the 49er's who gave the Mountaineer's their only conference loss during the regular season.  ASU came out for revenge, however UNCC was able to stay composed during the early minutes of the first period.  In fact, it was UNCC who actually scored the first goal.  However, App State would have a quick answer and the first period would end in a 1-1 tie.  In the second, the Mountaineers offense came to life scoring the three goals to give ASU a 4-1 lead going into the third period.  Less than a minute into the third period the Mountaineers would score another goal.  UNCC desperate for goals to pull the game back into reach did manage to find the back of the net.  However, the Mountaineers would seal the deal and score one final goal to ensure a 6-2 victory over UNCC.

With the Mountaineers win over UNCC, they would then face Catholic University in the Finals on Sunday.  Both teams were winners of there divisions during the regular season; Catholic won the Atlantic and App State won the Carolina.

Entering the game the Mountaineers knew they would have a challenge on there hands.  Catholic had a very skilled offensive team and ASU would have to play a very complete game.  In the first, the Mountaineers came out and jumped on Catholic quickly scoring two goals early in the first period.  Catholic would cut the Mountaineers lead in half, making it 2-1.  ASU would answer the Catholic goal with one of there own giving the Mountaineers a 3-1 lead after the first period.  In the second period ASU would resume where they left off, scoring to make it a 4-1 lead.  Catholic was far fro out of it, as they would score two quick goals pulling within a single goal.  With seconds left in the period App State would score giving them a 5-3 lead going into the third.  Between periods the realization was simple the next goal was a critical one.  If ASU scored it the wind would be knocked out of Catholic's sails; if Catholic gets it they will have new life.  In the third, it was Catholic who came out and scored within the first minute.  Then Catholic would tie the game at 5 a piece only minutes later.  Catholic evening up the score was a huge blow to the Mountaineers, one could sense the feeling based on their expressions.  The game resumed though, with both teams trading chances back and forth till the last few minutes when it was the Mountaineers who were able to catch a break and get the go ahead goal.  In desperation Catholic would pull their goaltender for an extra attacker, however the Mountaineers were able to fend off Catholic and manage to score an empty net goal sealing  the victory.

With the win the Mountaineers are crowned BRHC Champions.  The Mountaineers last trip to the finals was in 2006 where they were defeated.         

Mountaineers Beat UNCW; Win BRHC Regular Season Title & Carolina Division Title

The Mountaineers hosted conference rival  UNCW February 19th and 20th.  Coming into the games both ASU and UNCW boasted 7-1  BRHC Carolina division records. 

Friday night, during the first game App. State jumped out to an early lead scoring in the first three minutes of the game.  The Mountaineers would net a second goal in the first period, and take a 2-0 lead into the second period.  In the second, it was UNCW who only found the back of the net pulling within one to make it 2-1 entering the third period.  At about the midway point in the third period UNCW would  even the score at 2 a piece.  However, the Mountaineers would answer with a goal that would give them enough to escape with a 3-2 win over the Seahawks.

Saturday night, the Mountaineers and Seahawks faced-off in a rematch.  Both teams began the game very conservatively not wanting to make any mistakes and give up the first goal.  The first period concluded with no score for either team.  In the second it was the Mountaineers who came out with the control, netting three unanswered goals.  Despite being down 3-0, UNCW would go down without a fight, scoring two goals late in the second period.  In the third though it was all ASU as the Mountaineers would score three more and not give UNCW the chance to get back in the game.  The Mountaineers won by the final score of 6-2.

With the two wins over rival UNCW, Appalachian State moved to 9-1 in the conference.  The wins also crowned the Mountaineers BRHC Carolina Division Champions, and the number one seed and first round by in the BRHC Playoffs.  As the number one seed the Mountaineers posted the best BRHC record based on winning percentage, and were also crowned BRHC Regular Season Champions.  

Raffle Winners

Congratulations to Beverly Karr and Daniel Tracy for winning the raffle.  Thank you to all of those who supported the Mountaineers and stayed following the Charlotte Checkers game.

Mountaineers Crack Top 15 In D3 Southern Region

The Mountaineers have been ranked! Appalachian rounded out the ACHA South rankings with the #15 spot.
 
See it here

Mountaineer Honored

Casey Krasen was the subject of a new article on Hockeyyall, this story part of a series about veterans of the Iraq-war playing and coaching club hockey in the south.

Check it out here.

The Mountaineers made a trip down to Georgia last weekend and upset the #13 ranked Georgia Bulldogs 6-4. This marked Appalachian's 9^th win in 10 games, with the only loss suffered to Canisuis in the championship game in the Charlotte Shootout.

It's safe to say the team was a little upset when they were told on the drive down that the game scheduled for Saturday morning against Life University was CANCELED due to a scheduling conflict with the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers.  It's about a five to six hour drive from Boone to Duluth, Georgia(a suburb of Atlanta) so the team badly wanted a win to ensure their trip wasn't made in vain.


The Georgia game marked the end of the semester for the Mountaineers, leaving them with a 10-6 record overall and sitting comfortably atop the BRHC's Carolina Division with an undefeated 5-0 conference record.

Pictures

Video

 

Mountaineers back to the Championship, Settle for Second
by Noel Herland

The 3rd annual Charlotte Shootout concluded this Sunday, with the Appalachian Mountaineers making it to the championship game for the second year in a row. The Shootout featured teams from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ohio and New York making it the most diverse Charlotte Shootout to date. The results were as follows:

1^st - Canisuis                                                      5^th - Old Dominion

2^nd - Appalachian                                                6^th - Xavier

3^rd - Virginia Commonwealth University                 7^th - The Citadel

4^th - UNC Charlotte                                              8^th - Florida Tech

 
The Mountaineers weekend began on 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, facing off against The Citadel of Charleston, SC. Just two weeks earlier the two teams faced each other in a double header, with Appalachian wining both games. The Mountaineers started the weekend strong, with Sal Blair and Morgan Brown both recording 2 goals in the 4-0 victory for Appalachian. But the story of the game was the performance of Appalachian's freshman goaltender Cale Bowman, recording his first college shutout with a stellar performance.

Appalachian's weekend continued bright and early at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. They were matched up against Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmound, VA, who was rostering the points leader in the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference, Dallas Woods. Woods had recorded 26 points in 5 games this season, and the Mountaineers knew he was a serious threat. The game was tight, sure enough Woods opened up the scoring making it 1-0 VCU by the end of the second period. Than in the middle of the third Appalachian got on the board with a goal from Steven Rausch, taking the two teams into overtime with a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation. The overtime period was a nail bitter for App fans, as the Mountaineers were penalized and forced to play shorthanded twice. In stunning fashion, Sal Blair blocked a shot of his shin pad then powered past VCU's defenders to earn a shorthanded breakaway. Blair scored, burying the puck in the top right of the net and earned the Mountaineers a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

The next game for Appalachian put them up against Xavier of Cincinnati, OH. The Mountaineers knew they needed a win if they wanted to make it back to the championship, as a loss could result in a 3 way tie in the standings. App came out very strong scoring six unanswered goals to make it 6-0 Mountaineers. The lead began to slip away by the second period, and what was a commanding lead was reduced to two by the end of the second period, the score being 6-4 Appalachian. Appalachian's coach Tom Madsen wasn't pleased by the teams performance, and he let them know before the third period that the game wasn't over and could still be lost. The Mountaineers got the message, and netted one more goal in the third while holding of Xavier to win the game with a final score of 7-5.

The Mountaineers were right where they wanted to be on Sunday, in the championship game against Canisuis of Buffalo, NY. Canisuis, like Appalachian had won all three games they played, one game with a blowout score of 19-0. The Mountaineers knew it was going to be a tough game, and came out strong starting the scoring with a goal by Noel Herland setup by defenseman Zach Nelson to make the score 1-0 Appalachian. Canisuis scored at the end of the first to leave the game tied going into the second period. In the second Canisuis opened up the scoring, netting three goals to make it 4-1 by the end of the period. The Mountaineers tried to get back in the game, but frustration and fatigue set in, preventing them from defending their title with the game ending 7-1 in a Canisuis victory.

Congratulations to Canisuis and thanks to all the teams who came and made the Shootout a success. The tournament has been getting better every year and hopefully teams will come back next year. As always Roger Omlie took some great pictures and videos, they are available here:

Pictures

Video

Mountaineers Win Four Straight

The Mountaineers traveled to Nashville, TN the other week where they jumped out to an early start against Vanderbilt.  However, the Mountaineers were unable to maintain their start as Vanderbilt grabbed control off the game defeating the Mountaineers by the score of 7-2.  The following night, the Mountaineers again got off to a quick start and would not look back as they handily defeated Vanderbilt by a score of 9-2.

The Mountaineers most recent string of games consisted of three conference games in a single weekend.

The first, was against UNC Charlotte.  Both teams would not hesitate to put the puck in the net as six goals were scored in the first period, three for each team.  The second period similar to the first, in that both teams managed to put an addition two goals in for the game to be tied at five going into the third.  In the third period it was the Mountaineers who managed to prevent UNCC from finding the net, and the Mountaineers got the win by a count of 7-5.

The second game of the weekend, the Mountaineers faced-off with The Citadel, which was the first game of a double header.  The Mountaineers played a very defensively sound game as they only sacrificed one goal to The Citadel, despite being undisciplined and having to kill numerous Citadel power plays.  In the end the Mountaineers got it done, and got the win by a score of 4-1.

In the second game of the double header against The Citadel, it went to the final seconds before the game was decided.  Early in the game the Mountaineers jumped up to a quick two goal lead, however The Citadel did not go away.  They battled back gaining a one goal lead in the third period.  The clock was becoming a factor for the Mountaineers as it dwindled down to a little over a minute left in the game, then the Mountaineers found life when they pocketed the puck into the net tieing the game.  Only seconds later did the Mountaineers come up the ice and manage to put the puck into the net, going ahead of The Citadel 5-4 with 39 seconds remaining.  The Mountaineers were able to hold the Citadel off in the remaining seconds to grasp the win.

With the three wins the Mountaineers improve to an overall record of 5-5, and continue to remain strong in the BRHC carolina division with a 4-0 confrence record.  

The Mountaineers are now looking forward to there next action, which will come at the Charlotte Shootout Tournament.  The tournament is to be held November 13-15, at the Extreme Ice Center located in Indian Trails, NC.

      

Mountaineers Suffer String of Tough Losses

The Mountaineers have suffered a few tough losses as of late.  After coming off a big conference victory over Johnson & Wales, the Mountaineers traveled to Columbia, SC to face the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.  Against USC the Mountaineers surrendered both games by only one goal, first 5-4 and the second 3-2. 

In the week following, the Mountaineers made a trip to Chapel Hill, NC to take on the University of North Carolina.  Like the previous weeks game against USC the Mountaineers played the Tarheels very closely.  The game was sent into overtime as at the end of regulation, the game was tied 3-3.  In overtime it was UNC who found the back of the net for the win 4-3. 

Of the four Mountaineer losses, three have been by only one goal.

The Mountaineers are looking to end there sting of tough losses when they travel to Nashville, TN to take on Vanderbilt in two  non-conference games.  The games will be played at the Centennial Sportsplex on Oct 16th at 10:15pm and Oct 17th at 8:15pm.

Mountaineers Begin 09-10 Season

The Mountaineers opened the 2009-10 season in Raleigh, NC on Friday, September 18th when they took on the N.C. State D2 team.  It was a stiff challenge for the Mountaineers to begin the season as N.C. State's experience and ASU's lack of ice accessibility was apparent in the N.C. State victory. 

The following day, September 19th, the Mountaineers faced off against conference foe Johnson & Wales.  The result was much better for the Mountaineers as they soundly defeated JWU 10-3.  The Mountaineers had much offensive production, and played a much improved defensive game.  The Mountaineers finish the weekend with an overall record of 1-1, with a conference record of 1-0. 

This coming weekend, the Mountaineers are preparing for a trip to South Carolina to take on USC.  The first game is Friday, September 25th at 8:00pm and another the following morning Saturday, September 26th at 8:00am.