January 25, 2012
Regions Clash This Weekend In Pittsburgh PA
ECRHA Interregional At Hot Shots Sports Arena
The tension is starting to mount nationwide as teams are pushing towards their aspirations of this year's NCRHA National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thankfully for us fans there are moments like these at interregional events where the titans of their respective regions and divisions will do battle to jockey their way into assuring themselves a bid to nationals.
This weekend is no exception as Lindenwood, Hofstra, Michigan State, Ohio State, and West Chester all converge on Pittsburgh; the match-ups are set, and the speculation can begin as there will be 6 featured games on tap. The games will be starting on rink 2 at 11am with last year's B Division National Championship rematch between West Chester and Lindenwood; and ending at 5pm with a marquee Division I match-up between Hofstra and Michigan State.
Each game presented by our sponsor Mission Hockey will also feature a Mission MVP of the game who will be awarded after the game with some great mission products and be featured on the Mission Hockey Website. Mission in conjunction with the ECRHA will be conducting their always successful Mission Hockey College in order to expand and instruct our game at a grassroots level with youth players all over the nation a video of the mission hockey college can be found here.
With all that said we give you just a taste of what's in store with some pre-game previews of two of the six Interregional featured games:
With all that said we give you just a taste of what's in store with some pre-game previews of two of the six Interregional featured games:
11AM: Lindenwood B vs West Chester B
Lindenwood has always been an organization associated with excellence from their DI to their B division teams; with more than a handful of regional and national championships for both teams it's never any wonder why the Lions are favorites going into nationals year after year. West Chester however, is becoming a budding powerhouse itself in both the DI and B national rankings as the Rams have sent both teams to Nationals competition in consecutive years. The two times these storied college franchises faced each other in post-season play led to 8-7 and 7-6 overtime victories for the Lions as they went on to win the National championships in 2009 and 2011. Patrick Fuist both times had multi-point games before striking the dagger in the Rams in OT. Game Recaps of those epic finishes can be found here and here.
12PM: Lindenwood vs Michigan State
Bitter rivalries are not born in a day, or a period; they are made through years of battles of attrition between two elite combatants. They begin with an uncanny amount of familiarity and wistfulness and are carried out through precise execution that leads to victory and acute heartbreak that comes with defeat. You have to look no further than the Lindenwood, MSU rivalry to find all of these things.
Lindenwood like in most series with teams around the nation, has had the upper hand against the Spartans including some close battles in the last 3 years in Palatine, Illinois and San Jose, CA. History would predict that the Lindenwood side led by the Inouyes, Michael and Daniel should walk away from this weekend unscathed. However, the 11-1-0 Spartans led by Aaron Rivkin and Ryan Kish might see some humanity yet in this undefeated Lindenwood side; who by word of mouth, may not be as strong as Lindenwood teams of the past one year removed from losing to Long Beach State, via Ryan Burrows superhuman performance in Madison, WI. Nevertheless we'll let the anticipation build as we inch closer to game time.