Friday, September 07, 2007

USHL Heads North

The Omaha Lancers and Indiana Ice played the first two games of a four-game tournament with two QMJHL teams, Rimouski Oceanic and the Quebec Remparts.

In the first game, Omaha's Travis Novak(St. Cloud commit), scored with less than a minute less in the second period to tie the game at 2. North St. Paul native Ben Arnt scored the only goal of the third period, a powerplay goal, to give Omaha a 3-2 win. Drew Palmisano(MSU commit) made 28 saves in the victory.

In the second game, Rimouski defeated Indiana in a shootout. Rimouski jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period. Indiana answered back with 3 goals in the second period, all from Jake Skjodt(UNO commit) to take the lead. Rimouski sent the game to a shootout with just under 3 minutes to play. John Kemp(UNO commit) scored for Indiana in the shootout, but Greg Squires(WMU commit) and Brett Bruneteau(No. Dak commit) were both stopped, while Rimouski scored twice in the shootout.

It looks like a very good start for the two USHL teams, who were considered big underdogs going into these games.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

It took a shootout to beat one USHL team and the other Q team couldn't beat the other USHL team.

A nice start. If this trend continues maybe we'll get a break from the CHL folks... or they'll do the usual excuses:

1. It's a down year in the Q
2. The Q wanted to be good hosts
3. The Q got robbed by the officials
4. The USHL teams "got lucky" (I always loved this one)

And, on the flip side of the coin, the pro-NCAA guys will flaunt and gloat and make asses of themselves as well.

To round things out, someone will call Chris an Anti-Gopher troll.

Well, Chris, consider yourself "troll-ed" :)

Anonymous said...

You fools do realize that Quebec and Rimouski were missing their top players and played all their rookies and young players and still managed to beat one team and almost beat another.

Yeah the USHL is real good LOL!

Anonymous said...

congrats to Omaha and Indy for a good performance. But don't read too much into this series, either way. it is a nice opportunity for the USHL and it should be viewed as the exhibition in good sportsmanship by Roy and the QMJHL that it is.

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 8:12

They've also been playing exhibition games together for a month, plenty of time to build cohesiveness.

The USHL teams have played one scrimmage against one another...these were their first games all season.

To me, that's about as close to a level playing field as we could see.

Anonymous said...

They each played about 4 exhibition games prior to this one and all of them involved try out players who would not be on the team. The pre-season is more of a look see than anything else. You people are making it sound that they trained for over a month (which they didn't since camp didn't start until Aug 15) as a unit.

The fact of the matter is that the USHL teams barely beat some very young Major A players. No doubt the USHL teams would be smashed by the regular roster CHL teams

Anonymous said...

Anonmyous #1.

Q = pro

USHL = not pro.

You fool they dang well better win! So a bunch of amatuers won and tied a pro team. Even if they didn't play their best players the Q should sweep all the games. Not bad.

Anonymous said...

People are hyped that USHL teams are tying very good junior B/junior A teams.

Ryan said...

weren't those teams supposed to mop the floor with the USHL?

Anonymous said...

I was at the Omaha vs Rimouski game which Omaha won 6-0. They dominated the entire game and you could tell that they were missings some top players, because there is no way Rimouski could be that bad.

Anonymous said...

Not seeing alot of comments tonight. Where is the regular chl crew who regularly comb the earth looking for praises of their league. Whatever happenend to: CHL rulz USHL droolz?
Maybe some comments will start coming after the chler's finish mopping their tear drenched floor. I am sensing a tidal wave of excuses.
I am sure their is alot of "this just cant be, this just cant be..."
Well it is, so deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Deal with what??? One of your top teams, Omaha, beat a bunch of kids on a team that was missing its top line and D pairings. The other team, Indiana, lost to a bunch of kids on a team that was missing its top two scorers.

Wow, congratulations, a team that is widely considered to be one of the best teams in the USHL beat a exhibition try-out team while the other one lost to a team that skated 10 17 and 16 year old playes!

No one on this side of the border is crying......just laughing!

Anonymous said...

Hey a win is a win. They all look the same on the scoresheet no matter whos dressed or whos not playing.

Anonymous said...

USHL teams are deep. Q teams need their top guys.

Anonymous said...

How about the fact that the USHL can recruit from all of North America (U.S. and Canada) and the three Major Junior leagues have geographical restrictions.

Anonymous said...

Excuses are like a**holes....Everyone has one and they all stink.

Anonymous said...

"USHL teams are deep. Q teams need their top guys."

Really???? Then please explain how Indiana lost both games????

Look at this way fools, your top USHL team managed to beat one of the Q's worst teams and that's when they were missing their top three or four players!

Anonymous said...

do your homework and find out whose openning night roster looks the most like this weekends games. Q teams played half a roster with 90 and 91 birthdates. relax and enjoy the wins but draw conclusions about either league based on these games.

Anonymous said...

sorry, don't draw any conclusions

Ryan said...

if it's not a big deal, why keep making excuses for the losses?

Anonymous said...

Ryan, you of all people should be able find the facts. you often you quote many hockey sites, so i know you have seen these rosters. but hey if it makes the great hockey world of sc,iowa feel better, Go For It. not making excuses just clarification for those that may think this tells us anything beyond the scores between these four teams on those two days.

Anonymous said...

What I find funny is the fact that the Q teams new what was riding on this. So its their fault for not putting their best teams on the ice. All the teams played the games and the USHL came out with the best record. End of story. Better luck next year QMJHL.

Anonymous said...

The NHL camp excuse is pretty weak too bc Pat Kane was playing for London before he reported to Chicago.

Anonymous said...

Salesman.. now salesperson
car crash.. now automobile accident
excuses.. now clarification

Anonymous said...

NHL camp a lame excuse? Pat Kane may have been playing for London but he left early last week. Had a USHL team played them, London would also have been without its top players.

If the USHL really wants to make a point, then it needs to either schedule a mid season game or play an exhibition game in late August when all the CHL teams will at least have their full roster available.

IMO, the USHL conducted themselves well but beating two of the weaker Q teams who were missing some of their best players (not an excuse but a fact!) isn't really going to impress anyone.

Anonymous said...

Its kind of funny how the excuses/clarifications are all in the defense of the Q teams. The USHL teams could also claim that their was no prep time, used many rookies themselves, Canadien officials, playing in a foreign land...

Anonymous said...

I think the average age of the USHL teams were 6 months older than the Q teams.
Of course, it depends on how many minutes the vets were getting etc.

Ryan said...

The Q fans seem to be the ones reading more into this than anyone, as they keep bringing up excuses. For us USHL people, it's just a reminder that we do have great hockey down here in the midwest.

Is anyone out there making excuses for why Indy lost? Hell no they're not. They held their own and took some bad penalties and came up short. They lost, not much anyone can do about it now.

I can look at the rosters all day. Rimouski had 2 draft picks playing both days and both teams had over age goalies in net. Shouldn't that be brought up? Maybe Indy lost because the opposing goalie was too old ::sarcasm::

The USHL can come up with just the same amount of excuses, as one previous poster eluded to, but we have not. We realize these games don't mean a whole lot and don't need to make excuses for anything.

That's all.

Anonymous said...

couple of people I talked to said that while the two Q teams were missing some star players, the bulk of the roster is what would be there for the regular season as the season starts this week, so which is it?
Was it a bunch of scrubs, or just a team without its stars?