The Gustavus men’s hockey team (17-10-0) will face UW-Superior (23-3-3) in the quarterfinal round in the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament on Saturday night at 7 pm at Superior, Wis. The winner will advance to the Frozen Four in Lake Placid, New York on March 20. You can watch the game by clicking here or listen to the game by clicking here .
— Gustavus received an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Ice Hockey Tournament for the first time since 1993 after winning the MIAC Post-Season Championship. The Gusties defeated St. Thomas 3-1 in the semifinal round and Hamline 5-2 in the championship game.
— Gustavus senior goaltender Matt Lopes was recently named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Hockey Player of the Week. He made 17 saves in the 5-2 win over Hamline in the MIAC Playoff Championship game. With the score tied 2-2 after the first period, Lopes made pivotal stops in the second and third periods as eight of his 17 saves came in the third period. Lopes improved his season record to 10-4-0 and lowered his goals-against average to 2.30.
— UW-Superior leads the all-time series against Gustavus with an 8-1-1 record. In their lone meeting of the season, the Yellowjackets forced the game into overtime when Talon Berlando tied the contest at 18:26 in the third period. UW-Superior scored with 44 seconds remaining in the extra frame for a 5-4 win.
— The Gusties are 9-3-0 when they score the first goal and 8-7-0 when the opposing team scores first.
— Gustavus is averaging 3.93 goals per game to rank 17th in Division III and allowing 2.74 goals per game, which is tied for 22nd in the country. UW-Superior has scored an average of 4.41 goals per game to rank seventh in Division III and has allowed 2.03 goals per game, which is the sixth-best mark in the country.
— The Gusties are 2-2-0 against teams participating in the NCAA Tournament. Gustavus defeated UW-Stout 6-5 on November 7, 2008 and Elmira 4-1 on January 2, 2009 with both games on the road. The Gusties fell to UW-Superior 5-4 in overtime on January 9, 2009 and St. Scholastica 5-0 the following day at Don Roberts Ice Rink in St. Peter.
— Gustavus is 13-4-0 in game decided by two or more goals, but are 4-6-0 in one-goal contests.
— The top three scorers for head coach Brett Petersen and the Gusties are on the same line. David Martinson leads Gustavus at 38 points with 24 goals and 14 assists, and has tallied five game-winning goals followed by linemates Ross Ring-Jarvi and Brad Wieck with 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) and 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists).
— Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Men’s Hockey Player of the Year goaltender Chad Beiswenger has played every minute in the net for UW-Superior. Beiswenger has posted a goals-against average of 2.01 and a .917 save percentage. Offensively, Braden Desmet paces the Yellowjackets with 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points.
— Two of the least penalized teams in the country will face each other on Saturday. The Gusties are the ninth-least penalized team averaging 12.1 penalty minutes per game compared to the Yellowjackets, who are the 16th-least penalized team averaging 14.6 penalty minutes per contest.
— Gustavus has converted 22.0 percent of its’ power plays this season (38/173). David Martinson is one of 14 players to have recorded power play goals and leads the squad with seven. Over the last five games, the Gusties are 10-for-23 with the extra attacker. UW-Superior is 29-for-138 on the power play at 21.0 percent.
— The Yellowjackets have the fifth-best penalty kill unit in Division III at 88.1 percent (126/143) compared to Gustavus, which has killed off 79.8 percent of its penalties (95/119).