Monday, November 26, 2007

HELP Mitch's Misfits and the Huskies Pep Band!

Calling all alumni! ...As well as other people interested in helping out Mitch's Misfits and the Huskies Pep Band or people interested in really cool prizes...

Michigan Tech's Blueline Club is hosting a raffle in which proceeds will benefit the Misfits and the Pep Band. This isn't just any raffle, however. There are FIFTY prizes available! Let's take a look at some of the cool stuff you can win:

* Goalie Mask (Teslak's or Nolan's from last season - your choice)
* Goalie Mask

* One Night Stay -
Country Inn & Suites
* (13) Autographed Goal-Scored Puck from last season

* Oil Change Keweenaw Automotive
* Bike or Ski Tune Up -
Down Wind Sports
* (3) $25 Gift Certificate and Mug
- Harbor Haus
* (5) Pep Band CD

* (2) Pep Band Vinyl

* (10) Pep Band DVD of Bash at the Big House
* Pair of "Retired" Pep Band Stripes

* Sweatshirt
- School of Business
* (3) $10 Gift Certificate
- Eagle Harbor Inn
* (3) Sunset Cruise - Isle Royale Queen
* (3) $25 Gift Certificate
- Ragamuffins
* Hat & T-Shirt
- Center Ice and Sport

Now, go back up and take a look at prizes one and two again. You can win Teslak's or Nolan's goalie mask from last season!! How cool is that?!

If you're interested in trying to win any of the above prizes... or interested in helping out Mitch's Misfits and the Huskies Pep Band, you're welcome to purchase raffle tickets.

In order to do this, send a check made payable to "MTU Blueline Club" for as many tickets as you want to buy (each ticket is $1). Include with your check a separate piece of paper with the following information:

Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone
Email

Please write LEGIBLY! I will fill out each and every raffle ticket you purchase. Send your information and your checks to:

Mitch's Misfits
160 Memorial Union Building

1400 Townsend Dr.

Houghton, MI 49931

The drawing will occur on Saturday 26 January 2008 in the MacInnes at 8:00 PM. NO, you do not need to be present to win.

As previously mentioned, all proceeds will go to Mitch's Misfits and the Husky Pep Band, in order to help both of those organizations better support our Michigan Tech Hockey Huskies. We thank you so much for your generosity!

NOTE: The above photo is NOT one of the goalie masks up for grabs. It's just the only picture that I happen to have. It's Teslak's mask for the 07-08 season.

Special Deal for Tech Fans - GLI Lodging

Attention Michigan Tech fans and GLI goers: The Doubletree Hotel Dearborn is offering a great deal for fans needing a place to stay for GLI. This is a new Doubletree Hotel and from what I hear, it's very nice!

CLICK HERE

to see the details and book your room today! This deal is available until December 24th or whenever rooms run out.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Finally - A Break!

Yes, Tech fans. Finally our team will get a weekend off. This could not have come a better time, as there are a lot of injuries to nurse. There will be no losses this weekend, nor ties for the Huskies. Sadly, no wins either. I definitely need this break... I think we all do.

Guys, I hope you're preparing for a fun weekend in Minneapolis against the Gophers. I dreamed of a split for this series during the offseason, so I expect to get at least that.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

My Thanksgiving Post

So I haven't been around for a while. It's not because of any particular reasons, there is no bad blood between me and anybody and I'm not rebelling or feeling bitter. Life has just been hectic and I haven't had time to rather sit down and gather my thoughts. Luckily I actually got Thanksgiving off and surprisingly I get another day off tomorrow, so I decided now would be as good of a time as any to reflect on things.

So as the fleeting moments of the day slip through the cracks of time I have decided to take a second and really examine the things in my life that aren't driving me crazy. As of today Thanksgiving day, whatever the date may be I'm not all that sure right now, these are the things in my life that I can truly say over the last year I've been thankful for.

1. New faces and old friends
Over the last year I have met so many people, quite a few through hockey, and they have proven themselves to be a bright spot every time I'm dealing to well. I've also had the opportunity to get to know a lot of individuals who I already knew even better. They have been better to me than I ever could have possibly imagined, and I await the day when I'm able to repay the kindness they have shown me in a way that truly shows how much of an impact they have had on me. Among these individuals who have, I'm glad I got to spend some time. I can think of a certain short girl who I took more then my fair amount of road trips with last year who is going to be pretty high on my payback list when I make it big. I can also think of another girl I met this year who I still want to get to know a lot better (yeah I'm an idiot), but that's a totally different story and has little to nothing to do with hockey at all.

2. A Hockey team that actual plays hard (sometimes)
I haven't been watching hockey for a really long time, but I've been watching Tech hockey long enough to know the difference between a struggling hockey team that has a chance to win every game, and an under performing team that steps on the ice with no chance of winning. Watching a struggling team is more stressful, but it just feels good to expect to win and actually believe you can. This time last year, sure I was going around saying that I expected to win every game but I was at best skeptical about it, now I expect to win and I can't wait to this team starts living up not only to my expectation but also to theirs. Finally I have something to keep me sane as the Michigan Wolverines Football program lets me down.

3. A new coach in Ann Arbor
I am probably one of the biggest Michigan Football fans you have ever come across, when I say we, that's what it feels like. I identify with that team, my emotions are greatly impacted by that team, and when I get to the point where I expect to lose it likes me expecting myself to lose. That is way I thank God that come next fall there will be a new coach on the side lines besides Lloyd Carr. Don't get me wrong Carr is a good man and a decent coach but sometimes it time to move on. Lloyd Carr's time was about three years ago. But now there's hope again in Ann Arbor which that I can have hope again (maybe I'm not as much of a loser as I thought).

And those three reasons are why when I wake up tomorrow I can look forward to another. And to all those that made this year one of the best of my life I will just like to say thank you. Finally to my beloved Huskies, now is the time to get off your behinds, score some goals and win some games, and we can all be thankful together in Denver in April.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

One Point from the Bulldogs

I think allowing RWD to do a special guest entry for the THB gave us bad luck. Or... maybe it as the terribly zambonied ice that only the Bulldogs were used to playing on. Maybe we just didn't get the bounces. Friday's effort was alright, started out slow as most of our games do (including Saturday night), but it picked up. On Saturday night, despite our team's best efforts (which wasn't too bad with 40 SOG for the night), UMD goaltender Alex Stalock had no interest in even giving us a shot. When Stalock decided not to suck is beyond me, but he is definitely what earned the Bulldogs a win this weekend. He made some absolutely stellar saves. There's really not much left to to say on the games. Congrats to the Bulldogs who took 3 points this weekend.

On another note, I will say the Penalty Box made a great showing this weekend. I was quite impressed with their noise, enthusiasm, and energy this weekend. Not to mention the band... They were fantastic and have a great selection of music... including JOURNEY and REEL BIG FISH!

Anyway, the Huskies are OFF this weekend before traveling to Minneapolis to take on the Gophers. Points that weekend are CRUCIAL. The Huskies have a lot of work to do.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

An Ode To Jamie Russell

Hello, I'm RunninwiThThedogs. You may remember me from such blogs as, The one you'd beTTer already be reading, biTch!

GreaT, I goT The blog pimp ouT of The way immediaTely. LeT's geT This show on The road. This is a very exciTing Time in my young life. As you may already be aware, I am SMITTEN wiTh MTU Head Coach Jamie Russell (unless he is sporTing ThaT misguided Beard of NasTiness). And THIS WEEKEND, I am going To MEET HIM. I Think. If I can geT up The courage.

I mean, hello. Rrrar.

















Aside from The issue ThaT he has The Thousand-yard sTare of a major sToner (and who am I To judge?) he is a Major HoTTie. AcTually, he is a Five-STar General HoTTie, and Five-STar Generals are hard To come by.

I hope you didn'T come To This siTe looking for acTual hockey conTenT, because you're going To be sad. And Then you'll cry like a NorTh DakoTa fan afTer a loss To Michigan Tech.

Okay, okay, dry your Tears. I'll Talk abouT JR's mad recruiTing skillz.
I mean, look aT some of The people he's recruiTed:
















Seriously. Michigan Tech has a long TradiTion of recruiTing ToTally HoT HoTTies. And I am definiTely in favor of This pracTice. And I have definiTely undermined any credibiliTy I may have once had (alThough I'm jusT deluding myself To Think ThaT I ever had any!) by wriTing This jersey-chasing (well, suiT-chasing, as JR doesn'T wear a jersey) arTicle. AND JR is probably Taking ouT a resTraining order on me as we speak, but ThaT's cool. All I wanT is Two BULLDOG WINS, and Then I'll be around To console any Techies ThaT may need me. HEAR THAT! I'LL BE IN DULUTH! GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH! LET'S GO BULLDOGS!

*note* There are no small Ts in This arTicle aT all!

Support Husky Strength

The Blueline Club is working on a great fundraiser for the hockey team. The team is need of more weights in their weight room. If you'd like to donate to this great cause, simply

CLICK HERE

and print out this form. Each dollar donated goes to getting our guys more free weights. Make your checks/money orders payable to MTU Blueline Club. The address is included right on the form. Your cutout will be displayed in the Blueline Club's Husky Skybox.

The Michigan Tech Hockey program, the Blueline Club, and myself personally thank you for your generosity. Thank you for being a part of the resurgent Michigan Tech Hockey program!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Gotta Play Catch Up

Alright so, I need to go over the last two weekends quick in a nutshell, since I have been so busy lately (and still am ... and I should definitely not be doing this right now). So... Wisconsin. What a terrible state. Nothing disturbs me quite as much as how Madison does not sell certain liquids after only 9:00 PM! But alas, this should probably be about hockey here.

The Friday night game at Wisconsin, the Huskies started out just as flat as could be. Wisconsin absolutely dominated the play. That was disappointing, but yet another disappointing note - the Crease Creatures were pathetic that day. The section was nearly empty, and I was late into the arena, as I had to wait for my ticket to arrive. It was definitely not starting out to be the UW experience I was hoping for. Michigan Tech was getting outshot by 11 shots to only 1 or 2. And with play like that, of course Wisconsin took first blood. It was definitely time to bring out my "WIN IT FOR BEN" sign. Maybe it was a coincidence that I started holding up that sign and they then played noticeably better, I don't know. Captain Kerr lit 'em up twice, once on as a PPG and one goal being an EAG, as we were heading to the power play. That's more like it.

During the second period on Friday, the only Husky goal was yet another PPG, this time from Geoff Kinrade, with offensive threat Michael-Lee Teslak getting an assist. Going into the third, it was MTU 3, UW2. With about 14 seconds left in the game, Tyler Shelast put the nail in the coffin with an ENG.

The last thing that some of the Badgers fans had to see on their way out was the all too familiar view of this guy:
It's not something that I personally enjoy, but when it happens, you know something else good happened. :)

The Saturday night game wasn't as good. I think we still played well... we just didn't get the results.

One of the highlights of the night was definitely the Crease Creatures' clearly heard chant "GASTRIC BYPASS!" for the guy in the picture above. The Crease Creatures who, by the way, made a much better showing on Saturday night.

I'm not unhappy with a split at #10 Wisconsin. It was my first time I was able to witness a Husky win there. Two out of the three previous visits, I witnessed my team getting shut out.

And now onto this past weekend at home vs. St. Cloud State...

Friday... What the hell happened there? That had to have been the worst hockey I've seen from this team all season long. I don't have much else to say on that. We played very poorly and St. Cloud was definitely on their game.

Saturday night, although the score was even worse than the night before, I wasn't too upset. The Huskies (MTU, that is) played a LOT better. They had the chances, but just couldn't finish. Hopefully this will be a bit of a wakeup call. This team is now 5-5 overall and 4-4 WCHA. It's really gone downhill since the early part of the season.

This weekend we're headed to Duluth, whose Bulldogs just got swept last weekend in their own building as well. I'm confident this weekend will be a great showing by BOTH teams, who are desperate to get back into the swing of things. If Michigan Tech really wants those WCHA points that are up for grabs this weekend, they are going to need to step up their play.

...Oh geez, since it's UMD weekend, that reminds me... UMD bloggerRWD may be doing some guest writing for the THB later this week... More to come on that.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Great Article from St. Cloud Times

Link:

http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071109/SPORTS/111090031/1002


SCSU hockey: Russell feels relief at the rink
By Kevin Allenspach kallenspach@stcloudtimes.com

Published: November 09. 2007 12:30AM

Jamie Russell feels on top of the world these days.

His team is in first place in the WCHA, ranked No. 13 nationally and has taken some strong early strides toward restoring a proud tradition at Michigan Tech.

And that all pales in comparison to simply having his 9-year-old son home from a Milwaukee hospital, where he recently went from having flu-like symptoms to battling a bacterial infection that attacked his kidneys and threatened his life.

But on Tuesday, 14 days after he was air-lifted out of Houghton, Ben Russell made the six-hour ride home with his parents. They navigated a snowstorm, including 40 mile-per-hour winds, but arrived safely shortly after midnight.

So, for the first time since his team opened the WCHA season, Russell will truly be able to focus on hockey tonight when his Huskies take on the 17th-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies at MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

“From a personal standpoint, it’s been tough,” said Russell, who has three boys under the age of 10 with his wife, Linda. “My family means the world to me and I spent a lot of time going back and forth to Milwaukee. Our team showed great leadership while I was gone. I really had no other choice. When something like this happens, you have to sort of drop everything.”

His assistants, Pat Mikesch and Chris Tok — each of whom have young children — took over.

“We went from a Monday when Jamie said Ben wasn’t feeling well to a Tuesday when he got called out from practice at 4 o’clock to learn he’s got to get on a jet to go someplace where they can treat his son better,” said Mikesch, who has two sons and a daughter. “My oldest boy is about the same age as Ben, so the past two weeks have been very emotional, to say the least.”

Mikesch and Tok, in daily phone contact with Russell, ran practice every day leading up to a home series against North Dakota and again last week before a road trip to Wisconsin.

“Everything becomes simple,” Mikesch said. “You just get out there and do what you’ve got to do so you can get off the ice and move on. The guys wanted to play for Ben and I think it’s great that they didn’t let that desire cause them to lose their composure.”

The players are used to seeing Ben Russell and all of the coaches’ kids around the dressing room, and they usually skate with their dads following practice on Thursdays when they’re home. It’s a tradition Russell started when he became head coach five years ago.

“Coach got back just before our first game against North Dakota and we knew how hard it was for him,” senior forward Tyler Shelast said. “He wrote us a message on our board that gave us a lot of incentive.”

Russell, who arrived about the time the team was on the ice for warm-ups, was too choked up for a speech. Instead, he let his players read the following: “I thought I knew what tough was. This past week, my 9-year-old son introduced me to a whole new world of toughness and courage. I really want to win tonight for Ben.”

Like something out of Hollywood, and as Ben Russell listened to the radio broadcast from his hospital room, Michigan Tech went out and knocked off the No. 1-ranked team in the country, 3-1. The Sioux stomped MTU 6-0 the next night, but by then victory and defeat had taken on new meaning.

“We gave Ben the game puck from that win against North Dakota,” said Shelast, who scored a goal and assisted on another last Friday as Michigan Tech beat the Badgers as part of a split. “It’s great to hear he’s doing better and it’s going to be good to see him around here again.”

While the outpouring from the community, locally and throughout college hockey, has been amazing, Jamie Russell said his son still has a long way to go in his recovery.

Fortunately, Linda Russell is a registered nurse. This week, Ben is receiving antibiotics intravenously every six hours and blood thinner medication every 12. He’ll take treatment in some form for six months, meaning he won’t be able to play hockey this season.

“I think that’s what’s been hardest on him,” Jamie Russell said. “But I’ve promised he can come on some road trips later in the season, so hopefully that will make up for it a little.”

Huskies notebook

» SCSU coach Bob Motzko said he would decide late Thursday or before the game today whether to dress Chris Anderson or Brett Barta on defense. He also was unsure of the exact make-up of his fourth line, which included Marty Mjelleli and Ryan Peckskamp in alternate games last weekend.

» Michigan Tech was 10th in the WCHA in overall scoring offense (2.25 goals per game) and power play (9.3 percent) last season. Through eight games this year, MTU is averaging three goals a game and is third on the power play at 20.4 percent.

» The series matches the teams with the two lowest penalty-minute averages in the WCHA. SCSU averages 10.2 minutes per game. MTU averages 14.0.

» Andrew Gordon, who scored the overtime winner for SCSU the last time the teams met on Dec. 2, 2006, was sent from Hershey of the AHL to South Carolina of the ECHL this week. Bobby Goepfert, who earned that victory last season also is soon expected to begin his pro career in the ECHL.

-------------------

THB staff is thrilled to hear that Ben is home and doing better. We knew he could do it. :) Continue getting well, Ben!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Busy!

Alright, so I went to UW this past weekend. I probably have lots of stories to share and opinions to put out there on the Huskies' performance, but now is not the time. This is probably the busiest week of my college career thus far. Hopefully I can touch on this past weekend soon... But right now, I'm entirely too busy. So if you haven't heard, we split.

More to come later... maybe...