- Every week, things get a bit more interesting in the USHL. It’s the time of year the contenders start to pull away, teams start to wonder if they need to change something, and the strength of schedule starts to even out. With that in mind, here’s what I’m watching for this weekend around the circuit - and in most cases, it’s a home-and home I’ll be watching.
- Points-wise, the top two teams in the West Division play a home and home series, as Sioux City visits Lincoln Friday and the Stars travel to Sioux City Saturday. Sioux City leads the division with a 6-2-0-0 record, and their .750 winning percentage places them first as well. A meaningless stat at the end of the year, perhaps, but when the games played vary from 7 to 10, it means a lot. Lincoln is second in points at 5-3-1-0, just one point behind the division-leading Muskies and one point ahead of Tri-City and Des Moines, each of whom have played two less games than the Stars.
- There’s two ways to look at Lincoln’s strong start. The optimistic view says, of the first nine games, only 3 have been at home (2-1-0-0) while six have been on the road (3-2-1-0) - these count one game each of home and away in Pittsburgh at the Fall Classic. So the Stars have done this with only two games at the Ice Box.
- The pessimistic view says the Stars are actually fourth in the division and seventh in the league in winning percentage, and are 0-1-0-0 against teams above them percentage-wise. That was a 4-1 home opener loss to Tri-City. The Stars are 5-2-1-0 against teams below them in winning percentage - but that schedule is about to get a lot tougher the next two nights.
- Sioux City has been a cohesive, physical, entertaining team, yet they’ve managed to stay out of the penalty box. Lincoln hasn’t been as physical of a team, but with one more game played, they have 165 penalty minutes to Sioux City’s 106. A lot of those penalty minutes have come in games when the opponent has been the more physical team - and on those nights, the Stars have either lost or lost the rematch. The question is - will a pair of games against Sioux City be the galvanizing moment the Stars are looking for, or will the Muskies roll to a pair of wins?
- There’s another home and home in the West with key standings implications. Tri-City travels to Omaha Friday while the roles are reversed Saturday. The Storm are 5-2-0-0, but are on a two-game mini-losing streak after losing in Sioux City last Friday and at home to Cedar Falls Saturday. Meanwhile, the Lancers seem to have hit a bit of a stride, sweeping a pair of games from Fargo at Ralston Arena last weekend.
- Meanwhile, third place Des Moines and eighth place Sioux Falls play a pair in the Iowa capital city - keeping in the college-style trend for the weekend. Depending on the outcome of these games, as well as - you guessed it - a home and home with Waterloo and Fargo, any of the top 6 teams in the West could find themselves in first place by late Saturday night.
- It’s not like the East doesn’t have any action this weekend. First place Chicago (7-0-3-0) leads the league overall by 5 points, but has played more games than any other team. They will add to that this weekend, with a pair at the NDTP Under 18s, and then travel to Youngstown for a Halloween afternoon tilt.
- Madison is off to the bet start in team history at 7-1-1-0, and they will play…surprise, surprise…a home-and-home with 4-3-0-0 Green Bay this weekend. Meanwhile, third place Dubuque is undefeated in regulation, but has struggled in extra time. They take their 4-0-2-2 record into a pair of games (not a home and home…really!) at 1-5-1-1 Muskegon.
- The other team that took last year off - in this case, because of serious arena damage from a derecho - Cedar Rapids, is off to a respectable 3-4-0-0 start. With two games at 2-5-0-1 Muskegon, one of them is sure to move up the ladder in the East, which currently has quite a drop off from third to fourth.
- Cedar Rapids leads the league at 28.57 penalty minutes a game, living up to the first part of the Rough Riders name, and 8 minutes ahead of second place Des Moines. They also lead the league in majors with 6 and 10-minute misconducts with 9, despite playing a tied for league low 7 games. Is old time hockey back in Cedar Rapids? They might be an interesting watch.
- On the other end of the scale, Chicago averages just 8.7 penalty minutes per game. Their 1 10-minute misconduct is tied for lowest in the league, while only Dubuque (0) has less majors than Chicago’s 1.
- Lincoln leads the league by 12 when it comes to minor penalties, taking 60 through 9 games. Despite just one major penalty, the Stars are sixth in penalty minutes per game at 18.33, and second in overall nujmbers at 165.
- Including the Pittsburgh weekend, home teams are 42-18-2-2 this season, while road teams are 22-30-8-4. You’ll notice they don’t match up - but that’s what happens when some games award two points and some award three.
- Chicago has played the most overtime games with 6 of their 10 requiring extra time, going 1-3 in overtime, but 2-0 in shootouts. On the other hand, Sioux City is the lone team not to go to overtime this season.
- Enjoy the games on this home-and-home weekend!
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