Archive for the ‘All Things Hockey’ Category
Maroon and Vogelhuber Drafted to the NHL
The St. Louis Bandits had two players chosen in this weekend’s NHL draft and now Pat Maroon, who attended Texas High in 2005-2006, has a big decision in front of him. Pat, who committed to Ferris State during his junior year in Texarkana, had been considering a change after high school and was looking at going directly to the OHL. The Philadelphia Flyers took him with their sixth round pick and are looking to take advantage of his size and scoring ability. Pat led the NAHL in points this season and was named to the NAHL All-Star team.Trent Vogelhuber, who visited Texarkana when the Bandits were courting him during the 05-06 season, was chosen with 30th pick in the seventh round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.The two Bandits were the only NAHL players chosen in this year’s draft. The Bandits, as a product of re-alignment will be playing in the North division next year and will only make one trip south to Frisco to face the hapless Tornado who have lost both their announcer (Cheeks) and their (in)famous coach, Tony Curtale.
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (4) : Jun 25th, 2007
NAHL All-Stars full of Bandits
Pat Maroon, who attended Texas High as a junior last year, was voted the NAHL’s Most Valuable Player at Wednesday Night’s NAHL Awards Banquet in Fairbanks. Pat and the rest of the Bandits were in town to play for the coveted Robertson Cup that represents the Jr. A National Champions. In addition to the league’s MVP, Pat was voted to the NAHL 1st Team All-Stars where he joined teammate Jeff Dimmen. The NAHL “Rookie of the Year” award was also handed out that night and was once again claimed by a Bandit, this time going to netminder Pat Nagle. Pat was also named to the NAHL “All-Rookie” team and the NAHL 2nd Team All-Stars. Future Michigan Wolverine (unless he transfers away like Ryan Mallett . . . just kidding) Scooter Vaughan also put his name on the “All-Rookie” team and was named to the 2nd Team All-Star squad as well.
The Bandits won game one of the three game round-robin tournament over the NAHL North Champion Southern Minnesota Express with a 3-1 victory and are scheduled to face the host Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Friday night at 7:30pm CST. The Championship game will be played on Sunday night at 8:00pm and one more win should earn the Bandits a spot.
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (2) : May 3rd, 2007
Bandits Win!!! Robertson Cup is up next!
If you asked me last week, “What was the biggest goal in the history of the Bandits”, my answer would have easily been Erik Condra’s goal with two seconds left against the visiting Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2004 to tie the game. The Bandits eventually lost that game in overtime, but the single point gained by that one goal was just enough to earn the Bandits a trip to the playoffs in their first year. Coach Cooper’s success that year led to better recruits and an eventual “Coach of the Year” honor in the ensuing season, but it was J.P. Maley’s goal on April 21st of this year that now holds the honor of the “Bandits Biggest Goal.”
There was one minute and twenty-eight seconds left in Game 2 of the second round of a best-of-five series versus the Texas Tornado. The Bandits had finally earned home-ice in the playoffs against the Tornado, after three years of having been sent home, playing only two playoff games in Texarkana in all three years combined. Home-ice hadn’t helped them in game one, where despite the fact that they never trailed on the scoreboard, Adam Flink’s overtime goal handed them a home loss and gave the home-ice advantage back to Texas. Now, down 1-0 in the series and with less than a minute-and-a-half left, the boys in blue faced a 2-0 series deficit unless they could pull out a miracle. That’s where Austin-native J.P. Maley comes in. Second-yeard Bandit Mike Leone found Maley cutting through the slot and fed him the goal to tie it up and force an overtime period. Pat Maroon, currently leading the playoffs in scoring, found Nic Polaski who netted the game-winner and tied the series at 1-1. The Bandits went on to split the two games in Texas and then traveled back to St. Louis to beat the bejeebies out of the three-time defending National Champions 6-1 in game five and earn themselves a trip to the Robertson Cup Championship for the first time in their history.
The Championship round begins this Thursday in Fairbanks as the Bandits take on the Southern Minnesota Express. The Bandits outscored the Express 19-6 in their 4-0 record against the Express this season. All the games will be available as video feeds over the internet at the following link.
https://www.b2livetv.com/bp/nahl.htm
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (1) : Apr 28th, 2007
Schepke, Turek, Johnston . . . Texarkana’s Frozen Three
Former Texarkana Bandits Justin Johnston (2nd from left), Matt Schepke (on right), and Ryan Turek (bottom), are the first ex-Bandits to become 2007 NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Champions.
They are the first players from the Texarkana team to make it to the finals of the Frozen Four.
Johnston played for the Bandits during the 2005-2006 season while Schepke and Turek played during the teams’ inaugural season, 2003-2004.
“It’s great to see our alumni advance in college hockey. They were great players for the Bandits and have advanced onto a fantastic team,” quoted Head Coach and General Manager of the Bandits, Jon Cooper. “Congratulations to the players and coaches on a successful season.”
The Bandits have had 42 players commit to playing college hockey in their short 4 year existence, ranking among the top in the NAHL for college advancement.
The Bandits are one win away from the final four of their own as they are tied 2-2 with the Tornado in a best-of-five series for a birth in the NAHL championship round.
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (3) : Apr 26th, 2007
Calgary Flames Embarrass Themselves
If you didn’t see the end of Game 5 of the Flames versus the Red Wings, then you got lucky. I, for some inexplicable reason (other than jones’n pretty bad for hockey), was still watching the final five minutes of a 5-1 blowout when Calgary completely lost their cool and went crazy on the ice, racking up 32 minutes of penalties in only 4:42 of clock time, including 17 minutes and a certain suspension earned by backup-goalie Jamie McLennan who demonstrated how poorly the Flames were handling themselves by slashing a passing Red Wing in the gut, after the whistle, in front of the ref. Perennial All-Star and team-leader Jerome Iginla’s Butt-End followed by a Cross-Check put the icing on the cake. Shame on you Flames.
Steve C
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (2) : Apr 21st, 2007
Bandits Finally Get Home-Ice vs Tornado
The St. Louis (formerly Texarkana) Bandits swept their opening-round
best-of-5 series with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and have been patiently waiting to
see who their second-round opponent will be. That question was answered
definitively last night as the Texas Tornado ejected the Santa Fe Roadrunners from the playoffs with a 9-2 victory in Santa Fe. Yeah, I said 9-2. Yeah, it was a hockey game. The Tornado, after travelling the 10 hours out to Santa Fe on Sunday, will now take the 10 hour trip back and then load up on Thursday for another marathon bus-ride up to St. Louis for Friday night’s series-opener. This is the first time in the Bandits history that they have held the home-ice advantage against the Tornado. Texas has bumped the Bandits out of the playoffs the last three years and the boys in blue are looking for redemption this year. The Bandits were 8-3 on the year versus the Tornado until the last weekend of the regular season when they dropped a pair of meaningless games in OT shootouts in Frisco.
The Home-Ice should pay off Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (1) : Apr 17th, 2007
Bandits Finally Get Over “Tornado” Hump
Well, it seems that if you will let Jon Cooper’s Bandits practice regularly for an ENTIRE season, then they can do pretty well for themselves. The St. Louis Bandits, formerly OUR Texarkana Bandits, have won the NAHL South division title for the first time in their history and, more importantly, have kept the Texas Tornado from winning their division for the first time in their history! Yep, that’s right. The Tornado have been in the NAHL six years and have won their division each year, claiming national titles the last three years.
The Bandits were clearly the better team Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under All Things Hockey : Comments (1) : Apr 2nd, 2007