Cougars Begin MACHA Playoffs against SLU

This weekend, the SIUE Cougars will head into postseason play against the Saint Louis University Billikens in the first round of the MACHA Playoffs. In all realms of sports, playoffs are usually won by an overall solid team, or a team who is hot going into the playoffs. Right now, the Cougars will have to believe in themselves and continue to improve upon an outstanding season and be that solid team that won 19 of their first 24 games, not the team who's season could be marred by last weekend's lackluster series against Silver opponent McKendree. The Cougars won game 1 in Overtime, and lost game 2 by a 5-4 count, the first loss to McKendree by the Gold team in 7 years.

This year's MACHA Playoffs will see a very even field across the board, as there was a 3 way tie for the 2nd seed, and Iowa taking the #1 spot by 2 points. SIUE has split with the top 3 seeded teams in the tournament this season. Mizzou is the only team in the playoffs that the Cougars have not beaten (5-2 L, 3-3 T), and they sit at the #6 seed. Should Mizzou and SIUE meet, it will have to be for the MACHA Gold Championship.

The Gold squad have made their mistakes in the regular season, have had chances to correct them, and will now have to prove so in the final exam that is the MACHA Playoffs. The Cougars draw SLU in the first round, a matchup that on paper favors the 4th seeded Gold squad. Sweeping the Regular Season set 2-0 by scores of 11-4 and 3-1, SIUE will have to continue to play a full 60 minute team game against the Billikens in order to proceed to the seconds round to face either #2 Missouri State or #1 Iowa.

The only way this Cougar team can redeem themselves is by hoisting that trophy that 4 SIUE Gold teams have held in the past on Sunday evening. The trek for the trophy starts Friday at 2pm vs. SLU.

Quick Hits

  • The Cougars are 19-0-1-1 in games in which Mike Dolan gets at least 1 point
  • Mike Dolan, Kendall Price and Cory Beck lead the Cougars in playoff points, each with 3
  • The Cougars last MACHA Championship was won in 05-06 vs. Lindenwood (8-2 W)
  • The Cougars have been dominant in the 3rd Period, outscoring their opponents 69-23
  • The Cougars are 7-0 when some asshole is taking pictures and tweeting throughout the rink
  • Jared Ippolito has scored 9 goals in his last 4 games

Gold Earn Central Region Ranking

 The Cougars have had a very successful season thus far, and can now put themselves among the ACHA's elite. For the first time since the end of the 07-08 Season, the Cougars Gold team cracked the top 15, sitting at the #15 spot, after knocking on the door for the last 3 ranking periods recieving votes, but not enough to crack the top 15. The ACHA Central Region is the strongest region in the ACHA, the last 4 ACHA National Champions have come from the Central as Michigan State and Davenport have each won it twice.

The ACHA ranks teams by Region at 5 different points throughout the season, and the Cougars break into the top 15 in the 4th of 5 ranking periods. Of the 50 teams in the Central Region, the top 10 go on to ACHA Playoff Tournaments; The top 2 teams get byes to ACHA Nationals, the #3-10 seeds play in a single elimination tournament, where 2 teams will need to win 2 games to go to ACHA Nationals. SIUE has been to Regionals twice, once in the '05-06 season as the #10 playing #3 Michigan State in the inagural year of Regionals. The following year, the Cougars went as the #5 seed, beating the #8 Missouri Tigers 5-3 and losing in the Regional Final to #4 Michigan 10-5. The criteria used to rank teams are Strength of Schedule, Comparitive scoring, Head to Head, W/L Record based on Strength of Schedule,General Knowledge of Voter, Overall W/L, and Good Wins/Bad Losses/H & A Records.

The Cougars have performed well against ranked opponents, with a 3-2-0-1 record. Other MACHA Gold teams who are still ranked are #8 Illinois State and #10 Iowa, and both have split with SIUE. Missouri State, who was #13 coming out of Holiday Break, dropped out of the top #15. The Cougars will finish out the year against RMU-Peoria, a team that split with #7 Illinois, and regional rival McKendree University before starting the MACHA Playoffs in Peoria, IL.

 

 

 


 
 


     SIUE Cougar Gold Leading Scorers: #19 Mike Dolan (13G, 9A, 22 Pts); #22 Traig Henson (9G, 10A, 19 Pts); #10 Cory Beck (9G, 9A, 18 Pts); #20 Kendall Price (10G, 7A, 17 Pts); ....   SIUE Silver Leading Scorers: #13 Aaron Dalton (9G, 6A, 15 Pts); #9 Nick Costillo (6G, 5A, 11 Pts); #20 Brandon Janczak (6G, 5A, 11 Pts); #17 Spencer Seggebruch (5G, 6A, 11 Pts);