Stephanie Platt of The Current

Jason Hessell (2) breaks away across the ice in Riverman's win Friday against Wheaton College.

by Nick Bowman
special to The Current

The UM-St. Louis ice hockey team has scored 20 goals and allowed only three in three games while going 2-0 in the regular season. This doesn't include a 5- 3 exhibition win against the Illinois Thunder, an under-22 team composed entirely of All-Stars.

The most recent victim of the Rivermen's rampage was the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars. UM-St. Louis trounced SIU-E 12-1.

SIU-E faced a paw-blistering 77 shots on goal in the contest, while being held to only one offensive spurt.

The Rivermen have an extremely potent offensive attack that is led John Winkler and returnee Dave Hessel, whose team-leading ten goals in three games, and a plus-minus rating of +8, are quite a surprise for Head Coach Deric Schaub.

"Dave [Hessel] is a bit of a surprise," said Schaub. "Last year he was more of a hard-nosed player, very physical, but his game has changed very pleasantly."

Hessel will have some big shoes to fill, as sophomore Ryan Craig, will miss a good chunk of this season with a broken ankle that he suffered against the Illinois Thunder.

Another key player, forward Matt Brinker, whose four points against SIU-Edwardsville was very beneficial to the team's win, also went down with a broken ankle late in the second period on a questionable play.

"It was a dirty play," said Schaub. "Brinker was involved in a collision with a SIUE player, both men went down, and as [the SIU-Edwardsville player] got up, he drove his knee into Brinker out of retaliation. Emotions were running very high at this point in the game. [We] had ran the score up to 10-0 at the end of the second period, and it was just a stupid play. The locker room was very quiet between periods, but I am very proud of how my players kept their composure in the third [period]. They really showed a lot of class."

Another key point in the team' s game is their swarming defense, which has allowed only 40 shots from opposing teams and has outscored their opponents offense 5 -3.

This really showed Friday night, as the Rivermen's defense shut down SIU-E throughout the battle. The defense, anchored by net-minder Gregg Diepenbrock, who stopped all eight shots that he faced, lineman Josh Ulrich, whose four points are tops among defensemen, and bruiser Craig Duffy, who has racked up one fourth of the team's penalty minutes, is one of the main reasons why the team has so many scoring opportunities.

"This team has an extremely solid defense, which leads to transition throughout the game," said Schaub. "The puck does not spend a lot of time in [the opposition's] attack zone, and our offense is very good at capitalizing on all of the opportunities that occur because of this continuous transition."

The future looks very bright for the hockey team this year. The next home series will be Oct. 29th and 30th, against Trition, at the U.S. Ice Sports Complex in Chesterfield.

Schaub said the team has high goals this season.

"I see no reason why we can't compete in the national tournament this year," Schaub said. "This team has got to be one of the deepest, talented, and most spirited teams that I have ever coached, and I feel, as the team feels, that we really can make a strong run at the national championship."