St. Michael's Day 2015

On Sept. 29th, I always talk about the University programs that honor the namesake. In the past, I've kept up on a couple of programs, but since the Majors have dissolved into the Steelheads, here's the continuation of the tradition. St. Michael's University Purple Knights of Colchester, Vermont.

The Men's team have new third jerseys, they're that mustard gold color that has been controversial with another NHL team. And they've taken the Purple Knight's logo off of the jersey and just had a purple stripe across the chest. The player number on the front is smaller and less visible - almost the direct opposite of the purpose. While it's not the worst jersey in the world, it's the one with the least amount of imagination.

First off, the Men's team has taken some serious strides within their conference. They're now accomplishing things in the NE-10 post season by reaching the championship game back in February. And to top it all off it was hosted in Cairns Arena! They unfortunately came up short again, falling to St. Anselm, but hopefully the program can take this as a success and build around it for this upcoming season. It could hopefully also take hold with any new recruits out of high school.

The Men's Purple Knights finished the year at 9-16-2. AJ Pieprzak was named Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year and also gained the respect of his hometown Barrie, ONT fans. Their goal production is 74g and 122a for 196pts.

As for the Women, they've been on a decline since the rest of the season. They lost to #1 Franklin Pierce in the ECAC Open Tournament, that they hosted! They were even routed on senior day to those rival St. Anselm girls. Their goal production is unfortunately inadequate with their last season totals 38g and 59a for 97 team points. 26 GP (5-20-1 .212). But when their opponents for the season score 188 team points for the season, it casts a harsh warning light as to where they need to improve for next season.

Some of the significant accomplishments this calendar year since the last Sept. post was how much the school can impress with their academic achievements. The Men's team have a press release on their website stating that they've accomplished a school record of 11 players earning all-academic EACA East honors, while 5 of them have gotten on that list multiple times.

The St. Michael's Men's team begins their 2015-16 season at University of New England on Nov. 16th while the Women's Lady Purple Knights start their season at home against SUNY Potsdam on October 30th.

St. Michael's Day 2014

St. Michael's College in Colchester, VT

We no longer have St Michael's Majors to cheer for since their move to Mississauga and renamed the Steelheads. So, we begin again another year in the annual tradition of updating hockey fans of the St. Michael's College on this particular day. In future years, I would like to update this annual tradition and include other schools or other teams honoring St. Michael, but for now, I have only the Men's and Women's respective organizations to introduce to my readers.

St. Michael's College is a catholic liberal arts university in Vermont. According to their website, 25% of the student body are active varsity athletes while another 40% are in recreational programs. But, appropriate that according to 2,000 enrolled students according to their facebook page, that must mean it's a campus full of jocks. The sports team mascot is a Purple Knight (as seen in the upper left). They play their home games in Cairns Arena in Burlington, TV.

I've critiqued their jerseys before, and I'm still waiting to see if I could ever add one to my hockey sweater collection.

Men's Program

Courtesy: Saint Michael's College

The men's program is coming off of a great season last year by comparative standards. They found themselves competing for the New England 10 championship against University of New Hampshire, but fell short to lose 4-1. They "shocked the world" defeating the number 1 overall seeded team Stonehill to get there. That is something to be proud of considering they went 7-17-3 overall in the season. From the news website they went down to the wire only being down by a goal (2-1) with under a minute to play.

They are going to have to do something about their defense. Overall, they've been outscored on by their opponents with a 74-105 margin.

But as determined as they are on the ice to win, they have been developing great students as well off the ice. Back in March, they announced that 7 players achieved All-academic honors in the ECAC.

Their first game of the 2014-15 season is a rematch of last year's season finale to be played on on All Saint's Day Nov. 1st against Southern New Hampshire at home. Good luck, guys!

Women's Program

The women's team is struggling these past couple of years. Their final record last year was 3-19-4. Disappointing doesn't begin to describe that.One of the telling reasons is that they went
34-86 in goals for and goals against respectively. That's almost 40% more being scored on than scoring goals themselves and the biggest loss was 0-9 at Norwich on November 8th 2013.

When they aren't doing well on the ice, at least they are doing well in the classroom. St. Michael's College lead the ECAC East in All-Academic with 12 players. Which makes it 2 years in a row.

Courtesy: Saint Michael's College

But one of the better signs of a developing hockey program is not only the academic achievements, but also how well regarded the alumni are of it. Back in April, the Lady Purple Knights held a reunion game with 20 players returning to play. I think that takes a real commitment to the 6 seniors who also played in the game.

Their first game of the new season starts on "All Hallows Eve" October 31st 2014 at home against the University of New England. Good luck, ladies.

PIHL Knights vs Spartans at Penguins Pond

Even after the big event of the Winter Classic outdoor event in Pittsburgh, it seems like every year, that the city tries to re-create the same wonder and feeling of an outdoor game to celebrate the resurgence of hockey interest at the early stage levels. The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to build interest in the city with the Penguins Pond project that I blogged and did a little video about last time around. This year, I made sure to take in some more of the high school PIHL action that I missed out on last year.

So, my alma-mater Norwin was scheduled to meet up with one of their neighboring arch-rivals in Hempfield on the relocated outdoor rink. Even though it was a beautiful set-up with the city in the background, it was still sitting on the new multi-purpose athletic field set to open up later this year. It was cold. Some might even say it was way too cold to be a spectator. The outdoor rink itself was kept frozen by a large mobile refrigerator unit, but I would insist that if it were to fail, the ice wouldn't been in any danger.

The stands were all filled with snow and made the metallic floor very dangerously "slippy" (as we yinzer's like to say). But the short level of risers were dwarfed by the regular seats off into the distance where I found many other PIHL fans sitting and freezing.

I made a YouTube video along with it to highlight some of the action.
You can check out the rest of the story in the Norwin Star hosted by TribTotal Media. in the link below.

Do you have some memories of the game? Why not leave a comment below.

[Via: Norwin Star]