Silicon Valley Football Classic - Northern Illinois vs Troy

Being an optimist, I have to admit it was tough finding an angle to talk about the matchup tonight featuring Northern Illinois [8-3] vs Troy [7-4] in the Silicon Valley Football Classic. San Jose Mercury News writer, and N Illinois alumni, Kevin Wendt writes with unapologetic glee about his team's success this season. I have to say it is contagious.

In the four years of Huskies football leading up to my 2000 graduation, NIU went a combined 8-36 with only four home victories -- and three of those came my senior year. The other home victory? It broke a 23-game losing streak. Yes. Twenty-three games.

I am owed some good times after all those losses, and here they are: NIU's first appearance in a bowl game since 1983. And wouldn't you know it, it's in San Jose.

For a slightly more objective preview of the game, A touchdowns worth of reasons to watch your hometown bowl. Visit the official Silicon Valley Football Classic website, Troy University, or Northern Illinois for more information about the teams.

The game will be broadcast tonight at 8PM on ESPN2. I am going to pull for Troy because the movie of the same name based on the Illiad this year was terrible, and a Trojan is only a few miles away from being a Spartan.

[Update] After a hard fought first half, Northern Illinois took control in the second and won the Silicon Valley Football Classic 34-21. The odds were stacked against this bowl game with a cold storm pounding the South Bay the night of the game, two non-West Coast teams, and two blown fuses that caused television coverage to start almost a half hour after the 8PM start time.

But if you forget about the above and simply wanted to watch a good football game, you were in for a treat. My first impression of both teams was that they really wanted to be in this bowl game, and both came out firing downfield despite a heavy downpour. The strong Troy defense also struggled in mud to contain the NI running game.

Troy scored twice early, but began to bog down as the game went on. The Trojan freshman quarterback D.T. McDowell was impressive, rushing for 2 touch downs, and throwing for a third. Northen Illinois slowly gained control of the game on offense, scoring 24 straight points to end the first half.

For furthur reading:

Northern Illinois puts on late show - SJ Mercury

N. Illinois Wins Silicon Valley Classic - SJ Mercury

S.J. bowl proclaims a victory - SJ Mercury

Silicon Valley Classic, Huskies' splash-ing success - SF Chronicle

World Junior Championships recap - first round

Complete chart of WJC hockey results, from CBC.

Tonights USA-CZE game can be heard online via the main USA hockey homepage [click on the live audio webcast link in red]. According to an official press release:

USAHockey.com To Carry Remaining U.S. Games In World Junior Championship

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- USAHockey.com will feature a live audio stream of all remaining U.S. games in the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, including tomorrow night¹s (Dec. 27) preliminary game against Switzerland.

The live stream will feature the play-by-play of Dan Kingerski of Double Minor Broadcasting and the Pittsburgh Penguins radio network. Joining Kingerski on the call of U.S. games will be David Whitesock.

List of results to date, from USA hockey's WJC section.

Day 6 [12/30/04]:

CAN 8 - FIN 1
RUS 6 - SUI 1
SWE 3 - SVK 0
CZE 3 - CZE 1

Canada vs Finland is a jr version of the World Cup of Hockey final, which Team Canada won 3-2. Canada needs only a win or a tie to clinch first place in Pool B. Team USA needs a win in order to finish first in Pool A.

With two wins by Slovakia and the Czech Repblic in the same day, it is time to check in with resident Slovak/Czech hockey expert Jes Golbez.

Jes on Team CZE: "The line of Kvapil-Olesz-Vrana continues to carry the offensive load for the Czech team as they accounted for 3 of the 5 Czech goals". Jes on TEAM SVK: "Some bad news to report as 2005 uber-prospect Marek Zagrapan missed his second straight game. Coach Dusan Gregor refuses to elaborate on what type of injury Zagrapan has, but did say he expects Marek back in the lineup by at least the playoff round".

Day 5 [12/29/04]:

CZE 5 - SUI 2
FIN 5 - SWE 4
SVK 5 - GER 0
BLR 5 - USA 3

The defending WJC champs [Team USA] got a wakeup call against Belarus, losing 5-3 after Boston College goaltender Cory Scheinder got his first start of the tournament. After yielding 3 goals in a period and a half, Michigan goaltender Al Montoya replaced Schneider in net.

Day 4 [12/28/04]:

RUS 7 - BLR 2
CAN 9 - GER 0

Unfortunately for the German fans that frequent this blog, Canada put the hammer down on Germany with a 9-0 win. The scorcesheet for Canada reads like a who's who of top NHL prospects, as Germany tried and failed to clog up the neutral zone and stem the onslaught.

The goal scorers for Canada in order: Andrew Ladd, Clarke MacArthur, Sidney Crosby [PP], Cam Barker [PP], Ryan Getzlaf, Anthony Stewart, Anthony Stewart, Sidney Crosby, Colin Fraser.

Sharks prospect Thomas Griess replaced German starter Youri Ziffzer in net, giving up 4 goals in a little under 36 minutes of play.

Day 3 [12/27/04]:

CAN 8 - SWE 1
RUS 4 - CZE 1
SVK 2 - FIN 0
USA 6 - SUI 4

I have to agree with Offwing, the 8-goal third period was a warning of things to come for the USA team. After what I considered a tight 2-0 USA lead for the first two periods, everything hit the fan in the third period. The Swiss were able to create scoring chances at will, and the US team tried to rely more on individual performances instead of working together as a team. With end-to-end action in the third, SUI goaltender Michael Tobler [24 SV, 60 min] kept his team in the game with a number of impressive saves.

Day 2 [12/26/04]:

SUI 5 - BLR 0
SWE 6 - GER 0

Germany was promoted from the second-tier to the top level of the WJC this year. A 6-0 loss to Sweden may demonstrate they have a little more work to do in order to be competitive at this level.

Day 1 [12/25/04]:

CAN 7 - SVK 3
CZE 7 - BLR 2
USA 5 - RUS 4
FIN 4 - GER 1

Full Team Russia WJC coverage is available from Russianprospects.com.

Watching the Russians against the US team reminds me why the NHL should not play another game unless they increase the size of the ice surface. The size of players, sticks and equipment has ballooned in the last 10 years. Watch any game from last season and count the time between a player receiving the puck, and the time he is challenged by an opponent. You will be lucky to pass the 1 second mark.

Watching the break-out passes, stick handling, and top shelf wrist shots from the Russian squad, I want to see NHL players have this much space to showcase their talent.

[Update] TSN video: Goaltending, Canada's strength America's weakness. Mark my words TSN, beware of the wrath of the University of Michigan goaltender. Do not get a Wolverine angry.

[Update2] Its "Al" good.

[Update3] This is a responsible online publication. Therefore I can not, in good conscience, recommend this t-shirt for NHL fans.

Upcoming local college hockey games

GRAPHIC BY A. SHELDON

Fourth ranked San Jose State starts the second half of their season January 15th and 16th with back-to-back home games against fifth ranked BYU. Only the top 4 teams in the Western Division will make the ACHA D2 Nationals in Detroit [Mar 2-5].

Stanford, as mentioned in the post below, has 2 games with UCLA, 1 game with Palmer, and a double-header with CAL. The second half of the 4 game Big Freeze will churn out a number of loud college students with the season series tied at 1-1.

Berkeley starts after the break with a home-at-home series against UC Davis [JAN7@ CAL, JAN8@UCD]. CAL then plays 5th ranked BYU, a double-header at home against USC, SJSU, Utah State, and 2 away games at UCLA. Berkeley will face a very good goalie for Long Beach before playing two games against Stanford to finish the Big Freeze.

UC Davis, with their home rink at the Vacaville Ice Center, plays a home-at-home with Berkeley, an away game at Logitech Ice with Palmer, and home games against CSUN, COC, and SDSU. After a 3 game roadtrip against the College of the Canyons, Northridge, and Moorpark, the UC Davis Aggies play a home-at-home against Santa Rosa JC to finish the season. What, no games against Chico?

For more information on each team, visit the following hockey websites:

San Jose State
CAL
Stanford
UC Davis

[Update] The US World Junior team has come back from 1-4 to trail Belarus 5-3 with 12 minutes left in the third period. Look for a recap of the WJC games so far in the next post. Goaltender Cory Schnieder [Boston College] was pulled after giving up three goals. Al Montoya [Michigan] is currently in net for Team USA.

Hockey Notes - no NHL anytime soon edition

- Stanley Cup Championship bling. Also available in Tampa Museum of Art exhibit form.

- Metallurg Magnitagorsk, meet your new goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Russian hockey contracts seem to be in a constant state of flux, not to mention secrecy. More on this news as it comes in.

- TSN's Ellen Pinchuk has another informative video report from Russia. She talks about the rumored $80 million payroll for AK Bars Kazan, the 12 NHL players under contract, interviews the president of Tatarstan and local hockey fans about the team, and details the struggles NHL players are having adjusting to the Russian Superleague. What is Russian for Salary Cap?

Ellen Pinchuk's report on Fred Braithwaite playing for AK Bars Kazan was also must-see NHL TV.

- Not the most politically correct column from the Russian Information Agency Novosti: Extention of NHL lockout is good for Russian hockey fans.

- It is not very often a website makes me speechless, fedorovbrothers.com does the trick. Click on news for the double wedding photo, links for the baywatch style portrait, or here for the full music video. This may be an extreme case of Too Much Information, depending on your level of interest in the clan Federov.

- From Ecco in Germany [Merry Christmas to you too!]:

Thomas Greiss played yesterday in Cologne's 4-1 win over Iserlohn. His stats: [Greiss, Thomas - KEC, 60:00, 28 saves, 1 gaa]. Kai Hospelt was held scoreless [faceoffs 13:4].

- Two examples of hockey teams doing an excellent job of integrating fans on their website: the Kolner Haie Fan Project and the Chicago Blackhawks Fan Reports.


STANFORD GOALTENDER JOHN STRAIGIS

- From Stanford goalie John Straigis on the second half of the Cardinal hockey season:

We resume in January with only 5 games left on our schedule--two against UCLA, one against Palmer, all three games at home in Belmont; and the home-and-home against Cal the first weekend of February. I imagine that series, being our last and considering the outcome of the first meeting, wil