Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Stat Pack: Timely Goals

A look at big goals bookending periods and other telling stats from around college hockey.


Stat Pack: Timely Goals
Matthew Zay has three goals in the first or last minutes of a period, leading the nation.

In our Stat Pack feature, College Hockey Inc. highlights five obscure but telling statistics from the world of college hockey.

1. Coaches emphasize the importance of goals in the first and last minutes of the period. These numbers, then, may help explain why Mercyhurst is in first place in Atlantic Hockey:

Most Goals, First Minute of a Period
5 – American International, Lake Superior State, Mercyhurst, Union

Most Goals, Last Minute of a Period
8 – Mercyhurst, Ohio State, St. Lawrence

2. Michigan is outscoring teams 14-5 in the first period, thanks in large part to tremendous efforts by their goaltenders in the opening frame:

Best Save Percentage, First Period
.985 – Steve Racine, Michigan
.963 – Tomas Sholl, Bowling Green
.958 – Zach Nagelvoort, Michigan
.955 – Martin Ouellette, Maine
.954 – Mike Rotolo, RIT

3. A look at which teams are relying most – and least – on their power play to generate offense:

Highest Percentage of Goals on PP
48.9% – Massachusetts
46.0% – Denver
44.2% – Cornell
43.5% – Northern Michigan
40.4% – Alaska Anchorage, Minnesota State

Lowest Percentage of Goals on PP
11.9% – Boston College
15.2% – Niagara
19.0% – Wisconsin
19.4% – Providence
19.7% – Minnesota

4. With most NCAA games being played on Fridays or Saturdays, here’s a look at the top offensive performers by days of the week:

Most Points Per Game, Fridays
2.00 – Johnny Gaudreau, Boston College (7g-9a)
1.86 – Alex Grieve, Bentley (8-5)
1.86 – Alexander MacMillan, AIC (6-7)
1.75 – Kevin Hayes, Boston College (6-8)
1.71 – Matthew Zay, Mercyhurst (4-8)
1.62 – Devin Shore, Maine (4-9)
1.60 – Joakim Ryan, Cornell (3-5)
1.60 – John McCarron, Cornell (2-6)

Most Points Per Game, Saturdays
2.33 – Austin Czarnik, Miami (7g-14a)
2.20 – Greg Carey, St. Lawrence (9-13)
2.11 – Riley Barber, Miami (9-10)
1.71 – Nick Lappin, Brown (4-8)
1.71 – Daniel Carr, Union (4-8)
1.70 – Ryan Haggerty, RPI (12-5)
1.67 – Ross Mauermann, Providence (7-8)
1.67 – Kellen Jones, Quinnipiac (5-10)

5. Thirty-one of the 59 Division I schools have leaned on one goaltender for at least 70% of their team’s minutes. Here are the busiest:

Highest Pct. of a Team’s Minutes Played
99.4% – Michael Garteig, Quinnipiac
99.1% – Matt Ginn, Holy Cross
97.3% – Branden Komm, Bentley
95.3% – Josh Thorimbert, Colorado College
94.3% – Sam Brittain, Denver
94.2% – Martin Ouellette, Maine
93.1% – Andy Iles, Cornell
92.1% – Adam Wilcox, Minnesota