MCLA played their 2^nd and final exhibition match before the start of the 2023-24 season at the Albertus Magnus Falcons on October 22^nd. The team ended up falling 6-0, but the final score did not tell the entire story of the game, as it never truly does. The Trailblazers played a very rugged and competitive game through the first 53 minutes before Albertus’ efforts in all three zones began to connect, and eventually produced a tidal wave of offense that was only finally stopped, mercifully so, at the final horn of the night.

              The first period was played exceptionally well by MCLA, especially in their defensive zone and the neutral zone. Zeth Kindrachuk opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game off a rebound following two keen stops by Mat Gover. Over the following 18 minutes, Gover would be solid, finishing his night with 11 saves on 12 shots. Things and players that I loved for MCLA in the first were Bortle, Murphy, and Glaubitz on the penalty kill. All three players were doing an exceptional job getting into shooting and passing lanes, forcing Albertus’ defensemen to make difficult plays, and ultimately preventing them from setting up any kind of a cycle. Through the 20-minute period the Trailblazers as a team did a great job keeping Albertus to the perimeter, and despite losing a large percentage of the battles along the wall, the team hustled and prevented the Falcons from setting up their offense. The only miscues defensively were pucks that leaked out below the circles; however, Gover made an exceptional stop at 19:30-ish mark of the 1^st period. The biggest challenge for MCLA in the opening period was creating anything in the attacking zone. The only play that stood out to me was a point shot from Walerowicz that was tipped wide by White toward the end of the period.

              The second period was very similar to the first in terms of the speed of the game and its trends. This period was a clone of the first in the sense that MCLA did a great job keeping Albertus’ offense to the perimeter, preventing them from creating or executing any of their set plays and cycles. 8:20 into the period, Landry Laird made a great reflexive save in tight when the defense had their first breakdown of the game; however, about 4 minutes later he surrendered a goal off the faceoff from Cameron Weitzman on the glove side. Contrary to the first period, however, Walter Brown had two exceptional looks in the offensive zone around the 14:30 mark. On the stats side, Laird got credit for stopping 9 out of 10 shots on goal.

              The third period had some good moments in the first ten minutes before it had four bad moments in the last ten minutes. The first adjustment that I noticed in the third period that Coach Ketts must have called in was the team was doing a better job finishing their checks in the corners. Rhoss, White, and Green all had notable, big body checks either on the forecheck or the backcheck during the opening part of the period. I liked this transition from the team and would have liked to see it a little earlier in the game because it is exhausting and challenging to lose as many puck battles on the boards as MCLA did in the opening 40 minutes. It was a good change, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to help a team that didn’t have the same NCAA III experience as their foes. Over the last seven minutes of the game Albertus managed to score 4 goals that were all either off the rush, or in a transition as they set up in the neutral zone. As aligned with our company’s core values, I’m not looking to drag any of the guys on the Trailblazers in the third, as this was a learning experience for a new program against a team who finished in the top 40 of the entire nation last season. Nick Imhof stopped 9 of 13 shots, and I just hope that he doesn’t let this rattle him heading into the season because he came in cold with a team that had been physically dismantled in front of him.

              Overall, this game is encouraging for this group, as it gave them a strong barometer of what to expect from a great NCAA III program on any given night. The team can go back to the film from this game, adjust in their own zone, adjust how they work together on the counterattack, and figure out how to wear down their opponents better than they did tonight. I think the team will be stronger as a result of this game, and I trust that Coach Ketts will be able to get the guys on a wagon to start the year.