General | 11/21/2023 4:09:14 PM

Putting up a Fight: After nine weeks of action in the USHL, the Dubuque Fighting Saints stand atop the Eastern Conference with a 13-2-1-2 record in 18 games for 29 points. The Saints enter Thanksgiving having gone 3-0-0-1 in their last four games and own an 8-1-0-1 mark in their last 10.  Dubuque leads the USHL in goals scored with 92.

Youngstown, the defending Clark Cup champions, have a 12-4-2-0 record for 26 points in standing second in the Eastern Conference.

Fargo dropped a 5-4 decision at USA Hockey NTDP last Friday for its first loss in regulation on the season.  The Force, who started a new streak the next night with a 3-2 shootout win over the NTDP, own a 14-1-1-0 record and with 29 points to rank first in the Western Conference with 29 points.  Fargo has allowed a league-low 33 goals on the season.

Sioux City, which has gone 6-3-1-0 in its last 10 games, owns a 10-5-4-0 record in 2023-24 and ranks second in the Western Conference with 24 points.

Leaving a Mark:  Cedar Rapids head coach Mark Carlson’s career record with the RoughRiders entering the weekend stands at 771-566-121.  

Carlson, who has stood behind the bench at Cedar Rapids since the 1999-2000 season, ranks only behind P.K. O’Handley’s 783 victories in terms of most career coaching wins in the USHL. O’Handley served as head coach of the North Iowa Huskies from 1991-98 and the Waterloo Black Hawks from 2002-21.

Players of the Week: Austin Burnevik (Madison/USHL Forward of the Week), a Blaine, Minn., native, racked up six points on four goals and two assists in two games last week.  The St. Cloud State commit registered a hat trick and an assist in a 6-4 win over Green Bay last Saturday. He had the game-winning goal vs. the Gamblers in helping the Caps end a four-game losing streak.  Burnevik, who stands tied for second in the USHL with three game-winning goals, has 9-9--18 in 17 games played on the season to tie for 13th on the league scoring charts.

Leo Gruba (Fargo/USHL Defenseman of the Week), the top-scoring defenseman in the USHL, had two goals and two assists for four points in two games last week.  Gruba, a Lake Elmo, Minn., native who will play his college hockey at the University of Minnesota, had a goal and an assist in both games for the Force and tied for the league lead in points by a defenseman.

Ethan Dahlmeir (Des Moines/USHL Goaltender of the Week) went 2-0-0-0 with a 1.00 goals against average and a 0.965 save percentage last week. The Lakeville, Minn., native backstopped the Bucs to a pair of road wins with 21 saves in a 7-1 win at Omaha last Thursday and 17 saves on 18 shots in a 4-1 win at Lincoln last Friday.  Dahlmeir, who has won his last five starts, has been named USHL Goaltender of the Week the last two weeks in a row.

Extended Play: With 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points in 18 games, Dubuque center Erik Pahlsson ranks first on the USHL scoring list, is second in goals and tied for fifth in assists.  Pahlsson, a University of Minnesota commit who enters this week’s action riding a 10-game point-scoring streak (7-7--14), is tied for fifth in the league with four power play goals.

The Power of Two: Several teams remain undefeated when leading after two periods of play - Green Bay (10-0-0-0), Youngstown (9-0-0-0), Muskegon (8-0-0-0), Madison (7-0-0-0), Cedar Rapids (6-0-0-0), Chicago (3-0-0-0) and Lincoln (2-0-0-0). 

First Things First:  No team in the USHL has scored more first goals than Sioux City’s 12 in 19 games. The Musketeers own a 7-2-1-1 mark when scoring first. Fargo has scored the first goal in 10 games and own a 9-0-1-0 mark when doing so.

The Buc Stops Here: After starting the year with a 0-5-2-0 record, Des Moines has gone 7-1-2-0 in its last 10 games. Ben Kevan, the top-scoring rookie in the league with 10-8--18 in 18 games played, has posted 9-6--15 in the last 10 games. 

Ground Chuck:  Chicago forward Charlie Major, who has scored five goals in the last four games, has 8-5--13 in 16 games played on the season. A Cornell commit, Major scored the game-winning goal for the Steel in last Thursday’s 5-3 victory over Cedar Rapids before tallying in overtime in Friday’s 2-1 win over Youngstown.

Streaming:  Just a reminder that all league games are streamed live via FloHockey.