Why isn't Monique Lamoureux a Top-10 Finalists for Patty Kazmaier Award

Defenseman Monique Lamoureux has 4 goals today, apparently not receiving the memo that she's no better than 11th-best player in the NCAA.
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) March 2, 2013

I think this tweet speaks for it's self.

UND Women’s Hockey; Lamoureux twins leave UND program in good hands

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

On February 27, 2011, with about just over four minutes left in the first overtime,  taking the puck from goaltender Fighting Sioux goalie Stephanie Ney,  sophomore forward Monique Lamouruex calmly starts the rush up ice, literally skating through the Beaver defenders like they were standing still. It was like a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie. There was a faked shot at the blue line; then the patented toe drag around two Bemidji State defenders, before Monique deposited the puck behind the Beaver’s all-world goalieZuzana Tomcikova.

Game over!!! The UND womens hockey team flew off of the bench and mobbed Monique.
With the 3-2 win in overtime, the UND women were heading to the Final Face-Off for the first time in their program’s short history.

Even though their season would end the next weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Ridder Arena with a 3-0 loss to Wisconsin Badgers, the UND women had made great progress that season.

Actually, the Women set seasons records in wins in each of the last three seasons; winning 20, 22 and 23 respectively.

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

It’s no mystery that during the last three seasons, Jocelyn and Monique Lamoureux have been the corner stones of the UND women’s hockey team, and this year’s senior class.

Both players have also been the face of UND head coach Brian Idahlski’s (91-102-21 UND, 198-122-32 career) team and where they’re trying to move the UND’s woman’s program.

The Lamoureux twins are world class players and 2010 Olympians Jocelyne Lamoureux (123g-154a—277pts) and Monique Lamoureux (108g-152a—260pts). Both players rank one and two and UND’s all-time scoring list. With each game, Jocelyne extends the all-time record at UND.

For the second year in a row, Jocelyne Lamoureux was named a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kaz award.

After a game earlier this season, UND woman’s head coach Brian Idalski said, “We talked about what our vision is here and being the pinnacle of woman’s hockey and making this our woman’s NHL.”

I do think coach Idalski is onto something. College hockey for women is basically their NHL outside of playing in international competition; there aren’t a lot of options for them. Women’s college hockey is stacked with world class athletes and Olympians.

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

That’s what’s been happening at UND, the Lamoureux twins have set a very high bar for future UND woman’s players that are starting to emerge at UND. Michelle Karvinen is an example of the type of player you will probably see in the future, world class talent that plays for their country during the winter Olympics and international competitions.

Freshman forward Meghan Dufault is one of the new up and coming stars for UND and this is what she had to say about playing for with the Lamouruex twins.

“It’s definitely an honor to play with them,” Dufault said. “You learn so much from them every day, just their mentality and their skills you can take everything from what they do in practice and try make yourself more like them and learn of them. It’s a really good experience playing with them.”

So as the Lamoureux twins’ time at UND comes to an end, a few of the younger players will take on bigger roles for UND in the future. One them is all-world junior forward Michelle Karvinen, who helped team Finland win the bronze medal at the 2011 IIHF World Championship. This is what Megan Dufauflt has this to say on playing with the crafty junior forward.

“I think Karvinen is awesome to play with,” Dufauflt said. “She’s such a dynamic player and obviously she was in the Olympics too, so she highly skilled and you learn so much from her as well, she’s just like playing with the twins [Lamoureux’s]. I think they’re all great players that bring so much to the team that everyone can build off.

North Dakota isn’t ready to send this year’s senior class off just yet. There is still work to be done. With the win against the Minnesota State Mavericks (24-11-0, 18-10-0 WCHA), UND will try for the sweep tomorrow night at 2:07 pm against the Mavericks at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

I don’t really know if people will fully appreciate what Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux have brought to the UND woman’s team until after they’re gone, they have set the bar very high and have given young women role models that they can be proud of.

Players of this caliber don’t come along every day and it’s hard to quantify or put into words what they did for the UND women’s team. Maybe we can just appreciate the memories they left us with and be thankful that we had an opportunity to watch them play.

- See more at: http://insidehockey.com 

UND women complete sweep of OSU Buckeyes

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – Tonight, the University of North Dakota woman’s team played their final home game of the regular season.

For eight seniors, tonight’s game marked the last time they would ever play a “regular season” game in the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

In two weeks, the UND women will play one more WCHA playoff series at the Ralph, as they clinched home ice for the WCHA playoffs with last night’s win.

With the win tonight, UND also extended its current win streak to eight games, and also tied the single-season wins record.

One could say that this night was historic for the UND women’s hockey program.

So on this night for the record books, the UND women (22-10-0, 17-9-0 WCHA) donned their black third jerseys and sent the fans home with something to cheer about, as they beat the Ohio State Buckeyes (16-14-2, 11-13-2-2 WCHA) 3-2 to complete the sweep.

This season’s senior class includes two world class players and 2010 Olympians Jocelyne Lamoureux (121g-150a—271) and Monique Lamoureux (106g-149a—255). Both players rank one and two and UND’s all-time scoring list.

Today was a special day for a special for the UND women’s hockey team, and the day wasn’t lacking in emotions. UND head coach Brian Idalski reminisced about his seniors.

“It was an emotional day, it always is,” Idalski said. “It’s a tough day to coach, quite honestly. It’s a special group and they’ve worked hard. We talked about what our vision is here and being the pinnacle of woman’s hockey and making this our woman’s NHL. So these are special kids that are a big part of getting us where we are today. Again, a special group and you know, the emotions kind of sprang out there a little bit good stuff.”

While the night belonged to the eight UND seniors, freshman Meghan Deufault led the way for UND on the score sheet with a couple of goals, including the game winning goal at the 14:11 mark of the second period.

“Were glad to get the two wins out because we needed that,” freshman forward Megan Dufault said. “Tonight was really emotional for our seniors, so I think everyone did a good job keeping their emotion in check and coming out with the win.”

It wasn’t a pretty win, but the Green and White came out on top. “We did what he needed to do to win the Hockey game,” Idalski said.

The work is not done for the UND women’s hockey team; next weekend they travel to Duluth for another crucial test against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Jocelyne Lamoureux laid out the weekend ahead.

“Going into the post-season you want to be peaking at the right time,” Jocelyne Lamoureux said. “It’s good, but these are teams that we feel like we should be beating teams and we would be disappointed if we weren’t. Next weekend is going to be huge for us, it’s going to be big for points, Pairwise (rankings) and league so we have to be ready to go and take care of business.”

Related articles

• UND Women Run OSU Out of the Building (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 18 (insidehockey.com)

UND Women run OSU out of the building

United States forward Jocelyne Lamoureux in a game against the ECAC All-Stars on January 3, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota women’s hockey team has been on a bit of a role as of late, winning six in a row and seven of the last eight games that they played in.

Senior forward Jocelyne Lamoureux came into tonight’s game on a hot streak of her own. This past week, Lamoureux broke the existing league record for career points of 262 held by Wisconsin’s Hilary Knight (2007-12). The Record fell, when Lamoureux recorded seven points during last weekend series (0g-7a—7pts) against the Bemidji State Beaver, giving her a collegiate career total of 266 points (120g -146a—266pts) in 140 games played.

Tonight, a couple of hot streaks continued as the Green and White extended their winning streak to seven straight games, beating the Ohio State University Buckeyes 5-2.

With the win tonight, UND also clinched home ice for the WCHA playoffs, but the head coach didn’t seemed satisfied with that fact.

“For a long time, it was one of our goals [home ice] every year,” Head Coach Brian Idalski said. “That hasn’t changed, but I think it’s a smaller goal, and there’s still a lot of work to be done and I think we understand that. We got a big game tomorrow we got to turn around and be ready, that club has a lot of pride, their well coached and you have to show up and be ready to go.”

Senior forward Jocelyn Lamoureux remained smoking hot, as she added two more points to her already impressive career point’s total. Tonight, she chipped in (1g-1a—2pts). Not to be out done, Jocelyn’s twin sister Monique had an impressive night of her own, as she added three helpers (0g-3a—3pts).

Junior forward Michelle Karvinen who missed the first 12 games of the season with an undisclosed injury, continue her torrid pace as she chipped in two more markers. Karvinen now has (14g-26a—40pts). Tonight, Karvinen also recorded her 100 career point in just her 55^th game and this is what she had to say on getting her 100^th career point.

“It’s very special,” Karvinen said. “I am happy it’s not just like a rebound or something and it was a little nicer, it was great.”

The Ohio State Buckeyes actually took a 2-1 lead with a couple of goals from Captain Hokey Langan (Chatham, Ontario). That was all the closer the game would get as UND would blow the game open with three goals five minutes apart.

After the game, head coach Brian Idalski was asked about the explosion in the second period.

“I just thought we executed a little better,” Idalski said. “I thought we were a little hungry as far as getting pucks to the net and being the first to jump on rebounds. You have to out work them – they’re so good at playing with energy and competing and they’re very strong on pucks. You had to turn it up a notch to match that.”

Same two teams tomorrow night at 07:07 pm.

With the win tonight, UND currently sits in 8^th of the Pairwise Rankings, UND would need to 8^th or above to make the NCAA tourney.