BETWEEN THE PIPES

Hansberry garners NCHA honors

Posted on Feb 19, 2009

Senior co-captain of the UW-River Falls men’s hockey team Derek Hansberry was named to the All-NCHA team for the fourth time in his career.

The Arvada, Colo. native scored 16 goals and had nine assists on the year. He is also five goals away from breaking the school record for most career goals set by Brian Wilson and Mike Kelly with 78 apiece. The Student Voice did a story in this weeks issue, which can be found at this link http://uwrfvoice.com/sports/article/hansberry_closes_in_on_scoring_record/.

Hansberry is the only Falcon to earn NCHA honors this season. Junior Tyler Czuba might have been in the mix, but has been battling injuries of late, which has kept him out of the last few games.

UW-Superior goalie Chad Beiswenger was selected as conference player of the year and rightfully so.

His 20-2-3 record, 2.05 goals against and .920 save percentage is outstanding in one of the toughest conferences in the nation. No. 2 Superior won the regular season title in a conference that has five teams ranked in the nation. Joining Superior in the polls is No. 3 UW-Stout, No. 4 College of St. Scholastica. No. 11 St. Norbert College, last seasons Div. III national champs, and No. 15 UW-Stevens Point.

Mark Wick, the head coach of CSS was named NCHA coach of the year. At one point the Saints had the No. 2 ranking and went on a long winning streak, which started after a 6-3 loss to UWRF on Nov. 14.

The two teams will meet again this weekend in the first round of the Peter’s Cup in Duluth, Minn.

Falcons coach Steve Freeman said it should be a physical series and expects a close, low scoring series.

Be sure to check back this weekend for updates and recaps of each game.