The Arkansas Razorbacks (9-5-0) roll right through the Ole Miss Rebels 7-0 to take the first of two games this weekend.

Behind stellar goaltending from Brendan Desjardins and high powered offense, the Ice Hogs took Friday night’s game against the Rebels (9-3-0).

The Hogs began their scoring with 3:47 left in the first period when Marcel Toure netted his first goal of the game, leaving the score at 1-0 at the end of the first frame.

2:27 in to the second period, the Razorbacks scored a power play goal to extend their lead, and with 8:37 left to go in the period, Casey Womble scored to make it 3-0. The Ice Hogs didn’t stop scoring in the second as Marcel Toure scored his second goal of the game, followed by another goal a minute later, and one more goal from Justin McDowell, giving the Hogs a commanding 6-0 lead at the end of two.

Arkansas would grab another goal in the third, and Desjardins stayed solid between the pipes to give the Razorbacks a 7-0 shutout.

The Hogs and the Rebels will wrap their weekend series Saturday night at 4:15 pm at the Mid South Ice House in Olive Branch, Mississippi.

The No. 12 Ole Miss Ice Rebels came back in game two to split the weekend series with No. 3 Arkansas Saturday night.

After a 7-0 shutout the previous night, the Rebels came out for revenge and got it with a 5-3 win over the Ice Hogs.

The Razorbacks were first to strike blood in Saturday afternoons tilt when Ryan Holloway scored halfway through the first period, but the Rebels would answer with 3:50 left in the period when Zach Boynton scored.

Ole Miss took the lead, on a Ryan Drew goal, 6:12 in the second period, and quickly got another one from Cameron Cook to take a two-goal lead. But Martin Sundstedt quickly brought the Ice Hogs back within one. With 2:52 left in the second, the Rebels’ Matt Obstarczyk scored, sending Ole Miss into the locker rooms at the end of the second frame with a lead of 4-2.

2:11 in to the third period, Ole Miss’ Myles Flott scored to extend their lead to three goals. Holloway would inch the Razorbacks closer when he scored his second goal 6:27 in.

The Rebels goalie, Josh Hukill, stayed sharp throughout the rest of the period and the Ice Hogs couldn’t seem to get anything past him, leaving the game at a 5-3 Rebel victory.

The Arkansas Razorbacks split the weekend series with the Missouri State Bears DII with a 5-3 victory on Saturday.

Behind solid goaltending from Brendan Desjardins and two goal nights from both Justin McDowell and Johnny Stromp, the Ice Hogs (8-5-0) took down the Ice Bears (8-5-1).

The Ice Bears opened up the scoring 3:57 in, but Johnny Stromp of the Razorbacks got one it back 3 minutes later and scored his second of the game one minute later. Missouri State tied the game with just 2:27 left in the first period, but Hog forward Justin Gaddy took the lead back scoring 28 seconds later. Arkansas wasn’t quite finished scoring when Justin McDowell scored his first of the game with only 14 seconds left in the fame, leaving the score at the end of one 4-2.

The second period was hard fought and close, both goaltenders stayed sharp and kept the game at 4-2 heading in to the third.

With 10:03 left in the game, the Ice Bears inched their way closer to tying with a goal, but Desjardins stayed solid between the pipes and when the Bears pulled their goalie, Justin McDowell made them pay with his second goal of the game with 50 seconds left to play, giving the Razorbacks a final of 5-3, splitting the weekend series.

Arkansas has the week off this next week, but will hit the road again to take on rival Ole Miss, and will return to Arkansas to face Mississippi State in Little Rock, Arkansas the following week.

The Arkansas Razorbacks fell 5-3 to the Missouri State Bears DII.

It was a hard fought game by the Ice Hogs (7-5-0) but game one of two this weekend against the Ice Bears (8-4-1) could not be claimed by the Hogs.

The first period was close but Missouri State got the first goal with 4:21 left to play and squeeze in one more before the end of the period with 33 seconds left.

The Ice Bears put another one in the net 9:48 in to the second frame, but Arkansas would answer 4 minutes later with a goal from Ryan Holloway. With 2:54 left in the second Missouri State put another one in, leaving the score at 4-1 at the end of the second period.

Missouri State would net their fifth goal of the game in the third, but Ryan Holloway of the Razorbacks immediately answered with his second 4:54 in to the period. With 9:30 left in the game the Ice Hogs’ Justin McDowell scored, but Missouri State would hold on to win this one 5-3.

Arkansas will look to steal game two tomorrow night 7:00 pm in Springfield, Missouri.

The South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference names Brendan Desjardins this week’s SECHC Player of the Week recipient after an outstanding performance in two games against former national champion Grand Valley State.

Desjardins made 61 saves over two nights in win and a loss for Razorback Hockey.

The most impressive performance of the weekend came when Desjardins stopped all eight Lakers shooters in the shootout victory on Saturday night.

In the last two seasons, Desjardins has helped lead the Razorbacks to back-to-back SECHC Championships. In 2011, he was named to the All-SECHC 1^st team as well as the All-Tournament team.

In 2010, Desjardins was named the Tournament MVP. He is a two-time Academic All-American. He entered the season already on top of the career leaders chart in every major category; Wins (39), Minutes Played (2743.92), Shutouts (8), and Goals Against Average (2.69).

Notable Nominees

Martin Sundstedt (Arkansas) Two goals and an assists in two games against Grand Valley State.
Reed Finch (Alabama) Three goals, including one on the power-play in four games.
Kerry Wiant (South Carolina) 2 goals, one on the power-play and one short-handed, against Georgia Tech.

The Arkansas Razorbacks topped the Grand Valley State Lakers in a 6-5 shootout thriller; splitting the weekend series at 1 apiece with.

The win comes against a former National Champion, as Grand Valley has been a power in the DIII north for several years.

The Lakers started out the scoring when forward David Stone netted one 8:01 in to the game. But Arkansas would tie the game back up with 9:21 left in the game with a goal by Martin Sundstedt, leaving the score at 1-1 at the end of the first.

Grand Valley State was quick to jump on top with a goal 37 seconds in by Evan Olds. Connor Crumblish of the Razorbacks would knot the game back up at 2 though with 8:51 left to play in the second. But the Lakers were determined to reclaim their lead as Ryan Luke and Parker Host both scored towards the end of the period giving the Lakers a 4-2 lead heading in to the third.

In the third frame the Ice Hogs would look to bring this game up back to even as defenseman Collin Hesse scored 4:13 in to the period inching the Razorbacks closer to tying the game again. With 10:51 left to play in the game Easton Oliver would score to bring Arkansas back even with the Lakers, but forward Bryce Derry was quick to put the Razorbacks ahead scoring 1:26 later giving the Ice Hogs a 5-4 lead.

As the clock dwindled down the Lakers pulled their goalie and with 1:25 left to play in regulation defenseman Aaron Mascarello took a shot from the point, scoring to even the game back up at 5-5 at the end of regulation.

Goaltenders Brendan Desjardins and Pete Herman stayed sharp between the pipes in overtime, letting nothing through to send this game in to a shootout.

Every shooter was denied by each goalie, until the eighth shooter for the Razorbacks, sophomore Jimmy Nemeth put one past the Laker goaltender to give Arkansas the win. “It was great, coming in I just tried to put everything out of my mind and just pretend like it was practice and do what I do,” said Nemeth.

Goaltender Brendan Desjardins stayed sharp throughout the shootout letting nothing go by to help lead the Razorbacks to victory, “Honestly, shootouts are my favorite things. We do them every Thursday and we play a game called apple, lemon, and orange, where the winner gets an apple, the loser has to eat a lemon, and the winning goaltender gets an orange, so it’s pretty much muscle memory for me.”

This weekend marked the first time a Michigan team made a visit to Arkansas, and forward Jimmy Nemeth knows that a win against a team like Grand Valley State is a big deal, “Coach has been talking us up about this team for the past two weeks now that it’s the first Michigan team that has come down here to play Arkansas, southern hockey, so it was big.”

Next weekend Arkansas will hit the road to take on Nebraska, and Brendan knows there are things that need to be worked on with the team, “We need to stay focused for all 60 minutes of the game, last night we fell asleep for 2 minutes and that cost us the game pretty much, and tonight was the same thing, we fell asleep for 2 minutes and we were down 4-2 so just being consistent and working hard all 60 minutes is something we need to work on.”

The Arkansas Razorbacks fell 3-1 in game one of two this weekend to the Grand Valley State University Lakers.

The Ice Hogs (4-4-0) fought hard throughout the game but could not seem to overcome the Lakers.

Martin Sundstedt of the Razorbacks opened up the scoring with 7:10 left to play in the game, but Grand Valley defenseman Tim Donelly answered quickly tying the game 33 seconds later leaving the score 1-1 at the end of the first.

The Lakers were quick to take the lead in the second when Ryan Luke scored 1:08 in to the period and he would find his second goal of the game just 41 seconds later, giving Grand Valley State a 3-1 lead heading in to the third.

The Razorbacks fought hard throughout the whole third period, but couldn’t seem to put the puck past Laker goaltender Tyle Keough, leaving the score at a final of 3-1.

Arkansas looks to bounce back against Grand Valley State Saturday night at the Jones Center for Families at 7:30.

The Arkansas Razorbacks are set to take on the Grand Valley State Lakers. This will mark the first time a Michigan team has ever came to Arkansas.

The Razorbacks (4-3-0) are coming off two big wins against Auburn to open conference play, defeating the Tigers 14-0 and 9-0.

Grand Valley State went 15-14-1 last year and played in the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference as well as the American Collegiate Hockey Association (D3). Arkansas Head Coach Brian Gallini knows that the Lakers won’t be an easy task.

“They’re a tremendous program with a lot of good history and so from our standpoint we’re an up and coming program without that history. So, the first challenge is to make sure the guys know that we’re on equal footing with them, regardless of the backgrounds of the two programs.”

When preparing for this game, Coach Gallini focused a lot on starting with goaltending and working from there.

“We talk a lot about building the team from the net out. Brendan [Desjardins] has got to have a huge game for us; we’re not going to steal two from a quality opponent without him being at his best.”

Gallini added, “We need all, not one or two, but all of our blue liners to step up and make sure that they are playing within the lanes and the systems that they’ve been taught, and then from there we need goal scoring and then playing from the net out we can have a full team effort.”

Coach Gallini knows that a pair of wins this weekend can really help the Razorbacks in the short and long term.

“Two solid games against them would give us the momentum that we need to go in to a ranked Nebraska team and then on the road to Missouri State, so in the short term it can give us momentum.” Gallini said. “In the long term, hopefully it will send a message to the rankings committee that we deserve to be right up there in the conversation of top one or two programs in the South.”

Game 1 of 2 will be played Friday, October 14, 2011 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, Arkansas. Warm-ups begin at 7:00pm and the puck drops at 7:30pm. Tickets are $6 for adults, $2 for students, and free for kids under 10.

The Razorbacks  took the weekend series against Auburn by shutting the Tigers out for the second straight night, by a score of 9-0.

With the help of strong offensive scoring, goaltender Nick Jabs led the Hogs (4-3-0) with his first win of the season, as the Razorbacks topped the Tigers (1-4-0), who enter their second season as a program.

“For [Kevin Sheer and Nick Jabs] to get a shutout,  no matter who the opponent, is hard thing to achieve,” said Assistant Coach Michael Ensminger. “For them both to get it this weekend, hats off.”

Arkansas defenseman Kyle Swinburne started the scoring off with 7:26 left to play in the first. Off the ensuing face off, Garth Derry scored four seconds later, adding to the Razorback lead.

Austin Kerr and Connor Crumblish each put one in the net for Arkansas. Tyler Bynum closed out the scoring in the first to send the Hogs to the intermission with a 5-goal lead.

The Razorbacks wouldn’t slow down as Forest Mudgett, Rob Scott, and Jimmy Nemeth each scored in the second period to put Arkansas up 8-0 at the end of the second frame.

Michael Kress added one more goal for the Ice Hogs in the third period giving the Razorbacks a final of 9-0.

After a five goal performance in night one, Martin Sundstedt was unable to find the net in game two, but set up several goals for the Hogs.

“He’s just a perfect example of what we want,” said Coach Ensminger. “He keeps his mouth shut on the bench and he works hard no matter what the game is, no matter what the circumstance is, even in practice, he’s just an outstanding kid.”

Next weekend Grand Valley State University will come to Arkansas to face the Razorbacks and it will mark the first time Arkansas will host a Michigan team. The first game is on October 14, 2011 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, AR. Tickets are $6 for adults, $2 for students, and kids under 10 get in free.

The Arkansas Razorbacks took the first of two games this weekend with Auburn, shutting out the Tigers 14-0.

The Hogs (3-3-0) we’re led by freshman goaltender Kevin Sheer and forward Martin Sundstedt who netted 5 goals in tonight’s contest.

In the first period of the game Arkansas jumped ahead early when Sundstedt scored the first goal of the game 2:44 in. Sundstedt would score his second goal of the game just a couple minutes later, but this time on the power play, giving the Hogs a 2-0 lead at the end of the first.

Arkansas would continue to put the puck in the net in the second period as Sundstedt scored his third, fourth, and fifth goals. Defenseman Drew McComas would score two goals, along with Tyler Bynum, Jimmy Nemeth, and Easton Oliver each scoring one of their own sending the Razorbacks in to the locker room with a commanding 8-0 lead at the end of the second frame.

In the third and final period the Hogs would score six more goals, Ryan Holloway would score two of these while Forest Mudgett and Justin McDowell scored one a piece. Kevin Sheer stayed solid between the pipes giving the Razorbacks their first shut out of the season.

Auburn (1-3-0) and Arkansas will conclude their weekend series tomorrow night at 7:30 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, AR. Tickets are $6 for adults, $2 for students, and children under 10 get in for free.