The Ice Hogs returned to their home rink this weekend to face the Missouri State Bears D2 and the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Behind a two goal night from three different players and solid goaltending from Brendan Desjardins the Razorbacks powered through the Bears (13-10-1) by a score of 9-1 Friday night.

In the first period the Hogs (12-6-0) came out firing and at 2:13 in Casey Womble scored to give Arkansas an early lead. Tyler Bynum scored his first of two 6:53 in to the first, giving the Razorbacks a lead of 2-0 at the end of the first.

8:15 in to the second period Justin McDowell scored for the Razorbacks giving them a now three goal lead, but it was only 35 seconds later that Missouri State’s Derek Vogler scored to bring the game within two.

The Hogs would score three more goals in the period, the first from Forest Mudgett with 2 minutes left in the period and 20 seconds later Justin McDowell got his second of the game followed by Tyler Bynum’s second goal of the game with just one second remaining in the period.

The third period saw three more goals from the Ice Hogs. At 3:21 and 8:03 of the third period Justin Gaddy scored his two goals for the night, and with 1:48 left to play in regulation Johnny Stromp got on the board giving the Razorbacks a final score of 9-1 over the Ice Bears.

Saturday night the Arkansas Razorbacks will look to stop a four game win streak that the Vanderbilt Commodores have put together along with a 10-2-0 record. The puck drops at 7:30 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, Arkansas. Tickets are $6 for adults, $2 for students, and free for kids under 10.

Six South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference teams have made the top 15 rankings for the ACHA DIII South Region, setting a new conference record.

No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 7 Florida, No. 9 Mississippi, No. 13 Vanderbilt, and No. 14 South Carolina are in the second rankings of the season, breaking the previous conference record for teams in the top 15 with five.

The previous high was set in February of 2011, last season, when five teams (Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) were in the rankings. That mark was tied in the November rankings (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina).

Rank	Team	Pts
1	Florida Gulf Coast University (8)	7
2	Central Florida (1)	14
3	Alabama	22
4	Arkansas	33
5	South Florida	34
6	Loyola University Maryland	45
7	Florida	53
8	Florida Atlantic University	70
9	Mississippi	72
10	Christopher Newport University	74
11	Richmond, University of	77
12	North Carolina – Wilmington	86
13	Vanderbilt University	91
14	South Carolina	95
15	Charlotte	99

The Arkansas Razorbacks thumped the Mississippi State Bulldogs this weekend in a combined score of 30-0 between Friday and Saturday’s games.

Game one on Friday was a lashing given out by the Hogs that ended in a score of 15-0.

The first period consisted scoring by 6 different players, Garth Derry, Justin Gaddy, Kyle Swinburne, Ross Miller, Justin McDowell, and two from Johnny Stromp.

In the second Connor Crumblish and Josh Kinnear grabbed two goals, Justin Gaddy and Garth Derry added to their total with one extra goal each, and Ryan Holloway scored one as well.

The third period had no scoring in it, but Kevin Sheer stayed sharp between the pipes in order in insure the shutout victory.

The Ice Hogs took the momentum from Friday and brought it into Saturday’s game with another 15-0 win over the Bulldogs.

The first period of this game consisted of goals from Ross Miller, Justin Gaddy, Tyler Bynum, Justin McDowell, and Johnny Stromp.

Period number two saw two goals from Forest Mudgett and Connor Crumblish. Johnny Stromp added to his total with another goal and Martin Sundstedt got himself on the board as well.

The third and final period of this weekend consisted of four more Hog goals. Justin Gaddy scored twice to complete his hat trick; Martin Sundstedt added one more to his goal total and Kasey Womble scored as well.

Arkansas will look to continue their success in December when the take on Missouri State D2 and Vanderbilt on the 9^th and 10^th.

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.