Thread on Scoring Records

[brookyone]

From the Gophersports Bemidji series preview, "The Bemidji State series marks the first of five home series for the Gophers in the second semester." This brings to mind something I feel is worthy of mention. This is the beginning of the final half season of play for the terrific trio as a unit...at least in a Minnesota uniform. Players come and go, as do successful line combinations. I think it's safe to say that the Darwitz-Stephens-Wendell line will warrant some historical significance in the annals of Gopher women's hockey. I'd just like to mention or perhaps recommend that anyone who possibly can, take advantage of the opportunity to catch these ladies in action...they're a treat to watch & it's definitely worthwhile, and time for the opportunity is running out.

Thankfully, I know there's no way the Gopher players will underestimate or look past the Beavers this weekend. Though some Gopher fans may at times be guilty of underestimating WCHA opponents, or commenting in such a way as to give that appearance, I think the vast majority of WCHA fans understand any team is capable of upsetting the top teams. Closer games than when these teams last met wouldn't surprise me...a Bemidji win, though absolutely possible, would be a surprise for me...not to mention a disappointment...of epic proportions. :)

[ARM]

I think it's safe to say that the Darwitz-Stephens-Wendell line will warrant some historical significance in the annals of Gopher women's hockey.
If they stay healthy, they certainly figure to revamp the program's record book this year. All three figure to make achieve the 200 career points milestone: Darwitz (D) = 188; Wendell (W) = 185; and Stephens (S) = 182 going into the second half. The Gopher record for career points is Muzerall's 235. Both D and W are on pace to reach that. Next to fall will probably be Ambria Thomas' mark of 112 assists, as D, W, and S have 108, 100, and 96, respectively. Tommy also holds the career +/- with +160. Here the chase is less certain, with current marks at +132 (S), +117 (W), and +104 (D). Muzzy's 139 goals will survive, but all three have a good shot at making 100: 86 for S, 85 for W, and 80 for D. Nadine's 49 in a year looks to be safe as well. D, with 36 assists already, is threatening the season record of 42 which S and W set last year.

Beyond that, Jody Horak needs just three more wins to match Erica Killewald's 73. The record I most want to see fall is the 32 wins in a season set by the 1999-2000 squad.

Disclaimer: though I've taken a lot of math classes, it doesn't mean that I can add.

[crash4u]

Arm,
Thanks for the stats. They certainly will achieve gopher imortality. How close are the terrific trio to setting ncaa assist records? I have heard at rinks that the gopher stat minders and refs are handing out 3 assists for every goal whether they exists or not. To me that takes away from what I see as unselfish play by these three. They pass the puck better and with more frequency in one shift, than do other players in an entire game! They have most opposing goalies sliding back and forth across the goal mouth with out a clue who will take the shot.
I would also like to say that of every player I have seen this year, and I have seen all top ten teams play, there is no one that can take over a game like Wendell. She is the PK Award winner in 2005!

[dave1381]

How close are the terrific trio to setting ncaa assist records?
I believe the career mark for assists is 183 - at least that's Botterill's total. That's not going to be touched.

I also find it hard to believe those three would play selfishly because of more liberal awarding of assists (nor do I believe in the scorekeeping attacks in the first place). I don't think those three would ever deliberately do anything less than what's best for their team.

[ARM]

At some games, the officials have all they can do to get the goal scorer correct, let alone the assists. I saw one game this year where 3 out of the first 4 goals were announced incorrectly. I think everyone involved is doing their best. Some just lack experience, and when you are learning, everything seems to happen too fast.

As for whether these errors pad the stats for these three, I don't think so. If they have a fault, they do overpass at times. They can all shoot, so sometimes they might be better off letting it fly. But they like to work for the "no doubt" setups, and when goals result, there will usually be a pair of assists.

I've watched Wendell and Darwitz play together for 2 1/2 years, and I'm still not sure how to rank them. Wendell might be the best player in the world, but Darwitz might be better. Krissy gets loud assists, that everyone in the building saw and appreciated. Natalie makes so many subtle plays that are easy to miss but very effective.

As for the longevity of Botterill's assist mark, that might depend on who does or does not return from the Olympics. Right now, Darwitz is getting two assists per game. At that rate, a gap of 75 assists doesn't look that big over a season and a half.

Do any UMD fans know how many assists Potter wound up with? She had 38 her freshman season as a Gopher.

[ARM]

I get 186 assists for Potter: 38+52+57+39. I'm sure she played in more games than Botterill, so her APG would not be as high.

[dave1381]

Also an issue when looking at records is how many games were played against D-I competition. Gretchen Ulion had 189 career goals for Dartmouth... but there are lot of games against the like of Bowdoin in there. How many of Schmidgall's freshman points where against the likes of Augsburg? Trying to figure out women's college hockey all-time records is always fairly subjective.

[ARM]

I can see the problem, especially since it is hard to find box scores for the older games. The Gopher site should have such info, but when they changed the look of the site, they seem to have broken the archive. Schmidgall/Potter did have a number of games against startups (Mankato, St. Cloud), clubs (UMD), D-IIIs, and Canadian colleges, Aeros, etc. Working against her was that the scoring in the blowouts was capped at a ten-goal margin.

Do you have visibility to how many of Botterill's assists came against BU's club team, etc? It doesn't appear that the exhibition games that Wendell and Darwitz have played are included in their numbers.

[dave1381]

All the 98-99 box scores for Minnesota are here:
http://www.uscho.com/schedules/team.php?season=19981999&team=71&gender=w

None of Harvard's stats (or anyone's to my knowledge), at least 98-99 on, include totals from results against club teams. The issue is D-I vs. D-III. I'm not sure. This is only really an issue in 98-99, most everyone played a full D-I schedule by 99-00. I'm not exactly who's considered D-I vs. D-III in 98-99. My memory is that St. Lawrence was still considered D-III in 98-99 and Colby played its last season as a D-I school that same where. I don't know all the answers.

But anyway, if you did all the counting, my guess is that the all-time "college hockey" leaders in goals, assists and points are Ulion, Potter, and Botterill, respectively. But Botterill would be the all-time D-I leader in all three categories.

[dave1381]

I noticed the NCAA was an official record book online. Seeing as it is the NCAA book, it only counts records accumulated since women's hockey was NCAA sponsored in 2000-01.
http://www.ncaa.org/library/records...key_records.pdf

So by this book, Botterill was the all-time leading scorer with 190 career points at the start of the season, based just on her 2000-01 and 2002-03 years (Darwitz is now at 191 and Wendell is at 190, Ouellette at 194) I believe Nicole Corriero would presently be the all-time leading scorer by this standard, since she now has 214 career points.

[brookyone]

Congrats to Natalie Darwitz on her Minnesota women's hockey career assist record !!!