Linda Donnelly // Oklahoma faces off against the Ice Bears

While we know that UCO remains Oklahoma’s top rival in the Western league, there is another conference opponent that is about as closely matched with the Sooners as can be.

Missouri State.

The Ice Bears finished 3rd in the 2018-19 WCHL standings, which earned them the 14-19 opening round matchup at Nationals. Oklahoma was fourth and in the 15-18 matchup.

However, I went back to Sept. 29, 2017 and recorded each time the two teams have played, totaling eight games. There have been two shootouts and one overtime. That weekend of the 29th was the ‘Missouri State miracle’ in which Luc Whyte, Zach Pard and Raymond Wilson combined for two goals to tie (with under 19 seconds left) and the shootout winner. MSU won the first shootout in the data set. Oklahoma won later that season 6-2.

The overtime one year later was walked off by former Sooner Mike Behm.

Oklahoma and MSU played five times in 2018-19 – counting that overtime game – with the Ice Bears taking three victories. Phil Babb recorded a shutout on March 1, 2019.

Ice Bears won last season 2-1, 2-1 and 6-4. 

In a totally on-brand game, MSU used four third period goals on March 2nd (two of them coming after the 17:55 mark) to erase a 4-2 deficit and win 6-4.

(The pair of games March 1-2 were qualified as nonconference and did not count towards the WCHL table. Their main purpose was to prepare both sides for Nationals. I have included them in order to increase sample size.)

Overall, going back to that weekend in 2017, here are some stats for you:

-Series tied 4-4 in wins or losses

-Oklahoma leads 28-24 in goals

-Oklahoma is scoring 3.5 goals/game, MSU 3.00

The ninth data entry is 28-24.

This week will be a little different as the #14 Sooners (4-1-0), (2-1-0 WCHL) host the #16 Ice Bears (3-3-0), (1-1-0 WCHL) just once on Thursday.

Missouri State won and lost against both Illinois State and Iowa State, then split with Colorado. They return arguably the most efficient goaltending trio in the conference with Bailey Stephens, Brady Griffin and Brendan Shuck.

Oklahoma is looking to rise from their .667 conference win percentage to .750, and MSU is looking to go from .500 to .667. Oklahoma only plays once this week, so the best they can do is .750. However, the Ice Bears play the Bronchos on Friday and Saturday, so they could surpass Oklahoma by achieving .800 hockey and relegating OU to .500.

I thought this was also worth mentioning:

Craig McAlister, former UCO bench boss and a founder of the Sooners program, opted to step away from the game due to health issues, per the official league release. We would like to wish him the best. Also, consider this: how different is the league going to look next season? Three newly expanded teams wearing the WCHL crest, teams split into two divisions and no Craig McAllister calling the shots up north (based on what we know now). The WCHL was established in 2013, and all of these changes are occurring before one decade is up.

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I struck out last time with my projected starters as Arizona State’s Everett Yasinski started on consecutive nights. This one should be a slow pitch though.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

Thursday, Oct. 17 (Missouri State)

Babb vs. Stephens

Cover photo is credited to Linda Donnelly. You can follow her here. 

Thanks for reading.

Written by John Adkins, Broadcaster and Deputy Media Director