Candace Riley // Sooners face off against non-conference Maryville on Sept. 20, 2019

All rankings used will reflect those that were released on Nov. 13, 2019.

The Midland Warriors (6-6-0), (2-4-0 MCH) are a part of the ACHA D1’s MidwestCollegeHockey conference. Its members are Illinois State, McKendree, Maryville, N. Illinois, Waldorf and the Warriors. Per the league’s official account, the conference is brand new this season in 2019-20.

Last season, Midland competed in the NAIHA: they recorded a 22-9 record and an appearance in the National Championship. They met and fell to #5 Indiana Tech in that game; now, both teams are in the ACHA D1 for ’19-20.

(Indiana Tech was not at Nationals as a result of existing in the NAIHA. They re-joined ACHA D1 for the ’19-20 season, and they are competing in the WHAC conference. This is the same as Michigan-Dearborn).

So how are they faring?

They have won six out of 12 possible games so far but they narrowly fell to the (#32) CSU Rams and calmly defeated the (#49) Colorado Buffaloes all back in September. They are scoring at a 3.33 goals/game pace however, one that is just behind Oklahoma’s 3.83 (same amount of games played). The Warriors are not ranked, but the first thing that comes to my mind is that game with Northern Colorado back in February. The Bears came in to Blazers and upset the Sooners in regulation. Games like this do not move the needle in terms of conference standings, but the Sooners want to keep the good times rolling.

The Warriors are in their sixth season under the helm of head coach Jason Cirone. They have played 12 games, and (per the ACHA website) four players have 12 points – it leaves senior forward Andrew Carriere with 18 points in 12 at the top, good for 1.5 points/game and a freakishly good 48 point pace.

The Warriors entered a bit of a slide during their last four games against ranked D1 teams. They fell to #16 UNLV and #23 Illinois State to chalk up a four-game losing streak. They dispatched of D3 Creighton on 11/8.

#10 Oklahoma (9-3-0), (7-3-0 WCHL) ascended eight spots in the rankings on the back of two regulation wins in the state of Arizona – defeating #7 and #13 one time apiece in regulation. The Sooners will face Midland twice on a Saturday/Sunday set and then welcome the Alabama Frozen Tide into Oklahoma for two more non-conference games. We’ll have a full preview on the Tide coming out as well.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

Saturday, Nov. 16 (Midland)

Babb vs. McDonald

Sunday, Nov. 17 (Midland)

Babb vs. Eldekoort

Thanks for reading.

Written by John Adkins, Broadcaster and Deputy Media Director