U18 RoughRiders and Alliance Bulldogs Tie 1-1

With 11.4 seconds remaining in the game, the Alliance Bulldogs from Irving, TX scored the tying goal with an extra attacker on the ice. Having pulled their goalie, the Bulldogs were attempting to do what they had not done all game, score a goal. The RoughRiders struggling to clear the puck from the zone allowed the Bulldogs one final shot. The Bulldogs scored and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. The RoughRiders U18 team, looked as if they would come away with a 1-0 victory. It was not to be. Missed opportunities and somewhat sloppy play caught up with them with 11.4 seconds remaining.

Sometimes in sports a tie feels like a win and sometimes it feels like a loss. This one felt like a loss. The RoughRiders out shot the Bulldogs 27-17 for the game but could not find a way to put more than one puck in the net.

Official Gamesheet

Next up on October 8 & 9 will be two CAHA League games against the Colorado Rampage.

U18 Rocky Mountain RoughRiders #24: MyHockeyRankings.com

The first rankings of the season have come out at MyHockeyRankings.com. The U18 RoughRiders have opened up ranked #24 at U18 Tier I (AAA). What does this mean? Well, likely not a whole lot, at least at this point in the season. It's early and not a lot of games have been played. The website is a great place to see how other teams are doing.
MyHockeyRankings.com also has pages for each team that include scores of games played.

What we know so far is that the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders U18 team lost their first three games and have won their last four. That seems to be the beginning of a nice trend.

A little about MyHockeyRankings.com from its website:

MYHockey's ratings are computed mathematically, with no subjective weighting or human determined values. MYHockey rates teams based upon how well they play against other teams and how good those teams are. These two factors are "AGD" or "average goal differential" and "SCHED" or "strength of schedule". AGD is currently calculated by accumulating the goal differential of each game, to a maximum of 7, and divides it by the number of games played. Using a max game goal differential of 7 does "penalize" teams that blow out opponents, but this is common in rating systems as it takes away the incentive for teams to run up scores and allows them to have a bad game by capping the mathematical damage. The strength of schedule is computed by averaging the rating of each game opponent. AGD and SCHED are added together to compute a team's rating.

In general, as teams start getting 20+ games under their belts, the system tends to be very accurate. There are, however, some occasional exceptions.
If a group of teams (i.e. a league) doesn't play others outside its group, their placement relative to all other teams cannot be accurately be determined, but relative to one another it is accurate. Groups of teams with limited outside play can be inaccurately skewed by the scores of only a few games, which might not be representative of the group's overall ability. Accuracy significantly increases with more games and more interplay and it makes sense for there to be a minimum number of games before teams are ranked.
It's not an exact science. The ratings should be used to determine what teams might be good non-league opponents and which bracket of a tournament may be more appropriate, they are not meant to be the AP Poll for youth hockey.

So there you go, take it for what its worth. It provides some useful information about other teams at U18, as well as many other age groups and skill levels from around the country. As the season goes on, it will be interesting to see the movement in the rankings.

U18 RoughRiders YouTube Channel

During the inaugural season for the Team Rocky Mountain, the U16 team had the good fortune of having Kevin Simpson around. Kevin spent a lot of time filming and editing the U16 TRM games last season. He shared the video with the team and their families. As the Team Rocky Mountain organization became the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders organization, the U18 team has had the same good fortune. Kevin has put together footage from the first seven games. All seven clips appear here on the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders U18 Blog. The clips are included with each game recap. In the first seven games, the RoughRiders are wearing the dark jerseys.

Kevin has been kind enough to allow these high quality clips to be viewed on YouTube. Of course, some of the quality is lost as the video goes through its transition to YouTube, but it is great to have all the clips out there for the players, coaches, families and friends. If you see Kevin at the rink, be sure to tell him thanks, these clips are priceless!

The link to the RoughRidersU18Blog Channel on YouTube is: http://www.youtube.com/user/RoughRidersU18Blog