Michigan Hockey Player Of The Week: Joe Cecconi

Michigan Hockey Player of the week: Joe Cecconi

This week’s player of the week is Michigan Defenseman Joe Cecconi

Michigan Hockey is coming off a weekend where they won and tied against Minnesota. Leading that effort was Joe Cecconi “We came off a good weekend against Minnesota. It’s tough to lose in the shootout but we will take a tie any day” Cecconi said. This week Michigan faces another tough Big Ten opponent as they travel to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers.  Cecconi feels that momentum from the series last week against Minnesota, will carry on against Wisconsin. “ Last week was a good series but it’s on to Wisconsin for a tough series on the road. Our expectation now is to sweep every series and I think we can do it” Cecconi said.

Cecconi is impressed with Michigan’s first line which has been called the Run DMC line by members of the media. “They will continue to impress. I like the moniker The  Run DMC line. That’s a cool name for it.” Cecconi further states that: “They are putting up a lot of points and playing really good hockey right now. They are very good friends on and off the ice and working very hard in practice.”  Cecconi further commented on Cooper and Tony that “they have played with each other a lot. In addition to  bringing Dexter in who is having his best year in College Hockey right now.”. Cecconi says: “They were able to get to Minnesota’s Eric Schierhorn last week and will have a challenge this coming week when they face Wisconsin goalie Kyle Hayton. A grad transfer from St Lawrence. According to Cecconi: “We put a lot of pressure on Schierhorn last week and we were able to get pucks in the net unlike last year. Hayton’s a good goalie and we just have to do what we did last week to Schierhorn and get pucks in the net and we can have success.” Cecconi and the rest of the Michigan squad will have to contend with sophomore forward Trent Frederic. So far, Frederic has 5 goals and 5 assists on the young season for a total of 10 points and according to Cecconi he will be a factor in the weekend series. “We played against players that were very good this year with Tyler Sheehy, Casey Mittelstadt, and Tommy Novak up in Minnesota and Wisconsin has some pretty good forwards so we just need to play our game defensively and limit the turnovers and that will limit our goals against” Cecconi says. Michigan is ranked 17th this week in the USCHO hockey polls this week and it’s the first time Michigan has been in the top 20 since Nov 28 of 2016. Cecconi says “This team can be right up there with the best in the Big Ten and in College Hockey. Any time when you can get 4 out of 6 points against Minnesota you are going to get some attention and hopefully we can keep that up going into Wisconsin coming up this weekend.

Michigan travels to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers this weekend. Puck Drop is at 7 PM Central Time.