USHL

The United States Hockey League (USHL) announced Tuesday its Players of the Week for Week 29 of the 2021-22 season. Stephen Halliday and Luke Mittelstadt earned their third Forward and Defenseman of the Week awards of the season, respectively, while Simon Latkoczy earned his second Goaltender of the Week award. 

Halliday, the league’s leading scorer, earned his third Forward of the Week award this season after a 10-point weekend propelled his Fighting Saints to a three-game sweep of Eastern Conference rivals. The Glenwood, Md. native opened the week with a three-assist performance in a Tuesday night 5-2 win over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Halliday assisted on each of the first two Dubuque goals, including a powerplay tally midway through regulation, and added his third at the end of the second period. On Friday night, the Ohio State University commit tied a career-high with a five-point (2-3-5) performance in a 9-4 win over the Green Bay Gamblers. Halliday picked up his second powerplay assist of the week to give Dubuque a 3-1 lead before assisting on a pair of goals 18 seconds apart to open the second period scoring before picking up a goal of his own four minutes later and adding a powerplay tally of his own midway through the second frame. Halliday closed his high-scoring week with another pair of assists on Saturday, both on the powerplay, in a 7-2 win over the Gamblers. Halliday currently has 93 points (35-58-93) through 60 games this season, which leads USHL scorers and has set new Tier I USHL records for career points with 214 points (68-146-214) in 215 career games with Dubuque and the Central Illinois Flying Aces. Halliday, who represented Dubuque in the BioSteel All-American Game in January, was ranked ranked 108th among North American Skaters in the NHL Central Scouting (NHLCS) Midseason Rankings and is currently on a six game point streak (5-8-13). With his trio of multi-point games last week, Halliday now has 30 multi-point games in 60 games this season and has only been held off the scoresheet 13 times. 

Mittelstadt came up big offensively for the Capitols on Saturday night, picking up three points (1-2-3) in a 4-0 win over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. The Eden Prairie, Minn. native assisted on a pair of powerplay tallies in the first two periods before picking up a powerplay marker of his own early in the third period to cap the scoring. The three-point game was Mittelstadt’s sixth game with three-or-more points this season. The University of Minnesota commit has 55 points (19-36-55) in 60 games this season and is currently tied for second in points among defensemen this season while his goals and assists rank third and eighth, respectively, among blueliners. Mittelstadt’s 19 goals this season is tied for the third-best mark among defensemen in a single USHL season during the Tier I era. Mittelstadt appeared in the 2022 BioSteel All-American Game and is the younger brother of Casey Mittelstadt, who was Drafted 8th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2017 NHL Draft. 

Latkoczy earned his second Goaltender of the Week award this season after allowing just one goal on 55 shots last weekend, helping Madison earn three of a possible four points. The Trencin, Slovakia native turned aside 23 shots on Friday night as the Capitols fell to the RoughRiders in a 1-0 overtime loss. The following night, the University of Nebraska-Omaha commit turned aside all 31 shots he saw for his second shutout of the season. Last weekend’s pair of performances marked the 12th and 13th times this season that Latkoczy has held opponents to two-or-fewer goals through his 41 appearances this season. On the year, the netminder has a 22-16-2-0 record with a 3.35 goals against average and 0.885 save percentage and has set new career-highs for wins (22), games played (41), minutes played (2,364), shutouts (2) and saves (1,017). Latkoczy holds a career 37-33-2-2 record with a 3.55 goals against average and 0.885 save percentage in 77 career games with Madison and the Chicago Steel. The Slovakian netminder helped lead Chicago to a Clark Cup Championship last season and represented Slovakia at the 2022 World Junior Championships before being named 32nd overall among North American goaltenders on the NHLCS Midseason Rankings.