College hockey

CaptainMusky wrote:

I do think the Gophers (and other teams) who have Olympic sized ice sheets have a disadvantage come tourney time compared to those who play on NHL or North American rinks.

That was the knock on St Cloud for years. They’d have a really good regular season and win most of their home games because they had players with speed who could use that extra ice to their advantage. But when the post season came around, they often lost that advantage on a smaller sheet. Doesn’t appear to be a problem this year, so far.

BigWerm wrote:

It’s a skill game, and the Gophers generally have their pick of the most skilled kids.

Would be nice if that were true for other gophers sports.

Was nott whining for the Gophers as I don’t really have a horse in the race. I was just pointing out that Gophers are relatively young team and Mankato is a relatively more mature team and it showed. IMHO. Either way there are a lot of Minnesota kids playing in the frozen 4 which is pretty cool.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Was nott whining for the Gophers as I don’t really have a horse in the race. I was just pointing out that Gophers are relatively young team and Mankato is a relatively more mature team and it showed. IMHO. Either way there are a lot of Minnesota kids playing in the frozen 4 which is pretty cool.

There were 31 in the gopher mav game alone! I love it!

CaptainMusky wrote:

There are certainly other teams you could pick to use the age critique besides Mankato. When the Gophers lost to Union and Yale several years ago, those teams even had players pushing mid 20’s. That’s a big difference.
I dont think age had anything to do with the outcome of this game. The Gophers couldnt generate anything and that is less about them I think and more about how well the Mavericks played.
I do think the Gophers (and other teams) who have Olympic sized ice sheets have a disadvantage come tourney time compared to those who play on NHL or North American rinks. Gophers had no time or space last night. Kudos to the Mavericks, they deserved it.

Mankato has 8 players born in 96 and 6 in 97. That would qualify as pushing mid 20’s for sure.

Like I said no horse in the race. Used to be Gopher fan back in the day. That was well before the other schools in the state were even in the equation really. Now just more of a college hockey fan just in general. I actually think it is kind of cool that three teams from Minnesota are in the frozen four and one of them isn’t the U of M
Tough to bet against the bulldogs. They are a tough out in this tourney in recent years. A father vs son matchup would be kind cool.

Umass is reporting that they are without their starting goalie, backup goalie, top scoring forward, and another forward for the Frozen Four due to covid protocols. That is a massive blow. Duluth will be playing a depleted team on Thursday night.

What are the odds Duluth wins the whole thing while only playing one game all tournament?

Greenhorn wrote:

What are the odds Duluth wins the whole thing while only playing one game all tournament?

I guess the affected Umass players didn’t even board the plane to Pittsburgh so even if they do win, those players won’t be playing on Saturday.

Its quite possible that Duluth may only have to win 2 games to get their 3rd straight national title.

This is a serious question and I’m not trying to start any political crap.
Do you think that it’s becoming a bit tougher for the gophers to recruit due to the location of the campus? When you have places like Duluth, Bemidji, St. Cloud etc. Minneapolis has seen better days for sure.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Greenhorn wrote:</div>
What are the odds Duluth wins the whole thing while only playing one game all tournament?

I guess the affected Umass players didn’t even board the plane to Pittsburgh so even if they do win, those players won’t be playing on Saturday.

Its quite possible that Duluth may only have to win 2 games to get their 3rd straight national title.

Final 4, they only need to win 2 no matter what.

belletaine wrote:

This is a serious question and I’m not trying to start any political crap.
Do you think that it’s becoming a bit tougher for the gophers to recruit due to the location of the campus? When you have places like Duluth, Bemidji, St. Cloud etc. Minneapolis has seen better days for sure.

I think the recent success of the Duluth program hurts the U more than anything. They no longer are the bullies in the sandbox. St. Cloud is really a suburb of the Twin Cities as far as travel goes. The kids that go to Bemidji or Mankato I don’t think are kids that would go to the U anyway.

belletaine wrote:

This is a serious question and I’m not trying to start any political crap.
Do you think that it’s becoming a bit tougher for the gophers to recruit due to the location of the campus? When you have places like Duluth, Bemidji, St. Cloud etc. Minneapolis has seen better days for sure.

Not at all. The 3 other cities you mentioned aren’t exactly safe little utopias.

belletaine wrote:

Do you think that it’s becoming a bit tougher for the gophers to recruit due to the location of the campus?

No. What’s made it tougher for the U to recruit is UND and UMD’s success and to a lesser extent SCSU, BSU and Mankato. Although I still think the U is looked at as the top college to go to in general for college hockey, and they have their pick of the top players for the most part. This probably varies regionally a little bit more now though too, due to those other teams success.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>belletaine wrote:</div>
This is a serious question and I’m not trying to start any political crap.
Do you think that it’s becoming a bit tougher for the gophers to recruit due to the location of the campus? When you have places like Duluth, Bemidji, St. Cloud etc. Minneapolis has seen better days for sure.

Not at all. The 3 other cities you mentioned aren’t exactly safe little utopias.

Agreed. The Gophers can still get anyone they want or would consider MN. I mean, there are kids that WANT to play for SCSU, Duluth, etc. Not every player has wanted their entire life to be a Gopher.

Apparently one of the players tested positive for Umass last Friday and the other 3 were listed as close contacts. The 3 close contacts must isolate for 7 days and if they test negative after that period, they are eligible to return. So if Umass wins tonight, 3 of those 4 players could be eligible to play on Saturday if they are still negative. They don’t list who the person who tested positive is for privacy reasons.

National Semi-finals today:
St Cloud vs Mankato, 4pm on ESPN2
Massachusetts vs Duluth, 8pm on ESPN2

Holy crap what a game. St Cloud 5-4 they score with 53 seconds left in the third.

I didn’t get to listen to it all sounds like Mankato was dominating the second glad the huskies hot the win you could tell they missed brodzinski

It was 3-1 before Mankato got it going. The game winner came on a nice tip out front on a blast from the point.

The next 11 minutes of the UMD game should be pretty good!

Overtime. Duluth got outplayed in the third I thought.

Thats that. UMD goes down in overtime. Completely outplayed since the 2nd period.

UMASS looked like they had a man advantage in ot.

Let’s go Huskies!

UMass is going to be tough to beat.

Only caught the end of the UMD game but they had concrete boots on, just not moving at all. You’d think they were short handed. Go Huskies!!!

It was 5 on 1 the entire OT.
DT

Duluth had all of the advantages this game with UMass being short so many top starters.

Duluth was the better team for the first two periods. It shifted some in the third and then in OT it was very lopsided in favor of Umass.

Umass may get 3 of those 4 missing players back tomorrow too now. Which includes their starting goal tender and top scorer if they both test negative today.

If you were the head coach of Umass, would you pull the guy that just won last night against the champs for your regular starting goalie tomorrow? Tough decision.

With how lopsided the shot totals were through the first two periods, UMD should have been up another goal. That powerplay where UMASS scored their first was a bad call no doubt, but there could have been another similar call the other way, so can’t get too uppity about it. UMD had a lot of head-scratcher type turnovers that kept giving UMASS some quality chances, and like a few others have said, UMASS just outworked them in the third/OT. Tough loss for sure, but have to expect someone else to win one eventually

EDIT: Go Huskies! Have to at least keep the trophy in Minny/NCHC!

gim wrote:

Umass may get 3 of those 4 missing players back tomorrow too now. Which includes their starting goal tender and top scorer if they both test negative today.

If you were the head coach of Umass, would you pull the guy that just won last night against the champs for your regular starting goalie tomorrow? Tough decision.

It sounds like they will be able to play.
Goalie? Absolutely put Lindberg (Wild prospect). He led college hockey in GAA and was a stud all year. No offense to the goalie who played last night, but he isnt as good as Lindberg.
I didnt realize that Murray was on that Humbolt team from the bus crash 3 years ago. Man, what he must have gone through and dealt with losing so many friends and teammates. Oof.

CaptainMusky wrote:

He led college hockey in GAA and was a stud all year.

They said that about Dryden McKay too last night and he let in 5 goals. I think McKay’s numbers are inflated because of the “lesser” competition he goes against most of the time in the WCHA. The only two times in his career as a starter that he’s allowed 5 goals are both against St Cloud.

I would probably put Lindberg in there too though.