Ok, put me back on the Wisconsin bandwagon. Very impressive road sweep at UND.
Colorado College had a very nice sweep of St. Cloud State. SCSU didn't just hand over the 4 points to CC like they've done in recent years.
Michigan State is another team that was impressive in taking care of business on home ice. There was some question about the Friday night after a questionable check from behind was called against Northern's Pat Bateman, but MSU removed all doubt with a dominating 5-0 score on Saturday. Dominic Vicari only had to make 15 saves for the shutout. It also puts a dent in the nice stats that Bill Zaniboni racked up against weaker offenses in the previous weeks.
Ohio State is pretty much in free fall mode right now, after getting swept again, this time by Miami. Miami was going to be a tough place for the Buckeyes to right the ship, but the team that was expected to win the CCHA this year should have been able to take some points away from this weekend.
Speaking of getting healthy, Anchorage looks to be have been the tonic that rejuvenated Wisconsin, and they provided a similar service this weekend for a struggling Mankato team that was able to pick up their first win of the season on Friday, and a tie on Sunday. Not only did the Mavericks find their first win in Alaska, they may have found a starting goalie in Dan Tormey. Tormey won the start on Friday after an intense week of competition in practice and earned the start on Saturday with the win on Friday. Mankato had been searching for someone to step up in goal and start making difficult saves when the team in front of them makes a mistake, and Tormey did that on Saturday, by making a great save with 9 seconds left in overtime to preserve the tie.
I think it's safe to say that the Minnesota Golden Gophers are struggling right now. Even with what Don Lucia is saying about his team being overrated going into the season, I don't think anybody expected them to be a .500 hockey team at this point. You can't really blame the schedule either. UAF is better than expected and they've played on the road twice now, but they've also faced three WCHA teams that are expected to finish in the bottom half of the league. After they face Anchorage next weekend, the schedule will only get tougher. It's looking like it will be tough for the Gophers to win the WCHA this year.
For the Minnesota-Duluth, it all goes back to what I said before the season. For them to be successful, Isaac Reichmuth needs to be playing a lot, and playing well for the Dogs to have a chance. At least for this weekend, Reichmuth looked like the goalie he was prior to the third period of the Frozen Four game against Denver rather than the goalie he was after that period.
I also got the opportunity to watch freshmen Matt Niskanen and Mason Raymond from Duluth. I came away very impressed with the way that they played.
Insidecollegehockey.com gets to look dumb this week for hyping Western Michigan all week before the Broncos went out to get embarassed by Lake Superior.
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3 comments:
Minnesota has not played great hockey to this point. No doubt about that. At the same time, you can pretty much toss out the records of SCSU or UMD when they have the Gophers on their home ice. Even when they are bad, those two teams have typically played the Gophers tough when the Gophers come to town.
I'd be more concerned if Minnesota were playing poorly and getting thoroughly beaten. But their losses have been hard fought one goal barn burners. The only surprising loss to me was the home loss in OT to UAF but UAF is proving to be a quality team so that softens it a bit.
If you want to look for a negative trend, I'd look at North Dakota right now. Losing a number of in conference home games by multiple goals is not a good sign for where you will end up at year's end. You'd have to wonder if the home losses are going to do a number on the confidence of a very young team as they head out on the road in league playat UMD next week.
Minnesota had won at least 8 in row over St. Cloud. They have struggled against Duluth, but this wasn't the Duluth team that went to the Frozen Four.
As for North Dakota, I agree that they're not looking that great, but I also think it was a little more expected. I think most people expected a slow start with the youth they had on defense, and I don't really remember anyone picking them to finish above 4th in the league this season.
News Flash!
In other news:
Here: "Ohio State is pretty much in free fall mode right now"
USCHO: "Continuing their freefall were No. 12 Minnesota and Ohio State"
I say you sue.
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