hockeytherapy13

Of course their broadcast makes zero mention that we were 100% robbed of a goal due to an early whistle by a ref in poor position to blow it dead. That’s going to be a big story in this game because I don’t see us scoring 2 more goals to win it

Goalie also passed it to a guy who wasn’t even open

Nice to see someone can see all the right colors

Yep it’s not just you…. Or IS IT????

I still want to see Strinden on a line where he can get more ice time. Either he or ness on that 3rd line in place of schmaltz would automatically generate more offense and still be defensively sound. That would also get a person with Perron with some strength that could create more space for Perron to release his shot more often. Schmaltz is still a string bean that is too easy to get off the puck. Both ness and strinden would be better there. But I hope Schmaltz gets a hatty this weekend and proves me wrong.

Yep 8pm central since it’s 7pm Mountain.

This feels like one of the most important weekends of the season. Playing a game with a lot on the line (us vying for 1st in the NCHC and holding onto a 1-seed for the ncaa tourney while CC tries to move into an at-large spot and keep its hopes for NCHC home ice). With CC being a team that has playoff-level defense and goaltending all the time is a great test for us going into the playoffs. This is the weekend that will prepare us the most for the NCAAs with how tight it will be and how hard both teams will be going at it. Big time test for the boys that will teach us a lot about this team.

Berry and company have done an excellent job putting the team together this year and bringing us up multiple notches. But it's hard to see someone other than Mayotte winning coach of the year in our conference. He definitely deserves it with where that program was for 7-8 straight years. Major props to him

We could have scored 5 goals in that Saturday game against them if not for Close. He's been annoyingly good in the games I've watched him play. Scares me a bit, to be honest.

Omaha will play hard the rest of the way through. Because even if they aren't playing for home ice, they want to be playing their best hockey heading into the playoffs to have a chance to keep their season alive. Also, they will play hard because we are their biggest rival and ended their season last year, so that'll give them an extra boost.

With our remaining schedule being more difficult than we would have expected, I feel confident we finish Top 3 but I still don't feel like number 1 is a guarantee. CC on the road will be a huge challenge for us since they are so good defensively and possibly the best goaltending in the league along with stellar coaching. Omaha is trending in the right direction right now and playing them on the road might be tougher than we would have originally thought in the earlier part of the year. If we can split with CC and UNO on the road, that will be a big deal. Regarding remaining regular season home games: Western can pump goals in left and right but as least we get to play them at home and try to neutralize their top scorers with last line change. And although UMD is having a down year, they are still coached by Sandelin and have had some decent games in the New year thus far, therefore, we may not get a clean sweep over them like we did at Amsoil (but boy would it feel incredible to go 4-0 against them this year). All things considered, if we can be healthy and get consistent production from our top 6 (who knows who will be with Berg and Gaber on the top pairing next weekend) while continuing our upward trend of having good puck management, it seems like this team could hoist the pasta trophy outright in Omaha. Making Omaha fans watch us hoist there again would also feel good because they clearly have an obsession with UND

Only way we comeback is by getting strinden playing with scorers. He’s flying and if he deserves a better spot tonight. Bad change by the coaching staff on the shuffle

I was hard on Blake’s defensive play but he has really started turning a corner the last 2 weekends. The coaches are doing some great work with him and more importantly, he seems to be listening.

Seriously a johannes-Jammer-Strinden line would be outstanding. You have size, speed, and skill. Jammer is a decent faceoff guy and all 3 of those guys know how to go hard to the net. But they also are reliable away from the puck. What you have above for forward combos is about as picture perfect as this team could be now that Perron is up to speed on how to play in the NCHC. Schmaltz on the 4th line where he can be defensively reliable is a great spot for him too, there’s no need to try to force offense out of him. Plus with that bottom line you have, you know you could always rely on 4 of them (depending on who is the extra skater) to be smart and shut things down.

We were outstanding in OT tonight. Even though we didn’t score we did everything right. Didn’t force a shot, brought the puck out of the zone to regather ourselves while maintaining possession, had good D zone coverage for the little bit that clown had the puck. Possibly our best OT of the season from a strategy standpoint. Loved it

They did that finally and guess what happens?

Yeah going with the same lines from wire to wire in this game is pure insanity. We were outshot 17-4 in the first, hardly had a scoring chance in the 2nd, and have nothing so far. But hey let’s change nothing and see if it ends up working? Painful

Why would we change things up when we’ve been creating so many offensive chances tonight?

Yeah we need to make a few changes in this game, badly. Time to switch the lines up a little and stop trying to force chemistry that doesn’t exist in certain places. Bump Perron up to the line with gaber and berg. Most importantly we need to start activating the defenseman into the rush because we didn’t have a lick of sustained o zone pressure the last 15 mins of the period. We have been outcoached for 35 of 40 mins tonight and it’s time for a counter punch. huge props to Persson for keeping us afloat along with our d zone play chipping out the second chances so that can’t get a rebound

That shot by McLaughlin was what started the rush the other way. St. Cloud has kept us to the perimeter all game so O Mac forced a shot that had zero chance of going in and zero chance of a rebound which sprung st cloud the other way and boom it’s in. Boneheaded play that I hope he learns from.

Yeah he made about 3 passes that ended up on the tape of someone wearing whine but anytime that happened he was in good position to prevent a major breakout or scoring chance. Definitely the best game he’s played defensively this year. I think the bigger rink plays to his advantage but of he keeps trending the way he played last night, this team will be scary. I’m also in the camp that Schmaltz needs to bump down to 4th line so we can get strinden with Jammer and Perron because even though they are all right handed shots, that trio could make up a top line on many teams.

I was there, too, and it was insane. Once the game got to 7-1 a couple of St. Cloud fans probably in their 60s started flipping us off and were telling “eff the Sioux”. It was comical and sad at the same time haha but man, what a road game to be at while in college.

We haven't played on the road in a really long time so hopefully we can shake off the road rust quickly. Might be especially tough since we will be on the Olympic sheet but our team speed should make up for that as long as the forwards go hard through the neutral zone both directions. Seems like a weekend where James and Strinden are both going to shine.

I actually don't mind losing. But losing games where we have 2-goal leads is frustrating, especially in our own barn. The Friday game against Omaha we lost 3 separate leads and one of them was a 2-goal lead. On home ice. Also having a 2-goal lead go down our legs against CC at home is a tough way to lead to a loss. I thought Saturday against Omaha we did an excellent job of locking things down defensively (with the exception of maybe 1 of the forwards ). We were able to lock it down with Zmolek out of the lineup, which made it even more impressive. So if we can consistently play that well defensively with a lead, then we can do some good things. But if we show flashes of last year where we lose leads repeatedly, then the hopes for this team go down drastically.

I agree but he’s playing himself into a spot where he shouldn’t be on the ice in a later 1-goal game and should be mostly utilized when on the power play or when scraping our way back into a game. I was terrified with his line on the ice with a little over 2 mins to go because he hasn’t shown ability to change yet. If Blake hadn’t played last night or if he and Perron were switched on lines we night have gotten a shutout because yet again, one of his mistakes led to a goal. I really do want him on our team, badly. But for having played 1.5 years, he should be better on both ends of the puck now. Bumping him to a line with Jammer and Johannes would still be enough fire to get him going but also give him 2 line mates who play the game the right way.