Saw Saturday in person ... Gotta love the Midwest Wireless Center, where the SRO tickets at center ice, perfect elevation, are better than most of the real seats. Thanks, ticketba$#%d for giving us SRO.
How would I summarize Saturday's game? "The Sioux gave a tremendous effort, a near-perfect effort, interspersed with some colossal mistakes, some by rookies, some by players that should know better. Mankato got a few scoring chances, and they were great ones, but only a few, and buried them. The Sioux got a lot of chances and didn't."
Frankly, I left with a very different impression of the game than taz boy did.
Starting at the top:
Mankato's first goal, a blast from center point by Metcalf, came off a one-timer from a pass near the faceoff dot to Ranfranz's left. It hit the far post and dinged in, barely eluding Ranfranz's slide. It was the 1 that goes in of the 100 that get taken. I can't see there's any real "blame" to the goaltender or the defensive coverage.
Mankato's second goal followed several mistakes, by almost everyone on the ice except Ranfranz. Sioux had possession on the right boards, clearing pass bounced off Mav forechecker, then Marvin flings the puck around to nobody, then Schneider interferes/hooks a Mav behind the net so he doesn't get to the loose puck first, but is forced to drop his stick to avoid getting a minor called, and then he heads prematurely to the bench (to get a stick, I think not to change). Meantime, we did clear the zone, but nobody covers the vacant D spot, and when Mav's intercept another poor pass at center ice, that leaves Stevenson cruising in on a clean break, and he buries a wrister high in the corner. A beautiful sniper shot. But set up by a series of mental and physical mistakes by the Sioux.
Mav's third goal came on the powerplay. Scramble, Able buries the rebound. This was one that I don't think gets scored with D Hale in the lineup. While Lee Marvin has shown good improvement since the start of the season, PK is a place where he can be outmuscled and D Hale won't be.
Mav's fourth goal was the softest of the night, long soft wrister from center point, through a crowd near the blue line and just off the back of a Mav and Sioux who skated across in front of Ranfranz ... presumably he got distracted by the guys in front and picked up the wrister late. A real "oh sh$t" kind of goal.
Mav's fifth goal came 4x3, and immediately followed a tremendous SH rush by Spiewak and Noterman, both of whom had chances ... [oh, the bounces]. Anyway Noterman and Spiewak catch up to the rush, and don't give up an oddman rush the other way, but Noterman overruns the play and gets caught in the corner when Stevenson comes crashing down the slot. Frankly, he was only a step or two too deep, but that was enough to let Stevenson have time to bury another snap shot. The guy is a truly great goalscorer, and we gave him two chances that he buried. No blame to Ranfranz on this one either.
So, I wouldn't call it a "goaltending nightmare". People I talked with after the second coulnd't believe the scorers had credited the Mavs for just 17 shots. If the Sioux had 30, then Mavs had 30 too.
Third period, Mavs went into the prevent defense, and they aren't very good at it. ... They gave up at least a dozen bona-fide scoring chances. Coulda shoulda,
As to the Sioux players:
Parise played with great intensity, and realistically he caused Marvin's goal by crashing the net, okay letting a Mav defenseman check him into their goalie, who was way out of position when Marvin's snap shot hit the net. At times, he looked a bit leg weary, not the same jump seen at times, but he showed the great hands. Also drew a critical Mav penalty 3x5 with an outstanding pick at center ice and a rush where the D was forced to bring him down ...
Bochenski ... whereas early in the season everything hit the back of the net, now it hits the tender. Not the obvious show of intense emotion and drive that others display ...
Noterman and Spiewak, played with obvious passion and energy. Some terrific PK work, I like using them on 3x4 and 3x5 PK situations instead of 2 D ...
McMahon - Prpich - Hale: solid game, mostly. Stevenson-Joseph didn't get anything even strength. Prpich will be on the MSU season highlight film when Jensen robbed him late in the 2nd period on a flashy dive-across-the-net save.
Lundbohm and Massen seemed to be mostly invisible, except for a couple strong shifts each.
Connelly and Palmo played with good energy. Telling that they got some PP time during the major, and got our only goal.
I agree with other comments about Palmiscno's passing skills ... he must see the ice terrifically well, reads the play ... just hope he stays healthy long enough to show us what he can do. Connelly is way way due. Lot of buzzing, but nothing to show for it yet.
As to the defense, I thought Schneider, Fuher, Jones and Greene were generally decent. Schneider was fortunate not to have been called for a major on the uppercut slash on Bassett late in the second ... looked like he wanted to lift the stick, missed, and got him on or near the face ... replay looks really bad, as in "suspension" kinda bad.
But we are most vulnerable when Leinweber or Marvin are on the ice. Of the two, however, Marvin is getting better ... and shows signs of listening to coaches. Leinweber, on the other hand, repeats mistakes that he made last year and the year before. (Don't come across from left D at center ice to take a guy into the far boards who's about to go off on a line change ... and about 3 more like plays that I noticed.) I realize we're asking a lot of these two guys have been thrown into the fire with D Hale out, but there is a huge difference in the play ...
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Bottom line, it was a game we should have won. But we didn't.
As to the Mav fans, I thought the 4300 or so that were there showed a decent level of enthusiasm (grade em a C+). The 800+ Sioux fans, however, were the reason for the record crowd.
Call me pollyanna, with green-colored glasses, but I think we will sweep Duluth, and I give us a fair chance of sweeping Wisconsin. Sign me up for a 3rd place finish, and bring in Tech for the rematch in the first round ... With 6 points, home ice would be a virtual lock ... and SCSU or Denver or Duluth are a considerably tougher opponent.
And, I hope that if D Hale's kidney situation is as serious as it sounds, that he spends his time on getting healthy and not on hockey ... its just a game, its just not worth risking long-term health consequences for ... Get well soon, and Godspeed. What we need is a show of support ... maybe a giant Get Well Card in the lobby of the REA next weekend for people to sign ...
