farce poobah

Total travel for that UND scenario ... better than most years, but its still 1800 miles, round tripping and all. At least the Badgers did have to leave town... to go to Green Bay for regionals and Milwaukee for the NCAA. Total travel ... under 500 miles. Minnesota 2003: didn't even have to leave town. WCHA in St Paul, regionals at Mariucci, and Frozen Four back in St Paul. Argh. CC hasn't won a NCAA title since last the tournament was held at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs. (They did come close ... 1996. Sigh.) Denver is another that won a hometown FF. BU of course. Never even left hometown. Over and over, the arguments for moving teams around from one regional to another really only favors the Boston schools, and the NE teams. So its not surprising that the NE based mouthpieces like Adam Wodon, don't want any change to a system that favors them. I say lets make sure the Frozen Four never offers a team a home crowd advantage. No more Boston, Albany, Providence (St Paul, Denver)... yes to Tampa, Dallas, Las Vegas. If the Regionals have to be "neutral ice", then the Frozen Four should be too. /end rant

Watched the end of it. ... I suspect the ESPN/NESN stream missed the penalized incident. First, BU with the hard pass up from their own zone to their bench area, where the camera missed which team played the puck, and missed showing what (i think) was a change behind the play. Then two seconds later, the freeze frame on the stream which showed two BU players (one of them extra) one step from the bench. I doubt that was what was actually called .... but I left being unsure where the infraction occurred.

There's never been a season with 3 Eastern teams as #1 regional seeds. Is this the year? I think not ...

CC in a battle - maybe an epic battle - for home ice also. Fun.

So, we started the year with 8 new defenders, and a "new" guy, Dillon Simpson, hired to coach the D. Couple months together, they're playing very cohesively, with each other and with the forwards and goalie. If there is an Assistant Coach of the Year Award, I have a nominee in mind.

My $.02 on Perron. And my flashback goes further back in Sioux history than Bochenski. I'm getting Dave Christian vibes. Both came in as 18 yo freshman, as smaller players, into a lineup filled with excellent players. Both skate very well, have great hands, can pass, and can score. Flashes of brilliance as freshmen interspersed with stretches where the play went somewhere else. Christian finished 9th on the UND team in scoring. Which is where Perron is now. I predict (like a lot of other people) a long and distinguished career for Perron. Keep the faith bro.

Tribute to how well DU coaches make adjustments overnight after Friday games. And, last night, without the major, they might have gotten a result again. But as it stands, DU is in a big scrum for home ice with CC, Western and UMD ... this is going to get crazy. One great save, one clutch goal, might be the difference between making the NCAA and not.

An overlooked ingredient of title teams? Upperclassmen with experience and skill playing 4th line and 3rd pair minutes. Thinking back to 2016, 2000, 1987 a common ingredient is team first guys in those roles. This UND team seems to have it too.

Credit Denver coaches for making changes coming into tonight, that gave them the edge early in period one. Generally, they looked to move the puck faster to teammates, and spend less time dangling where we forced a lot of turnovers last night. Credit to Berry and staff, and our guys, for second period changes. My favorite pass of the night: Abram Wiebe getting his second point in a UND jersey with the 150 footer to McLaughlin who fed Kunz for the breakaway goal. Come tournament time, surviving a long stretch of extra-attacker against a potent offense will be nice to draw when that time comes. Both nights, we looked really well prepared to handle the 5x6.

Fabulous job of forcing turnovers. Speed killed it Friday night. Now, we just need to start converting on those odd man rushes.

They do have 9 NHL draft picks on their roster. Last year, were 24-8-2. As much as I love to see Harvard fall flat on their face, this is unexpected to be sure.

Ness - an especially loud cheer when he scores. Leading by example.

Count me shocked the green-oriented MN Legislature and MNSCU couldn't swing that. Of course, at the rate SCSU enrollment has been shrinking (halted this year), they may choose to delay investments ...

I think its very Jan Brady of St Cloud to continue to name their rink after the guy that build them an oversized pink elephant rink that handicaps them every time they go on the road, and especially in the NCAA's. (And very Jan Brady not to change the size of rink, as if Herbie would strike back at them from the afterlife if they changed it.) I wonder ... if SCSU had an NHL rink, how many NCAA titles they would have. They've been as good or better than Duluth for as long...

Anyone who is bored on Sunday afternoon, or who wants to watch the nation's #1 goaltender, Jakob Hellsten, can watch U Conn vs New Hampshire on espn plus. (Or NESN for the New Enlglanders.)

No PP for UND. Yet.

It’s rare that I’m interested in xG, but that first period would be interesting number. We had 4 odd man rushes, they had one? Maybe. Their high pressure gambling style leads to chances we need to convert.

Makes sense to me. Gaber needs a skilled center man to get him the puck (checkmark for Berg) and a wide body with some wheels to keep up and set screens (Johannes is excellent but Kunz is good too). And linemates to go after rebounds. (I'm not arguing against a higher profile role for Perron, who shows flashes of genius every week. I like Perron on a different line from Gaber since he will get more chances to play on the puck, and set up / shoot.)

Speaking of audio, I've never heard anyone quote Caddyshack (1979) in quite this way. Geno says "Noonan" way after the puck is shot. Dude, you gotta do that before he shoots it. "Noonan" (Explanatory note: at the end of the movie Danny "Noonan" has a putt for $80,000. His opponents try to distract him with his name...)

"I'm telling you, he jumped us!"

Box score of the night? 168 penalty minutes: MI vs MI St. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/final/20240119/mic/msu/

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/pairwise/

Up to #3 in Pairwise ...

Zmolek had a very sound game, with a LOT of blocked shot attempts ... 8? 10? I don't like that penalty either but I though he was good tonight.

Finally an interference call. Nice.