farce poobah

A lot of teachable moments the last couple weeks. I hope the players get their heads around them. I would put bad penalties at the top of the "preventable" list. (Better shot blocking #2.) On multiple penalties last night, we put ourselves in positions that simply can't happen. In period 1, Shaw gets his stick and then arm in a place it just can't be, leading to a penalty when the UMD guy uses that to his advantage. In period 2, Wilkie puts his stick parallel for an instant where it simply can't go. (And yeah the UMD guy grabbed the stick which should have been a penalty too BUT Wilkie just can't do that.) Then in period 3, Wolanin's hit which simply can't happen. And these are guys who should know better; game-seasoned Sophomores. Beyond that, its now three games in a row with late third-period penalties. All due to loss of composure or concentration (none of them stopped an imminent goal / opportunity). All preventable. This has to stop and I wish the coaches all the best in addressing it.

Siphon has drawn it empty. Now its just a giant sucking sound.

Gloves were a good spot to bring in frozen Gophers. "Someone I know" got patted down regularly: waist, jacket, hip pockets and even boots, but somehow the gloves were never checked. Another guy I know brought in a goose in the back of his bib overalls. Was frisked on his jacket pockets and hip pockets but not his back. The other thing that made tossing Gophers easy back in the day was that the glass was so low. A real throwing motion was hardly necessary ... could just be part of the motion to rise up and celebrate a goal. (Low plexiglass made it way easier to give officials advice too.)

Meanwhile Jost keeps winning face off after face off. PK would have been a lot harder without him in the circle.

Little things ... Gersich hustles away an icing call, which leads to 40 seconds of play in the Miami end, which leads to a penalty call on Miami. Well done.

Ridiculous penalty on Tucker. Old school take-out-the-defenseman.

The good news is the bulk of the action has been in the Miami end. Johnson with just one save so far in the 3rd.

Michigan State leading Penn State after two! Woot! Go Sparty.

And the center was up too high leaving no outlet for him (and no coverage after the turnover).

Hobey Gersich!

It might be a tie.

WMU up 1-0 on Denver. 10 minutes left. Looking more and more like Andy Murray has (finally) put together the team he's wanted to: big, fast, with top-line scoring and a solid goaltender.

mwahahahaha!

(Sorry about the news, but) Glad to hear your AD / coaching staff have strong backbone. In addition to Hockey East, I would think ECAC scheduling would be good for Miami. There's also a fit of like-institutions.

I'm more worried that Blais might try to lift Goehring to Omaha. If Omaha's goaltending was as good as ours, the weekend would have been quite close.

I love how every time the tv cameras pan Dean Blais, we see a row of Sioux jerseys behind him.

Need to bring it tomorrow, same effort.

Omaha did get 5 in the 3rd period of their last game so ... lets not let up.

Seems like what people said about Michigan last year.

Yes, I think so. Hockey in the USA hasn't yet tapped into all the places where talent can come from. We're in the middle stages of a generational evolution from the 1980's (half Massachusetts, half Minnesota), to where it will be (20-ish states regularly providing elite players). Certainly Ohio and Pennsylvania are the lowest hanging fruit for consistently producing more elite players than historically. We're also middle stages of the transition from rare medallist (1 time in the 1980's) to now (5 times this decade so far) to being perennial favorites. During my lifetime, I think we overtake Canada in this event. But hey I'm just an optimist at the start of every year.

10 years ago, it seemed clear to me they disliked the USA but really hated the Russians (aka Soviets, the Red Army and all that history). In the last decade, we've moved up. And 10 years from now, they will be cheering for Russia ...

Now if Denver and Omaha can get off the schneid.

Excellent win for Miami over Ohio State. Just another brick in the wall.

Games like this are an opportunity for the non-headliner guys to get an opportunity in prime playing time. I predict Wilkie opens the scoring and UND goes on to win.

CC with a nice win over Cornell tonight. 2-1 in OT. Good weekend for them. I keep thinking they are about to turn the corner. Wins over Hockey East (Merrimack) last night and ECAC tonight are another brick in the NCHC Pairwise wall.