Godsmack

I thought it would be fun to start chatting about Miami and the mess of a season it’s looking like it’ll be as Chris Bergeron enters his fifth season behind the bench. Miami started out 4-1 but is now 4-5-1, and have lost 4 in a row. Miami goes to UND next weekend before having a home and home against Mercyhurst (2-5-1) then a home series against an injury plagued Duluth team (3-5-3), and then on the road at Niagara (2-6-1). Bergeron better hope to come out of this stretch with at least a couple of wins or it could spell disaster the rest of the way as their schedule gets noticeably much more difficult from there. I watched much of the CC/Miami series this weekend and, all due respect to the Tigers, CC made relatively easy work of the Red Hawks and let’s be honest, CC isn’t a world beater. They’re much improved over the disastrous Haviland era but like Schloss has said many times leading up to this season, the Tigers have a very good freshman class and next year’s is looking strong as well but they’re still a season or two away from being a conference contender. So with that said, things are not looking good in Oxford. Hopefully UND will remember that loss to them at home last fall as that loss contributed to UND not making the tournament.

Did anyone else have issues with the volume of the BU play by play guys? It seemed muted but whenever they’d go to commercial the volume was really loud. (We’d gotten the ESPN+ subscription)

So I’m at the CC/DU game watching the Pios have their way with the Tigers so I couldn’t watch the UND game. Can anyone give me a cliffs notes version summary of how the game went down?

And they’re doing it again tonight. Those sweeps of Union and Long Island University kinda show we haven’t exactly beaten world beaters. CC’s showing improvement from the dreaded Haviland years but Kris Mayotte still has a ways to go.

Is anyone else’s connection all choppy? Got ESPN+ last night and the UND/BU tv production was just fine but this Midco Sports Two production keeps breaking up on me.

I’m no football expert but it seems like the strategy of the Murray State offense is to simply throw deep balls and hope for help from the refs.

I think having played the likes of Simon Frasier, Union, Long Island University, and Air Force, it may have masked some of the deficiencies that still persist with a young CC team. DU exposed those deficiencies tonight.

Sorry, very late to the party here but what happened during the handshake line? I noticed a Mavs player bumped Johannes and then there were words exchanged. Was this because of his cele after scoring?

Thoughts on the CC game… I agree with coach Mayotte’s post game comments-CC didn’t match Augustana’s intensity out of the blocks and again for the sixth straight game, CC took way too many penalties and had some bad d zone break downs that left Mbereko hanging out to dry. I liked CC’s compete level though as they battled back from the 4-1 deficit. They had a five on three with a five minute power play and scored one but would’ve been nice to pop in two, obviously. Give Auggie credit, they’re big and physical and well coached and earned that victory. They’re a good solid team that’s going to win some games this year.

Poor Air Force. I bet DU’s going to stomp a mud hole in them tonight. They probably feel embarrassed blowing those two leads and settling for a tie at home against an upstart program. I’ll be at the CC/Augustana game tonight. Should be competitive. After watching Augustana last night, I’m not so sure about CC’s chances but it should be competitive to say the least. CC’s much improved, a lot faster, more skill but young and inexperienced. It’ll be fun.

CC wins some hardware tonight. They retain the Pikes Peak trophy by beating Air Force in their one and only matchup of the season.

Don’t tell the Vikings of Augustana that the OT shootout doesn’t count for anything! Huge game for their program tonight!

The strangest goal I ever witnessed was circa 2010, maybe? At World Arena, a delayed penalty was being called on CC. So the UND goaltender skates off for an extra attacker and I wanna say Vandevelde made a no look pass backwards from center ice thinking his D man was back there to reset and start the charge up ice. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware that his defensemen had skated off for a line change and we all watched the puck slowly but surely drift down the ice into the wide open UND net. CC fans were delirious with joy. I think we got smoked that game something like, 7-3 or something. Scott Owens commented that he’d never seen anything like it. But I digress….back to UND/Mavericks talk here.

During a recent podcast, Schloss was reminiscing on old WCHA battles between UND and Mankato and reminded the listener of the 2008 series when a Maverick player not only scored a natural hat trick against UND, but all 3 goals were shorties! I don’t remember this happening but perhaps I wanted to forget it at the time. Lol

https://www.grandforksherald.com/podcasts/und-hockey-podcast Boy, Schloss, Eli, and Jason sure are bullish on Britt, Pike, and Albrecht. Apparently, due to injuries to Zmolek and Pherson, Britt logged over 27 minutes of ice time, most of it five on five.

Dang it! Here I just stumbled upon it by accident a week or two ago and I was thinking, “Oh wow, a new feature!” -I’m proof that even a blind squirrel catches a nut once in a while.

Is this a new feature where a subscriber can watch an archived game? I like it!

I loved Schmaltz’s stick pop on Snuggerud in the waning seconds to prevent him from getting off a shot from close range. Such a heads up D zone play by Schmaltz.

There was one power play in the third period for UND that comes to mind where they did all the right things but score. I recall Berg camped out in front of Close and getting a couple nice looks where Close just stoned us.

Someone on GPL is saying both the NCHC director of officials as well as two of the on ice officials are UND alums (insinuating home cooking). Can anyone verify the validity of that claim?

Putting the wrong Gopher player in the penalty box twice has been a bee in Gopher fans’ bonnets over there on GPL. Can’t say I blame them either. Makes the officials look even more incompetent.

Trolling GPL, Gopher fans have pegged Blake as the next Robbie Earl. Lots of comments about how he takes dives and how that won’t work at the NHL level. Fun reading.

Clearly this fan didn’t bother to check and see that Justin Close is 2 months older than Hunter Johannes. Both are 25 years old.

Any chatter from Gopher fans about the officiating last night? I think we had 6 power plays to their 2. Lots of tripping calls made. I do know the Gophers got away with a hook on Blake during a second period UND power play that would’ve given us a 5 on 3. It was so obvious too and right in front of the ref. Stick up high around Blake’s neck area as he was marching toward the net with the puck.