Godsmack

1. UND (split with Omaha) 2. DU (split with CC) 3. SCSU (split with Duluth) 4. CC (split with DU) 5. Western (sweeps Miami) 6. Omaha (split with UND) 7. Duluth (split with SCSU) 8. Miami (swept by WMU) If my predictions hold, I have WMU leapfrogging Omaha to win the tie breaker. If Western sweeps Miami and Omaha splits with UND, both teams would be tied in points at 37 but if I’m right, Western wins the head to head tie breaker over Omaha given they had 2 regulation wins over Omaha to Omaha’s 2 OT wins over Western. I don’t feel that DU will have a cakewalk with CC like they did back in November. CC has grown by leaps and bounds since that series and have a level of moxie, swagger, and confidence that I haven’t seen in them in over a decade. That said, I just don’t see DU getting swept by the Tigers. DU will lock up second place by virtue of earning 3 points to maintain their lead over St. Cloud who I think will split at Duluth and therefore, lock up 3rd place. Finally, CC will lock up 4th place by earning 3 points against DU. Even if CC gets swept, so long as Omaha doesn’t get at least 4 points (Omaha has the tie breaker with CC), the Tigers will finish with the final home playoff spot. Omaha has a lot more work ahead of them to catch the Tigers (get at least a regulation win and an OT loss to earn the 4 points needed to catch the Tigers). Did I miss anything or mis-state any of my comments?

Went to the CC game tonight. Luke Bast lost his marbles with the refs down the stretch. Admittedly, a very soft call was made on him and Duluth with 3 minutes to play and it still a one goal game. Slammed his stick in the penalty box multiple times. Then he took a slashing call a minute later after CC had scored on the power play.

So does a tie do anything for either Omaha or CC tonight, Pairwise speaking?

I will be at the Friday night CC/UNO game at Baxter Arena. It’ll be interesting to see how Omaha game plans against CC. It’ll also be interesting to see if CC has any sort of emotional let down against the Mavs. Something tells me that, win or lose, Mayotte’s going to have his boys prepared and will continue to play well. They’re now in the hunt for the Penrose, not to mention, cannot afford to risk losses down the stretch as they’re still in that danger zone Pairwise speaking.

Oh yah, and you make a good point on that. Embereko is such a positionally sound goalie, it’s ridiculous. Might be one of the best goalies I’ve seen over the years.

This doesn’t diminish my opinion that Embereko is the top goaltender in the conference but I agree, so many shots on him were logo buster-type shots. Need to shoot some low at his feet and hope for some garbage goals.

My buddy delighted in the fact he sold his three seats for last night’s game for $110 a piece and that whoever paid that much got to see UND get killed. He assumes it had to have been UND fans who bought those tickets. Can’t say for certain but likely it was some UND fans who purchased them. Doubt any CC fan would pay that much.

I’ve always been a CC fan but I bleed green through and through. This weekend fricking stings. I’m royally frustrated and pissed off.

Over/under on Berry doing a post game interview with Hennessy?

Probably UND fans that headed for the exits and to the bar.

Announcer just said CC has never taken a 4 game sweep of UND in program history.

Over rated chants. Can’t say I can blame the fans.

And here Berry was just interviewed the other day talking about how crisp and sharp the players looked in practice all week. He said this was the best week of practice he’d seen all season.

Another thing I will say about Kris Mayotte is, I have full confidence that he’s going to right the ship there at CC. Keep in mind that his predecessor dug this program into an incredibly deep hole. I’ve been going to CC games dating back to the Buetow days. I’ve been a season ticket holder since the Scotty Owens era. You cannot even begin to appreciate how bad CC was from about 2013 until now. It was absurd how bad this program had become. Careful what we CC fans wish for, I see Mayotte taking a similar path as Don Lucia in that he will bring the program back to national relevance and then other suitors from bigger programs will come calling. The structure with which CC plays and the elite goaltending they’re getting from Embereko make them a very, very difficult team to play. Last night, I was scratching my head wondering how we could take 3 of 4 against a DU team that is much more dynamic and talented then CC but then got to thinking more about it and DU can’t touch CC in terms of defensive zone play and goaltending this year. Even though DU made quick and easy work of CC back in early November, it seems like the Tigers have grown by leaps and bounds over the past couple of months and are playing with a swagger I haven’t witnessed in over a decade.

I thought the same thing as you going into the Saturday night game back in Grand Forks. Not only did UND not come out with a response and better effort, they didn’t match CC’s effort which was even better than what they delivered in Friday’s game. I wrongfully assumed that CC had the potential to have a let down on Saturday, being satisfied with getting “a win” on the road in Grand Forks. Boy, was I ever mistaken. Kris Mayotte had the boys even more ready and out for blood on Saturday. So that kinda concerns me about tonight’s game as well. I can swallow a loss tonight if at least UND’s effort is where we all expect it to be from this program. If we don’t bring the kind of response I think all of us and more importantly the players and coaches should expect to bring, then we should be pretty concerned for how that will play out the rest of the season.

I’m only paraphrasing Bubs in his postgame when asked about the PK but basically he said CC was allowed to snap pucks all over the ice, UND wasn’t getting sticks in lanes, weren’t pressuring the puck carrier, etc. To me, UND looked tentative on the penalty kill. Almost scared as if we respected CC’s powerplay unit too much.

Stuff happens I guess. Even the Gophers aren’t immune to stinkers once in a while. They too got humbled tonight on the road at Notre Dame, 6-1. Let’s turn the page on this turd of a game and come back strong tomorrow. Goodnight everybody.

Mbereko wasn’t tested a whole lot but man, he made a game changing save on UND in the first period that either would’ve put us ahead 2-1 or tied it, I can’t exactly remember. He is an elite goaltender and is it too early to say he’s a lock for first team all-conference? I don’t think it is. That goalie should be behind bars, not between ‘em! LOL. He absolutely robbed us of a goal on that diving save.

Besides that, how was the rest of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

This was what cost us last season-dreadful D zone play by defensemen and forwards alike.

Did anyone catch the inexplicable blind pass to no one from behind our own net in the second period by one of our D men? CC got two really good shots off of that and I guess it was symbolic of the entire night. Our guy just blindly throws a pass right into our own slot to no one except a CC player.

Two turnovers in succession on that shift if I’m not mistaken.

I wonder what Berry and his staff saw that we didn’t challenging that goal for an offsides. Sure looked clear to me that Veremyev’s foot was firmly planted on the blue line. That decision cost us dearly as we got a delay of game penalty and we proceeded to give up a power play goal. This was a collective effort by players and coaches alike in this loss tonight.

Thing is, CC’s playing with swagger and they’re so dang structured. Also, has CC gotten into the psyche of the UND players now with their 3 wins in a row? -I hope not. Not confident we can come out of tomorrow with a W.

The thing is though, CC had the same bye week as we did. This is just such a head scratcher for me in terms of just how poorly we played tonight.