Godsmack

I wouldn’t put it past the Huskies from winning the Frozen Faceoff. They seem to rise to the occasion in this tournament. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, go Pios.

So I think the cut line moved to 13 now, right? CC probably sweating bullets.

Coach at Princeton is out. https://www.uscho.com/2024/03/18/after-10-seasons-90-169-27-record-behind-bench-fogarty-out-as-coach-of-princetons-mens-hockey-team/?fbclid=IwAR0DhN4_3-TWFHwmgKtVTvBGW0G-yFcu-vokLyx_Fd-ZvxqBpV8MwaZYNqc

To your point, UNO looked a step slower and sluggish through large swathes of the series with CC. Credit to UNO however for managing that and cashing in on their opportunities. They also got the better of the goaltending play. CC outshot Omaha 122 to 58 for the weekend yet Latkoczy had a save % over 95% whereas Mbereko’s was around 86%. What was very curious to me was, despite CC carrying the play for much of the series, CC never held a lead until yesterday’s game three. They were trailing all of Friday (until the OT winner) and all of Saturday, despite badly outplaying and out shooting Omaha. In Sunday’s game, they finally got a lead late in the first period that held until about late in the second. Goaltending was the difference in this series. Props to Omaha for literally gutting out a tough road series victory that they probably needed in order to lock their place into the tournament.

Sounds like Mayotte and his staff had some time to play with this calculator!

I just listened to the Kris Mayotte post game interview and here’s a summary of what he said, hopefully I captured it accurately as he was rattling off a lot of names, what ifs, and scenarios… From what he just said, it sounds like the likely scenarios where CC wouldn’t get in would be if St. Cloud were to win the Frozen Faceoff and/or for UMass to beat BC. A Dartmouth upset of Cornell would be nice but he thinks Cornell still has to win the ECAC in order to jump ahead of the Tigers for one of the last at-large berths. Mayotte also said that CC are big fans of North Dakota (and to a lesser extent, DU) right now because UND especially, helps CC’s RPI so by UND winning, it also boosts CC’s RPI. So, while CC is on life support, the have a good chance at making it in as an 14 seed to face Boston University. He’s focusing on the likelihood of a UMass upset over BC and/or a St. Cloud Frozen Faceoff championship being less than 50%. He said it comes down to these four teams for the last spot - CC, UMass, Cornell, and St. Cloud. He capped off his comments by saying after giving the boys Monday and Tuesday off, they’re going right back to work on Wednesday and preparing for a matchup against BU.

CC radio guy saying CC needs Dartmouth to beat Cornell next weekend in the ECAC semifinals.

CC’s seemed to have lost the assertiveness they had through the first half of the game.

No goal

Omaha goal being challenged for offsides

Wasn’t the Frozen Faceoff always on St. Patrick’s Day weekend?

After seeing the replay, Gabinet sure squandered his time out. Maybe his guys should’ve been more focused on boxing CC out.

Because Gabinet is the biggest whiner in all of NCHC???

CC should’ve gotten a penalty for cross checking after the whistle as well.

Has run time started in Stearns County yet?

Loyal fans

Anyone notice how many empty red seats there are at St. Cloud?

CC badly outshot and outplayed UNO in the second period but couldn’t solve Latkoczy. Omaha played much better in the third and limited the chances for CC.

Not sandbagging here but I have a feeling Omaha’s going to make it very difficult to win this series in two. Tonight I expect to see a more aggressive Mavericks team.

At one point in the game, shots were 12-12. The game ended up 51-15. UNO had 1 shot in the third and 1 in OT.

IMG_1572.mov

We went to the CC/DU game last night. Some observations… 1. Ed Robson Arena was rocking. 3,900 in attendance, standing room only. Student section was full and loud for a change. Largest crowd in Robson arena history. 2. You couldn’t have asked for a worse start for the Tigers-they got scored on 13 seconds in, then took an offensive zone tripping penalty by Noah Laba twelve seconds later, and DU rings one off the crossbar. It easily could’ve been 2-0 very early and a totally different game. Credit CC for the awesome tying goal as Laba came out of the penalty box, he snuck behind the DU defense and got sprung for a breakaway by a heads up pass from Drew Montgomery. That brought life back into the crowd as well who’d been silenced by Denver’s early goal. 3. Lots of penalties both ways. Emotions ran high. Some dangerous hits, lots of stuff after the whistle. Five minute major for contact to the head call on DU at one point. 4. CC was sitting pretty at 4-1 until about six and a half minutes to play when DU scored to make it 4-2. From there on, DU pulled Matt Davis and CC had difficulty gaining control of the puck and getting it out of the zone. 5. Mbereko is an elite goaltender. The last handful of minutes, DU pulled Davis for an extra attacker and pretty much hemmed CC down in their own zone, applying big time pressure. Mbereko saved his teammates’ bacon on several grade A chances. These highlights don’t capture the two or three grade A chances DU had toward the end. Mbereko also got some major puck luck as well.

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.