Godsmack

I also notice that CC fans will boo and heckle the refs on each and every penalty the refs call on the Tigers, no matter how obvious the call is. The CC announcers even acknowledged the obvious, lazy holding penalty called on Stuart late in Saturday’s first period. Is this common for every fan base? Stuart let go of his own stick behind his net and wrapped it around Rechney, within a few feet of the official. It doesn’t get much more obvious than that.

After now watching the Saturday game on tv, I question why Mayotte would challenge UND’s first goal, especially given his comments following Friday’s game when he said he definitely would’ve challenged Strinden’s tying goal had he had a challenge available. You’d think he would want to have a very high degree of confidence that he would win that challenge. My understanding is that you can angle your skate and it’s still a good goal, you just can’t make a clear kicking motion, which James clearly did not do.

I found it interesting that Homer hung out during play in the penalty box/tunnel area. I kept noticing only Sandy on the bench. Perhaps not enough room for everyone.

I gotta give the CC coaching staff some props-picking up Mats Lindgren to try and replace the offensive skill they lost early in the season when Burkholder went down. That guy was noticeable all weekend long. Particularly impressive given, according to Mayotte in the post game interview last night he said he hadn’t played in 7 months.

He will never give up on where grandma keeps the peanut butter. That and, “the little 6+1.”

When we got home from the game I started watching the recording and just listening to Ken Landau’s call on that play said it all. He sounded utterly shocked that puck didn’t go in the net. In fact, at first, he sounded like he thought it did go in as he went into his, “HE SHOOTS AND….” And that’s where he stopped in his tracks before he could finish his catch phrase.

Some CC fans are saying Mbereko left the game with a groin injury.

Any different than last night’s roster?

Their structure, at least when they play UND, is so strong. They don’t make positional mistakes or very few of them and when they do, Mbereko seems to bail them out with a ten bell save. Side note: We’ve met Kaidan Mbereko a handful of times and he is genuinely a really good guy, particularly with the kids. This is Kaidan with my daughter at the skate with the Tigers event.

The CHN app now shows CC 35th but last night before the conclusion of the game it showed them 34th. They actually dropped with last night’s OT win?

Mayotte seems to have the Midas touch against us that he doesn’t consistently have against others in the league. It ticks me off! Lol. Seriously, while I wish we’d won in overtime, so grateful Strinden tied that sucker up late in regulation and thanks to the Broncos tonight as well.

Mayotte said in post game show that Klavs Veinbergs won 76% of his faceoffs. And I wanna say he took over twenty draws tonight.

Just curious, anyone know what UND’s NPI would have been had Strinden not tied up the game in regulation. Just curious.

Your math ain’t math in’

I just hope it’s the usual local CC tv crew and not Ken Landau. He’s the biggest homer jock sniffer in all of NCHC.

There’s a new article from Schloss out on the Herald about CC. Citing advanced analytics which show their record should be better than it is. Expected goals for/against and such. I’m not much of a numbers guy but just using the eye test, I have seen how well the Tigers can play when they’re on their game. Consistency, however, has been their biggest concern and challenge.

I was thinking something similar along those lines with regards to our league play coming up. Definitely gets more challenging in the second half.

People always get indignant and ask how I could possibly root against my alma mater and in particular, cheer for North Dakota of all programs. I simply tell them that if they have to ask, there’s no amount of explaining that will make them understand.

It became a dead arena during the Haviland era though. It’s a big ask having college kids drive twenty minutes from campus for a two game series and an even bigger ask when the product on the ice is terrible. The low point for my wife and I as season ticket holders and fans was the night oh, around 2019 or so, when the CC mascot (Prowler) came out on the ice to start the DU/CC game and forgot to take off his skate guards. Embarrassing. It made the Pios fans’ night watching that calamity and was a precursor for what was to come once the puck dropped.

Oh yah, we’ve seen games where they look like they can definitely hang with the big boys. Games against legit teams like UConn, Denver, and Duluth. But they seem so dang inconsistent from one night to the next.

There’s been chatter about trying to bring in a minor league hockey team or even a junior hockey team but nothing has ever materialized. I heard that NAHL team they got someplace up in northern Colorado a year or two ago has already folded. I’d like to think a city the size of the Springs could support another hockey team of some sort. World Arena is definitely showing its age both inside and out.

If anyone’s going to be at the series this weekend, ping me. I’ll be there decked out in UND green (wife will be in gold and black; can’t convince her to cheer for the good guys!). I’ll be the guy in a sling (dislocated my elbow in a beer league game three weeks ago; coincidentally on the ice at Robson Arena).

The steps are downright treacherous and a lawsuit waiting to happen. I’ve been told that they ran into many cost overruns and started cutting corners on some things. They missed an opportunity to put in an escalator in the main lobby area where the stairs go up to the arena. Overall, I love the design with the open air concourse and the size is perfect for a student body of that size. No GA seats however making it difficult to try and get local townie support (only way to get tickets if you’re not a student or season ticket holder is via the secondary market on Ticketmaster).

If I recall, just prior to that road series two years ago, UND was coming off what might have been their best weekend of hockey at home against Denver. It felt like DU and UND were in a track meet that weekend, which worked to our favor but then CC employed quite a different strategy that we just couldn’t seem to adjust to. Does that sound about accurate to others here?

CC has some really good pieces too. They just haven’t found any continuity or consistency.