Godsmack

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.

Laba undressing Britt to just about make it 8-1.

This is embarrassing. No knock on CC, they’ve played awesome, speaking about UND and their lack of effort and just poor play.

Turnovers in our own zone galore. PK not looking good. And no response from UND after each of CC’s goals. Let’s hope they can play with some pride in the third even if we end up losing this game.

https://paisleyhockey.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/surging-hawks-tigers-back-for-rematch-of-pivotal-december-series-as-playoff-race-heats-up/?fbclid=IwAR10XO4H4KNElBG3R19Gay1i5WNRTYs0-s_Q5iEI3O03BMYnXbqy9ZkAEGA

CC’s going to be coming at UND with a ton of desperation. They currently sit 16th in the Pairwise and the cut line is 14 due to Atlantic Hockey and the CCHA getting two auto bids. A win or two against the #2 team in the nation would go a long way to CC’s continued climb up the pairwise ladder. Also, CC’s in a tight battle for third place and are still mathematically in the race for the Penrose Cup so they have a ton to play for. I say, let’s match if not exceed the Tigers’ desperation and level of intensity. UND has a ton at stake just as well.

Does anyone know if the UND/CC series will be televised locally here in Grand Forks?

I’m sorry for those of you who will have to listen to the CC broadcast. Ken Landau actually referred to a St. Cloud player by name as being ‘a jerk.’ There was some chirping going on in the late stages of the Saturday game and clear CC was going to hang on. Some Tigers players on the ice were chirping some Husky players on their bench, and vice versa. I get emotions run high but I’d expect better and more professionalism from the radio broadcast guy when talking about student athletes. Poor form IMO, Mr. Landau. I let it slide last year when he took some swipes at UND when they were sitting in 7th place at one point in the season but name calling opposing players on air? Not cool.

I would hope there will be some urgency and a level of desperation on the part of UND, to regain that 7 point lead on St. Cloud. The difference between this year’s CC squad and years prior is the swagger and confidence this team is playing with now. Before, if they got a rare upset win against a power house like DU, UND, St. Cloud, or a Duluth, it almost felt fluky, and typically it was a low scoring game and the netminder had to make like, 40-50 saves (an upset win at Magness about 5 years ago comes to mind when Alex Leclerc stood on his head for CC). Now, having strung together a number of league wins against some quality opponents, Mayotte’s got them believing. The question is, can they overcome the huge mental barrier they still seem to have when playing the Pios? (Denver made relatively easy work of CC last November in their home-and-home series. 6-1 and 5-1 or something like that). Mbereko is the glue that holds this CC team together. The guy is an elite goaltender. Having pieces like Noah Laba and Gleb Veremyev is huge but I feel like this is an entire lineup of a bunch of unsung heroes who are all chipping in. Logan Will was one of several Tigers players who absolutely destroyed UND on faceoffs last time around. Freshmen Bret Link, Zacchariah Wisdom, Evan Werner, and Max Burkholder are no longer playing like freshmen.

That would partly explain last night’s outcome. I listened to David Carle’s post game interview and he touched on that, among other things as to what went wrong.

If I’m not mistaken, the DU announcers said Western beat DU something like, 46-19 in faceoffs.

The Tigers haven’t beaten St. Cloud at home since 2013. Edit: 0-15 during that losing streak at home.

It isn’t Olympic size, it’s standard NHL size.

Yah, my wife and I went there because of all the hype we’d heard about it and we didn’t care for it but to each their own…,again, I love the Red Pepper and it’s debatable how high quality that place is considered by some as well!

Anyone catch the BU/Northeastern game tonight? NU won on a power play goal where there was some question as to the legitimacy of the bench minor penalty called against the Terriers for too many men on the ice in overtime. Anyone know the official rule on line changes? The BU player who jumped on the ice did look like he hopped on well before the player coming off even got within a couple of strides from the bench. Pandolfo sure didn’t like the call nor did Colby Cohen.