MACNAUGHTON CUP CHAMPS @ BADgers

[brianvf]

Wow!

Rau ties it for CC with about a minute left!

1-1

[siouxforce19]

Wow!

Rau ties it for CC with about a minute left!

1-1

He's a clutch player, that's for sure.

[brianvf]

Going to OT in Denver.

[dagies]

Now ss.com showing UMN at 13 as well.

That is absolutely amazing that a team that has stunk so badly in the past month (or longer) can still be on the verge of making it into the NCAA's.

That said, if they do, they're 1st opponent would probably be BU, ND, or UMich.

Not only that but 1 win over a crappy team...They must have had plenty of other things go their way tonite in other games.

I agree with those who say the Sioux played fairly well tonite. I was very impressed with the Badger PK even before the shorties. Eidsness left too much net open on the 2nd? goal. That hurt.

I will agree too many passes were in skates tonite, but other than that I think the Badgers just really played well. They kept front of the net clean and the Sioux rarely had 2nd chances and there were a lot of ping pong balls bouncing off Connelly tonite. But not to Sioux sticks. Maybe Connelly gets the credit for turning them in the right direction I don't know. But I think the Sioux had their chances, but *WARNING* not the bounces.

Hopefully the Sioux can get a little more cohesiveness working on the PP for the playoffs.

Finally, with a little luck, maybe we got some of the crap out of the way that has bitten us in the last game of the year the last couple of years. Could we be that fortunate?

[Let'sGoHawks!]

Going to OT in Denver.

Assuming they tie, who owns the tiebreaker between CC and UW?

[siouxforce19]

Assuming they tie, who owns the tiebreaker between CC and UW?

UW

[HaksHomey]

I think tonight's loss will be a good opportunity for Hak to break the team down a little bit from clinching the cup, in order to build them back up for the postseason. If nothing else, its always good to get one last loss out of the way before the F5, and NCAAs.

[brianvf]

CC actually pulled Bachman in OT...but it ended in a tie.

Here are the playoff series:

1) NoDak vs. 10) Tech

2) Denver vs. 9) Alaska

3) Wisconsin vs. 8) Mankato

4) CC vs. 7) Duluth

5) Minnesota vs. 6) St. Cloud

[brianvf]

My predictions:

UND in 2

DU in 3

UW in 3

CC in 2

UMN in 3

Although I would love to be wrong on that last one.

[HaksHomey]

CC actually pulled Bachman in OT...but it ended in a tie.

Here are the playoff series:

1) NoDak vs. 10) Tech

2) Denver vs. 9) Alaska

3) Wisconsin vs. 8) Mankato

4) CC vs. 7) Duluth

5) Minnesota vs. 6) St. Cloud

Nice work duluth

[farce poobah]

CC actually pulled Bachman in OT...but it ended in a tie.

Here are the playoff series:

1) NoDak vs. 10) Tech

2) Denver vs. 9) Alaska

3) Wisconsin vs. 8) Mankato

4) CC vs. 7) Duluth

5) Minnesota vs. 6) St. Cloud

I thought pulling the goalie was crazy. The difference between playing Mankato and Duluth is not much, and the risk of losing (vs tying) could have hurt them in the PWR.

[jk]

I thought pulling the goalie was crazy. The difference between playing Mankato and Duluth is not much, and the risk of losing (vs tying) could have hurt them in the PWR.

Plus you could argue that Duluth might be a preferable opponent to Mankato right now.

[farce poobah]

One individual disappointment tonight, is that it appears the last goal by UW gave Stalock the goaltending title over Eidsness.

If collegehockeystats.net is correct, both finished at 2.39 GAA but rounding puts Stalock just ahead.

[brianvf]

One individual disappointment tonight, is that it appears the last goal by UW gave Stalock the goaltending title over Eidsness.

If collegehockeystats.net is correct, both finished at 2.39 GAA but rounding puts Stalock just ahead.

Man, that sucks. He'll just have to win it his next three seasons now.

[burd]

Well, I think Blais would have them running up and down stairs.

Really the Sioux played well for 2 and a half periods. Certainly well enough to win. Connelly stood on his head. The Mitchell goal broke the Sioux spirit. Kozek and Watkins missed a number of opportunities. I thought the Sioux were the better team up to Mitchell's goal. Wisconsin was opportunistic and capitalized on some mistakes. Genoway had at least a half dozen very poor turnovers and really hurt the Sioux today, this is the second poor game the last 2 weeks for him. He has got to get under control. I think that loss will probably eliminate the slim shot that UND had at a #1 seed. 2 games against Tech will do nothing for us.

Just got back from the game. Looked to me like UW definitely outplayed the Sioux. They were consistently beating us to pucks. All that talent they have on the blue line shows at times--pretty tight. The Sioux were not passing particularly well. They didn't look like they were less intense, but UW had more jump, and they had the edge in physical play as well. I think Duncan felt he should have buried the one shot he had all alone from his office space.

If the Sioux meet these guys in the FF, they can make up for this one.

[Godsmack]

I too went to the games this weekend.

The Sioux certainly brought intensity tonight but they failed in execution, starting with the 5 minute power play. They just couldn't get it together with several off sides, an icing and just inability to make clean passes.

The two shorties that Stephan got were due to odd man rushes that the Sioux gave up on the power play. Frankly, they were lucky they only gave up two short handed goals as Wisconsin had a couple of other good opportunities while killing penalties.

I think Eidsness was back too far in his crease on the first short-handed goal as well as he gave up the far side, which is where Stephan put the first of his two goals. The second one, you certainly can't blame Eidsness as he made the first save off a tough shot but then Stephan buried the rebound while Eidsness was down.

Oh well, perhaps like others have said in the post before, a loss-in a weird way-might benefit the team going into the playoffs and the NCAA's. Maybe it'll humble them a bit as well as give them a reminder of how much it sucks to lose as well as serve as a wake up that they gotta play their A game here on out, regardless of who their opponent is.

Congrats on the team though for coming out with a split, on the road in a very tough building (those Badger fans are friggin brutal), and for winning the MacNaughton Cup. They clawed their way back after a slow first half of the season and should be commended for that.

[jk]

CHN reported that UAA's sweep of UMD was its first road sweep ever in the conference, which is shocking. I checked and it looks like they swept Wisconsin in 2000, but that's still an amazing amount of time between road sweeps.

[UNDPUCKS]

The old cliche that the game was closer than the score indicated seems appropriate tonight. We were at both nights games. Loads of Sioux pucks in the BADger crease did not lead to enough goals for the good guys. Suck it up and beat Tech in two and lets move on from tonight's debacle. GO SIOUX ! ! !

[redwing77]

I didn't get a chance to listen to the game, but I looked over what the circumstances were for the scores tonight and I have only this to say:

When a team who is down a man scores two goals on you while down a man you have to sit back and reevaluate the PP. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out who has the upper hand in those situations.

Simply unacceptable. Every UND player on the ice for those two shorties, regardless of how well Stepan had been playing shorthanded should feel ashamed of themselves for allowing 4 skaters to out play them OFFENSIVELY. Just to clarify, I'm not hard on a PP that fails to score. They say a PP that scores around 30% of the time is a very good powerplay. That means 70% of the time they don't. I'm saying that a good PP team, even when they fail to score, is good enough to not allow the short handed team to score. It happens on occasion, but twice in a game? REALLY?

How sad.

Simply unacceptable.

Losses happen, so I'm not too concerned about dropping the game itself. I'd still say this if we won 3-2. I'd say it about UW if we were the ones scoring twice shorthanded in the game.

It is simply the mark of a truly terrible PP squad. Now, this isn't a regular occurance so it may be anomalous, but I seriously would be hopping mad over it if I were Hakstol.

Oh, and if it was all Stepan, then know this: 1 player just beat 5 skaters and a goalie...TWICE. That makes it even worse.

END RANT

[Godsmack]

I didn't get a chance to listen to the game, but I looked over what the circumstances were for the scores tonight and I have only this to say:

When a team who is down a man scores two goals on you while down a man you have to sit back and reevaluate the PP. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out who has the upper hand in those situations.

Simply unacceptable. Every UND player on the ice for those two shorties, regardless of how well Stepan had been playing shorthanded should feel ashamed of themselves for allowing 4 skaters to out play them OFFENSIVELY. Just to clarify, I'm not hard on a PP that fails to score. They say a PP that scores around 30% of the time is a very good powerplay. That means 70% of the time they don't. I'm saying that a good PP team, even when they fail to score, is good enough to not allow the short handed team to score. It happens on occasion, but twice in a game? REALLY?

How sad.

Simply unacceptable.

Losses happen, so I'm not too concerned about dropping the game itself. I'd still say this if we won 3-2. I'd say it about UW if we were the ones scoring twice shorthanded in the game.

It is simply the mark of a truly terrible PP squad. Now, this isn't a regular occurance so it may be anomalous, but I seriously would be hopping mad over it if I were Hakstol.

Oh, and if it was all Stepan, then know this: 1 player just beat 5 skaters and a goalie...TWICE. That makes it even worse.

END RANT

Good point Red Wing. What the Sioux did on their PP tonight was cycle down low with the forward then dishing the puck off to the Sioux defenseman who would be skating in down low along the boards. He would then carry the puck in from the side and skate around behind the Wisconsin net, looking for a forward to pass to in front of the net. During this time, presumably the forward would have dropped back to the point to cover the vacant point but once the Sioux defenseman had circled behind the net, the Sioux forward would leave the point and charge into the slot hoping for a pass from the D-man. From there, Wisconsin would either intercept the pass or break up the play and then go off to the races on an odd man rush. This happened on several occasions and the Sioux are lucky they only gave up 2 short-handed goals tonight.

[redwing77]

Good point Red Wing. What the Sioux did on their PP tonight was cycle down low with the forward then dishing the puck off to the Sioux defenseman who would be skating in down low along the boards. He would then carry the puck in from the side and skate around behind the Wisconsin net, looking for a forward to pass to in front of the net. During this time, presumably the forward would have dropped back to the point to cover the vacant point but once the Sioux defenseman had circled behind the net, the Sioux forward would leave the point and charge into the slot hoping for a pass from the D-man. From there, Wisconsin would either intercept the pass or break up the play and then go off to the races on an odd man rush. This happened on several occasions and the Sioux are lucky they only gave up 2 short-handed goals tonight.

It's a plan that would work against a team like Minnesota (sorry Gopher fans, but your D suck this year in their own zone).

However, UW has never been passengers in their own zone that I can remember.

[Goon]

It's a plan that would work against a team like Minnesota (sorry Gopher fans, but your D suck this year in their own zone).

However, UW has never been passengers in their own zone that I can remember.

Wisconsin is a different team defensively they are loaded on defense and they have a bunch of first and second round draft choices back there.

[yzerman19]

Bucky always gives us fits in their building...We've been swept by Wisconsin many times in the last few years...even our 2004 MacNaughton Cup championship team with Parise and the next year with our NCAA runner up team with Zajac and Stafford were swept by Wisconsin. THe style has always given us trouble. I am not worried about this loss. We did not have out ususal offensive output because of Sconny's style and play.

Win two against Tech on our home ice, have a good performance at the X, then its a 4 game tournament for the big hardware.

[Goon]

Bucky always gives us fits in their building...We've been swept by Wisconsin many times in the last few years...even our 2004 MacNaughton Cup championship team with Parise and the next year with our NCAA runner up team with Zajac and Stafford were swept by Wisconsin. THe style has always given us trouble. I am not worried about this loss. We did not have out ususal offensive output because of Sconny's style and play.

Win two against Tech on our home ice, have a good performance at the X, then its a 4 game tournament for the big hardware.

Here is the record between the teams the last 25 games 12-12-1 pretty even.

[redwing77]

Bucky always gives us fits in their building...We've been swept by Wisconsin many times in the last few years...even our 2004 MacNaughton Cup championship team with Parise and the next year with our NCAA runner up team with Zajac and Stafford were swept by Wisconsin. THe style has always given us trouble. I am not worried about this loss. We did not have out ususal offensive output because of Sconny's style and play.

Win two against Tech on our home ice, have a good performance at the X, then its a 4 game tournament for the big hardware.

Like I said, I'm not worried by the loss in the slightest.

I'm worried about our passengers being on the PP while the short handed team scores...twice.

THAT is not good.