sprig Posted April 10, 2004 Posted April 10, 2004 It's disrespectful for me to say this, but this game is an embarrassment to college hockey. Compare this to the up-and-down WCHA Final Five championship game, played by two teams that like to play offense. Much credit to Denver and Maine for winning the games to get here, but I wish this game had more well-rounded teams in it. (Sour grapes.) Have to agree with you; just doesn't look like the WCHA hockey we saw all year. Wonder if the paint will dry in 60 minutes. Quote
ScottM Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 It's disrespectful for me to say this, but this game is an embarrassment to college hockey. Compare this to the up-and-down WCHA Final Five championship game, played by two teams that like to play offense. Much credit to Denver and Maine for winning the games to get here, but I wish this game had more well-rounded teams in it. (Sour grapes.) Agreed. As much as I love the sport, and applaud Maine and Denver for being in the NC, this really isn't a showcase of the best of our sport. I find myself flipping between this game, the Devils' game, unpacking and getting ready to go out. Quote
MinnesotaNorthStar Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Ben Murphy just tripped over the blueline...no one was with in 10 ft of him.... Quote
Mad Man Posted April 11, 2004 Author Posted April 11, 2004 Funniest thing I've heard and seen tonight. ESPN Anouncer "Maine on a breakaway and Murphy trips over the blueline." Quote
Goon Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Funniest thing I've heard and seen tonight. ESPN Anouncer "Maine on a breakaway and Murphy trips over the blueline." What a boring NCAA championship game. Just brutal. I think the best hockey has already been played this season. UGH, boring I am snapping my neck because this is so boring. Quote
schmidtdoggydog Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Have to agree with you; just doesn't look like the WCHA hockey we saw all year. Wonder if the paint will dry in 60 minutes. Agreed. What a dreadful game - I don't feel like that is sour grapes, rather reality. As for the paint, I think it dried long ago, but perhaps I will check and see if the grass is growing. Quote
7>4 Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 What a crap call. You can't call that with 1:34 to go. Quote
7>4 Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Hats off to DU. An amazing post-season run. Great finish to a fairly boring game. Quote
schmidtdoggydog Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Hard to believe they beat two of the four #1 seeds by identical 1-0 scores! Quote
jk Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 As much as I thought the first period was dreadful, I thought the game picked up in the second, with pretty good chances both ways. I don't even like Denver but I was jumping up and down at the end when they cleared the puck late in the 2-man. Way to go WCHA. This was no better than a middle-of-the-pack WCHA team and they skate away with the whole thing. To have to kill 90 seconds of 2-man to close the game is a pretty remarkable accomplishment. Also, Gwoz seemed quite calm and composed whenever they showed him on the bench. Congrats to him. More on this later, but this year tells me that winning the national title has nothing to do with anything. It still is the ultimate prize, IMO. But there is no key to winning it - get killed early, swoon late, have mediocre goaltending, have great goaltending, no offense, great offense, ditto for D - it just doesn't matter. If you qualify for the tournament, you can win four games and the whole thing. Quote
GBpakrzz Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 More on this later, but this year tells me that winning the national title has nothing to do with anything. It still is the ultimate prize, IMO. But there is no key to winning it - get killed early, swoon late, have mediocre goaltending, have great goaltending, no offense, great offense, ditto for D - it just doesn't matter. If you qualify for the tournament, you can win four games and the whole thing. Absolutely! Any team in the tourney can win it... The Sioux had 3 times more talent than DU had and we saw who won it all. Puck luck.... Quote
Greyeagle Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 I agree jk. Even with the two penalties in the last two minutes you have the most boring game in recent NCAA history IMO. Quote
NorthDakotaHockey Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 College hockey. Ain't it great. The only thing that turns my stomach more, perhaps, than crying Gopher fans is crying Hockey East fans. Hats off to DU. Makes that 1-0 loss two weeks back just a shade more palatable. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas, and would be looking to hang No. 8. Instead, we must settle for hanging No. 12 from the best college hockey conference by a long shot. Also, DU now has more titles than Minnesota. That makes yet another program more storied than the claimed story in Minneapolis. Can't wait until October. Well, ok, maybe I can. There is much more to life than Sioux hockey, and living will be easier knowing these immutable rules . . . . 7>6, and 6>5. Now, which WCHA team will be the next one to bring home the hardware? Quote
NorthDakotaHockey Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 I guess Denver cleaning the Gophers' clock back at the end of February, same weekend that the Sioux were cleaning Duluth's clock, was no fluke. Guess that Denver's fluke over the Sioux was no fluke either. Just like always, the best team over a grueling season was left standing. Denver did what it had to do, and beat the best of the WCHA in the process. I always said that whoever was able to take the week off of the Final Five was gonna be dangerous. Quote
Nodaker Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Was just watching ESPN NHL2 night and they were showing the highlights to the DU/Main game. Was a little surprised to hear Melrose say after the highlights were done that it was good to send the NC out West once in a while. No, there's no Eastern bias with ESPN. Barry must have had too much oil in the hair tonight. Congrats to Denver. Way to keep it in the WCHA! Go Sioux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote
schmidtdoggydog Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Was a little surprised to hear Melrose say after the highlights were done that it was good to send the NC out West once in a while. No, there's no Eastern bias with ESPN. Silly indeed. The following is from a very recent USCHO article: There's an awful lot of college hockey played in Boston, but 44 NCAA titles belong to teams west Quote
Jackson Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Don't get your panties in a bunch. The last time College Hockey's top prize landed out west in my opinion was in 1969. Maybe when Barry says out west he means it. As far as the eastern bias yeah I know it is alive and well. Wouldn't you be pissed if your boys have been getting beat down for 50+ years now? Quote
schmidtdoggydog Posted April 11, 2004 Posted April 11, 2004 Don't get your panties in a bunch. The last time College Hockey's top prize landed out west in my opinion was in 1969. Maybe when Barry says out west he means it. As far as the eastern bias yeah I know it is alive and well. Wouldn't you be pissed if your boys have been getting beat down for 50+ years now? Uh, what? Basil, is that you? Quote
dagies Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 More on this later, but this year tells me that winning the national title has nothing to do with anything. It still is the ultimate prize, IMO. But there is no key to winning it - get killed early, swoon late, have mediocre goaltending, have great goaltending, no offense, great offense, ditto for D - it just doesn't matter. If you qualify for the tournament, you can win four games and the whole thing. Not sure I totally agree on this. While I do agree any team can get on a hot 4 game streak and win the tourney, I still think there's something to getting hot at the right time. Denver suffered injuries through the year and got healthy near the end except for losing Conner James in the CC series. Checking their record, they had not lost a game since the end of January, excepting the sweep by CC in the playoffs. But they swept CC the weekend before, and they are big rivals, so you may have to factor that intangible in. Also, James broke his leg that series and that may have played a part as well. Otherwise this team swept Mankato, MN, CC, and won and tied Tech. In fact, the week prior to starting this streak they got absolutely manhandled by the Sioux on Friday night and came back and tied us on Saturday. They went on their little streak, then they beat Miami, ND, Duluth and Maine to finish it out. I think they got their stuff together at the end, and their goaltending peaked at the same time. Quote
jk Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 I had not gone back to look at Denver's late-season results, but them getting thumped by CC was fresh in my mind. Taking that out, I can see their momentum to the title. I guess my thoughts are not strictly based on Denver this year, but more an accumulation of recent results. MN proved the last two years that a team can win with average goaltending. MN (2003), Michigan (1998) and UND (1997) proved a team can win while being led by younger players. Denver just proved a team can win when it is severely offensively-challenged. It just seems like there are no key "rules" or team characteristics that indicate a team's inability to win the title. Quote
streakygopher Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Seems that many of you just can't accept that awesome, well-deserved, gritty, come-from-behind, one-for-ages, sweet and harmonious National Championship by the M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A Golden Gophers in 2002. My gosh, what a surprise. Well, your failure to accept that National Championship outcome makes it only SWEETER for Gopher fans who HATE the Sioux (please note, I actually believe that teams like the Sioux are GREAT for Gopher hockey...as many true fans from North Dakota would agree that having MINNESOTA in their conference is as good as it gets). Get over it gentlemen. The 2002 National Championship is in the books...and I don't believe they put an asterisk on the plaque. Quote
skateshattrick Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Seems that many of you just can't accept that awesome, well-deserved, gritty, come-from-behind, one-for-ages, sweet and harmonious National Championship by the M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A Golden Gophers in 2002. My gosh, what a surprise. Well, your failure to accept that National Championship outcome makes it only SWEETER for Gopher fans who HATE the Sioux (please note, I actually believe that teams like the Sioux are GREAT for Gopher hockey...as many true fans from North Dakota would agree that having MINNESOTA in their conference is as good as it gets). Get over it gentlemen. The 2002 National Championship is in the books...and I don't believe they put an asterisk on the plaque. What are you talking about?? Are you even lucid? I don't remember anyone bringing up Minnesota's title in 2002. Go away troll. Quote
streakygopher Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Silly me! I always start reading the thread from the beginning! Looks like you're the one who's not lucid. ..and name calling is so junior high! Quote
sagard Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 I think this DU is taking far too much crap for being a trap/clutch/grab team. This team was not like the thugs of two years ago in the games I watched them. Teams would frequently put up 30+ shots on Berkoel. In fact, in WCHA play only the bottom three AA, MSU and MTU gave up more goals. To me the boring trap teams this year were CC and UW. DU did play tenacious defense in the tourney and certainly got extremly "lucky" with opposition goals being waved of in both the semi-final and the finals. The only game in their tourney run I got the impression they were playing a superior opponent was the UND game. These guys just stepped it up and capitalized on the breaks they received. Quote
dagies Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 I had not gone back to look at Denver's late-season results, but them getting thumped by CC was fresh in my mind. Taking that out, I can see their momentum to the title. I guess my thoughts are not strictly based on Denver this year, but more an accumulation of recent results. MN proved the last two years that a team can win with average goaltending. MN (2003), Michigan (1998) and UND (1997) proved a team can win while being led by younger players. Denver just proved a team can win when it is severely offensively-challenged. It just seems like there are no key "rules" or team characteristics that indicate a team's inability to win the title. I agree with you there. Seems there are different formulas for success, and you don't have to mirror the team that won it the year before, for instance. I'm more and more able to understand just how difficult it is to win the whole thing. Great teams only have to stumble a little and they go nowhere. Michigan back in 1997 is a prime example. The Sioux were capable of winning this NCAA's this year but didn't get the job done against Denver. It helps again that Denver won the whole shebang. You don't have to have a team melt down at this time of year to go from contender to pretender. All you need may be 1/2 of your skate in the crease at the wrong time and you falter. To win, you must be a good team, play well, and have some good luck. It's so hard to count on winning. I guess it helps explain why teams so rarely repeat, and almost never 3-peat. It also drives home the point about how it's great to win the NCAA's (obviously the ultimate prize) but if you can win the league, the league playoff AND the NCAA's you've done something even more special. Quote
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