Minnesota kicks ass, takes names

So in my last college hockey post, I was pretty sure UMN had shit the bed, and were all but finished in the WCHA playoffs. I certainly didn't expect them to make the championship game, as they had a pretty brutal record against fellow WCHA teams throughout the season.

But ... I was wrong. On Sunday, 03/16 they faced Minnesota State in game 3 of their playoff series, and won in double overtime, 3-2. That led to a 1 game playoff against St. Cloud State on Thursday, 03/20, which they also won 3-2 (no overtime needed). By beating St. Cloud State, UMN was forced to face Colorado College on Friday, 03/21 in the semifinal. By some magical Easter Miracle, UMN pulled off a 2-1 OT win, to place them in the WCHA final against Denver.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end (including UMN winning streaks). In the WCHA championship game on Saturday (03/22), attended by a whopping 17,907 fans, Minnesota lost a goaltender's battle (and the championship) 2-1. All three goals were scored in the 2nd period of a game that saw Alex Kangas making 32 saves for UMN, and Peter Mannino making 34 for Denver. Ryan Flynn got Minnesota's only goal to open the scoring, which was countered by Denver goals scored by Tyler Bozak and Tom May.

The Mens D1 NCAA tournament now starts, which sees Minnesota facing off against Boston College at 1930 EST on Saturday, 03/29. Minnesota is ranked #3 (of 4) in their bracket (the Northeast Region), with games being played in Worcester, Mass. Besides UMN and BC, the Northeast bracket also includes #1 Miami, and #4 Air Force. Expect Minnesota to be relying on Kangas to continue to play exceptionally, and for the team to ride their strong momentum into these games.

UMN's record sits at 19-16-9 against all NCAA opponents this year.

Phew! UMN wins game 2

In another nail biter of a hockey game, the Golden Gophers managed to squeak out a 2-1 overtime win over Minnesota State to tie the series at 1-1, and stay alive for another day.



Once again, it was a goaltender's battle, with Minnesota pounding 37 shots at Mike Zacharias over the 67:33 minutes of hockey. Gopher goalie Alex Kangas made 27 saves of his own, allowing a power-play goal at 11:09 of the 3rd.



UMN was 0-3 on the power play, while State went 1-4 on the night, in a game attended by 4744 fans. The officials, once again, were Derek Sheperd as referee, and Brad Sheperd & C.J. Beaurline working the lines. I'm not sure how there are only 3 officials in all of Minnesota, but you'd think they'd at least switch it up and put one of the linesmen working the whistle. We'll have to see if game 3 has the same guys working it.



Game 3 is tomorrow, and I'm afeared that it's going to be another close game. I'd love for UMN to win this cleanly, but honestly, as the #7 seed (facing #4 Minn. State) it's probably not going to happen. It was good to see solid shooting tonight, as they out shot their opponent in every period except overtime. One could say that overtime was when they should be shooting the most ... but they scored, so I'm happy. Winner of this series meets #5 St. Cloud State, who knocked out Kyle Turris and the Badgers in 2 straight games, next Thursday in St. Paul. The winner of that games faces #1 Colorado College next Friday in the semi-final.



The other quarter-final has #3 Denver facing either #2 UND or #9 Michigan Tech. I think. It's honestly the weirdest tournament layout I've ever seen, with teams being re-seeded after round 1, and then the 2 lowest remaining seeds playing in the quarters, with the winner facing the highest seed (Colorado) in the semis. Whoah.



In other hockey news, the Canucks beat Dallas tonight after giving up a 3-0 advantage, and trying their hardest to lose. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed.

I give up: UMN loses to State in Game 1

As promised, this game certainly was a "battle of the goaltenders", or as I like to call it "a battle of who can score the least". And when it comes to not scoring, nobody beats UMN!

Not only did UMN manage to lose to the Mavericks for the first time in 20 games (since 2002-03), but the only goal of the game was a short-handed 2-on-1. In the 2nd OT period. And instead of being completely irate about it, Coach Lucia managed only to call the goal scorer(s) "two great penalty killers". Sweet jeebus.

I don't want to talk about this game anymore, since there's not much to talk about. Game 2 of the series goes tomorrow night at 7:07 CT (5:07 PST). If UMN gets knocked out in 2-straight by Minnesota State ... I'll be kind of upset.

Minnesota pwned ... again

Grumbles! UMN played UMD in an all-Minnesota matchup last night, which ended surprisingly badly. Or maybe it's not surprising, considering how the Gophers like to smite me. It was a relatively close game (3-2), but going into the playoffs, and facing #4-ranked Minnesota State, UMN has to step up to the ... face-off dot ... and start playing better.

Minnesota managed only 18 shots (compared to UMD's 25) and fell behind 2-0 by 12:35 of the 2nd. It took a 5-on-3 powerplay for them to break the goose egg at 14:54 of the 2nd, though UMD got a powerplay goal of their own before the end of the period to go up 3-1. Early in the 3rd (4:07) Justin Bostrom pulled the Gophers within a goal, but they didn't manage any more offense before the final buzzer.

Playoffs start this Friday (03/14) with a best-of-three series.

Gophers beat Badgers!??!

Yeah, this is kind of old news (3 days old), but I was so stunned that I couldn't pick my jaw up off the floor to type a post. Thanks to a pair of power play goals, the Golden Gophers managed a 4-2 upset (HUGE upset) of the #13-ranked Wisconsin Badgers. I have to say, I love the enthusiasm coming from Coach Lucia after the game: "It's just nice to score more than 1 goal". That's the way to shoot for the stars!

Gophers ranked #17 overall, with a 13-13-8 record (w00t @ .500!), 7-11-6 in WCHA play.

Senators make a trade; I approve

Bryan Murray, the genius that he is, announced today a "blockbuster" trade that brings Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore to the Sens, in exchange for Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves. Both Stillman and Commodore bring Stanley Cup-winning experience to Ottawa, and should hopefully help to alleviate any choking tendencies come playoff time.

In other hockey news (but less NHL-y), UND's coach Dave Hakstol has been suspended for 2 games for being a dick. More specifically, be made "an obscene gesture" towards an official during the game against UMN on February 2. Apparently Hakstol didn't agree with a call made by "assistant referee" C.J. Beaurline, and flipped him the bird as Beaurline skated away from the Sioux bench. While Beaurline didn't notice it (because Hakstol didn't have the gonads to finger him to his face), the FSN cameras caught 'er live on cablevision. Which is, apparently, where WCHA's concern comes from. By the sound of it, they don't care about the referee (he didn't notice, anyway, right?), but rather the concern about small children watching the game.

And the final sports update has Nicky Hayden sucking considerably less than last year. Two seasons ago, the Kentucky Kid won the World Championship on his Honda RC-212V. Last season he embarrassed Americans world-wide by falling to 8th position overall (though he beat fellow Yankee Colin Edwards by 3 points in the championship standings). While the 2008 season hasn't started yet, winter testing has Hayden performing quite well indeed. More specifically, 2008 has Hayden's Honda performing much better. Hayden may not be my favorite rider on the circuit, but he's a talented enough rider that he deserves a decent bike to ride.

Official testing in Jerez takes place 17 February, where the fastest qualifier will take home a Bimmer for his efforts. Race #1 (Qatar) is 09 March.

Gophers don't lose!

I'm not going to recap the game too much, because I really want the Gophers to start playing like they did last year. And the year before. And the year before. And so on ad nauseum. I will not be content with tying Denver College! I will not stand for a lowly 1 goal scored. I certainly wont' stand for an 0-4 powerplay. Maybe Coach Don will ... but not this guy!

However ... a tie is better than a loss, and that extra point is a step in the right direction, towards <sigh> 6th place in the WCHA, a position currently held by Minnesota-Dulty (7-8-5, 19 points).

UMN is now 6-10-5 (17 points) vs. WCHA teams, and 12-12-7 overall (hey! .500!). USA Today rankings have them off the chart with 1 vote, whereas UCHO.com/CSTV rankings place UMN in 20th position. Remember what 1st felt like, lads?

Attendance at the game (held in Denver @ Magness Arena) was 6076. Better turn-out than most Blazers games!

Damn you, Kyle Turris

I'm a fan of Kyle Turris. He's a BC boy, played for the Burnaby Express, scored 8 points in the WJC for Canada ... essentially, he's everything Canada could hope for in an up-and-coming ambassador player.

But why does he have to go and ruin my night like this? Turris' Wisconsin Badgers were playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers (who happen to be my D1 team of choice) tonight. Thanks to Turris, who had a goal and an assist, the Badgers came away with a 3-1 win, dropping Minnesota's record to 6-9-2 in the WCHA (12-11-4 overall), and putting them into a tie for 6th place in the division with St. Cloud State. Wisconsin moves its record up to 7-8-2 (11-10-4 overall), and moves into 5th place in the WCHA.

On another (somewhat related) note, the Men's D1 rankings seem to be all topsy-turvy this year. I mean, the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings have neither UMN or UW listed in the top 15 (though both received 12 votes), and the USCHO.com/CSTV rankings have UMN at #17, and UW at #16. Honestly, I haven't watched any NCAA hockey this year, and I haven't really even been paying attention to results & standings ... but this is a big change from last year's results at this time.