College Hockey - Down the stretch

[solbes]

And I just realized, I may have to switch channels with USA hockey. What time is the gold medal game Saturday (assumptions here I know...)?

[scsavre]

Gold medal is on sunday and the bronze is 8:15 or something saturday, so hopefully US plays well and we wont be watching them on saturday.

[cbrooks]

Brooks, I was just reading the muskie page and it sure was cute to see how you and brmuskie are longing to meet each other. Stinking Siuox fans, if its not one thing, its the other. Just kidding guys.

I think you cause enough trouble on FM today LOL. Are you trying to get this topic deleted too:) You know that UND gonna beat the gophs.

[scsavre]

HAHA, yah. I have gotten like 4 things deleted today. I dont know why. I didnt really say much of anything.

Ah well, go gophers!!!

By the way I youtubed that Marvin Genaway hit today. You never get the whole story on youtube.... but that hit was cheap. It wasnt horrible, but definitely a late hit. It was high too, but it was a 6'2 guy vs a 5'9. They should have dropped Marvin right away. But then you just have to assume the Sioux were being dirty anyway.

Go gophers!!

[PierBridge]

Muskie guy's are notoriously good at getting things deleted! J/K.

[cbrooks]

Haha. Pier you got any predictions for the rest of the season? Do you see Minnesota sneaking in?

[PierBridge]

I hold no hope what so ever the Gophers can make the dance.

I'm rooting for St Cloud and UMD to do something this post season.

[cbrooks]

What do you think of SCSU rotating goalies? I think they should go with Dan Dunn full time.

[PierBridge]

Don't know a lot about the 2 goalies but the platoon system seems to be working.

[archerystud]

I'm thinking SCSU will go with Dunn full time here soon.

Lee has looked great at times. He got rocked against No Dak and Wisconsin. I saw most of the No Dak goals and they were not his fault. But at some point it seems like you have to go with the numbers.

I still think the Gophers have the talent to do something but I think they are going to have to win the Final Five to make the dance. 24th in the pairwise right now seems to low to make it in on a bid.

[cbrooks]

Everytime I seen Mike Lee play this year(both times against UND and Wisconsin)he hasn't look that good. He came in the league with alot of hype. He's not even the best freshman goalie in the WCHA this year. I watch him during the world jrs. and he wasn't even close to dominating. I thought he look average, nothing special. Has he ever look good this year? I hope he does turn into the goalie he was expecting to be it just isn't happening this year. I aggree w/Pier they have a good platoon of players and could go far with good goaltender.

How about that win last night Gopher fans. Can't count them out yet.

[scsavre]

I was very glad to see the gophs win, but I am still not convinced. The only change i have seen is that the lucky bounces are finally going their way. Which is a huge part of winning.

I think the gophs can make the NCAA's without winning the frozen 5, but they might have to place no worse than second. It wont be easy, but every team they play here on out is ranked in the top 10. Beating these teams will send their power ranking up quite a bit. However I am not sure how they are weighting it anymore. I would have to think the regional being at the Xcel should help too.

I saw the UND CC score, looks like that was an awesome game.

[cbrooks]

We didn't get the UND game up here in GF so I didn't watch but I listen to it on the radio. It sounded like both goaltenders played really well. I think the shots were UND 40 and CC 26. It was 2-1 CC and UND scored w/under two minutes left in the game to send into OT. So it was a close game that could have gone either way. The one goal that tied it sounded like a lucky bounce for UND, we'll take those:) It nice to have have our goalie Eideness winning games for us on the road.

[Jarrod32]

The Pairwise rankings, after last weekend, after tiebreakers and placing the remaining league champion (RIT, Atlantic Hockey) into the top 16:

1 Miami

2 Denver

3 Wisconsin

4 St. Cloud State

5 Bemidji State

6 Yale

7 Boston College

8 North Dakota

9 New Hampshire

10 Michigan State

11 Alaska

12 Minnesota-Duluth

13 Ferris State

14 Cornell

15 Union

16 RIT

RIT, as league champion, would bump Maine from the Tournament as Maine would otherwise be #16. Of course, all the league tournaments have automatic bids, so that can always throw a wrench into this...

[scsavre]

So are those the voted rankings? or are those the actual power ranking or pairwise rankings or whatever it is called, you know the ones where it is like a science the way they do it. Takes into account beating good team and what not. They used to be easy to find but now all i find is what looks to be the voted rankings. USCHO has a point system with theirs, but i dont know if thats it either.

[solbes]

That's the pairwise ranking approximation at USCHO. It uses comparisons between teams, and takes strength of your opponent into account. It only applies though at the time of NCAA selection. But it is a good tool to see if your team is going to get a bid or not.

Right now I'm pretty disgusted as my team seems to be going down the toilet. Not sure when/if they are going to wake up.

[Bear55]

I was very glad to see the gophs win, but I am still not convinced. The only change i have seen is that the lucky bounces are finally going their way. Which is a huge part of winning.

I think the gophs can make the NCAA's without winning the frozen 5, but they might have to place no worse than second. It wont be easy, but every team they play here on out is ranked in the top 10. Beating these teams will send their power ranking up quite a bit. However I am not sure how they are weighting it anymore. I would have to think the regional being at the Xcel should help too.

I saw the UND CC score, looks like that was an awesome game.

I think the Gophers have about zero chance of making the NCAA's without winning the Final Five, we aren't even a bubble team right now so its not looking good. With us having to win a playoff series on the road, win the play-in game and then face Denver who killed us all year, I'd say our chances are about 1 in a 1000. At least the boys will be able to get an early start on the golf season.

[solbes]

Agreed, they need to win the tourney to make it. UMD needs to probably sweep next weekend and hope for some help on bubble teams losing. Otherwise a pair of wins to get into F5 may be enough to get them a 12 or higher (13 currently).

[scsavre]

With that loss. Yep we need to win the tourny.

I am still on the fence if teams who win the playoff in the CHA or whatever, should get the automatic bid. I cant remember if they get it this year, but i know they used.

If Bemidji doesnt win the playoff, that means a diferent, not so good team would make it.

Darn gophers,they just dont look like they care.

[solbes]

We'll be down one automatic bid next year with CHA disbanding, so that's one more team to make the tourney that otherwise would not. I'm okay with the automatic bids. Look at the run Bemidji made last year, that was fun to watch. And I don't see how BSU can lose their tourney this year.

So there will be 5 automatic bids in the future. In the premier conferences (East, CCHA, and WCHA) the teams that win the tourney will likely be going anyway. Not always of course.

Also I agree on the Goph's not playing with any intensity on Saturday night. They did look good at times on Friday, especially when getting a critical check on Huttel from the ref

[Bear55]

Don't take this the wrong way because I am a die hard gopher fan but I almost hope the Gophers are blown out of the first round of the playoffs. Then they have a nice long off season to think about how they have played this season. Even when we win I kind of get the feeling we are just going through the motions.

Go UMD and Bemidji, I will be pulling for you. Heck I am even going to pull for St. Cloud, maybe this is the year they get the first NCAA win.

[scsavre]

I am with you Bear, ITs tough cause you want them to win. But i dont want to get my hopes up, and they dont look interested anyway.

I think the process of selecting is as fair as it is going to get. One thing i hate about the power ranking portion is how it screws up our schedule. Ever noticed how Bowling green, Harvard, Wayne State and other teams of that nature have been thrown into our schedule. They complained that their power ranking score couldnt get high enough because they werent playing teams in the top 10. Frustrating cause it means 2 teams in our league only get 1 series with us. MN state and SCSU this year, I think.

[cbrooks]

This weeks pairwise rankings

1.Denver 24-6-4

2.Miami(Ohio)24-5-7

3.Wisconsin 21-8-4

4.SCSU 20-10-4

5.Bemidji st 22-8-2

6.fighting Sioux 18-11-5

7.Boston college 20-10-2

8.Yale 19-7-3

9.Alaska(Fairbanks) 16-9-9

10.New Hampshire 19-10-6

11.Cornell 17-8-4

12.Michigan st 19-11-6

13.Vermont 15-11-6

14.UMD 19-14-1

15.Ferris st 19-11-6

16.Northern Michigan 17-11-8

17.Maine 16-13-3

18.Nebraska-Omaha 18-14-6

19.Union 18-10-6

20.CC 17-14-3

21.Northeastern 16-14-2

22.Umass-lowell 17-14-3

23.Boston University 14-15-3

24.Minnesota rodents 16-16-2

25.Michigan 19-17-1

[scsavre]

Those savages sure dont have a very good record to be ranked 6th. gosh darn ND FlickerTails.

[mr_jman]

The WCHA is so stacked and at #24 the Gophers are definately on the outside looking in! If they are on the bubble they may get in because they are a good draw and bring in people.

Sure is nice to be a Badger, Husky, BEAVER, Sioux, Bulldog fan and almost KNOW your going to be playing well into March!