Winners and Losers

tUMD 2, Seabiscuits 2 (tUMD loses in SO)/tUMD 2, Seabiscuits 4
tUMD 2, SCSU 0/ tUMD 3, SCSU 2

This may sound insane but I actually may have watched too much hockey this past weekend. Since both the men and the women were home I spent a long time at AMSoil Arena.

Of course the big winner of the weekend was this guy:

Since I am rarely at casinos and never at various animal racing tracks, I have never witnessed anyone win a large sum of money before. It was so cool. So unbelievable. Dan of the Week and I just laughed hysterically while applauding because we were dumbfounded. RWD comrade Paul was in town from Roseau for the Icebreaker tournament and came over to chat with me and he was also in disbelief. It was still a topic of discussion the next night, as I gathered with RWD comrades Jolene and Monte to discuss… well, mostly to discuss Owatonna, but also pee-wee hockey. My co-workers had even heard about it and they don’t even care about hockey because they are from Michigan.

It was also the highlight of the night as well as the entire weekend as far as men’s hockey goes. After over a month without a men’s home hockey game, the AMSoil crowd was treated to a pair of losses (yes I know the SO goes down as a tie) stemming from 2 uninspired and undisciplined games. Thanks guys.

Enough about the losers. I’m trying to block those games from my mind. tUMD will have a chance to right those wrongs on the last weekend of the season (and salvage their record against WMU for the PWR).

Let’s talk about the winners. tUMD women’s hockey got a nice sweep against a league opponent, led by Lara Stalder with two goals on the weekend. Stalder could have had a few more but St. Cloud’s goalie managed to make some saves. tUMD also could have had at least one more goal, as Mrazova (I think I can’t remember if it was her or Brykaliuk) had a clean shot at the empty net on Saturday before the play was blown dead for a St. Cloud penalty. (I don’t know. No one knew.) St. Cloud should also have had one fewer goal, as they hauled down a Dogs player on a scoring chance (again with an empty net) and then went down the rink and scored. So there were some issues, but tDogs were able to rise above them (as well as the continuing off-ice issues, which were exacerbated Sunday morning after a story broke about Jen Banford, lame-duck director of hockey operations and apparently now also lame-duck tUMD softball coach) and I was able to end my weekend (I worked on Monday) with on a positive hockey-related note.

Speaking of winners, please read this excellent article about notre capitaine, Zoe Hickel. Her work ethic is unreal, and she will be an outstanding coach someday, although I hope her playing career will continue!

In other loser news, tUMD men are back atop the NCHC PIM standings. A dubious honor, but one they were clearly determined to reclaim. Gooninato was suspended by Don Adam after taking a kneeing major. (I do like Toninato but Biddy made up the Gooninato nickname and it’s funny to us, so it stays.)

tUMD men are in the Gopher TournShament this weekend, playing Buttmidji and I hope playing (and beating) Mankato. tUMD women are definitely playing Mankato, in Mankato, and it had better be another sweep!