>C is for Czech?
>Um, yeah, so remember how Steve Czech gives a lot of turnovers in the defensive zone and that the entire d-corps sort of sucked it up last year?
WELL WHY WOULD YOU REWARD THAT WITH A CAPTAINSHIP?????????
Especially when you’ve got a great leader in Tim Stapleton, who is also better looking.
I guess it’s not for me to say. BUT IT SHOULD BE.
>Gather Ye Rosehills While Ye May
>I remember talking to some of my friends at SiouxSports about the upcoming season, and how our teams will both be young at D. However, I told them, I think Jay Rosehill will be totally killer this season, now that he’s had a year of experience under his belt, and learned not to be such a thug (I hoped.) But he can take that year of experience and stick it where the sun don’t shine, because he’s signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Just kidding, I’m totally happy for ya, buddy!
But why you gotta play me like that?
Really, ED is not something the Bulldogs have had to worry about in the past, and when I say ED, I don’t mean something that can be cured by anything Rafael Palmeiro has ever endorsed. (I say it like that because if I said actual drug names, I bet I’d get spammed like mad.) However, with the new class of recruits, I think we might have more folks at risk for ED (Matt Niskanen, I’m looking in your direction…) At least this means we are recruiting good players, which is key to the success of the program. Thought that was a no-brainer? Well… Anyway, Matt is going to help fill the big gaping chasm in defense left by… um… oh yeah our defense kinda sucked a little last year. So he’ll help close off the black hole of suckitude from last season. Let’s not have our goals per game be the same as our opponents’ goals per game! Because when I saw that stat, it did not make me happy.
By the way, when I saw who we were returning at D, I shuddered: Travis Gawryletz (whom I like very much), Ryan Swanson (who is not good), and Steve Czech (who I have threatened to maim on several occasions, usually following turnovers in our defensive zone, which are bad. Very bad. TAKE NOTE, STEVE.)
So, in a very roundabout way, I’m saying
I can’t wait for hockey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and don’t suck at defense this year.
In other news… I’m moving to Las Vegas.
>An All-WCHA Frozen Four.
Sick, ain’t it? Who would have thought?
Well, a lot of people. It would be much better, if the Bulldogs were there, but ending up 6th in a conference where all 4 teams are in the NCAA semifinals… well, it’s not like we ended 5th in the CHA. It’s not like we’re in the CHA at all. So we can be proud of that.
I don’t usually make picks for tournaments (although UCONN won me some money last year in the basketball tourney), so I didn’t have any picks on who would make it to Columbus. However, I guess I can take a shot at the champion now.
My pick is not North Dakota, because they have been playing strong of late, but the 2-week break will kill their momentum. 2 week break = 0 velocity. Momentum = mass x velocity. 0 x mass = 0 g*m/s.
My pick is not Denver, because they do not play great hockey. They play decently enough to get this far, but they bored me in the Final Five Championship game. ZZZZZZ. Good thing for beer and wings.
My pick is not Minnesota, because Briggs is weak and Barry Tallackson has netted his last goal as a college hockey player. They managed to catch Maine on their only mistake of the day. They did not deserve a #1 seed.
My pick is not Colorado, because they play an amazing game of hockey one day, and go out and suck the next day. Who knows who will show up?
So, basically, no one can win. Riiiiiiight.
p.s. if CC can get past Denver they will win it all. And they should be able to do that!
>Lucien, Jr.
>
Oh yeah. That’s pretty great. Junior Lessard, before the Bulldogs, before Hobey Baker, before that ugly picture of him drunk that was on SiouxSports.com.
Thanks to the Penalty Box for the link!
>That’s All, Folks
>Well.
I’m at a loss. I’m stunned. I’m totally in disbelief. The season went out, not with a bang, but a whimper. Evidently the only person really playing this weekend was Tim Stapleton.
I didn’t give up. But it seemed like some of the ‘Dogs did.
Here’s to next season. I’ll be waiting.
>The All-WCHA Hottie Teams!
>What you’ve been waiting for!!
This year’s hotties cover 9 of the WCHA teams (CC did not have any candidates! They didn’t even bother to look nice or even comb their hair in their photos!)
Coach: Jamie Russell (MTU)
1st Team
F- Evan Schwabe (UMD)
F- Chris Porter (UND)
F- Gabe Gauthier (UD)
D- Zach Blom (UD)
D- Kyle Peto (MSUM)
G- Kyle Nixon (MSUM)
2nd Team
F- AJ Degenhardt (UW)
F- Colin Murphy (MTU)
F- Charlie Kronschnabel (UAA)
D- Aaron Brocklehurst** (SCSU)
D- Ryan McMullan (UAA)
G- Cam Ellsworth (MTU)
3rd Team
F- Brad Thompson (MSUM)
F- Chris Connor (MTU)
F- Justin Bourne (UAA)
D- no one hot enough
D- Alex Goligoski (UMN)
G- Jake Brandt (UND)
Freshmen
F- Merit Waldrop (UAA)
F- Ryan Dingle (UD)
F- Malcom Gwilliam (MTU)
D- Zach Blom (UD)
D- Aaron Brocklehurst** (SCSU)
G- no freshmen goalies were good looking
*not enough hott defensemen
**only made it for his resemblance to Jim Morrison
>Applause! Applause!
>The hotness that is Marco Peluso is the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week. AND the ‘Dogs are on the radar in the PWR.
That is all.
>The Look of Triumph
>And here it is, folks:
The beauty my eyes beheld last night.
What you don’t see is Evan Schwabe’s absolutely amazing goal. He worked for that one. You don’t see Tim Hambly’s superhuman effort, including 8 shots on goal, and one big fat goal in the first period that gave us the lead. We never trailed. Tim Stapleton had 9 shots. Jay Rosehill nearly doubled his season point total (and spend a long time in the penalty box.) Isaac made some amazing saves (and let out some big fat rebounds, but the Gophers couldn’t cash in.)
What you don’t see is the policewoman that stood behind me for over half the game. Or my acrobatics as I nearly fell over the rail each time there was an exciting play. Or the people sitting in front of me who thought I was insane. Or Doug Woog’s bald head not 20 feet away, who could hear every word I screamed. I’m sure the whole stadium could.
But Christmas Present 2 of 2 is just as lucky as 1 of 2.
[no more picture!]
WHERE HAS THIS TEAM BEEN????????
I’m glad they’re back, though. Broadmoor Trophy, here we come!
>Reading Between The Lines
>Here’s the scoring summary from College Hockey Stats, but you won’t really understand the game without my expert analysis. This game was special and magical.
1st Period (20:00)
CC-1 Brett Sterling (2-Interference) MND 1×1 1:26
MND 1-0 6×5 PP Evan Schwabe (14) (Tim Hambly, Tim Stapleton) 2:08
*Yes, that’s right folks, Evan Schwabe scores ANOTHER goal within 2 minutes of the game’s start. AND the ‘Dogs get ANOTHER power play tally.
MND-1 Evan Schwabe (2-Boarding) CC 1×1 12:08
*Evan Schwabe gets called for boarding? He’s like 160 lbs, soaking wet!
CC 1-1 6×5 PP Jack Hillen (2) (Curtis McElhinney) 14:02
*Note, the goaltender gets an assist.
CC-2 Jimmy Kilpatrick (2-Obstruction Hooking) MND 1×2 15:51
MND-2 Bryan McGregor (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 16:13
CC-3 Weston Tardy (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 16:13
2nd Period (20:00)
MND-3 Justin Williams (2-Slashing) CC 1×2 0:14
MND-4 Brett Hammond (2-Obstruction Hooking) 5:50
CC-4 James Brannigan (2-Diving) 5:50
CC 2-1 6×6 Brett Sterling (20) (Jimmy Kilpatrick, Marty Sertich) 8:45
MND-5 Todd Smith (2-Elbowing) CC 2×3 9:27
CC 3-1 6×5 PP Joey Crabb (10) (Marty Sertich, Aaron Slattengren) 10:19
*Here’s where most folks left the ‘Dogs for dead. But not me!
MND 2-3 6×6 Josh Miskovich (4) (Justin Williams, Tim Stapleton) 11:54
MND-6 Luke Stauffacher (2-Holding) CC 2×4 12:33
MND 3-3 6×6 GT Travis Gawryletz (2) (Brett Hammond, Josh Johnson) 14:58
*This, ladies and gentlemen, I will call one of my top ten moments of the season. After being on the ice for the entire penalty kill, plus 0:25 after Stauffacher got back on the ice, Hammond gets the puck to Gawryletz, who came out of nowhere, and Gawryletz buries it. You try killing a penalty when you can’t clear the puck out of your zone, then skate your ass off down to the other end and put the biscuit in the basket. He should get a freaking medal. And so should Hammond. Also, since McElhinney got an assist, Johnson thought he’d better get one too.
3rd Period (20:00)
MND-7 Justin Williams (2-Boarding) CC 2×5 10:56
CC-5 Jimmy Kilpatrick (5-Spearing) MND 1×3 12:45
CC-6 Jimmy Kilpatrick (10-Game Disqualification) (Served by Braydon Cox) 12:45
*The ‘Dogs could have capitalized on this chance and taken this game from the #1 team in the nation. The ‘Dogs, too, were a #1 team at one point. But try as they might (and they did get some shots on net), the 3rd period was the period of the goalies.
Overtime (5:00)
*Both goalies made game-saving grabs in this back and forth overtime. Everyone got their money’s worth.
End of Game
*Let’s Go ‘Dogs!
>Guess Who’s Back?
>The ‘Dogs are back!
Oh, I’m so excited! I mean, yeah, we’re going to play Colorado College next weekend, but they really struggled against North Dakota, only winning by one goal, only scoring 3 on the weekend. And yeah we don’t score many goals and our goalies aren’t as good as Philippe Lamoreaux. But after the 5-1 win on Saturday (I’ll forget about the 5-2 loss Friday night), I think the ‘Dogs remembered who they were. Maybe a giant cloud that looks like Junior Lessard came to them in a vision in the sky and told them, “Remember who you are.” Like in the Lion King. But how long will they remember? That’s the key.
The Saturday night game was sort of bizarre, with C.J. Beaurline getting injured after Smitty knocked Reeder right into him, and a UW-Superior style brawl at the end (although our Rosehill did not get kicked out!) However, I would like to point out, that in the box score, not a single Bulldog had a -, they were all E or +1. And did you know that we went 3 for 8 on the POWER PLAY???????? And we had a shorthander???????? And Evan Schwabe scored twice???????? And even Bryan McGregor kicked some major ass? And Evan Schwabe took someone to the ice? Little Evan Schwabe! Who would have thought? And Hooton thought he was tough, but wouldn’t go toe-to-toe with Jay Rosehill, who is ready to fight, no matter what.
Oh yeah, that brawl? Here’s the penalty list:
STC-8 Konrad Reeder (2-Roughing)
STC-9 Konrad Reeder (2-Roughing)
STC-10 Aaron Brocklehurst (2-Roughing)
STC-11 Aaron Brocklehurst (2-Roughing)
STC-12 Josh Singer (2-Roughing)
STC-13 Josh Singer (2-Roughing)
STC-14 Casey Borer (2-Roughing)
STC-15 Casey Borer (2-Roughing)
STC-16 Aaron Brocklehurst (10-Misconduct)
MND-13 Tim Hambly (2-Roughing)
MND-14 Tim Hambly (2-Roughing)
MND-15 Marco Peluso (2-Roughing)
MND-16 Marco Peluso (2-Roughing)
MND-17 Bryan McGregor (2-Roughing)
MND-18 Bryan McGregor (2-Roughing)
MND-19 Evan Schwabe (2-Roughing)
MND-20 Evan Schwabe (2-Roughing)
MND-21 Marco Peluso (10-Misconduct)
All of those came at 18:51. Oh Marco, you are a hot head. But you’re hot.
Anyway, my good friend dagies from Sioux Sports posted this:
Question about scoring goals:
Can a team get too focused on putting the puck on net and not focused enough about where the puck is going?
Sioux teams historically have outshot opponents but what I’m wondering about is whether players lose the edge to try and make each shot count.
For example, from what I read about games this weekend it appears we had a player with a breakaway who put the biscuit in the goalies bread basket, not the net. Last week I saw Fleming for the gophers with a bit of space and he aimed his shot in the upper corner stick side and guess what, it went in. I realize sometimes you miss the net on a deal like that but I wonder if we’re too focused on just getting the puck at the net. Maybe that’s accounts for the puck not getting by the goaltender. The shooter’s job must be to not only get off a shot, but try and direct that puck where it has a chance to be successful.
Maybe that already happens. I’m just grasping at straws. There has to be a reason why we can put a lot of shots on goalies consistently without scoring the requisite number of goals.
So he got me thinking, and I responded:
I think you may have something here (not just with North Dakota, but with the ‘Dogs as well. I’m going to have to quote you on my site.)
I don’t listen to many of your games, but I am constantly hearing things about how “the puck won’t lie down” or “he fanned on it” or “he just got his stick on it” or any number of things about the ‘Dogs’ offensive, um, struggles.
It’s quality, not quantity. You can shoot the puck at the net all you want and run up the totals, but if you shoot it right at the logo each time, quantum physics says there’s only an infinitesmally small chance that the puck will, rather than reflect, go through the goalie. I hope they aren’t waiting for that.
I’ve been frustrated for awhile about the ‘Dogs’ flurry of shots with little results, but now you’ve got me thinking…
I don’t know. I guess maybe those shot totals aren’t telling the whole story. When they take their time and make a good shot, it goes in. You can’t just shut your eyes and shoot. The Force isn’t with us.
I guess I should make long posts more often, as when I was more committed to this site, we were doing better. And then I stopped posting so much, and we sucked. Then I post the mid-season review, and we rocked (for one game)!
And I’m going to the ‘Dogs-Gophers game on the 29th! Yeah!
Runnin' With the Dogs 