Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

[The Rube]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

The Gopher women won 4-1 over Harvard for another Championship for them. I think they said 3 of the last 4.

Yep. And they were runner up last year.

[Greyeagle]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Pressure shifts big time to the men in the quest to share a charter to DC.

[Koho]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

The Gopher women won 4-1 over Harvard for another Championship for them. I think they said 3 of the last 4.

Crap. Completely forgot to watch. Congrats for winning ladies. Two more Championships for MN hockey teams (not talking UMD, SCSU or MSU) and this could be an awesome year!

[The Rube]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Crap. Completely forgot to watch. Congrats for winning ladies. Two more Championships for MN hockey teams (not talking UMD, SCSU or MSU) and this could be an awesome year!

The stream was mostly good. There were a couple times it got really choppy (guessing overloaded servers). However, when it was good, it was REALLY good. No pixelation or anything.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

It sure was a great game for my wife to attend with me. She had a blast!

[Koho]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

The stream was mostly good. There were a couple times it got really choppy (guessing overloaded servers). However, when it was good, it was REALLY good. No pixelation or anything.

Watched Fridays game with few problems. Now next year, isn't Kessel back and Brandt too? How do they look on D and G?

[The Rube]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Watched Fridays game with few problems. Now next year, isn't Kessel back and Brandt too? How do they look on D and G?

Kind of above my pay grade, but Brandt's name was called out often. She's a beast. The goalie made some HUGE saves, and the one goal she let in, she knew it was a softie and you could tell she was very upset with herself.

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Watched Fridays game with few problems. Now next year, isn't Kessel back and Brandt too? How do they look on D and G?

Although there has been no official announcement, from what I've heard it's very doubtful that Kessel will be back, or ever play again, due to lingering concussion symptoms.

Otherwise, next year's team should be very strong again. Their starting goalie, their top four scorers, and all of their D except one (Ramsey) will return.

[5mn_Major]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Although there has been no official announcement, from what I've heard it's very doubtful that Kessel will be back, or ever play again, due to lingering concussion symptoms.

Otherwise, next year's team should be very strong again. Their starting goalie, their top four scorers, and all of their D except one (Ramsey) will return.

My understanding on Kessel as well. Ramsey will be missed as captain...and a couple of good forward role players. But the big guns are in fact returning...and we're picking up several hot recruits (and a couple of real aces in all Canada Sara Potomak and ms. hockey Taylor Williamson). Should be another run in store.

[HarleyMC]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Congrats! This was a season that could have went south on you, but your guys pulled it together. To an outsider, that looks like senior leadership. Best of luck in the tourney!

That’s spot on dude. The seniors clearly made a decision to dig deeper after some uninspired hockey in the NSCC. From that point on they’ve been the engine and the driver on this latest run. And as it turns out, the surge couldn’t have come at a better time heading into this weekend with some dominant winds in our sails.

It’s always been the senior leadership at playoff time that provides the spark and focus in the Gopher’s quest for the Holy Grail of D1 hockey…and this season is no different. The ONLY way the Gophers will get their hands on the sacred hardware is through the seniors who got them there. As the seniors go…so the Gophers go.

I mentioned before the Penn State series…if a six game winning streak started that weekend, the Gophers will be on a plane to Boston. Well, 4 down and 2 to go. I like our chances of getting out of the NE regional alive and the road to the FF seems doable if the Gophers continue to play focused, smart and aggressive. In the two losses to UMD/no senior scoring, but the win against UMD/50% scoring from the seniors. In all three games against UMD, the Gophers were atypically outshot. But I anticipate a much different story this weekend based upon what we’ve seen from the Gophers lately.

For those interested, I’ve thrown some stats together below to illustrate how critical the top scoring seniors have been down the stretch.

Ambroz has been a force around the net and redeemed himself from a very dismal start by increasing his goals scored on this run by a whopping 284%. The same would apply to Captain Kyle. Notice the drop in assists and the 108% increase in scoring to finally hit that magic 20 goal mark for the first time in his Gopher career. The most consistent forward, despite an early season injury that sidelined him for 7 games, has been Travis Boyd who netted 9 goals before and 10 goals post-NSCC, hence only an 11% increase, but his playmaking has been outstanding and reflected in his increase in assists by 53%. Sam Warning’s goal scoring increase is negligible, but he stepped up his playmaking skills as well increasing his assists post-NSCC by 87%. Bottom line, out of the 26% increase in total team scoring on this latest 12-3-1 run, 62% of it has come from the top seniors.

Current record: 23-12-3, W% = .645
Before Jan. 30: 22 games @ 11-9-2, W% = .545
Since Jan. 30: 16 games @ 12-3-1, W% = .781

1) Mean percentage increase in scoring before Jan. 30 compared to since Jan. 30 from top senior forwards (G/A/Pts):

......• Seth Ambroz: +284% / +14% / +97%
......• Kyle Rau: +108% / -45% / +18%
......• Travis Boyd (out 7 games before Jan. 30): +11% / +53% / +26%
......• Sam Warning: 0 / 87% / 35%

2) Mean percentage in team scoring and percentage of team scoring increase due to top seniors before Jan. 30 compared to since Jan. 30:

......• Total team goals increase: +26%
......• Total senior scoring increase: +78% / +33% / +54%
......• Percentage increase in goals by seniors: +42%
......• Percentage increase in total team goals due to senior scoring: +62%

[UMICH]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

I picked you guys to win the National Championship...

[captain beefheart]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

That’s spot on dude. The seniors clearly made a decision to dig deeper after some uninspired hockey in the NSCC. From that point on they’ve been the engine and the driver on this latest run. And as it turns out, the surge couldn’t have come at a better time heading into this weekend with some dominant winds in our sails.

It’s always been the senior leadership at playoff time that provides the spark and focus in the Gopher’s quest for the Holy Grail of D1 hockey…and this season is no different. The ONLY way the Gophers will get their hands on the sacred hardware is through the seniors who got them there. As the seniors go…so the Gophers go.

I mentioned before the Penn State series…if a six game winning streak started that weekend, the Gophers will be on a plane to Boston. Well, 4 down and 2 to go. I like our chances of getting out of the NE regional alive and the road to the FF seems doable if the Gophers continue to play focused, smart and aggressive. In the two losses to UMD/no senior scoring, but the win against UMD/50% scoring from the seniors. In all three games against UMD, the Gophers were atypically outshot. But I anticipate a much different story this weekend based upon what we’ve seen from the Gophers lately.

For those interested, I’ve thrown some stats together below to illustrate how critical the top scoring seniors have been down the stretch.

Ambroz has been a force around the net and redeemed himself from a very dismal start by increasing his goals scored on this run by a whopping 284%. The same would apply to Captain Kyle. Notice the drop in assists and the 108% increase in scoring to finally hit that magic 20 goal mark for the first time in his Gopher career. The most consistent forward, despite an early season injury that sidelined him for 7 games, has been Travis Boyd who netted 9 goals before and 10 goals post-NSCC, hence only an 11% increase, but his playmaking has been outstanding and reflected in his increase in assists by 53%. Sam Warning’s goal scoring increase is negligible, but he stepped up his playmaking skills as well increasing his assists post-NSCC by 87%. Bottom line, out of the 26% increase in total team scoring on this latest 12-3-1 run, 62% of it has come from the top seniors.

Current record: 23-12-3, W% = .645
Before Jan. 30: 22 games @ 11-9-2, W% = .545
Since Jan. 30: 16 games @ 12-3-1, W% = .781

1) Mean percentage increase in scoring before Jan. 30 compared to since Jan. 30 from top senior forwards (G/A/Pts):

......• Seth Ambroz: +284% / +14% / +97%
......• Kyle Rau: +108% / -45% / +18%
......• Travis Boyd (out 7 games before Jan. 30): +11% / +53% / +26%
......• Sam Warning: 0 / 87% / 35%

2) Mean percentage in team scoring and percentage of team scoring increase due to top seniors before Jan. 30 compared to since Jan. 30:

......• Total team goals increase: +26%
......• Total senior scoring increase: +78% / +33% / +54%
......• Percentage increase in goals by seniors: +42%
......• Percentage increase in total team goals due to senior scoring: +62%

Nice math work, Harley. However, my recurring wide awake nightmare has me seeing Brodzinski? ( #20 ) at the end of the first period on Saturday's game coasting and letting one of the Wolverines slide by him with about 2 seconds left and miss a nice tap in, and am reminded of our loss to Yale by just plain carelessness and I start to sweat. This team CANNOT expect to get away with that and win. We will lose to UMTC Duluth if we play that way. I sure hope the coaching staff points that out ( I don't doubt they will, but will the boys buy in? ) Go Gophers!

[HarleyMC]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

Nice math work, Harley. However, my recurring wide awake nightmare has me seeing Brodzinski? ( #20 ) at the end of the first period on Saturday's game coasting and letting one of the Wolverines slide by him with about 2 seconds left and miss a nice tap in, and am reminded of our loss to Yale by just plain carelessness and I start to sweat. This team CANNOT expect to get away with that and win. We will lose to UMTC Duluth if we play that way. I sure hope the coaching staff points that out ( I don't doubt they will, but will the boys buy in? ) Go Gophers!

Thanks, man. I forgot to include the other UMD loss (NSCC), which we should have won, but lost it with just over 2 minutes left in the game. As you stated, no room for that crap on this "one and done" journey to the FF. Agreed, that Yale game is definitely a haunting reminder: Focus, focus, focus. I hear what you're saying about Broz. He's got a cannon for shot and IMO he's matured this season in his D work. But every once in a while he gets sucked out of position and it has cost us. The Gophers are riding a nice wave of momentum, so I think they'll be psyched for UMD this time around.

[The Rube]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

I picked you guys to win the National Championship...

Crap. Season's over.

[5mn_Major]

Re: Minnesota Gopher Season Thread: 2014-15 (Continued)

In tribute to Harley's good work, here's a look back and forward. To say that the Gophers season had ups and downs is an understatement. The season broke down into several distinct time spans:

Early success at 8-1 through the middle of November. This came as a 1) result of sheer talent and 2) usual strong early season preparation by the coaching staff 3) a fairly favorable schedule. But as is often the case, talent takes you only so far. In the middle of November, we ran into a UMD that was playing some of the best hockey in the country...and the subsequent week with the U18 team, the wheels started to come off.

Midseason flounder where we went 4-9-2 went from the middle of November through the NSCC in late January. We still had the talent but effective execution on that talent was lacking. We were missing passes and losing one-on-one battles. This was in large part because during the first part of the season we coasted on talent while other teams needed to develop or die. These troubles were compounded by losing Boyd, really out top forward in terms of point production, which hurt our ability to score (typically our top nemesis). Its damage was compounded by wiping out the third line as it was has no engine without Boyd and hammered our depth further down. This was also a period where the coaches kept juggling lines well into the second half of the season...which didn't help matters.

Late season recovery where we went 8-3-1 from late January through the first part of March. It was at that point the team started to put the execution polish on their game to add to the talent. The pieces were coming together, with one exception...consistent intensity. Although playing well, the team dropped a handful of games against teams that were not that high on the PWR and in the case of a tie at UW and two losses to OSU and MSU teams that didn't need to play particularly well.

End of the season run from early March until now where we went 4-0. The team solidly swept PSU at home and followed it up with two well played games at the B1Gs. During the end of the season it 1) its utilizing the talent its had all year 2) polished play and honed its execution since late January 3) turned in consistent intensity not dropping any unwarranted games starting in early March.

Now to the tourney...

The NE regional - I think our placement in the NE regional was an OK outcome. I think many here didn't want to go to Fargo as it was in UND's backyard and they'd be gunning for us because of last year. I wanted to go to Fargo. I have felt all along that UND is vulnerable. And excluding a home weekend against doormat CC (where UND barely got past them in the second game), UND has lost 3 straight. This coupled with their leading scorer being out...I think MN would have found a nice home in nearby Fargo. Alas not happening. On the otherhand, I didn't want to be in the Midwest facing MSU. They've just been too consistent and walked through their tournament. That places us in a decent situation.

Although we've had issues with UMD, that school doesn't seem the same as when they outplayed us in the fall and we're not the same as when we struggled even more than they did at the NSCC. With where we're at, we have as good a shot at UMD as many teams in the tourney even with Iafallo back. The second round against BU (assuming we/they make it) is the key. The one game against BU in Manchester is the one price we have to pay because of all our missteps earlier this year. If it happens, the guys will need to bring their A game. Frankly once in the Frozen Four, things are potentially more manageable. We have the west regional in our side of the bracket...and as I said, I think UND is vulnerable. That leaves only MTU and SCSU as the big threats from that side. Not unmanageable. The other side of the bracket has MSU, Miami, Denver, and BC. And we would only have to worry about one.

In short, the path is there.