Re: 2009 Superior Showcase--NMU, LSSU, Tech, and tUMD
Lets talk hockey. Its the beginning of season and really is any team ready to play? Who will (Or think they will) be factors for your team. Will the Eastern teams have bus legs?
Analysis please...............
OK...serious post. Tech has three things to clean up this week.
1. The breakaways & odd-man rushes they gave up against Ryerson have to stop. Chalk it up to "first game jitters" for now, and just play intelligent hockey - no easy giveaways. If some of Tech's more talented players start trying to get too fancy with the puck, they are no doubt going to get burned for it.
2. The powerplay has to be more consistent, even if they don't score on it. Keep up the pressure as much as possible and actually shoot more than one or twice per opportunity.
3. Tech has to take fewer penalties than they did against Ryerson. They can't let their emotions get the best of them in this game. NMU has some very good shooters on their first PP unit, and they will score if they are given too many chances to do so.
Josh Robinson will get the start between the pipes. He had a great performance against Ryerson and made a lot of saves we needed him to make. He'll need to be up to task against the Wildcats.
Most importantly, we'll need the upperclassmen to be more involved in this game. In particular, Baker and Gwilliam have to lead the way in generating/finishing offensive opportunities, finishing checks, and keeping everyone else's heads cool and in the game.
It'll be interesting to see whether the "Freshman Line" of Pietila-Witt-Gordic is kept together for now. If so, will they look as good as they did against Ryerson? My guess is that they won't come up with two goals, but will they be as sound otherwise? We'll see.
I predict Alex MacLeod gets at least one goal against NMU, even if it's merely the shutout spoiler.
I'll think about LSSU after we've played Northern. I want to see how the Huskies look on Friday first.
