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2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston University

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Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

willythekid said:
gopher fans throw the "choke" word around more than any other fanbase... maybe they should tone in back a bit until someone else has a Holy Cross moment. Just my opinion.
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Bull****. Your fanbase hurled this term at Gopher fans for the better part of 20 years. The jdubbs of the world have a long way to go to equal that.

Plus Michigan already had their Holy Cross moment in losing to Air Force a few years ago. There was also the Bemidji run to the frozen four that embarrassed a couple teams as well, and of course there was the UND loss to Yale in the first round not all that long ago.

Oh, and I'd be remiss to overlook RIT's run to the F4 where they embarrassed Denver and UNH (I think that was the second team they beat).

The bottom line is good teams that make the tournament a lot have their share of first round flubs.
 
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Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

True college hockey fans realize that Western Michigan beating North Dakota wouldn't be a huge upset. #4 seeds regularly beat #1 seeds now. North Dakota is a weak #1 seed. They went from out of the tournament to a #1 seed in a couple of weeks. Western Michigan is a strong #4 seed. They finished 3rd in this year's toughest league, and they won their conference tournament. There was a lot of parity this year, and the only teams that should be heavily favored in their region are Boston College and maybe Michigan. With no upset conference champions, the only team that is a true underdog this year is Air Force. Air Force beating Boston College would be somewhat similar to Holy Cross beating Minnesota. That would be the only huge upset this year.
 
TheEagle said:
True college hockey fans realize that Western Michigan beating North Dakota wouldn't be a huge upset. #4 seeds regularly beat #1 seeds now. North Dakota is a weak #1 seed. They went from out of the tournament to a #1 seed in a couple of weeks. Western Michigan is a strong #4 seed. They finished 3rd in this year's toughest league, and they won their conference tournament. There was a lot of parity this year, and the only teams that should be heavily favored in their region are Boston College and maybe Michigan. With no upset conference champions, the only team that is a true underdog this year is Air Force. Air Force beating Boston College would be somewhat similar to Holy Cross beating Minnesota. That would be the only huge upset this year.
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Agreed. A weak #1 against a strong #4, but it's still a #1 against a #4. And considering the way people (including the media) are picking this game, a majority of people would consider this a significant upset (even if the hockey side doesn't match up that way). With a lot of media love/hype comes lofty expectations.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

mnstate0fhockey said:
Agreed. A weak #1 against a strong #4, but it's still a #1 against a #4. And considering the way people (including the media) are picking this game, a majority of people would consider this a significant upset (even if the hockey side doesn't match up that way). With a lot of media love/hype comes lofty expectations.
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The media are idiots.

This isn't even close to Minnesota Holy Cross if it were to happen.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

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Looks like the fans picking UND has dropped since I last checked to 84%

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Again, not saying that the metrics point to UND being heavy favorites, but the fans and media's perception seems to be that they are. So, don't be surprised to see the media make a big deal out of Western win should they pull off the upset.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

SanTropez said:
The media are idiots.

This isn't even close to Minnesota Holy Cross if it were to happen.
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Of course its not. Western Michigan would have made the tournament even if they didn't win the CCHA playoff title. Holy Cross would not have. That's the difference. The only Holy Cross this year is Air Force.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

The Holy Cross upset is different than just a typical big upset. There was a "perfect storm" of factors that contributed to its epicness:

- A 15 seed had never beaten a 2 seed - which is what they were in the season-ending pairwise and tournament seedings.

- You had a situation where virtually everyone who wasn't a Minny fan was rooting hard for HC. More so than a typical underdog gets support. Most Gopher fans lament (or glory in) the fact that virtually everyone hates/roots against them - and it's true. Gopher fan will tell you that everyone else is simply jealous, the rest of us have our own reasons.

- The Gophers were in the midst of a couple week long meltdown which started with the top spot in the pairwise and proceeded to a F5 loss to SCSU (8-7, I believe), had another nail pounded against the Badgers (4-0) in the now defunct F5 3rd place game and culminated with Holy Cross taking them out back and putting the .22 behind the ear.

One interesting tidbit is that the "meaningless" 3rd place game against the Badgers actually helped to seal their fate as it flipped the two teams in the pairwise and made the Badgers the #1 overall seed. In watching that game, the Gophers were clearly not ready to play that 3rd place game and I remember Doug & the Rug wondering if, hoping that, the Gophers could get their edge back for the first round game the next week. They didn't.

I can't remember if they would have gotten BSU instead of HC had they won that game.

- The Gophers were REALLY good that year. Heading down the stretch and into the NCAAs, they were the only team that could go toe to toe with the Badgers and possibly beat them. Both teams had been number one for large stretches of that season and both were loaded with talent. To be honest, they were the only team that I didn't want to see in the FF, even though they hadn't beaten the Badgers when we had Elliot.

- The game was in Grand Forks. As much as we (Badger fans) dislike the Gophers, I believe that the hunter-gatherers from Grand Forks hate them more. I'm pretty sure that the Ralph was more jacked up than the KC would have been under similar circumstances. Could this have happened in a worse (better) place for the Gophers?

- Finally, it was Holy Cross. Is that a Chicago Catholic League high school? Seriously, Holy Cross.


It will take a lot more than a simple 4-beats-1 upset to equal or surpass the "Holy Cross" game.
 
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Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

I don't think anyone really thinks a UND loss to Western is on the same level as Holy Cross.

At least one would hope.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

IIRC, Holy Cross had me saying "Holy ****" when I saw it on the computers they had sitting in a part of the concourse at Van Andel that year.

Of course, it could be one of the other half dozen "***" games that 4 seeds have thrown on 1 seeds. I think the tourney works better in my head when I make it one big 16 team bracket, which makes these games more like a 4/13 and a 7/10 matchup, ignoring that there's no bracket integrity.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

Gurtholfin said:
Most Gopher fans lament (or glory in) the fact that virtually everyone hates/roots against them - and it's true. Gopher fan will tell you that everyone else is simply jealous, the rest of us have our own reasons.
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look no further than this thread. i click on here hoping to see some talk about western mich/BU so i can form an idea on what to expect from those teams. and all i get is gopher talk. from BADger fans no less
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

mnstate0fhockey said:
I don't think anyone really thinks a UND loss to Western is on the same level as Holy Cross.

At least one would hope.
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Agreed.

Plus the Whioux have been marketing how short handed they are all year so that they can have an excuse. Of course, reality is somewhat different than that.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

jerryj said:
look no further than this thread. i click on here hoping to see some talk about western mich/BU so i can form an idea on what to expect from those teams. and all i get is gopher talk. from BADger fans no less
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I'm not here trolling. Just talking about the HC game, which was brought up by someone else and talked about by many others.

And if you really look to these game threads for actual hockey content, especially early in the week, well, you must be new here.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

gopheritall said:
Agreed.

Plus the Whioux have been marketing how short handed they are all year so that they can have an excuse. Of course, reality is somewhat different than that.
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It's not an excuse when it's true. Just because you can't count to 17 doesn't mean UND has more than 17 healthy skaters.
 
Re: 2012 West Regional: North Dakota vs Western Michigan; Minnesota vs Boston Univers

Gurtholfin said:
I'm not here trolling. Just talking about the HC game, which was brought up by someone else and talked about by many others.

And if you really look to these game threads for actual hockey content, especially early in the week, well, you must be new here.
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haha no im not. and i knew you werent trolling. the HC game was and still is overblown. any hockey fan knows the game of hockey- and its not always won by the "better" team. heck, its not even always won by the better team that plays better that night!
 
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