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2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

pokechecker said:
probably should have left out the part about 6 NCAA championships
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Just to illustrate how far the BADgers men's program has fallen...

pokechecker said:
...and Gopher fans are supposed to feel good because Wisconsin sucks...
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Sure, why not? If the skate were on the other foot I'm sure you'd let us know.

pokechecker said:
...that makes up for choking against Union...
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Gophers made it all the way to the final. Wisconsin got knocked out in the first round.

pokechecker said:
...and losing to UMD earlier this year and losing the tournament amongst MN schools? And that SCSU & MSU-M are atop the ratings?
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Minnesota has five schools that play D1 hockey - men's and women's - vs. Wisconsin's one. We can take pride that four of our five men's teams (including the Gophers) are in the Pairwise Top 13. Sadly, Wisconsin's sole D1 team is #55 of 59. :o

pokechecker said:
we don't need to argue about it, just look at the two teams, the men & women's
Lucia has won 2 championships with non MN playing key roles, Woog & Buetow none
Halldorson & Frost have won 5 with non MN playing key roles

and the Perfect Team, 3 PattiK's, all non-MN...
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Whether it's men's or women's, I have no problem with the Gophers recruiting talented non-Minnesota players if it makes the team(s) better.

pokechecker said:
...do we need to say more?
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No, unless you want to take this conversation over to the men's forum! I've made my points - done here...
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

D2D said:
unless you want to take this conversation over to the men's forum! I've made my points - done here...
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When MN gets a men’s team again I’ll be there, if I wanted to watch a boys team and hang out with adolescents I’d go to a high school game.

come back when you grow up
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

D2D said:
To say this year's team is a "spectacular failure" is an exaggeration IMO. They've won 21 games and are Big Ten regular season champions. And to the extent this year's team has disappointed it is in no way attributable to their "policy" of recruiting primarily Minnesota kids. The players are pretty much the same as the Minnesota players who lost in last year's NCAA championship game.

If you want a real "spectacular failure" look no further than Wisconsin. They've got six NCAA titles to their credit, yet this year's team has won a total of FOUR GAMES, and only two of twenty in the Big Ten. Out of 59 teams they are #55 in the Pairwise....below traditional powers such as Alabama-Huntsville, Sacred Heart, Bentley and Canisius. :rolleyes: To call them a "spectacular failure" would be 100% correct.
P.S. Want to guess where their top two scorers are from? ;)
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You are ignoring the fact that many of last years team that lost the championship game came back to win the whole thing but currently stand 14th in the nation. Also, I don't think the MN recruiting policy has any impact on this but the folks who paid $5000 for a seat license may well demand "something be done" That was my point.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

ne7minder said:
You are ignoring the fact that many of last years team that lost the championship game came back to win the whole thing but currently stand 14th in the nation. Also, I don't think the MN recruiting policy has any impact on this but the folks who paid $5000 for a seat license may well demand "something be done" That was my point.
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I had the pleasure of sitting by a season ticket holder of the men’s team who had attended his first women’s game, it was Rock Ridder night where OSU came from behind to tie the Gophers. At the end of the game he said “They play just like the men’s team” to his friend who had been talking up the Gophers all night.
It was not meant as a compliment

Watching the men's team get schooled by Union last year reminded me why I didn’t renew my season tickets in 2010. The goal by Union where the player was in front of the net and had 3 whacks at the puck before he put it in without any Gopher knocking him down, … just pathetic. I’d say they play like a bunch of girls, but the Gopher women’s team doesn’t allow their opponents to do that, and they don’t even have the benefit of checking.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

In the prior Gopher thread someone wrote that they thought Mariucci started the "Minnesota only plan." I would say that Mariucci had a "Minnesota preference plan." He almost always had one or two Canadians on his teams and occasionally a player from North Dakota or even New Jersey. He certainly didn't like his teams having to play against other teams that were made up of mostly 24 or 25 year old Canadians, though. When I was just a 12 year old rink rat at Bluff playground I remember watching Lou Nanne play as a freshman at the U. If it was a preference for dear John (and he was), it was a more of a religion with Coach Woog. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the non-Minnesota players on Woog's teams (Blue, Pietrangelo, MacSwain and Lamb) were recruited by him.

There are at least two reasons that I have always been against the "Minnesota only plan." One because that one special player from outside the state might be a key to a more successful season and two because bringing in a player from Finland, Sweden, Canada or for that matter Illinois or Colorado might help give the other Gopher players a different perspective on the game of hockey and perhaps other equally important things in life. Equal might be stretching it.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

I seem to recall that Woog was apologetic when he brought in both Pietrangelo & Blue stating that he had to because of the lack of quality goaltenders being produced in MN at the time.
You are correct in that no coach probably toed the MN only line as did Woog, but I wonder if it weren't because of the expectations of "The State of Hockey" at the time. Remember, Buetow has the highest winning percentage of any coach but got canned after a few years because he didn't win the Big One and was replaced by Woog. Woog was and is a homer, but I suspect part of the reason he had so few non-MN is because of the pressure not to at the time. PO the high school coaches and the people in their feeder systems, you could make a lot of enemies that will make you pay.
Blue played in the USHL, as did McSwain, they were definately not walk-ons. That was the other excuse at the time why MN didn't win championships (the other being goaltending) because the other schools had 20 year old freshmen while MN had them straight from HS.
 
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Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

So I just got done watching "A Hard Day's Night".

Got me all properly fired up and energized and ready to experience some greatness and confidence this weekend. I'm all set to watch the Gophers win a championship!!
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

bluffrinkrat said:
In the prior Gopher thread someone wrote that they thought Mariucci started the "Minnesota only plan." I would say that Mariucci had a "Minnesota preference plan." He almost always had one or two Canadians on his teams and occasionally a player from North Dakota or even New Jersey. He certainly didn't like his teams having to play against other teams that were made up of mostly 24 or 25 year old Canadians, though. When I was just a 12 year old rink rat at Bluff playground I remember watching Lou Nanne play as a freshman at the U. If it was a preference for dear John (and he was), it was a more of a religion with Coach Woog. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the non-Minnesota players on Woog's teams (Blue, Pietrangelo, MacSwain and Lamb) were recruited by him.

There are at least two reasons that I have always been against the "Minnesota only plan." One because that one special player from outside the state might be a key to a more successful season and two because bringing in a player from Finland, Sweden, Canada or for that matter Illinois or Colorado might help give the other Gopher players a different perspective on the game of hockey and perhaps other equally important things in life. Equal might be stretching it.
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No, nobody ever claimed JM had a Minnesota Only Plan. He did however say he would only actively recruit Minnesotans. There is an important difference & a lot of the arguments on this thread are ignoring that difference and arguing against something that never was.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

ne7minder said:
No, nobody ever claimed JM had a Minnesota Only Plan. He did however say he would only actively recruit Minnesotans. There is an important difference & a lot of the arguments on this thread are ignoring that difference and arguing against something that never was.
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And I will point out again that that something most definitely was, just not when Mariucci was coaching.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

A wonderful topic for June. In the meantime, let's talk about the women's team here and save the men's debates for the men's forum. Thanks.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

I agree there is not an argument, at least on my part. John Mariucci at some point later on did want to recruit only Minnesota players and thought that if they were not quite as good as the Canadians they would just have to play harder.

Back to the topic of Gopher women's hockey, I am really looking forward to Taylor Williamson coming to the U next year, whose Canadian grandfather was actively recruited by Mariucci to play for the U, albeit it was when Murray was playing in my old stomping grounds of 21 years, Eveleth, MN.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

ARM said:
A wonderful topic for June. In the meantime, let's talk about the women's team here and save the men's debates for the men's forum. Thanks.
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just killing time before the only thing that matters, in 24 hours one set of fans will be happy, the other talking about next year

we could have had the discussion of the BC & Harvard crowd :p
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

Breaking on Twitter (from the team): Hannah Brandt, Rachel Ramsey, Dani Cameranesi, and Lee Stecklein have been named to All-American teams.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

StarTribune piece today on women's hockey's struggle to find an audience

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/296964641.html

They mentioned that Gopher's attendance went from 2,487 last season to 1,908 this season. Their numbers didn't match mine exactly but are close. A couple things though:
2,487 last year includes the aberrationally high outdoor game
1,908 this year includes the Halloween game, and the Sun Tues early season series against St Lawrence which I consider aberrationally low


Without those games the numbers go to:
2013-2014 ave: 2,132
2014-2015 ave: 2,043

Clearly the streak drove a rise in attendance and attendance peaked with the UND game in which we finally lost. But we came out the other side of the streak higher than before the streak. I hope we are still trending higher.

It will be interesting to me to see if next season continues a post streak drop, sitting at a new plateau, or the continuing of trending higher over time
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

I would assume also playing into this attendance trend you mention...1. we didn't just win an NC last year 2. we didn't just have an undefeated season last year. GWH is just settling in at 'just' great.
 
Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back II

KTDC said:
They mentioned that Gopher's attendance went from 2,487 last season to 1,908 this season. Their numbers didn't match mine exactly but are close. A couple things though:
2,487 last year includes the aberrationally high outdoor game
1,908 this year includes the Halloween game, and the Sun Tues early season series against St Lawrence which I consider aberrationally low


Without those games the numbers go to:
2013-2014 ave: 2,132
2014-2015 ave: 2,043

Clearly the streak drove a rise in attendance and attendance peaked with the UND game in which we finally lost. But we came out the other side of the streak higher than before the streak. I hope we are still trending higher.

It will be interesting to me to see if next season continues a post streak drop, sitting at a new plateau, or the continuing of trending higher over time
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Nice analysis KTDC, too bad the simpleton at the newspaper couldn’t have done it.

BTW, they really buried the women's F4 coverage
with so many females interested in MN hockey, you'd think they'd see it as an opportunity to increase their readership
I suspect the sports page is still a high ratio of M to F
 
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