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

[KTDC]

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

Just the same, I'm going to try to miss the reliving of the glorious victory I expect the broadcast crew will produce leading into today's rematch.

Oh Oh, thanks for the reminder/warning

 

[Hckynut12]

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

In the "for what it's worth department" the Lick Brothers are now working D3 games, and I believe this is also over their heads!

 

[Hckynut12]

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

Oh Oh, thanks for the reminder/warning

Haha, I just saw this quote.... It works for seeing the Lick Brothers work a D3 game as well!!

 

[KTDC]

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

And I'd like to avoid talking about the officiating but I can't. It not only was horrible but also on several occasions bizarre. It started with the sequence that produced the second UND goal. It was scored on a delayed penalty but the totality was really weird. Milica McMillen was given a double minor for roughing and Sam Hanson got a single minor for roughing. The first issue is that it was a bad call. I have no problem with giving McMillen a roughing minor because she got her arms up and delivered a shot to Hanson. But the contact was initiated by Hanson on blatant interference, driving McMillen out of the play and allowing Jakobsen to cut in cleanly to the net. That's the bad part of the call. The bizarre part is that with a penalty on each team, the whistle should have blown right away, not allowing North Dakota to score on the delayed penalty. The only explanation I can think of is that there were coincidental minors for roughing after the whistle, but from my angle it looked like they had separated by then. So I have no idea what they were doing.

Okay please remove your maroon colored glasses for a moment and review the play. Hanson was driving the net like she should, McMillen being McMillen did what comes natural to her...she stepped up and made the contact and the result was interference...the right call! With the momentum the ND player was carrying if she made the contact McMillian would have been in the back of the net. The coincidental roughing came after when Hanson took offence to the shot to the head. The only injustice was that McMillan wasn't given a major penalty...she took her off her feet for criminy sakes! The Gophers have only a hand full of losses the past 4 years you really don't need to try this hard to find excuses.

I actually agree with Eeyore in that I see Hanson initiating the contact looking like a d'back blocking after an interception, and McMillen got her arms up and delivered a blow.

But we were being massively outplayed during that sequence and would have been exceptionally lucky to have that goal called off.

 

[bluffrinkrat]

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

The officiating the past couple of years has been so bad that it makes me miss (and I never thought I'd say this) Brad Shepherd... maybe even Derek. Not Greg though, too many bad memories from the past century. I don't know what the answer is to this problem, other than maybe scoring enough goals that the bad officiating doesn't matter as much.

 

[ARM]

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

I thought the call on McMillen was correct. The camera didn't show what happened once they went to the ground, and I doubt anyone was watching that scrum, given where the puck was. As for it being a major, um, no. Given the play in the first period where Kohler delivered a big league check on Brandt away from the puck and even the announcers were puzzled as to why it wasn't a penalty, I think it's safe to say the officials weren't likely to get creative about calling majors.

Other than the quick whistle on what would have been a Cameranesi goal (and that only because the officials had already set a precedent of slow whistles while UND players tried to dig the puck free from Leveille covers), I have no complaints with the officiating.

 

[KTDC]

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

Other than the quick whistle on what would have been a Cameranesi goal (and that only because the officials had already set a precedent of slow whistles while UND players tried to dig the puck free from Leveille covers), I have no complaints with the officiating.

Ultimately, I don't either.

My previous post was just a technical comment on what I saw watching the second goal again today.

 

[ne7minder]

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

I actually agree with Eeyore in that I see Hanson initiating the contact looking like a d'back blocking after an interception, and McMillen got her arms up and delivered a blow.

But we were being massively outplayed during that sequence and would have been exceptionally lucky to have that goal called off.

I agree, both with the fact that 13 didn't initiate the contact but she did her too frequent response and with their being outplayed there. They can do better.

 

[ne7minder]

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

Frost just mentioned on the pre-gaem that Lorence is still hurting (that is as much as I have ever heard him say about an injury). I wonder how many other walking wounded are on the ice today. "Funny" that OSU's play helped one of their main rivals take points a week later.

He also said that after the game Shepard (who was there) said that the hit that injured Haley have been a major for checking from behind.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

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

Much like the men's team struggles with goaltending the first shot today goes in for North Dakota. Not good. Hopefully Leveille gets her confidence going.

 

[ARM]

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

Hopefully Leveille gets her confidence going.

She made some nice glove saves late in the period. If that shot off the post had gone in, UND may have won in a rout.

 

[KTDC]

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

Well, I am glad the officials stopped the game from becoming scrums and chippiness after every whistle!

Puck possession was way better as well, nice to see that come back somewhat.

Great pass by Schipper and shot by Brandt!

 

[ne7minder]

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

Well, I am glad the officials stopped the game from becoming scrums and chippiness after every whistle!

After they allowed it to get out of hand yesterday & the first part of today. Once again they couldn't handle the simplest things. Spivey whistled the play dead after McMillion got a rebound, the puck was never covered, never out of sight. This goes with several other odd and obviously incorrect whistles this weekend (and not all of them against MN but "well then it balances out is bullstuff, bad calls are bad calls & anyone is going to have a couple but the WCHA is getting ridiculous) on top of 8 or 9 totally blown icing calls last weekend.

 

[ARM]

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

Spivey whistled the play dead after McMillion got a rebound, the puck was never covered, never out of sight.

From his angle, he couldn't see that. Stuff like that is going to happen, and he apologized right away. I thought the officials did pretty well this weekend with an intense series that isn't always easy to officiate.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

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

The separator for Minnesota and Wisconsin, when it comes to playing in the WCHA, is that they truly are the teams others strive to beat. They have set a very high standard and they are the ones with the so called "targets on their backs", but we have seen improvement with teams like North Dakota, Bemidji, and Ohio State who are doing whatever they can to be competitive. Some of their methods folks may not like but they have had some success and Minnesota, as dominant as they have been, is not as likely to get by without playing their best. Case in point the last two weekends in not getting the sweeps they are accustomed to getting.

 

[ARM]

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

The separator for Minnesota and Wisconsin, when it comes to playing in the WCHA...

How can you summarize the state of the WCHA and not mention The Dynasty???

 

[D2D]

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

How can you summarize the state of the WCHA and not mention The Dynasty???

Now I'm confused. 5Hole did talk about the Gophers as a team others strive to beat, have set a very high standard and have a target on their backs, etc. What's this 'Dynasty' of which you speak?

 

[Eeyore]

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

Minnesota played really, really well today. The first period was pretty even then the Gophers started to take control in the second. The finishing still wasn't great but it was certainly acceptable given the rest of the play. It was the sort of third period that they play so often, where they start out with a lead and while they don't extend it but you look up, realize they've played twelve minutes and only given up two shots, one of which was pretty weak.

North Dakota is definitely better than they looked back in October. They have speed and they have size and they can shoot the puck. The only big flaw I see in them is still what I mentioned back then: when they fall behind they aren't nearly as effective. Today they didn't completely collapse once they got down by two like they did at Ridder but they didn't help themselves, either. They became far more concerned about throwing their weight around than they were about putting the puck in the Minnesota net. For the most part it wasn't anything particularly cheap or dirty, but there was a lot of obstruction and wrestling. There were a lot of cross-checks and the Gopher training staff may have depleted the season's ice budget, so while there was nothing really dangerous, Minnesota is probably pretty banged up right now.

Before the game I said that all I was hoping for from Spivey and Ludwig was that I at least understood their calls. I didn't have to agree with them but I at least wanted to have the feeling that they had some idea what they were doing, which I didn't have last night. That's pretty much what I got. At one point I yelled at Spivey that he isn't any good at reffing wrestling, either, when he failed to award North Dakota three points for a beautiful takedown.

 

[ARM]

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

Minnesota played really, really well today.

Other than the first eight to 10 minutes. At that point, I was really worried about the future of the Gophers. A team that finishes better may have had us already buried by then.

 

[Eeyore]

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

In the "for what it's worth department" the Lick Brothers are now working D3 games, and I believe this is also over their heads!

So what you're saying is that we have 99 problems but a Lick ain't one?