Bulldogs 09-10 Season

[dhmn]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Wow... you guys really don't read other threads, do ya?

I posted this in the WCHA thread about 90 minutes before your question...

I saw your post afterwards I was busy with a ton of basketball pictures and never looked at the WCHA thread.. my bad

 

[JosephPSchmoe]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

The Gophers win 3-2 tonight, so it's a co-championship. But the Dogs take the top seed for the playoffs. Who would've thought in October that they'd do this well? Not me. Sometimes I like being wrong.

 

[ARM]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Who would've thought in October that they'd do this well? Not me.

Me either. I wouldn't have thought it at the end of January. Great job by the Bulldog players to never give up and keep pushing and improving. Congrats on your championship.

 

[dhmn]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

I'm kind of glad we get North Dakota and NOT Mankato in the first round.. Mankato won that 3-2 game at the DECC this year.. while NoDak still has Stephanie Ney who beat the Dogs last season. Neither team (NoDak or Mankato) is scary offensively as long as UMD can bury the puck and end the series in 2 games.

 

[just_a_fan]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Me either. I wouldn't have thought it at the end of January. Great job by the Bulldog players to never give up and keep pushing and improving. Congrats on your championship.

Thanks ARM. It's nice to share the pennant with the Gophers.

 

[dhmn]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Now we need to win the WCHA playoffs and secure a home NCAA game!

 

[JosephPSchmoe]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Pairwise has us at #2 behind Mercyhurst. I don't know how close that is to what the NCAA will do, but I'm hoping we'll get an NCAA regional game at the DECC if the league playoffs go without any surprises.

 

[dave1381]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

UMD hosting is a pretty safe bet right now, regardless of the WCHA playoff outcomes. The worst-case scenario is UNH and Harvard win their tournaments, and UND gets swept in the WCHA quarterfinals. Even then, I think UMD is still top 4.

 

[CrazyDave]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Pairwise has us at #2 behind Mercyhurst. I don't know how close that is to what the NCAA will do, but I'm hoping we'll get an NCAA regional game at the DECC if the league playoffs go without any surprises.

Ummm... I don't think a game in the Duluth area is in question, but I do question the availability of the DECC. The Bulldog women have had to play an NCAA quarterfinal in Superior before.

The way things stand right now, the Bulldog men would host a WCHA quarterfinal series the same weekend as the NCAA women's quarterfinals. Maybe Saturday afternoon for the women?

 

[dhmn]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

A few weeks ago I would have thought a women's regional at the DECC wouldn't happen because of the men.. but now they're on a n ugly slide and only 4 points out of LOSING the home ice playoff that seemed a lock. They need to at least win one against Minnesota and one against Alaska. The good thing is.. the two teams tied at 5th .. North Dakota and Colorado College, play each other this weekend, those two teams splitting would be huge for the UMD men's chances.

If the men get their home ice playoff, the women will most likely end up at Heritage again unless we get a Thursday game. But first let's win the next 4 games and guarantee that we see a NCAA game in Duluth!

 

[JosephPSchmoe]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Nice to see the Gophers and Sara Martin on the front page of the WCHA website with their league trophy Saturday night. It's a shame they couldn't bother to send anyone to Bemidji to do the same for the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon. Just saying...

 

[ManBehindTheCurtain]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Nice to see the Gophers and Sara Martin on the front page of the WCHA website with their league trophy Saturday night. It's a shame they couldn't bother to send anyone to Bemidji to do the same for the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon. Just saying...

And I'm a Gopher fan just saying you are absolutely right, about both things.

 

[binnyrus]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Congrats to the Dogs for the great 2nd half and the top seed in the WCHA!!! I don't get why the whole trophy thing happened in Mpls . . . and some people wonder why the Dogs and thier Nation tend to feel disrespected some of the time . . . I mean . . . the Gophers gave the outright title away. Whatever.

Blackbeard: I am often as equally mistified and headshaking about the goalie situation at UMD as you are. I have no real insight except that it seems to me that when all the players get ice time the team (ANY team) seems to do better. I did hear from a player or two that Steck was amazing to come back from the ankle injuries as "quickly" as she did. All I can think is that as Harss improved and the Dogs kept winning there was no reason to change it up. Once it seemed like maybe they did have a chance to do some damage this season they pretty much locked into Jenny. You obviously know more about the situation with Steck than I ever will . . . I have no idea what was said by whom, or when. All I know for certain is that next season will pose even more difficult choices.

Bring it home Dogs . . . all of it!

 

[ARM]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

I don't get why the whole trophy thing happened in Mpls . . .

I'm trying to remember the locations of the games when Minnesota has clinched the WCHA regular season title in the past. Of those where I have a recollection of the time/place, they've always been on home ice. Is there a precedent for league officials traveling to present that trophy to a visiting team? I don't know of one, but neither can I say that there is not. Obviously, there is a thrill associated with being presented with a trophy immediately, but there is also some joy in receiving it in front of your own fans.

. . . and some people wonder why the Dogs and thier Nation tend to feel disrespected some of the time . . . I mean . . . the Gophers gave the outright title away.

This is something that cuts both ways. UMD fans always claim that they are disrespected, but yet they frequently say things that are disrespectful to others, like your statement above. Minnesota fans knew early on that these February games were going to be a challenge. UMD, SCSU, and UW are good teams -- all finished in the top half of the league. The problem for Minnesota was execution at key times. We weren't good enough on those days to win more games than we did. To act like it was unheard of that we didn't wind up with more points is either disrespectful to the Huskies, the Badgers, or Heaven forbid, the Bulldogs. UMD also could have won the outright title, had they fared better against the Buckeyes a week earlier, but they were somewhat fortunate to get the two points that they did.

 

[JosephPSchmoe]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

If a team wins the regular season title on the road, I don't think the fans would mind if the league presented the trophy at the next home game so the fans can show their appreciation. If nothing else, at least present it to the team after the game wherever that might be. The way the league did it (or didn't do it at all) is kind of dissing the Bulldogs AND their fans. The word "tacky" comes to mind.

 

[binnyrus]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

This is something that cuts both ways. UMD fans always claim that they are disrespected, but yet they frequently say things that are disrespectful to others, like your statement above. Minnesota fans knew early on that these February games were going to be a challenge. UMD, SCSU, and UW are good teams -- all finished in the top half of the league. The problem for Minnesota was execution at key times. We weren't good enough on those days to win more games than we did. To act like it was unheard of that we didn't wind up with more points is either disrespectful to the Huskies, the Badgers, or Heaven forbid, the Bulldogs. UMD also could have won the outright title, had they fared better against the Buckeyes a week earlier, but they were somewhat fortunate to get the two points that they did.

I agree disrespect can cut both ways . . . and I can be as guilty as the next person . . . however in this case . . . I won't bite. If there's anyone who follows the WCHA who honestly believed UMD or any other team would catch the Gophers then stand up!!!
I'm a UMD fan through and through and I never thought it would happen. Never.

 

[D2D]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

If there's anyone who follows the WCHA who honestly believed UMD or any other team would catch the Gophers then stand up!!!

Well if the criteria is honestly believed UMD would catch the Gophers, then I'll have to remain in my chair. I will say, however, that with the way the Gophers were struggling towards the end of the season, I never got to the point where I was totally confident they would win it outright (honestly!).

 

[ARM]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

If there's anyone who follows the WCHA who honestly believed UMD or any other team would catch the Gophers then stand up!

No complaints on that statement. That isn't the same as saying the Gophers gave it away, which implies that their opponents didn't have a big say in the outcome. I saw all of the games in question. Minnesota didn't give games away; teams flat out beat them. I don't think we've seen the last of the upsets in the WCHA this year.

 

[JosephPSchmoe]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

Minnesota didn't give games away; teams flat out beat them.

Which kind of makes me wonder how the league decided the odds favored the Gophers to win the title outright on Saturday. They were on a five-game winless streak and had lost to the Badgers the day before. The Bulldogs were hot. They'd won 12 of their last 13 including beating the Beavers the day before. If one team looked more likely than the other to take the title on Saturday, it was clearly the Bullldogs (and no, I didn't think they'd do this well at the beginning of the season either.)

The league says they only had one trophy and Sara Martin decided the Gophers looked like the more likely regular season champions going into the weekend, so she chose to go to Minneapolis to present their trophy. That makes sense as of Thursday, but after Friday's games the two teams were tied. So I call "B" as in bull, "S" as in the other word. There's only one trophy. Fine, I get that. The women's side hasn't had co-champions before. So wait until you can get two trophies before either team gets one.

It's too late now to undo it anyway, but I still think it was a crappy way to handle it. And I'll try really hard to stop ****ing and moaning about it.

 

[ARM]

Re: Bulldogs 09-10 Season

It's too late now to undo it anyway, but I still think it was a crappy way to handle it.

Yes, it definitely wasn't how they should handle it in the future. I guess the silver lining for UMD is that when they get the trophy, they can all be there (Touminen and Posa, too.)