Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Season 2018-2019: Fire Motzko
I felt like the PP might be the wild card tonight. All four penalties called were hooking calls. I'll probably ruffle some feathers here, but I watched the replay several times and I'm not so sure the call on Sheehy in OT was a blown call. Sheehy and Theisen were both reaching for the puck.
As the puck appears to roil towards them, Sheehy tries to prevent him from reaching the puck, but instead lifts his stick under the arms of Theisen throwing him off balance. Granted the BTN replay did not show a front view of the "hook", but if a player gets his stick high enough and under the arms of an opposing player impeding his progress to the puck, refs are going to make that call.
At the end of the day, whether the call was bogus or not, players and coaches have to focus on what they can control. Three Gophers had an opportunity to sieze the puck in the corner and ice it in the opening seconds of the PP. But they literally lost at least three puck battles trying to hem the puck in the corner and kill time. Graham finally came up with the puck, then even beat Novak behind the net, came out front in space and fired top shelf by Robson. That was poor PK and it cost them the season.
The sad part was Tyler Sheehy ended his excellent career in the penalty box. Hats off to Tyler who scored a total of 149 points, one shy of Justin Kloos as the 29th Gopher Hockey alum on the all-time scoring list.
There were several lessons learned from this season, but none greater than EVERY game of the season against EVERY team counts in the end. Failing to sellout to effort in losses to STL, MSU and Ferris essentially cost the Gophers a trip to the NCAA tournament. With the end of the GPS line and if Pitlick signs, the Gophers will lose 35% of their scoring next season.
Two days ago:
GM David Poile says on @1025TheGame that the #Preds will have conversations about turning pro with prospects Rem Pitlick (Univ. of Minnesota) and Dante Fabbro (Boston University) once their NCAA seasons end.