Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

[5mn_Major]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Absolutely amazing feat for the Big 10 in its first year of existence in men’s and women’s hockey, don’t you think? And I’m sure we all appreciate the superb Big 10 tv coverage of the women’s hockey teams this year to showcase all that talent. [Sarcasm intended.]

Understand the sentiment. But any attention GWH can get at the B1G is a good thing. Any sort of relationship, publicity and potential televised games there at any point down the line...could be awesome for both the women's program and for women's college hockey as a whole. Take credit all you want B1G. JMHO.

 

[mnpokecheck]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Understand the sentiment. But any attention GWH can get at the B1G is a good thing. Any sort of relationship, publicity and potential televised games there at any point down the line...could be awesome for both the women's program and for women's college hockey as a whole. Take credit all you want B1G. JMHO.

The B1G has thrown a few bones with replays of some womens games......though I think they missed the boat for not televising one of the WI-MN games live especially with 13k people at the second game or the MN game played outdoors.

 

[pokechecker]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

The B1G has thrown a few bones with replays of some womens games......though I think they missed the boat for not televising one of the WI-MN games live especially with 13k people at the second game or the MN game played outdoors.

With 2,0000 people at a typical MN or WI womens hockey game, the numbers just aren't there.

 

[Nowheresville]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I'll give the B1G network credit for showing one GWH game live, primetime on a Saturday night, especially since it was a weekend the Gopher men were off for that Sun-Mon series. It's probably not realistic to expect much more, and it is an improvement over previous years when the only game they've shown live has typically been buried in the middle of the afternoon. Showing the Womens outdoor game would have been nice, but it wasn't really possible with the whole Frozen Friday thing they've been doing. Considering the sport can't even get its national championship game shown on TV anymore, one live game and a handful of tape delayed games is pretty decent.

I do wonder why they don't show more games on BTN2Go, though. If they can get the rights to show the games on tv, you'd think they'd be able to stream them too.

 

[ManBehindTheCurtain]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I thought Doocy had a pretty predictable and totally Doocy-like not very good night.

 

[ARM]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

You can almost see the referees watch the Gophers score on a couple of PPs and think, "We better not call any more penalties on the other team."

 

[ManBehindTheCurtain]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Very disappointing crowd.

Inexcusable.

The roads are awful, the temperatures are punitive for nearly March 1. But come on people, 82-1-1 in their last 84 games.

The team was very flat in the first period. Perhaps if there had been a few more people in the stands there would have been more energy in the building and the team would have responded.

For those of you who stayed home at least no damage done.

The team scored 25 seconds into the second and went on to dominate the last two periods.

Saint Cloud? Division 1 scholarship athletes working hard, busting their butts trying to derail the train. Hats off to them, they did what they were supposed to do, they made it into a hockey game.

In the end Minnesota had too many too good.

To everyone who was there tonight, see you all tomorrow afternoon. Some of the rest of you should come out and watch the Gophers.

82-1-1.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I didn't think Minnesota was that flat in the first. They had trouble generating great scoring chances but a lot of that was St. Cloud clogging things up and playing tight defense. Meanwhile, the Gophers gave up nothing at the other end. St. Cloud couldn't keep the puck in their offensive zone at all and couldn't get in close. Minnesota did a lot of hard backchecking and the only good scoring chance the Huskies had in the period was when Milica McMillen fired the puck at her own net from the left face-off circle.

 

[bluffrinkrat]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Random thoughts. That's as good as I've seen St Cloud play defensively in quite awhile. Nine gophers with 10 or more goals this season. Wow!! Must be a record for them? Go Kate! This is the most balanced team we've seen in the 12 years we've been watching the Gopher women play. I used to wish Doocy was out there when Mendel and one of the Shephards were wearing the pinstripes. Careful for what you wish for? Nice break from Miss I Better Blow My Whistle Late In The Game though. It was fun to see and hear Anne and Lee! They both played terrific in the Olympics. It's gotta be a bigger crowd tonight. Go Gophers!

 

[KTDC]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

The WCHA first round games just don't draw very well. In the past they draw less than the season average for the Gophers and less than the first round NCAA. This year, if you take away the outdoor game, MN had average crowd of 2218, last night was 1102. It's not just Minnesota, though.
Wisconsin season ave (without fill the bowl)-1787, last night 1076
MN-Duluth season ave-1218, last night 525
North Dakota season ave (without their fill the bowl) 1059, last night 441

 

[Call It]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I thought the crowd was a little light. Well St. Cloud had a great 1st period, after that not so much. I don't believe that St. Cloud will be that strong in game #2.

 

[ARM]

I didn't think Minnesota was that flat in the first. They had trouble generating great scoring chances but a lot of that was St. Cloud clogging things up and playing tight defense.

I agree with that. I thought that the Huskies had to expend a lot of energy playing defense over the first 20 minutes, and we've seen all season that the Gophers go up a notch in the second period and teams have trouble staying with them. Outscoring opponents 74-10 in the second period is quite telling.

 

[OldDave]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Very disappointing crowd.

Two things about the crowd. There was a men's hockey game next door and the kids' VIP tickets are only good for the regular season. I don't know how much crossover there is among the fans, but there are at least a few who attend both women's and men's games. I saw very few kids last night compared to the regular season. It's probably not enough to explain a 50% drop in count, but after you add in being scared to drive, I'm not surprised.

 

[ARM]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

That round has never drawn well. There have been years where attendance was below 500. Youth teams are a big part of the successful crowds, and when group outings aren't planned, the attendance suffers. Hopefully, a big group shows up for the NCAA quarterfinal and the last chance to see these seniors play at Ridder.

 

[mnpokecheck]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

A year ago.......

2012-13 Gophers won the WCHA tournament with 4 shutouts....wow.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Last night I thought the Gophers didn't play a very good first period despite ending it up 1-0. St. Cloud again played a good, tight period but Minnesota responded with a lot of bad passes and turnovers in their own defensive zone.

Then the second period happened and it didn't matter.

 

[brookyone]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Last night I thought the Gophers didn't play a very good first period despite ending it up 1-0. St. Cloud again played a good, tight period but Minnesota responded with a lot of bad passes and turnovers in their own defensive zone.

Still thinking they need to clean that stuff up going forward. From here on out every opponent is far more likely to exploit that sloppiness.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

Still thinking they need to clean that stuff up going forward. From here on out every opponent is far more likely to exploit that sloppiness.

Sure, but I also don't think that how they played this weekend provides any information on how they play next weekend. If they don't play well in Bemidji, it won't have anything to do with playing a sloppy first period yesterday.

 

[ARM]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I thought that the first period was more about what SCSU was doing well than what the Gophers were doing wrong. The Huskies were much more aggressive early than they'd had been on Friday, and they do have decent speed. It took a couple of shifts per line for the home team to settle in and get going, but I thought that they were steadily building throughout the first period. It was a high tempo game, and as such, mistakes will be made both ways. Against many of these opponents, the first period winds up being a time to wear the other team down and soften it up for what is coming in the second.

Look around the country; it isn't easy to end a team's season. We haven't looked great against St. Cloud all year, and last night, I thought we looked pretty darn good. Throughout the third period, people were still working hard on the back check and taking nothing for granted. I'm glad that both were competitive games for a good stretch. Games that are 4-0 after five minutes lead to a different kind of sloppy.

 

[D2D]

Re: Minnesota Golden Gopher Women's Hockey 2013-14 Season

I thought that the first period was more about what SCSU was doing well than what the Gophers were doing wrong.

Although at the start there were more mental lapses (that resulted in some bad turnovers) that on several occasions came without undue pressure being applied by the Huskies. I believe that's what brookyone was referring to in his post above. But I also agree with ARM that it "took a couple of shifts per line for the home team to settle in and get going" and "they were steadily building throughout the first period" until finally the roof caved in for St. Cloud in the second.

Now, as the level of competition quickly amps up, the Gophers will need to come out firing on all cylinders - right from the opening faceoff - to prevent quality teams from taking advantage and grabbing an early lead...something St. Cloud was unable to do.