What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

.915 SV% isn't great, but he is a Fr. playing in front of a very leaky defense.

I met Ballard twice at golf outings. Didn't get to talk to him much, but he seemed very humble and unassuming both times. Good luck to him post-NHL.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Dirty Dream No. 2 said:
What do you guys think of Schierhorn? I think he's been pretty mediocre this year for being the USHL goalie of the year. He has a knack for giving up late goals and on some goals he's just ridiculously out of position. I'm not a Goofer fan, I just watch a lot of games because they're on Big 14 To Go, but I'd say Schierhorn should be a lot better.
Click to expand...

I agree. Should have 8 shutouts regardless of D play in front of him.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

So...................who's starting the off season thread?
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

This is the worst defensive team Lucia's ever had. And that's saying something.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

ScoobyDoo said:
This is the worst defensive team Lucia's ever had. And that's saying something.
Click to expand...
Amazing that it was tied at 2-2 at the half-way point. Then Michigan decided to get serious and won the second half 6-1. :eek:
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The D was a little shaky for the first few minutes last night. But the main issue for the Gophers was poor goaltending. Schierhorn was clearly off his game and was rightly pulled after letting in 5. He allowed a funky 5 hole on a routine save, and failed to guard the left and right posts on Nieve and Connor's goals (#4-5) for Mich. Then Lehr came in and also let in a routine on ice shot by Shuart as a 5 hole for G6. By that time the Gophers were deflated and it was game over. Hopefully we'll see a better game in front and between the pipes tonight.
 
Last edited:
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

SteveO said:
The D was a little shaky for the first few minutes last night. But the main issue for the Gophers was poor goaltending. Schierhorn was clearly off his game and was rightly pulled after letting in 5. He allowed a funky 5 hole on a routine save, and failed to guard the left and right posts on Nieve and Connor's goals (#4-5) for Mich. Then Lehr came in and also let in a routine on ice shot by Shuart as a 5 hole for G6. By that time the Gophers were deflated and it was game over. Hopefully we'll see a better game in front and between the pipes tonight.
Click to expand...

My (minor) optimistic side also saw it the same way. Frustrating when playing a game where the opponent is supposed to have the suspect goaltending. Seemed like good scoring chances were similar, but UMi has better finishers, and that combined with Shierhorn's worst night doomed them. I don't see UMi being that much better than MN, and solid goaltending for MN can tip any game to a win, as MN is likely to get their own chances. And unfortunately, I don't thin Lehr has what it takes, so the pressure is on Shierhorn. Hopefully he can come out and play with more confidence tonight. Hopefully the rest of the team will too. For stretches, MN st back and reacted, seeming to be more concerned about containing Mi than trying to beat them. When they applied pressure and took away time and space, they did fine. Their margin for error is just very fine.
 
Last edited:
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Koho said:
My (minor) optimistic side also saw it the same way. Frustrating when playing a game where the opponent is supposed to have the suspect goaltending. Seemed like good scoring chances were similar, but UMi has better finishers, and that combined with Shierhorn's worst night doomed them. I don't see UMi being that much better than MN, and solid goaltending for MN can tip any game to a win, as MN is likely to get their own chances. And unfortunately, I don't thin Lehr has what it takes, so the pressure is on Shierhorn. Hopefully he can come out and play with more confidence tonight. Hopefully the rest of the team will too. For stretches, MN st back and reacted, seeming to be more concerned about containing Mi than trying to beat them. When they applied pressure and took away time and space, they did fine. Their margin for error is just very fine.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought the Gophers offensive effort was pretty good and with better play in net the game could have been very close. Sheehy had a wide open net at 2-2 and hit the post. Lehr didn't look steady to me either and seemed uncomfortable in net. So Schierhorn has got to improve. He's had rebound control issues. Connor's second goal was a rebound kick by Schierhorn directly to his stick. I think that was the fifth goal and then he was pulled. Unfortunately, Schierhorn is not Adam Wilcox, at least at this point in his career.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

SteveO said:
Unfortunately, Schierhorn is not Adam Wilcox, at least at this point in his career.
Click to expand...
He strikes me as being very much a "hot or cold" type of goaltender. He's capable of making the miraculous save but just as capable of letting softies go in. He will often move around too much and get himself out of position, which sometimes makes what should be a routine save a very difficult one.

In some games this year he's been outstanding, the Gophers' No. 1 star. But as was demonstrated last night consistency is not his forte.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

That was a gutty f ckin' performance. I was really impressed with the way MN pursued the puck all night. High-tempo from start to finish. No way they can do that every game, but when/if they do it gives them a chance against top-tier teams.

Shot attempts were 81-67 in favor of Michigan, which would be about what I would have guessed. But what's surprising to me is that MI actually blocked more shots than the Gophers as well, 24-20. The difference was made up in the number of shots MI put wide.
Not sure what to make of that exactly, but I'm ready to give the Gophers some credit for putting the Wolverines under pressure and obstructing lanes. Obviously that's not the entire story, but I think it was a big part of it.

At any rate, a good way to head into the break. Now we need to beat UConn in that first game of the Mariucci classic, then draw and beat Harvard. If we can do that, we'll be within spitting distance of the PWR bubble.
 
Last edited:
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

D2D said:
In some games this year he's been outstanding, the Gophers' No. 1 star.
Click to expand...
Add this one to his list of "some games". Wow. Michigan had lots of near misses, which on another night some of them wouldn't have missed, but there's no denying that Shierhorn came up HUGE on at least a half dozen prime Wolverines opportunities. Credit to the rest of team including the oft-maligned D, who did their part in reducing those prime Wolverines opportunities to a manageable number.

However a couple of criticisms are still warranted:
a) We are still, all too often, way too passive in our own zone when at even strength, allowing the opponent to operate like they're on the power play and we're trying to kill one ... which leads to the mindset of having to be too defensive and not jumping up into the zone in quickly enough to have the edge in fighting for any loose pucks created by a more aggressive . The good news is, compared to Friday night, is that we were much better. Still, when in comes to defensive zone play, there's a lot of room for improvement.

b) Still need work on closing games out. Too many preventable icings in the last few minutes, which needlessly brought the faceoff back into our zone.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Not sure what SS' ugh was about.

But I thought it was a strong performance by the Gophers. Not strong in the sense of peppering Nagl... with pucks. But strong in the sense of total defensive effort against an offensive team that clearly outmatched ours. We did what we needed to to win. We scored when we needed to. We shut them down when we needed to. This is still a soft team...but that was a gritty performance that I didn't think the guys were capable of.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Dirty Dream No. 2 said:
What do you guys think of Schierhorn? I think he's been pretty mediocre this year for being the USHL goalie of the year. He has a knack for giving up late goals and on some goals he's just ridiculously out of position. I'm not a Goofer fan, I just watch a lot of games because they're on Big 14 To Go, but I'd say Schierhorn should be a lot better.
Click to expand...

He's fine. He's not going to be the stalwart goalie we're used to, but unlike previous goalies, I think he gives us a better chance to steal a game.

He's also a freshman. He's going to get better. And he's already been doing a great job.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Dirty Dream No. 2 said:
Not really, which is why I brought up the question. But props to Schierhorn, he had a great night last night and certainly wasn't the worst goaltender on the ice, for once.
Click to expand...

Guess I disagree with the sentiment. The worst you could say is that he's let in a modest number of poor goals (primarily against MI and SCSU). But he has had some very strong games and would be the MVP in a number of them. Also he's made an above average number diving and other outstanding saves. All in all, very solid for a guy a dozen games into his college career.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

D2D said:
b) Still need work on closing games out. Too many preventable icings in the last few minutes, which needlessly brought the faceoff back into our zone.
Click to expand...

Feel like from the time they had a 2-0 lead, they often chipped it out of the zone when there was actually time to look for an opening or was even an open player. And when the goalie was pulled, this was magnified. Obviously, getting it out of the zone is the first priority, but there were a few times they had an open guy that could have led to an empty netter. Too often overly conservative play leads to giving up goals when an opponent pulls a goalie. Of course you never know how much is coaching and how much is players not wanting to be the one to make a mistake.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

D2D said:
Add this one to his list of "some games". Wow. Michigan had lots of near misses, which on another night some of them wouldn't have missed, but there's no denying that Shierhorn came up HUGE on at least a half dozen prime Wolverines opportunities. Credit to the rest of team including the oft-maligned D, who did their part in reducing those prime Wolverines opportunities to a manageable number.

However a couple of criticisms are still warranted:
a) We are still, all too often, way too passive in our own zone when at even strength, allowing the opponent to operate like they're on the power play and we're trying to kill one ... which leads to the mindset of having to be too defensive and not jumping up into the zone in quickly enough to have the edge in fighting for any loose pucks created by a more aggressive . The good news is, compared to Friday night, is that we were much better. Still, when in comes to defensive zone play, there's a lot of room for improvement.

b) Still need work on closing games out. Too many preventable icings in the last few minutes, which needlessly brought the faceoff back into our zone.
Click to expand...

All good points and I couldn't agree more. Hockey is a game of puck luck sometimes and thankfully the Gophers had their share last night. That missed shot on an open net to tie it at 3 and give Connor his second hatty in so many nights was too crazy. The camera showed him shaking his head on the bench. And Schierhorn fortunately got a toe on that on-ice shot by Compher with what 20+ seconds left, but had he picked a 1 or 3 corner...he may have tied it. Overall, Schierhorn made some good saves. Definite cliffhanger game for me that got me yelling at my TV.

The second period by the Gophers was brutal with Mich. controlling play. The Gophers lost puck battle after puck battle while Mich circled the wagon for most of the period. They were fortunate to give up only one goal. Yeah, the Gophers lost their composure and hockey sense in the final minutes with the multiple icings...not good. But good to see Vinny get the GWG only 12 sec. after Mich scored, maybe that will build his confidence going forward. Cammy and C. Reilly need a dose of the same.
 
Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

SteveO said:
Definite cliffhanger game for me that got me yelling at my TV.
Click to expand...
Ha, good to hear I'm not the only one who does that. After many of the games my wife (who usually doesn't watch and stays upstairs) will say, "I heard you yelling down there." :eek:

SteveO said:
But good to see Vinny get the GWG only 12 sec. after Mich scored, maybe that will build his confidence going forward. Cammy and C. Reilly need a dose of the same.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Cammy and Reilly have struggled in most games during the first half, as had Vinny until his huge momentum-changer last night. A good memory and motivator for him to take into the break. He didn't have much more than the width of a puck to shoot at, but he somehow hit it, a real sniper shot if there ever was one.

And speaking of last night only, I thought Bristedt had a bit of an off-game. He's been our most dynamic forward in most of the games this season, but last night he didn't generate much offensively, at least that I noticed. Not that he played poorly, but he didn't stand out as much as he has in most games.

Anyway, it's good to know that we can find a way to steal a game against what looks to be the best team in the league, despite some of our most talented players not playing up to their full potential. And I say that while knowing full well that even the best players are not going to perform at their highest level in every game. But to have a successful second half we'll need more of them playing at or close to their potential more consistently than what we've seen thus far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top