Re: Minnesota Women's Hockey 2015-2016: Confection Free
Taking stock………..
I say the home stretch of the regular season starts tomorrow. The next four weeks the Gophers play all three of the other rated teams in the WCHA along with UMD. For Bemidji, UND, and UW, the only rated team they have left to play is Minnesota.
So far this year the Gophers have revealed a chink in their armor. They are only 3-3 against Bemidji, UND, and UW. It would be great to improve upon this starting tomorrow. Defensively, some sort of lapse or bad break seems to occur with alarming regularity. Goals against is a strong 1.3 goals per game but they give up a goal on 7.7% of their opponents shots (compare to 3.4% for UW, 5.3% for Quinni, or 5.5% for BC). Also, the PK is giving up a goal 21.4% of the time (compare to UW 3.4%, Quinni 7.6%, or BC 7.9%). Fortunately, the Gophers allow fewer power play opportunities than anyone in the nation.
But the Gophers remain an offensive juggernaut. They are averaging 5.4 goals per game. This is even higher than BC at 5.2 (UW 4, Quinni 3.3). Their power play is a vicious weapon converting at 48.6% (BC 28.3%, Quinni 25.7%, UW 23.6%). Heading into the postseason these gaudy numbers may well be lower after the difficult schedule coming up, but hopefully our QualityWinBonus will be a lot higher!
In another thread, someone gave the Gophers almost no chance of winning. I think this is kooky talk. Someone should go have a beer with Katie King Crowley and Mark Johnson and ask them if truthfully deep down they dismiss Minnesota as having almost no chance.
Wisconsin looks like a team of destiny with their crazy good defense and the breaks going their way in both the Gopher series in December and the UND series last weekend. Yes, they made their breaks by how they played. But it will be difficult to beat a ‘lucky’ Wisconsin. The men’s referees were recently told to call more interference penalties on extended contact after the ‘dump’ of ‘dump and chase’. It would be helpful for opponents if the refs were told that before Wisconsin women’s games as well!
It’s hard to have much opinion on BC being they are on the other side of the world. I tried to watch their second game with Northeastern but they made Northeastern look like they weren’t even trying. I had to quit watching. BC can clearly beat anyone. And I’m certainly not betting on Northeastern.
I watched Quinnipiac beat BU 6-1 recently and I came away taking them very seriously indeed so I’ve got them in the mix. Hence the stats comparing MN, UW, BC and Quinni.
No offense to the worthies who are unmentioned!
Go Gophers!
