Re: Minnesota Women's Hockey 2016-2017 (aka Season 20)
The only thing that I found to be even slightly remarkable is that the Gophers dressed only 5 D for each game.
It isn't that big a deal because looking back to last season they usually only play 5 for most of the game. So they continued with that, 5 D played all of the shifts available for defenders.
Except that on Friday night they dressed 17 skaters, one less than they were allowed to dress. And on Saturday they completed the 18 dressed roster by dressing an extra forward and then had a dressed forward who as far as I can tell played zero shifts. They had a spot for a D which they did not use.
I do not know what this means.
It means that Katie Robinson was home with a 103 degree fever and Sophie Skarzynski has a lower body injury that she said will be fine in time for next week. So I wouldn't worry about it.
The two goals they gave up were both careless defense. On the first, the Gophers got too excited about their shorthanded chances and forgot that Lindenwood was still on the man advantage and that, maybe, they should have enough players back for when the Lions took it up the ice. On the second, it looked like Paige Haley was expecting one of the defensemen to pick up the puck carrier as she came in, but the D in question sort of stood in no man's land instead; I didn't see who it was. They were both the kind of thing you can reasonably hope will get fixed.
At the other end, I thought the Gophers' main problem was that no one wanted to be that person who just takes the shot. Lindenwood really parked the bus in front of the net. When they were down two men in the second period, they just let the defensmen hold the puck inside the tops of the circles without pressuring them; it wasn't as extreme the rest of the time, but that was the mentality. Far too often, the Gophers looked for one more pass (and sometimes one more after that) rather than firing away. They had a 4-on-1 break in the second period that dissolved into nothing when they waited too long and one of the other defenders caught up to strip the puck. The power play seemed to be nothing more than someone getting the puck to the right of the goalie and passing it across the crease to someone waiting on the back door; it worked once, but was otherwise very frustrating to watch. I try not to be the guy who shouts, "Shoot the puck!" all the time, but this team needs to shoot the puck.
I thought the freshmen all looked good. Patti Marshall has the feel of being a player that could become special, much the way Sydney Baldwin did early in her freshman year. Alex Woken had moments, and Lindsay Agnew was impressive all weekend long
In all, it was a good first series. Some sloppiness, but nothing that screams that it will be an ongoing problem, except maybe the lack of shot taking.
