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MSU Mavericks 2020-21 Season

OK, let's discuss the elephant in the room - What was different about this year's NCAA tournament versus the last few?
Our team is better? Possible, but in my opinion, this team isn't better than 2015, 2018, or 2019.
Better puck luck? Yes. And this is hard to quantify, but I do think we were owed a couple of breaks, and we got a couple this year.
Better draw of opponents? Maybe a little bit, since we didn't have to play Providence in Nate Leaman's backyard, but QU was better than 2015 RIT. And the Gophers were a darn good team, not that we had to worry about the second round in previous years.
One thing I think Coach did differently this year (and I can't quantify this, since college hockey doesn't seem to want to tell anyone TOI numbers) was ride his hot hands, shortening his bench, particularly on the forward side. During the regular season, and during the NCAA as well in past years, we've been very good on rolling 4 lines, wearing opponents down, and splitting up the minutes pretty well. And obviously, that's been very successful in the regular season. But last weekend, Smith, Furry, Napravnik and Sandelin in particular were on the ice for what seemed like the entire 3rd period and OT against QU. Yesterday's game also saw a lot of those guys, plus a heavy dose of Morton, Borchardt and Jaremko, and some Lutz thrown in, but briefer appearances by the others (Gerads a little more as the game wore on, and we needed stops more than goals). Maybe this is a key in the tournament, when one game means everything, versus the regular season, where you have good reasons for distributing the minutes more evenly.
Or, again, maybe I'm totally wrong on this, since I don't have any numbers to back it up! Whatever the case, well done boys!
 
Honestly I really think we finally got lucky. Years past the tying goal goes wide or the red blows the whistle in OT since he couldnt see the puck. 3 years ago we had duluth in OT and the shot going into the net hit our player who was in the net. Hit him in the butt if I remember. We just finally got the puck to bounce our way
 
purpleinnebraska said:
OK, let's discuss the elephant in the room - What was different about this year's NCAA tournament versus the last few?
Our team is better? Possible, but in my opinion, this team isn't better than 2015, 2018, or 2019.
Better puck luck? Yes. And this is hard to quantify, but I do think we were owed a couple of breaks, and we got a couple this year.
Better draw of opponents? Maybe a little bit, since we didn't have to play Providence in Nate Leaman's backyard, but QU was better than 2015 RIT. And the Gophers were a darn good team, not that we had to worry about the second round in previous years.
One thing I think Coach did differently this year (and I can't quantify this, since college hockey doesn't seem to want to tell anyone TOI numbers) was ride his hot hands, shortening his bench, particularly on the forward side. During the regular season, and during the NCAA as well in past years, we've been very good on rolling 4 lines, wearing opponents down, and splitting up the minutes pretty well. And obviously, that's been very successful in the regular season. But last weekend, Smith, Furry, Napravnik and Sandelin in particular were on the ice for what seemed like the entire 3rd period and OT against QU. Yesterday's game also saw a lot of those guys, plus a heavy dose of Morton, Borchardt and Jaremko, and some Lutz thrown in, but briefer appearances by the others (Gerads a little more as the game wore on, and we needed stops more than goals). Maybe this is a key in the tournament, when one game means everything, versus the regular season, where you have good reasons for distributing the minutes more evenly.
Or, again, maybe I'm totally wrong on this, since I don't have any numbers to back it up! Whatever the case, well done boys!
Click to expand...

To me, a lot of your points are valid, but it’s not something to overthink — the Mavs played really good puck possession hockey for the majority of the last 40 minutes of that game. Dryden made a massive save to keep things in check, and the guys stayed the course, kept battling, and finished the job.

Mike is fantastic at in game adjustments, clearly evident after the first intermission. I think he rode some of those lines based on the matchups QU was giving them, and Mike(and staff) took advantage by exploiting the ones it liked.

You could argue 2015 was a game the Mavs largely controlled and caught a tough break/call with the whole Palmquist deal.

UMD did to the Mavs exactly what the Mavs did to QU. That’s a championship type effort/mentality to stick to the plan and stay the course even when the success they’re having is not reflected on the scoreboard.

Off to Pittsburgh!
 
Great day in Pittsburgh today. Beautiful weather, and quite a few Mav fans already here!

I know the 50 person private charter leaves early tomorrow morning, should be a fantastic day!

go Mavs!!!
 
Tough ending, but a great season. Mavs showed a lot of heart battling back. Nathan Davis Smith was great, but others stepped up as well. Walker Duehr was representative of the whole team, playing a strong game after St. Cloud's second goal. The team figured out St. Cloud's forecheck as the game went on, and got progressively better in the faceoff circle.
Furry, Borchardt, Morton, and Carroll all showed so much more as the season went on. They'll help build a solid base for next year. The future is bright, and it's still a great day to be a Maverick!
 
Richter award is a joke. They simply won't give a deserved award to anyone from a "small school". When he breaks Miller's record next year, they will probably put an Asterisk next to the leader because he didn't win a Richter award.

Let me see, heads up against LaFontaine: McKay - 0, LaFontaine - 3.

Arguments against McKay: He plays in the WCHA, he has a really good team that limits shots on goal, that is a stupid argument because we don't know that his goals against average would get worse, I doubt it. All silly arguments.

And as someone on Sioux Sports pointed out, McKay didn't get to play 4 home games against Arizona State to inflate his statistics.
 
Congrats on a great season. What an entertaining game, no quit in either team. The SCSU coach called it big boy hockey and he was right. If these teams played 10 times, it would probably be 5-5 with half the games going to OT.

NCAA monkey is off your back. Program is on a great track.
 
Iwearpurple said:
Richter award is a joke. They simply won't give a deserved award to anyone from a "small school". When he breaks Miller's record next year, they will probably put an Asterisk next to the leader because he didn't win a Richter award.

Let me see, heads up against LaFontaine: McKay - 0, LaFontaine - 3.

Arguments against McKay: He plays in the WCHA, he has a really good team that limits shots on goal, that is a stupid argument because we don't know that his goals against average would get worse, I doubt it. All silly arguments.

And as someone on Sioux Sports pointed out, McKay didn't get to play 4 home games against Arizona State to inflate his statistics.
Click to expand...

I can't wrap my mind around the idea that the only goalie to make the "Hobey Hat Trick" this year isn't the best goalie. How does that work?
 
Unfortunately different voters but did you honestly think he would win it? We are non east coast, non NCHC. Imagine the type of season a player in our conference will have to have to win the hobey. Won't happen.

Anyone have any info on how this covid year thing works. Do we know who we are losing?
 
MavsFan19 said:
Unfortunately different voters but did you honestly think he would win it? We are non east coast, non NCHC. Imagine the type of season a player in our conference will have to have to win the hobey. Won't happen.

Anyone have any info on how this covid year thing works. Do we know who we are losing?
Click to expand...

I heard van Os-Shaw entered the transfer portal.
 
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