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NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

From what I saw, I actually thought North Dakota played even or possibly slightly better than the Gophers in the 1st, but fell apart in the 2nd. Minnesota does have more finishers, but I have to give ALOT of credit to the Gopher D to only allow those easy shots directed towards Raty. The game was completely different from the WCHA semi-final. People forget they finished 3rd in the WCHA, had the top offense in the WCHA, and still got beat 5-1 by the Gophers. I wouldn't say UND played awful on Saturday, they just lost to a better team. Bash on UND if you'd like, but they'll be back next year and their weaknesses (D and Goaltending) will improve if you glance at the incoming class. Props to UM and UND both.
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

northhockey said:
The game was completely different from the WCHA semi-final. People forget they finished 3rd in the WCHA, had the top offense in the WCHA, and still got beat 5-1 by the Gophers. I wouldn't say UND played awful on Saturday, they just lost to a better team.
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Even the WCHA semi, where UND played worse than they did yesterday, wasn't really a 6-goal game. IMO, the separation between the teams is somewhere between a goal and two goals. Somedays, UM wins by a little more, other days, things line up better for NoDak and they can win.

I agree with you on next year. UND graduates a number of seniors, but I don't think they get hit as hard as the other teams in the top six in the league. The regular season champ in the WCHA could be any of four different teams depending on how things unfold.
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

ARM said:
Even the WCHA semi, where UND played worse than they did yesterday, wasn't really a 6-goal game. IMO, the separation between the teams is somewhere between a goal and two goals. Somedays, UM wins by a little more, other days, things line up better for NoDak and they can win.

I agree with you on next year. UND graduates a number of seniors, but I don't think they get hit as hard as the other teams in the top six in the league. The regular season champ in the WCHA could be any of four different teams depending on how things unfold.
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Yeah, next year should be another great season for the WCHA. Until then, UM please win the next two games and keep the easterners at bay!
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

northhockey said:
Yeah, next year should be another great season for the WCHA. Until then, UM please win the next two games and keep the easterners at bay!
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YES please! my god shut them up! i have never seen a group with higher self esteem- with no hardware to back it up! let's keep ot that way ;)
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

ARM said:
wasn't really a 6-goal game. IMO, the separation between the teams is somewhere between a goal and two goals.
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Someone call Common Man! Is it too late to enter the Preposterous Statement contest? If UND's goaltending wasn't so good that game would have been 12-1.:)
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

northhockey said:
From what I saw, I actually thought North Dakota played even or possibly slightly better than the Gophers in the 1st, but fell apart in the 2nd. Minnesota does have more finishers, but I have to give ALOT of credit to the Gopher D to only allow those easy shots directed towards Raty.
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I agree that UND played pretty well, but not that the first period was anything close to even. North Dakota had exactly one good scoring chance and that came when the puck took a fluky bounce off of Bailey Gillanders skate. The Gophers had two breakaways (although one of them was by Amanda Kessel, which is one of the least dangerous things in the league; I have never seen an elite scorer who was as bad on breakaways as Kessel is) and several other good chances down low. And goaltending is part of a team's play, and West's goal was ridiculously soft.

Then again, I thought that UND played pretty well in the WCHA semifinal, too. They played more aggressively in the NCAA game, but I'm not sure that they played better. I just think that they got run over by a train. The Gophers are at the top of their game at the moment, which I hope that they can keep up for six more days. In the end, I think the gap between these two teams is actually pretty large. In Minnesota's four wins, they outscored the Whioux 23-5. North Dakota's two wins were a 2-1 overtime game and what was essentially a 1-0 game stolen by Dagfinrud, with two empty net goals tacked on. (The first of those wasn't technically empty net, as Räty hadn't reached the bench, but she was nowhere near the net.)

What is true, or more likely was true, is that for a couple of obvious reasons, North Dakota was able to get into the Gophers' heads over the last two years. There have been times that we were trying to play against the Lamoureux twins rather playing against North Dakota. That was clearly what happened in the overtime game. Another Gopher fan has it right, I think, that that edge got wiped out by one play. I don't know why, but everything seemed to change after Megan Bozek turned the entire North Dakota team into pylons halfway through the second period the next night, skated the puck the entire length of the rink and fed Kessel, who buried the shot. (Not a breakaway, of course.)

That one play seemed to really get the Gophers going and they haven't slowed down since. The way Minnesota is playing at the moment, North Dakota just can't stay with them. If we keep playing like this (and it's a really big "if" when your talking about sustaining this level of performance over a period of four weeks), the Gophers have to be the favorite this coming weekend. We'll see whether they can do that.
 
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Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

Eeyore said:
I have never seen an elite scorer who was as bad on breakaways as Kessel is...
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Gigi had her struggles early in her career. The former #19 used to make so many moves so fast that the goalies didn't have time to react to any of them and were still in position when it came time to shoot.

Eeyore said:
... West's goal was ridiculously soft.
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Yes and no. The screen was pretty good, because neither the goalie nor the goal judge moved in the least as the puck went in.
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

ARM said:
Yes and no. The screen was pretty good, because neither the goalie nor the goal judge moved in the least as the puck went in.
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The screen was also really high. And I generally expect goalies to have better reaction times than goal judges. Was it there? Yes. Should it have led to a goal? Not a chance. The wasn't that hard, it didn't deflect off of anything, and the puck was perfectly visible from the top of the circles all the way in.
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

Eeyore said:
The screen was also really high. And I generally expect goalies to have better reaction times than goal judges. Was it there? Yes. Should it have led to a goal? Not a chance. The wasn't that hard, it didn't deflect off of anything, and the puck was perfectly visible from the top of the circles all the way in.
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Both of her D passed in front of her just as West shot (low, not high), so she didn't even realize that a shot was coming. It wasn't a matter of reaction time; she never moved. Usually a goalie that can't see the puck fans out just in case, but she looked like she didn't even think a shot was imminent. Obviously Idalski agreed with you, because he yanked her.
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

I thought it was Ney's fault on that goal. That is a soft goal and to do that on the first shot of the first ever ncaa game..c'mon son!
 
Re: NCAA Quarterfinals: North Dakota @ Minnesota

ARM said:
Both of her D passed in front of her just as West shot (low, not high), so she didn't even realize that a shot was coming. It wasn't a matter of reaction time; she never moved. Usually a goalie that can't see the puck fans out just in case, but she looked like she didn't even think a shot was imminent. Obviously Idalski agreed with you, because he yanked her.
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That goal was really strange because the Goaltender never really reacted. We saw the puck hit the net and then looked out at the players and no-one reacted until West saw the puck laying by the back pad. Someone leaned over and said it must have been a screen but she still hadn't acknowledged it in any way. We were discussing the fact that she still seemed oblivious to what happened and next thing you know out comes GT#2. There were at least two if not three bodies in the way as West turned and cut and released at a strange angle so maybe she just did not even see the shot/follow through.
 
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