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Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

manurespreader said:
that's what I get for reading their thread and not checking. Thanks.
Click to expand...

correction 2 more than MTU...but still point stands unless Heisenberg's list is drastically wrong.

EDIT: I see what they mean by 36 now...they show 36 for 2017-18 if you believe our heisenberg years, we're probably similar but I know better...MTU uses signings as protection now because of the crumbling gentleman's agreement...it is known that a couple NLI players will defer.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zjXN2fjYURxIheSmq9raNLdLnPawRfO1S63AG6PY0oE/edit#gid=0
They show 21/21 forwards, 9/12 defenders, 4/3 goalies for 2016-17/2017-18

MTU is looking like (my best guess) 17/15 forwards, 9/10 defenders, 3/2 goalies...
 
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Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

manurespreader said:
ASU... I would think the travel was brutal.
Click to expand...
I'm sure ASU logged more frequent flyer miles than any other team in D-I this year. But I would take four hours on a plane over a bus trip to almost anywhere. It appears their closest road games were at Omaha. Given that it is a 19+ hour drive, I doubt ASU bused anywhere this season. Long travel no doubt, but I would take all those flights over a dozen trips by bus.

By comparison, Tech has only two road trips this year that are under four hours: Northern Michigan and Northern Michigan again. Even LSSU is pushing 5 hours. ASU can go a long way from Sky Harbor in just four hours.
Ryan J
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

The article about MN fans, etc was in Star Trib.

There is still a huge contingent that is mad about the B1G (huge, as in pertaining to the more-than-casual college hockey fans, but not necessarily the nuts that we are). Games that are not on Fri-Sat nights are very frowned upon, for YEARS that was the "thing." Tradition. Add to that, schools like OSU (and now WI) who don't give a crap about hockey...well...

Furthermore, MN is pricing their casual fans out. Thankfully, they dropped prices for the rest of the year, but normally, an SRO ticket was at least $35 face value. SRO. Compare that to most other schools in D1 hockey.

To use an extreme possibility: Tuesday night game, 6pm, to see OSU, and I have to pay $35 just to get in the building? Pfffffft.
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

If Tech is going to go out East, I would be great to get two games against two different teams. There are so many teams so close together it shouldn't be too tough. And selfishly speaking, it makes a better trip for the fans - get to see two teams in two buildings.
Ryan J
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Shirtless Guy said:
maybe we can get an NMU/MTU home and home with RPI/Union?
Click to expand...

I could see Mel and Walt being able to hammer out an agreement to potentially do a one-for-one trip with RPI/Union. I could then see Forrest butting heads with Suzanne putting the kibosh on the whole thing.

It's a nice compact trip, both schools within a half hour of each other. Almost as convenient as NMU and MTU being 90 minutes apart. I would love to see a one-for-one agreement set up! The last time the 'Cats played a school east of Interstate 81 that wasn't a neutral site holiday tournament game was a one-for-one with Clarkson in 98-99 (two games away) and 99-00 (two at home).



While scouring the NMU all time records, I had a wild thought: What if the NCHC and WCHA scaled down to 20 conference games, leaving 14 games to do whatever with. BUT, they MUST use eight games on cross conference games (WCHA vs NCHC) that would count in the standings for the schools. The remaining six games are free to be scheduled against whoever as they currently are.

In this example, North Dakota would have played four less NCHC opponents and games against Bemidji and Huntsville would have counted in their standings. Swap out a visit from WMU for a series against Mankato, and maybe one of the State of Denver trips for a trip to Houghton, and viola!
St. Cloud could have gotten eight extra league points thanks to their sweep of Mankato and the clinching of the North Star College Cup, and avoided a second trip to the State of Denver or to the State of Ohio.
Michigan Tech would be able to make only one trip to Bowling Green or Huntsville. And... umm... apparently this year was a bad year scheduling NC opponents. But you get the idea, Tech could drop a second trip to Alaska and/or only have to see the "Welcome to Ohio" sign once a year instead of twice.

The breakdown would be: WCHA - Each school once. "Rival" for a second series. One trip to Alaska a year.
NCHC - Each school Once. "Rival" for a second series. Four more games vs NCHC schools (rotating).


As for adding teams: if the WCHA adds ASU, it could be agreed upon that the cross-league games are reduced by two to allow a 22 game conference schedule. If NCHC adds ASU, then the 20 game conference schedule could remain with a reduction in duplicate teams played.
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Shirtless Guy said:
maybe we can get an NMU/MTU home and home with RPI/Union?
Click to expand...

Union has been to LSSU in recent years and RPI does travel as well. Are we talking shared travel expense here to cut costs? Both schools have intense rivalries.
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

aparch said:
What if the NCHC and WCHA scaled down to 20 conference games, leaving 14 games to do whatever with. BUT, they MUST use eight games on cross conference games (WCHA vs NCHC) that would count in the standings for the schools.
Click to expand...
Creative idea - the WCHA and Hockey East interlocked schedules in the early years of HE. Unfortunately it won't work today because the NCHC thinks the WCHA is beneath them. Just take a look at how many of them played games in WCHA members' rinks this year:
Denver - ZERO
SCSU - ZERO
UND - ONE game at BSU
Miami - ONE game at BGSU
UNO - Two games at MSU
WMU - Two games, one at Ferris, one at BGSU
CC - Two games at UAH
UMD - Three games, one at BSU, two at NMU

Not counting tourneys, because you can't say you were going there to play "Team X", you play whoever you draw, the eight NCHC teams scheduled a grand total of ELEVEN games at WCHA rinks. And other than CC going to UAH, none of them bothered to take on any WCHA road games other than those right in their back yard. They would rather fly to the East coast and play Hockey East than give WCHA teams games in their buildings. Is there any question why the non-conference record vs the NCHC looks the way it does? Play 2/3 of the games in WCHA rinks and I doubt the record looks anything like what it does now.

Ryan J
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

JohnsonsJerseys said:
Creative idea - the WCHA and Hockey East interlocked schedules in the early years of HE. Unfortunately it won't work today because the NCHC thinks the WCHA is beneath them. Just take a look at how many of them played games in WCHA members' rinks this year:
Denver - ZERO
SCSU - ZERO
UND - ONE game at BSU
Miami - ONE game at BGSU
UNO - Two games at MSU
WMU - Two games, one at Ferris, one at BGSU
CC - Two games at UAH
UMD - Three games, one at BSU, two at NMU

Not counting tourneys, because you can't say you were going there to play "Team X", you play whoever you draw, the eight NCHC teams scheduled a grand total of ELEVEN games at WCHA rinks. And other than CC going to UAH, none of them bothered to take on any WCHA road games other than those right in their back yard. They would rather fly to the East coast and play Hockey East than give WCHA teams games in their buildings. Is there any question why the non-conference record vs the NCHC looks the way it does? Play 2/3 of the games in WCHA rinks and I doubt the record looks anything like what it does now.

Ryan J
Click to expand...

St. Cloud did travel to Alaska to play in the Kendall Hockey Classic, so that would count as a game at Anchorage. That pushes the home total for WCHA teams to 12.

Yet the NCHC teams played only 9 home games against WCHA teams.

North Dakota: BSU, UAH (2 games)
Western: Ferris, BG
Miami: BG
Minnesota Duluth: BSU
St. Cloud: Mankato (2 games)

There were 4 other neutral games played:
St Cloud vs. Alaska (Kendall Hockey Classic)
St. Cloud vs. BSU (North Star Cup)
St. Cloud vs. Mankato (North Star Cup)
LSSU vs. North Dakota (Ice Breaker tournament)
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Miami BG is an almost obligatory home and home, like it is for an other Ohio state university.
 
Laker Dude said:
St. Cloud did travel to Alaska to play in the Kendall Hockey Classic, so that would count as a game at Anchorage. That pushes the home total for WCHA teams to 12.

Yet the NCHC teams played only 9 home games against WCHA teams.

North Dakota: BSU, UAH (2 games)
Western: Ferris, BG
Miami: BG
Minnesota Duluth: BSU
St. Cloud: Mankato (2 games)

There were 4 other neutral games played:
St Cloud vs. Alaska (Kendall Hockey Classic)
St. Cloud vs. BSU (North Star Cup)
St. Cloud vs. Mankato (North Star Cup)
LSSU vs. North Dakota (Ice Breaker tournament)
Click to expand...

So summarizing, we have:
11+1 NCHC @ WCHA
9 WCHA @ NCHC
4 WCHA vs NCHC (neutral)
Overall: 4-19-2 WCHA against NCHC

For comparison:
5 NCHC @ B1G
10 B1G @ NCHC
Overall: 1-14-1 B1G against NCHC

Just pointing out the B1G would have a stronger case for the argument about why the record is so slanted. Also, neither of the teams with the best non-conference record in the B1G played a NCHC team this year. Now, I'm not saying this would be different had scheduling been different just that the B1G would have a better case for this logic than the WCHA. However, the fact that Wisconsin took a win on the road against UND and a tie against UD at home, it does make me wonder...
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Khryx said:
So summarizing, we have:
11+1 NCHC @ WCHA
9 WCHA @ NCHC
4 WCHA vs NCHC (neutral)
Overall: 4-19-2 WCHA against NCHC

For comparison:
5 NCHC @ B1G
10 B1G @ NCHC
Overall: 1-14-1 B1G against NCHC

Just pointing out the B1G would have a stronger case for the argument about why the record is so slanted. Also, neither of the teams with the best non-conference record in the B1G played a NCHC team this year. Now, I'm not saying this would be different had scheduling been different just that the B1G would have a better case for this logic than the WCHA. However, the fact that Wisconsin took a win on the road against UND and a tie against UD at home, it does make me wonder...
Click to expand...
And neither did Michigan Tech...Really the biggest problem for WCHA when it comes to the NCHC was MTU not playing anyone and BGSU/MSU not doing well...need your best teams to show up...
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

This section of the article had some interesting numbers for perspective on where we've come from and Petan.

WCHA notebook: Chad Brears, Chargers left playing for pride
http://alongtheboards.com/2016/02/wcha-notebook-chad-brears-chargers-left-playing-for-pride/

Perspective on Petan

Fifth-year Michigan Tech head coach Mel Pearson inherited a then-rising senior class that would finish its tenure with 31 wins in four seasons. More than half of those wins — 16, to be precise — came on his watch in his 2011-12 debut campaign.

In November of that year, Pearson announced his first recruiting batch, featuring a promising specimen of firepower named Alex Petan. Fast-forward to Petan’s own senior season, and MTU’s three-time scoring leader has joined his classmates in 75 victories already.

With the overtime clincher in Saturday’s 3-2 edging of Alaska, Petan has now had a hand in 27 of those wins alone. His latest clutch tally also gives him 129 career points, tying him with 2006 graduate Chris Conner for second among all Huskies in this century. Only 2005 alumnus Colin Murphy’s 152 points best him on that front.

And the 2015-16 Huskies are still assured a minimum of four more games, but more likely five, six or seven.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

mtu_huskies said:
This section of the article had some interesting numbers for perspective on where we've come from and Petan.

WCHA notebook: Chad Brears, Chargers left playing for pride
http://alongtheboards.com/2016/02/wcha-notebook-chad-brears-chargers-left-playing-for-pride/
Click to expand...

In my series preview this week, I discuss this senior class a little bit. It is quite amazing where this program has gone over the last 5 years. Alex and the rest of his senior class (whomever that ends up being) have certainly left the program better than they found it and set the bar high for any other class to continue to improve things...
 
Re: Season 95, Vol 2: Michigan Tech '15-'16

Food for thought. Is this Mel's last regular season home game as head man of the Huskies? Could he be heading to Ann Arbor next year? I think the job is his if he wants it. Who would be the top candidates to replace him?
 
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