LincolnMav
Fight for UNO!
Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?
GREAT WIN!!! Let break out the brooms tonight at the Mooch. GO MAVS!
GREAT WIN!!! Let break out the brooms tonight at the Mooch. GO MAVS!
Can we now say we have beaten someone?![]()
Well, that was interesting.
If the Gophers are truly one of the best teams in college hockey, then, so are we, and I, for one, am not afraid of anybody left on our schedule.
When Searfoss scored with the extra attacker at the 17:58 mark of the third period tonight to make it 3-2, that sound you heard was the collective sphincters puckering of 10,103 Gopher fans.
We didn't really play all that well tonight and they still struggled to put us away. And just like last night, the longer the game went on the more the tide turned in our direction. They didn't score again over the 2nd half + of the game for the 2nd night in a row and we continue to lead the NCAA with only 4 third period goals given up all season.
Minnesota is a pretty good team. You know what? So are we. I've already read a bunch of "I don't want to play them again anytime soon" comments here and in other places made by Gopher fans. Yeah, they won tonight, but, physically, we manhandled those guys both nights. We just gooned it up a little too much tonight and it cost us. I doubt the Gophers care to see any more of Tony Turgeon anytime soon since I am sure several Gophers have various aches and pains inflicted by him.
It was funny how the theme of the weekend, watching these games on FOX Sports North, all of a sudden became how gigantic and imposing a team we are along with the palpable fear we instilled in the Gopher broadcast team, too. The weekend evolved from "What's wrong with the Gophers?" during the game last night to "We're fortunate we got a split-- please leave and take your "trees" with you" tonight.
I've never felt better after seeing our guys lose. Our glass is lot more than half full. You're a good team when you lose and still look scary doing it and the opposition is left going "Whew, thank god".
Considering the competition and the venue, I'm pretty hard pressed to think of a finer weekend of hockey in UNO history than the one we just witnessed. Definitely on the short list. Onward to St. Cloud where we hopefully don't have a letdown after they had a VERY shaky weekend in Anchorage.
I'm guessing you are referencing something I said among those comments. I think you are attributing too much respect to them. I was trying to be diplomatic. I don't want to see UNO again. There was a lot of chippy stuff after the whistle, in front of the net, before face-offs, skating up and down in front of the MN bench at TV timeouts, etc etc. It wasn't all one-sided, but midway through the 2nd it was pretty clear MN was trying to stay out of the box, and UNO was trying to draw people into it. But more than that, the last 35 minutes tonight I was truly worried that someone was going to be seriously injured. The refs let it get out of hand, and a few players ran with it. Good physical play is one thing. Being a punishing physical team can fall into that. But laying reckless and dangerous hits has NO place in the game, at any level.
I said the same thing after Rau's hit on Zucker last year in Denver, and I'm saying after this game tonight.
Cue the sue fans whining about Gopher fans being pansies and the "sissification" of hockey........I don't think MN backed down from hits tonight, and they threw a good number of their own (a couple over the top). But a few players on UNO looked like they were intent on hurting someone. And I honestly think it cost them the game. I'm just glad it didn't cost anyone their season.
Naturally.
UNO outplays Minnesota for something like 4 1/2 periods out of 6 this weekend, in their building, where they went into the weekend as the #3 team in the country in the USCHO poll, and they, by their own admission, were lucky to get a split.
UNO's reward for a pretty magnificent weekend of hockey that had Gopher fans happy to see us leave town? Drop one place in the USCHO poll from #13 to #14.
And the Gophers dropped from #3 to all of #4. Never mind that they are #15 in Pairwise and that the only Tuc they have played is us.
How they are ranked higher than us when anybody who saw last weekend's series, at worst, would have said that the two teams looked pretty even or even given the edge to UNO, I don't know. I can only say that, right now, I wouldn't trade what I think our future is this season for theirs. They might have a load of "talent" (to the extent you personally believe that they are laden with it) but we sure as heck looked like we had a lot more team chemistry than they do. We've got 8 NHL draft choices on our team--we're not exactly chopped liver in that area, either, by the way. They looked like a team that couldn't get out of its own way a lot. They keep talking about "getting it turned around" all the while the season is happening while they are waiting for it to happen.
That's O.K., though, we just need to keep matriculating the ball down the field, as Hank Stram used to say, and the rankings (and our season) will take care of itself.
Right now we look like one of the most underrated teams in the country. If you don't think so, ask Jeff Jackson, Scott Sandelin, or Don Lucia what they think.
Whether we deserve a spot as high in the rankings as they, I don't know. What I do know is that, right now, there is NO way they are 10 spots in the poll better than us.
They are but about a half dozen or so teams that get the benefit of the doubt, no matter how overrated they might be as a result of getting that benefit of the doubt, and Minnesota is one of those teams.
The price you pay for being relative newbies. Sigh............
Again...what is your obsession with the rankings? It makes you look like a novice college hockey fan. UNO can be #4, and Minnesota will be #14. That is fine with me. Please, take that high ranking. They are so **** worthless, it is laughable that someone gets as upset about them as you do. UNO has a very solid team with a great coach. If your guys keep playing like they did at Mariucci, they'll stay in the MacNaughton hunt throughout the year, and they'll make noise in the NCAA tournament come March/April. Isn't that the most important thing anyways? Forget the rankings.
I agree with what HBB_GH said. To be honest, I'd rather be laying low in the polls be cause they do not matter. I'd rather fly under the radar all year and make the tourney and do some damage then. Who cares if your team is top 5 in the nation or unranked? All it takes is to get hot at the end of the year and those rankings don't mean crap. I understand you may not think it is "fair"(for lack of a better word) but I really don't understand why you get so worked up about rankings....especially at this point of the season.I'm not really upset with the specific ranking per se, but with the inequity of it, when comparing our lot in life to yours.
Perceptions count. Both from a street cred standpoint when another team comes to town or you go to theirs and it darn sure impacts recruiting perceptions of guys looking at your school.
That said, you are probably right and my thinking is somewhat indoctrinated by near obsession here in Huskerland of football polls, which is a beauty contest that counts whereas the polls are only a bragging contest in college hockey, where Pairwise rules the day.
That doesn't mean I have like it, though![]()
We'll have a lot better idea where UNO is at after this month. Hopefully they start by taking care of SCSU. I want to see UNO finish strong down the stretch and not limp. A good December will set that up well.
I think if we go at least 4-2 the rest of the month, or 3-2-1, we are going to make the NCAA tournament this year. 3-3 might even be O.K. I've seen plenty enough now to know that we definitely do NOT suck.