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Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

L

Leather helmet

New member
I think this weekend's series rates its own thread.

I haven't seen the Badgers play (other than a few highlights), so I will try a quick statistical comparison.

Advantage Wisconsin:
1. Goaltending: there are a lot of factors that go into a low GAA, but clearly ARD is mopping up everything that gets through to her. UM goaltending has not exactly been a weakness, but it seems like there are a lot of rebounds ending up in the slot.
2. Scoring balance: I was surprised to see how much more evenly-balanced the scoring is for the Badger forward lines 1-3 (I am making some assumptions on who is on each of the lines: 1) 19-21-26 2) 11-12-16 3) 7-25-27 ). Using +/- as an indicator of effectiveness, the three lines are +62/+44/+40.
3. Penalty Killing: against more or less the same competition as the Gophers, the Badgers have allowed 1 goal in 47 chances. That is an unreal statistic.
4. Gophers' penalty killing: UW is a middling 25% on the power play, but the Gophers' penalty killers are college hockey's Funhouse Mirrors: they make you look better than you really are.

Advantage Minnesota:
1. Power Play: I have never seen 50% for a full season, but the Gophers are on track. It will be fun to watch UM power play against UW penalty killers.
2. First line: using my same metric (+/-) as a stand-in for line's effectiveness, the Gopher's first line (21-22-26) are combined +91, 50% better than UW's top line.

My call: a series split. If they played 100 times, they would each win 50.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

I would add to your Advantage Wisconsin list:
5. Home ice

I would feel much better about the Gophers' chances within the friendly confines of Ridder Arena.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

One almost can't give enough accolades to UW, except...this will be no better than a split. Too many maroon and gold horses.
 
D2D said:
I would add to your Advantage Wisconsin list:
5. Home ice

I would feel much better about the Gophers' chances within the friendly confines of Ridder Arena.
Click to expand...
Plus the Gophers will undoubtedly be extremely intimidated by the band.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Adding to Advantage Minnesota:

3. Recent History. The fact is that the Gophers have absolutely dominated this rivalry of late. They haven't lost to the Badgers in more than 4 years, They have won every game they've ever played at LaBahn, and not a single current Badger has ever beaten the Gophers. Minnesota is 16-0-2 in the past 18 matchups.

This is the best Wisconsin team in years, but the talent level has been close in other years and the Badgers just haven't been able to break through.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

TonyTheTiger20 said:
Additional advantage Gophers: #SpinYourHead
Click to expand...
No Goldy on the road, so no "Spin your body" or "Spin your tail" either. Just a crabby-looking Bucky whose one trick seems to be a handstand. If that gets his goalie standing on her head as well, then advantage dubya.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

ARM said:
No Goldy on the road, so no "Spin your body" or "Spin your tail" either. Just a crabby-looking Bucky whose one trick seems to be a handstand. If that gets his goalie standing on her head as well, then advantage dubya.
Click to expand...

Handstand? :D Kindergarten-level anatomy may be hard for gophers, so I'll help you out. The head is the big thing at the top of Bucky's body that he stands on for fun. The hands are at the end of each arm. Arms are the things protruding from the upper part of Bucky's midsection, just below the head, assuming Bucky is standing up normally. There are two of them. When Bucky does his headstand, he begins with his head and both hands on the ground. You will then see him stick his hands out, with his head supporting his whole body. That's why it's a headstand, not a handstand.

I know that's a lot to digest at once, so don't worry about it too much for now. I realize you guys are more focused on Hooked on Phonics right now.

I'm not going to joke about the head-spinning stuff, because it's not fair to take cheap shots at Goldy's struggles with his dual gopher/owl identity. That has to be tough.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

WiscDC said:
I'm not going to joke about the head-spinning stuff, because it's not fair to take cheap shots at Goldy's struggles with his dual gopher/owl identity. That has to be tough.
Click to expand...

The fact that you could mistake that creature for a badger says pretty much all we need to know about your credibility.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

The Ford Keys to the Game: Special Teams

The game will be determined by who can stay out of the penalty box. Not only do the Gophers have an outrageous PP%, but I have never watched a team at any level that gets so many PP goals from their set plays. When a team moves the puck as well as the Gophers, even good penalty killers can't cover the extra player. If the Badgers take 47 penalties, I guarantee more than one PP goal by the Gophers.

On the other hand, if the Gophers' Penalty Annoyers spend a lot of time on the ice, look for lots of 'On Wisconsin' and 'Sieve'.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Nowheresville said:
Adding to Advantage Minnesota:

3. Recent History. The fact is that the Gophers have absolutely dominated this rivalry of late. They haven't lost to the Badgers in more than 4 years, They have won every game they've ever played at LaBahn, and not a single current Badger has ever beaten the Gophers. Minnesota is 16-0-2 in the past 18 matchups.

This is the best Wisconsin team in years, but the talent level has been close in other years and the Badgers just haven't been able to break through.
Click to expand...

OTOH - there was a stretch before that where the badgers couldn't lose despite the Gophers having the talent. It has been an odd decade with these two. Some of the very best hockey games I can remember seeing, two really well matched clubs and really weird lopsided runs.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Certainly, from 06-10, the Badgers certainly had the edge on the Gophers - although it was never quite the level of dominance that Minnesota has shown over the past 4 years.

My prediction, the Gophers give Wisconsin their first loss of the year on Friday. Saturday feels like a tie. However, the only thing I feel confident in is that these will be the best two hockey games I will attend this season, men or women.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

no prediction other than I'm fairly certain I will see a couple of good games. Can't believe they only charge 3 bucks, you can't even get popcorn for that at a pro game.

As luck would have it, I am in Milwaukee this week working and it is working out perfectly to attend both games, I get a free night in Madison because it is on the way home. I am hoping these games are as good as the previous between these two teams, every time I think I have seen the greatest game, one better comes along. It’s like watching Liston vs. Clay or Ali vs. Frazier.
The first game in 2013 the Badgers were handing the Gophers their rear ends on a platter the first period, except that Leveille kept all but one out, otherwise it probably would have been 3 or 4 to nothing. But Marryanne Menefee did score a PP goal, making it 1-1 but the Gophers could barely get out of their zone. When the buzzer finally went off for the first period, I have never seen a Gopher team more happy to get off the ice. The second period was a little more even although you’d never know it looking at the shots. Advantage Badgers. But the third period the Gophers showed who was the returning championship team, the tide had slowly turned throughout the second & third periods until finally a wicked Milicia McMillen slap shot got past Alex Rigsby.
Last year in the NCAA semifinals the Badgers came out flying but were kept in check by the Gophers. IMO this game exceeded every other one, I can’t believe Harvard or BC could have kept pace with either team, as far as I’m concerned, this was the championship game. I hope this weekend’s games are as good.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

The rodent streak is meaningless.

I see a split. The rodents have too much firepower for UW to sweep, but that rodent firepower may get them a sweep. UW is coming off their best game of the year and the rodents are coming off one of their poorest, so momentum is on UW's side, that may mute the firepower advantage for the rodents. It will be fascinating to see how the team that gets scored on first responds to taking the first punch in the gut.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Timothy A said:
The rodent streak is meaningless.

It will be fascinating to see how the team that gets scored on first responds to taking the first punch in the gut.
Click to expand...

last year after the Badgers scored off a faceoff in the NCAA semi, the Gophers seemed to dig down deeper and play even better, as hard as that is to believe given they were playing great up to that point
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Timothy A said:
UW is coming off their best game of the year and the rodents are coming off one of their poorest, so momentum is on UW's side....
Click to expand...
Actually I think that poor showing by the Gophers will serve as EXTRA motivation. That doesn't mean they will necessarily win, but they will be very motivated to play their best.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Also UW is undefeated. That may not go down well with ladies who are used to being #1.
 
Re: Wisconsin-Minnesota Border Battle

Minnesota seniors have been on a team that has a record of 128-6-5 over the last four years. Very rare for them for them to be an underdog.

Wisconsin has give up 6 goals in 16 games and has a goal differential of +73. Incredible numbers

Minnesota has given up 21 goals in 16 games and has a goal differential of +76. "Firepower."

What will happen when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object? Something has to give...

(Minnesota is 45-26-9 all time against Wisconsin)
 
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