Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Episode 4: A dominating week for the WCHA and more on officiating

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Episode 4: A dominating week for the WCHA and more on officiating · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

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Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the podcast, The us CHO Women's
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College Hockey Podcast. I'm Nicole Hasey. That's Todd Maleski. We're here to
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talk women's college hockey. This week, we had some really interesting results over
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in non conference and tournament play. Full disclosure, Todd and I are going
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to tell you that after this week's results, the w c h A is
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the best conference in the country and that's pretty uh undebatable for us at this
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point. But I know that we'll get a little bit of backlash for that.
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So as of right now, right today, yes, you're going to
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get the backlash on that, but right after the results of Thanksgiving weekend,
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I think we can say that, Yeah, absolutely so. I think maybe
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one of the more surprising results was Minnesota Duluth coming away with a win and
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a tie with then number two Colgate. So UMD, the fourth team in
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the w CCHA definitely showed that they had there, maybe better than their rankings
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had showed prior to this. What were your thoughts watching those games? Yeah,
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and I think I think I said last week that maybe I had some
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questions about Duluth because you know, the struggles that they had and you know,
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really just in results against Minnesota at home. I guess I was expecting
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a little bit more from the Bulldogs out of that series. And maybe it's
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just a like like you did say last week too, that you know,
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the it ended up just being that way. Those were some pretty competitive games,
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but for Dilute to come back, have Colgate come into its building and
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get a shut out the first game and then almost get a shut out again
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the second game. Colgate, if I'm not mistaken, had to score fairly
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late to tie that game and send it overtime. Yeah, final minute,
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wasn't it. Yeah, I think so. And with well it was technically
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short handed they were on the penalty kill but still pulled their goalie. So
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yeah, gets a little confus think about how many skaters around the Yeah,
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right, But I think for me that result did kind of show that,
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Okay, this is I think the luth Is is definitely in that pack of
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of being a contender. When you're talking about when we get to March,
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you know, it comes down to who you're playing and how hot you are
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at that point in the season. But definitely they they went back up a
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notch for me talking about the luth and I guess the questions now, I
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guess there. I mean a little bit on Colgate side to me is you
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know, we saw them split with Ohio say it first first weekend the season,
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correct, I remembering that, right, Yeah, And since then it's
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just kind of been a role and and now there's a little bit of question
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again on you know, how is this going to look towards the end of
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the season for Coldgate. Obviously, no one's a finished product in in November
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and now we're getting into December. But I would think they've got they've got
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some uh, some things to work on, some things to take out of
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that series, which is always what's good about these first half series between the
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the really good teams is you find out something about yourself and you find out
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where you need to improve and what you need to be better at, you
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know, the next time you're in a big situation. And that was I
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think for me. One of the things you've got to take away if your
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Colgate is that there's you know, you got to finish chances, You got
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to you know, bear down on a lot of those. And they did
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get one to get the the second game into overtime, but yeah, I
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was. I think I think there's a little bit of like, Okay,
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let's let's do some reassessing now and and and take a look at the big
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picture and a couple you know, a couple of months again. But I
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mean I don't I don't necessarily think they're you know, it's suddenly a poor
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team or a danger in in the national picture. But is that's when we
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can where you're going to say, okay, let's let's evaluate what we have
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to do to be a a better team the next time this comes around.
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Well, for sure. And I think you know, you know what I
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brought up at the beginning is that you know, we're talking about the number
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four team in the w c h A and Clokate has been far and away
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the best team in the ECAC. They're undefeated in ECAC play. You know,
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they have their like six points clear. I you know, to the
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eye test, I think we all would have said that the ECAC and w
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c h A have been you know, sort of more neck and neck and
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more you know, competitive, having as many teams ranked nationally things like that.
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So when you look at this result, you look at their number two
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team is Saint Lawrence who will talk about how that went against Ohio State,
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Like spoiler alert, it wasn't good. Not good. When you start looking
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at all of this stuff sort of down the line, then it's like wow,
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So like is the what's was it the eye test? What? Like?
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What we have is to say teams, how teams perform head to head
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and head to head did not go well for the ECAC this week, So
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it'll be interesting. You know, Colgate and UMD were pretty like neck and
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neck in that first game in terms of like shots and blocks and those sorts
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of stats were like they were pretty even and UMD came out ahead three nothing
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right, And then in that second game, Colgate came out like they put
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thirty eight shots on goal. I think they shot them like thirty eight to
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twenty one something like that, and still couldn't couldn't find that equal lights until
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that that literally the last minute. And I think the fact that they lost
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that game came out like clearly pushing more, playing harder, and still you
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know, barely eked out the tie like that. As you said that likes
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there's a lot for them to go back and look at. But you know,
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you're also talking about a Colgate team that won the conference last year and
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then lost to Wisconsin in the regional, like hosted Wisconsin in that regional semifinal
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and got that loss as well. So like, I just think that there's
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probably a discussion, like a deeper discussion to be had in terms of like
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what does it take to get to that next level? And you know,
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we've talked about like Hockey East maybe doesn't get those games where they're prepared for
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those games against those top opponents, but like what do we do? What
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do the ECAC teams if they're not getting if they're not being able to pass
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those wha opponents in these games, and like those ECAC games also aren't preparing
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them, So like they need to start looking at what they can do to
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prepare for this kind of stuff. That's probably a good segue to get into
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what did happen in Columbus last weekend. It's just a beatdown in terms of
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numbers, Ohio State winning eleven nothing in the first game and then five to
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one in the second game. And I think I would have guessed those the
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rest, you know, the win loss result of those games, but not
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those scores. That was especially the first game. That's that's kind of shocking
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to me. Yeah, I absolutely expected closer games for sure. I mean,
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Ohio State put already one shots on goal in each game. Saint Lawrence
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got fifteen in the first game, nine shots on goal total in the second
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game. Just absolutely I think the same relentless sort of push for check,
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like not letting teams out of the zone, the same thing we saw from
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Ohio State that really shut down Wisconsin two weeks ago, like even more so
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overwhelmed Saint Lawrence. And I guess I just I think maybe Saint Lawrence has
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never seen a team that can do that sort of line after line after line
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and really just keep that up. You know, Nadine Morel has them so
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disciplined in Columbus that she loves the word relentless, and like I struggle sometimes
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to come up with a different one, not wanting to like just repeat the
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same thing, but there is not a better word for like that pressure that
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they put up and down their line chart, just really hemming them in.
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And I mean, I think it's absolutely bonkers to think that they held Saint
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Lawrence to nine shots in that second game and that wasn't even like arguably that
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was the better of the two games for Saint Lawrence. To be fair,
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that first game, I think you know what happened. There was kind of
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a backbreaking a couple of minutes in that second period where it went from being
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I think like a two goal lead to five nothing. They scored Ohio States
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scored three goals in a matter of like less than three minutes, and it
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was like the wind just completely went out of the Saints there. So I
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do think that the scorer got out of it, like I think that they
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just mentally didn't didn't kind of know how to handle that and kind of checked
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out. So I do think that that store that score got a little overblown.
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Like obviously the next day five one, so that was all Ohio State,
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and again like Saint Lawrences number two team tied for second I think in
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ECAC right now and having just an absolute banner year for them. So this
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just got to be so disheartening and I feel bad for those players who had
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been riding a high through the start of the season to just like kind of
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get smacked in the face as they did with this series. Yeah, and
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that's one of those things you really have to then try to figure out,
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did we just have a really bad day or is this something you know,
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did did one period get away from UT seven in the second period? Did
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that did that you know, just feel like a bad period? Or is
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this a reflection of who we are? And that's I think where you start
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to look at those things after a result like that, and you spend a
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lot of time when you are you know, on the road and you're in
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a hotel and you've got you know, hours until the next game or whatever
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it ends up being. That's uh, that's a lot of time to sit
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with with the result like that and either ride or flight home, right uh,
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and never an easy flight getting or bus rider or or whatever when you're
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yeah, right. So I I think that's a you know, if they
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can if they can take that and be better for it when they get back
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to E C a C play, you know, good for them because that's
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you know, you don't like to be on the receiving end of a of
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a score like that, but if it's happened, you've got to make the
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most of it. And I think that's that's where you know, you need
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your veterans, you need your leaders to say, hey, look, you
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know we've this happened. It's done with what are we going to do?
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Yeah, you know, and and and and step on from Linger in it
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and yeah, exactly. And I think there's there's a lot to be said
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for you know, having older players do that kind of you know, leading
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from without having the coaching staff have to do it. Uh. And so
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we'll see whether that's uh, that's part of things. But uh another w
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C h A over e C. I sorry to continue to the theme here.
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I don't mean that you know, pick on the e C, a
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C or anything here, but Minnesota five Cornell one in the second day of
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the d C Shootout, Cornell being the other team tied for second in the
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a C see at the moment, right, And so that that was another
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one of those here's how you know, college basketball does these things where they
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kind of match the the top team in one conference versus the top team in
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another conference. And these some of these you know, early season kind of
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events. And it's not a direct one to one comparison here, but if
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you're looking at the results, it was kind of close to it, right.
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So that was I think an important result for Minnesota, uh to kind
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of continue what they've been doing here in the last couple of weeks, but
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also to and especially on a neutral, neutral rink to do that Thanksgiving weekend
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when a lot of the other teams are off and you're you're out and you're
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you know, playing in a different barn. But that's uh. I think
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for Minnesota was a pretty good result to come away from from that weekend with
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a win over Harvard, maybe a little bit closer of a win that I
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thought it would have been, but three to one against her. That's interesting,
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right, Yeah, just comparing like some Minnesota you know, closer result
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against Harvard and then Harvard lost to Saint Thomas the next day in Minnesota beat
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a much better team in Cornell. Just like this is as Mark Johnson would
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say, this is why they play the games. Uh, I'm pretty much
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every coach right, But yeah, it's just those results are interesting to me.
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I was like, I don't know that we learned a ton like those
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are all like contradictory to each other. So I'm not sure that what to
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take away from that other than you know, I had said earlier in the
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season, I think that that Minnesota can't survive on Abby Murphy alone. But
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like man did she seemed to be wanting to prove me wrong, and like
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or power to her because everybody knows she's the one that's going to score the
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goals, and like yet she's still doing it. So you know, it's
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like it's from a you know, macro standpoint, Like it's good to see
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she was sort of you know, behind someone goal and Taylor Heisi and so
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it's really cool to see her kind of come into her own and really own
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like she's a very good hockey player and sort of now that the spotlights on
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her, like we're seeing some less a little bit less of the stuff she
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was doing before in a little less physical game and her just you know,
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showing off that amazing risk shot among other things, and just her ability to
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pick out a part of the net and take on four defenders and still score
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a goal. Like it's absolutely amazing to watch. She's a lot of fun
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to watch on the ice. She can just impose herself in any game.
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It seems like, you know, when she wants to be a physical part
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of the game, she's going to be a physical part of the game.
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But hey, she's also going to you know, find a top corner,
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a shot from the slot, or something like that. So it's like,
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yeah, you get a lot of or a little bit of a lot of
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parts of a game from heavy Murphey. Yeah, and she I think she
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scored her fifty goal, her fiftieth goal in like her seventieth game something like
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that. Like just pretty ridiculous numbers for what she's been able to put up
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considering she wasn't the primary goal scorer or you know, like the primary focus
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of offense the first two years, and now it literally gets the focus of
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every defense she's playing. And she's still you know, had three goals this
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weekend. So we talked about the the Nutmeg Cup last week, and we
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have a champion of Connecticut gentlemen. It is Quinnipiac defeating Yukon and defeating Yale
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in the tournament that was at Yale this year. I think we we kind
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of talked about that that first game, the Yukon game, as being one
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of those that was a Okay, let's see see what these teams are about.
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And you're talking about different teams from two different leagues, you obviously probably
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pretty familiar with each other just geographically. But I and Quinnipiac came away with
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a four to two win there. So that was a uh, you know,
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I think one point where you can say, here's, uh, here's
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here's what a has to offer, here's what hockey says to offer, and
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h on that day, the ECAC team came out ahead, and it seems
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like that's kind of been the way a little bit right now for for the
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way things are out East. Yeah, it's a little I mean, obviously
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with Northeastern, you know, having dominated for the past, what is it
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like, did they win six in a row or something like that. Now
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that they you know, they graduated some of some of the best players in
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women's college hockey in at least a decade. Now we're seeing this opportunity for
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other teams to step up. So it's I mean, it's really cool to
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see a team like Yukon be a top hockey East. Definitely, we're necessarily
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on people's radar, you know, they came out that that Quinnipiac Connecticut game
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was interesting to me because Quinnipiac scored first, but then Yukon scored too,
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you know, and two quick ones to take the lead. But Quinnipiac came
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out back and scored right away to tie it again and I think that's that
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like little bit of extra that like Quinnipiac can dig down and get and really,
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you know, like they were out shot, I think, and maybe
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I'm thinking the other game, it doesn't matter they I just thought it was
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that to me showed that little bit higher than I think Quinnipieck is that they
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can, they'll go they they're not out of any game. You know that
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they're gonna respond immediately, make sure that that game doesn't get out of hand,
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and you know, just sort of break down opponents that way. So
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I mean, I do like seeing what's happening over in Hockey East. I
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like, you know, other teams getting an opportunity. But yeah, I
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think it's you know, we saw BC in Wisconsin early this year, and
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like that was a blobout game, right, Like BC played a really close
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game in one game and then the Badgers blew it out. And so now
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like with BC at the top of Hockey East, it's like this is all
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we have to sort of compare, right, And so it makes it definitely
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wonders makes you wonder like sort of the relative and if we're just gonna see
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a Hockey East champion come out and you know, not be able to get
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very far when we talk the national tournament. Yeah, and I do wonder
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whether there's a second half charge in one of the teams out of Hockey East,
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it you know, b C or yukonnor I don't know if maybe Northeastern
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has has something in them too to make a charge down down the stretch.
17:08
But they've you know, kind of they're playing from behind, so they've got
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some ground to make up. But I don't know if that's gonna be a
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league where there's going to be a team running away with the second half,
17:22
or if if it's gonna be one where there's you know, kind of a
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lot of beating up of each other and one team emerges the end to just
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you know, win the league by a couple of points and then let's see
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what happened to Yeah. Well, the I think, like my general feel
17:38
of Hockey East the maybe in the non Northeastern years or maybe if we're like
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taking Northeastern out of the pictures that like there have been over the past few
17:47
season opportunities for teams to like really step it up. There's been room to
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like push back at times at Northeastern, and and like I feel like none
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of them have ever like sort of taken on that opportunity, you know,
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like they don't see that as like, oh, this is our chance to
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go out and do something, like nobody there's been stuff there for the taking
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and nobody has done it. So they'll be like a team that you know,
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is within a point or two and then the next week they go out
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and get swept. And so I just I would love to see sort of
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a bit more of that determination and a bit more sort of go get them
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from a team in that in that conference that says like this is our opportunity
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and we're not going to let anybody else take it. You know. Well,
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that's our look back at last week's games. Now we'll have a look
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ahead at what's coming up a little later in the show. But when we
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come back from the break, we'll have part two of Nicole's conversation from last
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week with Chrissy Langley, who is the NCAA National Coordinator of women's ice hockey
18:41
officiating. So stay tuned for that. Welcome back to the podcast. As
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promised before the break, here is a second part of Nicole's conversation last week
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with Christy Langley, who is the national coordinator of women's hockey officiating. And
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when I was in Sweden last year at the U eighteens, I went out
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to dinner one night with a lot of the officials and it was just really
19:10
eye opening and a really cool experience to hear about what they were doing.
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And these are women from around the world, and you know, there was
19:15
a woman who was still nursing her daughter and like the I believe it was
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IHF had brought her mom to be able to babysit the daughter. And so
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it was just cool that that kind of support exists and the understanding that like,
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you know, women that sort of age out of the college, like
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you are, women in that age range that you want to be officials,
19:34
also have other priorities, and so what can we do to make sure to
19:37
support those priorities so those women can still continue, like they don't have to
19:41
choose between being an official and starting a family. And so yeah, it
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was just it was really eye opening and cool. And so it's a little
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pet project of mine to make sure we talk about this a lot, just
19:49
so that people see that there is there are other paths and that like if
19:53
you're if you're not happy, with officiating. One of the ways to get
19:56
into when we used to fix it is to work from the inside. So
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it's definitely not easy, but I think it's a really cool I think it's
20:03
cool to think about that, like maybe you didn't make the national team,
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maybe you know things haven't gone exactly the way that you want meet, but
20:10
like those those World championship for Olympic dreams could could look different, and that's
20:14
pretty cool. I love that you brought up there was an official. Yes,
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at the under eighteens, they flew in her mom and she was still
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nursing her child. At the Advanced Officiating Symposium this last summer in Columbus,
20:27
Ohio, Joy Topman was there and she's one of the officiating coaches from Great
20:33
Britain, and she went in the locker room to supervise after the game and
20:40
the official was in the rescuting. It was such a shock to her.
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She goes, wait a minute, why am I surprised by this? This
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is beautiful and this is one of the best officials in the world, and
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we're doing everything we can to support her in her life journey. And she
20:56
just worked a pretty darn good hockey game. In my mind and make this
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happen. And another great example is we had two female officials in the United
21:06
States invited to that summer camp with the Advanced Officiate and Development program that we're
21:11
pregnant, and one of them went, and she is such a competitor.
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Oh my gosh, She's like, I'm going to do everything, Chrissy,
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I'm gonna get on the ice, I'm gonna do the office. I was
21:19
like, please don't. It's six months pregnant, and the most important thing
21:26
is being there, being present and opening up people's minds to the fact that
21:30
you're gonna have a family this season, You're gonna have another child, and
21:34
come January, you have goals to be back on the ice at the highest
21:37
levels possible. Yeah, and here's your pool, here's your toolbox, here's
21:42
your resources to help get you there in your support structure. So she's now
21:48
she's got her second baby about twenty two days ago, and you know,
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the first three weeks are pretty critical to rest, recover, find the new
21:57
life. And then you know, what is she going to do here in
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the next month and a half to see if she can get back on the
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ice. Yeah. No, it's really cool and I think it's just a
22:07
part. It's a conversation that we started seeing for players, you know,
22:11
with USA Soccer and then USA Hockey, and so I'm just glad that it
22:15
just needs to be talked about more often, and when we're talking about women's
22:18
sports, it's just part of being a woman in sports, right that this
22:22
is a conversation that has to be addressed and has to be had openly and
22:26
publicly. And so yeah, I just when we were sitting there and talking,
22:30
and then one of the officials in Sweden had also said that like she
22:33
was pregnant though it was brand new, and so it was just a really
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cool moment for me to be like, these are some badass ladies and people
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need to know more about it, you know, and I think officials particularly,
22:47
that tends to be the untold story. So yeah, it was very
22:51
heartening to hear the support that they were getting, because that's not always the
22:55
case. Well, if there's more suggestions support, I tell you we're all
22:59
ears because as coaches are talking about it as well, you know, how
23:03
to coach and have a family, and what does that support start to look
23:06
like because not everybody has parents or grandparents or people nearby that can help so
23:12
finding solutions. You know. It's not like we have a daycare service at
23:19
the rink, you know, but it's important to the future of the sport.
23:22
If all of our best officials, coaches, who the players, all,
23:26
you know, have to make a decision between having a family and continuing
23:30
on with the game, then you know, there's sort of a what's the
23:34
word, like an end to all of their careers that would be premature,
23:38
Like they have so much to still give to the game, and so it's
23:41
just it's just such an important conversation to have when you're talking about women's sports.
23:45
Yeah, definitely, Hi, welcome back to the podcast, the USCCHO
23:56
Women's College Hockey Podcast. Think some much to Christy Langley, who is the
24:02
NCAA National Coordinator of Women's ice hockey of Fishing for giving me her time to
24:06
talk about such an interesting topic. If you missed the first part of that
24:10
conversation, make sure you go back and listen to last week's episode. Christy
24:14
and I talked about the increase in major penalties and there's some pretty amazing stats
24:18
in there, so definitely go back and listen to that. But looking forward,
24:22
we've got some interesting games this weekend. We spent a lot of time
24:26
in that first time talking about MD and they will be playing at Wisconsin this
24:29
weekend. Todd, what are you looking forward to in that series? Well,
24:33
for one, we have a possible return of Caroline Harvey. She's been
24:38
on the ice with the Badgers practicing no contact jersey, but still looks I
24:44
mean, you know, from from a distance and from my untrained eyes are
24:48
partially trained eyes, I guess looks to be moving pretty well. She had
24:52
a knee injury, it suffered in middle of October, and so that's that's
25:00
that's a big player if the Badgers get her back, especially these last two
25:03
weeks before the break. Badgers have home against Duluth for two this weekend and
25:08
then at Minnesota, and so I know that they definitely missed her presence against
25:14
Ohio State, but you can't rush an injury back, especially to someone who's
25:19
going to be really important for you towards the end of the season. And
25:22
so I don't think it was really even a question of that she was going
25:27
to be potentially available for that Ohio State series, but she's potentially going to
25:32
be available for these final two series before the break, and I think that's
25:36
going to be a big boost to the Badgers in depth wise and defensively,
25:41
and power play wise and just really all over the ice. Of what she
25:47
can create would be a really big thing for Wisconsin. Have back. What's
25:52
what's jumping out to you about that series? Well, I just wanted to
25:56
add about KKs that I like, I'm shocked that we're talking about her possibly
26:00
being back here in November. I mean, obviously the games will be the
26:03
first week and in December, but when that happened, I think everybody thought
26:07
that could be the end of the season, anybody that is, both the
26:10
Wisconsin and US national team fans, so like, it's it's almost boggling to
26:15
me that she, you know, is already back on the ice practicing in
26:19
that non cocitext jersey. So I just as you mentioned, just such a
26:23
huge opportunity for the Badgers to possibly get her back, and they obviously won't
26:29
rush it right and like she if she needs more time, having that long
26:33
winter break definitely helps. But no, I think it'll be really interesting.
26:37
We've seen how UMD you know, can be so shut down on defense,
26:41
and we saw how Wisconsin struggled against Ohio State two weeks ago. So I
26:45
think, first of all, just having two weeks to stew in that Ohio
26:48
State series, how the Badgers, who sort of historically come out slow in
26:52
the first game of a series, come out stay that very delicately. But
26:57
seeing how they come out just as reaction, like how how they as a
27:03
team, you know, sort of carry themselves much like you mentioned with you
27:07
know, Saint Lawrence, how they need to react after that Ohio State series.
27:11
I think it's really important to see what the Badgers do. I think
27:15
they need to you know, not come out slow, which is really obvious,
27:18
but it's definitely you know, I think it's just they I think for
27:22
them to feel like themselves and to feel secure and feel like they have moved
27:27
on from that Ohio State series, they need to come out and make an
27:30
impact early in that first period. So that's something I'll be paying attention to.
27:34
And then just we know what umd's defense can do. We know how
27:38
they can slow down the game and you know, sort of keep a team
27:44
out around the perimeter, all those sorts of things that really can work against
27:48
the Badgers. And we you know, we saw that from from the Badgers
27:52
early earlier on the season where they were getting frustrated with shots around the perimeter
27:56
and things like that. So I think we know what you and he's going
28:00
to do. And so the interesting thing is how how the Badgers react,
28:03
and I think importantly like whether or not they get frustrated. And looking back
28:07
to last season, Duluth got two wins out of the series at Labon Arena
28:14
last year. That was part of that five game stretch where the Badgers lost
28:18
five in row for the first time and well forever it seemed like, and
28:22
the luth won three to one, one nothing. So to your point,
28:26
they know how to win tight games on the road at Wisconsin. Uh.
28:32
For the players that are coming back and that they'll have some familiarity with that,
28:34
and I think that'll that'll do them well, even though that's you know,
28:37
maybe not the a huge part of their team, uh, you know,
28:44
the players that really drove things for them last year uh being back,
28:48
but that's uh, there will there will be some memories of I'm sure there
28:51
for some players to build on. Yeah, And I think, you know,
28:55
importantly for a Wisconsin team that like had put up so many goals to
28:59
start the season, you know, we're leading in all these scoring categories to
29:02
have not to have only put up one goal last week, and then you
29:04
know, talking historically of that season or that series last year with um D,
29:08
like they can't have one like that where they're not scoring, right,
29:11
Like that's they just they have to be finding the net like both simply because
29:17
that's how you win games. Would also I just think like mentally they need
29:19
to be putting puts in the net to really get a reset and set them
29:22
up for heading into the break with that series at Minnesota. So I just
29:27
think it's that's a really important part mentally for them. There's an interesting series
29:33
coming up in the CHA this week Robert Morris playing at Penn State, two
29:37
teams that are currently tops in the conference. If I'm remembering the standing correctly.
29:45
What's I guess, first of all, is that a surprise that Robert
29:51
we're talking about Robert Morris as one of the top two teams in the CHA,
29:56
given that this is their what they're two and a half months into being
30:00
back as as a team, and and and what do you think they need,
30:07
you know, to get some success out of a series at Penn State
30:11
this weekend? Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm not surprised, but
30:15
also like that's unfair to them because it is surprising, Like that's it's a
30:19
huge accomplishment for them. You know, many of their players had transferred away.
30:23
They have you know, they had some girls that just didn't play hockey
30:26
last year and then turned around and rejoined the team this year. Like they
30:30
they're working with the you know, sort of from below zero, from behind
30:33
the starting line, right, And so the fact that they they've come out
30:37
and put themselves in this position just a couple of points back from Penn State,
30:41
I think is so impressive and probably something like not enough people are saying
30:45
and pointing out right, I think sometimes the cha you know, we get
30:51
talking about these other ringked matchups, but like this is such a big deal
30:53
for them, and I like, like it's just so cool, right,
30:57
Like I'm so happy for them and sod and glad that this program not only
31:02
got to come back, but as you know, sort of proving the naysayers
31:06
right, like they belong they were good before they left their good again now.
31:10
And so I think in terms of the series with Penn State, importantly
31:12
for them is that they just have to be tighter on defense. Like Penn
31:15
State's got some offensive weapons, Robert Morris is just they've given up too many
31:21
goals, right like they're doing They're doing quite well overall, but just if
31:25
they're going to make a push for the top place in the CHA and pushing
31:32
for national prominence, then they have to tighten up on defense. And so
31:36
I think that will just be huge for them, is seeing if they can
31:38
you know, keep Tessa Janiky in any sort of check and then just generally,
31:44
you know, sort of try and control the puck a little more and
31:45
not let Penn State have their have the run of the game. I think
31:48
that's probably the most important part for them in this series. Yeah, looking
31:52
at Robert Morris's numbers here, they're four and two in conference play, but
31:56
they're minus six in terms of goal differential scored eighteen given up twenty four And
32:01
that's those two losses, one to Mercyhurst nine to two and one to rit
32:08
seven to three. And I guess that does it there. When you yeah,
32:12
have a couple of a couple of loss and they happen to be blowout
32:15
losses and your wins are a lot tighter than that, that's I guess how
32:17
that happens, you know, at least six games into the conference season.
32:22
Now, yeah, those games are kind of outliers though too, right,
32:25
So it's just really interesting. I mean I kind of feel like Robert Morris
32:29
skits a pass this year for however, you know, however it goes for
32:31
them, and so I like, certainly not critical, but I think,
32:36
you know, anything they can do to sort of find that equilibrium again and
32:39
just try and keep things is you know, not too high, not too
32:45
low, because I think when those games start to get away from them,
32:47
they really get away from them. And yeah, I just I hope that
32:52
they can come out and play those some of the hockey that's gotten them,
32:57
you know, those closer wins than as opposed to those losses. Yeah,
33:01
in Hockey East on a Saturday Saturday afternoon, a game on Nessen number fifteen
33:07
Bust and College at number eleven Yukon. And there's two teams with like we're
33:12
talking about before, an opportunity to show, Okay, if you want to
33:15
be at the top of Hockey East, these are probably the teams you're gonna
33:19
have to beat the do it right. The one of these teams can emerge
33:22
from from that matchup and and have a have a at least for the time
33:28
being, have a little bit of a step on the other team. That's
33:32
that's kind of in that that pack not necessarily you know, right next to
33:37
each other or anything like that, but well they are right next to each
33:40
other, but they're the two that are that are at there at the top,
33:45
and and b C can can nudge ahead even though Yukon has a game
33:50
in hand. Yeah, absolutely, I think the big thing, the big
33:53
difference there right again is like I guess Defenseman's Championships, but you know,
33:58
you kind has given up only a eleven goals like a goalie game in conference
34:01
play, which is just kind of crazy. They've just been absolutely Megan Warner's
34:06
been really good in goal, and you know, they've just been really really
34:08
good on defense and limiting. And I think a lot of that is that
34:13
they have a more confident offense and they're possessing the pac a lot more.
34:16
But you know, by comparison, Boston College has given up twenty seven goals
34:21
in conference, but BC also has eleven more goals for them, So like
34:23
it's just a it's a really interesting matchup of two very different styles, and
34:28
you know, their BC's eight three and one, Yukon is eight and three
34:31
in Hockey East, so like different routes to get to ostensibly the same place.
34:37
And so yeah, I think it'll be really fun to see how the
34:39
the two matchup and how they go against each other, because as you said,
34:44
these are these it's likely that one of these two teams is uh the
34:47
one that's going to emerge. So it's a really cool to have this sort
34:52
of at the midway point to see how they match up against each other.
34:55
There's another one, Ohio State. He continues on with this so home stretch
35:00
that they're on hosting Saint Cloud State, and that's after what Ohio State did
35:06
the Saint Lawrence last week. I don't know, that's it, right,
35:08
Like the last two weeks not happened. I would be kind of excited for
35:12
this series, but then you start to wonder, Okay, you know,
35:16
is Ohio State just kind of going to keep this, keep pushing this through
35:22
the rest of the season. I mean, everyone has a down game,
35:27
and as an opponent, you hate to have to hope for that, but
35:31
sometimes when the team is that good, you do have to hope for that.
35:35
As as your entry into you know, having a chance in some games.
35:39
And I think we've seen a lot a lot more out of Saint Cloud
35:44
State this season, but I don't know that they're in the caliber of Ohio
35:49
State. Even though it's a number one versus number ten. That feels like
35:52
a big gap between number one and number ten right now. Well, yeah,
35:55
I mean I think at this point the gap between Ohio State and everybody
35:59
else is pretty large, right, Like that's a huge step they made out
36:04
in the past two weeks. Yeah, Like I said, I if this
36:06
was happening before I saw the last four games from Ohio State, I think
36:09
I'd be really excited to see what Saint Cloud State could do against them.
36:13
Now I feel like a little bit like I'm watching through my fingers and worrying
36:15
that Saint Cloud State is gonna get the same kind of slap in the face
36:20
that Saint Lawrence did, so, you know, for the Husky stake,
36:22
for anybody's sake, I hope nobody gets that from Ohio State anymore this season.
36:28
No offense to the Buckeyes, I like, I'm not begrudging them their
36:30
wins, but like the mental of facing that when you're you're so high and
36:35
feeling like you've done so well. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Saint Cloud
36:38
State has two of the best goalies in the country. You know, they
36:42
have really interesting scoring, you know from Clarah and Larova, and they brought
36:47
in so many cool transfers that have really like sort of diversified what they're capable
36:52
of doing. But yeah, I just no offense to Saint Cloud State.
36:55
But I don't I don't see how anybody goes into Columbus right now, like
37:00
remotely as though they can walk away with dignity. Yeah, that seems strong,
37:07
but probably not inaccurate. I mean, but for me that the goalies
37:12
are really the X factor there because if yeah, I mean it may take
37:15
fifty saves, but we've seen it before where from each one of them right
37:19
where they where they both have have been able to do that, So hey,
37:24
you never know, right, It's it's one of these things where if
37:30
it was decided before the game started, why why are we even playing them?
37:34
But yeah, we know what a house they can do. We've seen
37:38
what a house they can do to teams both on offensive side and the defensively,
37:45
and in not having to play defense in a lot of ways not having
37:49
to have the puck in their own zone. So, uh, if that's
37:52
the case this weekend, that's some trouble. Yeah, absolutely, I you
37:57
know, should be should super be interesting to see what you said. I
38:02
think the pup possession is just going to be really telling in that game.
38:06
And so yeah, I think we'll know pretty early on which team is gonna
38:10
win out there. But as I strange, less strange things have happened than
38:15
Ohas or Saint Cloud State putting on a show and goal and pulling out a
38:19
one or two OHO win. So it's definitely on the table, but I
38:22
think far less likely than I thought it was a few weeks ago. Well,
38:28
I think that's going to wrap it us or wrap it up for us.
38:30
Almost got that out there, wrap it up for us this week on
38:32
the podcast, Nicole, good to talk with you again. Absolutely nice talking
38:37
to you and we will be back next week. So thanks for joining us.
38:40
Make sure you hit us up on social media at Nicole Hasey, is
38:45
Nicole at Todd Maleski is me. Drop us some lines and with some ideas,
38:50
things you want to hear or questions we can answer here on the podcast.
38:52
So thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you next week.