Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Episode 9: Under-18 gold for Team USA, a massive road sweep for Ohio State

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Episode 9: Under-18 gold for Team USA, a massive road sweep for Ohio State · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:05
This is the podcast. I'm Todd Maleski and Nicole Hasey is in Switzerland again
0:09
and she has seen a pretty good World Under eighteen tournament take place. We're
0:17
gonna get into the current of college women's hockey here pretty soon, but it
0:23
looks like, Nicole, the future of college women's hockey is in pretty good
0:27
hands with some of those players that we saw, that you saw in person,
0:30
that we saw on streamer on TV taking some pretty good steps that are
0:36
really high level there. Yeah, what an amazing tournament. Lots of surprising
0:41
results. It was cool to see so many players that are not from North
0:46
America that are already committed to US colleges, and I think that we'll continue
0:51
to see more and then, you know, in the case of the US
0:54
team, there are several players that are not yet old enough to commit to
0:57
college. So that was pretty cool to see players like Mary Darren Baker,
1:02
you know, who's several years away from even committing to college, not just
1:04
be on the team but make a solid contribution. So yeah, pretty amazing
1:10
tournament. US won the gold medal for players like Maggie Skinel and Josie Saint
1:15
Martin. That was their third tournament, so they actually have the full set,
1:18
the bronze from last year, it silver from twenty twenty two, and
1:22
the gold from this year. And it was hard not to get like kind
1:25
of swept up in the excitement of like those players having put in a lot
1:29
to finally earn gold. But you had to feel bad for Chechia, who
1:34
made massive strides. I mean, on the first day of the tournament when
1:38
they lost to fin lind I was talking to their coach about like, well,
1:42
things are growing on the senior level, what do we have to do
1:44
on the eight team level. So I like to say that this tournament goes
1:49
very fast and very slow at the same time. And by that I mean
1:52
I mean it's twenty two games in eight is nine calendar days, eight game
1:57
eight days of games. We have one full off day in the middle,
2:00
so it's it's just this absolute sprint of tons of games. But also it's
2:06
just amazing the growth that can happen and the things that you can see change
2:08
from from the opening wrong games to the end. And I think Checki is
2:13
the CA's case in point there. I really thought that we were going to
2:16
be talking about like what they need to do to bring up the younger girls
2:20
to the speed of what the senior team's done. And then they turned around
2:23
and pulled off a massive ups hit over Canada, who I think I was
2:28
not the only one thought was I mean the shoe win to win there a
2:31
bit lack of a better Yeah. Yeah, their roster was was absolutely monster.
2:37
I mean, Chloe Promorano won m VP and set a bunch of records
2:40
as the bronze medal team. You know, like you don't you don't often
2:45
see that Kaitlin Kramer had ten goals. Canada was just really really stacked and
2:50
Check you played them really well. Liz Katy Norton, the US coach,
2:54
said, you know, Check has coached incredibly well and I think you said
2:59
it several times and I think you know that's that's the highest compliment. Don
3:04
Antrasoftski just just really understood what strengths he has and understood what the other teams
3:10
were doing and how to counter it. And I don't think that Canada adjusted
3:15
very well when they were pressed the way that they were, which, like
3:20
I'm of the opinion just kind of generally on the women's side, they don't
3:23
always do. They are sort of kind of very set in their systems,
3:25
and you know, even after the game, the players were like, oh,
3:29
we're not we don't change anything. And I was like, I hope
3:30
that that's seventeen year old media speak and not like we're not going to change
3:36
anything because like, guys, it didn't work. But yeah, just and
3:40
then the Americans just really came together well, you know, their first two
3:44
periods. I was like, oh lord, it's going to be a really
3:46
long tournament, and they just they were really deep. I mean and obviously
3:52
like that feels really obvious at you eighteen, but they were The fourth line
3:57
was scoring goals from the get go, and all of their players just played
4:00
a really good two hundred foot game, which I think is really important.
4:04
Josie Saint Martin, who's in Ohio state recruit, is like just has this
4:10
lethal shot, but was also like on the back end blocking shots. And
4:13
so when you have a whole team that's really kind of selling out and she's
4:16
one of the assistant captains and you know that's your leadership, Like that's that's
4:21
a good sign for your team. Yeah, what's your big takeaway from just
4:27
being at that tournament having been to a few now or you know, how
4:32
how it was run, how it was staged, what kind of attention it
4:35
got in the building, in the area there, and and what you kind
4:41
of maybe see as you know, the future, and how how this build,
4:45
this tournament builds on itself a year after year. You know, it
4:49
feels a little sometimes like it's two steps forward, three steps back, or
4:54
however you want to say it. Like, you know, there was advertisement
4:58
and information all over the city of Zoog for this, which was awesome because
5:01
I have not seen that elsewhere. Like last year in Sweden, I did
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not see any advertisement outside of the stadium, so like on the bus stops
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in you know, in the shopping center, like there was posters for this.
5:16
But you know, it's not like there was massive crowds and there's just
5:19
there's a lot of work to be done in Switzerland for building up girl hockey
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and so like, on the one hand, great that there was stuff everywhere.
5:28
On the other like there wasn't a ton of attendance. But I thought
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they did a great good job. We played, you know, some day
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games, and they brought in school groups and they made sure that they had
5:36
like everybody got a flag and the kids were singing and like when they were
5:41
there on games that weren't for Switzerland, they like they set some kids on
5:45
opposite ends and they were picking a team. And so that was just a
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really cool like moment that it wasn't just we only show up for Switzerland games,
5:55
particularly because obviously was not the best tournament for Switzerland finished seventh, so
6:00
they avoided regular relegation. But it's not like it was, you know,
6:04
a massively successful tournament. And so from that way, you know, senior
6:10
team coach was there and back in Brampton, he he was like almost without
6:15
words talking about how frustrated he was at his own lack of depth and that
6:19
was because there's not more to choose from back home. And so you know,
6:24
I'm really hopeful that this got more attention. But in the way that
6:29
there just wasn't a ton of people there, you'd never know. But I
6:30
mean it was run really well. The parents travel so well, you know,
6:34
so the Swiss families had cow bells and Czechia had a drum, and
6:41
like they made a great atmosphere. You know, in retrospect looking back,
6:45
like Czechia has gotten a ton of attention. The semi final game was not
6:49
on television back home. I mean, it wasn't also on television in the
6:53
US. The only place was on television was in Canada, and I think
6:56
Slovakia. Slovakia bought the TV rights for the tournament, so I think they
7:01
had all the games, but you know, afterwards, so then they responded
7:05
and put the final on TV and had the highest total ever for women's hockey
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watching TV in chech Ya, like over six hundred thousand people watched. It's
7:14
like, well, Frands, what do we learn? Put them up on
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TV from the start, right, you know, and like the president was
7:24
using like got to social media and was saying things like about them, which
7:29
is great, and their boys had done well at World Juniors, so you
7:32
know, in that way, I hope, you know, in retrospect it's
7:35
great and they seemed to have got the attention for having done what they did,
7:39
but I wish they had it from the start. So I don't know,
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it's a long way around, not answering your question. It was really
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well run, I think. I mean, there were people from Swiss Hockey
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all over the place in the building. You couldn't kind of turn around without
7:55
finding someone or a volunteer, and so that was really nice, and it
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was a beautiful building. I mean, it was nicer than anything I think
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I've played I've seen women's hockey played in. So from that level, it
8:07
was great and I hope we continue to see that. You know, there
8:11
was no secondary rink. The secondary rink in Sweden was very sad because we
8:16
had sort of a group and B group, where B group is the bottom
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four teams and only two of them can advance to the quarterfinals, and so
8:24
this was better that. So yeah, in the sort of functionality version of
8:31
it, it was. It was a well run tournament in great facilities,
8:33
which is nice to see. Right, Well, let's bring it back here
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to what we saw last week in the college game, and we saw what
8:45
felt like to me a pretty massive pair of results in Minneapolis, where Ohio
8:52
State not only won two games at Ritter Arena, they won them both.
9:00
I don't think convincingly it's a strong enough word to use here, but yeah,
9:07
so seven nothing on Friday and they come back and back that up six
9:11
to one on Saturday to outscore Minnesota thirteen to one at Ritter, which I
9:18
you know, I could have seen a sweep here because you know, Ohio
9:20
State is that good. But at that level, at that that kind of
9:26
scoring margin is is incredible. It started, yeah, on the road,
9:31
it started right away to the Buckeye scored four times on nine shots in the
9:37
first fifteen and a half minutes of the Friday game, to chase Gopher goalie
9:41
Lucy Morgan, and that that was just kind of the writing on the wall
9:43
there for the rest of the weekend. Joydunn finished with a hat trick on
9:48
Friday, Hannabilka added two goals, and then on Saturday, five goals on
9:54
twenty five shots in the second period after it was scoreless going into the first
9:58
intermission, and and that Chase Skyla Vetter, the Gopher goal who started Saturday.
10:03
And so they the Buckeyes did the same thing two days in a row,
10:07
essentially, and then they scored six goals by six different players. And
10:11
to me, that told me that, you know, it's not just one
10:16
person going well, it's not just one line. It's it's the whole group
10:20
that is in really good shape right now. And we talk sometimes about it
10:26
taking a little bit of time in January to get the team back going again
10:31
from the Christmas break. Not the case with Ohio State. They are back
10:37
up and running and running at full speed. And I thought that was a
10:43
really strong statement to the rest of college hockey that come and take it from
10:50
us this season. It's not gonna be for anyone that is a thorough but
10:54
kicking. Like I got back to my room again seven hours ahead, so
11:00
I was like, oh, I'll be able to watch, but it was
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I got back later than I thought, and the games were both days.
11:05
The games were already out of hand, and I was like, well,
11:07
I I guess I don't need to set up the VPN and figure that out.
11:13
And as we said, like last week, Ohio State had a particularly
11:16
long break too, and they still I mean, that is a butt kick.
11:20
And I don't like I think when I have people from like various you
11:26
know, federations and coaches and people saying to me in Switzerland, did you
11:33
see what happened in in Minnesota, Like the fact that we were it was
11:37
such a shock. We were talking about it way over here. I thought
11:39
was pretty funny. And I had heard that some of the the girls in
11:43
the US and Canada that are committed to different schools were giving each other a
11:48
hard time about it, and I kind of felt bad for the Minnesota girls
11:52
for sure. Yeah, not they're doing but yeah, that's I can imagine
11:56
that. It is one of the things that that goes on when you when
11:58
you're talking some smack in in those kinds of situations. Yeah. One of
12:05
the things we're talking about. I was talking about with some some people while
12:09
those games are going on, is you know the Minnesota break here that did
12:16
something just go wrong? I mean, I like, I didn't see very
12:20
much of the games, but I don't know that. I just my surprise
12:26
in them being outscored thirteen to one in two games at home. That's that's
12:31
gonna be tough to come back from. Honestly, I feel like that's a
12:37
a big, a big struggle. It's gonna be a struggle, let's put
12:46
it that way, knowing going forward that that was that's on that's on your
12:52
record here. I mean, they only count as two losses in the pair
12:54
wise, but everyone knows what the margin was there, and I think going
12:58
forward, so they're going to have to turn things around and just kind of
13:05
flush it and forget about it because well, and we'll see how well they
13:09
can do that, because that's it's not something you can carry with you through
13:15
the rest of the season. Seeing on the one hand, I do find
13:18
it super surprising. On the other, like I've talked about all year how
13:22
I feel like they don't have the scoring depth, and you know, at
13:26
first I was like, well, Abby Murphy can't do it on her own,
13:28
and she just kept doing it. But like these cracks have definitely I
13:33
think been there, and just you know how how like if this were a
13:37
seven to four game, nobody would be super surprised, you know, like
13:39
that Ohio State scored a bunch and still you know, still won the game.
13:43
And so I think, like, to me, this just shows that
13:46
the offense is still has work to do in terms of like finding those scoring
13:52
touches from other players. So on the one hand, yeah, like absolute
13:58
blowouts that I did not expect, But on the other, like, what
14:01
do you think about it? Really well, the things that I thought might
14:03
be a problem, Like do you understand how it leads to this? And
14:07
I just think I think Ohio State can put up that number of goals in
14:09
pretty much anybody. So yeah, a statement in both directions, not the
14:15
one Minnesota wanted. Yeah, I feel like Ohio State, like you said,
14:18
basically said come take it from us. So I would imagine anybody else
14:24
that has Ohio State still on their schedules not feeling great, which is just
14:28
about all of the WHA at this point. There was another top ten series
14:33
last week that and in a sweep as well, this not quite as drastic
14:39
of a sweep, but Coldgate winning two games in a home and home series
14:43
against number eight Cornell that was number five Colgate at that point, six to
14:46
three. On Friday, Daniel Sterdakney two goals, Colgate took a four to
14:50
nothing lead in the second period, and then Saturday it was a three to
14:54
nothing Colgate win over Cornell. That one at Colgate, the national scoring leader,
15:01
Christina carlton Kova scored two first period goals. Hannah Murphy with twenty saves
15:07
the shutout, and that leaves Colgate atop the ECA C H half a point
15:13
ahead of Clarkson, which again is a thing. And Clarkson beat renst Layer
15:18
and Union last week, so keeping pace there. It's, you know,
15:24
until we get the the Colgate Clarkson matchups here, we're gonna still be wondering
15:33
who's whose tops in the E C A C. But for right now,
15:35
it's it's Colgate by the slimmest of margins, I guess. But a good
15:41
bounce back weekend for them, speaking of you know how you kind of have
15:45
to wipe it and keep going like that's it's a good statement for them to
15:48
come back and just say like, yep, we got both of these.
15:50
So I think you know, you mentioned Calton, Calton, Tuva, Cuckton,
15:54
Cova and you know started Acnet like they just they have they have so
15:58
many options. I think at least the Biederman is one of the more underrated
16:03
younger players, and so I think when they have all their their parts working,
16:08
they're definitely one of the best teams in the country. And I think
16:14
that they like they were not happy with that loss to Wisconsin in the postseason
16:18
last year, Like I think they were a better team than they showed in
16:22
that game. And they have a lot of returners and I think those that
16:26
experience is really propelling them this year. Also last weekend, some some more
16:33
surprising results ranked teams losing on Friday, four North North four teams excuse me,
16:40
Northeastern loss one nothing in overtime at Maine. Eda Kalpola with an overtime
16:45
goal there for the Black Bears, and number eight Saint Cloud State lost at
16:51
home to Minnesota State two to one in the first game of that series.
16:55
Hailey Hanson for the Mavericks twenty five saves, including going twenty for twenty in
16:59
the last two periods the the Huskies these UH. Saint claus State rebounded to
17:07
win the Saturday game in that series. UH, and then on Saturday,
17:11
UH, the the leaders in the c ch A and the New ha both
17:15
lost. Penn State lost to one in overtime to ri T on the road.
17:22
Addie Elvaz with the overtime goal there for rit which had was head to
17:26
nothing. I'm sorry, I believe that was three to three to two on
17:30
that one because RT was up to nothing. Penn State rallied to tie it,
17:34
including a goal in the last I think four minutes. And then l
17:38
IU lost at home to Franklin Pierce four to three on Saturday. Maggie Cornetta
17:44
two goals for the Ravens in that one. And so there's you know,
17:47
a little bit of you know that, I think there's some still some some
17:51
room built up at the top there for both Penn State and l IU.
17:55
At the top of C ch A and New Ha respectively. But you know,
18:00
the teams aren't below them, aren't aren't just letting them run away with
18:03
the title, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean it wasn't. LU
18:07
at this point still undefeated so in conference play, so they probably weren't going
18:12
to run the table. But yeah, so Franklin Pierce is not the team
18:15
that I thought would upset them, So good, good for Franklin Pierce.
18:18
Yeah they're well, they're five hundred overall, but ten and nine in conference.
18:23
So yeah, that's a huge win for Franklin Pierce. And you know,
18:26
probably a good time for LU to get that kind of loss. And
18:30
remember that, like, just because you've been cruising doesn't mean it's all going
18:33
to come that easy. One more piece of our look back before we take
18:37
a look ahead, and that's the bean Pot Semifinals, which took place on
18:41
Tuesday night at Harvard and Boston University and Boston College. Started it off.
18:47
Katie Pine scored for BC with one forty three left to tie it to three
18:51
to three. No one got the winner in overtime, so that one ends
18:53
up a three to three tie. Because you have to play regular season games
18:59
with the same rules matter if it's a tournament or not. So the five
19:02
minutes of three on three were played, no one got a goal, so
19:04
that ends up officially a tie, and then you can use a shootout to
19:07
determine who advances, and that's what they did. No one scored through two
19:11
rounds, and the third round, Bu's Luisa Welke made a really nice foehand
19:18
backhand forehand move and got it to go to put BU ahead, and then
19:22
Calli Shanahan made a save for BEU in the bottom of the third, so
19:27
it was a shootout win for BEU to advance and advance to play out Northeastern,
19:33
which got a one nothing win over the host Harvard, and interestingly enough,
19:40
Northeastern's Tayse Thompson scored in the first period of power play goal. She's
19:44
a former Harvard player, so a little bit of familiarity there. Gwyneth Phillips
19:48
got the shutout for the Huskies with nine saves, but it also deserves special
19:55
mention for Alex Polichi for Harvard making thirty nine saves to keep that game close,
20:00
but in a losing effort. So it'll be be you in Northeastern in
20:04
the championship game, next Tuesday, after BC and Harvard played in the third
20:08
place game. Both those games are taking place at TD Garden. Then that's
20:11
the first time that the home of the Bruins and home of the men's bean
20:15
Pot will host the women's bean Pot as well. Tuesday, January twenty third,
20:21
and those games taking place at five pm and eight pm Eastern Time,
20:26
available on nesson ESPN Plus and TSN Plus. We will be back with a
20:32
little bit of a look ahead at what's coming this weekend in women's college hockey,
20:37
So stay tuned on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm
20:49
Todd Moleski. Nicole Hasey is with me from Switzerland. She'll be returning later
20:53
this week, so she'll be back to watch some more college hockey in person,
20:57
virtually all of that stuff. And let's kind of look forward to what
21:03
we've got coming this weekend and put it in some context of where teams stand
21:08
in in their standings. A few different games between ranked teams in this weekend
21:18
slate, and that starts with number seven Minnesota Duluth playing at number one Ohio
21:23
State Friday Saturday series and that one, and you know, we we've talked
21:27
about Ohio State and how they've just managed to, you know, last week
21:33
put everyone on notice that we're number one for a reason. And it's it's
21:37
a pretty big gap. It's kind of what it looks like. But for
21:41
Deluth, this is this is important not only in the the wh A standings,
21:45
but also in the pairwise for them. If they can get a win
21:49
here and and you know, let's let's be honest, you know, for
21:53
as good as Ohio State looked last weekend, they have lost at home this
21:57
season Saint Cloud State when went in there and got to win. If Duluth
22:03
can do the same, that would be a pretty huge result for them,
22:07
both pair wise and in the WHA standings. Yeah. I it's hard to
22:17
think anybody like after the last weekend's results, but you know, anything's possible.
22:22
And that's not personal against UMD. I just like at this point,
22:26
I don't know how you could pick against Ohio State. Like it's a it's
22:29
a tough ask for sure, but you know, I do think that Duluth
22:33
is a stronger defensive team than Minnesota is, and you know sort of builds
22:37
that way out of the back, whereas Minnesota has you know, generally focused
22:41
on their offense being their best defense. So I do think that U m
22:45
D will give the Ohio State offense a tougher time, but with their young
22:52
goalies, it'll be very interesting to see what happens for sure. Yeah,
22:56
to your point, UMD third in the WHA with twenty eight goals allowed,
23:03
House States first with twenty two. Wisconsin is second with twenty three. But
23:08
the I guess what I think I'm getting into with the standings is that the
23:14
group in the middle is getting a little tighter. Minnesota, everyone's played sixteen
23:18
games, so they're all on evil even terms. Here Minnesota in third place
23:22
at thirty two points, and then Duluth and Saint Cloud State tied for fourth
23:27
at twenty nine. And so that one of these teams is going to be
23:32
on the road for the first round of the playoffs, and it's over the
23:36
last twelve games. It's going to be a pretty pretty interesting battle to see
23:41
who gets those spots. And that's where I think, you know, du
23:44
Luth, if they can get something out of you know, some equal what
23:48
I guess Saint Cloud did in winning at the Luth or sorry, winning at
23:52
Ohio State, that's that keeps them level there, I guess, yeah,
23:57
right, it'll even help this point with Minnesota and Saint Cloud stated at Saint
24:03
Thomas, you'd imagine that the UND's got the hardest packed points this weekend,
24:08
this weekend, right, Yeah, it's it's it's tough sometimes to kind of
24:11
take it, you know, in whether you're looking at one weekend or the
24:15
big picture of what's left over the next six weeks. I believe it is
24:22
because you want to kind of look at how the standings change every day.
24:26
But you've got to realize that the strength of schedule does even out at some
24:30
point right right exactly, But you know every point is going to be important,
24:36
and you're always going to be surprised by someone that you maybe we're hoping
24:41
you are thinking you get all those points from that's going to you know,
24:44
pull a tie or pull an upset. So you know you've got to be
24:47
taking those every possible opportunity. Yeah, but also six weeks, like that's
24:52
so crazy to me. Somebody at the end of you eighteen World said like,
24:56
oh now we were off until Women's Worlds in April started the Frozen Fours
25:00
in two months, like a lot of good stuff coming between. I mean
25:06
I I do. You know, everyone should be looking forward to Utica,
25:08
but a lot of good stuff to happen here between now and then, yes,
25:14
oh much before then. It's like all blend of your heart looking over
25:22
at ec act. The one that stands out to me is uh Coldgate at
25:26
Quinnipiac. That is a game on Friday. Uh Colgate, of course we
25:33
mentioned in first place, Quinnipiac four points behind, but does have one more
25:38
game played. If Quinnipiak wants to be in this race, they that would
25:44
be a game that they'd love to have to be able to uh, you
25:47
know, one defend home ice against the first place team, but also make
25:52
their pairwise situation a little bit better. They're coming in in sixth then,
25:56
so that's you know, on that that cusp of of you know, having
26:03
a first round by or having to win four games and to win a national
26:07
championship. So lots of lots of important games coming up for Quinnipiac, but
26:11
starting Friday with with Colgate, right, and they have the double of Colgate
26:18
Cornell, so there's definitely no easy ice for them this weekend. Right.
26:22
That is the Saturday game is Cornell at Quinnipiac. Also in the ECAC.
26:27
You've got on Friday Cornell playing at Princeton and Clarkson playing at Yale. Then
26:33
Saturday Saint Lawrence playing at Yale. And we mentioned the Colgate Princeton and Cornell
26:40
Quinnipiac games, So some some interesting ones that are coming up there. And
26:45
I think, uh, I'm interested to see what the standings look like coming
26:49
out of this weekend because I feel like we've talked about every week, but
26:53
there's just so much undecided there. Yeah, and I still think Princeton is
27:00
the wild card, which you know, not necessarily to finish high up in
27:03
the league, but to make paths more difficult. They just you kind of
27:08
never know when Sarah Phillia is going to take over a game. And yeah,
27:14
I just I think they're the ones that are most likely going to trip
27:17
up one of these teams that's not one of the other top teams in their
27:22
standings. I want to take a look at the pairwise real fast. I've
27:27
been mentioned that a couple of times. Ohio State obviously is number one.
27:30
They've solidified a pretty good position. They're looking at their numbers, there's a
27:36
pretty decent gap between them and everyone else. Then Colgate and clarkson two and
27:40
three. The interesting one for me is that Minnesota and Wisconsin are four and
27:45
five, which means, you know, the way that the tournament has been
27:48
set up, the committee says, we want number four and five to play
27:51
no matter whether they're from the same conference. And I think we saw that
27:55
last season, didn't we? Was it? I'm sorry? Was it Yale?
28:00
I can't remember who Yale played in the first round? But wasn't an
28:03
ECAC team? Was No? Maybe? Not? No? It was Northeastern,
28:07
wasn't it? Oh? I can't, I can't remember. I should
28:10
look this up before I start blabbering on here. But so it's gonna be
28:15
a four and five, and as if it stands right now, that would
28:17
be Wisconsin playing at Minnesota in the first round or the quarter files. I'm
28:22
sorry of the this year's tournament, so obviously there's a long long time to
28:26
go here, but that would be interesting, I would say, for for
28:32
a lot of reasons. Obviously having seen a lot of those Minnesota Wisconsin games
28:36
in the past. Uh, we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. But
28:41
that that just set out to me as a as it stands right now,
28:45
got a financial border battle in in the NCAA tournament right off the I always
28:51
look at the pair wise before I submit my polls, and I was surprised
28:55
to see how it looks right now. I think what it said to me
28:59
is that we know that Wisconsin has you know, their last two weeks are
29:02
against Minnesota and Ohio State, and those are those are very important games for
29:07
their quality win bonus, like those they had standings wise and all those those
29:11
have to be must win anyway. But when I was looking at that and
29:15
seeing like all Wisconsin at five, and then I was like, well,
29:17
yes, because they've had a relatively easy schedule and so there they're tough games
29:22
are coming and they have to do something. And then their robtery is do
29:26
good for some of the things that they've done. But yeah, I was
29:30
surprised that Minnesota only dropped to four. But as you pointed out, it's
29:34
those are just losses to a higher ranked opponent. So pair wise does not
29:40
care about the volume of the win, right And that's I mean, it's
29:47
designed that way, and you could I mean, there's an argument to be
29:51
made for yeah, that's a good system, but there's also an argument to
29:53
be made somewhere that you know, you should probably take into account that you
29:57
know that these were not close and whether uh, you know that gets you
30:04
extra if you know it gets you bonus points or something like that. I
30:07
don't know how it would work, but I've always wondered whether that that should
30:12
factor into into the numbers that we get out of the pairwise. I mean,
30:18
I do think that that's where we get you know, when the committee
30:22
will sometimes make decisions like I think if we were you know, if this
30:26
season were to end right away and we're talking about you know, Wisconsin five,
30:30
Minnesota four, like, does that affect how they place those teams?
30:33
You know what I'm saying, because I do think that when you start talking
30:37
about sort of the volume of the wid the amplitude or however you want to
30:41
say it, that's where the sort of personal the human element comes in.
30:52
Yeah, And that's you know, it's going to be interesting to follow if
30:56
you're trying to put together a brackets as is gos along how it especially for
31:04
me towards the the and when you're dealing with the the bottom six and right
31:11
now there are one two well there there are only two I guess technically ec
31:18
AC teams because you'd have Quinnipiac at six, Cornell at nine. Uh,
31:23
and then you'd have a c h A team and a new hot team as
31:27
auto bids. But if you start to get a lot of those, then
31:32
you've got to start doing some moving around of teams and that that that makes
31:37
things tricky in terms of who plays who in the first round. But the
31:41
ad so it's Quinnipiac six, the loth seven, Saint Cloud eight, Cornell
31:45
nine, Saint Lawrence ten. It's Saint Lawrence would be the first one out
31:48
as it stands right now because you you add the the two auto bids to
31:56
the the bottom of the field to round that out. Yeah, it's this
32:06
is why when we talked about these rinked ECAC matchups like this is why I
32:09
want somebody to make, you know, basically pull what Ohio State did,
32:14
because I would like a clearer definition of who where these teams stand and who
32:20
is the definitive number one. I mean, it's great hockey, and it's
32:22
it's good for the sport that there isn't one. But it's why I'm sort
32:25
of always rooting for that. I'm always thinking of like, okay, when
32:29
it comes down to it, at the end of the year. What are
32:30
we talking about. We'll get there, but it probably won't be the last
32:35
beat each other exactly. Well, anything else you want to mention this week
32:40
before you you pack up and fly home and uh rejoin us back here in
32:49
the States. No, I mean, I like, I'm so lucky to
32:52
get to come to this tournament. That's what I was thinking, is watching
32:55
Check You Canada and knowing nobody could watch it, and what's happening during the
32:59
day. It just what a privilege to be able to keep doing this and
33:02
watch you know, the future, and know who we get, who's coming
33:05
up, and there's just some really amazing talent and it was fun to watch.
33:09
I definitely saw a couple of NCAA coaches here, so I imagine that,
33:15
you know, as everybody on Canada's already committed, and it's only a
33:20
couple of girls in the US who were not. They weren't just looking at
33:22
North American talent. So definitely thought the players have some standout weekends. So
33:27
it'll be exciting to see which of those players are suddenly committing to NCAA schools
33:34
in the next couple of months. But yeah, I mean, it's just
33:37
I hope that people got a chance to watch and pay attention. I'm glad
33:39
that the gold medal game was on ESPN. Plus that was a bonus of
33:45
it happening during the day on a football Sunday when all the NHL teams were
33:50
playing, there was no what did it was on tape delay on NHL Network,
33:54
which actually worked out better in my opinion. So yeah, I just
34:00
what a great opportunity. How cool you know I had I had someone from
34:05
Checkia watching for game updates during during that game, the semi final game,
34:10
because it wasn't on at home. All the i HF does and their game
34:14
updates are penalties and goals, so if you wanted, if you wanted to
34:17
know what was happening. And so you know, when somebody messaged me on
34:21
Twitter and said that, like, it was like, yes, this is
34:22
this is why I want to be here and why it's important. And you
34:27
know, we saw I saw a couple of media from a couple of other
34:30
countries, but that was it. And so I mean, at most I
34:32
think there was like four or five media that I ever saw at any point
34:36
in the tournament. So it needs to keep growing. We need to to
34:39
keep paying attention and the hockey continues to be amazing and not followed, you
34:46
know what, we would assume the script would say it's going to follow and
34:50
so that's that's what makes it amazing. Well, we definitely saw that this
34:52
year with that semi final game between the Chechia and Canada. And what a
34:59
great you know comeback for the US after you know, getting upset in the
35:01
semi finals by Sweden at home to come around and win the gold medal.
35:06
That's a pretty good response both from the team itself but also I'm glad to
35:10
you know, kind of behind the scenes, like changes were made, things
35:14
were adjusted, and they came back. So from a as an American,
35:17
I can be excited that that there was sort of the right thought process seemed
35:22
to be there to try something different and make it work. That's awesome.
35:29
Well, safe travels back and we will talk to you next week. We
35:34
will be back to our regular, regularly scheduled programming next week, and we
35:39
hope you all have a great week of hockey watching, hockey enjoying, and
35:45
we'll talk to you next week on the podcast