Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Episode 5: St. Cloud State makes a statement, Delaware makes an entrance

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Episode 5: St. Cloud State makes a statement, Delaware makes an entrance · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:05
  Hi, everybody, Welcome back to the podcast. We're here for episode five.
• 0:09
  I'm Nicole Hasey, He's Todd Moleski, and I'm gonna eat my words
• 0:14
  a little bit about Saint Cloud's State. After saying I was no longer looking
• 0:17
  forward to seeing them play Ohio State after how much the Buckeyes had dominated over
• 0:23
  the last couple of weekends, the Huskies went in and won the first game
• 0:27
  of that series with a pretty impressive showing, right, like, not just
• 0:32
  I think, obviously goaltender has played a huge part of the weekend. They
• 0:36
  do for everything Saint Cloud State does. But I said on Twitter, like
• 0:40
  you might see that there were so many saves and think, oh, the
• 0:44
  goldtender stole this, But like Saint Cloud had the run of play for quite
• 0:49
  a quite a bit of the time of that and they really really threw the
• 0:53
  Buckeyes off. And I thought the third period, like they had there were
• 0:58
  some power plays that were opportunities, and really Ohio State never got set up
• 1:02
  nicely back in the offensive zone. And watching that third period to me was
• 1:06
  just like, Yeah, this isn't this isn't a stolen win. This is
• 1:08
  a heck of performance from Saint Cloud State, who scored twice on the power
• 1:11
  play. Those were their two goals. They had their opportunities, they took
• 1:15
  advantage of them. What did you see when watching those games, Todd Well,
• 1:18
  I think that's a little bit of how you get Ohio State off their
• 1:22
  game, right, is you don't let them play that the style where they
• 1:26
  are able to control the puck two hundred feet and you know, take it
• 1:33
  away quickly. You've you've got to establish yourself in their offensive zone and make
• 1:40
  them play defense. And so that was what stood out to me is that,
• 1:46
  yes, Ohio State got their chances, but I thought Saint Cloud State
• 1:51
  did a pretty good job and in making them, you know, not necessarily
• 1:56
  second and third chances. And that's where we see that they can be,
• 2:00
  you know, really dangerous. That a lot of teams are. You know,
• 2:01
  when you when you're getting a lot of second and third chances around the
• 2:05
  that that's that's a pretty good way to to put some goals up. But
• 2:08
  we've seen this before out of Saint Cloud you know, pretty consistently over the
• 2:12
  last two seasons that when they are able to you know, you know,
• 2:17
  let a team have it shot, but but not be uh, controlling of
• 2:22
  the offensive zone and not spend you know, forty eight minutes of offensive zone
• 2:28
  time. Uh. They you know, they may not you know, necessarily
• 2:32
  spend a lot of time in the offensive zone themselves, but they're able to
• 2:36
  counterattack pretty well. You know. It was a couple of power play goals
• 2:39
  that that wanted for them on on last Friday, so that that wasn't necessarily
• 2:46
  the case there. But I feel like it is a little bit of the
• 2:50
  uh, you know, the them for Saint Cloud is, you know,
• 2:54
  take the best punch, you know, make you know you have you're gonna
• 2:57
  have good goalies, uh and and and take advantage of, you know,
• 3:01
  whatever opportunities you can get, whether that be on a counter attack or you
• 3:05
  know, you draw a couple of penalties and and go on the power play.
• 3:07
  So you know, Ohio State came right back and established itself on Saturday
• 3:14
  to get a win there. But you know, the you know, Saint
• 3:19
  Cloud really I thought, you know, kind of announce itself in a lot
• 3:24
  of ways as like, you know, all right, we're we're here in
• 3:28
  w c h A. You know, no taking the Huskies for for granted
• 3:32
  anymore. Uh. And and we also saw that happen, uh you know
• 3:37
  into this week of Tuesday night game as well, where they at home against
• 3:43
  Minnesota to uh to even out of a home and home series from earlier.
• 3:49
  I believe they got a one one tie and uh you know, and and
• 3:53
  it wasn't like that the Gophers were dominating that game either. Saint Cloud was
• 3:59
  right there them, So think Cloud was had ten more shots than them before
• 4:03
  the Minnesota had quite a bit of power play into the end of the that
• 4:08
  game and into overtime. But before that, I would argue Saint Cloud State
• 4:12
  had the run of that game, or I had the control of the offense
• 4:15
  at least. And going back to that that win in Ohio State, I
• 4:17
  just wanted to point out too, like the final shots were forty seven to
• 4:20
  seventeen, but I thought importantly like when Ohio State scored, that wasn't like
• 4:26
  Saint Cloud didn't think they were out of that game, and they actually got
• 4:29
  better as the game went on. They allowed twenty two shots in the first
• 4:31
  period, thirteen in the second, and twelve in the third, and that
• 4:35
  includes several power plays for Ohio State late in that game. So Saint Cloud
• 4:41
  State not only took advantage of their opportunities, but really like closed in,
• 4:45
  found their confidence and really played their game the rest of that game. So
• 4:49
  even though Ohio State scored, you know, somewhat early and had that lead
• 4:53
  after one, that like there was at no point did Sat Cloud believe that
• 4:56
  game wasn't winnable for them. So I think that was That's just really important
• 5:00
  in terms of like, again, I think if you look just at the
• 5:02
  statuet, it might look like this was a stolen game, and I just
• 5:04
  think it's really like you need to look at the details here and really see
• 5:08
  that, Like they put together a complete sixty minute game and that's that's why
• 5:12
  they walked away with that victory. Saint Cloud State is a team that really
• 5:16
  made over its roster in a almost a pretty heavy way. I was gonna
• 5:21
  say almost the entire roster, but it wasn't quite that level, but it
• 5:26
  felt like it a lot of people in from the transfer port a lot of
• 5:30
  people going out in the transfer portal. The second year with a new coach,
• 5:34
  you're going to see that kind of stuff, right, Like, it
• 5:38
  felt like it wasn't his roster, right, and then this was the time
• 5:41
  to change it, you know, and they're able to do that now with
• 5:43
  a transfer portal, it's a lot easier and a lot quicker, I guess,
• 5:46
  to be able to make over a team in the way you want it
• 5:50
  to be. And you know, credit to Brian and Olski for you know,
• 5:55
  having the vision and sticking to it. You know, first year was
• 6:00
  was okay. I mean, you know, it was way better than the
• 6:02
  year before that. It's you know, an important thing to point out,
• 6:05
  like he did a lot of this last year with the roster that clearly wasn't
• 6:10
  the one he wanted and that he wasn't super happy with. And so now
• 6:13
  you're seeing a little bit closer I think, to the roster he does want
• 6:16
  and we're seeing the results. So you kind of extrapolate that out a few
• 6:21
  years and and you know it might be time to start buying on Saint Claud's
• 6:28
  state. Well, and I just say too, like, think about the
• 6:30
  programs that got new coaches in the last couple of years or like more than
• 6:33
  a couple of years, right since since North Dakota shutted their program, like
• 6:36
  Brian has been you know, he was coaching in China and just I like,
• 6:41
  after seeing what he did with that program, to make them a contender
• 6:44
  against you know, the top of the w c CHA when they weren't they
• 6:49
  weren't recruiting, like they weren't able to recruit people the same way right,
• 6:54
  Like they weren't recruiting the same people that Wisconsin and Minnesota were, and they
• 6:58
  still made themselves a player the w c h A. And now he turned
• 7:01
  around and did this in such a short time at Saint Cloud State, and
• 7:03
  I think, wow, that's a lot of people that probably should have hired
• 7:06
  him in that time. So lucky for Saint Cloud's State that they you know,
• 7:11
  they asked at the right time and he is available. But I just
• 7:13
  think like there are a lot of people that a lot of programs that are
• 7:15
  probably thinking, huh gous wish wish we would have done that. Yeah,
• 7:19
  there's you know, some some oportunity, some opportunities, some openings that uh,
• 7:26
  you know, yeah, he probably would have been pretty good for and
• 7:28
  you know, but you know, things work out for for a lot of
• 7:30
  what they're supposed to do. Yeah, yeah, sure, you know,
• 7:33
  who's to say what's the what's the right fit for anyone at a given time.
• 7:38
  But I know I'm not here for your saying takes on this. I
• 7:43
  you're like you, I appreciate that, you're like toting that my craziness down.
• 7:47
  But yeah, I just that was a straight thought I had that was
• 7:49
  like, man, this look at what this mean has done at this program
• 7:53
  and in a year and a half, and like to think how many people
• 7:56
  passed up on him. It's just it's pretty interesting. Well I don't think
• 8:01
  that's gonna happen again. I have a feeling he'll, you know, he's
• 8:05
  got a space at Saint Cloud for for quite a while here. If this
• 8:09
  trajectory continues the way it is, and it's it's an important time for them
• 8:15
  to to h to re establish themselves. You don't want to spend you know,
• 8:24
  very much time, you know, not being important. Uh, you
• 8:30
  know, you don't want to spend any time not being important. But you
• 8:33
  know, everyone knows there's a rebuilding process. But the sooner you get out
• 8:41
  of that, the sooner your fans appreciate it. The sooner you know,
• 8:45
  people pay attention, Recruits pay attention, people in the transfer portal pay attention,
• 8:50
  and all of a sudden, some doors start opening for you that that
• 8:52
  maybe weren't there. And I think that's gonna be an important part of things
• 8:56
  going forward to these next few years is that, well, you know,
• 8:58
  people are to start to notice Saint Cloud State as you know, as a
• 9:03
  desirable landing spot as players. I think too, it's interesting because, particularly
• 9:11
  at the beginning of the year, I talked about, like it can be
• 9:13
  really difficult to be a middle team in a conference like WHA or ECAC,
• 9:18
  where like how do you bridge that gap when you've separated yourself from the teams
• 9:22
  below you, but the teams above you are sort of at that elite level,
• 9:26
  and like, well, they've showed pretty quickly that there's a way to
• 9:30
  do it and it's possible, and you can be getting these you know,
• 9:33
  you can be stealing these points away from teams that, like, arguably you
• 9:37
  you aren't supposed to be able to get them from. And you know,
• 9:39
  this was the number two team in the country. Hio State was the number
• 9:43
  one team in the country, like Port of Minnesota, Saint Cloud at maybe
• 9:46
  the worst time of the season with this one, just the Saint Cloud couldn't
• 9:48
  have been more confident in what they're capable of, right, And I just
• 9:54
  I do think it's interesting because I really do kind of believe that there is
• 9:58
  that like for the same Lawrences and the St Clouds of the world, where
• 10:01
  you're in the middle of a pack and clearly better than you know, sort
• 10:05
  of the bottom half, but having difficulty making that next jump in here.
• 10:09
  Saint Cloud has done it in a really short time. So definitely something to
• 10:13
  keep an eye on too. It just in terms of like, is this
• 10:16
  a blueprint for how programs can can kind of overcome that gap. So one
• 10:20
  of those other teams in the wh in the middle is over the last few
• 10:26
  seasons has been Minnesota Duluth and last weekend the luth went to Wisconsin and got
• 10:31
  to win the second game of the series, a three to two win on
• 10:35
  Sunday at Labon Arena, the Wisconsin's first home loss of the season. And
• 10:41
  I thought that was a gritty performance by the Bulldogs. Zero zero game after
• 10:48
  two periods, you know, a lot of good goaltending in the first you
• 10:54
  know, five periods of that series, and then continued on in the third
• 11:01
  period. But yeah, you know, the Luthers, they earned their goals,
• 11:05
  they earned the three goals that they got in that third period, and
• 11:09
  I thought that was a a good sign for them going forward to uh,
• 11:16
  you know, you lost the first game, you got shut out three nothing,
• 11:18
  But then you come back the next day and you have a better performance,
• 11:22
  You have a a the kind of game that you know you need to
• 11:26
  win. You need to you know, especially on the road. You're going
• 11:31
  into a roads environment, one of the toughest buildings to play in in college
• 11:35
  hockey, and you are in the zero zero game going to the third period.
• 11:39
  Yeah, you'll take that. You've got a chance to do something.
• 11:41
  And they did right away early in the in the third period to get a
• 11:45
  lead and then built on it. And that was I thought a pretty good,
• 11:50
  uh showing for Duluth. And you know, coming out of Madison with
• 11:56
  a split is usually not a bad thing. No, I thought to They're
• 12:01
  they're just really patient, right there, isn't They're they're not worried, they're
• 12:05
  not gonna get frantic. They're they're gonna play their patient game on defense and
• 12:11
  know that doing that gives them opportunities on offense. And then you know they're
• 12:15
  they're making the most of those opportunities when they have them. But I like,
• 12:18
  to me, it was the patience that you're talking. You know,
• 12:20
  you're You're and to five periods into the weekend, two periods and on Sunday
• 12:28
  and they're still, you know, like they're not feeling like they're out of
• 12:31
  it. They've clearly had the Badgers sort of thrown off their game. Wisconsin
• 12:35
  looked like they couldn't complete a pass like that was the first time they'd been
• 12:37
  on the ice together at times this weekend, and yeah, I just they
• 12:41
  really, as you said, just made the best of it. And I
• 12:45
  think too, like huge shout out to Haley McLeod. I think coming into
• 12:48
  the season, I definitely was focusing more on of Gascon as their as their
• 12:52
  goaltender, and but Hailey McLoud has just come up absolutely huge for them,
• 12:56
  and she was stellar for for them in goal on Sunday against Wisconsin, just
• 13:03
  really rebound control and it wasn't necessarily about standing on her head, but just
• 13:09
  really taking away opportunities, taking away side lines. You know, she's a
• 13:13
  bigger goalie at six foot, but I just she she sort of controlled the
• 13:18
  air around her net. And then with the way that the defense can can
• 13:20
  force their opponent to the outside and force them to you know, or you
• 13:26
  can kind of just be passing in circles around the outside and make it.
• 13:28
  It looks really good from a procession possession standpoint, but you're not doing much
• 13:31
  with the puck. And uh yeah, I think Sunday's game was just sort
• 13:37
  of a classic Duloof game under more kroll. And I think the other thing
• 13:41
  too, is that one of the things I love about Minnesota Duluth and has
• 13:45
  been the case even when they had you know, sort of maybe flashy or
• 13:48
  showy or forwards like like Gabby Hughes, is that often, particularly against Wisconsin,
• 13:52
  it is a it's a player usually not the standout, not the first
• 13:56
  or second line, it's usually you know, some of the other players that
• 13:58
  are that will come up big that that even when you know matchup to match
• 14:03
  up, their their best forwards are not getting opportunities that that somebody steps up
• 14:09
  them. So I think, you know, some of their biggest names,
• 14:13
  obviously Man and McMahon is always going to do do great things for them.
• 14:16
  But then you know, some of their younger players really stepped up, and
• 14:20
  I thought, that's that's what you need. I got goals from their top
• 14:24
  three centers, I mean one right after the other. I think it was
• 14:28
  right down the line actually it was the second line center, then the first
• 14:31
  line center, and the third licener I'm remembering it right, But so yeah,
• 14:33
  that's that's a great way to be when you're talking about having you know,
• 14:39
  three different lines scoring, uh to get a three to to win.
• 14:43
  I thought too, like they adjusted right when McNaughton started giving up those rebounds
• 14:48
  rebounds, then they adjusted the way they were putting the puck on that and
• 14:50
  they were ready well. And that was such a strange game too, this
• 14:54
  especially the start where Wisconsin had was it nine minutes of power play time,
• 14:58
  and the for six minutes in the first nine of power play time, then
• 15:03
  the luth had a five on three for a minute forty It just felt like,
• 15:09
  you know a lot of players were just sitting on the bench for the
• 15:11
  first you know, the fourteen minutes of the game or whatever it turned out
• 15:15
  to be because you weren't playing special teams. You're you're playing it on the
• 15:18
  bench, and that's that's not a great way to start a game, and
• 15:22
  you want to get out there and get the get some some shifts. Yeah.
• 15:28
  Yeah, I think particularly for Wisconsin was like getting their full lineup back
• 15:31
  for the first time, right, right, I sort of joked like it
• 15:35
  looked like they were back in September, but in some ways they were.
• 15:37
  And then like you said that that start to the game just really meant that
• 15:41
  I don't know that they ever felt comfortable. Yeah, we should mention Caroline
• 15:45
  Harvey was back for the Badgers last week, and you know, did you
• 15:48
  know she looked like Caroline Harvey. I mean it looked like a solid player
• 15:54
  who's going to move the pucket and move herself up ice quickly. And some
• 16:00
  of the Wisconsin players are saying she was feeling bad about herself because she her
• 16:07
  her breath wasn't coming back as quickly as that she's used to. You know,
• 16:11
  having been out of game, isn't that crazy for six weeks whatever,
• 16:17
  five weeks and whatever it ended up being, It's going to take some time
• 16:22
  to get back the game condition. But you know, she expects herself to
• 16:25
  be that good right away, and so it was it's gonna be a little
• 16:30
  while to get back into Itchell, But I think really important for Wisconsin to
• 16:36
  have her her back and started building up towards again towards the second half of
• 16:40
  the season. You don't want to just you know, have her out through
• 16:42
  the break and then try and get it back for the second half of the
• 16:45
  season. You'd like to have these games to start that process again. Sure,
• 16:49
  And I think the thing about Caroline is that like she she makes them
• 16:53
  better, right, Like KK just absolutely the team is better with her,
• 16:56
  But I think importantly like she makes the people around her her better, And
• 17:00
  so I think everybody just has a different level when when you're seeing someone do
• 17:06
  what she does, when you're getting the feeds, when you are starting a
• 17:08
  breakup from the back with somebody like her, Just the way that she elevates
• 17:11
  the entire game, I just think is maybe an underlooked Like when she plays
• 17:17
  with the national team, maybe you don't see it as much. But I
• 17:18
  think having gone several weeks without her on the Badgers, it was just really
• 17:23
  clear the difference having her on the ice made, and it wasn't just what
• 17:27
  she individually can do with the puck. Yeah, definitely one stats thing I
• 17:33
  wanted to mention at some point this as we look back at last week.
• 17:41
  Sarah Filiate five goals over the last week. Yeah, pretty good player,
• 17:48
  right, Yeah, you know, doesn't get the the visibility as some other
• 17:57
  players do in college anyway, when she's playing at Princeton. But man,
• 18:03
  she can be a game changer in a hurry, it seems like, and
• 18:10
  I think she showed that a couple of times in this last week for Princeton.
• 18:15
  When we come back, we will have some audio from the announcement of
• 18:18
  the University of Delaware as the newest D one women's college hockey program, and
• 18:22
  Todd and I'll talk a little bit about expansion. Welcome back to the podcast.
• 18:34
  The University of Delaware had an event on Monday to formally announce the edition
• 18:38
  of a varsity women's hockey team in twenty twenty five. The Blue Hens accept
• 18:42
  an invitation from College Hockey America to become the least seventh member. Here are
• 18:47
  some of the highlights from that press conference in audio form, and you'll hear
• 18:49
  first from Delaware President Dennis Asanas on the bold steps that the school is taking,
• 18:53
  not only in adding a women's hockey program in College Hockay America, but
• 18:56
  moving the football program from fc FBS and joining Conference USA. Then CJA Commissioner
• 19:03
  Michelle Morgan touched on how Delaware fits in geographically and academically with the conference.
• 19:10
  Last voice, you're going to hear is Delaware Athletic Director Christy Raywalk, who
• 19:12
  talked about how the process developed and choosing hockey be the women's sport that the
• 19:17
  Blue Hens are going to add. So here, take a listen. So
• 19:22
  at the University of Delaware, we are committed to excellence, excellence in everything
• 19:26
  we do, Excellence in our academics, in our research, and our service
• 19:30
  in our athletics. And we like to say that we are innovators and trail
• 19:36
  base plazers. Just to paraphrase Wayne Gretzky. We always skate where the pack
• 19:42
  is going to be, and today it's just another moment where we're going to
• 19:48
  demonstrate that we're taking both steps. This is the second time in a week
• 19:53
  that we're doing that. As you all know, earlier on Wednesday, we
• 20:00
  announced a major milestone in the growth and evolution of our athletics program. We
• 20:06
  are moving up to basically confidence USA and FBS football, which is the most
• 20:12
  competitive level in football. Yes, you are supposed to clap here. And
• 20:21
  now we are adding women's size hockey as a artist sport and joining College Hockey
• 20:26
  America. Together, these moves raised the profile of outstanding bluehemd student athletes and
• 20:37
  the entire University of Delaware. The greater rich and visibility of our athletics program
• 20:44
  means more opportunities to tell the UD story, a story of excellent academic programs,
• 20:49
  outstanding faculty, groundbreaking research and innovations, and, more broadly, our
• 20:55
  positive impact on the world. The addition of women's varsity ice hockey also expands
• 21:03
  and strengthens our commitment to gender equity in athletics and throughout the University of Delaware.
• 21:08
  We believe that every student must have the opportunity to excel and succeed in
• 21:14
  the classroom and in competition, and we are thrilled to be on the leading
• 21:18
  edge of this fast growing sport. Of the more than three hunder sixty Division
• 21:23
  one college athletic program, UD becomes only the forty fifth to sponsor a women's
• 21:30
  ice hockey program. Of course, getting to this moment, just like winning
• 21:37
  on the ice, the field, or the court, requires a lot of
• 21:41
  teamwork. So I want to thank everyone who helped make today. Let's give
• 21:45
  them a hand, in particular the National Hockey League, whose visibility study helps
• 21:56
  solidify our decision. The Philadelphia Flyers, who will partnered with UD to promote
• 22:03
  and develop our team. More about that in a few months. I guess
• 22:07
  around February, USA Hockey and College Cocky Inc. For their support and collaboration,
• 22:14
  and of course College Cockey America for inviting us to join the Conference of
• 22:19
  Excellent Women's Hockey Teams. In particular. Once again, I want to thank
• 22:23
  Commissioner Michelle Morgan for her support of our program launch and her work to bring
• 22:29
  Delaware Hockey into the CHA family just five months after she stepped into her current
• 22:34
  role. She really knows how to pick a winner, Thank to Michelle.
• 22:37
  So that's quite an accomplishment, and that's just on the first year in your
• 22:45
  job. So please welcome Commissioner Morgan. Thank you President as Honest. It's
• 22:49
  a privilege to be here today and to celebrate the University of Delaware and their
• 22:53
  exciting announcement in the addition of women's hockey. Today is an important moment for
• 22:59
  College America as we stand committed in growing the game. I'd like to thank
• 23:03
  President Asanis, Director of Athletics Chrissy Rayrock, and our team for their due
• 23:08
  diligence and preparedness throughout the exploratory process and helping us to get to this point.
• 23:15
  It's evident that the leadership on this campus is committed to creating and providing
• 23:19
  a holistic and world class environment for Blue hen student athletes. I'd also like
• 23:26
  to echo my thanks for the people and the partnerships that have been formed with
• 23:30
  the NHL, the Philadelphia Flyers, USA Hockey, and College Hockey, Inc.
• 23:36
  Collectively, those organizations have provided valuable guidance, insight, and resources to
• 23:42
  allow institutions like Delaware to make visions a reality. We're thrilled to have the
• 23:48
  newly formed program at Delaware join the likes of Lyndenwood, Mercyhurst, Penn State,
• 23:53
  Robert Morris, rit and Syracuse. Since being formed into two thousand and
• 24:00
  two, our league has seen success on a national and international stage, with
• 24:04
  teams competing in the NCAA Tournament and multiple players being representative on World championships and
• 24:12
  rosters at Winter Olympic Games. In all, they have skated away with fourteen
• 24:18
  Olympic medals, including four goals. Not only does the University of Delaware nicely
• 24:23
  fall within our geographic footprint, this institution aligns with the academic and Athletic mission
• 24:30
  and the values of our member institutions that make up College Hockey America. Because
• 24:36
  of this, the College Hockey Board of Directors unanimously voted to extend an invitation
• 24:41
  to Delaware, becoming the seventh member of our league. I look forward to
• 24:45
  the next year and a half together as we work towards the inaugural puck drop
• 24:49
  in twenty twenty five and officially welcome Delaware women's ice hockey into College Hockey America.
• 24:56
  Today is a special day and an important day for the continue commitment and
• 25:00
  growth of women's hockey. Many of us respect and honor a game that has
• 25:04
  given us so much in different ways. In fact, it can be said
• 25:08
  that hockey is a kinship, and the University of Delaware is now part of
• 25:14
  that as the forty fifth program in NCAA Division one women's ice hockey and the
• 25:18
  Cha family. I cannot wait to watch the impact this program has on the
• 25:22
  lives of so many young women that will soon be here competing for the University
• 25:27
  of Delaware. Congratulations to the University of Delaware, and is my honor to
• 25:33
  extend a very warm welcome to have you join College Hockey America. You're all
• 25:38
  aware that last week we announced that we are joining Conference USA and moving to
• 25:44
  FBS level of football beginning in twenty twenty five. One of the many benefits
• 25:48
  of that move is the ability for US to add a women's varsity program.
• 25:53
  When we began looking at potential options for sports, ice hockey quickly stood out
• 25:59
  as one for us to strongly consider. Similarly to our decision to move to
• 26:03
  FBS, we consulted with experts in completing a feasibility study which included evaluation of
• 26:11
  our facilities, a financial analysis, a study of readiness and likelihood of success.
• 26:18
  As you can imagine, the results were incredibly positive. The geographic location
• 26:23
  is ideal. The interest in hockey in the Mid Atlantic region continues to grow,
• 26:30
  with almost ninety thousand girls registered as USA Hockey participants in twenty twenty one.
• 26:34
  In twenty twenty two, which was a twenty five percent increase from the
• 26:38
  year before, and over twenty six thousand are in Delaware or neighboring states.
• 26:45
  As you know, we are sitting in fred Rust Ice Arena, a terrific
• 26:51
  facility that already exists on our campus, one of two ice arenas, and
• 26:56
  our existing student athlete performance facilities are in Another reason that women's ice hockey made
• 27:02
  sense for US Finally, the success of our women's club ice hockey program was
• 27:07
  a factor. That's right, Gevin McLeod. This program has been nationally ranked
• 27:17
  in the top ten each of the last ten years and has earned a bid
• 27:21
  to the ACCHA National Tournament nine of the last eleven years. We are incredibly
• 27:26
  excited to be joining College Hockey America Conference in twenty twenty five twenty six.
• 27:33
  They were established in twenty twenty two and conference teams have competed in nineteen NCAA
• 27:38
  Women's Ice Hockey Championships, including four trips to the Frozen Four and a national
• 27:44
  Championship appearance in two thousand and nine. To add to the excitement, we
• 27:49
  are grateful to the Philadelphia Flyers organization for their commitment to growing the game.
• 27:56
  There is no doubt our partnership is going to be epic. We'll be sharing
• 28:00
  more details at a celebration at the Flyers game on February eighth, and hope
• 28:04
  many of you will be there to join us, And don't you worry,
• 28:07
  we'll send a reminder. It has been an incredible week, an incredible week
• 28:14
  for our university, the Blue Hens, and the state of Delaware. I
• 28:18
  couldn't be more excited for the future of our department and to sit in the
• 28:22
  stands here for our first varsity competition in just a few short years. Thank
• 28:29
  you again, and let's go hens. Well, Nicole, you had the
• 28:33
  exclusive story on this happening right when it was being announced. I wonder what
• 28:38
  you out of that right away, what you thought this is going to mean
• 28:42
  for women's college hockey. It's another big state school that is adding women's hockey
• 28:52
  as a varsity sport. That means something, I think, what were your
• 28:56
  takeaways from it? Yes, so, I actually, you know, got
• 29:00
  the embargoed information just before Thanksgiving and was told that a state that does not
• 29:07
  currently have a D one women's program was getting women's hockey, and while and
• 29:12
  then I was told it was Delaware, and for a moment, I was
• 29:15
  a little disappointed. You know, obviously I had high hopes for something like
• 29:18
  Michigan or Colorado or somewhere out west. But then you know, that lasted
• 29:25
  just a second. The cool part about Delaware, right is like, especially
• 29:27
  with this announcement coming right after we had the D one in DC tournament in
• 29:30
  Washington, d C. It's it's less than an hour from Philadelphia. It's
• 29:36
  within a couple hours of Washington, d C. Baltimore, and Philadelphia,
• 29:40
  in an area where the only other women's hockey program is Princeton in New Jersey.
• 29:45
  It's several hours away from Penn State, right, So this is an
• 29:48
  area of the country that has big growth in women's in girls hockey participation.
• 29:55
  We've seen that through the capitals in the DC area, We've seen that through
• 29:57
  the Flyers in philadelph and so just a lot of excitement to me. I
• 30:03
  think, as you said, it's a state school. There is excitement and
• 30:08
  attention happening around the athletic department at the university. There is money to be
• 30:14
  spent, kind of for lack of better terminology on that, and so I
• 30:17
  think, yeah, I think initially people are probably like, oh, another
• 30:21
  East Coast and things like that, but I think it's also just really important
• 30:23
  this partnership they're going to have with the Philadelphia Flyers. Obviously some of that
• 30:27
  is still information yet to come. There's going to be a big announcement with
• 30:30
  the Flyers. It's part of Girls and Women in Sports Day. But I
• 30:34
  just think that there's a lot of opportunity here and in an area that wasn't
• 30:38
  already being served by by collegiate D one women's sports, so you know,
• 30:45
  it's feels pretty obvious when you talk to them, and like, this is
• 30:48
  a campus that had two ice frunks on like not just on campus, but
• 30:52
  like in the middle of their athletic footprint. The stadium, the arena they're
• 30:56
  going to play at, the girls are going to play at, is literally
• 30:59
  right now to the football stadium. So when you have that all that right
• 31:03
  there on campus, it just it really did seem to make sense if you're
• 31:06
  when you're talking to the folks from Delaware, from CHA from you know,
• 31:10
  I talked to folks from College Hockey, Inc. Who were part of the
• 31:11
  feasibility studies. It just really seemed none of this is ever easy, especially
• 31:18
  amid all the other shake up within the athletic department at Delaware. But while
• 31:22
  this is as easy as it can be in terms of everything just kind of
• 31:26
  falling into place and being a really obvious choice at Delaware. I think this
• 31:29
  is really important too for the CHA, isn't it. I Mean, no
• 31:32
  one as a league likes to be at six teams because that's you know,
• 31:36
  the bare minimum to automatically qualify for a automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament and
• 31:44
  and no conference is more aware of how fragile that is, exactly right.
• 31:48
  So I think if you're adding to any conference, I mean, CHA is
• 31:52
  the one that makes sense and that it does also fit within their you know,
• 31:57
  relative geographic footprint. It helps that matter, and I think that's you
• 32:05
  know, there will be some some opportunity for Delaware to lean on some of
• 32:08
  those programs that are in the CHA right now for help on you know,
• 32:13
  what it's like to build a program, or what it's like to restore a
• 32:15
  program. In Robert Morris's case, you know, there's you know, some
• 32:20
  some recent experience there from from a lot of those schools that can probably help
• 32:25
  the Delaware contingent get started. So I think that's that's going to be something
• 32:30
  to watch for out of that, that partnership between Delaware and the c CHA,
• 32:37
  and and really it just it helps everyone to have another team, another
• 32:44
  school playing women's college hockey. And at some point we're going to have that
• 32:47
  discussion of I know you you had this on social media, does this mean
• 32:52
  a twelfth team for the NCAA Tournament? M H. I mean, my
• 32:58
  thoughts on the making the team the tournament. Eleven teams are are well documented
• 33:04
  in starchy. Uh so I will I'll try to keep that. But yeah,
• 33:07
  I mean, if if the contention for eleven teams was about, you
• 33:10
  know, keeping the percentages and numbers similar to what is happening on the men's
• 33:15
  side, then like, absolutely that has to happen. I don't understand how
• 33:17
  there could be any other argument. I mean, I think when you're in
• 33:23
  the middle of it, I guess I was kind of surprised to go back
• 33:25
  and read my columns on that and see that there were forty one women's teams
• 33:30
  at the time. Part of that is because Robert Morris wasn't playing. But
• 33:34
  yeah, like we we do. We keep adding teams. It's like we
• 33:37
  went from forty one to forty five and I mean forty five announced obviously in
• 33:42
  the matter of two years. That's that's kind of crazy, adding Assumption and
• 33:45
  Stonehill and so yeah, I you know, I just think if if we're
• 33:51
  gonna I to me, now, I when they did it, I said
• 33:54
  it was, you know, sort of malicious conformity, and now, like
• 33:58
  my I kind of want to throw it back and be like, well,
• 34:00
  you set the boundaries like you set the law. So sorry you did this
• 34:05
  to yourself. I do wonder whether they're going to hold out and say,
• 34:09
  well, for to hit the number, you need to get the forty eight
• 34:13
  teams so that there is the actual equal proportion thing, it would be a
• 34:17
  pretty well but so the argument, but an equal number anymore now either because
• 34:23
  of Augustana, Right, So, like I don't know if I'm remembering it,
• 34:28
  right, They well, and this is why you know as of this
• 34:30
  year, right, it's sixty four teams, sixteen in the tournament. So
• 34:35
  but that's not it's been sixteen tournament in the tournament since it was sixty or
• 34:38
  fifty eight or whatever it was way back in two thousand and three for the
• 34:43
  men's side, so that it was it's twenty seven percent, which they call
• 34:49
  the team access Yeah, and the it's it's it's a the goalposts have been
• 34:54
  moving on that for right, And it's team access point is a as to
• 35:00
  student or student athlete access point, which is less on the women's side because
• 35:04
  less women get to be on the roster for they're frozen four. I mean
• 35:07
  it gets Yeah, we all know that this is ludicrous, and all the
• 35:09
  goal posts will continue to move because none of this was actually sound decision making
• 35:15
  or you know, done with any sort of purpose. It was Yeah,
• 35:20
  I'll stop, But I just I, you know, I, yes,
• 35:22
  it should be twelve teams at this point. You know, you've added four
• 35:25
  teams, like when Delaware is tournament eligible that I think you have to move
• 35:30
  the women's tournament to twelve teams. I just like, I don't necessarily think
• 35:36
  it will happen, but I just to hold any sort of credibility and then
• 35:42
  try to be on any leg that you stand on. The committee that laid
• 35:46
  the crowd rules really kind of has to follow, you know, they did
• 35:51
  this to themselves. Yeah, this is kind of my thought on it.
• 35:53
  But and of course my other soapbox is about the lack of women's college hockey
• 35:59
  programs state of Michigan. Currently there is one D three program at Adrian,
• 36:05
  No Division I programs. There are what did we just it's like eight or
• 36:07
  nine men's programs seven there's a ton of men's D one programs UH D one
• 36:14
  men's programs in the state of Michigan, including at both Michigan State and Michigan
• 36:19
  UH to you know, flagship universities. And what I was on. What
• 36:22
  I was not expecting with alongside the Delaware announcement was to find a whole new
• 36:28
  part of the Internet that is as upset about that as I am ready to
• 36:31
  attack. Like I think, part of it was, oh my goodness,
• 36:37
  this tiny state university is getting a pro D one women's program, And secondarily
• 36:43
  was because Delaware uses a winged helmet similar to the University of Michigan, So
• 36:47
  there was a very easy tie in that I can't believe, oh my goodness
• 36:51
  that this team is gonna hit the ice before you know, Michigan or Michigan
• 36:54
  State fields a D one team, or at this point any of the as
• 37:00
  we've been pointed out seven programs that feel D one men's programs, So I
• 37:06
  mean, I think again, my feelings on this are quite clear. I
• 37:08
  think it's pretty ludicrous at this point. The state of Michigan produces some of
• 37:13
  the best women's college hockey players and international players, you know, Megan Keller,
• 37:19
  just so many of these women. We had the percentages, you know,
• 37:22
  Michigan was one of the top five states producing the women. They're playing
• 37:24
  D one women's college hockey this year, and they have to look in the
• 37:29
  state to continue to play, which is pretty much a shame and just kind
• 37:35
  of sucks for the girls of Michigan. Like it just sucks that if you're
• 37:38
  growing up as a girl playing in Michigan right now, like you don't get
• 37:42
  to hope to play stay in state and play for, you know, a
• 37:45
  team that means a lot to your family that you know your family might have
• 37:47
  ties too. So it was fun because usually it's you know, I know
• 37:52
  there are a few other hockey fans that are very adamant and upset about the
• 37:58
  lack of women's team in Michigan, but I felt like I found several new
• 38:01
  comrades in that in that site. This week community grew yeah, based on
• 38:07
  the Telaware a ouncemit, which was fun. Some of the history behind that
• 38:12
  is that there was a Division I school in Michigan for a while, Wayne
• 38:17
  State had a program, and I don't remember the year that that ended,
• 38:22
  sometime in the mid two thousands. I want to see if I'm remembering that
• 38:27
  right. But also more recently, Northern Michigan went through, or said it
• 38:34
  was going through, one of these feasibility studies funded by the NHL to look
• 38:37
  at whether a women's hockey program would work on its campus, and that just
• 38:45
  kind of faded away at some point. So I'm guessing I never heard a
• 38:50
  definitive resolution on it, but I'm guessing that it just wasn't going to work
• 38:54
  with their situation right now, because you know, it's not like a lot
• 38:59
  of school essentially, especially smaller schools, are seeing the money rolled in for
• 39:07
  everywhere academics and athletics. So you can you can imagine why it would not
• 39:15
  be a perfect time right now to be talking about adding sports. But that's
• 39:19
  why I think it's it's notable and it's commendable when when schools do, when
• 39:25
  schools are able to to take a chance, and uh, you know,
• 39:30
  obviously Delaware had a had, you know, an opportunity to uh you know
• 39:37
  expand a little bit trying to go from you know, f CS FBS.
• 39:42
  That opens up more players that they can have, and so that they have
• 39:46
  to have more players on the women's side of their their whole program to to
• 39:50
  make it uh equitable quote unquote. I always like to throw in the quotes
• 39:58
  there because I don't know if it truly is is, but we say it
• 40:01
  is. Well. I would point out too, like to Delaware's credit,
• 40:07
  like the three prong argument for Title nineties. They didn't technically have to add
• 40:15
  Yeah, they you know, that is a choice that they made that if
• 40:16
  we are adding more scholarships for football, then we are adding more scholarship for
• 40:21
  women's sports. And so they decided that the way to make that equitable was
• 40:25
  to add another women's team. But as we all know, Title nine is
• 40:30
  you know what, like the only a law that doesn't actually require you to
• 40:32
  fulfill it. You just have to show that you're working to fulfill it.
• 40:36
  So there are many ways that many other colleges find to get around that isn't
• 40:40
  adding a women's program. So you know, like I applaud Delaware for looking
• 40:45
  at that saying we're expanding on the men's sides, we're adding a women's team,
• 40:49
  because it's over simplification of Title nine to say that, like if you
• 40:53
  add one, you have to add the other, because it's you don't it's
• 40:58
  it's usually how it ends up playing. But it's it's also a questionable strategy,
• 41:04
  I guess for falling in line with something. Yeah, I mean I
• 41:09
  always say if you if you're cutting a women's if you're cutting a men's program
• 41:15
  because of like if you expand a men's if you're cutting programs basically as an
• 41:20
  athletic director at a university, if you are cutting teams that exist to fulfill
• 41:24
  some sort of equity quota you think you have, then you're probably quite bad
• 41:28
  at your job because it's it's that really should be the last resort, not
• 41:31
  the first thing you think of. Well said, all right, So that's
• 41:36
  it for this segment. We're going to take a break. When we come
• 41:38
  back, we'll talk about what's coming up this week and then a little bit
• 41:43
  into the future and look into some of the standings around the country. So
• 41:46
  stay with us on the podcast. Hi, welcome back to the podcast.
• 41:59
  I'm Hase, He's Todd Maleski. We are talking about this sort of last
• 42:05
  week of slate of games before we head into the winter break. The big
• 42:09
  one, of course is Wisconsin heading up to Minnesota, but we've also got
• 42:15
  you know, Minnesota, Duluth at Saint Cloud State, Yale at Penn State,
• 42:19
  which I think could be interesting, and we will see Quinnipiac face Princeton.
• 42:22
  Those are sort of the big right games. Obviously, we can talk
• 42:27
  a little bit about Wisconsin Minnesota, but what else are you looking forward to
• 42:30
  this week, I think that Duluth in Saint Cloud series is gonna be one
• 42:34
  of those. So we've talked about in the past. I think that the
• 42:37
  you know, the fourth spot in the WHA as you know, I have
• 42:43
  that in air quotes here because you know, it's not definite that they're playing
• 42:47
  for fourth. But historically we've had you know, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio
• 42:52
  State in the top three in the WA and then there's been another team fourth.
• 42:59
  You know, Duluth has been that most of the last well geez six
• 43:05
  seven years, it feels like, right, But I think they're getting a
• 43:08
  run for their money this year with Saint Cloud. And we've seen that,
• 43:14
  you know, what Saint Cloud can do obviously last week with the win at
• 43:17
  Ohio State. Those are gonna be big points towards the end. So the
• 43:21
  LUTH's gotta you know, uh, you know, if they can go in
• 43:24
  there and win the series, you know, not necessarily get six points,
• 43:29
  but if you can get four points, five points something like that, that
• 43:31
  that shows you that they're they're a little bit of ahead of Saint Cloud.
• 43:36
  And I think for me, that would be a big thing for De Lutha
• 43:37
  and the first half half with on the other side, Saint Cloud. If
• 43:43
  they do the opposite, if they come out ahead on in that series,
• 43:46
  I mean, man, that's that puts them in a great spot, i
• 43:51
  think for the second half of the season. So you know, a lot
• 43:53
  to be played for there. There's you know, important important points on the
• 44:00
  line. And then you get you start talking about pairwise implications and everything like
• 44:05
  that, big games when you're playing a top ten pair wise team. So
• 44:09
  yeah, a lot a lot to be decided there, I think this weekend.
• 44:13
  Yeah, I also am really interested in watching that Quinnipiac Princeton game.
• 44:15
  Quinnipiac, you know, started really strong and just compared comparatively, like I
• 44:21
  think, you know, they're still really happy sitting at seven and three in
• 44:22
  the conference, but they are you know, fourth in the conference standings.
• 44:28
  You know, it's up in the air, right because Cornel's only played Cornell.
• 44:31
  Some of these teams have only played eight games. But you know,
• 44:35
  Quinnipiac isn't as high up as they've been in the years past. And so
• 44:38
  I think just sort of every one of these these series and every one of
• 44:40
  their their games, particularly against other teams in the ECAC that are ranked are
• 44:45
  really important. So I think if we're talking, if we're starting to look
• 44:51
  ahead, which I think you do in December, I think this this will
• 44:54
  be a really important game for them to end their first half on black better
• 45:00
  words. But yeah, I think obviously the big circle matchup this weekend is
• 45:06
  Wisconsin heading to Minnesota. It is and that's you know, looking back the
• 45:10
  last season, that's a national semi final game that went to overtime, you
• 45:15
  know, border rivals. You know, just you can go down the line
• 45:22
  in terms of you know the importance of these games and how they mean things
• 45:27
  towards the end of the season and for you know, playoff positioning and everything
• 45:31
  like that. And Mark Johnson got asked at his press conference this week about,
• 45:37
  you know, whether he had any favorite Wisconsin Minnesota memories, and he
• 45:43
  was listing off a bunch and then he went back and said, well,
• 45:45
  you know, from when I was a coach with the men's team or assistant
• 45:47
  coach with the men's team, I got more, and from when I was
• 45:50
  a player with the men's team, there's even more. And so that could
• 45:52
  have gone on a long time. But he also said, you know,
• 45:55
  Frosty Brad Frost has has his own list too, and so it's a really
• 46:02
  just you know, it goes on and on the important games that these teams
• 46:07
  have played against each other. And I think that's is really what makes it
• 46:13
  special, even though it's a you know, end of the first half kind
• 46:16
  of series, and you know, there's so much more hockey to be played
• 46:21
  and these teams are not finished products. I think that that really makes it
• 46:24
  kind of compelling to see where where these teams are at because they've been measuring
• 46:30
  six for each other for so many years. Yeah, I think what's cool
• 46:34
  about this series is that, like even if you took away all those games
• 46:37
  that mattered, that had big implications or that you know, decided tournaments nationally
• 46:42
  or within the conference, you'd still be talking about two coaches that know each
• 46:45
  other really well, that have played a bunch of games against each other a
• 46:50
  lot of the players, and these two teams know each other really well,
• 46:52
  both from you know, prep playing and playing New eight teams and national team
• 46:58
  and like these are the game that on any calendar, these two teams circle,
• 47:02
  you know, for each other, Like these are the games they get
• 47:05
  the most type for They they just matter more, they need more, and
• 47:08
  what's fun about them, I always say, is that, like these are
• 47:13
  the games where we say, like, oh, there's so many Olympians,
• 47:15
  Olympians or national team players on the ice, but like it's not actually pretty
• 47:19
  hockey when these do play each other, right, because they they know everybody's
• 47:22
  each other's tricks, and neither of them is able to get really settled in
• 47:27
  their game, the game that they would prefer to play. So it's it's
• 47:30
  chippy, and there's a lot of you know, slapping it loose bucks and
• 47:32
  just like trying to fight for every inch and and find that little bit of
• 47:37
  room in front of the goal and stuff like that. So I mean,
• 47:39
  it's never the quote unquote pretty hockey that both teams are capable of. But
• 47:44
  that's because they are both so capable of pushing each other out of their comfort
• 47:49
  zone. And it's it's who adapts to that and who can handle it that
• 47:52
  that comes out ahead. So I think that's what's fun about that is that,
• 47:54
  like you could list all the times they played with something on the line,
• 47:59
  but like even without all of that, this would be a big deal,
• 48:02
  particularly for the players, and that's what makes it fun. It is
• 48:07
  really one of those you know, when the when the schedule comes out,
• 48:12
  the series that you try to find because it like like you're talking about from
• 48:16
  the coaching perspective, just the the experience that those two guys have behind the
• 48:22
  bench and and their staffs with them on down into the the players who,
• 48:30
  like you said, are national team players, but it feels like sometimes it's
• 48:34
  it's not those players that the side the games. It's the point. It's
• 48:37
  the you know, the what you'd call maybe role players because sometimes the uh,
• 48:43
  you know, the national team players kind of cancel each other out.
• 48:45
  I think in a way that you know, you have so much strength on
• 48:49
  both sides, it's the third liners, the third deep pair players that that
• 48:53
  end up making a difference because, uh there you need you need your depth
• 49:00
  through in games like these. And so that's that's something I'll be looking for
• 49:02
  coming out of this is who can be a depth player that can stand up
• 49:09
  and make a difference. And really it's you know, you're you're talking about
• 49:13
  goalies too, that they come through in series like this. Was it last
• 49:17
  season that there was like a seven to six game or a six five game?
• 49:22
  I can't remember. It was just like, you know, whoa this
• 49:24
  is a you know, old time hockey for the best to the best defenses
• 49:30
  of the country. Some really good goalies played two Well yeah, a low
• 49:35
  scoring game in the National in the National semi final, but yeah, like
• 49:38
  hear the end of the season it was seven to six. It was like,
• 49:40
  oh, okay, sure, I mean, I guess the takeaway there
• 49:46
  for me is that you never really know what to expect coming out of it,
• 49:50
  and you're there's a chance anything can happen. No, and Mark and
• 49:52
  Frosty would say the same thing. I mean, those two have respect for
• 49:55
  each other. If you ask either one of them about playing the other,
• 49:58
  they'll smile and last and we'll always call it a chess match, right because
• 50:02
  as we said, they know each other so well, the programs know each
• 50:06
  other so well. There's not a lot of surprise to be had between the
• 50:08
  two teams. So you're looking to find those ways to catch somebody off guard
• 50:13
  or to to you know, put a different look out on the ice or
• 50:15
  something that will that will give you that little bit of an advantage. So
• 50:20
  you've got, you know, two of the smartest minds, smartest staffs in
• 50:23
  women's college hockey possibly ever so matching up and having the tools of some of
• 50:30
  the best women's players in the world. So yeah, that's that's what makes
• 50:35
  it so fun, because it's just it's really at a high level. This
• 50:38
  will be interesting too. I think, you know, we learned last week
• 50:42
  that Wisconsin is a very different team with KK Harvey and Kristen Sims on the
• 50:45
  ice. I think KK gets the got the attention, right, but I
• 50:50
  think without her, and then also without Sims, who I think sometimes filled
• 50:54
  in some of the roles when KK was gone, you wrench in that to
• 50:59
  you know, like who's leading the power play of KKs out there? It
• 51:00
  might be Kurston, And without that then they were really in trouble, you
• 51:05
  know. And so I definitely don't blame those Ohio State games just on those
• 51:08
  two being missing, but like, it just was so clear to watch this
• 51:13
  group last week against Minnesota Duluth that they look different and they skate different and
• 51:17
  are a different team with those two on the ice. And so I'm excited
• 51:22
  for viewers, for us, everybody that could tingeoy this Minnesota Wasisconsin series that
• 51:25
  those two are back in the ice for the Badgers. But you mentioned goaltending,
• 51:30
  and it was not always great for Wisconsin this weekend. Lots and lots
• 51:34
  of rebounds, and that is absolutely something that like Abby Murphy will kill you
• 51:38
  on right. I mean she'll do a bazillion other things that will kill you,
• 51:42
  but she is just absolutely massive in front of the net. So I
• 51:45
  think that'll be a big thing to keep an eye on. Yeah, both
• 51:50
  of these teams need someone tenacious in front of the net, and we saw
• 51:53
  last weekend, well we've seen all season where Abby Murphy is that player for
• 51:58
  Minnesota. I don't know who that is for for Wisconsin consistently. You know,
• 52:06
  Britta Curl can be there. She can, I mean, she's as
• 52:08
  strong as anyone and sometimes gets penalized for it. It's I think they're they're
• 52:16
  talking about, you know, there needs to be more commitment, more compete
• 52:20
  uh for those spaces and and to to be playing in those areas. And
• 52:25
  I guess we'll see whether that that comes through and whether that's that becomes part
• 52:30
  of Wisconsin's identity because you know, their players have talked about, yeah,
• 52:34
  you know, we're good at scoring pretty goals and in making good looking plays
• 52:38
  and it maybe doesn't come as naturally to be going to the hard areas in
• 52:44
  front of them that and that's you know, I think something somewhere. You're
• 52:49
  gonna have to win some games playing that way. Uh, it helps be
• 52:52
  able to win games a lot of different ways, and that that's one of
• 52:54
  them you have to to throw in there by the end of the season.
• 52:59
  Yeah, And I felt like the first game last weekend against Minnesota Duluth was
• 53:02
  one of those games. They tried all the pretty stuff and that didn't work,
• 53:07
  and the goals they scored were gritty, dirty goals and like, conversely,
• 53:10
  that wasn't working in the second game, right, and actually un D's
• 53:15
  goals were those gritty rebound goals. So if the Badgers sort of need that
• 53:19
  lesson, need to learn, like you need to win like this and this
• 53:22
  is like this is why we say you have to do that. Like they
• 53:24
  have that recent history to look back on, so hopefully there were some lessons
• 53:28
  learned to see that, like just because you can, you know, a
• 53:31
  score a pretty goal, doesn't mean you're always going to be able to,
• 53:34
  particularly against a defense like Minnesota Duluth. So so let's let's kind of zoom
• 53:42
  out a little bit here and look at some standings around the country. Let's
• 53:46
  start with New Hop because we probably don't start with New how often enough.
• 53:52
  Long Island twelve and zero at the top of the league, outscoring opponent's forty
• 53:58
  to nine in league play, and that's that's impressive to me. They Yeah,
• 54:01
  to see that kind of spread, you know, And so twelve games,
• 54:06
  nine goals allowed, obviously you're you're doing some things pretty well on the
• 54:08
  back end, but also the forty goals. Yeah, her name is Tindraholme.
• 54:15
  I mean, it's it's a both sides of it, both sides of
• 54:19
  the coin here. You know, you're getting the offense and the defense,
• 54:22
  and you know they have a three point advantage on st Ansum, but also
• 54:29
  two games in hand, so yeah, important there. As we're looking towards
• 54:32
  the second half, LAU is going to start in a pretty comfortable spot,
• 54:37
  right And I was going to point out too that, like they basically didn't
• 54:40
  score that much in their non conference place, so I mean, they do
• 54:45
  schedule themselves tough opponents. But the point about being a strong offense, I
• 54:51
  think is even sort of more enhanced when you see that they're doing it within
• 54:54
  the league and really seem to have sort of used those non conference games to
• 54:59
  find their stride and really settle in. Uh yeah, and then I think,
• 55:02
  you know, not to be the dowter, but I just don't.
• 55:06
  Saint Michael's is, you know, currently winless, and so just hoping for
• 55:12
  them. You never want to see that from a team, and so just
• 55:14
  hoping for them that they can can find some some ways to pull out games.
• 55:17
  You know, post is got a similar like goals for goals against the
• 55:22
  kind of situation in there. They've at least, you know, they're three
• 55:27
  and nine in conference, so I think it's possible, particularly Newha, for
• 55:31
  teams to steal those games. So we're we're pulling for you, Saint Michael's.
• 55:36
  You need something, yeah, something to to feel good about and the
• 55:40
  build on when you get in the second of the season. Yeah, well,
• 55:44
  where are we going next? Let's talk Hockey East because that result last
• 55:47
  week the Yukon and BC ending up in a tie didn't really give us much
• 55:57
  definition. There is that a fair way of saying that. Yeah, and
• 56:01
  I you know, like to point back to me saying how I feel like
• 56:06
  nobody and Hockey East feels like they don't want to reach out and grab what's
• 56:09
  possible. And wow, did that game really illustrate that point for me.
• 56:14
  You know, Boston College had that two goal lead, they were, you
• 56:19
  know, let Connecticut even it up in the final minute of the third period
• 56:24
  of regulation. You know, like they had control of that game. They
• 56:28
  were doing what they wanted and then you know, it slipped away. And
• 56:32
  so it's kind of exactly my point. I always feel bad like I'm picking
• 56:37
  on the conference, but yeah, this is this is what I was talking
• 56:39
  about, Like that was there for them. They are, you know,
• 56:43
  behind Yukon in terms of points and game points, you know, per game
• 56:46
  played, their their win percentage, and so you know, this is a
• 56:51
  huge opportunity for them, and I think, you know, they they might
• 56:53
  be looking back at this that game later in the season and ruining that they
• 57:00
  let it slip away, or teams above five hundred point percentage, if you
• 57:05
  want to look at it that way. In Hockey's Yukon at seven eighteen,
• 57:07
  BC six sixty seven, New Hampshire five eighty three, and there's Northeaster and
• 57:13
  at five thirty eight. Then Maine and Vermont both five hundred in league play.
• 57:22
  Yeah, a lot to be decided there, and you know, not
• 57:23
  even just talking about the championship race, but you know those those those second
• 57:29
  and third season that's gonna be I think we were talking about at one that
• 57:34
  the Wisconsin one of the Scott Wisconsin Duluth games over the weekend, that this
• 57:37
  is gonna be one of the one of those races that's gonna go to the
• 57:40
  last weekend and we'ren't going to have no clue of you know, who's going
• 57:44
  to finish where. No. And I think the other point then is that
• 57:47
  because they are so close, and because so many of the teams have beat
• 57:52
  each other or played each other to tie and things like that, like it
• 57:54
  it means that I think the tournament is really up for and it's not like
• 58:00
  the one seed has a sort of advantage to make that championship game, right,
• 58:05
  Like, I think that means the auto BID's really up for grabs in
• 58:07
  Hockey East and that that impacts everyone because if you're in that bubble range of
• 58:14
  you know, weather an extra uh spot gets taken up by an auto bid.
• 58:21
  Oh, you don't want to see that happen if you're waiting on that
• 58:24
  in the last weekend before the selections come out, right, And the Hockey
• 58:30
  East did change their format a few years ago, right, so they're you
• 58:32
  know, they do that opening round, the top six seeds get a bye
• 58:37
  and then they recede, and so they're not doing that. You know.
• 58:39
  It's it's it's a one and done situation, is what I'm trying to say.
• 58:43
  And so, uh, it's not gonna take much for a lower seed
• 58:49
  within the conference to to really make a run and mess with things and the
• 58:52
  way that things are happening. I mean, like if that happens, they
• 58:55
  could end up screwing their own conference champion basically like you cons the eleventh eleventh
• 59:01
  in the polls right now, you know, So that could be a really
• 59:05
  interesting sort of like subplot to what happens within Hockey East, which is why
• 59:12
  that last week of the season is so great. And really, I mean
• 59:14
  when you're i mean, if you're looking at it from a neutral perspective,
• 59:17
  if you're a fan of one of the teams you probably hated, but a
• 59:22
  lot to be interested in when you get into that weekend. Yeah, absolutely,
• 59:25
  it just be a lot of fun. So over in the CHA Penn
• 59:29
  State has a essentially two game lead over Mercy Hearris at the top of the
• 59:32
  conference. Penn State seven and one, Mercyhurst is five and three. Then
• 59:37
  you've got rat and Robert Morris. You know Robert Morris. First, you're
• 59:40
  back Robert Morris at four and four in the league. And so there's it
• 59:45
  feels like Penn State's gaining some distance there, but not like, you know,
• 59:51
  running away with anything. I think. So I think there's there's some
• 59:55
  some intrigue there into how that's going to shake out with the second half.
• 1:00:00
  But I think you have to like the way the Penn State has started the
• 1:00:05
  season in conference. Yeah absolutely, I mean, I think it's probably fair
• 1:00:08
  to say that it is her conference to lose, but they've been fallible,
• 1:00:13
  right like they they have lost to Mercy Hurst. That they are showing that
• 1:00:17
  like there are this isn't I don't think it's a given, but I do
• 1:00:21
  think that they are in control of their destiny. Like they you know,
• 1:00:24
  they have the skill. They split their series with the Mercy Hurst. They
• 1:00:28
  have the skill to beat these teams, but they have to keep do it
• 1:00:30
  and they have to do it consistently. And yeah, so I think I
• 1:00:35
  think the other the flip side of that is, I think it's also Mercyhursts
• 1:00:38
  to steal and I learned a long time ago that you you don't really bet
• 1:00:44
  against them. They've they've got a lot of experience and just really our team
• 1:00:51
  that I think like does go out and grab those opportunities that I was talking
• 1:00:54
  about with hockey. So I think Penn State has to take every point capable
• 1:01:00
  they're capable of, and I think Mercy Hurst is really going to put their
• 1:01:04
  nose to the grindstone in that second half and really push them and force them
• 1:01:07
  to have to win it and not just sort of take it by default.
• 1:01:10
  I was just looking us up because it felt like Penn State hasn't played very
• 1:01:15
  many home games yet, so they should have a lot of them coming in
• 1:01:17
  the second half, and I believe that's the case looking through all this.
• 1:01:22
  Uh is it right that their first home CHA games were last weekend? Yeah?
• 1:01:30
  I was looking. I mean I was looking at the schedule too.
• 1:01:32
  They and they played quite a bit of on Coon so and then they also
• 1:01:36
  just played Dartmouth too, so like, yeah, it's really interesting. And
• 1:01:39
  now they have Yale and so yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting. Well,
• 1:01:42
  the CHA they play each other more often, right, because there's so
• 1:01:45
  few teams. But obviously as we talked about, they'll be that'll be expanding,
• 1:01:51
  So that's pretty cool. Yeah, And I guess the point of that
• 1:01:53
  was that, you know, they've done pretty good so far, and they've
• 1:01:57
  done most of it on the road, so they'll be happy to be at
• 1:02:00
  home a lot in the second half, and maybe that's so somewhere they build
• 1:02:05
  on the lead that they've built. I feel like I'm completely unsure how to
• 1:02:10
  wait into the standings and ECAC, but at the moment, it is Colgate
• 1:02:15
  and Clarkson. Colgate fully undefeated eight to ou in the ECAC standings, Clarkson
• 1:02:22
  seven oh and one, so just that little half step back. We in
• 1:02:24
  the e C A C also have half points, so there's that added extra
• 1:02:30
  wrinkle when you talk about points. But you know, Saint Lord's still seven
• 1:02:36
  to one and I don't even know what that last overtime loss. So it's
• 1:02:42
  it's the most confusing conference, I mean, and there are some confusing conference
• 1:02:45
  standings out there. E C A C UH is the winner. If that's
• 1:02:52
  a win, does that make us the losers? The rest of us plus
• 1:02:57
  their hearts. It's just yeah, there's just even with some teams with twelve
• 1:03:00
  teams. It's just it's difficult. But like we're you know, you're looking
• 1:03:02
  at Brown and Yale have played twelve games, but several half the conference has
• 1:03:07
  only played eight conference games, and so makes it really difficult at this point
• 1:03:10
  to kind of get a grasp on who is you know, who's at the
• 1:03:15
  top, who is knocking at the door. You know, it's it's just
• 1:03:20
  to me, it's really difficult to make any of those pronouncements anything, you
• 1:03:23
  know, kind of like you put pointed out in New Huh, like Colgate
• 1:03:29
  has allowed just nine goals against. Clarkson's allowed just seven goals against. I
• 1:03:32
  mean the big difference is Colgate scores just in bunches, right, But you
• 1:03:38
  know that it becomes really tough to beat a team that is allowing less than
• 1:03:43
  a goal of game, you know, like Clarkson is and and Colegate is
• 1:03:46
  you know, just just under that. But yeah, it's uh, I
• 1:03:50
  think that those are the two teams we're going to keep talking about. In
• 1:03:53
  terms of the ones that are are fighting for the top spot. It's hard
• 1:03:57
  to tell with Saint Lawrence because Saint it's as big losses have come in non
• 1:04:00
  conference games. So where do they stack up against the rest of the conference
• 1:04:06
  where they've managed to you know, keep they have just that one loss in
• 1:04:11
  the overtime loss. Like, how much do you weigh like that series in
• 1:04:15
  Ohio State versus how they'll fare in the ECAC. I kind of don't.
• 1:04:17
  I'm not sure how to wrap my head around it or what to expect from
• 1:04:20
  them. Yeah, it's I think they're part of the UH. I guess
• 1:04:28
  if you're putting on a marketing hat here for an ECAC standpoint, A lot
• 1:04:33
  of excitement possible in the second half because there's there's an opening there because you
• 1:04:43
  know, no one's running away with it, like you talked about, and
• 1:04:45
  so it's what can you find to make yourself a challenger for the conference title?
• 1:04:55
  And yeah, it's you know, Colgate and Clarkson are probably the one
• 1:04:59
  in the two in some order, but you know, stranger things have happened.
• 1:05:05
  You can get a couple of wins and and make a lot of change
• 1:05:10
  in the standings, and and so that's I think one of the things that
• 1:05:14
  makes that that intriguing going in the second half for me is that there's not
• 1:05:18
  a lot of and there's not a huge gap between first and really fifth in
• 1:05:24
  the ac AC. I mean honestly, like six Cornell is still only six
• 1:05:29
  and two, right, and yeah, right, so you know the fact
• 1:05:33
  that like if you're scanning the top of the standings and don't even look at
• 1:05:36
  Cornell even though they're when they get a seventy five percent, like it's just
• 1:05:40
  like it's it's really hard to wrap your head around like what this would look
• 1:05:44
  like at the end of the season. And what's interesting to me always with
• 1:05:47
  the ec AC is because of the travel pairs, like you don't necessarily always
• 1:05:53
  get some of these big teams playing each other head to head at the end
• 1:05:57
  of the season, like the w C h A, like they're gonna so
• 1:06:00
  that those top couple of teams are facing off in those final few weekends and
• 1:06:03
  you know those games matter. But just looking at the ECAC composite schedule and
• 1:06:06
  like Colgate plays Brown and Harvard or Clerkson has Harvard on the final weekend,
• 1:06:12
  so like, probably not a ton of drama there, though I guess there's
• 1:06:15
  probably an opportunity to like rest on your laurels and lose and drop some points
• 1:06:20
  that might be necessary, but it is it is interesting to look at the
• 1:06:25
  composite of the last couple of weekends in the ECAC and kind of see who's
• 1:06:29
  playing each other and where those you know, Clerkson will have Quinnipiac the weekend
• 1:06:31
  before things like that, but uh, you're not necessarily going to get those
• 1:06:36
  head to heads in the ECAC, so things might be more settled there before
• 1:06:42
  that final weekend and we'll finish up with the wha standing. So Ohio State,
• 1:06:46
  you know, kind of in control at the top there with their one
• 1:06:49
  loss, they have two overtime wins, so they are top the conference both
• 1:06:54
  by percentage points and points earned. Minnesota will be ahead of Wisconsin and Saint
• 1:07:00
  Cloud State will be ahead of Minnesota Duluz. So at the moment, Saint
• 1:07:02
  Cloud State is the fourth team in the w CCHA, Minnesota Duluth the fifth.
• 1:07:09
  Definitely means we could have an interesting discussion at the end of the season
• 1:07:12
  when it comes to how many teams per conference are going to get vins into
• 1:07:15
  the national tournament. Saint Cloud State was ten going into this weekend. Minnesota
• 1:07:21
  Duluth was what number six going into this weekend. So these are these are
• 1:07:26
  teams that are high up in the national rank, not just the polls,
• 1:07:30
  but in from RPI pairwise discussions. So again, as we mentioned earlier,
• 1:07:34
  WHA teams, these teams will be facing off with each other over those last
• 1:07:39
  couple of weekends in two game series, So there will be a lot in
• 1:07:43
  the line in those last couple of weekends in the w c CHA. Yeah,
• 1:07:45
  and I'm you know, you're looking at the bottom of the WHA.
• 1:07:50
  And the reason why it's it's you know, it's cramped at the top is
• 1:07:54
  because the bottom three teams have a combined twelve points and so to state imagate
• 1:08:00
  St. Thomas have relegated themselves to the bottom three in some order and uh
• 1:08:06
  Saint Thomas as of yet without a point in Minnesota state with nine, to
• 1:08:12
  Omidge with three. So there's uh, you know, there's it is really
• 1:08:18
  going to be interesting to see which team is going on the road for that
• 1:08:21
  for that first weekend of the playoffs, because there's there's a lot on the
• 1:08:28
  line there. And I do wonder you're talking about can can we be talking
• 1:08:34
  about five teams from the w c h A getting getting in the tournament?
• 1:08:38
  I think it's it seems feasible right now. I mean, I know there's
• 1:08:41
  gonna be someone. They're gonna have to beat each other, right, someone's
• 1:08:45
  gonna and it's gonna come this weekend is to start. But I I feel
• 1:08:54
  like it can happen. I'm not great with the numbers and especially in the
• 1:08:59
  predict of a sense of of what happens with the pairwise, but I think
• 1:09:05
  that there's there's something to be said there for a five team look from the
• 1:09:12
  WHA and I feel like a couple of weeks ago we were talking about possibility
• 1:09:15
  of that from ECAC and so well right, and if you if you say,
• 1:09:19
  discount Saint Cloud State, which when looking at pairwise and obviously WHA standings
• 1:09:26
  have a different but like Saint Cloud State would be sort of the fifth team
• 1:09:28
  looking at at you know, overall national rankings. If you take them out,
• 1:09:32
  then you have Cornell and Saint Lawrence right before them, which would be
• 1:09:35
  the fourth and fifth ACAC team. So you would be kind of switching one
• 1:09:41
  for the other. And as we were noting Connecticut at eleven, so Connecticut
• 1:09:45
  might just be an autobid. But if they're not, like do you take
• 1:09:48
  a multi loss a team that you know is not performing the same way and
• 1:09:53
  is not running away with their conference, like if there weren't upset in the
• 1:09:58
  Hockey East tournament, Like where how do you you rank what Connecticut's done versus
• 1:10:01
  Saint Cloud State or Saint Lawrence if looking at the current poll of sort of
• 1:10:06
  who would be the fifth team from one of those two conferences versus a second
• 1:10:12
  Hockey East team. And this is why, especially in the context of the
• 1:10:15
  college football playoff happening, or love the pair wise, because these decisions are
• 1:10:21
  not in any person's hands. They are done on the computer. So I
• 1:10:29
  forget who was a branch lassman? I think had it long lived the pair
• 1:10:32
  wise on Twitter earlier this week, and that felt legit, and I agree
• 1:10:40
  with that sentiment wholeheartedly. I mean, I will always say that with an
• 1:10:44
  astres to someone coming at it from the women's side, just because the pair
• 1:10:46
  was wasn't. I mean, it's getting better the more teams we get.
• 1:10:49
  But pairwise definitely has its flaws with the smaller pool of teams on the women's
• 1:10:55
  side. You know, it definitely was made for the men's side and sort
• 1:10:58
  of shoehorned on the women's side. I will agree to that with an asterisk,
• 1:11:01
  But you know, like I just wanted to point out too when we're
• 1:11:03
  talking like should it be you know, another ECAC team, another WHA team
• 1:11:10
  like Saint Cloud States strength the schedule is seventh in the country, CONNECTICUTS is
• 1:11:14
  twenty fifth, so you know, Saint Cloud State has is twelve five and
• 1:11:17
  one, Connecticut is eleven four and two, so like very similar. But
• 1:11:21
  Saint Cloud State's got those, got these wins, and it's getting points off
• 1:11:25
  these top three, four five ranked teams in the country. It would be
• 1:11:30
  really hard to look at all of this and be like wow, they you
• 1:11:33
  know, and and to choose one over the other. I mean, Lord
• 1:11:38
  knows we come at this and we try very hard to not have our biases,
• 1:11:41
  but it is pretty hard to look at those numbers and not think like,
• 1:11:44
  okay, you know, like why are we having this discussion? Right?
• 1:11:47
  So, and you like to think that that's there's someone that cooked into
• 1:11:54
  the the NPI and then then what feeds the pair wise to to make that
• 1:12:00
  argument for it happen on its own that you know, this will be addressed.
• 1:12:08
  You know, the team with the better schedule should be ranked higher,
• 1:12:13
  all other things being equal, and that's right, and then that's supposed to
• 1:12:15
  come pound through all the math that is beyond my comprehension, but very much
• 1:12:19
  to NPI versus r P. I is supposed to account for some of that
• 1:12:24
  as well. Right, it's supposed to be a cleaner way of doing it,
• 1:12:28
  although somebody tried to explain it to me and it made less sense.
• 1:12:31
  Somehow. We are journalists. We do not maths. If I can't see
• 1:12:38
  it on a spreadsheet, that's my that's my limitation. So you math way
• 1:12:42
  better than I do. But either way, we're both. There's a reason
• 1:12:45
  we're writers. That's correct very much. Well, I think that sit up
• 1:12:49
  for us here this week on the podcast, Nicole, great talking to you
• 1:12:55
  again. We will have one more of these before the new year, coming
• 1:13:00
  next week to wrap up the final week of play, and they kind of
• 1:13:04
  look ahead at what's what's coming, and uh, we hope you join us
• 1:13:08
  for that one and make sure you drop us a line on social media.
• 1:13:13
  I'm at Todd Maleski, Nicole is at Nicole Hasey. You can find us
• 1:13:15
  there and ask us questions. We'd love to have a mail bag at some
• 1:13:20
  point something like that and let us know what what do you want us to
• 1:13:26
  have here on the podcast so until next week, enjoy the hockey everyone