Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / The Beanpot wraps up, upsets in ECAC Hockey and an early Bracketology

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The Beanpot wraps up, upsets in ECAC Hockey and an early Bracketology · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. Hey everyone, it's the podcast Todd Muski
0:13
Speaker 1: here with Nicole Hasey. We're back talking about NCAA women's hockey,
0:17
Speaker 1: and Nicole is back from Finland where she was seeing
0:19
Speaker 1: some really good U eighteen women's hockey, and I want
0:22
Speaker 1: to get in that real quick before we get into
0:24
Speaker 1: what's been happening back here in the States. We talked
0:29
Speaker 1: briefly during the tournament, Nicole, but since then, Canada won
0:33
Speaker 1: the championship with a three nothing win against the US.
0:35
Speaker 1: What was kind of the the thing that you saw
0:37
Speaker 1: from that game that maybe, uh surprised you or or
0:42
Speaker 1: was it really not a surprise at all.
0:45
Speaker 2: No, it was a surprise.
0:47
Speaker 3: Canada was shut down on defense, Like the US just
0:50
Speaker 3: absolutely could not.
0:52
Speaker 2: Get out of the zone.
0:53
Speaker 3: They couldn't do much in transition, and if they got
0:56
Speaker 3: up into the offensive zone they were kind of smothering.
0:59
Speaker 2: It was over with. I mean, they just really Canada
1:03
Speaker 2: really shut them down.
1:04
Speaker 3: And I think when that happened and they had to
1:07
Speaker 3: regroup and try and find something else, like nothing was working. So,
1:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I have some personal feelings and sort of
1:13
Speaker 3: the like maybe robotic nature of some of the stuff
1:16
Speaker 3: of Canada, Like when we were interviewing the players that all,
1:19
Speaker 3: they also say the exact same thing, and it's very
1:21
Speaker 3: sort of by the book and by wrote and you know,
1:24
Speaker 3: like I but I can't say that it wasn't successful.
1:28
Speaker 3: But I also think, you know, Canada built a team
1:30
Speaker 3: to go back and win that gold medal they won
1:32
Speaker 3: bronze last year. You know, they brought Permorano even though
1:36
Speaker 3: she's already a collegiate. Like that, that team was an
1:38
Speaker 3: older team and it was built to sort of wipe
1:42
Speaker 3: away what happened in twenty twenty four when they lost
1:45
Speaker 3: the semi final to check Ya. On the other hand,
1:47
Speaker 3: the US team I think had seven players that are
1:49
Speaker 3: not yet eligible to commit to college. So like it
1:54
Speaker 3: was not just a young team. It was a very
1:56
Speaker 3: young team. And that seems to just overall be a
1:59
Speaker 3: USA philosophy. And and you know, coach Liz Key Norton
2:03
Speaker 3: did say, like, this is the team I wanted. I like,
2:05
Speaker 3: I didn't pick anybody based on age. I picked the
2:07
Speaker 3: players that I wanted to pick. But there's there was
2:10
Speaker 3: a lot of learning moments for them, I think in
2:12
Speaker 3: that in that final game, like when they kind of
2:16
Speaker 3: came up against the diversity and it didn't work, and
2:19
Speaker 3: Canaja just really really shut them down. So yeah, I
2:23
Speaker 3: think the positive for the US to take out of
2:26
Speaker 3: it is that that a lot of those players will
2:28
Speaker 3: be returning. I think, you know, you often learn more
2:30
Speaker 3: from losses like that than you do from winning it
2:33
Speaker 3: at all. They won the gold last year. I mean,
2:38
Speaker 3: it's never bad to win silver. I think obviously you
2:41
Speaker 3: go and wanting to win gold and wanting to repeat,
2:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't US just looked a little a
2:46
Speaker 3: little flat, a little listless in that that gold medal game,
2:49
Speaker 3: and I think Canada just kind of power it up
2:52
Speaker 3: heading into it. And I think that again, like that
2:55
Speaker 3: that was their goal. They had, They had a mission.
2:57
Speaker 3: They they really wanted redemption for having lost that semi
3:02
Speaker 3: final game, and they went in with a very like
3:04
Speaker 3: sort of clean and methodical attack and approach, and that's
3:11
Speaker 3: what they did and it was successful.
3:14
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of those players, as we've talked about,
3:16
Speaker 1: beforriably ending up playing in college. I would imagine almost
3:20
Speaker 1: everyone from US and Canada for sure is going to
3:23
Speaker 1: be a college team. And as we've talked about before,
3:26
Speaker 1: a lot of the European teams getting involved more now,
3:31
Speaker 1: and a lot of the schools here in the US
3:34
Speaker 1: are getting more involved in the recruiting of a lot
3:36
Speaker 1: of those players. So that's why that's an important thing
3:40
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on here from the NCAA side
3:43
Speaker 1: of things. But as we kind of look back now
3:45
Speaker 1: and go into the what we've seen in the first
3:48
Speaker 1: couple of weeks of the NCAA season for twenty twenty
3:52
Speaker 1: five parts since the breaks has been over, We're going
3:56
Speaker 1: to get to that in a while. But what we've
3:58
Speaker 1: got coming up this week on Tuesday, the third place
4:02
Speaker 1: game in the championship game of the Bean Pot Tournament,
4:04
Speaker 1: happening in Boston for the second year in a row.
4:07
Speaker 1: It's happening at TD Garden. The final game or the
4:09
Speaker 1: final games of that tournament. It'll be Boston University and
4:14
Speaker 1: Northeastern for the championship after Harvard and Boston College play
4:18
Speaker 1: for third place. Both of those games available on Nessen
4:22
Speaker 1: if you're not able to go, if you are able
4:23
Speaker 1: to go, if you're in the Boston area, that just
4:26
Speaker 1: sounds like a really cool I mean, we saw last
4:27
Speaker 1: year it was well attended, it seemed like it was
4:30
Speaker 1: well run. That would seem like just a pretty cool
4:33
Speaker 1: thing to be close to on the ground floor of
4:36
Speaker 1: getting into one of those first ever ones at TD
4:39
Speaker 1: Garden for the bean Pot. On the women's side, it's
4:42
Speaker 1: been a staple there for the men's tournament forever, but
4:46
Speaker 1: this is a really cool opportunity that they get.
4:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and just generally we don't see the Boston
4:52
Speaker 3: college teams get huge attendance numbers, and so to see
4:56
Speaker 3: them fill TD Garden last year and see everybody come
4:59
Speaker 3: out and support them, I think, you know, obviously the
5:02
Speaker 3: PWHL as well, but has just grown sort of the
5:05
Speaker 3: awareness of women's hockey with with the Boston Fleet, and
5:09
Speaker 3: so many of the Boston Fleet players played collegiately.
5:11
Speaker 2: In Boston, so that helps.
5:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, I'm just hoping that it wasn't selling
5:17
Speaker 3: out TD Garden wasn't because it's the first time it happened.
5:20
Speaker 3: I hope that everybody shows up again this year. Obviously,
5:23
Speaker 3: the teams deserve it and the players deserve it, and
5:26
Speaker 3: this is this is the kind of environment they should
5:27
Speaker 3: get to be able to play in, and it's you know,
5:30
Speaker 3: the beam pot is going. What is it like the
5:32
Speaker 3: forty sixth year for the women's beam pot, which is
5:36
Speaker 3: actually kind of crazy, like the fact that they've been
5:38
Speaker 3: you know, playing for that long. We don't see that
5:41
Speaker 3: on the women's collegiate side. We don't see that kind
5:43
Speaker 3: of history that much. So it's cool that they finally
5:45
Speaker 3: are getting that recognition, getting the ability and getting the
5:49
Speaker 3: I mean, they get the full media push from Nesson
5:52
Speaker 3: as well, which I really appreciate. So the game's on
5:55
Speaker 3: Nesson on the East Coast. If you are not on
5:57
Speaker 3: the East Coast, you can watch it on ESPN Plus.
6:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I saw that the announced attendance for last
6:04
Speaker 1: week's semifinals was just about thirty three hundred at Matthews Arena,
6:08
Speaker 1: and that was a pretty cool. Uh you know, it's
6:12
Speaker 1: it's good to see that when it's on campus and
6:14
Speaker 1: when it's in you know, those home buildings that that
6:16
Speaker 1: people get invested and get involved too. So that that
6:20
Speaker 1: was that was nice to see. And they saw a
6:21
Speaker 1: couple of pretty good games. I was able to watch
6:24
Speaker 1: the bu overtime win over Harvard two to one when
6:29
Speaker 1: the Terriers came back scored in I believe it was
6:32
Speaker 1: in the final minute with an extra attacker to to
6:35
Speaker 1: make it a one to one game and then scored
6:39
Speaker 1: in the three on three overtime to advance. And then
6:43
Speaker 1: Northeastern one four to two against Boston College, going up
6:47
Speaker 1: three nothing in the first period and kind of keeping
6:51
Speaker 1: the foot on the gas from there and getting thirty
6:54
Speaker 1: seven saves from Lisa Johnson in that even though they
6:58
Speaker 1: were out shot. And so that's that brings up a
7:03
Speaker 1: you know, BU Northeastern final. What do you think we're
7:08
Speaker 1: looking at there? I mean, this is these are a
7:10
Speaker 1: couple of teams that you know, BU has been a
7:12
Speaker 1: little bit on the rise this year. We've talked about
7:14
Speaker 1: them a lot, and Northeastern has been trying to kind
7:18
Speaker 1: of find the right formula it seems like a lot
7:21
Speaker 1: of the season, and maybe they found it, but then
7:24
Speaker 1: again they they slipped up a couple of times over
7:26
Speaker 1: the weekend after that big win on Tuesday. Uh so
7:30
Speaker 1: of course, so did be you So they lost on
7:32
Speaker 1: the weekend as well. So I really know what to
7:36
Speaker 1: taken out of those those results over the weekend, knowing
7:39
Speaker 1: that they've got these this really big championship game coming
7:42
Speaker 1: up on Tuesday.
7:43
Speaker 3: No, And I just say, like, obviously, these games like
7:45
Speaker 3: these aren't regular games, right, Like they get extra hype
7:48
Speaker 3: for them. I mean, on paper, there's no reason be
7:51
Speaker 3: you should have needed to come up behind and win
7:53
Speaker 3: an ot over Harvard. Sorry for no offense, but the
7:56
Speaker 3: way the seasons have gone, like BU is the better team,
7:59
Speaker 3: and that shouldn't have gone the way I think too.
8:01
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that was the attendants numbers. The thing
8:03
Speaker 3: about Matthews is when it's full like those, that upper
8:06
Speaker 3: deck is like those players are on top of you.
8:09
Speaker 3: So that to me, like that in the three to
8:10
Speaker 3: zero start, like those those players were playing at home
8:13
Speaker 3: and having that many people around and so makes a
8:16
Speaker 3: difference then that they're going to be at TD and
8:18
Speaker 3: like there's just different pressure, different layout, all that sort
8:21
Speaker 3: of stuff. I kind of wish just from like I
8:25
Speaker 3: was looking at stats over the weekend in terms of
8:27
Speaker 3: like different voting and stuff, and I wish Johnson had
8:31
Speaker 3: been playing more all season, Like she's having a great season,
8:34
Speaker 3: but at this point she's only got like ten or
8:36
Speaker 3: twelve starts something like that, Like she's still in the
8:39
Speaker 3: teens of versus kind of some of the other leading goaltenders,
8:42
Speaker 3: but she's she's really emerged as a stellar goaltender, which
8:46
Speaker 3: was obviously unsurprising from Northeastern, but she I think what
8:51
Speaker 3: is really good about that for them is, as you said,
8:53
Speaker 3: they haven't they haven't found the right formula yet, and
8:57
Speaker 3: having her back there gives them a chance to keep
9:01
Speaker 3: testing things and trying stuff and you know, you can
9:05
Speaker 3: you can make a mistake, and you can try something
9:07
Speaker 3: that might not work and make a mistake when she's
9:09
Speaker 3: back there, right Like, that makes a huge difference to
9:11
Speaker 3: have sort of that confidence in your goaltender. But in
9:14
Speaker 3: terms of what to I don't know. Northeastern to won
9:17
Speaker 3: the last two Northeastern, you know, sort of has the
9:21
Speaker 3: big game experience. Also, the last two times Boston University
9:26
Speaker 3: has made the Beam Pot Final, they've lost in overtime
9:29
Speaker 3: to Northeastern. Uh so that that was last year and
9:33
Speaker 3: then when we say twenty twenty, be you last won
9:37
Speaker 3: it in twenty nineteen. So yeah, there's a whole lot
9:39
Speaker 3: of things that play And I think it's just that
9:41
Speaker 3: push pull right, Like, I don't know, I think I'll
9:43
Speaker 3: feel better after the first few minutes about being able
9:46
Speaker 3: to tell what's going to happen that game.
9:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know there's a discussion every time a
9:53
Speaker 1: in season tournament goes to overtime, because you know, it
9:57
Speaker 1: used to be you could play the twenty minutes, keep
9:59
Speaker 1: playing like it was a playoff game. And that's not
10:01
Speaker 1: the case anywhere because the NCAA, I think when I
10:07
Speaker 1: put everything together, put all the factors out there, I
10:10
Speaker 1: think they made the right call in that. Look, this
10:13
Speaker 1: is a regular season game. It needs to be played
10:15
Speaker 1: with regular season rules, which means you play three on
10:18
Speaker 1: three for five minutes. This is this game counts like
10:21
Speaker 1: every other game in the NPI and then the pair wise,
10:24
Speaker 1: so it has to be played under the same regular
10:28
Speaker 1: season overtime rules. And that's not great when you're talking
10:33
Speaker 1: about playing for a championship or playing for a you know,
10:36
Speaker 1: getting to a championship game like b you and Harvard
10:39
Speaker 1: were in overtime last week. But I think it's probably
10:43
Speaker 1: the right, the right move, the right you know, just
10:51
Speaker 1: decision to make things even all the way around. I
10:54
Speaker 1: understand where it doesn't sound right when you're talking about
10:57
Speaker 1: if this game on Tuesday goes to itchampionship game goes
11:00
Speaker 1: to overtime, you're kind of getting a little gimmicky, like
11:04
Speaker 1: people say with three on three or then even a
11:05
Speaker 1: shootout to decide a champion. I just wonder if you
11:10
Speaker 1: have any thoughts on that, because that seems to come up,
11:13
Speaker 1: you know, every time we talk about an overtime game
11:15
Speaker 1: in the bean Pot or any other you know, in
11:18
Speaker 1: season tournament.
11:20
Speaker 3: I mean I'd argue that, like automatically you and I
11:23
Speaker 3: are not the best. Like to some extent, I will
11:26
Speaker 3: never understand the bean Pot, like it's four teams they play,
11:30
Speaker 3: you know, like it's a chance. Like I would think
11:32
Speaker 3: that anybody in Boston and anybody that plays for those
11:35
Speaker 3: four teams would say that they want to play on
11:37
Speaker 3: until there's a winner, right, And so like for me,
11:41
Speaker 3: I don't get that because I'm like, this is is
11:43
Speaker 3: just not that big of a deal, but it is
11:45
Speaker 3: to them. And then the other thing that you have
11:47
Speaker 3: to like the positive of being able to take sort
11:51
Speaker 3: of that feeling out of it, is that like putting
11:54
Speaker 3: the student athlete health or however you want to say,
11:58
Speaker 3: you know, at the forefront is to say they can't
12:01
Speaker 3: play and infinitum, like you're like, this is a Tuesday night.
12:04
Speaker 3: They just played games. They played last Tuesday, then they
12:06
Speaker 3: played games over the weekend. They're gonna play games next weekend.
12:08
Speaker 3: They've still got a month of this season. It's already
12:10
Speaker 3: a really long season. It is not healthy or like,
12:16
Speaker 3: it just doesn't seem like a good idea to let
12:19
Speaker 3: that happen. And again, these are student athletes. They're you know,
12:23
Speaker 3: anile side like not getting paid right Like, so we
12:26
Speaker 3: say that with air quotes now, But I just yeah,
12:29
Speaker 3: it's just to me that I get it.
12:31
Speaker 2: I get the passion.
12:32
Speaker 3: I appreciate that I will never quite fully understand it
12:36
Speaker 3: as a Midwesterner for the bean Pot.
12:38
Speaker 2: But I also think, like it's.
12:40
Speaker 3: Not the only in season tournament, right Like we see
12:42
Speaker 3: other in season tournaments, and the rules have to apply
12:44
Speaker 3: across all of those. And so even though like there
12:47
Speaker 3: are people that would argue that this is more important
12:49
Speaker 3: than you know, the Badger Holiday showed out or Great
12:52
Speaker 3: Lakes invitation or any of those things, like it can't
12:55
Speaker 3: be separate and different.
12:56
Speaker 1: It can't the Smashville tournament and giving a weekend. Yeah,
13:01
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's not the only one where this supplies,
13:05
Speaker 1: and it's uh, I really think the that the people
13:11
Speaker 1: it benefits the most are last week BC in Northeastern
13:16
Speaker 1: Because if you've got it, if you're the second game playing,
13:19
Speaker 1: and the first game is going to three overtimes. That's
13:22
Speaker 1: rough because you're there, you're ready to play.
13:25
Speaker 4: You've got through your routine based on the timeline.
13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're playing. You're going off the the the the
13:31
Speaker 1: the schedule that that's out there, and well we know
13:34
Speaker 1: that doesn't always work out.
13:37
Speaker 3: But like a five minute overtime and a shootout can
13:40
Speaker 3: only take so long, Like it can push you back
13:42
Speaker 3: a little, but not so much to throw everything.
13:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking about you know, do I need to
13:47
Speaker 1: grab some more food before we get on the ir Yeah, yeah,
13:50
Speaker 1: where we've seen that happen in in uh you know,
13:54
Speaker 1: postseason things in the past.
13:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, Yeah.
13:57
Speaker 3: I Like I said, I think to some extent where
13:58
Speaker 3: you're we we could ever have the right take on
14:01
Speaker 3: this just because it you know, it's not our wheelhouse
14:03
Speaker 3: on this.
14:04
Speaker 2: But I also think that that means that.
14:05
Speaker 3: We don't have the sort of blindingness of the passion
14:08
Speaker 3: for it. So yeah, I'm sorry being put folks, but
14:12
Speaker 3: I think for the student athletes, it just does not
14:14
Speaker 3: make sense to go out there and play Infinity over
14:17
Speaker 3: times until it's just.
14:23
Speaker 2: In a vacuum.
14:23
Speaker 3: It's a bad idea and then putting it in the
14:25
Speaker 3: fact that we've added extra games into their calendar and
14:28
Speaker 3: they're playing games more often than they maybe would have otherwise.
14:31
Speaker 3: I mean, I know the hockey sometimes has mid mid
14:34
Speaker 3: week games, but like these are high level, most important,
14:38
Speaker 3: Like you've already sort of messed with their schedule and
14:40
Speaker 3: put more pressure on them. Just it doesn't seem wise.
14:43
Speaker 3: And if somebody got injured during that, and whether it
14:47
Speaker 3: entered their season or their career, like that would just
14:48
Speaker 3: be such a shame.
14:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that should be a good Tuesday of hockey
14:53
Speaker 1: in Boston a TD garden. Check that out if you can.
14:57
Speaker 1: We will be back shortly and we've got more talk
14:59
Speaker 1: about this. We won't be talking about last week's games.
15:01
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about what's to come, and we'll be
15:04
Speaker 1: giving a look at where the NCAA tournament stands as
15:08
Speaker 1: of right now in terms of what the brackets might
15:10
Speaker 1: look like, who's in, who's out. We will get to
15:13
Speaker 1: all of that when the podcast continued. Welcome back to
15:24
Speaker 1: the podcast. Todd Luski here with the Cole Hasey and Nicole.
15:27
Speaker 1: Let's look back at last week and a couple of
15:30
Speaker 1: things stood out in the ECAC Hockey World. Brown getting
15:34
Speaker 1: a couple of upset victories if you want to look
15:37
Speaker 1: at them that way of over ranked teams, I guess
15:40
Speaker 1: winning an overtime against St. Lawrence four to three on
15:43
Speaker 1: Friday and then winning three to two at Clarkson on Saturday,
15:48
Speaker 1: both of those games on the road for Brown, And
15:51
Speaker 1: so that's a you know, Brown's a team we talked
15:53
Speaker 1: about earlier this season, has done some good things, had
15:56
Speaker 1: a little bit of struggles, like kind of we thought
15:59
Speaker 1: maybe they would it would happen that way. It's you know,
16:02
Speaker 1: it's never really a straight line when you're trying to build,
16:05
Speaker 1: and we saw where that's gone up and down for
16:08
Speaker 1: them this season. But this is another big up for them,
16:10
Speaker 1: getting a couple of road winds over ranked teams.
16:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:14
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and with the travel partners, like they called it
16:17
Speaker 3: the first sweep over the North Country teams in quite
16:21
Speaker 3: a while, which I appreciate it. You're never going to
16:23
Speaker 3: get that full weekend sweep over two teams in ECAC,
16:26
Speaker 3: but I liked the way they put that. Uh yeah,
16:29
Speaker 3: just not only are they wins, but like these overtime wins,
16:33
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's that's the difference between you know,
16:36
Speaker 3: an okay team and a good team, right, It's like
16:38
Speaker 3: when you can come from behind one, you can pull
16:40
Speaker 3: out those tight games. So I thought that was just
16:44
Speaker 3: just another really important sort of step for them. There
16:46
Speaker 3: were eleven nine and one. I mean it's still you know,
16:49
Speaker 3: like you you look to like there's still nineteens in
16:51
Speaker 3: the pairwise who knows, you know, like but their team
16:54
Speaker 3: I wouldn't want to play in the SEC tournament.
16:57
Speaker 2: And so.
16:59
Speaker 3: It was nighteen game winless streak against Clerkson for them,
17:02
Speaker 3: and I, yeah, I just I was really impressed. I
17:05
Speaker 3: thought it just overall like it was different players scoring
17:09
Speaker 3: though Monique Lyon continues to have an outstanding senior sorry
17:14
Speaker 3: rookie season, And yeah, I just I they're fun to watch.
17:19
Speaker 2: They're moving the pock.
17:20
Speaker 3: Well there, it's these these aren't flukes right like they're
17:23
Speaker 3: they're playing a great game hockey, and it's it's I
17:28
Speaker 3: can't wait to see where this keeps going. I hope
17:30
Speaker 3: that it you know, that we're seeing this continual build
17:32
Speaker 3: and that this is something that we see from them,
17:35
Speaker 3: uh continuing in the in the coming seasons.
17:37
Speaker 1: Right, and we know that much like we've seen with
17:41
Speaker 1: teams like Saint Cloud in w c CHA. It's not
17:45
Speaker 1: easy to crack the top group in ECAC hockey because
17:49
Speaker 1: of the quality of teams that are up there. You're
17:52
Speaker 1: normally talking three four five deep of teams that are
17:56
Speaker 1: ranked in the top fifteen in the US EHO dot
17:59
Speaker 1: Com pole. So it's not easy to make that happen.
18:03
Speaker 1: But you start to chip away and you start to
18:07
Speaker 1: put the baby steps together, and then all of a
18:10
Speaker 1: sudden you go into a season and you're talking about,
18:13
Speaker 1: all right, let's finish top four. Let's make that a
18:16
Speaker 1: legitimate goal. And I don't know that they're there yet,
18:19
Speaker 1: but they're right that that maybe hey, one of these times,
18:25
Speaker 1: Brown's gonna be uh knocking on the door there.
18:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're within three points of six, So
18:31
Speaker 3: like that's the top half. That's the first step, right,
18:36
Speaker 3: and the teams above them are also teams that are
18:39
Speaker 3: beatable for them.
18:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:41
Speaker 3: I it's maybe not like maybe I'm getting too excited,
18:45
Speaker 3: like maybe it's overblown, but yeah, I just that's the
18:47
Speaker 3: first time they've ever swept both those teams on the road.
18:50
Speaker 3: It's the first time they won at Clarkson since two
18:52
Speaker 3: thousand and six. Like these are huge steps forward. And
18:54
Speaker 3: again they're above five hundred, which is just that they're
18:57
Speaker 3: all things that you have to do in the process
19:00
Speaker 3: of growth, and they're all steps they've been taking little
19:02
Speaker 3: by little, and and yeah, I just it's it's exciting
19:06
Speaker 3: to watch. It's good for the game. It's good for
19:09
Speaker 3: the growth of our our game, and for women, you know,
19:11
Speaker 3: for the NCAA programs and and and teams need to
19:14
Speaker 3: see that it.
19:14
Speaker 2: Can be done.
19:15
Speaker 3: So yeah, you know, they're they're three and one and
19:18
Speaker 3: over time, that's that's like a huge That's one of
19:21
Speaker 3: those things you you don't see from bad teams, right,
19:24
Speaker 3: like you have to be able to to tough it
19:26
Speaker 3: out and uh sort of not that's sixty plus minutes,
19:30
Speaker 3: you know. So yeah, I was excited to see it.
19:34
Speaker 3: And and like the flip side is, like you said,
19:36
Speaker 3: Clark's and Clarkson's lost four of their last six. Uh,
19:39
Speaker 3: they're down to eleven and the pair wise, I mean,
19:41
Speaker 3: they're still sitting fourth in the conference, but they are
19:44
Speaker 3: good six to a half points behind Saint Lawrence and third,
19:48
Speaker 3: So at this point they're you know, they're not one
19:51
Speaker 3: of the teams competing for the ec AC title. And
19:54
Speaker 3: and they're going to be playing for their postseason hopes, right, Yeah.
20:00
Speaker 1: They're gonna need a strong, uh, you know, final five
20:05
Speaker 1: weeks of the season to go into the postseason thinking that, okay,
20:10
Speaker 1: that you know, even if we don't win the conference
20:13
Speaker 1: postseason championship, we're still feeling pretty good about in a
20:18
Speaker 1: large spot because yeah, they're they're in a spot right
20:22
Speaker 1: now where they do not make it as an at
20:24
Speaker 1: large team and just hovering around five hundred is not
20:30
Speaker 1: gonna get there. So they're gonna need to win you know,
20:33
Speaker 1: you know, six seven games just thinking about if you've
20:36
Speaker 1: got ten left, I'm not exactly sure how many have
20:39
Speaker 1: left and don't have their schedule up in front of you,
20:40
Speaker 1: but you're gonna have to make a run there to
20:44
Speaker 1: make sure you're not you know, just kind of hovering
20:49
Speaker 1: in the same area you're at right now in eleven
20:51
Speaker 1: because that's not gonna be good enough.
20:53
Speaker 3: They have eight left and it's two Weigainst. Saint Lawrence, Colgate, Cornell, Princeton, quinnypiac, Harvard,
20:59
Speaker 3: and Dartmouth, So I.
21:00
Speaker 1: Mean there's there's something they definitely should win there. But
21:04
Speaker 1: there's a lot of games that account for their losses, right,
21:08
Speaker 1: toss ups in terms of what we've seen so far.
21:11
Speaker 1: So yeah, there it's it's go time now. There's no
21:16
Speaker 1: no more waiting around to see, well, you know this
21:19
Speaker 1: will shake out for us. It's it's time to put
21:22
Speaker 1: what you've got out there and and let her rip.
21:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, and those are like those are teams drinked above them.
21:28
Speaker 3: There's that Highway eleven rivalry with Saint Lawrence, Like none
21:31
Speaker 3: of these are like, this is a gauntlet they're doing.
21:34
Speaker 3: They're home for Saint Lawrence and uh to start and
21:37
Speaker 3: then and then at Saint Lawrence, at Colgate at Cornell,
21:41
Speaker 3: like these are these and they get Princeton Quinnipiac at
21:44
Speaker 3: home and then and the season at Harvard and at Dartmouth. Uh,
21:47
Speaker 3: it's a that's a bit of a gauntlet for a
21:49
Speaker 3: team that's that's been struggling. So yeah, it's it's one
21:53
Speaker 3: of like we've talked about, you know, you have to
21:55
Speaker 3: win the big games. You have to like kind of
21:58
Speaker 3: the stuff we've been saying on Hockey East right, like
22:00
Speaker 3: if if you want to be in consideration and if
22:02
Speaker 3: you want to be competing for that top spot, like
22:05
Speaker 3: you can't be dropping you can't be dropping those close,
22:08
Speaker 3: close games. And I'll be picking on some of those
22:10
Speaker 3: Hockey East teams later, but yeah, it's it's a rough
22:14
Speaker 3: go and the kind of when one of those tests
22:18
Speaker 3: were like, I imagine they're having some team meetings this week
22:21
Speaker 3: and they'll be talking about it and they're heading into
22:23
Speaker 3: a huge rivalry weekend and they have the opportunity to
22:27
Speaker 3: share with They're made out.
22:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Colgate and Cornell got a couple of wins each
22:32
Speaker 1: over the weekend. A Friday for Colgate had to come
22:36
Speaker 1: from behind to beat quinnin pac four to two, then
22:40
Speaker 1: got a four nothing went against Princeton. Cal Cova another
22:42
Speaker 1: good weekend. I think she scored three, had two two
22:46
Speaker 1: four On Saturday.
22:49
Speaker 3: She scored it between the legs goal. It's absolutely sick.
22:52
Speaker 1: She's she I mean, she's leading the country and goal scoring.
22:56
Speaker 2: And then me and Leila Rhords are tied at the four.
23:01
Speaker 1: Originally I'd seen somewhere that she had a hat trick
23:03
Speaker 1: on Saturday and so no, it was only actually two goals,
23:05
Speaker 1: so I think, yeah, they're they're tied, and so it's
23:09
Speaker 1: and and Leilah Edwards scored four on Saturday and another
23:12
Speaker 1: one on Friday for the Badger. So yeah, that was
23:15
Speaker 1: kind of a trying to keep up with who's actually
23:18
Speaker 1: in front there was a little difficult for a while
23:21
Speaker 1: on Saturday. But yeah, that's she's I mean, this is
23:25
Speaker 1: what we expect out of her, right, I mean, this
23:27
Speaker 1: is you know, she's she's there to score goals, and
23:29
Speaker 1: you know she's doing it. She's given them every chance
23:33
Speaker 1: to win these games by by putting herself right in
23:36
Speaker 1: front of the offense there.
23:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she's a player that truly has shown like
23:41
Speaker 3: growth on the ice, Like her skill set has continued
23:44
Speaker 3: to grow in her time in college. And I think
23:47
Speaker 3: like that's all that you could ask for. And she's
23:49
Speaker 3: put herself into consideration with the Czech national team, and
23:53
Speaker 3: there's been some other stuff off the ice, but I
23:55
Speaker 3: just like you can't deny that, like this the player
23:57
Speaker 3: that she is on the ice right now, Like it's
23:59
Speaker 3: so far from what she was as freshman and sophomore
24:02
Speaker 3: year that you could see the potential, but like it
24:03
Speaker 3: really has all come together and she's really sort of
24:07
Speaker 3: blossomed the last few years of Colgate and she went
24:10
Speaker 3: from being you know, sort of a player that just
24:11
Speaker 3: really used her size and kind of pinballed around in
24:15
Speaker 3: people and used that to get space. And like I said,
24:18
Speaker 3: she scored one between the legs. She had a breakaway,
24:21
Speaker 3: just used a bunch of speed and went bar down
24:23
Speaker 3: like her goals are this weekend were of particular note,
24:26
Speaker 3: and you were just like, okay, sure, yeah, casual, that's.
24:32
Speaker 1: As what we expect. Yeah, there you go, right. So
24:35
Speaker 1: the big series in the WACHA last weekend was number
24:38
Speaker 1: two Ohio State going to number four Minnesota Duluth, and
24:42
Speaker 1: the Buckeyes came out with a couple of road winds there,
24:45
Speaker 1: three to one Friday to one on Saturday, which seems
24:49
Speaker 1: fairly close. I believe there was an empty netter in
24:51
Speaker 1: the Friday game, But then you look at the shots
24:55
Speaker 1: on goal which were sixty one to twenty in one
24:58
Speaker 1: game and forty six to fourteen in another.
25:00
Speaker 3: So it was shout out goalie of guess Con for
25:04
Speaker 3: making one hundred and two saves this weekend.
25:07
Speaker 1: And getting coming away with no wins out of it,
25:09
Speaker 1: which is the unfortunate part. Yeah, that's you had mentioned
25:13
Speaker 1: when we were talking off the air here that the
25:17
Speaker 1: loop was really shorthanded for the Saturday game. Sounds like
25:20
Speaker 1: there's some some illness going on.
25:22
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think they were down to I think
25:24
Speaker 3: I read they were down to thirteen players for defenders,
25:27
Speaker 3: Like they even had players that started the game Saturday
25:29
Speaker 3: and had to leave the game sick. So on that
25:35
Speaker 3: in light of all that, you got to be like, well, hey,
25:37
Speaker 3: pretty good job against number two Ohio State. And the
25:41
Speaker 3: fact that they I say this like not as a
25:44
Speaker 3: knock on the defenders, but like they only had eleven.
25:46
Speaker 4: Blocks each day, so all those shots.
25:49
Speaker 3: Were getting on gas Gone, so like just a plus
25:52
Speaker 3: effort from her. I don't I'm not not blaming the defense,
25:56
Speaker 3: and Ohio certainly can pick their shots, but yeah, that
26:01
Speaker 3: just means that, like Gascon was truly getting peppered and
26:04
Speaker 3: everything was getting in on her. So the fact that
26:06
Speaker 3: she gave up four goals right three at the empty
26:10
Speaker 3: nutar like, that's an outstanding performance.
26:14
Speaker 1: Former podcast guest McKenna Webster with the go ahead goal
26:18
Speaker 1: in the second period of that Saturday game for the Buckeyes.
26:20
Speaker 1: Just love throwing out the former podcast guests there on
26:24
Speaker 1: that interview we had with her earlier in the season,
26:26
Speaker 1: and our you know, find that in our archives. I
26:29
Speaker 1: guess on either on usc h O dot com or
26:31
Speaker 1: wherever you're getting this podcast, So I love to have
26:35
Speaker 1: people check out what's been out there before. The Hockey
26:42
Speaker 1: East talked about the bean Pot coming up and what
26:47
Speaker 1: the games that were semifinals last weekend or last Tuesday,
26:52
Speaker 1: championship game, third place game this Tuesday, in the middle
26:55
Speaker 1: of the teams that are going to be playing for
26:57
Speaker 1: the championship head ay, not so great weekend. Northeastern was
27:01
Speaker 1: swept by Providence in a home and home series. Boston
27:04
Speaker 1: University lost to nothing at New Hampshire Sadona Blair with
27:08
Speaker 1: a twenty six save shutout for the Wildcats there on Saturday. Again,
27:16
Speaker 1: it's you know, Hockey East being Hockey East this season, right,
27:19
Speaker 1: not really, don't don't assume that because a team has
27:23
Speaker 1: a number in front of their name, that's going to
27:25
Speaker 1: come out.
27:26
Speaker 2: With the win, right I mean?
27:28
Speaker 3: So standings right now are Boston College Yukon tied top
27:33
Speaker 3: with thirty seven points, bu is third with a game
27:36
Speaker 3: in hand with thirty six points, and Northeastern It's worth
27:39
Speaker 3: with thirty two points. So there's still a lot to
27:43
Speaker 3: be played there and a lot and Providence in fifth
27:46
Speaker 3: has twenty nine points. So they're only eight from from first. Yeah,
27:49
Speaker 3: I you know, at this point, I would never predict,
27:53
Speaker 3: like you asked, who's gonna happen, and I don't know
27:56
Speaker 3: he he's leading the conference, Providence had I'm sorry, Harvard
28:01
Speaker 3: has like two wins or something like that, and they struggle.
28:04
Speaker 3: It's just it, I don't know what's gonna happen on
28:07
Speaker 3: any given day. I'm not sure the teams know what's
28:09
Speaker 3: gonna happen on any given day. I mean, I guess
28:13
Speaker 3: as someone who loves chaos, I'm all about it. But
28:16
Speaker 3: it's also just like, seriously, this is on a platter
28:19
Speaker 3: for you, please like take it.
28:20
Speaker 2: And run with it.
28:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that just it speaks to that
28:24
Speaker 1: there's there's parody there in those teams. No one who's
28:27
Speaker 1: who's you know, running away with anything like we're seeing,
28:31
Speaker 1: you know, is let's say, and uh Atlanta Hockey or
28:35
Speaker 1: w C h A. You're not seeing necessarily a team
28:37
Speaker 1: that's like, Okay, this is clearly your your your best
28:41
Speaker 1: team as of right now. There's it's a little bit
28:45
Speaker 1: of a grab bag there for that spot. And in
28:47
Speaker 1: Hockey East, you could at any point give give that
28:50
Speaker 1: moniker to any number of teams. Really.
28:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that does make it fun, and it's gonna
28:55
Speaker 3: make their because they went to the one one game
28:58
Speaker 3: playoff like they don't they're not doing three game series.
29:01
Speaker 3: So at this point it's clear anybody in that conference
29:05
Speaker 3: can beat anybody else, and so I think that's going
29:08
Speaker 3: to make.
29:08
Speaker 2: It a lot of fun for the conference tournament.
29:11
Speaker 3: But in the meantime, yeah, it's just I don't know
29:15
Speaker 3: what I didn't you know, I don't expect no goals
29:18
Speaker 3: from any of these teams, and so to go out
29:20
Speaker 3: and yeah, I mean kudos to Providence. Man, they played
29:24
Speaker 3: a really good weekend and they clearly were prepared and
29:27
Speaker 3: took advantage of Northeastern having played that extra game. And
29:31
Speaker 3: because I think BC and B you only went out
29:33
Speaker 3: and played one game this weekend instead of doing a
29:36
Speaker 3: two game.
29:36
Speaker 2: Set to sort of help make up for some of that.
29:39
Speaker 3: So yeah, Providence took advantage for sure.
29:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's touch on a couple other things where before
29:47
Speaker 1: we take a quick break in New ha It's things
29:51
Speaker 1: have gotten interesting at top there after Stonehill got a
29:54
Speaker 1: shootout win after a three to three tie at Sacred
29:59
Speaker 1: Heart Last Riding, and then one at Sacred High on
30:02
Speaker 1: Saturday three nothing Alexa Kuran with they thirty two save
30:06
Speaker 1: shut out there in the second game. That puts Sacred
30:09
Speaker 1: Heart and Long Island tied at thirty six points a
30:12
Speaker 1: top the league. And lo and behold, those two teams
30:15
Speaker 1: are playing Saturday and Sunday in a home and home series.
30:18
Speaker 1: So that's that. Those are the kind of things we
30:21
Speaker 1: love to see towards you know, we're getting towards the
30:23
Speaker 1: end of the season. Those are the kind of things
30:25
Speaker 1: that you know, start separating teams and you know, you've
30:28
Speaker 1: got two games here that could really play a big
30:32
Speaker 1: role in the championship race.
30:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's a bit like what we just
30:38
Speaker 3: said with hockey's right, like it just it's what makes
30:40
Speaker 3: it fun. It means that you I mean, we talked
30:42
Speaker 3: about earlier in the season, like one period, one given
30:45
Speaker 3: up goal, like all that stuff can make a difference
30:48
Speaker 3: at the end of the year.
30:49
Speaker 2: And so.
30:51
Speaker 3: You know we were talking about like sort of Clarks
30:52
Speaker 3: this upcoming schedule and that that last weekend being not
30:55
Speaker 3: the the other RINGD teams, Like I love that we're
30:59
Speaker 3: seeing like these team like last week's results.
31:02
Speaker 2: Now put the Sacred.
31:03
Speaker 3: Heart Lau games like Front and Center. So you know,
31:08
Speaker 3: it's amazing to be talking about games having postseason consequences
31:13
Speaker 3: and like sort of being must win and we're still
31:15
Speaker 3: in January. I mean there is only like four to
31:18
Speaker 3: five weeks left depending on the conference, so there aren't
31:22
Speaker 3: that many games. We are nearer to the postseason than
31:25
Speaker 3: you think we are. But also like, yes, are we
31:27
Speaker 3: talking like or tie on January twenty fifth?
31:30
Speaker 2: Amazing?
31:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, that always, you know, hits me at some point
31:34
Speaker 1: in January that you know, as soon as you get
31:37
Speaker 1: back from the break, it's like, Okay, that's two months
31:40
Speaker 1: and that's it. We're done with the regular season, so
31:42
Speaker 1: that that really becomes a race when you get into
31:46
Speaker 1: the you know, in the second half of January, you're
31:49
Speaker 1: you're coming down to it. It's getting to be pretty
31:52
Speaker 1: important times in the regular season there.
31:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sort of really hit me, right because I
31:56
Speaker 3: missed those couple of weeks too, being overseas, so I
31:59
Speaker 3: was sort of organizing this weekend and getting my ducks
32:02
Speaker 3: in a row and sort of presetting up some things,
32:05
Speaker 3: and so I was like looking at at dates and
32:07
Speaker 3: like and I'm like, oh, that's that's four weeks from now. Great, Yeah, awesome,
32:13
Speaker 3: that's when did that happen. It's always amazing to me
32:16
Speaker 3: when like we're like, this is the longest season and
32:18
Speaker 3: then also like, oh it's almost over. But yeah, that's
32:23
Speaker 3: for me. It was It came this week when I
32:24
Speaker 3: was trying to over the weekend sort of reacclimate myself
32:27
Speaker 3: to the college game after having not been able to
32:30
Speaker 3: watch a lot for a couple of weeks, and I
32:32
Speaker 3: was like, oh, yeah, wow, that's that's a month. So
32:37
Speaker 3: uh great, not at all stressful. No, No, it does
32:43
Speaker 3: mean Yeah, it means good things. It's it's means excited hockey.
32:47
Speaker 3: It means these games matter even more, and uh it
32:50
Speaker 3: means great things for the fans.
32:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. In Atlantic hockey, one more to touch on before
32:56
Speaker 1: we go. Pensant has has pulled away from from Mercyhurst
33:01
Speaker 1: a top of the league. They're nine points clear in
33:04
Speaker 1: first place, but last Friday they needed the Nittany Lions
33:08
Speaker 1: needed one nothing overtime win over Syracuse to get that.
33:11
Speaker 1: Don Caitlin Roberts with the goal three minutes into the
33:15
Speaker 1: extra session, and that's I mean, kind of gives you
33:18
Speaker 1: the impression though that you know, even though a team
33:21
Speaker 1: is clearly the number one in the league. It doesn't
33:25
Speaker 1: mean those games aren't gonna be are gonna be easy
33:27
Speaker 1: for them. They're gonna have to, uh, you know, they're
33:30
Speaker 1: gonna have some teams gunning for them. When when you've
33:32
Speaker 1: kind of established yourself as the top of the league.
33:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, and shout out Syracuse goalie Ellie Kelly, who became
33:39
Speaker 3: the new NCAA leader in SABS.
33:42
Speaker 2: I would imagine she played.
33:43
Speaker 3: A big part in the Penn State needing overtime to
33:47
Speaker 3: win on Friday. But yeah, that's that's it's just this
33:51
Speaker 3: crazy number because she's you just have to face some anymore.
33:56
Speaker 3: It's one of those numbers, like the previous holder was
33:59
Speaker 3: Louis's slander from RPI. So yeah, it's just this crazy number.
34:04
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I don't have it right in front of me,
34:05
Speaker 3: but shouted out to the ali for doing that, Like
34:07
Speaker 3: it's I can't imagine facing the barrage of shots that
34:12
Speaker 3: you have to face to set that record, and you know,
34:17
Speaker 3: she's obviously still got games to go, right, all.
34:22
Speaker 1: Right, that's look at last week. When we come back,
34:24
Speaker 1: we're going to take a look at where the brackets
34:26
Speaker 1: stand as of right now. And then ahead to what's
34:29
Speaker 1: coming up this weekend. Stay with us on the podcast.
34:41
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Molusky and Nicole Hasey
34:43
Speaker 1: here wrapping it up for this week. I want to
34:46
Speaker 1: mention a couple of things you can read on us
34:47
Speaker 1: cho dot com. Some awards, watch lists and nominees are
34:52
Speaker 1: out in the last week. The Hockey Humanitarian Award as
34:55
Speaker 1: announced fourteen nominees for this year's award for the College
35:00
Speaker 1: Hockey Finest Citizen. It's a great ward. I know, Nicole,
35:04
Speaker 1: you've written a lot in the past about some of
35:06
Speaker 1: those nominees and finalists and it's really really humbling to
35:12
Speaker 1: read about and hear about what a lot of college
35:14
Speaker 1: athletes are able to do outside of the rink in
35:19
Speaker 1: helping their communities. And I know you've seen a lot
35:23
Speaker 1: of those over the years.
35:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
35:24
Speaker 3: It's like you said, it's humbling and just sort of
35:27
Speaker 3: on inspiring, and like I always say, like, think about
35:29
Speaker 3: what you were like at twenty one and now these
35:31
Speaker 3: are elite athletes that are also students at top universities,
35:36
Speaker 3: and then they're like, also, let me spend all of
35:38
Speaker 3: my free time volunteering and making the world better in
35:41
Speaker 3: myriad ways it is. I mean I consistently say that
35:47
Speaker 3: like women talking about like I'm just always so in awe.
35:51
Speaker 3: There's so many stories that need to be told, like
35:53
Speaker 3: they're just there's so many cool, badass ladies doing stuff
35:56
Speaker 3: that more people should know about. And like I said,
35:59
Speaker 3: I think it's for me. It's about thinking about like
36:01
Speaker 3: what I was, like a fat age and and and
36:03
Speaker 3: just so impressive how organized and giving of themselves they
36:08
Speaker 3: are and and these are sort of you know, the
36:11
Speaker 3: people the top tier. But there isn't a college athlete
36:15
Speaker 3: or a collegiate hockey player that isn't doing something with
36:18
Speaker 3: their team, right. They all, they all hold clinics, they
36:20
Speaker 3: all go to hospitals, they all. That's just a part
36:23
Speaker 3: of what it means to be a student athlete in
36:26
Speaker 3: this day and age. But I like, yeah, I think
36:28
Speaker 3: if you are, you know, feeling like you need to
36:31
Speaker 3: remember about humanity and the humanity of people and and
36:35
Speaker 3: a little uplifting ego and read some of We do
36:38
Speaker 3: have profiles of them every year of the finalists, and
36:42
Speaker 3: so the last few years will be up obviously on
36:45
Speaker 3: us c h O and you can find those and
36:47
Speaker 3: several of the people this year are repeat nominees. But yeah,
36:50
Speaker 3: I just, uh, I'm always humbled and impressed and I
36:54
Speaker 3: just think they're they're sort of the best of us.
36:58
Speaker 2: And it's uh, it's worth of taking your time to read.
37:00
Speaker 2: And also.
37:04
Speaker 3: I just think it's it's always really cool to be
37:05
Speaker 3: able to sort of humanize the players beyond them being athletes.
37:09
Speaker 3: Even sort of when we talk to to players here,
37:11
Speaker 3: we talk to them about their game, so it might
37:15
Speaker 3: be beyond, you know, a little bit beyond. But to
37:17
Speaker 3: talk to a player who, you know, who is doing
37:21
Speaker 3: soil work in foreign countries because they want to be,
37:25
Speaker 3: you know, a scientist in the future. It's not just
37:28
Speaker 3: about like volunteering to volunteer. Some of it is like
37:30
Speaker 3: sort of even further and like they're going to go
37:32
Speaker 3: into policy work and things like that, and you just
37:35
Speaker 3: it's it's a good reminder that these just aren't athletes
37:38
Speaker 3: or they're hockey players, but just so the depth of
37:44
Speaker 3: some of these players is just really impressive.
37:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely thrilled at us cho dot Com has been
37:50
Speaker 1: a partner of the Hockey Humanitarian Foundation for a lot
37:53
Speaker 1: of years and love love seeing that come out every
37:57
Speaker 1: year and then getting to hear more about those stories
37:59
Speaker 1: and then seeing the presentation that the men's Frozen four
38:02
Speaker 1: in April is always really cool. But one of the
38:05
Speaker 1: other awards that had a watch list come out last
38:08
Speaker 1: week was the National Women's Goalie of the Year Award
38:13
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five, and that watch list is determined
38:16
Speaker 1: by you qualify by having a goals against below a
38:22
Speaker 1: certain number or a safe percentage above a certain number,
38:25
Speaker 1: and it ended up being thirty three goalies on that list,
38:29
Speaker 1: and Nicole, I know you have some thoughts about that
38:31
Speaker 1: because you can read them all on usho dot com,
38:35
Speaker 1: But I don't know that that really necessarily narrows down
38:38
Speaker 1: anything for us in terms of the Goalie of the Year.
38:40
Speaker 3: No, bless their hearts, and I don't want to take
38:43
Speaker 3: anything away from the players that were named to it.
38:45
Speaker 3: But also there are forty one teams women's T one
38:49
Speaker 3: college hockey and I believe fifty two women that have
38:51
Speaker 3: played at least one game in NET and the watch
38:55
Speaker 3: list was thirty three, So yeah, absolutely, Like I think
39:00
Speaker 3: it's something all of them have goals against below two
39:03
Speaker 3: point something. I don't remember the exact number, which is
39:07
Speaker 3: super impressive and amazing and I don't want to take
39:09
Speaker 3: away from that, but also, as you said, I don't
39:12
Speaker 3: think that watch lists narrowed down for us who are
39:14
Speaker 3: going to be the finalists or who who's the top
39:16
Speaker 3: goaltender in the country, So that it was both like,
39:22
Speaker 3: I'm glad for those players to be recognized and also
39:24
Speaker 3: what are we doing.
39:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we'll get into that a little bit
39:28
Speaker 1: more of terms of in terms of narrowing down you know,
39:31
Speaker 1: what we're thinking about for awards for the goalie for
39:33
Speaker 1: the Patty Caz. Eventually this season we're still a few
39:37
Speaker 1: weeks out from from really seeing you know, more complete
39:41
Speaker 1: resumes in their place, so we'll get to that. But
39:45
Speaker 1: you know, I understand this is a bit of a
39:49
Speaker 1: marketing thing too, because you had every yeah, had a
39:55
Speaker 1: press release able to go out and something go on
39:57
Speaker 1: their website about how their their goalie is on a
39:59
Speaker 1: watch and so that's, Yeah, it works, and a lot
40:03
Speaker 1: of these done are done. And think of college football,
40:05
Speaker 1: they are watch lists that are out before the season
40:07
Speaker 1: before anyone valid Yeah. I've always kind of chuckled at
40:11
Speaker 1: those like, yeah, okay, that's great, but let's let's watch
40:15
Speaker 1: this play out please.
40:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel bad reggan on it a little, just
40:20
Speaker 3: because I don't want to take away from the players.
40:22
Speaker 3: But yes, my thought when I saw that was like
40:24
Speaker 3: thirty three. It was kind of like, you know, I
40:30
Speaker 3: saw it in passing while I was in Finland and
40:32
Speaker 3: had a chuckle and I said, I said that to
40:35
Speaker 3: Todd like kind of as soon as me we got
40:36
Speaker 3: on before we started recording, because I was like, I
40:38
Speaker 3: needed somebody that would understand why Like that was my reaction,
40:42
Speaker 3: because I just, oh, yeah, but you know, I think
40:46
Speaker 3: it's important, I think to recognize the really, you know,
40:51
Speaker 3: the high level. I just there are plenty of goalies
40:54
Speaker 3: and you know, not an NCAD when women's talking that
40:57
Speaker 3: would like goals against averages or say centers is that low?
41:00
Speaker 3: So it speaks to the quality of the players in
41:04
Speaker 3: the league and all of that. But yes, but also
41:07
Speaker 3: I can find it silly and laugh a little.
41:10
Speaker 1: Ye, find the joy where you can, that's correct, Yes,
41:13
Speaker 1: all right, let's find some joy in bracketology for this week.
41:18
Speaker 1: This is something I've been doing for a little while.
41:21
Speaker 2: See is this for anybody else?
41:22
Speaker 1: But you probably not, But hey, let's mention some teams
41:25
Speaker 1: and what might some brackets might look like. But I guess,
41:29
Speaker 1: first off, this is you know, purely hypothetical this season
41:33
Speaker 1: too early. Yeah, and it it changes, you know, day
41:38
Speaker 1: to day sometimes week the week obviously in terms of
41:40
Speaker 1: where the pair wise rankings are. But if you start
41:45
Speaker 1: going down the list, it's you know, pretty simple to
41:47
Speaker 1: put things into the bracket the way it shakes out,
41:50
Speaker 1: and it seems really simple this week the way that
41:54
Speaker 1: it looks because you've got three of the top four
41:57
Speaker 1: teams being from the w c H. You've got in
41:59
Speaker 1: the pair I got Wisconsin at one, Ohio State at two,
42:02
Speaker 1: Minnesota three, and then Cornell moved in the four ahead
42:05
Speaker 1: of Minnesota du Luth after the Bulldogs lost two games
42:08
Speaker 1: last week in Cornell won two. So the Luth at
42:11
Speaker 1: fifth would be playing at number four Cornell in the
42:15
Speaker 1: first round or the second round. Sorry the they you
42:18
Speaker 1: know they because that's the one that doesn't play first
42:23
Speaker 1: round game. Yep. Because of the eleven team tournament. And
42:28
Speaker 1: then the way it would shake out to me, it
42:30
Speaker 1: seems like you have Saint Lawrence at eight playing Boston
42:36
Speaker 1: College in ninth and that one going on at Wisconsin.
42:42
Speaker 1: Then the Ohio State Regional would be Penn State number
42:47
Speaker 1: seven against number ten. And this is where I might
42:50
Speaker 1: be different than some other people. I have BU in
42:53
Speaker 1: at ten because I go by the the current points
42:57
Speaker 1: percentage across the league to an automatic bid. We don't
43:02
Speaker 1: know that'll be that's the conference champion at the end
43:05
Speaker 1: of the point. Right now, BU has the best points percentage,
43:09
Speaker 1: and so I put them in the tournament, which knocks
43:11
Speaker 1: out a team in tenth of the pair wise, which
43:17
Speaker 1: I believe is Quinnipiac would be in if there was
43:21
Speaker 1: only one Hockey East team, that being Boston College and ninth,
43:26
Speaker 1: but obviously a lot to play out there. So had
43:31
Speaker 1: Penn State BU playing at Ohio State in the winner
43:34
Speaker 1: to play the Buckeyes. That leaves Colgate and six against
43:38
Speaker 1: Long Island the new Hall leader by number of wins.
43:43
Speaker 1: I believe was the difference that I had because they're
43:46
Speaker 1: tied in everything else and they split the earlier series,
43:49
Speaker 1: so had to go deep in some tiebreakers there to
43:51
Speaker 1: come up with who would be the new HAW representative
43:54
Speaker 1: in this.
43:55
Speaker 3: Six Just to call back to a state, how important
43:58
Speaker 3: games this weekend should be?
44:00
Speaker 1: This weekend? Oh, of course if they split, maybe not.
44:02
Speaker 1: But we'll see six col Gay against eleven Long Island
44:06
Speaker 1: and then the winner to play three Minnesota in Minneapolis,
44:09
Speaker 1: which of course is the site of the Frozen Four
44:11
Speaker 1: as well this year. So it's it'll be different next week,
44:17
Speaker 1: it'll be different five, seven weeks from now, whenever the
44:21
Speaker 1: selection show is. But it's starting to take some shape
44:25
Speaker 1: of I think I mentioned last week or the week
44:28
Speaker 1: before that the top four teams at that point were
44:30
Speaker 1: all from the wh which really made it a West
44:34
Speaker 1: heavy hosting. Obviously that's changed a little bit where now
44:39
Speaker 1: Cornell uped into the four spot, gets to host that
44:42
Speaker 1: second round game. So I don't know there's a lot
44:46
Speaker 1: to learn there, but it's it's just an interesting exercise
44:49
Speaker 1: to get us through some of these January days.
44:52
Speaker 3: No, I think there's a couple of things. One is
44:53
Speaker 3: that Parois right now looks pretty different than the polls,
44:56
Speaker 3: which I think is interesting just sort of maybe perception,
45:00
Speaker 3: but like the entire year at Cornell has been ranked
45:03
Speaker 3: below Colgate in the polls, but pairwise has them up
45:06
Speaker 3: at four, which is I just think interesting. And like
45:10
Speaker 3: we said, we saw the movement with Clerkson and then
45:13
Speaker 3: I had a question someone asked me on social media
45:15
Speaker 3: about like does pairwise, pairwise versus NPI, and so we
45:19
Speaker 3: just wanted to talk a little bit about that. Yes,
45:22
Speaker 3: they are technically sort of two different things. They just
45:25
Speaker 3: so happened to have very closely related and matched.
45:28
Speaker 2: To each other.
45:29
Speaker 4: Is that like the best way to the past couple
45:31
Speaker 4: of years.
45:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, we haven't really seen the pairwise differ much from
45:36
Speaker 1: the NPI. The NPI is a one of the components
45:40
Speaker 1: of the pairwise So you're comparing every team or each
45:44
Speaker 1: team to every other team in the country, and that
45:47
Speaker 1: makes the pairwise ranking. So the number of comparisons you
45:50
Speaker 1: win based on the criteria is how many pairwise points
45:54
Speaker 1: you have if you want to look at.
45:55
Speaker 2: That criteria, MPI being one of those.
45:58
Speaker 1: NPI being one of those, head to head results being
46:03
Speaker 1: one of those, and record against common opponents. If I'm
46:06
Speaker 1: remembering it right, I'm going through the manual as you speak,
46:10
Speaker 1: because I always forget about if there's anything different a
46:14
Speaker 1: year to year, and so those were the things that
46:16
Speaker 1: I remembered. So NPI had to head record versus counterpoints.
46:20
Speaker 1: Those are the three things that get comparison. If there's
46:23
Speaker 1: a tie in in those of the NPI is what matters.
46:28
Speaker 1: So that's where NPI has a little bit of an
46:30
Speaker 1: outsized weight to the way things go in the pair
46:38
Speaker 1: wise because if it ends up being even there, you're
46:42
Speaker 1: going with whoever's head in the NPI anyway. So there
46:46
Speaker 1: are some I know, Nicole, you wrote something a couple
46:49
Speaker 1: of years ago, we could probably we change from what
46:53
Speaker 1: this means and how it all plays out, and so
46:55
Speaker 1: we can link to that too in the non.
46:57
Speaker 3: Math person's explanation of the math. Uh yeah, I think, yeah,
47:02
Speaker 3: I just maybe it's goning go just a little more.
47:03
Speaker 1: So.
47:03
Speaker 3: This is how the at large teams are selected, Like
47:05
Speaker 3: there will be a ton of teams that earn auto
47:09
Speaker 3: bids by winning their conference tournament, and then the rest
47:11
Speaker 3: of the teams in the in the tournament, I receive
47:16
Speaker 3: at large bids and those bids are given by a
47:19
Speaker 3: committee and they use the NPI and pairwise to make
47:23
Speaker 3: those decisions. They have pretty closely followed those numbers the
47:29
Speaker 3: past few years. But uh, it's we're not that far
47:32
Speaker 3: away from them not doing that. So it's one of
47:34
Speaker 3: those things that we never quite know if the committee,
47:38
Speaker 3: and we did talk to someone from the NCA last year,
47:40
Speaker 3: we do expect them to mostly follow that. But yeah,
47:42
Speaker 3: so to some extent when we're talking, pair wise is
47:46
Speaker 3: a little interchangeable with NPI, but that is just because
47:50
Speaker 3: those numbers have so closely followed each other. Technically, NPI
47:54
Speaker 3: is a component of pair wise, and pair wise is
47:58
Speaker 3: what it is. I should I guess we should say
48:01
Speaker 3: our best guests because we technically don't know, right, it's
48:04
Speaker 3: our best guess of the calculation that the committee uses
48:08
Speaker 3: to create their own rankings.
48:10
Speaker 1: We've been Yeah, it's u s c h O dot
48:14
Speaker 1: Com has a basically a replica of what the committee uses,
48:20
Speaker 1: and that's what we call the pairwise rankings and has
48:23
Speaker 1: become basically they default in college hockey of being known
48:27
Speaker 1: as pairwise rankings because that's the system that they use
48:31
Speaker 1: and have used for for many years. I don't know
48:34
Speaker 1: that the seating can be different or the matchups the
48:40
Speaker 1: community can change, but they're pretty strict on saying that
48:43
Speaker 1: you have to go by the pairwise.
48:45
Speaker 4: For We talked about that as a hypothetical last year.
48:49
Speaker 1: There are some there's some language that still exists in the.
48:53
Speaker 4: Right, which is why we asked about it.
48:55
Speaker 1: Right in the criteria, it says in situations where a
49:01
Speaker 1: high impact player is unavailable to the committee. They consider
49:03
Speaker 1: this as part of its evaluation of the above criteria.
49:06
Speaker 1: But I have never seen that actually use that don't
49:08
Speaker 1: remember that ever having been used, and so I don't
49:12
Speaker 1: think that's a real anything to be can sit to
49:19
Speaker 1: really think about, Yeah, thinking about this, right, there's a
49:23
Speaker 1: lot to think about, But I don't think that's what
49:25
Speaker 1: that's that's.
49:26
Speaker 3: Part of it, right, agreed, And I just I'm looking
49:30
Speaker 3: back for the date. But we did speak to someone
49:31
Speaker 3: from the NCAA committee last year around this time to
49:36
Speaker 3: you know, to sort of ask some of these questions
49:38
Speaker 3: because we did have like we had a situation where
49:41
Speaker 3: it was possible that like they could choose like the
49:45
Speaker 3: teams that the sort of last in teams were so
49:49
Speaker 3: close that we were we were asking whether or not
49:53
Speaker 3: sort of things could change, right.
49:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we were told that, you know, this is
49:57
Speaker 1: what's been set up for them, and they are they
50:00
Speaker 1: told that this is what you use. And so there's
50:03
Speaker 1: no question about that. If the numbers go on your
50:07
Speaker 1: favor you're in. If they don't, sorry you didn't do enough.
50:11
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of the black and white of it.
50:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's episode sixteen talking NCAA Tournament selections of committee
50:17
Speaker 3: chaer Jeremy Gibson from March six, twenty twenty four.
50:20
Speaker 2: So, yeah, if you.
50:21
Speaker 3: Want to scroll back in our in our history and
50:23
Speaker 3: you have questions sort of about the committee selection and
50:26
Speaker 3: how that all happens, that's a good sort of recap.
50:29
Speaker 1: On that, which reminds me, I believe the committee is
50:33
Speaker 1: going to have to have a new chair this year.
50:41
Speaker 1: I thought I heard that Jeremy Gibson was no longer
50:44
Speaker 1: the chair of that, and I've reminds me I have
50:47
Speaker 1: to check on that, so stay tuned for that.
50:50
Speaker 3: But that doesn't make what he said in US relevant.
50:53
Speaker 3: I actually thought it was really cool. We reached out
50:54
Speaker 3: to the NCAA and said, hey, we have some questions
50:57
Speaker 3: like who could answer, and they like, they gave us
50:59
Speaker 3: the committee chair fly and nothing was off the table.
51:02
Speaker 3: So that that was pretty cool as far as I
51:04
Speaker 3: was concerned, to really have to ask those questions and
51:07
Speaker 3: have sort of direct answers with sort of no ops skating,
51:11
Speaker 3: you know, and guessing.
51:14
Speaker 1: I was thinking this, I'd heard that. Sorry that, Yeah,
51:20
Speaker 1: Jeremy Gibson had been changing jobs. He's now at Lehigh,
51:24
Speaker 1: so I don't know when exactly that's happening. I know
51:28
Speaker 1: he's introduced recently at Lee High. Former Meryormacker has been
51:34
Speaker 1: at Merrimac for quite a while and that's how he
51:38
Speaker 1: was on the committee and as the chair. But we'll
51:42
Speaker 1: see who fills in or if he's still going through
51:45
Speaker 1: the season. Not sure, we'll have to look into that.
51:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll follow up on that with y'all.
51:50
Speaker 1: All right, let's look ahead to what is coming this
51:53
Speaker 1: week in NCA hockey. I want to start with a
51:58
Speaker 1: wh series Sink Cloud at Wisconsin Saint Clouds. It's still
52:05
Speaker 1: trying to find the consistent form that is going to
52:10
Speaker 1: get them competing for a top four spot. I don't
52:13
Speaker 1: I don't know that that is coming this season. We're
52:16
Speaker 1: still uh thinking that they're on the rise. I think,
52:21
Speaker 1: I mean that that's my perception, but I don't create
52:23
Speaker 1: how far that rise goes necessarily.
52:26
Speaker 3: But a little like what we said with Brown, I mean,
52:28
Speaker 3: they but Midgiesty gave them a lot this weekend and
52:30
Speaker 3: they came out of it with two wins. So I
52:32
Speaker 3: think you know, you can, you can nippick a lot
52:35
Speaker 3: of the stuff, but ultimately coming from behind and getting
52:37
Speaker 3: the two wins is, like we said, the marker of
52:41
Speaker 3: a team, you know, maybe one of those separators in
52:43
Speaker 3: those tight games, and you must win games when you're
52:46
Speaker 3: in a fight, you have you you pull those out.
52:48
Speaker 3: That that says something, So we'll see, right. I mean,
52:53
Speaker 3: Wisconsin's been sort of ridiculous, especially I think they just
52:57
Speaker 3: keep getting strong. I mean the eleven one win over
52:59
Speaker 3: Saint Thomas uh was a lot so I uh yeah,
53:07
Speaker 3: it's not easy for any team against them. It's not
53:09
Speaker 3: easy for any team in Labon. So between those two,
53:13
Speaker 3: but Saint Cloud also has a history of stifling the
53:16
Speaker 3: Badgers even in Madison, and their goaltending has been.
53:20
Speaker 1: Some of the best, right. That's what always makes that
53:23
Speaker 1: compelling is that Saint Cloud has always found a way
53:26
Speaker 1: to hold down the Badgers, regardless of how good the
53:30
Speaker 1: Badgers have been offensively. Saint Clouds has been there with
53:33
Speaker 1: a shoutout or a one goal two goal game or
53:36
Speaker 1: something like that to make it seem like, well, okay,
53:40
Speaker 1: don't don't automatically include this as yeah.
53:44
Speaker 3: This is agreed, it'll be interesting. I Mean the sort
53:48
Speaker 3: of game that sticks out was that fill the role
53:50
Speaker 3: that Jojo Chobac had that massive game, and she hasn't
53:52
Speaker 3: really been playing for Saint Cloud, so uh yeah, it'll
53:55
Speaker 3: be interesting to see. I know, you know, they've had
53:57
Speaker 3: some injuries and stuff and what how what Saint Cloud
54:00
Speaker 3: goes with in net I think will be an interesting
54:03
Speaker 3: tell for them this weekend.
54:04
Speaker 1: Right in ECAC Saint we mentioned this before, Saint Lawrence
54:10
Speaker 1: and Clarkson with a home and home series Friday and Saturday.
54:13
Speaker 1: Uh Saint Lawrence, well both they seems lost to Brown
54:18
Speaker 1: last week and so there's a little bit of picking
54:22
Speaker 1: up to trying to do, I think more on on
54:25
Speaker 1: the Clarkson side, to to really see what what they're
54:31
Speaker 1: made of. In a lot of ways. You get into
54:33
Speaker 1: this rivalry series and you know, big important points online,
54:37
Speaker 1: important uh in pon pairwise points on the line too.
54:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
54:41
Speaker 3: I mean that's the only ECC game with two ranked teams.
54:44
Speaker 3: But Yale and Brown showed us last week that the
54:47
Speaker 3: their games with Quinnipiac and Princeton this weekend are definitely
54:51
Speaker 3: going to be more interesting than maybe I thought. Princeton's
54:54
Speaker 3: one of those teams where you know, like we talked
54:56
Speaker 3: a few weeks ago when they had that twenty some goal,
54:59
Speaker 3: h you know series, and then you know they they've
55:03
Speaker 3: dropped a couple of games again, and so they're currently
55:05
Speaker 3: sitting what thirteenth in the rankings? I guess, I don't
55:08
Speaker 3: know what in pair wise, Princess down at fifteen in
55:11
Speaker 3: the pairwise, but yeah, I mean arguably they are. They're
55:14
Speaker 3: also still contending and hoping to be a postseason team,
55:17
Speaker 3: as as Quinnipiac. So those are those are tougher games
55:22
Speaker 3: than maybe we would have thought a few weeks ago,
55:24
Speaker 3: knowing what Brown and You have been able to do
55:26
Speaker 3: the last couple of weeks.
55:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and thinking about you know, where teams are in
55:33
Speaker 1: the pairwise, We're talking about Saint Lawrence and Clarkston. Saint
55:35
Speaker 1: Lawrence at eight, Clarkton at eleven. So I'm not loving
55:41
Speaker 1: if I'm either one of those teams. Yeah, neither, Yeah,
55:45
Speaker 1: because it doesn't take much, especially if you don't win
55:49
Speaker 1: your last game, It doesn't take much to drop a
55:52
Speaker 1: few spots. So lot to be playing for U for
55:57
Speaker 1: both those teams here as these next couple of weeks happen.
56:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, not only are you talking about like not being
56:02
Speaker 3: able to get the win points, but like when you
56:04
Speaker 3: if you if you exit early in your tournament, then
56:07
Speaker 3: the other teams are playing while you're just sitting there
56:09
Speaker 3: on your uh in your number. If that's that's not
56:11
Speaker 3: an ideal position to be either.
56:14
Speaker 1: We'd mentioned the bean Pod final and the third place
56:16
Speaker 1: game coming up. We'd mentioned the Sacred Heart Long Island,
56:19
Speaker 1: a massive series in New ha uh to to keep
56:23
Speaker 1: an eye on this weekend. What else do you have
56:25
Speaker 1: an eye on as we go forward?
56:27
Speaker 3: BC at Providence in Connecticut at Vermont this weekend? I think, yeah, hockey.
56:32
Speaker 3: I think every every weekend in Hockey East is going
56:35
Speaker 3: to be is going to be interesting. And just again,
56:38
Speaker 3: we we sort of seen the ups and downs from
56:40
Speaker 3: these different teams. If Providence was able to do that
56:42
Speaker 3: to Northeastern last weekend, what are they doing to Boston
56:44
Speaker 3: College this weekend? So yeah, for me, the the Hockey
56:48
Speaker 3: East games or some of some of the must watch ones, well.
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Speaker 1: It should be another good weekend. We hope you enjoyed
56:54
Speaker 1: and we hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of the podcast.
56:57
Speaker 1: For Nicole Hasey on Todd Maluski, thanks for joining us.
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Speaker 1: We will talk to you next week.