Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / 11 teams left, 10 games to go: Looking ahead to the NCAA women's hockey tournament

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11 teams left, 10 games to go: Looking ahead to the NCAA women's hockey tournament · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Uscho dot com. Hi, and welcome to the podcast on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Todd Bleski here with Nicole Hosey from USO dot com. Nicole,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we are down to the final eleven teams in the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: NCAA tournament. They will play starting on Thursday, regional finals
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: on Saturday to determine the Frozen Four. It is an
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: exciting time of the year. But I want to start
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: with how we got here, because there was it was
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a really compelling week of conference championship games last weekend,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: really semi finals as well throughout the five conferences in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: NCAA women's hockey, and we saw a bunch of games
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that were close. In the championship round. There was one
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that was kind of runaway, couldn't back over Yale five
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to one, but Penn State had to hold off Mercy
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: here As three too. Yukon with the double overtime to
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: beat Northeastern two to one. Franklin Pierce got a late
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: go all to make it to nothing a win over
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Saint Anselm in the New Ha and two one oh
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: howse see it over Wisconsin in a come from behind
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: fashion late in the third period in the WHA championship game.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: This is I feel like really setting us up for
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: a pretty good regional round of hockey, given that these
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: teams have pretty much all been involved in some pretty
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: close games lately.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I sure hope. So right like the it feels
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: like it either means were up for some really great
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: games or like that was it. It's one of the two,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and I feel like there's no in between. But yeah,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: like we're we have ten games left. It's it's kind
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: of hard to believe and kind of disappointing after like,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: this is such a good fun time of year with
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: all of those good games that I don't want to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: think about it ending sometime soon. But I loved last
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: week with all those semi finals spread out, so every
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: night there was you know, college hockey to watch. We've complained,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: you know, quite a bit about games happening at the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: same time, and a couple of the quarterfinals all happened
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: at the same time. So it was nice to see
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: everything sort of get its moment and get a chance
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to get some attention and lots of overtime, lots of fun,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: lots of nail biters in even that Wisconsin Ohio State game.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: All through those games came in the final goals came
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: in the final ten minutes. So yeah's lots to talk about.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: We were here last week talking about, you know, what's
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: going to happen over these final few games, and how
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: is the NPI going to react. Well, out of all that,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: there's only one change in positions for the NPI, I
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: know is Ohio State going out Wisconsin at the one spot.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Minnesota luth gets in at ten because of no upsets
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in the conference championships. So the the Bulldogs must have had,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you know, a little bit of a nervous week, but
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: they they get through it. It all comes together for
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: them to get in. So it's the top ten in
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the NPI, plus New how winner Franklin Pierce. Let's let's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: start with I guess let's start with ACAC because that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: was the one kind of outlier game in that it
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: was more lopsided than the other and other you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit of a finish there where
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: couldn't Pac put it away, but couldn't be back five
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to one over Yale, first title since twenty sixteen for
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the Bobcats. Ella Johnson scores a couple of goals there,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Felicia frank thirty one saves and Felicia Frank I think
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: is going to be a big factor for the Bobcats
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as we get into the NCAA tournament.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I would have to think that Quinnipiac is sort of
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: the sleeper team that everybody should be a little scared of.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Definitely sort of the bottom half of that Bractet team
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that is the most concerning, between kil and La Marsh
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: and Felicia Frank and and sort of what puts able
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: to do with everyone knowing kil and La Marsh is
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: doing what she does and she still just kind of
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: keeps doing it a well. And you know, they were
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: held a little closer in their semi final and then
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: turned around and did what they did in their final,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: and so I feel like after that semi final was like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: uh oh, like are they What's what's going on here?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Just like a little looking ahead, like how are an affair?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: And then then they had that really strong showing and
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I that's uh. I very much looking forward to. Sorry,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Franklin Pierce, I'm assuming Quinnipiac. When's the opening round. I'm
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: very much looking forward to his cuts in Quinnipiac, which
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: we'll we'll talk about later in the show. But I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: just uh, Yeah, I think the Felicia break is probably
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the goalie that hasn't been talked enough of, the goalie left,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the one that we're not talking about enough. She was
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: very good at you eighteen. She's someone I was excited
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to see coming to the NCAA. She's sort of quietly
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: just really been backstopping that team, and I think like
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: that's a defensive first team. Normally in the offense this year,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: that breakout from from Kaalen is sort of an anomaly
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: for them, but them being able to be more offensive
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: is because they've got Felicia break and goal.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the three teams from ACA C Hockey get into
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the NCAA Dolly Tournament, both Quinnipiac and Yale. And then
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: also I am blanking the third team you though it's
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: right in front of me, Princeton here. Thank You's weeks
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: where it's like there's too many names in my head
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm going to say the wrong one,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: so I'm searching my paper here and yeah, anyway, nothing
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: is also ian uh, after losing in the semi finals,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: let's let's go to the WHA because you and I
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: were both in Saint Paul to see Ohio State beat
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the Badgers to one for their third WHA tunnel, which
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: is a little crazy this I'll think about that Waia
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: State has won two national championships. This is only the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: third WHA championship in the playoffs, but and.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: The first was in twenty twenty, Like it is wait
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: twenty right, Ryan speaking new Yeah.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: It feels like it has been good forever, right, uh
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: huh right, But they.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Are obviously they're in a big school with a lot
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of resources, and that helps. But I feel like they're
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: a really good model for what happens when you get
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: a coach that cares and people start paying attention and
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: forces the university you pay attention because they were always
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a big school with resources, but nobody was making sure
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: that they utilized them and doing what Nating has done there.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think when I saw that too, like
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I do remember, you know, like I do know that
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the twenty eighteen was their first NC tournament ever and
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: things like that. But yeah, well when they won it,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and I went only twenty twenty was the first one,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Like oh my goodness.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Lacey Eden put the Badges ahead midway through the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: third period. It was a really it was a tight
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: game on the scoreboard, but Ohio State was really controlling.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: It felt like the dictating the style of the game
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: by playing well through the neutral zone, stopping Wisconsin's zone exits.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But the Badges did break through with that Lacey Egen goal,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: but Bakays didn't let it last long. But five minutes
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: later he hill this fence and scored on a really
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: nice redirection and Jordan Baxter scored two when it's three
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: seconds later off of a weird deflection out front. It
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: looked like maybe it got tipped by her teammates, but
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it eventually did go in off of Wisconsin player uh
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to put the buck guy's head. They survived a late
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: power play this time. Last year it didn't go as
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: well for them and got the championship. Hale McLeod made
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: twenty eight saves for the Buck Eyes, a really good
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: tournament for her, and that really defensively as a whole
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the team after a shutout wining the semifls over Minnesota.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Even McNaughton's saved thirty eight for Wisconsin and it really
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: was the reason why Wisconsin was even close in this
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: game for most of it is is is there any
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: concern for you, having seen really a couple of times
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in the last few weeks where Wisconsin has been bottled
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: up offensively by a pretty similar kind of strategy.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the well they we thought by Ohio State, right,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: but we also have seen it from from like Bummidge
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: in some other places as well. I think the concerning thing,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I mean that's Ohio State looked by far the best
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: team in their semi final and their final, like that
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: was Ohio State's game, that it was close was nothing
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: short of a miracle for Wisconsin. I think, you know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: like in postgame, Nadian was all said something about, like
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: we kind of earned that lucky bounce at the end
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: because all of the other really great A shots like
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: ABA had stopped.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, there's a couple of things that they're concerning.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: First of all, none of this is new, like Lemiji
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: does that, Ohio State does that, Like why did Wisconsin
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: seem surprised that that's what they were getting from Wisconsin
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: in that championship team. And then so like there's that
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: there's the preparation of like not seeming to understand what
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: they're gonna get. And then secondarily is the sort of
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: inability to adapt when it does come. It kind of
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: felt like it hit them and Ohio State just kept
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: hitting it and kept putting that port checkout. Wisconsin kept
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, maybe not quite a bit as we've seen
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: some other times. There's some other times, but I feel
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: like they are They're literally gonna take the same path
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: up the ice and you're just like, wow, it wasn't
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: quite that bad. It was there, but it was They
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: did look out of sorts, uh, you know, after their
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: semi or no, maybe it was in the final game.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Mark Johnson said something about like not bringing their a
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: game and I was like, well, that's nuts. In the
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Time Friends title game, like I I know, all of
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: the teams talked that it had players coming back from
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the Olympics, you know, Ohio State, Minnesota all talked about
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: the difficulty of coming back together now like they formed.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: They they the teams had to sort of coal less
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: out of their core with their Olympians gone, and that was,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of their identity and it pushed them
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: through to the end. And now the Olympians are back
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and some of those players that had gotten more time
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: you have to take a back seat now or trying
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: to figure out where to place those all in. Most
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of the teams now have two captains because they named
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: somebody while somebody was gone. And it's just it's been
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: a very strange adjustment back. And just like I think
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: we'll have a state was the team that adjusted the
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: best to losing their Olympians, they also adjusted the back
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: the best to getting them back. But yeah, I I mean,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and if I'm Wisconsin and I'm you know, like a
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Banger fan that was sitting there this weekend, I'm not
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: feeling great about the run to the postseason right now,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: like I'd be scared of quit ap yef and before
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I even think about what would happen in the Frozen four,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: right because I think that they're just they're not. It
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: just wasn't smart hockey. It wasn't what we know they're
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: capable of. And again, like it's concerning to me that
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: they didn't know that was coming and that they weren't
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: prepared for it and then didn't adapt to it. Do
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: you see it any different?
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: No? And I just look at a little bit from
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the Ohio state side as that you know, they've been
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: on this revenge tour for quite a while now, right,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: you could even throw in the semifinal win against Minnesota
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: where they had lost that game last season and Duluthin
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: didn't look very good and I'm sure that came up.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And I just think that they have so many pieces
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: that are going well right now. And it's not just
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: you know, one line or one group. I mean there
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: is a a short bench. I mean, that's what they have.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: They mirror Jungker wasn't able to play in the Saturday
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: championship game and they didn't really have a body to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: put in for they threw out there who they have,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So that to me showed me.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: That and still looksulate.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, And so there's a lot of things going
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: right for a house date right now, and I feel
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: like they've got to be just like incredibly confident with
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: what they can put out there right now, which is
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a great way to go into the NCAA tournament. And
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: you know, Wisconsin does have some questions, not to say
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: that they can't answer them, but they they've got questions
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to take into the tournament now. So that's where that stands.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Moving on to Hockey East, this was a long one
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: ninety five minutes twenty three seconds. Yukon wins two to
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: one at home in double overtime, even though Northeastern was
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the higher seed. Northeastern does not have a home, so
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: this was game was played at Yukon. The second Hockey
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: East title for Yukon, the other one coming in twenty
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: twenty four. Kila Josephovic with the goal in double overtime.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Some of these numbers were really kind of crazy. The
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: blocks in this game Yukon thirty nine Northeastern twenty five,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: fifty seven saves for Yukon. Northeastern's Lacy Johnson made fifty
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: four safe. So it's not like it was a low
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: shot game with a lot of blocks though. There were
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: just a lot of a lot of both a lot
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: of shots on goal, lots of blocks tells you that
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of you know, this wasn't your
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: classic too one game or one nothing kind of game.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It was a there there was chances here.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: There were I think honestly coming out of this like
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Yukon might be the loser in that, like they've got
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to go play a first big game now after that
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: double overtime. You know, I and traveling. You know, one
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: of the things that I was thinking when you said
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: about Wisconsin is like Wisconsin doesn't pay and Thursday and
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: they get to stay at home. There's no actually travel,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: so like they have extra time to figure their stuff
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: out and if there's anything to figure out for some
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: of these other teams, like they're probably traveling by Tuesday
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: for those Thursday games. So yeah, you can better hope
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: they recovery regimen is as good as possible, because that
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: was a heck of a long game. Well thought, it's physical,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was that was fun hockey. We were
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: watching the overtime after in the press room as we
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: were all finishing up our writing after the the wh
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: postgame pressers and uh yeah, sitting around wondering what's gonna
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: happen there. I I don't know if it was a
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: battle of attrition for good defense or it wasn't like
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: really bad shots or bad shot choices that were going
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: into shins and you know, going right at the goalie.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: We didn't get to watch enough of it for that,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: So that would be my one question mark in terms
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: of that high those high shot numbers and blocks and
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: saves and a two one game.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Right yeah, right now. Northeastern went into this game with
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the possibility of taking the number four overall seed and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: then a hosting rights if they had won. We never
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: got confirmation that they put in a bid to host.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I believe they did, but never couldn't. No one would
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: confirm that from an official source, but we had heard
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: that if they had won the game, Walter Brown Available
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was potentially the site for that regional final game. Doesn't
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: matter now it's going to be at Ritter Arena in Minneapolis.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Northeastern missed out on a chance there and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: they know how close they were to staying home not
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: having to travel, and that that makes a difference. You know,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you can say what you want about not having a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: real home, but not having to travel I think does
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: make a difference.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and playing at Ritter is no easy tap either.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: It's not traveling anywhere, it's traveling to the go first. Yeah.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: It was very interesting on Saturday that the two teams
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that probably were the biggest winners were Minnesota and Minnesota
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Duluth who did not play, and one of the bigger
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: losers was in terms of like what was coming next
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: was Yukon, who did win a championship, So unfortunate for
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: them and you know, nice for both Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth. Yeah,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: that's also going to be a really interesting game that
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: that Minnesota Northeastern game. I think it's going to be
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: super interesting, just kind of a different style, two different
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: goalie styles as well, and how they match up. So
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: uh yeah, I think both of those teams are just
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: gonna have a lot of recovery and work to do
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: in terms of you know, they just played a game
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: in a two third, They played ninety five minutes and
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: they the toughest time of the year, and so being
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: promparted and sort of coming back, you know, Northeastern just
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: has to sort of get their confidence back and really, yes,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: they lost a tough game, but they're still playing. So
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: how they sort of handle that moving forward, that's just
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: a different it's a different mindset that it takes. And
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: if it's not something you're super used to doing, Northeastern
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: is used to winning. I'm will be interested to see
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: if we see any sort of like lingering effects of that.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Sure Over in Atlantic Hockey America, Penn State won its
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: fourth straight championship, well fourth straight playoff championship. A couple
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: of them were college in America. I know, they won
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: their fourth straight conference playoff championship three to two over
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Mercy Hears. It got dicey at the end for the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Nidney Allions, who led three to nothing, and then the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Lakers cut it to three to two late in the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: third with an extra attacker goal. It got a little
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: heated after the buzzer too. Madison Nelson for Mercy Hears
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: ended up getting five for a face mask, five for
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: leaving the bench, and a game misconduct and a game disqualification,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: so she's out for the first game of next season.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: On the Penn State side, Tested Janige got five for
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: face mask and a game misconduct, which I had to
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: go look this up to make sure it was her
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: second of the season, which if it had been her third,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: to think about that, she would have been out for
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the regional final, which is cutting things a little bit
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: too close there. It's weird to think about, but it's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Penn State's conference to win. We've known that for a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: while and they got it done. The margin was maybe
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit closer than we thought it was going
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to be at the end, yeah.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: I mean they were in either way, but their home
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: they get to you know, there were so many things
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: on the line for them. In terms of you know,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: we talked about this early in the year, Like it's
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: just very clear that hosting the Frozen Four this year,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: they wanted to be able to be there, and they
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: wanted to go to host a quarterfinal, and so all
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: those those ducks have lined up in a row for them.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I don't know if there was
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: if it's about Mercy Hurst having their back against the
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: wall and nothing to lose, or if pen Stick a
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: little complacent. Penn State's such an interesting story, right, Like
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: they're four straight, Like that lines up with the four
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: years Testa Jammick he's been there. That's not a coincidence.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: But the team, you know, this year, like I really
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: feel like she has lifted, not just her, but like
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: the whole team has just gotten better over the years.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: You know, the first couple of years they made Dancy
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: a tournament, we were like, okay, like we're not sure,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: and then we you know, they lost in overtime and
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: some of that sort of stuff. But like they're definitely
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: a team to contend with. I think it'll be very
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: interesting to see. You know, they played a great non
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: conference schedule, but it's been a while since they've played
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: a non ag team, so they're going to be in
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: a really interesting position. But being at home certainly helps.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, it does sense, and will continue to be at
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: home as long as they keep playing the season. The
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: last one to get decided on Saturday night was the
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: New Hot champion, Franklin Pierre Is taking it to one
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: or sorry to zero victory over Saint Anselme in that
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: championship game. The Ravens get their second New Hot title,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: but the first one came in twenty twenty, which is
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the year before the New Hog got the Automat Bait
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: into the national tournament, so this is their first NCAA spot.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Jill Hurdle makes forty one saves in that for the shutout,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: which is kind of the story of Franklin Pierce in
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways. She has, you know, some nine
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: fifty some save percentage this season. It's it's if they
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: were going to win this game, it makes sense that
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: she was the one kind of backstopping things and forty
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: one saves is nothing to sneeze out in the championship game.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they just came off of they played two
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: over times in the Sunni Final to get there, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: their semi final was Friday, Friday, Thursday Friday. Through one
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: of the early ones, it was so they they okay,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean she has she that's been their story.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: It's not like she's the only one. Obviously, they're still
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: their scoring goals and doing that on offense. But yeah,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: she's one of those players that I feel like I've
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: been talking about since. I mean, they made that kind
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: of crazy run in the postseason a couple of years ago.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: So it's Jimmy Fees like our eighth year when we
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: always talk about the players that feel like they've been
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: there forever. But yeah, I feel like she makes it
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: so that it's not a rollover game that they're opening
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: around game with them. I think they're riding tons of momentum.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Like you said, it's their first NCAA. I guess for
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: their part, I'm glad that twenty twenty they woul didn't
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: get a bid and then not get to play. So yeah,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: but their first NCAA bid, it'll be very interesting coming
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: to lebon Is. I mean I was trying. I was
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: trying to find capacity for the rink because they play
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: in and I couldn't find it. And I think that
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: like I mean it's a like a prep school. It's
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a really small break.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: A school's enrollment is much smaller than the Lebon capacity.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: So that's that's only twenty twenty three, twenty four hundred
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: a good day.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: And I believe the schools in New Hampshire with their
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: home rank is in Massachusetts if I does that, if
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I did that googling correct. So yeah, anyway, it's just
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: gonna be very different. It's gonna be a very different atmosphere.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I think it will be very interesting to see how
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: they handle the pace of Quinnipiac. But yeah, I you know,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: proud of Franklin Pears, like that was such a crazy
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: conference and in the end they they won their you know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: won the top seed and wrote it to the end.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: And I think they put in a lot of work
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: and fought really hard the last you know, five six
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: weeks of the season, and that's going to serve them
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: well in this position.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I think. Yeah, all right, that's the five auto bids
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that came last Saturday. When we come back, we will
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: take a look Region Bioregion at the NCAA Tournament. Stay
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: with us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Todd Nicole here to talk about the NCAA tournament for
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. We've got the bracket, it's all set up,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: but first step back to see how we got there,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: because there was some work the committee had to do
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to adjust it so that that determined did not have
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a first round game between teams from the same conference,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: which is not allowed unless it absolutely has to happen.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Just from the way that the team shakeout that was
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: if I'm remembering right, was that Quinnipiac Princeton or was
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that Princeton Yale? I can never remember it the way
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: it lined up in the NPI, Yeah, right.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Seven eight nine were all ECAC teams and eight nine
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: is a traditional matchup, So eight nine had to change Princeton, right,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and so that had to change.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: But they could not move Princeton to play Quinnipiac, So
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: they had to move Princeton to play Yukon. Now that
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: also comes with the other caveat how much more do
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you change as the committee? Do you change all three
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: matchups or do you just changed the two They did
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: opt to go to change all three matchups to I
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: guess you're you're keeping those first round games a little
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: closer to the spread of seeds that they should have been.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: We had a discussion afterwards in you know, before the
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: end of the night on Saturday, of you know, would
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: they and this was my thought, is they They could
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: have kept Minnesota Duluth against Quinnipiac as a seven to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: ten matchup in the first round, which also would have
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: led Duluth to be able to take a bus instead
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of take a flight, but they did not go that route.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Matt Wellens had it right. I will shout him out again.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: He was right for sure.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: We both were like, no way they're going to do that.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Using some of Duluth's It's apparently from from how this
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: worked a couple of years ago to say that nobody
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: else is going to Columbus to play Yale in the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: first round Bulldogs on bulldogs. So uh not that that's
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: confusing it all.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we had the hockeys the husky in Hockey East,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: which making makes ready to recap really hard. Mostly, I
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: want to say that I think it's cool that like
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: there was an option that essentially like was cheaper and
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: we used to not. We're not that far removed from
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: saving flights and saving money being a primary directive to
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: the committee when figure out the women's hockey bracket. So
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: the fact that like they did or movement that requires
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: more flights, uh, is kind of almost mind blowing to
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: those of us that have been doing this long enough.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: And they did that in the name of saving sort
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: of bracket integrity as much as they could in terms
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of they try to make sure that the higher seeds
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: are not facing how do you say that, Well, basically,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: like you earn the right by being a one seed
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: to lay the lowest possible seed in your in your
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: regional right, and so the way that you know would
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: be six eleven, seven, ten, eight nine. They moved those
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: to make sure that like the top couple of seeds
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: were still getting sort of the lower lowest seed possible
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: as a possible outcome of obviously there can be upsides,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: but as a possible outcome of the regional semi final.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, I think there's no easy way to
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: talk about any event. When we apologize. If it's all
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: super confusing, it's even harder to write about. But I
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: just I thought it was. It's just really it makes
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: me happy the things, like, you know, ensuring the integrity
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: of what a top seed Earns and not worrying about that,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: like we could have done this and moved less things
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: and had a bus ride and they overrode that. Like
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: that's just I'm so excited about it in a very
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: stupid way, But it's just the day that we took
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: the when you look at the difference between women's and
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: SAA hockey and when we did some of those comparisons
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: and bracket integrity, those words were never anywhere in the
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: women's description for how to fill it a bracket for
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: the committee. So we've come a long lay baby in
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: a short amount of time or something like that.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go through these brackets. Spend a couple
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of minutes on each of these regionals. We'll start at
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the top. In Columbus, Ohio. On Thursday, Yale against Minnesota
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: six pm Eastern. Winner plays Ohio State six pm Eastern
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. Yale is in the tournament for the third time.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: It's the eighteenth visit for Duluth in their sixth straight
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: eth has won five titles. Yale still looking for well,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: they're looking for a return to the Frozen Four for
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the first time since twenty twenty two. Ohio State is
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: in its eighth tournament and seventh straight, and of course
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: has won those two national championships in twenty two and
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: twenty four, and if you do the math, well this
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is twenty six. It's an evy year. It might be
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a states a year again. I just am interested in
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on the first of that first round game
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Yale Minnesota the Luth other than being bulldog bulldogs with
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: so don't call any of them the bulldogs because no
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: one will know who we're talking about. Just what do
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: you think about it? You know, Yale had to Yale
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: got to play last week, lost the championship game. De
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: LUTH's off of a week off, which no one loves
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: at this point of the year, but some teams have
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: been able to use that to a benefit at some times.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Your thoughts on that, I.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Think the same conversation we've been having about Minnesota Fluth,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: which can make floor goals, which has just been a
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: thing they've not been able to do. I mean, I
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: think goaltending again in this matchup is going to be huge.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: This is Simpson Fry, who kind of came out of
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: nowhere as a goal this year for for Yale was
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: not somebody on I think really any of our radar.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: The fact that they have a young rookie or young
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: player that didn't have a lot of experience coming into
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: this season versus de Gascon who has so much experience
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: and international experience. And I wonder how just sort of
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: the experience of having been there before, because most everybody
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: on Yale is do the season, you know, from the
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: last time that they were in the Frozen Four. Yeah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be about how well Yale
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: can keep Minnesota to look to the outside, how well
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Stans and Fry can you know, keep them out of
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: the net and and from Minnesota to loose, like they
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: just they have to score goals. They're two. There are
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: too many offensively talented players on that roster for them
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: to be scoring one or two goals a game. And
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: so yeah, if they're if it's a low scoring game,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: if they're not putting the puck in the net by
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: like the midpoint of the game, like I'm certainly not,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to have five hopes for them, right.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: And then looking toward the regional final. If if Ohio
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: State is the Ohio State that we saw last week,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know that really anyone as a chance.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Agreed, I don't if they continue to play that way.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know that they're beatable. They're just they're they're
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: locked in there. They they have their chip on their shoulder,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: which is, you know, whether or not you agree that
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: they should, it served them well, Like that mentality serves
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: them well. They're you know, they've played down as you mentioned,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: like they don't have a full roster that hasn't stopped them.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: They're you know, super fit that like they're not gonna
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: get tired. They're they're able to run all those lines.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: You know, they have joy done, but like they don't
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: need joy done, if that makes sense. Like the rest
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: of the roster has really stepped up. I mean it
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: was telling to me that it was sent In and
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Baxter that scored in the w c CHA Championship game. Yeah,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: I uh, And I think that's no offense to either
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: ulm d or Yale. I just think that at this
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: point what we saw from i'll have a state last
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: weekend like they they are you know, at least a
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: step above everybody else.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one more thing on that Yale miss or d
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Luth game before we move on. I believe that's the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: first time they've ever they're ever going to play each other,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: which is a little weird to think.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I just went to double check yeah Frozen four
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: because I was like, oh, they were both there, which
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: but they didn't play each other in that one.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so after twenty seven whatever years of Minnesota
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Lutha know Yale goes longer than that, they have never
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: played each other. So it's an interesting time for a
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: first spinning. So it'd be fun to see that. Yeah. Okay,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Moving down the bracket, the four to five matchup, which
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: of course does not have a semi final. These are
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the teams that go directly to the regional final. Number
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: four seed Minnesota hosting number five seed Northeastern. Minnesota is
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: in its twenty third tournament. It's the eighth appearance for Northeastern.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about Minnesota first because we were
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: at that four nothing lost to Ohio State on Thursday
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: of last week, and I can't remember Brad for looking
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: or sounding more disappointed with his team than he was
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: after that game. Was that his eye opening to you
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: as it was to me.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: It's not like I disagreed with him. Uh, that was
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: one of the worst games we've seen from Minnesota in
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the whisle, but you don't usually have a coach come
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: into the post game and like someone's the first question
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: was you know what was lacking for your team? And
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: he was like, uh, like everything everything, you know, closure,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, he just it was as flat as I've
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: ever seen Frosty. He's usually pretty good about sort of
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: pumping up and finding the positives, and that man had
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: nothing nice to say. Uh, and and I don't blame him,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: but it was you know, you and I've been doing
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: this for a long time and have seen Frosty a lot,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: and it was the most blunt and frustrated and uh,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: probably a little angry and upset as he's ever been
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: called out his team's leadership. Uh it was, Yeah, it
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: was not great. They've got a lot of work to do.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: It's this isn't an easy game from them. I know
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: they've you know, been talking about his bent alhile since
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: they've won a title. It's been a while since you know,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: they've gone to that title game, and and they it's
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: not looking good after Thursday's games, so uh, hopefully you
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: know what they It does help that they're hosting, they're
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: not traveling like they've got a little time. I know
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: they were practicing on Saturday morning before the championship game
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: that some of the players came and watch. But yeah,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: I just uh, it was not great. If they they
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: were sloppy. They were it was all a little like
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: unhinged and like, uh, it's the word that I watch,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: just like kind of reckless and sloppy and just it
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: was very weird. It was a very strange game. It's
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: not how we've seen them play, you know, in some
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: of their recent serials. And the two used to close
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: out it was not Abby Murphy's guest best game, and yeah,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: they've they've got a lot of work to do, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I it was it Frosty both said a lot and
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: said nothing but screamed like we all went up. Everybody
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: walked out of there, knowing how he felt without him saying, oh,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: whole heck of a lot. But yeah, it was. That
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: was a fascinating, fascinating post game. And I'll to a
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: person I like, I talked to a couple of different
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: people that were in there, both like you know, sort
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: of sids and other people, and everybody was sort of
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: like wowed. Yeah, he just you know, he said it
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: was a disappointing night. There's not a lot of positives
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: to take away. We lacked compete discipline, we lacked that,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: we lacked fight, like proper fight. There was a lot missing.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: If you're gonna try and win a game against the
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: number two team in the country and you try to
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: get the championship, you need a whole lot more than that.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: We need our leaders to lead and lead well. So yeah,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: it was there was there was no mess around. So yeah,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: I have to say that, like I'm withholding judgment for
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: what we might see for Minnesota for like the first
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: ten minutes of that game, because after that, I mean,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily feel like they're in a great position.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Right on the Northeastern side. This is a team that's
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: had a really rate bounce back season, missed the tournament
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: a year ago after making six straight appearances. Twenty eight
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: to eight, and one kind of cruised through Hockey East
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to win that by a pretty decent margin, but then
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: they weren't able to do the double and losing double
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: overtime too Yukon in the Hockey's Championship game. I don't
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: know that and I was just looking this up. Then
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the five to four game has gone both ways. In
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the four years prior to this that this format has
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: been used, the number five seed one on the road
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: the first two years. The number four seed has won
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: at home the last two years. So it doesn't feel
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: like there's you know much the homee advantage isn't necessarily
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: great in this. We will see whether rit Or Arena
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: is more of a homelice advantage. The Gophers did use
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: that last season to beat Colgate in the four or
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: five game to get to the frozen So, but the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Northeastern side, they that as a team that has earned
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a top five spot in the rankings this season.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, They're not a team that I think most
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: of us thought, you know, coming out of last year.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: They have a pretty young roster and so it was
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: just a you know, after that that downish season and
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: not necessarily knowing whether the freshman who would be able
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: to contribute right away. I don't think anyone knew or
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: expected them necessarily to be at this point. And like
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: you said, it's it's well earned to me after watching
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: their game in Minnesota's semi final, Like I think Northeastern
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: has the edge just from a like cohesion standard, Like
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I think they're going to come out and be able
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: to play their game right away from the first puck drop,
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure if like Minnesota will be able
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: to do that, or if there will be some sort
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: of tentativeness or any of that sort of stuff. And
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I do feel like it is very clear who Northeastern is,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: what their style of play is. You know, they're they're
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: gonna be really They're gonna put a lot of shots
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: on Johnston is really great in goal. There's going to
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: be fast break and so it will be interesting. A
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: lot of what Minnesota does is a push towards their offense,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and so if Northeastern can really counter that and catch
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: some of that, that will be interesting. That transition game,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I think, in both directions, could be really key to
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: that one.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: That game Saturday, three pm Eastern two Central Local time
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: in Minneapolis at Rider Arena. So moving down the bracket
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: now to the penn State Regional happening in State College
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: or University Park, Pennsylvania, depending on which you want to use.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: UH have gone back and forth on that over the years,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: but it says University Park right there in the Frozen
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: four logo this year, so I guess.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: We'll because that's where the arena is, but the college
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: itself is in I.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Don't know if you want to a technical university park
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: is like the zip code and the college township is
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: actually I think the name of the municipality that Pagoula
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: is in instead of state college. But then we could
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: go in that's a whole different podcast. It is you
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: you cont in Princeton, right, I don't think anyone wants
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to know that. Yukon and Princeton seven o'clock on Thursday
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Eastern time at Pagoula Ice Arena, Winter plays Penn State
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: two o'clock Eastern on Saturday. Yukon and Princeton these are
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: two teams that have some experience in the NCAA Tournament.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Princeton this is their fifth appearance, but first since twenty twelve.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: They didn't, you know, have to get to it in
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty the first actual game, I guess since twenty nineteen.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Yukon this is the just their second, the other one
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: being in twenty twenty four. I feel like there's there's
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: something to draw on there. When you're going into the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: experience of the NCAA Tournament, you want to have some
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: on your team who've done it, and so Yukon does Princeton,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a little harder to find that. I
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: don't know what, maybe just your thoughts on this mashupka.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: I think you can probably needs sort of from star
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: power or like pure goal scoring. I think Princeton probably
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: has the advantage. I think Yukon has done more sort
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: of by committee. Obviously Claire Murdock is really good. It's
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: not that they don't, but that group you don't really
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: watch it and like have one person jump out at you,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: whereas like Kensey Alexander and Izzy Wonder feel like they're
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: on the ice constantly, poor Princeton, And so I feel
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: like how those two things sort of play out in
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: terms of if Yukon can really shut down either one
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: of those players, if not both, can the rest of
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Princeton sort of pick it up and fill in those
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: gaps and react to that. But yeah, as you said,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: it's the it's the attention. It is the schedule and
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: sort of the pattern of it all, and the ups
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: and downs and longer TV timeouts and you know where
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: the benches are and where your locker room is, and
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of it that just is about you
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: just played a whole routine thirty some games of your season,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: and this is very different attention wise, TV wise, press wise,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: all of that, and then also just the way that
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: the day plays out is very different. And so I
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: think those are the things that like we're having experience
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: and having someone on your team to sort of like
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: preparing for that and know what's coming and say like,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: oh this might take longer, Oh we should do this
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: or that. Those are the sorts of things that I
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: think can get in a team's head or also just
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: sort of like impact stuff that is outside of how
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: the two teams match up on the ice, if that
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: makes sense.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, these two teams did play earlier this season too.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: You can one, two, one and three nothing at home
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: back in October. So Princeton leads the overall series ten
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to four and two, but there is.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Extent had an awful start to their season.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, there is some recency to this one, so I
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: do want that is a long time ago to be
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: trying to make any comparisons so now, but there's at
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: least some video that each has on each other to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: know what it's going to look like.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean those were Princeton's first two games of
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: the season, and Princeton won I'm sorry, lost three of
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: their first four. It was it was pretty awful. If
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: we were talking about that with Northeastern, we should probably mention,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: like if you'd asked me in on Halloween if Princeton
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: would be in this position. I'm not tried to agree
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: that they would or that they have been co champions
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: of the ECAC. So I'm good on them for putting
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: on the work. But like you said, that'll be interesting
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: like that that it's not the game tape but game
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: tape against you. Yeah, you CON's got the momentum and
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: sort of the confidence, and I think all of that
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: matters alongside, like you said, some of the experience, and
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: so yeah, that will be And also they have Tia
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Chance who has has been pretty outstanding, which is, you know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: sort of Uma Cornea is also a very good goaltender,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: but Tia you know, continues to have just a standout
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: season as a Patty Kas top ten finalist and finalist
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: top three finalists for Goalie of the Year. The confidence
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: that that gives them and the ability to maybe play
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: a little looser and be a little freer and push
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: a little more, I think cannot be understated. But Princeton,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, Insie Wonder, aside from what she's done on
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: the ice, is I think just been a really great
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: leader for that team. Like, don't forget Princeton had a
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: huge gift in their goal or their coach leaving in
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: a sort of turnover there. So the fact that they're
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: where they are right now is pretty impressive.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Courtney Kessel leading Princeton to determine her first season
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: deserves mention. While we're speaking of coaches, two of five
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: now Princeton's five tournament appearances counting twenty twenty were under
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Jeff Campersoll, who is now the Penn State coach, and
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: so that's an interesting connection there. But when it gets
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: to the regional final, whoever it is against Penn State,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you're going to be going in. It's a team that
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: really has done well protecting home ice. There's been a
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: couple of bobbles one late in the season, but this
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: is a team that has wanted to be here in
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: this game at home, to be able to get to
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: next week at home, and so I think that's going
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: to be a lot to overcome, especially with a group
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: that knows how to spread it out. It's not just
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: testaganiky like we've talked about before. This is a team
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: that has multiple ways of beating you and that is
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: so valuable when you get into the tournament. If you
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: have to win one way and that doesn't work, you're
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: in trouble. So for Penn State, that's a great way
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: of going into the tournament.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And the only thing I would say is maybe
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: to counter that, is that that's a lot of pressure
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: on end State. This is where they wanted to be.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: They wanted to be at home. They have not played
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: an NC Tournament game at home. They have not been
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: super successful in the NC tournament, right, so they this
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: has been the goal all season and now they're there,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: and can they you know, sort of get the ball
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: over the goal line? To to mix our sports up here,
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: but yeah, I think that there there's a lot upon
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: them to really sort of fulfill this this prophecy that
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: they've been trying to set for themselves all season, and
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: so how they handle that and sort of as much
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: as we were talking about the mental of for some
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: of the other teams, I think that they also need
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: to not get in their own head and not need
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: to get ahead of themselves. It's sort of all of
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: those things. You know, they reached, you know, ninety percent
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: of their goal and now they're they got a little
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: time to sit and wait, and I think that's a
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: little time to get a little two in your head
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: as well. So I think how they navigate this week
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: and in some of the pressures of being at home
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: and sort of like being so close to be in
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: that frozen four on their on ice is no small feet.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I think that's that can't be overlooked.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Yes, I would imagine there's got to be a lot
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: of you know, stay where your feet are kind of
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: talk this week for Penn State. Okay, moving down to
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the bracket, that is the regional inn Madison,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Quinnipiac and Franklin Pierce eight pm Eastern Thursday, seven o'clock Central,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: winner plays Wisconsin at two pm Eastern, one o'clock Central
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. These are when you're looking at the regional
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: semi Quinnipiac Franklin Paris teams that have never played each
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: other before. Franklin Pearis' is again in its first Ncaattorney
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Quinnipiac this is its fifth missed last season, but had
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: made three straight before that the New highs On and
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: three in the NCAA tournament. Since getting that auto bid,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: has been outscored twenty two three in those games, so
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: they haven't been particularly close. It's been a bit of
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: a you know, eye opening experience for those teams. A
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: long Island Stone Hill, Sacred Heart, and now it's it's
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Franklin Pierce that gets a chance to There's going to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: be a breakthrough at some point. I feel like we've
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: seen that in just different sports. It's going to happen
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: at some point. I don't know that this is the year,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: but I don't feel like I can rule anything out,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: especially when you're talking about having a goalie who's playing
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: at the top of her game like Jill Hurtle is.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Of course, on the other side, you've got Fleesha frank
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: who's also playing at the top of her game. So boy,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: that's there's a lot to ask you. It's a heavy
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: lift for Franklin Pierce.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in a vacuum, looking at this Franklin Piers team,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I feel like I would say like, oh, yes, this
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: is a team I think I could do it. Then
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: putting them against Quinnipiac certainly changes things a little. I
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: will point call out Kendrick Sumbris wrote about, these are
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: three of the top four teams on the penalty kill
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: in the country, So Wisconsin's first, Franklin Pierce's third, and
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Quinnipiac is fourth, So special teams could be interesting. And
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: you've also got I think it's three of the top
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: eight in team defense. So I want to point out
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: mostly that like we don't normally see a new hot
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: team in the top ten of like stacks, like it
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: just doesn't tend to shake out that way. So I'm
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: just really impressed with them, for you know, their goals
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: against is one point eight three, They've been doing really well.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: They you know, holding teams their last seven days, goals
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: per game against is point five. You know, they they're
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: doing what they're supposed to be doing, and they're doing
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: it at a really like consistent high level. So again,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: I do think it's a tough task. I do think
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: the offensive output of Quinnipiac plus they're sort of normally
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: stout defense, plus Flicia Frank does make it a really
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: a really tough call. But yeah, I think Felicia Frank's
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: a goalie that probably hasn't been taught enough about enough,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: and she's going to be I think I think that's
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: going to be a game of who gets to capitalize
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: on our offensive chances, in which goalie is you know,
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: standing on her head warm.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So then the winner gets Wisconsin on Saturday. And
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I believe Wisconsin is eight to o at Leabon Arena
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: in NCAA games. I'm gonna sound like a broken record here,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: but somebody is going to beat Wisconsin at some point
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: some year in an NCAAA game. Again, I don't know
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: if it's going to be this year, but we've seen
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit of the the style that the path
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: a team can play to at least limit Wisconsin's good chances.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: Then you need goaltending, Then you need timely scoring, you
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: need a lot of things that happen to go along
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: with that to keep the play absolutely. Wisconsin has been
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: under fifty percent in face offs in four straight games,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: which is the first time in a long time I
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: can remember.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: That don't know what they're doing, yeah, to.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: At least spend some time with the park, which some
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: teams just don't ever are able to do. So there's
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: a chance there. I just don't know that uh that
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: it's gonna happen, but you know, QUIDNIPI, I I do
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: feel like has a a real chance to to I
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: don't even think it would be a surprise. I mean
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: with what we've seen from the quality of players they
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: have of being right there with Wisconsin in a regional final.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, you've got done
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: nothing but talk about the Olympian Somestons, and I think
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: the caliber of player but they have and the the
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: way that we've seen them be able to play. I mean,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: this is not fundamentally that much of a different team
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: than the one that won last year, and like on
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: paper shouldn't have done what they did this past week.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: So I just I feel like there's a you know,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: a renewed like I would expect that they played like that,
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: they're pretty disappointed in it, and and they're gonna there's
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: gonna be a response. I would assume, like that's the
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: gliber team they are. But yeah, I think I think
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: there's very much a blueprint for what to do to
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: to really mess with them and really force them to
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: to adjust and make you know, at least give themselves.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: Like I don't think there's would be any surprise that
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: like this should be that could be a close game,
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: and then it will be about timely scorer or puck clock.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: I think I think there's a very clear path there.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: I think Quinnipiac has long been a very diligent defensive team,
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: and so if they can do that in the face
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: off so that they can possess the puck a bit,
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: I think that's gonna really really force the Compton to
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: be scrambling a little.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: That wraps up our look at the games that are
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: coming up this Thursday and Saturday. Three games Thursday, four
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: games Saturday to determine the Frozen four. When we come back,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk a little bit about the awards
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: season and uh Patty casts top ten Women's Goalie of
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the Year top three that got announced last week. Stay
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: with us on the Pope, Welcome back to the podcast.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Todd Nicole with you for our last segment of the week,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: talking about the top ten for Patty Kaz that was
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: announced last Thursday. We will get the top three. The
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: voting results the top three on Wednesday of this week,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: but the top ten came out last week. They are
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in alphabetical order. Yukon goal lead Tia shan Ohio State
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: forward joy Donn Wisconsin forward Lacy Eden Wisconsin, and they
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: put defense slash forward very nicely Leyla Edwards because she's
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: played both this season. Wisconsin defender Caroline Harvey, Penn State
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: forward Tessa Janicky, Quinnipiac forward Kaylen LaMarsh, Minnesota forward Eddie Murphy,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin ford Kirsten Simms, and Princeton Ford is a wonder
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that's four from Wisconsin for the second straight year, which
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: does kind of tell you it's a little bit of
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: a reflection on what how good this group has been
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years, just that they have
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: that many stars, that many players who are getting that
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: kind of recognition. But it's a pretty it's a really
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: solid group behind that. I mean, looking around the country,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: there's there's some players in here that probably could have
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: made this list that didn't. I just wondering your thoughts
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: on the top ten as it we saw it last week.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's interesting that the two from e
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: c SE neither of them layer the ECC Player of
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: the Year, So that's just always interesting. And I believe
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: the Patty Cans voting, you know, is it's sort of
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: a wider group in the ECAC voting. It's from you know,
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: the opposing coaches, and so always just interesting to see
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: sort of the impression like nationwide versus within the conference.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: And so that I just thought was interesting about Tichon
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: as the lone goalie was an interesting one. Not good,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: bad or otherwise, just like it's being on the committee.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: You get the top ten and have that discussion, but
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: until then you have nothing to do with it. And
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: so it's just always like fascinating to me, like what
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: things lead to people, you know, choosing who they choose.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: I should say that Sarah Manis freshman Saramanis from Clarkson,
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: was the ACAC Player of the year and not on
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: the top ten. Yeah, I it's such a weird year
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: because we're talking some players have you know, thirty eight
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: thirty nine games and some players a twenty nine, twenty
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: eight thirty because of the Olympics, and so just trying
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: to figure out how you want to weigh those sorts
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: of things. And I think there's always the conversation of
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: like what are you giving this to the best player
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: in the country? Are you playing giving it to the
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: most valuable person to their team, Like how what is
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: sort of the different ways that people are looking at
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: who should be the winner?
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: And I do wonder it feels like that's going to
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: have to be in just an individual determination for voters,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: because as far as I know, there's no real mandate
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: to say you must consider only college games even though
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: this is the College Player of the Year award. How
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: does the Olympics not get into your conscious subconscious Maybe
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: it is definitely supposed.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: To be a nca only Yeah, you're only supposed to
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: consider this season of the college games, so not international,
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: not previous seasons. But like you said, how does it
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: not play into it? And then also just like how
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: does you know? Like, for example, I think one of
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: the sort of biggest conversations or like thought processes is
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: like Lathy Eden stepping up making a huge push towards
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: the end of the season when her teammates were away,
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Like how do you weigh that? Like does it does
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: she get credit for it because you know, were the
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: superstars were gone and she stepped into a bigger role
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: or is it like, oh, you only got to do
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: that because the other people weren't there. The sort of
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: like those are the back and forth of like what
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: are we deciding. You know, she's got a nine point
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: lead in points, but she's above the you know, the
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: next two people below her, and three of the four
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: we're all at the Olympics. So that's where the sort
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: of mental thought process has to go on all of this.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: You know, do you weigh total points or goals? Are
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: you looking at points per ging goals per game? Which
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: is one of the things that I think you kind
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: of have to look at this year, particularly with the
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: different different number of games. You also kind of have
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: to look at it when you're talking like Iusy Wonder
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: a ID leader, so she's already going to have fewer
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: games than everybody else. So yeah, it's just always interesting.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: You know, there's things like plus minus came winning goals,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: how many of the goals came on the power play,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: that sort of stuff too as well. And then if
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: you're only looking at stats, then you're kind of discounting
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: defenders and goalies as well. So just weighing all of that,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: I think is the thing that I always am thinking
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: about when I am on the committee and when I'm
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: looking at the different sort of options in that top ten.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to I don't think we're getting three
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: players from the same team like we had last year
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: either free I I can make a real case for
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of players, and so that's why it's a
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: it's a really interesting kind of time waiting to see
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: how this voting is going to turn out. So I'm
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm intrigued. I guess as we we get into
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: later this week, we'll find out who the top three are.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: We already have the top three for Goalie of the Year.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: That is Tija Chan from Yukon again a double finalist.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I guess, Quentin Piax Felicia Frank who we've talked about
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: here today, and Minnesota Lewis f Gascon who we've seen
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: kind of Carrie Dluth through a lot of times when
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: they weren't scoring goals and maybe not even get enough goals,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: you know, to begin with, but in support of hers.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: So that group is a pretty I mean, it's three
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: different conferences represented, so you've got a spread around the
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: country there. So the one who's not included is the
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: returning Goalie of the Year winner, who was Avian mcdone
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: from Wisconsin. So I wonder where she fit in the
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: voting is probably not far along but afterward. But she
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: also I think does have the benefit that we've talked
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: about this before if having pretty solid defense in front
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: of her. But for this group, Chan Frank Gascoyne, what
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: are your thoughts on how those three maybe shake out
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: in terms of who might have an edge there.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like there's probably a pretty decent case
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: that Augustan short have won last year. And I think,
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: particularly like after having watched the season and seen how
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: important she is, we probably undervalued how important she was
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: to that team last year. Yeah, I don't actually know how,
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Oh you're there. They provide different things to their teams
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: and have been needed differently from their teams, and so
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: it's it's a really interesting and difficult sort of comparison,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: I will say on this one. We vote on that
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: pretty early on, and so yeah, in terms of like
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: who you rank and when, does make it a little
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: more difficult, but I yeah, I mean, my my gut
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: says it's v just because of, like we said, the
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: role that she has played. Minnesota Duluth is not a
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: tournament team without a gascon. But I really like what
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: Felicia Frank has done. I think like I said a
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: couple of times, like she just hasn't gotten the attention
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: because I think the focus has been our offense with
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: Kingly and LaMarsh. But Flicia frank Is is just this
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: really solid, reliable mobile goalie that I think people should
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: should be watching a little more. And Tia Chance has
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: been good her entire career, like she's she's was sharing
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: time and maybe didn't get as much attention because it's
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: so hard when there are two goalies and her and
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Omegan Warner were both very good, but she took on
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: the full load this year and actually probably played better.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: I think her numbers are a little better this year.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: But all of them just have like outstanding like plus
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: nine forty or better. Yeah, yeah, same percentage, you know,
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: and I don't. I'm not sure that you could go
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: wrong with choosing any of these. And I think there's
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: a pretty good argument for all three of them. And
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: I think that's that's where you want to be at
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: this point, right like that, if that you're you're not
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: gonna be upset if any of them are the one
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: that wins, is the right way to go?
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what about you?
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: Do you have thoughts on who's going to take it.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I I do feel like the value to team is
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: really high for Gascon, and I I just wonder whether
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: the fact that, you know, I believe this voting is
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: already done, but her team barely got into the tournament,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: they had this sweat out last week, they lost in
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: three games in the first round of their playoffs, does
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that matter at all? And again, I think the voting
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: already you know, that may have been done early last week,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: so it maybe just came off of that and people
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: not knowing whether they're be in the tournament or not.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that is a negative or enough
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: of a negative for some voters. So I just want
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: to throw that out there. Okay, no, go ahead.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: Oh I was looking when we voted for goalies. I
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: think I was just gonna say that. Like the thing
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: for ev is how many close games like delude just
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: didn't have the offensive output and so the fact that
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: they were, you know, averaging only a couple of goals
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: per game and that just wasn't something that I think
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: either Quinnipiac or Yukon had to deal with you sort
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: of repeatedly. Obviously everybody plays go with close games, but
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: for me, that's One of the things that sort of
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: pushes it over with ev is just like how how
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: much of a difference maker her being able to keep
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: a game long scoring was when her team wasn't able
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: to go out there and do that, you know, right?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: The Pattykaz is announced on Saturday, March twenty first in
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: University Park State College, the borough of whatever we're talking
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: about at Penn say thank you. The Goalie of the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Year is part of the pre Frozen four announcements. If
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: I remember it correctly, it is along with all Americans
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it's the commission. Yes, the commissioners are responsible
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: for that. And I believe those come out before maybe
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: the Thursday, if I remember it right before, So a
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: week from Thursday. Anyway, any final thoughts before we just
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: stop and get ready for Thursday nights games.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: No, I think I just continue to tell people that
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: they should be paying attention. It doesn't get better than
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: what's happening right now. And you know, I think we've
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: sort of talked all year about how important every little
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: game is and every win or loss, and so the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: fact that it came down to really where everybody ended
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: up in the NPI is really telling and sort of
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: really backs up why important, Why that's so important? You know,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: Like I just I think there's there's something to have
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: been taken away from every game, and it's sort of
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: why we get into the nature we do. And it
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: all sort of proved proved itself out this week. So yeah,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll get to watch some really great AChEI
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: this week and be down to four teams come Saturday,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: which is kind of crazy.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: It is crazy. All of these games are available to
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: stream on ESPN Plus, so if you're looking for them,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: ESPN Plus is the place. The only game that's on
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: linear television is the championship game that being on ESPN U,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: so if you're looking for them, that's where you'll find it.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: We will have scores on us c h O dot com.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: You can follow all that there. You can find the
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: bracket on our n see a tournament page which you
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: can get through the menu, and uh yeah, I know
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Nicole will have all sorts of good stuff coming out
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: of the weekend too, so uh, make.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: On the pensive subscriptions. ESPN is the cheap one, so
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: did add just a month of that, so make sure
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: you do that so you can catch up on all
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: these games.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: There you go. Okay. We hope you enjoy the games.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: We thank you for joining us this week for Nicole
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: on Todd, Thanks for tuning in to the podcast.