Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Ohio State at Minnesota, key nonconference series headline Week 5

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Ohio State at Minnesota, key nonconference series headline Week 5 · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Uscho.com hi again thanks for joining us on the podcast
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: todd molesky and nicole hazy here from uscho.com we're here
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to talk about this week's games coming up in ncaa
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: women's hockey and well last week nicole we had number
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: one versus number two this week it's well close it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: ohio state against minnesota ohio state new number one team
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: facing minnesota who's was right up there um I'm interested
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in this scheduling on the Ohio State part in that
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you've got Ohio State having to play Wisconsin at home
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  Speaker 1: one weekend and then having to go play Minnesota the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: weekend after. It's really the challenge that you get in
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  Speaker 1: the WCHA, but it's also, I think, something they prepare
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: themselves for, the Buckeyes do. Yeah.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like we're getting a lot of sort
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: of high leverage games early on and sort of Yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: like we were talking about, I think there's no team
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: better prepared for first puck drop than Ohio State. That's
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: just what Nadine prides herself on and what the team
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: prides themselves on. So, you know, if they do this
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and come out 6-0, which they would like to after
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: their first couple weeks, I think they're in a really
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: good position. And it just sort of gives them the
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: base to build off of. And also, like.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: If you start so strong against those teams and there's
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: a stumble in there, like, you've already sort of built, like,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: where you need to be. Those bumps feel less big
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and less, you know, catastrophic. So, yeah, it'll be interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Minnesota has played sort of fewer big games. Like, they've
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: sort of eased in and they took a week off
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and had their East-West showcase this weekend. They're... I feel
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  Speaker 2: like haven't ramped up quite the same way that Ohio
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: state is. So I, that, that makes me a little
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: worried for them just because getting a really excited Buckeye
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: team after upsetting, you know, number one, Wisconsin, their sort
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: of biggest monkey on their back for the past few years,
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  Speaker 2: the like Ohio state's going to be rolling heading into
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  Speaker 2: Minnesota this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: I'm, Interested to see, like you mentioned, the first big
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: test here for Boone May in his head coaching tenure
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: at Minnesota. What can he draw out of them for
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  Speaker 1: this kind of series? When you know this is your
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: chance when you get Ohio State in your building for
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  Speaker 1: the year. There's no grace period on ramping up into
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the WCHA schedule. Here they are. Here's a team that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the coaches picked to win the championship and Go see
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: how you're going to do. But I am curious to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: see what Minnesota has to slow down the top players
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: for Ohio State. The thing that we didn't see necessarily
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: from Wisconsin this past weekend was a dedicated effort, I guess, really,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: or a successful effort to keep the puck off the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: stick of the names we all know, Joey Dunn, Mira
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Unicare from the Blue Line, Hilma Svensson.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Break up possession.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Like, half of what Ohio State was able to do
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  Speaker 2: was because Wisconsin couldn't clear the zone. Like, being able
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: to possess the puck against Ohio State is, like, at
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: least half the battle. And, yeah, having not played anybody
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: like that and having seen Wisconsin not be super successful,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: it does make me wonder. And I felt like Minnesota
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: started pretty slow, like against Maine. It felt like it
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: took them half the game to really like find their rhythm.
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  Speaker 2: Now they also were missing some players. And so, you know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you could argue that it just was about, you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: playing in different roles and things like that. But yeah,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like, I feel like Minnesota has to be
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  Speaker 2: ready from puck drop and I'm, I'm not sure yet
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  Speaker 2: that that's what's going to happen in that first game.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't know. I didn't mean to, to, cut
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  Speaker 2: you off there. I just, I feel like the possession
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  Speaker 2: thing is going to be really interesting.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And that's something that I think Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State can do better than anyone. And that's the challenge
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  Speaker 1: for Minnesota this week is to try and find a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: way to disrupt a lot of that game. But that
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a big one. But there's a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of other series coming up this weekend that I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: think are really worth keeping an eye on. There's three
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: series that caught my eye that are matching a Hockey
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: East team and an ECAC hockey team. And early in
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the season, you get those non-conference games. That's going to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: mean something NPI-wise when we get to really focusing on
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: that later in the season. But the first one is
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  Speaker 1: Northeastern at Quinnipiac. And Northeastern got back on track with
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  Speaker 1: a couple of wins last weekend after losing its opening game.
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  Speaker 1: Quinnipiac is a team that I think is pushing for
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  Speaker 1: the next level. And I think they're close. They're close
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  Speaker 1: to being in that conversation of being a top, really
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  Speaker 1: top three, top four team. These are the kind of
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  Speaker 1: games where they need to show it, though. And if
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  Speaker 1: they can get a couple of wins, they play Friday
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  Speaker 1: and Saturday at home against Northeastern, that goes in their favor.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it's going to mean a lot at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the season if they can come out
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  Speaker 1: with two wins and if they can put that on
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  Speaker 1: their resume.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: What I want to see from Quinnipiac is a more
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: dynamic offense, an offense that isn't just Caleb Lamarche's finishing,
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  Speaker 2: but is building out of the back, is winning in transition,
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  Speaker 2: is being able to be a much more dimensional offense
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  Speaker 2: that I'm not sure we've seen. That's a team that's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: always going to be defense first, but I feel like
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: a team like Northeastern is going to force them to
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  Speaker 2: prove that they're about more than Caleb Lamarche's finish. And
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  Speaker 2: so I think that's and I like I'd like to
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  Speaker 2: see more dynamism from Kaylin's game as well. I know
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  Speaker 2: that there are people that didn't get why she wasn't,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: you know, invited to camp and things like that. But
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: there's like a lack of 200 foot game there from her.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: And so we know she's an elite finisher. But what
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: can we see sort of on the rest of the
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  Speaker 2: ice and in the buildup and and that sort of thing?
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  Speaker 2: So I feel like if it. Quinnipiac is capable of
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: it if they have it in, you know, in their
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  Speaker 2: bag of tricks, like Northeastern's the type of team that's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: going to bring it out from them. So that's part
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  Speaker 2: of what makes this such an interesting game. And then
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  Speaker 2: I think, too, for Northeastern, we saw them pull up games,
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  Speaker 2: but this is a much tougher opponent. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: that if they were playing a tougher opponent this past weekend,
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  Speaker 2: they'd have come out with those wins. So what can
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  Speaker 2: they do when they're, you know, they're pushed back on
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  Speaker 2: a little more and they can't rely on just being,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: you know, a better roster than the team they're against?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. UConn and Princeton is another series that I kind
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  Speaker 1: of thought as well. That could be a sneaky good one.
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  Speaker 1: What are you thinking about when you hear those two
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  Speaker 1: teams matched up this early in the season?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm just excited to see Princeton, right? We're in our,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you know, finally getting the Ivy League teams out there push.
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  Speaker 2: Princeton is another team that, you know, graduated a couple
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  Speaker 2: of really talented players, players that really were sort of
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: central to their success. However, they do still have quite
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: a few really good players too. So what do we
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  Speaker 2: see from them? But just this first look is really
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  Speaker 2: interesting to me, regardless of who they're playing. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think these are two teams that have a bigger
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  Speaker 2: ceiling than maybe they hit regularly. UConn particularly. I think UConn,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: when everything is clicking, is a very good team, but
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  Speaker 2: I just feel like we don't often see all of
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: those pieces click together, if that makes sense. And maybe
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that's an early season thing, but I think that there is.
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  Speaker 2: A lot that they are capable of. And I'm not
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  Speaker 2: sure if we see them reach that as much as
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  Speaker 2: they can. So I think it's about seeing what Princeton
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  Speaker 2: looks like in coming out in what is the fifth
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  Speaker 2: week of the season when, you know, UConn's gotten to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: play several other games. There's just always that sort of imbalance.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, for Princeton, I think it's about proving that
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  Speaker 2: like they can come back and still be the team
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  Speaker 2: that made a really strong push last season, despite, you know,
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  Speaker 2: having several PWHL picks leave the team be a graduation.
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  Speaker 2: So that's what I'll be watching for.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I think you, well, I, I'm always interested in the,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the Ivy starting later because that, um, you know, they
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: play fewer games, but they end up playing more games
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: in a, I guess in a compressed amount of time
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: when you look at it that way, because they, they
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: play the buys, right? Yeah, exactly. Uh, which, you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: they're the travel is a little bit easier there than
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: it is out West. So they can, they can, uh,
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  Speaker 1: survive that a little bit easier, but, um, I think
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  Speaker 1: the Tigers side of things is where I'm kind of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: focusing there because that first game, you might think you're
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: ready for the speed, especially when you're talking about new
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: players and putting a new team together. Speed is not
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: always what you think it is. And so that sometimes
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: catches some teams off guard, especially when there's a, a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: gap in number of games played. And that also kind
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of goes to another series that I'm interested in. It's
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Cornell hosting Vermont. So Cornell also getting that first game
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  Speaker 1: chance this weekend against the Vermont team that's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: had some success early in the season and is looking
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  Speaker 1: to build on that. If you can do that against
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a team like Colgate, that's going to be... Cornell. Sorry,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: we talked about Colgate earlier, but yeah, Cornell in this one,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: that is a building point. So Vermont can have some
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: success there. That would be impressive for them.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: It would be kind of a marquee win for them
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  Speaker 2: right on their, on their schedule, just based what they
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: have this year. Apologies to our YouTube watchers. My spotlight
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: just went out and we're winding down. So I'm just
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: going to be darker. Um, yeah, I think that's a,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: like you said, I think the pace of the game
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: is just so difficult for everybody. Like even the best
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: players when they come, you know, the biggest recruits, they
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: talk about the change in the pace. And so when
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: you're not only doing that, like just, at a baseline
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: but you're doing that to a team that's been playing
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: for a month already like that's it's just always like
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: a impressive to me whenever an ivy team gets wins
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: in those early weeks um and be just that they
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: like yeah they are like the game's not over 20
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: minutes in um so uh that is after you know
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: that closer game against franklin pierce and stuff yeah i
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: would like to see something being from vermont if we're
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: gonna believe that vermont is a team that's going to
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: push for postseason this year. So just a really key
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: one for them. And I think probably, you know, one
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: of the tougher goalies they'll face all year. So Cornell is,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I think, a team that probably needs to find a little, like,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: what their personality and what their character and what they're
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: going to be this year. And so I'm not sure
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: that that's clear in sort of who's going to be
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: their big leader other than, you know, Annalise Bergman and Nutt, but, like,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: who out on the ice is going to sort of
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: step up and be the one that's scoring goals and
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: doing that for them. I think they need to see
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: some younger players play a big role this year. So
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: for them, that's, you know, sort of what I'll be
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: keeping an eye out for.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Another one on this week's schedule that intrigues me is St.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Cloud State- playing at St. Thomas. Also a Friday-Saturday series. St.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Cloud absorbed a couple of losses last week to Colgate.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: That's the Colgate that was in my head a couple
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: minutes ago when I was getting Cornell-Colgate mixed up. But St.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Cloud now having to go to St. Thomas, which just
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: had some success against Minnesota-Duluth. And I know the Tommies
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: would like to build on that. And St. Cloud having
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the start that they did, this is one of those
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: chances to prove to yourself that, look, this is a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: team that's beaten some good teams so far. Let's see
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: if the Tommies can find another point to put in
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: their favor of, yeah, look, we're doing something here. We're
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: moving along the way we want to.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: This feels like one of those low-key sneaky series that
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: could kind of define either of their seasons. In that, like,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: both of them, like, if they're going to be sort
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: of serious conversation for the rest of the season, need
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: a sweep here, probably. Like, arguably, these are both, like,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: must-win games. And we talk about you're supposed to beat
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the teams you're supposed to beat.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And St.
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  Speaker 2: Cloud is the ranked team. So, like, arguably, they have
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the advantage here. But if St. Cloud is, or I'm sorry,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: if St. Thomas is, you know, showing that, like, that
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  Speaker 2: sort of, you know, quiet, slow build and having pulled
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: those points last weekend, I think if they get a
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: bunch of points on the board this weekend. Like I
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: think they're the team that we've got to be looking
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: at sort of is that conversation for 3-4-5 in WCHA play.
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  Speaker 2: So arguably kind of must win for both of them
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: in terms of what they want to do for their goals.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I think if you are going to make ways in
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: the WCHA as one of the teams not in the
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: top of the standings, you have to win sort of
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: all your winnable games and then you have to steal
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: some of those other games. And so that's where this
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: ends up being an interesting push-pull within this conference. Because
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: arguably this is a series that shouldn't matter a whole ton.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think in terms of being able to
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: maybe get into the rankings for St. Thomas, for St.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Cloud to sort of rebound from last weekend, both of them,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: it's the really important points they both need to get
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: on the board. So sort of a sneaky, good, interesting
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: early season matchup.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope so. I think that's one of those
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: series that could be tight both days and, you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: give you something to tune into. I mean, because there's
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: going to be some, a chance that those are going
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to be some tight games towards the end. So if
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you have a chance to, you know, if you're not
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: doing anything else, find the third period of that one
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: or those games Friday and Saturday and find those. But
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of games that are worth, you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: checking in on if you have the opportunity to either
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: be at a game or, watch a game on, on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the streaming service, uh, this weekend. So check out the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: scoreboard on uscho.com to get to all of those, uh,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: scheduled games coming up this week. Anything else that you
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to point out as being a, uh, uh, something that,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that folks should keep, keep an eye on this week, uh, or,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: you know, as we're kind of going forward, moving into
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the middle of October here.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I feel like we're learning is that like any game,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: they're all, I wouldn't have picked Penn State-Syracuse to be
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: all that interesting, but turned out to be one of
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: the best series of the, like, not above some of
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the ranked matchups, right? So, you know, Syracuse and Robert Morris,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: RMU's got a couple of high-scoring players on the stats sheet,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: thanks to some early high-scoring games, but I think, you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: they've got a really good top line, but can they
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: match up down it? So I think that Syracuse-Robert Morris
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: series could be Super interesting. And Nuha's getting into more
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: serious conference play as well. So we've got Assumption at St. Anselm,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: LIU at Sacred Heart, and Post at Stonehill. So yeah,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I think there's games. The best thing for me about
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: women's college hockey is I sit down on Friday at
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: noon and start watching hockey and watch it all night.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: There's games at 1 p.m. Central all the way to
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: 7 or 8 p.m. Central for me. So that's what
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: makes this fun is you can kind of just flip
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: around until you find what's interesting. for you.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: There you go. All right. We hope you enjoy those games.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: We hope you enjoy whichever game you're at this weekend
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: or paying attention to, uh, on the screen. So for
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Nicole Haase, I'm Todd Molesky. Thanks for joining us on
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the podcast.