Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Players go from national team camps right to the NCAA spotlight

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Players go from national team camps right to the NCAA spotlight · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Speaker 1: Uscho dot com.
0:10
Speaker 2: I have one. Welcome to the podcast. My name is
0:12
Speaker 2: Todd Luski.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm here when Nicole Hosey were from uscho dot com
0:16
Speaker 1: and here to look back at last week in women's
0:19
Speaker 1: college hockey and look ahead to what looks like a
0:21
Speaker 1: pretty interesting weekend coming up of games. Nicole, let's take
0:25
Speaker 1: a look back first, and I guess this was the
0:28
Speaker 1: first real week of players having a national team camp
0:32
Speaker 1: all week and then returning to play for their college
0:35
Speaker 1: teams on the weekend. What I guess did we learn,
0:39
Speaker 1: if anything, out of that first of what it might
0:43
Speaker 1: be a couple.
0:43
Speaker 2: Of times of seeing that this season.
0:48
Speaker 3: I think maybe what we learned is that it depends
0:50
Speaker 3: on the opponents as to whether coaches are going to
0:54
Speaker 3: rest players or not. It appears as far as we know,
0:57
Speaker 3: you know, there's no other reason. But Tessa Janicky didn't
0:59
Speaker 3: play if Penn State this weekend they were playing Delaware.
1:03
Speaker 3: But all of the players for Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth
1:06
Speaker 3: played in their series the one verse four matchups, So
1:11
Speaker 3: you know, I think it's a luck of the draw
1:12
Speaker 3: on when those camps are and when players come back.
1:16
Speaker 3: Minnesota's players appeared to be playing that sort of thing.
1:19
Speaker 3: It is to whether or not the coaches feel like
1:21
Speaker 3: they can give those players a rest. And you said,
1:25
Speaker 3: Wisconsin's players by Sunday, we're looking forward to some downtime
1:28
Speaker 3: as they kind of came back and went right back
1:30
Speaker 3: on the ice, you know, at that highest level.
1:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a I don't know that we saw
1:36
Speaker 1: any less of a.
1:41
Speaker 2: Compete level from them during the game, but yeah, it was.
1:44
Speaker 1: It was a taxing series in Madison physically and mentally,
1:48
Speaker 1: I mean very physical. Yeah, and so I after what
1:52
Speaker 1: had to be a pretty taxing physical and mental week
1:56
Speaker 1: with your national team camp. But what you're what you're
1:57
Speaker 1: competing for there where you're trying to put your.
2:00
Speaker 2: Best foot forward.
2:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a lot to come back into a with
2:04
Speaker 1: that example, specifically one Wisconsin against four Minnesota Loo a
2:08
Speaker 1: series of that magnitude and games that are pretty intense
2:13
Speaker 1: right from the drop of the park on Saturday.
2:15
Speaker 3: That was. Yeah. I definitely thought we might maybe see
2:19
Speaker 3: some like reduced time or at some point, you know,
2:23
Speaker 3: in this specific instance, you know, both of those teams
2:26
Speaker 3: maybe without their goalies and who would take over for
2:29
Speaker 3: their goalies do not have a ton of experience so
2:33
Speaker 3: then there's the question of when do you get those
2:35
Speaker 3: those goalies that experience. But I cannot absolutely understand why
2:38
Speaker 3: you would want your world class goalie, particularly you know,
2:41
Speaker 3: with retrospect of Gascon had a massive weekend and the
2:44
Speaker 3: team still lost. So yeah, at some extents, I'm not
2:49
Speaker 3: sure we're any further along in understanding what this is
2:51
Speaker 3: going to look like. But yeah, I think we did
2:53
Speaker 3: all sort of as a general rule, expect that players
2:56
Speaker 3: coming back from camp would maybe play reduced roles. That
3:00
Speaker 3: that did not seem to be the case for most
3:03
Speaker 3: of those players.
3:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get into that Wisconsin versus Duluth series, and.
3:09
Speaker 2: You were at the Saturday game. I was at the
3:11
Speaker 2: Sunday game.
3:13
Speaker 1: You got the game that went literally right down to
3:17
Speaker 1: the wire, and Wisconsin, in kind of what seems to
3:20
Speaker 1: be their fashion now when they trail late, they come
3:24
Speaker 1: up with something and and and pull out a win,
3:27
Speaker 1: and then on Sunday they they got a four nothing win.
3:29
Speaker 1: But tell me a little bit about what you what
3:32
Speaker 1: you took away from that Saturday game. Wisconsin coming from behind, well,
3:35
Speaker 1: first Duluth coming from behind, then Wisconsin, uh tying it
3:40
Speaker 1: late and then scoring the winner.
3:42
Speaker 2: Even later.
3:44
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, well, I you know, the game felt like
3:46
Speaker 3: this is why everybody hates Wisconsin, right, like, you know,
3:51
Speaker 3: Minnesota Duluth played them hard. They scored with that their
3:56
Speaker 3: carrying the lead into the final seconds, and Mark Johnson
3:59
Speaker 3: asks for a coach's review. I had actually had not
4:04
Speaker 3: scrolling back a lah you. I had the game on
4:07
Speaker 3: my tablet and I'm scrolling backwards and for me, I
4:10
Speaker 3: didn't realize it was at the face off. So I
4:12
Speaker 3: actually never found it because I was looking for gameplay.
4:15
Speaker 3: And so yeah, Mark Johnson makes a coach to challenge
4:18
Speaker 3: there was very clearly contact to the head off that
4:21
Speaker 3: face off. I know, like afterwards, a couple d Luth
4:23
Speaker 3: people like I didn't see it was it legit? And
4:27
Speaker 3: our friend Bruce Sisky from up in Minnesota Duluth or
4:30
Speaker 3: up in Duluth, was like, yeah, friends, it was that's
4:33
Speaker 3: that is a penalty in every level of hockey. Who
4:35
Speaker 3: what Bruce said? So unfortunately, yeah, it was. It was
4:39
Speaker 3: absolutely the right call. You know, I had been trying
4:41
Speaker 3: so hard to I hate having an officiating discussion over
4:45
Speaker 3: and over, but I also think, wow, that happened right
4:47
Speaker 3: in front of official's face and wasn't called anything to
4:50
Speaker 3: start and then was given a five minute major. So
4:53
Speaker 3: that's a problem. And the physicality of the weekend was
4:57
Speaker 3: absolutely a product of sort of inconsistent officiating in that game,
5:01
Speaker 3: in which the sort of w ccha, laissez faire, let
5:04
Speaker 3: them play attitude that we get from a lot of
5:06
Speaker 3: officiating lasted about a period before the players were taking
5:11
Speaker 3: advantage of it and it went to much, you know,
5:14
Speaker 3: more physical and arguably dirty at times on both sides.
5:19
Speaker 3: And then then the officials were calling very ticky tack
5:21
Speaker 3: stuff and it was like, this is ridiculous because you
5:24
Speaker 3: don't know, like, so that's a penalty now, but something
5:27
Speaker 3: that happened before wasn't. And so that part was really frustrating.
5:32
Speaker 3: A few times I was sitting next to Kedrick strom
5:34
Speaker 3: Us and we just looked at each other like that's
5:36
Speaker 3: that's what they called. And it wasn't that the teams
5:39
Speaker 3: didn't deserve penalties. It was just like, how, I don't
5:41
Speaker 3: have any idea how you can understand what contact or
5:43
Speaker 3: what is going to call it at this point, which
5:45
Speaker 3: is absolutely infuriating and you know, not how it should
5:49
Speaker 3: go anyway. Wisconsin gets power play, they'd been they'd had
5:52
Speaker 3: several power plays before that hadn't scored on it. I
5:55
Speaker 3: think they only had one power play goal going into
5:57
Speaker 3: the weekend, right, and then they scored twice in five
6:00
Speaker 3: minute power play twenty one seconds apart. Afterwards, Mark Johnson
6:04
Speaker 3: had talked about he was he was playing for the tie,
6:06
Speaker 3: he was playing for overtime, knowing that that five minute
6:09
Speaker 3: power play would carry over and give them a four
6:11
Speaker 3: on three advantage. That's a lot of open ice for
6:14
Speaker 3: Wisconsin with an extra player, Like they're gonna love that situation.
6:17
Speaker 3: I don't think it ever really occurred to him that
6:20
Speaker 3: that the team would score twice there. And then Cassie
6:23
Speaker 3: Hall said once KK scored, then they were like, well,
6:25
Speaker 3: why do we need overtime, Let's just do this. So
6:27
Speaker 3: Kk Harvey scores first at Cassie Hulk score second. We
6:32
Speaker 3: had been having a press box conversation before Cassie scored
6:35
Speaker 3: her first goal in that game, where I was saying
6:37
Speaker 3: she was underrated, and I think people are going to
6:40
Speaker 3: be surprised as she gets more ice time as players
6:42
Speaker 3: are gone, and I just feel like she's already a junior.
6:45
Speaker 3: I think she still got room in her ceiling and
6:47
Speaker 3: she's just you know, sort of been necessarily blocked by
6:50
Speaker 3: like national team players, you know, and then so so
6:54
Speaker 3: then she went out and had a great game. So
6:56
Speaker 3: that was fun, you know. Jokingly taking the credit for
7:00
Speaker 3: Kendrick says he's he's her nascent w c H A
7:02
Speaker 3: Player of the Year campaign. But yeah, so it was
7:06
Speaker 3: It was funny afterwards. A lot of the staff up
7:08
Speaker 3: in the box for Wisconsin are new. One someone was like,
7:11
Speaker 3: are you um D games Usually that's physical, And someone's like, well, you,
7:15
Speaker 3: w c HA games aren't like friends, it's not usually
7:19
Speaker 3: like that. Just you know, Kramer is a lot more
7:22
Speaker 3: physical player. They're like, that team is just capable. It's
7:26
Speaker 3: a it's a different makeup. It's not the same umb
7:28
Speaker 3: team passed. I thought, you know, sometimes in games in Wisconsin,
7:31
Speaker 3: um D can kind of sort of settle back. And
7:35
Speaker 3: they did that same thing of really doing a great
7:37
Speaker 3: job of not letting Wisconsin get their crossing passes in
7:39
Speaker 3: and clogging up the middle. But it wasn't stationary. They
7:41
Speaker 3: were moving a lot more and they were much more
7:43
Speaker 3: prepared to take the puck in the other direction. I
7:46
Speaker 3: think that I said this over on Victory Press, but
7:48
Speaker 3: they were pretty much an exact goal from distance, sniping
7:52
Speaker 3: past Dama McNaughton. And I'd be shocked if Wisconsin wasn't
7:56
Speaker 3: checking out that video and looking out to fill that hole,
7:59
Speaker 3: because that was not great for them, and I imagine
8:03
Speaker 3: more teams will be looking at that. I don't know,
8:06
Speaker 3: I just talked a whole lot. Sorry, it was a
8:08
Speaker 3: really interesting game. There was a lot going on, and
8:10
Speaker 3: it was one of those like this is why we
8:11
Speaker 3: love hockey sort of games. But I felt like we
8:14
Speaker 3: learned a lot about both teams. And then, of course
8:17
Speaker 3: Edwards was injured in the game, left after some needed
8:20
Speaker 3: kney contact along the wall, and did not play on Sunday.
8:24
Speaker 1: So and we'll be out for at least a little while,
8:27
Speaker 1: was what Mark Johnson said earlier this week. And so
8:30
Speaker 1: what that means exactly, we don't know, but I'm sure
8:36
Speaker 1: they'll be counting down the days to get her back
8:38
Speaker 1: and in whatever fashion they want to use herd forward however.
8:43
Speaker 2: That works, Yeah, whatever works. At that moment.
8:48
Speaker 1: Going into the you had mentioned Penn State and Delaware before.
8:52
Speaker 1: Penn State didn't really need Tessa Janicky, as it appears
8:56
Speaker 1: from the stats that they got five nothing and seven
8:59
Speaker 1: nothing wins in that series, and the shots on goal
9:03
Speaker 1: totaled in the second game sixty nine to one. Yeah,
9:09
Speaker 1: not not much more needed to say about that Delaware
9:12
Speaker 1: first year program. There's growing things, and when you're playing
9:15
Speaker 1: the best team in your conference, it's gonna be pretty painful.
9:19
Speaker 2: And so that's that's where that ended up.
9:21
Speaker 1: I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time
9:22
Speaker 1: on that, but I did see that over the weekend
9:25
Speaker 1: and it was like, is that right?
9:27
Speaker 2: And then I guess it is.
9:30
Speaker 3: She didn't have gascon make almost one hundred.
9:33
Speaker 1: Yes, she did a great job for Duluth in both games.
9:37
Speaker 2: Didn't get the results obviously out of it.
9:40
Speaker 1: But that that conversation of you know, who's the most
9:44
Speaker 1: valuable goalie in the w C h A and really
9:46
Speaker 1: maybe across the country is a you know, is not
9:50
Speaker 1: necessarily a are they getting? How many wins are they getting?
9:55
Speaker 1: Or how many wins above whatever that that metric would be.
10:00
Speaker 3: But uh, there's a lot of hockey war, you guys.
10:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm all into the war and whatever.
10:14
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means in terms of like
10:17
Speaker 1: that goalie is value to how many you know, how
10:20
Speaker 1: many games they've won for their their team, and that
10:23
Speaker 1: could be serious.
10:24
Speaker 3: Consideration to being goalie of the week. I mean I
10:29
Speaker 3: didn't I don't mean to like interrupt you there, but
10:32
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, she was outstanding. There's just no doubt,
10:34
Speaker 3: like the outcome has very little to do with what
10:36
Speaker 3: she she did this weekend.
10:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely Okay, big non conference series that we touched on
10:45
Speaker 1: and believe last week.
10:46
Speaker 2: One update the.
10:48
Speaker 1: Colgate and BU both coming off of a pair of
10:52
Speaker 1: losses the previous weekend. Colgate gets the I think you
10:55
Speaker 1: called this when we were off there the Redemption Cup
10:58
Speaker 1: something like that.
11:00
Speaker 2: I mean, with a pair of wins. Uh, to extend Bu's.
11:04
Speaker 1: Troubles important for Coliate there to to kind of write
11:09
Speaker 1: the ship early this season. And uh, there's there's a
11:13
Speaker 1: couple more questions in about BU, which is ye.
11:18
Speaker 3: It's Uh, there's definitely been a few teams, you know,
11:21
Speaker 3: it's been a really interesting early season and where you
11:25
Speaker 3: have a couple of undefeated you know, we're down to
11:28
Speaker 3: not counting the ivys you hit the ice this week,
11:30
Speaker 3: what do we say, six undefeated teams, But the rest
11:33
Speaker 3: of the teams, it's been a it's been a real
11:35
Speaker 3: up and down, and so I mean, I think there's
11:38
Speaker 3: lessons to be learned, and you know, ultimately, when we
11:40
Speaker 3: come to the end of the season with you know,
11:44
Speaker 3: I wanted to say pair wise, uh n p I
11:47
Speaker 3: and that sort of stuff, it could come into play.
11:49
Speaker 3: But ultimately, like how you handle your conference has has
11:52
Speaker 3: the most input. So you know, I'm trying to not
11:55
Speaker 3: read too much into things, but yeah, it's it's been
11:57
Speaker 3: a little surprising. Uh you know. It's it's when so
12:00
Speaker 3: I vote in both polls and when you're going down
12:04
Speaker 3: the list and you're like, okay, like so until like
12:06
Speaker 3: won their games, they're staying where they are. And if
12:08
Speaker 3: somebody lost and you're like okay, like they should move down.
12:11
Speaker 3: And then you go to the next team like do
12:12
Speaker 3: they deserve to move up, and like no, they also lost,
12:14
Speaker 3: or no, they tied, And I'm getting you know, two
12:17
Speaker 3: three four teams like I for me, the Poles aren't
12:19
Speaker 3: changing much because it's all teams that are maybe losing
12:23
Speaker 3: unexpected games or splitting series and so it's definitely been interesting,
12:27
Speaker 3: but it it uh is confusing, and also like it's
12:31
Speaker 3: just it feels you know, maybe I love it because
12:33
Speaker 3: it's chaotic.
12:34
Speaker 1: But we all love a little bit of chaos in
12:37
Speaker 1: every weekend around all hockey.
12:42
Speaker 2: I wanted to touch.
12:42
Speaker 1: On a series in New Hau between Franklin Pierce's Sacred
12:47
Speaker 1: Heart that ended up in a split. It was Franklin
12:52
Speaker 1: Pearis winning the first four to two in Sacred Heart,
12:55
Speaker 1: the home school getting a six to two win in
12:58
Speaker 1: the second game of that series. I mean, those of
13:00
Speaker 1: the schools that you know, we expect them to be
13:02
Speaker 1: near ad or near the top of New Hagen this
13:05
Speaker 1: year and in an early season series, I guess didn't
13:09
Speaker 1: didn't really answer which one was going to maybe make
13:13
Speaker 1: an early surge, but that that probably feels like a
13:17
Speaker 1: just result. Those teams are probably pretty evenly matched all
13:21
Speaker 1: in all, and they they came out with with points
13:26
Speaker 1: on both sides after the weekend.
13:29
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. I keep, you know, wanting to feel like,
13:32
Speaker 3: oh and we'll know more after the weekend. I don't
13:35
Speaker 3: know that we do, but but you know it's good
13:38
Speaker 3: for them, and I think, you know, ultimately makes how
13:41
Speaker 3: it'll all play out, you know, the most interesting like
13:44
Speaker 3: getting a feel for each other now and then when
13:46
Speaker 3: they play later in the season.
13:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
13:50
Speaker 1: Back in the w C h A Minnesota got a
13:53
Speaker 1: home and home sweep of Saint Cloud's state, winning for
13:57
Speaker 1: one at home and then five three at Saint Cloud
14:01
Speaker 1: on Saturday. That the Gophers just keep rolling along, didn't
14:06
Speaker 1: didn't put up the goal numbers that they had the
14:08
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks, but still they're they're getting more
14:10
Speaker 1: than enough to to get the job done here so far.
14:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they come in bunches, which is I think
14:17
Speaker 3: really important. Like they're they're just able to sort of
14:19
Speaker 3: flip that momentum and so those games were close at
14:22
Speaker 3: times and then all of a sudden it was like, okay,
14:24
Speaker 3: that's over. You know, as you're you're sort of especially
14:26
Speaker 3: like I was in the rink, so I'm flipping between
14:28
Speaker 3: different you know, box scores and things, and yeah, they're
14:33
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I think it's a good sign
14:35
Speaker 3: that Saint Cloud was able to do what they were
14:37
Speaker 3: able to do on teeth fence and and really sort
14:39
Speaker 3: of slow things down and not let it be run
14:41
Speaker 3: away and also like have time with puck possessions for
14:44
Speaker 3: a number of goals on their own. I mean, I think,
14:46
Speaker 3: you know, nobody is looking for for half wins. They
14:49
Speaker 3: want they want the actual points, but I do think
14:52
Speaker 3: there were things there that both bode well for Saint
14:54
Speaker 3: Cloud State and I think for other people playing Minnesota,
14:57
Speaker 3: because after those first couple of games, it felt like,
14:59
Speaker 3: is there is any you got You're gonna slow them down?
15:01
Speaker 3: So I felt like Seeing Cloud showed a little bit
15:03
Speaker 3: that like they can be, you know, slowed down. But
15:06
Speaker 3: you know, something I said to you off there is
15:08
Speaker 3: that there were a number of really good performances from
15:12
Speaker 3: from freshmen and one of those or some of that
15:15
Speaker 3: game in that game as well, and so it's just
15:17
Speaker 3: like you never you never quite know. It's like one
15:19
Speaker 3: thing's if you can maybe slow down Abbey Murph for
15:22
Speaker 3: you can maybe slow down something else, then other players
15:24
Speaker 3: are just gonna stuck up, step up.
15:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, another stumble for Saint Lawrence. We mentioned them last week.
15:31
Speaker 1: Uh Vermont beat them in overtime two to one on
15:35
Speaker 1: Saturday after the game on Friday and with the one
15:38
Speaker 1: to one tie, So the scoring is a bit of
15:40
Speaker 1: a challenge there for the Saints right now. This is uh,
15:46
Speaker 1: you know, a team that probably you know, I thought
15:49
Speaker 1: it might have a bit of a better start than
15:53
Speaker 1: than this, but they are sitting one four and one
15:56
Speaker 1: early in the season, just seven goals scored from those
16:01
Speaker 1: six games. So that's a that's a rough way to
16:06
Speaker 1: get going to your season, and they need they need
16:08
Speaker 1: something to go in their direction quick here.
16:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:12
Speaker 3: And also, I mean those those two games weirdly mirrored
16:15
Speaker 3: each other, sort of opposite with with sort of late
16:17
Speaker 3: games scoring, you know, either forcing the overtime and things
16:20
Speaker 3: like that. So also just being able to like they
16:23
Speaker 3: had the win or they had the lead and you know,
16:25
Speaker 3: gave up a late goal in order to force overtime
16:29
Speaker 3: and then lost overtime in the second one, And it
16:31
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, this is this is the kind of
16:32
Speaker 3: stuff that you you've got to be able to do,
16:34
Speaker 3: especially you know, if things are struggling at other points
16:37
Speaker 3: and you're you know, you're trying to pick up points
16:39
Speaker 3: where you can get them. So yeah, it's it's not
16:42
Speaker 3: going well there, and I know, you know, it's not
16:45
Speaker 3: gonna get any easier as they get into conference play
16:47
Speaker 3: and all the ivy's joined the fray.
16:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, anything else from last week you want to touch
16:52
Speaker 1: on before we take a break, No, I think that's
16:56
Speaker 1: it all right? All right, Well, we counted there there
17:00
Speaker 1: are six teams among the schools that have played so far,
17:02
Speaker 1: there are six teams left with perfect records, and four
17:06
Speaker 1: of them play off with each other this weekend, so
17:09
Speaker 1: that number will go down. When we come back, we
17:11
Speaker 1: will talk about those series. We will talk about the
17:14
Speaker 1: Icebreaker tournament and more. Stay with us on the podcast.
17:24
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast.
17:26
Speaker 2: Todd Nicole with you.
17:27
Speaker 1: Let's look ahead to this week, Nicole. Like I just
17:31
Speaker 1: mentioned before the break, six teams left with perfect records.
17:34
Speaker 2: They are.
17:36
Speaker 1: Minnesota, Ohio State, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, Penn State. One of
17:45
Speaker 1: the series this week is Northeastern and Quinnipiac. One of
17:48
Speaker 1: the series this week is Ohio State and Minnesota. Sounds
17:51
Speaker 1: like fun to me. I don't know about you, but
17:54
Speaker 1: that's that's a pretty good setup for a weekend.
17:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it should amazing hockey. It's funny. Like I was
18:02
Speaker 3: just saying last segment, like I want to say, like, well,
18:05
Speaker 3: we'll come out of that with some teams that have
18:07
Speaker 3: lotses and then like they'll all end up in ties.
18:09
Speaker 3: So I'm not saying that, but yeah, presumably we will.
18:14
Speaker 3: We will have fewer undefeated teams when the weekend is over.
18:18
Speaker 3: But how exciting.
18:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, just.
18:21
Speaker 3: Quidipiak is maybe the most surprising of the undefeated teams.
18:25
Speaker 3: I don't know that they were. I mean, I think
18:28
Speaker 3: in the preseason coaches pulled they were you know, third
18:30
Speaker 3: four something in that range. Obviously, the Ivs are joining
18:34
Speaker 3: us this week, which is great, so we'll sort of
18:36
Speaker 3: have be able to know how everybody looks. But it
18:39
Speaker 3: does feel like I don't think anybody thought Quidipiac would
18:43
Speaker 3: perform poorly, but maybe not necessarily get off to such
18:46
Speaker 3: a strong start, but they've been getting scoring from a
18:48
Speaker 3: whole bunch of different people. They have a couple more
18:51
Speaker 3: games under their belt the Northeastern. I don't know how
18:53
Speaker 3: that will play into that matchup. They're also playing at
18:56
Speaker 3: home up in Hampdon, but yeah, that's uh. I think
18:59
Speaker 3: there's a lot ofotential firepower in that and then you know,
19:03
Speaker 3: obviously great goaltending. So that series I think is going
19:07
Speaker 3: to be a lot of fun and I think, you know,
19:09
Speaker 3: maybe some different style of play between those two teams.
19:12
Speaker 3: So I always think it's interesting to see teams like
19:15
Speaker 3: that matchup and sort of the push and pull of
19:18
Speaker 3: you know, what someone's normally good at and how that
19:20
Speaker 3: goes up against an opponent that is maybe not necessarily
19:24
Speaker 3: playing that same style or used to playing against that style.
19:27
Speaker 3: So I think that's some of what we'll see in
19:29
Speaker 3: that series.
19:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, first big test for Quinnipiac, right because swept on
19:35
Speaker 1: the road at Syracuse, swept the home and home with Providence,
19:38
Speaker 1: won a pair of games against Maine at home. So
19:41
Speaker 1: this is the first ranked team they're going to face
19:45
Speaker 1: on the Northeastern side. They start looking towards the you know, Okay,
19:50
Speaker 1: this is a team that you know, probably underachieved last
19:54
Speaker 1: year compared to what people were expecting. Sure has a
19:58
Speaker 1: chance to write that this year two, you know, get
20:02
Speaker 1: it more along the lines of what people expect of them.
20:06
Speaker 1: And they've done it so far. They're four and oh
20:08
Speaker 1: sixteen to four scoring margin wins against RPI, Providence and
20:16
Speaker 1: a pair against rit So again, this is another kind
20:20
Speaker 1: of first major test. So I wonder which one it
20:28
Speaker 1: feels like they need it more here? I mean, I
20:31
Speaker 1: can I can make a case for both of them.
20:33
Speaker 1: Northeastern trying to continue on the and show that, yeah,
20:38
Speaker 1: we're still a program that deserves to be mentioned among
20:41
Speaker 1: the you know, when you get into the top ten
20:43
Speaker 1: probably around the country and Quinnipiac trying to you know,
20:49
Speaker 1: kind of cement that as like, yeah, we're going to
20:52
Speaker 1: be wrong for a while, religit.
20:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the one sort of ass for me
20:58
Speaker 3: is that Northeastern has a number of European players that
21:03
Speaker 3: will miss time be up presumably for the Olympics, and
21:06
Speaker 3: so I think for them there's that extra thing of
21:10
Speaker 3: needing to get all the points they can when they
21:12
Speaker 3: have their full roster, and so that maybe puts a
21:15
Speaker 3: little extra pressure on just like this is that ranked
21:19
Speaker 3: game where they know that they're going to have, you know,
21:21
Speaker 3: sort of their their full arsenal of weapons, and so
21:25
Speaker 3: I think me like i'd argue, maybe it's just a
21:27
Speaker 3: little bit more on their side. But you know, there's
21:30
Speaker 3: also the fact that that Quinnipiac has got probably a
21:35
Speaker 3: tougher conference gauntlet to run through than the Northeastern will,
21:39
Speaker 3: and so Quinnipiac needs those points and that the ranked
21:45
Speaker 3: put a Northeastern sort of isn't going to get other
21:48
Speaker 3: you know, quality win as many other quality win options
21:52
Speaker 3: or opportunities throughout their Yeah. So so I guess that's
21:56
Speaker 3: a long way saying I agree with you. You can make that,
21:58
Speaker 3: are you in both directions. But I do think that
22:01
Speaker 3: maybe because they don't have North American Olympians, people maybe
22:04
Speaker 3: forget that Northeasterns. You know, they've got a number of
22:09
Speaker 3: players that are playing for European squads.
22:12
Speaker 2: So it's a.
22:16
Speaker 1: I think a credit to both of them getting off
22:19
Speaker 1: to the the start that they have.
22:21
Speaker 2: But you also want, you know, when you talk about the.
22:23
Speaker 1: MPI, you you want every team you beat in non
22:27
Speaker 1: conference to go on and win every other game that
22:30
Speaker 1: they play, and just because that helps you, that makes
22:33
Speaker 1: you look your your your number improves based on how
22:38
Speaker 1: those things that you beat do against everyone else.
22:41
Speaker 2: And so.
22:44
Speaker 1: If either one of these teams comes out with a
22:45
Speaker 1: couple of wins, they want that other team to, hey,
22:48
Speaker 1: go on and you have a great year, and and
22:50
Speaker 1: because that's going to help them.
22:54
Speaker 2: February and March, when we're talking about that kind of.
22:56
Speaker 3: Number, Yeah, that weird, complicated, drawn out as but yes,
23:01
Speaker 3: my my opponent's opponents kind of thing, So yeah, I agree.
23:06
Speaker 1: And then in the w c h A, it's a
23:09
Speaker 1: you know, a big one. It's a Saturday Sunday series
23:11
Speaker 1: between Ohio State and Minnesota number two. Ohio State's ranked
23:17
Speaker 1: second Minnesota's ranked third. That's you know, I mean, Minnesota
23:23
Speaker 1: can't do much more than it's done early this season.
23:26
Speaker 1: Ohio State really can't argue with the the success they've
23:31
Speaker 1: had earlier this season. This is one of those that,
23:35
Speaker 1: you know, maybe this is our frozen formatchup at the end.
23:38
Speaker 1: We're going to see him again later in the season,
23:40
Speaker 1: but this is a a kind of a show me
23:44
Speaker 1: kind of series of who can who can be the
23:48
Speaker 1: star here or in the w c HR early in
23:51
Speaker 1: this in the season, we've seen it be Abby Murphy
23:53
Speaker 1: so far.
23:53
Speaker 2: If she can can continue that in a.
23:55
Speaker 1: Series against Ohio State, I think that that puts her,
23:59
Speaker 1: you know, at.
24:01
Speaker 2: An upper level when you're talking about awards down the season.
24:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think the reason the teams are
24:07
Speaker 3: ranked the way they are at the moment is that's
24:09
Speaker 3: how we came into the season, right. The team that
24:11
Speaker 3: won the title gets one, the team that lost the
24:13
Speaker 3: title gets two, and sorry, Minnesota, that puts you at three,
24:16
Speaker 3: and nobody above them has lost, and so yeah, everybody
24:19
Speaker 3: stays there until until further notice, right until something changes,
24:23
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I don't think you know, Minnesota at
24:26
Speaker 3: three versus Ohio stated two means functionally anything about you know,
24:30
Speaker 3: either one of them. Minnesota's played a couple more games,
24:33
Speaker 3: but you know, in two more games have scored fifteen
24:38
Speaker 3: more goals than Ohio State has, you know, Minnesota has had,
24:42
Speaker 3: you know, based on their strength arguably you know, sort
24:45
Speaker 3: of an easier like they're they're putting up those numbers.
24:48
Speaker 3: But I yeah, I mean this is a huge the
24:52
Speaker 3: huge Minnesota offensive powerhouse that they've been in these early
24:56
Speaker 3: six games against sort of that relentless pressure that Ohio
25:00
Speaker 3: State puts on. And so there's just so much that
25:03
Speaker 3: I think we can see and learn. I think, you know,
25:07
Speaker 3: you really this isn't just about the outcome for me
25:09
Speaker 3: or or anything like that, but like how the goalies perform,
25:12
Speaker 3: how you know, can Ohio State curb Abby have can
25:17
Speaker 3: Ohio State We've seen the thing for me from Minnesota
25:20
Speaker 3: that's been so good and so jawj opering has been
25:21
Speaker 3: the puck movement and so and no team has really
25:25
Speaker 3: been able to slow that down or interrupt that much.
25:29
Speaker 3: And so for me, yeah, it's things like you know,
25:31
Speaker 3: what happens with the second and third lines. If Ohio
25:33
Speaker 3: State can you know, keep that top line and check
25:37
Speaker 3: can those second and third lines really step up? And
25:39
Speaker 3: those are the players that are going to need to
25:41
Speaker 3: lead the team when you know, Abby and Fromoranto are
25:45
Speaker 3: you know, not with the team for the Olympics, things
25:48
Speaker 3: like that, And so to me, yes, the outcome is interesting,
25:52
Speaker 3: but for me, it's the details here and it'll be
25:54
Speaker 3: on the same on the Ohio State side, like you know,
25:57
Speaker 3: they're going to have to show that they can you know,
26:03
Speaker 3: possess the puck and slow down Minnesota. And so you know,
26:06
Speaker 3: we're sort of talking about like what can Ohio State
26:07
Speaker 3: do to slow down Minnesota? But I think it's the
26:09
Speaker 3: same same arguably in the other direction. In Minnesota's defense
26:13
Speaker 3: hasn't been nearest tested, and so how does their defense
26:15
Speaker 3: step up and how does what does Minnesota look like
26:18
Speaker 3: when they're not possessing the puck as much? In Ohio
26:21
Speaker 3: State is able to you know, take some of that
26:23
Speaker 3: away from them. So I think that's you know, there's
26:26
Speaker 3: it's it's in the details in this game and in
26:29
Speaker 3: terms of like what we might learn and what you know,
26:31
Speaker 3: their future opponents can learn from the tape of this.
26:36
Speaker 2: Right, those other two.
26:39
Speaker 1: Teams with perfect records so far also in games that
26:43
Speaker 1: we're paying attention to. Mercyhurst playing at Penn State teams
26:49
Speaker 1: that are expected to be at top of Atlantic Hockey.
26:52
Speaker 1: Penn State six and all, Mercyhurst three and three overall.
26:56
Speaker 1: Penn State's got the two wins against Delaware on its
27:00
Speaker 1: conference record. This will be the first conference outing for Mercyhurst.
27:07
Speaker 1: It if anyone's going to put a dent into Penn
27:11
Speaker 1: State this season, it's.
27:13
Speaker 3: The only team that's beat them, right.
27:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it feels like this being this being at
27:22
Speaker 1: Penn State is an important opportunity for Mercierus to say, well, look,
27:26
Speaker 1: even if this the tournament goes through Penn State again
27:30
Speaker 1: at the end of the season in Atlantic Hockey, we
27:34
Speaker 1: think we're gonna have a chance if we can come
27:37
Speaker 1: out in October and get a win there.
27:40
Speaker 2: Now can build some belief towards the end of the season,
27:45
Speaker 2: for sure.
27:45
Speaker 3: And I'd like to point out too, like Mercyhurst is
27:47
Speaker 3: three and three, but they split a series with number
27:49
Speaker 3: ten Saint Lawrence and they lost five to three and
27:53
Speaker 3: in overtime for three to Minnesota de Luce to open
27:56
Speaker 3: this season. You know, they won their two games against
27:58
Speaker 3: New Hampshire, which are sort of you know, the ones
28:00
Speaker 3: they should win, and so that three and three to
28:02
Speaker 3: me is not necessarily like there's there's more information there
28:05
Speaker 3: that you need. And also I thought they looked spectacular
28:08
Speaker 3: against Minnesota Duluth, like they're the ones that had been
28:10
Speaker 3: worried about Minnesota Duluth in that opening weekend because I
28:12
Speaker 3: was like I expected more from the Bulldogs and that
28:15
Speaker 3: was because mercy Hurst played them really well. And so
28:19
Speaker 3: I think that this isn't as simple as maybe you
28:21
Speaker 3: know some of the records and things. I think Mercyhurst
28:25
Speaker 3: has more to give this year, and I think it's
28:27
Speaker 3: gonna be really interesting. Like I said, they're the only
28:29
Speaker 3: team that has the Penn State in conference in recent
28:32
Speaker 3: like in like what the last two years, maybe more
28:35
Speaker 3: just off the top of my head for sure two years.
28:37
Speaker 3: So yeah, like you said, just a huge series. You know,
28:40
Speaker 3: you wanna you wanna make a statement, And it's gotta
28:44
Speaker 3: be really difficult mentally to go into a season like
28:47
Speaker 3: sort of everybody just assumes Penn State's gonna win and
28:50
Speaker 3: like maybe even you do too, and so like how
28:52
Speaker 3: do you know like looking at that and and you know,
28:54
Speaker 3: being motivated to to say like, hey, it's let's not
28:57
Speaker 3: handle the trophy right away. So yeah, that's like you said,
29:02
Speaker 3: it's kind of fun that we have these six undefeated
29:04
Speaker 3: teams and there's so much sort of at stake for
29:08
Speaker 3: those teams this week.
29:09
Speaker 1: Right, and then the Icebreaker Tournament is played this weekend
29:15
Speaker 1: at Union's New M and T Bank Center in Schenectady,
29:20
Speaker 1: Union hosting.
29:21
Speaker 2: They play Saint Anselme in the.
29:24
Speaker 1: Friday semifinal after Vermont plays number one Wisconsin. And this
29:29
Speaker 1: is a tournament that I would imagine everyone thinks Wisconsin
29:34
Speaker 1: is the heavy favorite in.
29:37
Speaker 2: It's it's an opportunity for I think teams too.
29:44
Speaker 1: You know, when you're talking about Union, St Anselm, Vermont,
29:47
Speaker 1: you're gonna get into a tournament scenario here early in
29:52
Speaker 1: the season that can help you down the road, whatever
29:55
Speaker 1: the results are. Being in that environment of you gotta
29:59
Speaker 1: play one team one day and another team the next
30:01
Speaker 1: is something that you're probably gonna face or you could
30:03
Speaker 1: face in a postseason format somewhere down the road. Good
30:09
Speaker 1: opportunity to to see what happens there and to build
30:12
Speaker 1: something off of that.
30:13
Speaker 2: And then you know, it's just a you know.
30:15
Speaker 1: The Icebreaker is a great event pulling together teams from
30:18
Speaker 1: different conferences to have kind of a national sort of
30:22
Speaker 1: early season event.
30:24
Speaker 2: Uh in women's hockey.
30:27
Speaker 3: And Vermont's coming off that's you know, that's split with
30:29
Speaker 3: Saint Lawrence and sort of riding that high with the
30:33
Speaker 3: last second goals and things like that. I think, you know,
30:36
Speaker 3: they're in a position they also, you know, they had
30:40
Speaker 3: a former Wisconsin goalie last year, They've got Yudobu Eauclaire's
30:44
Speaker 3: former coach, Eric Strand is in a new assistant. Like
30:47
Speaker 3: there's there are some ties there, and also I think
30:49
Speaker 3: some opportunity to to maybe have a little bit of
30:51
Speaker 3: insight and inside information, so you know that too is
30:55
Speaker 3: just makes it a little more fun. But yeah, I
30:57
Speaker 3: you know, it's probably a little unfair for the teams
31:00
Speaker 3: having to face Wisconsin. But I also think then it
31:03
Speaker 3: could be interesting in terms of like what Mark Johnson
31:06
Speaker 3: does in maybe playing players in different positions, maybe switching
31:09
Speaker 3: up his lines. We might maybe see Ria Stewart get
31:11
Speaker 3: a start and net and so some of the things
31:14
Speaker 3: that might come you know, for the Olympic stretch for
31:18
Speaker 3: Wisconsin when some of their players are missing. I feel
31:20
Speaker 3: like we might get a preview of some of that.
31:23
Speaker 3: It seems something something Mark would do.
31:26
Speaker 1: You had mentioned Cassie Hall from Wisconsin earlier in the show.
31:30
Speaker 3: Yes, forgetting that.
31:32
Speaker 1: Courtney Hall is an assistant coach with Union, so there's
31:34
Speaker 1: a chance that they could meet on the second day
31:37
Speaker 1: of the tournament. I'm sure it'll be fun for the
31:39
Speaker 1: family to have both of them there and get everyone else.
31:42
Speaker 3: Involved to Yeah, that's really cool. I had not made
31:45
Speaker 3: that connection in Union put out some stuff on social media,
31:48
Speaker 3: so that's really cool. And I you know, we always
31:50
Speaker 3: liked those connections. And also I just I like seeing
31:53
Speaker 3: you know, sort of former players and players that grew
31:55
Speaker 3: up in the game getting into coaching and so just
31:57
Speaker 3: a very exciting sort of in the both from Michigan.
32:01
Speaker 3: So you got a you know, Sisconsin player and Union
32:04
Speaker 3: coach from Michigan. So just like you said, it's the
32:07
Speaker 3: tournament as a whole is a good sort of like
32:08
Speaker 3: nationwide showcase of women's hockey, and that's just another sort
32:11
Speaker 3: of subplot to that, right.
32:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, great hockey family there, Kevin Hall. Their dad is
32:16
Speaker 1: a long time official and it's sent a lot for
32:19
Speaker 1: the game, and so yeah, good to good to see
32:21
Speaker 1: the family getting back together. In Schenectady there this weekend,
32:24
Speaker 1: hopefully some.
32:25
Speaker 3: Pretty good sure they always imagined to.
32:26
Speaker 1: Have well, right, yeah, a great, great place for a reunion,
32:29
Speaker 1: right all right, anything else to touch on.
32:33
Speaker 2: As we look at the schedule here this week, or
32:35
Speaker 2: anything else that's uh, that's happening.
32:39
Speaker 3: On the prone. We should start getting pre season camp
32:42
Speaker 3: rosters in the PWHL, so we will see, you know,
32:46
Speaker 3: that's obviously a huge college connection, so we'll see not
32:49
Speaker 3: everybody from the draft has been signed, but also where
32:52
Speaker 3: some of the undrafted free agents end up. So just
32:55
Speaker 3: something to keep an eye out in single game tickets
32:57
Speaker 3: when on sales, so people wanting to go to p
32:59
Speaker 3: WHL games go check that out. But yes, I'll be
33:01
Speaker 3: keeping an eye on those rosters as they drop, just
33:04
Speaker 3: to see, you know, who who's getting a chance and
33:07
Speaker 3: who might you know make the roster that way, So
33:09
Speaker 3: something to watch out for, all right.
33:12
Speaker 2: We'll watch out for that on us c h O
33:14
Speaker 2: dot com.
33:14
Speaker 1: We'll watch out for all of Nicole's content there and
33:16
Speaker 1: the Victory Press and everywhere all your great work comes out,
33:20
Speaker 1: and hopefully you'll be back with us here next week
33:22
Speaker 1: as a listener. I know Nicole will be back with
33:24
Speaker 1: us here next. All your listeners, thanks for listening, and
33:29
Speaker 1: make sure to stay with us for next week's edition
33:32
Speaker 1: of the podcast. For Nicole, I'm Todd.
33:35
Speaker 2: We'll talk you later.