Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / The 2025 Frozen Four is set; here's how Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota and Cornell got there

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The 2025 Frozen Four is set; here's how Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota and Cornell got there · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. Hi everyone, welcome to the podcast. Todd
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Moluski and Nicole Hasey with you. We have the Frozen
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: four teams set. That's Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Cornell.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: They will be together in Minneapolis later this week. We'll
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: have a full preview as we continue on with the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: show of the semi final games as we will see
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: them play out on Friday. But Nicole, I just am
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: interested in your quick thoughts on that group of four
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: teams all winning at home to get through to the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Frozen Four this week.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm always conscious of sort of people who complain
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: about it's always the same teams, and in the end
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: it was our top four seeds. But you know, that's
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: why we spent all season talking about how important it
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: was and being the four versus the five and all
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of those things that like that that home ice advantage matters,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and ultimately, I think, you know, as we've watched this season,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: go on, I think these are the four best teams
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: we watched this season.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: I you know, it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Feels like we came down, you know, kind of through
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: it all. There were some bumps for everybody. I don't
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: think anyone had a super easy path and the sort
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: of best ones emerged. It doesn't mean that the other
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: teams weren't also good. I just you know, sort of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the full course of the season, what we saw from
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: these teams, it feels like, Okay, there's a reason, you know,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: we had Cornell finished top ECAC, we had Wisconsin finished
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: atop the w C. CHA like this is you know,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: these are the two tough conferences right now, and I
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: feel like that's that we got where we were.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Supposed to be.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard to argue that. I mean, two years
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in a row now we've had all home teams advance
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: out of the quarterfinals to the Frozen Four, and it's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you look at the success of those four
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: teams have had throughout the year. I mean, Wisconsin going
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: in a toy five game unbeaten streak, Cornell, I believe
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: he's on sixteen undefeated, and Minnesota and House State have
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: have been right there in competition kind of for that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: second spot in the WHA all season long. So yeah,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you're you're right, these are probably the best four teams
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in the country when you look at it over the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: course of the season, and let's see how it goes
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: on Friday when the semi finals happened. But last week
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: at this time we were still at eleven teams. We're
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: now gotten down four with seven games over the last week.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Three Thursday night games all end up in in in
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: games that you know, we're not necessarily close on the scoreboard,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: but there were some pretty close moments in some of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: these games. Starting in Columbus, it was Saint Lawrence four,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Penn State one. In that game, the Saints ran out
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to a three to nothing lead in the first period,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Abby Hustler scoring two of those go Penn State got
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it back to three to one with a five on
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: three goal in the third period, but the Saints went
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: it uh by three again with an empty net goal
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and a Sophie some thirty two saves for Saint Lawrence.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And that one that was a a repeat of the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: result of last year's regional semi final, Saint Lawrence getting
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: past Penn State. Penn State having trouble scoring in these
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: regional games has been the theme for the last two seasons.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, I feel like maybe I need to apologize
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: to Saint Lawrence because I really did think pen that
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: was Penn State's year. I thought, you know, sort of
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: a flip of fortunes and just sort of Penn State
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: on the upswing and all that sort of stuff. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I admittedly had been, you know, saying that here and
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: writing about that, and I feel like maybe wrote Saint
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Lawrence off a little bit.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: But yeah, they I.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Mean, never doubt haven't what it means to have a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: great goaltender. I mean, obviously Penn State put shots on
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: net right like they were. They were doing the work,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: and Saint Lawrence got some blocks, had a great another
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: great performance from an Sophie RDS Truman.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Like they're the the Jordan mean, they took that personally
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: right they I was. I was impressed with the game
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: they played. We we had some of these on as
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: we were in Madison watching the Clerks in match up
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: with Boston University.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I just did it.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Felt like Saint Lawrence walked out on that ice, took
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: it pretty early and really didn't relinquish it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: That's a something that that's hard to come back from
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: when you fall down in early three goals. I mean,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you like to feel like you're in the tournament here,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: but all of a sudden you're trying to dig out
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of a three goal hole. And I mean for Penn State,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: that's not something they're tremendously familiar with. Over the course
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: of the season, haven't had to do that a lot.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So when it happens in you know, on the big stage,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that that's a real rough way to start.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's sort of that perpetual either or
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: for coaches, right like would you rather, you know, sort
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: of go in undefeated, you know, on a roll, or
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  Speaker 2: would you rather have suffered some some adversity and so
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: your team learns sort of that resilience and learns what
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: they need to do in those situations. I'd say that
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: like later on when we're talking to some of these
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: other teams, I'd say, you know, Wisconsin, Minnesota, even Ohio State,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: like they they all suffered a little bit of diversity
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: and the like towards the end here and have had
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: to come from down and things like that, and I
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: think that makes a difference. I don't even Cornelly without
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: their last minute those wins in the first round of
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: e s AC last second really and I just wonder if, yeah,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: if if Cruising Crew for all that Penn State has
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: done sort of at the beginning of the season with
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the non conference games that was months ago, you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and so it does sort of Yeah, I don't know it.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Like you said, it's just a really hard to hold to.
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  Speaker 3: Dig out of.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, you're in a unfamiliar building,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: you're against an unfamiliar opponent, all the pressure is on
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: just mentally, that's that's a huge thing to deal with.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I just.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: It was it was I kind of felt like most
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: of Thursday's games left me. They weren't they didn't go
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: the way necessarily I expected them to. And so yeah,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that was the first one where I was just like, Okay,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: we see you, Saint Lawrence.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, in Ithaca, Minnesota, Luth came out with I
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: think the shots margin that a lot of us expected.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Playing Sincred Heart fifty eight to twelve. Duluth had the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: advantage there and what ended up being a six to
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: one win in the first round, a goal some four
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: different players got the Luth out to a five nothing lead.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Daniel Bergen scored twice, Clare Van We're in, Olivia Mobley,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Grace Sadura, and then Olivia Mobley scored her second of
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the game into an empty nad after Kate Helgerson scored
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: for Sacred Heart midway through the third. I don't know
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: that anyone was necessarily surprised by the result. The the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: six to eleven game is is usually a pretty one
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: sided affair, at least historically, and it has been shots
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: wise over the past few seasons, and really no different
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: this season.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: No, but it took you m D a while to
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: break that one open, right, Like, we're watching that game
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and the Saint Lawrence, Saint Lawrence has taken a bigger
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: lead in the game that we thought was going to
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: be close than U m D had early on against
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Sacred Heart, and you know, it took them into the
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: lad into the second period to break that one open.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: So you know, nobody who loses the game wants any
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: sort of moral victories. But I thought it was a
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: really good showing for Sacred Heart their first time in
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the tournament. Obviously, like you said, it's just it's a
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: lop sided matchup when you're talking the six eleven because
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: that's not even that they were eleven in pairwise, right,
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  Speaker 2: So kudos to Sacred Heart for for showing up and
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: showing like that they're they're a team on the upswing
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and they can handle this for you know, a good
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: portion of the game. I think there's just a ton
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: to build on from there. I know, like nobody wants
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the moral victory, but I was impressed. We know, we
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: know how goodv. Gascon is, we know what the Bulldogs
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: can do on defense, We've seen what their scoring can
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: do at times, and so yeah, I just thought I
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: was surprised how long Sacred Heart was really able to
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: stemy UMD and keep them off the board more than once.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: I think they won in the first right.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: In Madison on Thursday night, Clarkson three to one over
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Boston University. A quick start for the Golden Knights there,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and Shrakowski ria Hick scored goals thirty one seconds apart,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: with a bu penalty in the middle there. So it
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: was an interesting stretch there because it was a Clarson goal,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: then the penalty was taken, and there was the TV
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: time out, So I think those are minute and a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: half two minutes, so it was a longer stretch than
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: it seemed like between those goals thirty one seconds of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: playing time apart. But that was a real strong statement
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: for Clarkson to come out get those two goals and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: really the game kind of settled from there. There wasn't
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a ton going on for a period and a half. Essentially,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it felt like for for in terms of great scoring chances,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Bakna scored with four to one left for Bu
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to cut that deficit the one, but Sena Caterall gotten
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: empty in a goal for Clarkson for the three to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: one win. We knew Clarkson has it has experienced. They have,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: they've been in this situation before, b has not for
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: their first tournament appearance in ten years, And so that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was I think a little bit on display some of
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: those players having you know, experienced some real high level games,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and you know, we were talking back and forth throughout
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: that game that it was really there were some passes
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that didn't connect, for be you that you know, could
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: have given them some more chances, some more score chances
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: at least, you know, opportunities to get up the ice
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: with a little more flow. And that was one of
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the things that really to me stood out as what
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: decided that game.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you sort of it took them into later
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the second maybe even the third to even come close
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: to playing the game that they wanted to play and
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: that game was over in those first few minutes. And
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: that's the difference of being able to come out right
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: on the ice and be ready from puck drop right
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: like it without that first period, I think maybe it's
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: a closer game, and because because Clerkson was able to
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: score those two quick goals and then kind of settle
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: into their defense and really focus on what it was
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: they wanted to do. And you still was able to
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: push back a little bit against that one. But yeah,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it was like gripping the stick
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: too tight, but it this is a team we've seen
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: be a good passing team in BU and it was
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: like there was no power on everything anything. It was
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: like everybody was so tense that they forgot some of
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: the basics and they didn't you know, they didn't seem
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: to ever really settle into their game. And so kudos
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: to Clarkson. I think in retrospect, having watched the two
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: games with them, there's more continuity between those two than
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I imagine, just in that like they the way that
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: they were able really to match the team where they
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: were and and you know, just really strong difference from
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: from Clarkson in both games in terms of being able
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: to like they were. They were really keeping Boston University
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: wanted to create flow and they just they could not.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: They were they were meeting them at the blue line,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: they were meeting them in the neutral zone, and I
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: think when BU got sort of flustered and had that
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: slower start, they just did not have the experience to
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: come back from that.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was Thursday night. We will take a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: real quick rank here. When we'll come back, we will
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: talk about the Saturday's regional finals. Stay tuned on the podcast.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Moluski and Nicole reviewing
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the NCAA Tournament first two rounds. We just got done
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: talking about Thursday games. Now let's talk about these Saturday
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: regional finals. In four locations will go top to bottom
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: in the bracket, starting with top overall seed Wisconsin falling
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: behind Clarkson but rallying for a four to one win
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to clinch their sixteenth Frozen four appearance, tied for well
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: tied for the lead with Minnesota, also their third straight
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Frozen four trip. The whole Gosling was the one who
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: scored for Clarkson and get a power play goal five
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: minutes into the first period, and that created some tension
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in Lebon Arena. You could feel that, couldn't you That
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: there was you know a lot of people that probably
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: remember the twenty eighteen championship game in Saint Charles that
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin had a hefty shots margin but never scored and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: lost three to nothing. And I do feel like that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: was in some people's minds. But the Badger's got two
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: goals in the second period, Abra Murphy and Kelly Govertanko,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and then two more in the third Lailah Edwards on
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the power play and then Lacy Eden into an empty
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: net which she never actually hit. It was an awarded goal,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: which we don't see a ton of, but she basically
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: would have been a penalty shot if there was a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: goalie in the net, but since there was none, they
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: can award the goal for that, and that's a four
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to one win for the Badgers there. What what did
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: you feel about how that start played out for Clarkson again,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: because that was what you imagine they felt like they
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: had to do is get out to a lead, try
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to protect that, try to add on to that, and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: if they were able to convert on a couple, you know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: one of a few chances that they had and make
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: it to nothing, we might be talking about something completely
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: different right now.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean even after the game was gone to
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: coach Mark Johnson was like there was a point where
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I thought, wow, we're just not going to score. Like
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: they both because they were unlucky and there were some
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: bad bounces things like that, but like because with Clarkson
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: was doing such a good job of disrupting what they
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: wanted to do. It was interesting to watch Wisconsin press
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: and to start, Clarkson's defense was holding them from really
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: even getting into the zone, and then sort of Wisconsin
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: kept getting sort of closer and closer, and then they
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: were holding zone possession and but not putting the puck
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: in the net. And the longer that went on, the
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: more you could just feel that like how like you said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: the tension in the building, but I imagine like the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: sort of snake bitten feeling and the frustration of the players.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, some of the players were able tojust and
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: some were still trying to do the same thing they
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: always do in the third even though like Clarkson had
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: done such an amazing job of poke checking and blocks.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: The final block count was fifteen which is ludicrously low.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: There's just no way that's the right number. I think
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: it said that they had eight after the first and
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: there's no way there were only seven more. So let's
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: just go ahead and assume that they had probably double that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: But yeah, they they were the same way they you know,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: they had opportunities. They had the puck, they had you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: up some breakaways, they had pucks through the crease.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: And if Clarkson.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Barry is one of those, I like, as we said
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: with the Stint Lawrence game, like that's a hard hole
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: to dig out of, especially when you're frustrated when things
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: have come so easy, when scoring is what you do.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I don't think it is a coincidence that in a
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: game like this, we're once again talking about, you know,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: goals from from different players on Wisconsin's depth chart, and
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: you know, Leila Edwards ended up getting one. But like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: this was a game about players that aren't aren't the stars,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: and that's what is if they're gonna win, that's what's
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: going to carry them through to a title, right they
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: It's just this depth, this opportunity for players. I mean,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Kelly Gorbotenko put it a goal she didn't know she
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: could score. I mean, it was a beaute right and
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Mark Johnson said he knew she was capable of it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: That kind of wanted to be like, okay, but tell
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: the truth, like she muscled her way out. It was
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: essentially a blown play. The goal technically, I think scored
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: as a power play expired. But she she's a bigger player.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: She there was a sort of a bouncing loose puck
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: going between some badgers and clerks and at the blue line,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Kor Tanko pushed her way through, angled in being able
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: to use her size, and then lifted a backhander up
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: and top shelf. It was it was gorgeous, but that
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: is not a player that you would expect to be.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Doing that in that situation.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: And then you know a goal from Eva Burfi on
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: defense as well, and she's the one that had committed
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: the penalty that led to Clarkson's goal. So she also
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: stopped a two on one break breakaway the third period.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: So that's the thing that I keep coming back to
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: with Wisconsin is yes, you have the Patty Cast top three,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: you have you know, five women being named to the
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: US national team for Worlds. Those aren't always going to
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: be the players that do this for them, even in
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: beating Minnesota in the WHA Championship, Yes, a pass from
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Casey O'Brien, but was a goal from Sarahwasdovic. And I
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: just think that that is the thing that they have
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: that I'm not sure a whole lot of other teams
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: can come close that even when nothing is going right,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: even when everybody is getting stymied, even when there's frustration,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: there's still players. And when you can send out a
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: third line and mix in your fourth line players against
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: other teams, it's just it's really hard to match up against.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: And and they keep showing sort of time and again
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: that those players are gonna step up. And then the
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: players that they're sort of big name players when they're
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: not getting on the score where we you know, we
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: asked Mark about Casey O'Brien, who, you know, was like
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: kill the battle, leave like almost daughter own.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: She was.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: She was everywhere on the ice and sort of doing
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: all of that intangible stuff. And you know which is
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: the probably the favorite for the Patty. She's the top
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: scoring player in the country, is the top scoring player
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: in Badger program history, and she was blocking shots and
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: winning pucks in the boards, in the defense zone on
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: a late penalty kill. And so that's the sort of
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: stuff that I think you see that you're like, Okay,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I understand what the hype is about.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I think I said it was the twenty eighteen championships?
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Did it twenty seventeen?
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Seventeen championship tip game? Clarkson won them in both seventeen
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and eighteen.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: But they did twenty eighteen. Was the last time we
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: were in Minneapolis?
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: In Minneapolis? Correct? Yeah. The thing that maybe went you
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: know a little you know, behind the scenes or got
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: forgotten was, you know, Avi McNaughton gave up a goal
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: on the first shot of the game and then you know,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: mate a couple of pretty challenging saves after that. You know,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: like I was saying, if if it gets into nothing
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: or beyond that, Wisconsin's in some trouble and she's she's
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: done this a lot this season where she doesn't have
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: face as many shots as a lot of other goalies,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: but they give up a couple of testers and she's
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: been really good in those situations. And that was I
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: think again the case on Saturday.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like we were talking talk about in terms
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: of you know, coming back from adversity and that sort
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: of thing like giving up what you're when you're, you know,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: considered one of the best goalies in the country, sophomore
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: getting all this attention, and you give up a goal
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: in this really crucial situation on the first shot. Like
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: that's the fact that she rebounded and played the game
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: she did was just really good telling. I don't know
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: how better to say it. And also just want to
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: shout out Holly Gruber for Clarkson, who is a Wisconsin native,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: so she said that was the first time she got
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: to play in front of a lot of her family.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: But she had a spectacular game. I mean, I think
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: on defense, Clerkson played the best possible game they could
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: have against Wisconsin, like they did ever. They they went
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: out with a game played and they executed it, and
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: they did everything they wanted to do. And as you
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: keep saying, I think if they were able to be
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: to score at least one more on offense, it would
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: have been a very different game, particularly before Wisconsin was
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: able to break through and score. And Clarkson came as
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: close as any team has to figuring out that sort
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: of how do we be a really shut down defense
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: but not have to give up being completely offensive in
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: the meantime, and they had a pretty good balance there.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: They just didn't get the puck in the net and
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: that's the game. But yeah, I was impressed with the game,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: especially because it was such a different game than we
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: saw from Clarkson and Spu. I was really impressed with
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the game that Clerkston played, just just really disciplined and
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: did exactly what they wanted to do. They had the Badgers,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, the Padgers couldn't complete a pass. They couldn't
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: you know, they couldn't dry a cruise through the new
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: shal zone like they like to. Just there were poke
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: checks and lifting sticks and just everything Wisconsin was trying
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: wasn't working.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Heading up I ninety four to Minneapolis, where we'll be
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: for the Frozen four this week, Minnesota and Colgate played
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the four or five game, the one regional final that
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: was set in advance because both of those teams in
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: those positions. That game is the one regional final that
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: was set in the original release of the bracket. Minnesota
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: jumped out to a three nothing lead, but had to
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: hold on for a three to two win. Abby Murphy
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: scoring twice in Sydney Morrill the other goal for that
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: three nothing lead, but a Lisa Beiedamrin and Avery Pickering
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: scored in the third for Colgate, who made a really
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: good push in the third period. I was shooting the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Gophers thirteen to nine after Minnesota had a thirty five
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to thirteen shots lead, So kind of flipping the script
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: there in the third period with and you'd imagine that,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: right with your season on the line, You've you've got
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of proud players, players that have been in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: you know, tough experiences and had to make something out
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of them, and they did. They almost got all the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: way back. It had a power play I believe late
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in that game too, And no, that was that was
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a different game, all these games that happens out to day,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: but different goal. Right. So the Gophers get their sixteen
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: throzen four appearance, tied with Wisconsin for the first there,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: first since twenty twenty three, and they'll be at home.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: We will talk about that a little bit later, but
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Minnesota getting this win with a lot of pressure, a
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: lot of eyes. They want to be in that tournament
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: in their home building after they weren't the last time around.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I would imagine that's that's a pretty big relief for them,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: but also a strong statement of look, we're here to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: win this thing, not just begin it.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that third period was more what I
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: expected from the entirety of the game. I was a
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: little surprised by kind of how flat Clerks or Colgate looked.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do that a lot. I apologize, y'all.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: I'm real tired and I've written a lot the last week,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: ten days. It's just a mental slip. So I expected
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: more of a push from Colgate. We know what they
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: can do. We've seen you know, they've got amazing scoring
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: the sort of physical game that I expected. I mean,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: it got chippy at times, but I really kind of
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: thought we'd see a bit more of that, like shoulder
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: to shoulder, reel sort of fights along the board sort
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: of thing. And I mean mostly I think just kudos
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: to Minnesota and kudos to Brad Frost because he's got
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: the team peaking when they need to be peaking. I mean,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: they have had plenty of lows in the last few weeks,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: you know, like in the closing weeks of the season.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: That's not where they wanted to be. And if you'd
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: have told me after that series that they lost so
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: badly to Wisconsin that this is the like, that's the
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: game I would have watched on Saturday. I would have
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: been shocked. So kudos to them for sort of regrouping.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: They lost that, you know, was it three overtime game
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: against Minnesota State in the first round of the DOUDCJS.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: There's been a lot of bumps and they keep responding.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: And obviously that you know, getting to play at home
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: and the draw of the Frozen Four at home are
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: are huge motivators. But I don't think they're the only thing.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: And I yeah, I'm impressed.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I thought to.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Sydney Or it was a Colgate transfer and she scored
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: what turned out to be the game winner. So from
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: for the group of petty folks, that's a that's a
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: team petty and and just that's a delicious little little tidbit.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: But Abby Murphy scored a ridiculous wrap around goal.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: I don't, I don't know, I don't.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know what to say about this Minnesota team
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: because I've seen them play poorly and I've seen them
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: play out of their mind, and so it's hard to
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: totally buy into what we've seen from the w c
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: J Tournament and the this game just because of that contrast.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I think I think I'm bought in.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I think I'm like, Wow, it's almost unfortunate them in
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin faced off again in a semi final and only
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: one of those teams is going to advance. But yeah,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I just really great, like I said, peeking at the
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: right time doing what they need to do. That was
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: that was more of a dominant game from Minnesota over
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Colgate than I expected.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: And when you have Abby Murphy scoring, I mean she
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: can We've seen where she can be one of the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: best players in the country when she's scoring goals like
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: she has been the last few weeks. That's a major
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: plus for Minnesota and something that I know that they
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: need to continue because they don't necessarily have the depth
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that uh you know that Wisconsin has that you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: maybe even corner Ohio State have they need her to be.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: They go as she goes, right, Yeah.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And not only that, but I think you in
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: their own building, she's the first goal was ridiculous that
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: it like deflected, Like I don't even know how that
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: goal went in. It didn't feel like it should have
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: been Look It wasn't a great shot, it wasn't a
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: great situe, and of course the puck goes in the
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: back of the net in you that sort of puck luck,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: and then you know, you score that cheeky wrap around.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: And the confidence that that cup gives not just Abby
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: but the whole team. They know that their fortunes also
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: rest with how well she's playing and how much she's scoring.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: And so when you're when you're pulling off stuff like that,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: it's hard enough to feel like you can beat the world,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: right right.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: All four regional finals were w CHA against ECAC boat.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Only one of them was hosted by an ECAC team,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: and that was Cornell, which got into the third period
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: with Minnesota Louth in the zero zero game, and that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that one felt height. It felt like there was, you know, uh,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: just a lot of maybe some nervous energy on both
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: sides there. Cornell find have killed.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: The I dream agenie myself into the over there. It looked,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: it looked a great atmosphere.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I believe it was there over three thousand fans, their
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: their highest in program history.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Someone I know was there said it was just deafening,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: like you couldn't hear anything. She also said some older
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: she called them gray hair she was being instead of
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: calling old ladies. But she said she assumed they were
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: lums cane and sat in front of her, and one
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: of them made sure they got the student papers so
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: they could hold it up during the player introductions. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: that just that warms my heart. So just sounds like
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: a really exciting atmosphere and that people in Ithaca are
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: just really really pumped for this team.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you consider that it's Analise Bergmann goal
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: for Cornell and ev gascon In goal for Duluth, the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: zero zero makes which probably shouldn't have expected a real
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: high scoring game here, but it was Cornell that got
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: away with a one nothing victory on Alyssa Regulatto's goal
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: three twenty four into the third period. Bourbon made twenty
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: eight saves Gascon twenty. This was the game with the
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: late Dluth power play that they also I believe had
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the empty net or part of to go six on four,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: but Cornell was able to fend that off and get
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to the finish line and make their first Frozen Forces
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: That was not the how our plays that QMD drew
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: up or wanted to have in that situation. As that
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: kind of just kept going poorly. It was like, yeah,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: that this was not destined to be your game, I think,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: But yeah, UMD had their opportunities. They have plenty of chances.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: They you know, they've at times struggled to score. They
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: faced a Doug Darras, the Hockey Canada defensive coordinator for
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: their women's national team, like he you know, this is
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: a defensive team with a really good goalie, and.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: That's it's not great.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: It's not a great situation to be in when you're
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: a team that is not always the highest scoring team.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: And so it was just kind of two walls pushed
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: against each other and Cornell got the got the goal.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: It's it has to be pretty satisfying for Cornell. I mean,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: looking back five years twenty twenty, they were the number
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: one overall seed going into that tournament and never got
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to play as no one as no one did that
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: season because COVID canceled everything before we got there. But
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to be able to get back to the Frozen Four
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: for the first time since then, it's their their fifth overall.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I would imagine there's a lot of people that are
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: feeling pretty good about how this has turned out down
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you know the second half of the season especially, but
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: now really you know, making a push in the Frozen four.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I mean if you're you know, someone that believes in
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: sort of the stories or fate or Dustiny all that
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff, it does it does feel like it
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: came together for them and that you know, they deserve this.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: This is a program that was number one in twenty
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: twenty and like I feel like to new fans, if
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: we told you that Cornell was the number one team
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: five years ago, if people be like, what, like, there's
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: there's been this, you know, Wisconsin, Ohio state dominance and
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: things like that, and I mean those teams were also
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: ranked high in that season in Cornell still was atop
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: the polls. They that is I think a forever lost
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: season for them. That's just a really unfortunate series of
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: events for them. And I think that's a thing that
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: if you go back and talk to people ten, fifteen,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: twenty years from now, they're gonna sort of rue you
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: know that that that's how that went down, and think
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: about it. Is it having slipped through their fingers.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: That might not necessarily be the most healthy way to
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: handle things or go through things, and so I'm glad
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: that they have this. Now, this is a new thing
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: to focus on. This is this is That's not what
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: could have been for their program. This is what is
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: for their program exactly.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: The final regional final of the day was in Columbus,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Ohio State falling behind Saint Lawrence but quickly regaining its
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: footing for a six to one win. That was Alan
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: McLeod's scoring for Saint Lawrence on a five minute powerplay
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: after Sarah Swerdeerski was ejected for head contact in the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: first period, but Sloane Matthews Enjoy Dunn scored for the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Buckeyes later in the first period done that was her
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: first of two and Ohio State didn't score in the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: second period, but outshot Saint Lawrence twenty two to one,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: which was just kind of an indication of where that
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: game was trending at that point. And then they Ohio
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: State scored four in the third to reach their fourth
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: straight Frozen four, going for their third title in the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: last four. So your thoughts on what we saw in
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Columbus as Ohio State, you know, it had been challenged
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the weekend before by their coach Nadine was all after
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a humbling loss to Minnesota in the WHA semifinals and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: after a hiccup to start this one.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: They answered, yeah, I mean I think that goal, the
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Stanlords goal came like twenty seconds in the five minute
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: power play too, so it's not it was like bang bang,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: sort of bad news, bad news. And I think the
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: important thing from us Ohio State here is that they
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: were patient and they responded right like. It wasn't as
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: we said last week, Nadine was mad that they she
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: felt like they gave up and that just wasn't the
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: case here, and they were patient. And even though like
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: you said, they fire outscored in the second or outshot
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: in the second period and it wasn't falling, they still
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: they sort of kept what they do and it was.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: Not lost in me.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: That their their goals were sort of what they do,
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: which is just swarming the net, some great passing, somebody crashing,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: you know, like you look at the highlights, you don't
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: ever really get to see the puck go in the
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: net because it's just them sort of cuming down the ice,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: moving the puck well and tapping in through the chaos
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: in front of the net. Shout to get into Amazophie Nordstrom,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: who tied a career high with forty three saints. She
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: absolutely gave Saint Lauren it's a chance in that game
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: for a really long time. But I think being at home,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: coming off the situation they came off of there was
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: that was a runaway train in terms of what the
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Buckeyes were going to do there that I don't know
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: that any team really had it would have had a
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: chance against Ohio State in those circumstances.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: It is, you know, pretty remarkable that we're talking about
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Ohio State making its fifth Frozen four appearance and four
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: in a row. How just how you know? And the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: first one was the last one Ritter I was twenty eighteen. Yeah, yeah, Like.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: It's this is this is new, friends, this is all
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: brand new.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: You can think of if you if you've jumped in
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, you think of Ohio
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: State as this perennial power because they've been in all
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of these you know, last weekend situations. But this really
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: is still a pretty new building program to be at
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: this level, and I think it's remarkable to consider how
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: well they've played to consistently be at this level these
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: last few years.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, lover hate Nadine. There's no
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: denying that she has gotten results. And I think I
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: want to point out to people too, because it's always like, well, yeah,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: it's Ohio State. They have money and resources and all
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: those sorts of things. Before I think they started, Nading
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: started what eight or nine years ago, Like that's a
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: team that Ohio State forgot, Like they had a couple
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: of really bad coaching situations, and I just don't think
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: there was a ton of like internal oversight at the university.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Nobody cared about that team. That's why the coaching situations
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: were able to be what they were.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Nadine took the job and forced that university to pay
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: attention and provide the resources needed and provide the student
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: athletes the resources they needed. And Lord Willig, they still
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: get a rink in the future, but aside from the rank,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: everything else is top of the line that that's what
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: they're doing. And but yeah, I just I think people think, oh,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: big ten university Athletic school. Of course they're doing that.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: But like you said, it is it has been less
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: than ten years and for a long time that team
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: just sort of wild away into obscurity and it's a
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: shame and it's kind of I think that there's probably
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: things that needed to be addressed within their own athletic
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: department for why the things that happened were able to
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: happen and why you know, nobody was really paying attention
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: to that. So there's just no doubting that, like what
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Nadine has done there as a turnaround. I mean when
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: she when she took the job, she was like, oh,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: why would I want to do that to myself? I
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: mean that's that's where that program was, you know, when
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: she's been blunt about that and also that you know,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: she she's the type of person that takes on a
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: challenge and I think her husband said, okay, so make
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: them not like that anymore, and she absolutely did in
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: a really short time. So yeah, it's uh, they you know,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: it hasn't been the season. It's not been the dominant
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: season they had last year, right, Like they had a
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: really stacked roster with with that older group, and again
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: I think they just they showed some resilience. They had
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: a bad showing at w CCH's. They are a relatively
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: young team. You know, their top scorers are on the
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: younger side and you got to learn some of these lessons.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: So I just think the last few weekends have been
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: really interesting sort of sports psychology of various teams and
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: what it means to come in with a bunch of
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: wins or come in off bad losses and how all
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: those teams have responded.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's the Frozen four, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cornell, and
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Ohio State advancing. We will get into the semifinal matchups
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a little later in the show, but when we come back,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: we will talk about the Patti Casmier Award, the women's
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: national Goalie of the Year award, which will be awarded
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: this weekend in Minneapolis as well with us on the podcast.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: We're back on the podcast, Todd Molusky and Nicole Hasey.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Patty Casmaira Award, which will be
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: presented Saturday, eleven thirty am Central Time at the McNamara
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Alumni Center. If you're in Minneapolis, you can be part
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: of that show. It's going to be live on NHL
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Network in a live audience there. All three finalists are
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: from Wisconsin, Layla Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Casey O'Brien. That's on
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the second time one school has had all three finalists,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the other wise Minnesota and twenty thirteen, that incredible team
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Manda Kessel winning that year, Megan Bozic and Nora Rattu
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: the other finalists that season. This is a pretty remarkable
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: finish for one school to get the three top vote
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: get for this award. It speaks to I think that
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: the name recognition that's out there for them because this
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: is voted on at this stage by the thirteen I
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: believe thirteen member committee after the league championship weekend, and
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: so they're advanced to that point that you get to
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the top ten by a vote of the coaches. That
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: tends to produce a, you know, a pretty fairly even
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: geographic spread because you have coaches from all over the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: country who are you know, have seen different players and
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: respect a lot of different players. When you get to
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: the committee voting, that's also geographically you know, they try
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to have a fairly even geographic base to it. But
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: when the top three finalists are all from our top
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: three vote getters, all from one school, I think tells
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: you that there's been a pretty good amount of recognition
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: for those players, And I mean looking at these three,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: you've got the national scoring leader and Casey O'Brien who
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: was also up there last year. Caroline Hivey is the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: best defender in the country and a staple for years
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: to come on the blue line for USA hockey. And
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Leilah Edwards has been one of the top goal scorers
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: this season and part of the future of USA hockey
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: And Leila and Kker the last two US National Women's
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Player of the Year, right.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: So that it just feels like there's a lot of
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: build up into where we're getting these three players being
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: up on this stage on Saturday.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, it's hard to talk about, like people
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: don't love that you are both from Wisconsin, cover the
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Badgers a bunch, and then this is where we're at.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: But also I think for the most part, like this
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: is a pretty I think you can make arguments for
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: a couple other players, but I don't. I don't think
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: you can deny that these three have had just absolutely
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: stand out seasons. I don't think that you can. Like
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: KK is a generational defender, Like there's just no there's
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: just no doubting that, Like we are watching and very
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: lucky everybody for a ten dollars ticket and or a
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: TV subscription, a Streammate subscription, just get to watch just
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: absolute talent on display. Like there is no and and
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: there are not always words to describe all the things
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: that KK does really well. And Casey is Casey's a fighter, right,
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Like she isn't the most naturally gifted in almost any
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: part of the sport, maybe her speed, right, And she
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: has just done a ton of work to make herself better.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: You know, when she realized how important face offs were
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: gonna be and that there wasn't sort of anyone else
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: in her class that was acceli at them, she put
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: in a lot of work to be the best face
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: off taker in the country, right, And she kind of
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: put put a go of being the best center.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I just I.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: She's also showed a lot of adaptability, right, Like last
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: season she was more of a pastor. This year she's
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: been more of a pure score. And that's the thing.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: The adaptability for me is something I've talked about. I've
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: been on the Patty Committee in years past. You serve
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: a two year stint. I am not currently on the committee.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: I was on sort of the last two so I
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: you know, I had Casey up on my on my
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: ballot last year, and I think, you know, even just
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: talked about other players in the past. For me, it's
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: like seeing someone like Danielle Sirdakney have a different role
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: every year and what they can do. And so to me,
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: that's what that's part of what Kate makes Casey so
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: impressive is not just the numbers. I mean, the numbers
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: are outstanding, and it's some of it what I think
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: we said it was like seventeen games more than Hillary
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Night to break the program record. It's not like she
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: had she broke the program points record in this extraordinarily
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: extra amount of games. It wasn't you know that, it's
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: this full season, forty extra games, and so you know
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: she only would she have five her first season?
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Is that what she said?
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Five points ten? I think it was six a frozen
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: four and then she had four over the.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Time, right, she did have a really good frozen four
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: that year. Anyway, all of that is to say, I
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: just I am I. What I impressed with is with
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Casey is that she's just as likely to be blocking
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: a shot on the defensive end. And I talked about
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: how she was on that penalty kill in the quarterfinal.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: That to me is sort of the stuff that makes her,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: you know, the best, the blessed player in the country.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: But I also think, and this is no events to Leila,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: I just think that KK and and Casey have been
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: on an extra level and I think, you know, if
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: the award went to KK, I don't think anybody would
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: be surprised or angered by that either.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: I am.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I am writing a series at Victory Press this week
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: about like making the case for each player, and I
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: finished KK is like ready to run through a wall
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and like yell at anybody that didn't vote for her,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: because it's just you look at the numbers and she's
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: incredibly gifted in ways that have nothing to do with
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: the points she puts on the board. But also her
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: points are on power with the other two defenders that
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: have won the award, and so it's really difficult to
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: not get on board and not think like, well, if
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: we're gonna be stingy about which defenders win this, this
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: is one of the defenders that should.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: And we were talking about this a little bit over
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the weekend in person that I just don't feel like
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: there's a number you are that you can put on
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: KK Harvey's contribution to the game, because it's not necessarily
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: just in points. It's in her speed, it's in her
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: ability to close down two on one or ability to
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I mean just just take away what probably would be
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: decent scoring chances for the other team and turn them
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: into nothing. How many times that end recovery game right,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: which leads her into the ability to play in her
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: offensive zone because she has the ability and the confidence
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to take away those chances on the defensive side too.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: It's just out of the full picture running together right there.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Is all that offense doesn't exist. She's not a great defender. Yeah, uh,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and so that's just a.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: Huge part of it.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: And Yeah, for me, it's it's all that little stuff.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: The way that she angles, the way it's the hockey
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: iq to read the play and see, you know, what's
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: coming at or where to do, Like she's directing how
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: the offense is coming at her, Like she's the one
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: that is moving them to the side and and forcing
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: things and and then being able to you know, pick
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: off the pocket, start the breakout and things like that.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: It's just it's a real whole complete package and just
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: something I think that we haven't necessarily seen a ton
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: of uh you know, her exact style of this highbred
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: defender and offense a sense a player that is like
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: equally skilled at both. You're not giving up anything when
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: she is getting on getting in on the offensive side.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: And if she makes a mistake, the biggest thing is
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: that she could recover, and she pretty much always does,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Like if somebody beats her, she is on her horse
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: and ending that play before it turns into anything and
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: so and again she's she's twenty one, she's a junior.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: The stealing for her and what she can accomplish in
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: the future is kind of mind blowing and exciting if
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: you're a US thegan like real glad she's she's on
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: that side of it as Americans, right, But yeah, I
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: like you said, it's it's the part that's unquantifiable. There's
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: some times where I just kind of want to be
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: like like the me, like the Will Smith, where it's
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: just like I don't know, I don't have words, I
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: don't have just watch just watch her because it's it's
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: pretty special and it's consistently.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: Kind of jaw.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Dropping if you really if you know what you're looking
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: for and if you're paying attention to the details.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: But also sometimes you don't have to do that.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just great to just enjoy that she's a
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: really good hockey player that you get to watch pretty frequently.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it just so happens that Wisconsin has
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of the top scorers in the country this
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: season because they've had such a really you know, potent
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: offense a lot of games, and that they've scored five, six, seven,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: more and more goals and not even just against you know,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: some of the weaker teams in the country. They scored
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: six against Ohio State, they scored eight against Minnesota. A
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: lot of these these games that have you know, been
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: higher scoring. You're getting a lot of these points early
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: in those games from Casey O'Brien from to make them
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: not close games. That's That's one of the things that
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I think it stood out to me is that they're, yeah,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: maybe they're getting some some extra points in in games
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: that are out of hand, but they're also helping them
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: get to that point by by being the ones that
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: are scoring. And that's what you have to do in
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: those kinds of games. Eighty points doesn't happen every year anymore.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: And Casey o'brown is at eighty five, so I think
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: that's something worth recognizing. Darryl Wats was the last player
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: to score eighty points or more, and and O'Brien is
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: getting up in the Kendall coin kind of range. I
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: think now of when I.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: Was checking what Alex Carpenter had, that was the standard
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: for me.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think eighty eighty six and eighty eight and
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: once I can't remember exactly that they were both the
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: next ones the score because Wat's at eighty two when
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: she won the Patticast. Sorry, and.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like you said, we just we don't we don't
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: see like that anymore. Yeah, at the time, Alex, I
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: think said what they wrote this, Alex Carpenter had eighty
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: one points and like, yeah, like you said that at
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: that point that was just like that was a lot.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: That was mind blowing, and you know we were seeing
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: maybe one player kind of come out with that, and
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: so yeah, it's again, I think part of it is
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: that the argument, like if you wanted me to argue
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: for for like five of the top ten, I could
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: make a really good argument for both KK and Casey
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with the points that they scored,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure, uh you get to you know,
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: Abbie Murphy or you get to some of the other
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: higher scores that what Abby can do with the puck
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: and scores is what her you know, what makes her spectacular.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: And so that's hard to talk about this because it
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: feels like you're you're Raggan on somebody else, but it's not.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: It's not meant to be a doubter and on anybody else.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: I just I think, yeah, I think Casey Is is
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: kind of underrated in in what she's done over the
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: past few season on in the career she's put together.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: One day we'll have to try and get the cutch
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: answered about what what USA Hockey, what about her game
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: USA Hockey doesn't like, and why she's she's not on
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: some of those rosters because obviously there's there's some sort
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: of stylistic difference there. I don't think, you know, it's
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: personal or anything, but there's there's something that's not making
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: that click. But she is in the last ten years
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: probably one of the one of, if not the best
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: forward we've seen. It's just it's she's a style of
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: forward that doesn't necessarily exist in women's college hockey anymore.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Right, all right, So that will be announced, like we said,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: eleven thirty am Central on Saturday, as part of a
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: half hour show. That's one of the awards that will
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: be coming out this weekend. Will also be getting the
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: All Americans, the Rookie of the Year, and the Women's
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: National Goalie of the Year, which has three finalists. Anlis
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Bergman of Cornell, will be at the Frozen fourv gascon
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: of Minnesota Rluth and Wisconsin's Avan McNaughton also at the
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Frozen four. Give me your your feelings on this group,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: because I know this is one you do vote for,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm curious on how how you kind of parse
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: through you know, what numbers are important to this and
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: how how you know we're talking about some goalies that
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: don't see a whole lot of shots or as many
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: as as some others. Some goal is that do see more.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: How do you how do you, I guess judge that
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: for yourself.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: One of the things is, I mean, I try really
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: hard to not just go by the numbers. The numbers
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: don't obviously don't tell enough of the tail I think
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: in this group. One of the things that's important to
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: look at is that of guess Gon's goals or say
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: percentage is lower than the other two. But she's faced
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: so many more shots and just her team is lower
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: scoring like her, she's she's in a ton of one
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: and two goal games that are either wins or losses
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: right like they're there. It could go either way, and
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: I think her team is you know, um D has
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: significantly more losses than than Cornell and Wisconsin. Was trying
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: to pull up the the email that I sent, but
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: it's for me, I think that's obvious. I'll just say,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: like I had Guess gone first, it's not necessarily how
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: I was looking at things maybe a month.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: Or two ago.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: But the more that you see what sort of Ev
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: is facing and what she's doing when she is just
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: facing so much more and also, uh, EV has the
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: problem of having to play Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio State,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: which which luckily you know, if it gets out of
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: one of those. Uh so, so what she's done sort
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: of against just some of the toughest opponents, the highest
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: ranked opponents, and still have a goal of goals against
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: that is pretty pretty comparable, pretty close to what the
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: other two have. I just think is uh that's how
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: That's how I went looking at it. I tried to
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: go beyond just the numbers that it's not just like, Okay,
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: this this player has the best goals against, average player
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: has the guests best say percentage, but look at sort
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: of what it means and who they're playing against and
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: why why that matters? Yeah, then I don't know if
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: that helps sturasmic.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Important to note that the w c h A coaches
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: went the same way. They chose v Gascon over A
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: McNaughton for the first team and for the goalie awards,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: So that that's yeah for me, that that's speaks a
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: little bit. Those are players that have game planned around
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: or coaches that have game planned around those goalies and
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: and seeing what they do in the volume that they
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: have to face. And I do think that's that's an
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: important part of it. It's we and we've talked about
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: this in the past in terms of goalies who only
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: play half of the games, right, how how much you
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: you you consider that in terms of if you're you've
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: got someone who's played fourteen games against someone who's played
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: twenty eight. I think that matters.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: And I think too, I think if you're playing half
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: the games. Your numbers really.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Have to like pop, right, you have to be having
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: incredible numbers, which also then race the question of why
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: aren't you playing more games unless you've just got two
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: goalies that are that good that or you just feel
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: like as a coach it's important that only they only
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: play one a week to or don't want to play
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: them back to back. Yeah, there's there's something to that.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sorry, I did finally find my my sheet.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: So Ev did play two hundred minutes less give or
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: take than Analyse and AVA, but she faced about one
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty more shots than Analyse and one hundred
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: and eighty give or take than AVA. Say percentages, our
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: analys is nine forty five, as is nine forty two,
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: and Eva's is nine forty seven. When we're getting to
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: the thousands plates, to me, that's a wash, right, and
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: again when you're facing that many more shots and as
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: as one lost record is fifteen fourteen and one versus
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: analyses twenty five four and five and thirty four one
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: and two. Uh, And when she's got those kind of numbers,
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: it's it's not her fault that that win loss record
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: is so different, right, And so I just think when
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: you look at sort of what she's facing and what
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: she's coming up against, and what these numbers have meant
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: to her team, as you know we talked about earlier,
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: like you, and he's not always scoring a ton of
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: goals and having EV and being able to keep games
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: close so they aren't needing to score three, four five
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: goals to get out of a game and get the
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: win is crucial. And so yeah, I think in the end,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: when you kind of put all of these numbers together
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: and see Analysa's goals against this one point two eight,
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Ava's is one point one seven and EV's is one
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: point eight three.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: You know, so slightly higher but also still under to a.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: Game, it's just, uh, it's to me at that point,
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: it just became it was so obvious how important EV
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: is to what UMD was able to do and to
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: them get being an NCAA tournament team and being the
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: number six team in the nation all year. Yeah, it
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean I don't think the other two aren't great goalies.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: I don't think you could go wrong with this set
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: of three. I think every single one of them was outstanding,
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: and I could make in a really good argument for
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: any one of the three, and that means I think
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: we did the right thing. I think we got to
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: the right group. And whoever wins is they're all deserving
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: is really the thing, and every one of them has
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: played an important part in what their team and getting
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: their team to where they were.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll find out who wins that award, who wins
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: the Patty Kasmi Award over the weekend. Should be some
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: interesting stuff going on there throughout the weekend with awards
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: during the Frozen Four. So when we come back, we
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: will look into those semi final games at the Frozen
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Four in Minneapolis on Friday. Stay with us on the podcast.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Maluski here with Nicole
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: Hase as we wrap up this week's episode. Be on
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the lookout for us for new content coming later this
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: week from Minneapolis. We're going to try and get some
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: interviews for you and throw them up here on the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: podcast feed, so be on lookout for those not sure
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: what the timing is. We're hoping to have something Friday
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: morning for some interviews out of Thursday's media day and
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: then possibly a discussion with the Petticaz winner on Saturday.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: So that's the hope. We will see how it works out.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: You know, doing things live never can guarantee anything, but
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: that's that's the plan anyway. Okay, Nicole, Let's look at
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: these two fours and four semi finals on Friday at
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Ritter Arena, Ohio State versus Cornell the four o'clock Central
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Time semi final. This is a rematch of the icebreaker
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: championship game earlier this season, won by Ohio State seven
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: to three. But that was a four to three game
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: in the second period, or the Buckeyes pulled away with
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: that one. Jocelyn Amos scored twice in that anlas Bergman
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: gave up all seven goals on twenty four shots in
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: that game before she got pulled, at least according to
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: the box score that I saw.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: It's how Hell's come a long way, baby.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: There's a few different ways of looking at that. Yeah,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: that this is a team that just allowed zero to
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Minnesota Duluth and Bergman got the shutout in the regional final,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: but also how States has done some damage there earlier
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: this season? Is that a precursor?
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: So rare that we get right that we've had these
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: teams from different conferences actually play each other. Usually we're
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: looking for like did they play have a common opponent?
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: So so rare to have this, and yet and yet
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: I feel like a seven to three, like there's no
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: way that's what we're going to see here, right, Like,
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like that's that tells me how this
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: game is going to go.
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: So I don't.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Know how to take That was October twenty sixth, and
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: that felt like September October hockey with a score like that, Right,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: That's not the way Cornell has been playing lately, No,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: not at all.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if we're gonna see sort of similar
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: to what we see in from Ohio State in terms
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: of like the opponent being to help Cornell being able
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: to hold them off for a little bit, and at
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: some point, like Ohio State breaks through, and when they
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: break through, it's usually in bunches. So I think it's
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: about how well Bergmann plays. It's about how strong the
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: defense can be and if they can be that strong
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: for sixty or sixty plus minutes, and so you have
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: to be disciplined, you have to, like Nading Mazral's word
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: for Ohio State is always relentless, and I think that's
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: what we saw, especially towards the end of that quarterfinal
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: win over Saint Lawrence, right like, they just keep pushing
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: until they break you down. I don't know that there's
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: any way to prepare for that. I don't know any
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: amount of practice can actually put you in that situation.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: Add In that is, you know that frozen four that
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: has been sort of elusive for them and sort of
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: this big Cornell story.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know what to expect per se and that's
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: probably gonna be my answer about the escape too. So yeah,
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think based on what we saw from
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: what Ohio State did to Saint Lawrence, who was what
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: third in the ECAC this year, yeah, I don't it
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: doesn't vote well for Cornell. But I also I'm not
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: ready to write anybody off at this point. And I
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: think that if there is a team that is disciplined
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: and stout on defense, it is Cornell. I think we
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: can expect them to be playing as good in defense
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: in the third period as they do from puck drop,
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: and so I think there'll be a bit of a
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: chess match there. I think Cornell is going to have
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: to find that balance between being a really strong defense
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: and taking offensive opportunities. One of the things for Cornell
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: is a lot of their scoring has come from younger players.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: Their whole team is inexperienced in this situation, and then
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: you add in sort of the younger player option as well.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: And so I don't know, you know, Lindsay Avar, things
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: like that, if that, if that's going to come into it,
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: that their rookies, the Frozen fours sold out, it is
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: going to be loud, and you are probably going to
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: get a pro w c H A crowd, I would think,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, I just it's a really it's a
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: really interesting dynamic between those two in terms of like
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: the defense first first, offense first. And I think it's
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: going to be sort of, you know, the favorite coach
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: phrase of the recent last few weeks, ben but don't break, right.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: I think the the Cornell path the winning this game
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: is pretty similar to their path the winning last week's
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: game against Minnesota Duluth. Be tight, b you know, maybe
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: the bend but don't break, but then find a way
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: in the third period, begin a close game. If you
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: can be tied going into the third and then find
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: a way to get a goal, that's that's uh, that
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: that wins it just as well as you know, going
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: out and scoring six does. I think that's the way
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: they're gonna have to try to get this done, whereas
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Ohio State probably has multiple ways that they can try
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: and get this done. I mean, they've they've got a
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: set of really impressive scorers that they can lean on,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: but they also have at times this year been able
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: to shut down some pretty impressive offenses. So I I
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: do tend to feel like Ohio State has more ways
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: of winning this game than Cornell does. So h that
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: to me puts the odds in their favor, But I
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily know that that's a given going into you know,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: a frozen four semi final.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I think, I mean, aside from the obvious
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: and saying this by just the longer they keep Ohio
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: State from from putting points on the board, and I
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: don't think one or maybe even two Ohio State goals
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: is the end of the world for Cornell. But Ohio
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: State builds momentum and they're when they score, they tend
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: to score in bunches, and so being able to not
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: like to reset quickly after a goal and not letting
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: I mean the way that Ohio State can score another
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: goal within like the next minute is something they've done
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: all year long. And so I think it's things like that,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: those those little small things that are are going to
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: be make like tell me whether or not this game
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: sort of can be close as we had and towards
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: head toward the ends of it. Geez, I'll just stop talking.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: None of that came out.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Well, I can't. I can't imagine, right.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think, uh, aside from the fact that
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: you just you know, obviously don't want the other team
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: to score goals, I just leak for Cornell. The longer
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: it they can, they can put that off, and the
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: longer they can hold Ohio State off, the better off
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: they're going to be. If this becomes a high scoring game.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: I don't think that plays in their favor, all right.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: So the second semi final then is Wisconsin the top
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: seed against Minnesota, the four seed, seven to thirty Central.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: The start time on that or fifty whatever minutes after
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: the first game if that one runs long. The Badgers
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: five and zero against Minnesota this season, including the WCCHA
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: Playoff championship victory two weeks ago. But I go back
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: to the series that they played at Ritter back in October,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: long time ago, but I mean that is probably pretty
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: fresh in both these seams memories because Wisconsin won five
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: nothing the first day, which is, you know, at that
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: point of the season, was a real eye opener on
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: both sides. But then Minnesota came back and jumped out
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: to a three nothing lead in the second game in
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: the second period, but was.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: God, looks like it was going to be this huge
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: response game.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Exactly, and then Wisconsin crawls right back into it and
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: ends up winning that one four to three, And that
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: that felt like one of those moments for Wisconsin season
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: of you know, when you're thirty six to one and two,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: you point out the little bumps along the way because
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: there there probably haven't been a ton of them. That
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: was one of them that was early enough in the
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: season where it could have, you know, sent things one
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: way or another. And I think that's uh for Wisconsin.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Part of the reason why they're at the point they're
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: at right now is developing that resilience. Yeah they can
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: fall behind by three goals, but they know they have
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: enough good players to pull themselves out of that.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not going to panic and that. The second
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: part of that is that isn't what Minnesota had at
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: least three games like that. They had one against Ohio
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: State where they had a big they had to lead
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: it and gave it up in the fourth.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: That was six.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: Unanswered from Ohio State, I want to say. And then
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: the WHA Championship, Minnesota had the lead in Wisconsin Quebeck
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: and won. And so so that is more of a
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: pattern that I think the Gophers would like. And yeah,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: I think that that's one of the things I would
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: point to when you're asking sort of if someone asks
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: who's gonna win this game? Like you said, I think
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: that that resiliency from the Badgers and just the fact
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: that that Minnesota has let kind of so many of
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: those games slip away, that sort of inability to complete
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: that full sixty minutes. Now, they turned around last weekend
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: and took that lead and Clogate tried to come back
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: and they held them off. And so, you know, point counterpoint.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: Myself, but.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: It is it's both teams have an interesting amount of
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: sort of external pressure and expectations. You know, the Badgers
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: not making the championship game would be would make this
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: season a massive disappointment. For them because they have been
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: so good. But Minnesota is clearly really driven by the
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: concept of playing at home and winning a title at home,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: and so they've they've done all they needed to do.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: They were four seed. They still like they're they're they're
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: playing in for a title this weekend on home ice
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: as a team that had plenty of bumps over the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: course of the season. And so I just think you
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: can't underestimate how important that is to them. And you
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: just add in the sort of rivalry and the bitterness,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: like the Gophers would love nothing more than to be
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: the team that ruins this.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: For the Badgers.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: I mean every team would, but like there is an
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: extra special, like you know, kind of the pettiness that
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: I talked about earlier, Like that is that's just a
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: huge rivalry. They they don't like each other, Like they're
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: two of the best teams historically, and they like being
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: the one that screws things up for the other.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: You know, So Minnesota has never trailed the all time
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: series against Wisconsin, and Wisconsin's winning the w c h
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: A playoff championship even that for the first time ever.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Of what's on the line here is, you know, I
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: don't know, the players don't.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: Know or hear anything about that goodness.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: That just adds another layer of Yeah, that semi final
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: is I mean it's everything you could want. I know,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: people there are plenty of people who don't want either
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: the Badgers or the Gophers and anti wh and all
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. That being said, all of that
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: backstory to put these two very good teams against each
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: other for a sixth time this season, with all that's
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: on it, it's it's all the compellingness of what makes
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: a like this is why college sports is great, because
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: you have this twenty five year rivalry between these two teams,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: you have this history, you have these two coaches that
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: have at this point couldn't surprise each other if they
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: wanted to write, like those two know everything about each other,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: and even the players, the players know so much about
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: each other. I mean there's not much Abby does that,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: Abbie Murphy does that. You know, KK hasn't seen both
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: against her as a Badger and as a teammate with
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: Team USA, and so there's just there's so many layers here,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: and I feel like you could you could talk for
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: several days and pick you know that pro con column
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: for each team. There's just so much there's so much background,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: and that's that's to me what makes this fun. And
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: in the end, none of that will matter. That's all
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: the storyline and what makes it compelling and why I
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: think people should watch. And in the end, you're going
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: to watch two really good teams play a dynamic hockey team.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: It's rarely not exciting when those two are on the
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: ice together.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: I was looking this up earlier and I'm going from
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: memory on this, so if I'm not exactly right to
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: write on this, I apologize. But one of these teams
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: has ended the other season thirteen times in the last
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: twenty five years something like that, that this is how
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: it ends usually for these teams is either Wisconsin loses
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota or Minnesota loses to Wisconsin. And that's you know,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and pretty often it's happened at this stage of the
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: season where it's my final or a championship game or
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: a quarterfinal a couple of times. That's a that's how
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: rivalries are built. And you know, even you know, if
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: you're not a fan of either one of the teams,
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: I think it's something you can look at and say,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: you know, it's maybe better to watch as not a
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: fan of either of the teams, because those two sides
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: have probably.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: Be wonderful if you don't care about the outcome.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Lot wrapped up in it. But this should just the
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: quality hockey to watch with all of those things wrapped
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: into it on the rivalry side. So yeah, yeah, what I.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: Often say about this is that it's really great Badgers
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: and Gophers is really going to be pretty hockey. They
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: know each other too well, and neither one of them
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: is going to be able to go out and fully
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: execute the game plan that they, like in the perfect
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: scenario of a hockey game, would play. This isn't gonna
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: be what Wisconsin's been able to do against a lot
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: of other teams this season. And same on the other side,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: like they are gonna they're gonna get in each other's face,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: they are gonna lift sticks, they are gonna.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: Pope check it.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: None of it is going to be like the finesse
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: perfect hockey. And it's about sort of who adapts and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: who who is prepared for that, and you know who
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: comes up big in those situations. And again, I think
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: I think we're likely to see that it's not necessarily
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: going to be any of those big stars, and that's
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: kind of fun. But these are teams that compete for
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: the same recruits. You've got former Minnesota miss Hockey's on
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: the Badgers, You've got you know, you just it goes
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: back and forth the whole time. And then you know,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: several of them have played together in national teams and
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: there's just so many layers and so many reasons why
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: they hate each other.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: And again, when you when you have that play out
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: on the biggest stage, that's, uh, that's pretty cool. I
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: think that's uh, you know, and we're starting to see
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: that develop with Wisconsin Ohio State too. The figures where
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: you play so many meaningful games that each individual one
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: has a little bit more attached to it.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: But I would like to say it is the biggest
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: stage and that it is the final weekend that game.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: Neither of the semi final games are tele they are
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: only on ESPN plus that sucks.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: I'm just not even gonna prevaricate. I don't have better
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: words right now.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: It's yes, it's some bs and the national Championship game
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: will be on ESPU ESPN you which not everybody gets.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: You have to be a cable subscriber in twenty twenty five,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: So that game will most likely you watch by a
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: lot of people on ESPN Plus. So we're at this point,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: we're going to have you know, a good what your
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: dozen players that will probably that will be playing in
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: the World Championships in less than a month, between US
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: Canada and Finland Sweden, and they know they're still not
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: getting that stage, and so it's just seriously going to
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: beat you guys. It's going to be such good hockey
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: if you're even if you're not a fan, even if
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: you hate the w c h A and all the
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: teams like this is the very best of what NCAA
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: women's hockey it has to offer. It's it's going to
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: be a tremendous weekend between these four teams, and I
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: wish that it was going to be seen by more people.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Well, yes, if you have any way of getting ESPN
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Plus for Friday's games, please do because that will be
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: worth that effort.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: You can bundle that with various other subscription services and
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: on its own. I think it's like six or seventy
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: ninety nine for the month, and I would recommend it
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: because Okay, that's I think well worth the price of
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: admission quote unquote for those couple of games.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, all right, anything else before we wrap this up
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: and we'll eventually get on the road to Minneapolis for
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: the Frozen four.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: No, maybe, just thanks everybody for coming along. I mean,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: we're we're not done yet. We're going to have a
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: couple more episodes, but we appreciate you all so much
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: for coming back each week to hear us talk about
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 2: what's going on in the sport. And as we said,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: it's not easy to follow, and it's not easy to
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: become a fan.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: The NCAA makes it makes it a little difficult.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: So we're just we appreciate that you're here and that
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: you the game as much as we do and want
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: to hear us talk about it and learn more about it.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: And I figure out Ritter or the Patty Cast ceremony
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, see us stop by and say hi.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: We met a few people last year in Durham that
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: we're listeners of the show, and we do appreciate I'll
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: have stickers, Nicole.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: He would like one of those.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: There you go, but we appreciate you absolutely. Okay, that's
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: going to do it for this week. We'll be back
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: next week to wrap up the Frozen Four and well
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: wrap up the season, maybe look ahead the World Championships.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: We'll see what comes, or Nicole, I'm Todd. Talk to
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: you next week.