Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / First 2 conference champions crowned; final weekend for ECAC chase

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First 2 conference champions crowned; final weekend for ECAC chase · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Uscho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Todd Maluski here with Nicole Hasey to talk all things
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: women's college hockey. And there are a lot of all
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: things women's college hockey going on right now. First of all, Nicole,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we know the identities of two of the league champions,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin in the WHA, but Penn State was first in
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Atlantic Hockey. Wrap that up on Friday. Wisconsin took care
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of it a day later. That leaves three left to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the side. We will know the identity of the third
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for sure this weekend because ECAC Hockey wraps up regular season.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: That'll leave Hockey East and New haw to probably go
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to the final weekend. The way things have been playing
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: out here lately with results and in New Ha, we've
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: got a kind of a surprise entrant to the title RaSE.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Not that they're going to challenge for the number one spot.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: They're they're at the opposite end of the spectrum. But
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael's has played a major role in who's going
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in deciding who's going to win the New Ha. You
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about that, sure.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like you said, they are at the bottom
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of the standings. They are a team that won no
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: games last season. Uh, and they last weekend split a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: series with Sacred Heart and two weeks ago took LU
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to overtime and two games twice. Yeah, so basically the
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: and there's what a one point difference at the top
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: of the standings, a new hot between LU and Sacred Heart.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: So you want to know who's responsible for the difference
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: between those teams right now, it is Saint Michael. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: just kudos to the Purple Nights, were you know, coming
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: off just the kind of season that you want to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: forget completely. They have new coaching, I'm told there's just
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: sort of a new implementation of culture there and it's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: really starting to come together. They've got a really young team.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think it's like ten or eleven freshmen, and yeah,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: they've they've tried to build something there and you can
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: see it starting to come together, which I think is
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: kind of all you can want in a year when
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: everything has changed, right when you're coming off a zero win.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So they are up to four wins, which I think
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: like honestly, having looked at the schedule and someone called
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: out there like in your season preview, Uh, you didn't
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: even think they'd make it to three, and I'm like
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that it's fair, like somebody else remember that better than
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I did, But yeah, I just I think it's so
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: it's such an amazing thing to see. We know, I
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: love an underdog. I love rooting for teams to to
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: you know, team chaos, right, So like Saint Michael's coming
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: in here, which you know the other team, those teams
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: probably went into those weekends thinking like, all right, we
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: you know, these are probably a pretty piece of cake
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: for us. They've they've beaten up on Saint Michael's for
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: several years. So yeah. Also, just the Purple Nights were
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: really gorgeous. Jersey. U Sacred Heart schemes were on ESPN
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: this weekend. For they keep saying they are, they aren't
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: always showing up. So I was really excited to get
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to watch some of that game. And man, do I
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: want that purple Reborld Nights Jersey. It was real pretty.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: It's this perfect color purple. It's like gold, actual gold,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: not you know, yellow gold. And yeah, just all around that,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I'm just really impressed. You know, they've they've improved in
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  Speaker 2: so many places. They're they're doing really well on a
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: penalty kill against these teams like these aren't fluke wins,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Like this team is coming together and gelling, and they're
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: one of those teams. I wish had a few more
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: weeks in the season to see what they could continue
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: to do now that the things have come together for them.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So that was a three to one win for Save
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Michael's at Sacred Heart. That's the other thing about it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They went on the road and beat Sacred Hard team
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that's challenging for the league championship last Friday, and combined
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with a three two win for Long Island against Franklin Pierce,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: put Long Island back ahead in that race. That's Saint
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Michael's game. Jody Gratton had two goals, Jordana di Marinus
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: thirty six saves. Yeah, it's a it's pretty cool that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: even you know, when you're you're struggling to put together
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: wins and you're trying to build, Like you're talking about
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that culture that you're able to still have in February,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: at the toughest time of year to win, able to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: go into another team's building and get a result, and
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that's pretty you know, like you said, hats off to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: them for you know, playing a role in playing spoiler.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I mean those kinds thing you got to love as
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a player is you know, yeah, you're out of that race,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: but you still have a big opportunity to play a
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: role for sure.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I like it's it's kind of like we
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: were talking about with Saint Thomas a couple of weeks ago, right, Like,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: it's just to have gone through wholesale change, to have
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: gone through a winless season, to have a start of
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the season where you were also still not you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: having those results, to be in this position in February,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to have believed and bought in on what the staff
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: is doing, to have believed in each other and come
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: together as a team and do this, It's just it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: really impressive. It speaks to their character and it makes
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: me excited to keep watching them, you know. It's uh, yeah,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: it's just really impressive. Like you said, hats off to them,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: stick taps all around. I just I think it's really cool.
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  Speaker 2: I'm excited to see what they can keep doing. And
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  Speaker 2: I hope that they know that, like people are, people
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: see them, and that that you know, we're paying attention
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: and they deserve people to be watching and seeing what
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: they could do.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So at the top of New ha Long Island forty
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: nine points, Sacred Heart forty eight. Both those teams have
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: four games left. They're done with each other, so it's
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: going to be up to uh, you know, who makes
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it to the finish line there when these next four games,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and and that comes out with the most points. So
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it should be fun to watch that over the next
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: two weeks. And there's really how how all of this
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: is going to be around the country. I mean, when
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you're looking around, uh, let's move next to well get
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the ECAC in a minute, but let's move next to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Hockey East where this is. We previewed this last week
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yukon and be you the teams that are in the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: running for first place right now? Be you had a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: four point late. Well now it's a one point lead.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Because Yukon went into Walter Brown Arena on Friday and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: won three to one. Ti Chan thirty three saves, Claire
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Murdoch a goal and assist. We knew that was that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: game was going to be big, especially because they also
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: have the two game two final games of the regular
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: season against each other next weekly.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: God's really I'm just gonna keep this, yeah, thank you, Well,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: we'll coming. We'll come to that a few more times. Yeah,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: scheduling God's worked out well for the drama this year.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Both Yukon and BU one on Saturday, Yukon one one
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: nothing of our Holy Cross again with another shutout there
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: twenty four saves and BU one against Providence three to one.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So setting this up be usuallyid down to one point
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: more to play, like we said, the final tour between them,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: which means that to set that up, they needed the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: care of business this week too. That's you know, this
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: is a everyone kind of sees that as the the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: last weekend battle for the conference championship, but got to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: get into that spot first.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, So you said, got to take care of this.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yukon has a home and home with Providence. Providence has
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: been sort of messing with everybody the last couple of weeks.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: They they definitely kind of knocked Northeastern out of contention
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: for this discussion a couple of weeks ago, and so yeah,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: it's uh, those are definitely going to be some tough
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: games for Yukon. And and again we just like heart,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: we've been harping on this, but it does someone want
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: to win this this conference. But yeah, I just like
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: it's not going to be easy and and that's for sure,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: but also like these are these are the games when
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: you're at the top of the conference, when you're fighting
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: for the title, Like these have to be games that
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: you win. And so that's what I'll be looking at.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, arguably be You has the slightly easier path
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: through New New Hampshire, but I you know, at this point,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not counting anyone out. And I love both of
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: these series are home and Holmes as well, So no
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: major advantage for either of the two teams at the
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: top of the conference in terms of getting to play
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: at home. So yeah, New Hampshire would love to do
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: just what we were just talking about Saint Michael's did, right,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: like play a part and be a team that makes
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  Speaker 2: some waves here at the end of the season.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, and New Hampshire's got a lot to play
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: for here too, because looking at kind of taking the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: step back Maine two nothing over in Northeastern last Friday
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: kind of puts Maine back in the discussion in for
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  Speaker 1: a top six finish, which means you avoid the first
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: round in hockeys, because the top six move into the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I think quarterfinals and then the bottom four playoff for
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the final two spots to get into the quarterfinals. So
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: if you can avoid that, if you have to play
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: one fewer game along the road here, that means something.
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  Speaker 1: And so right now mains a point behind you and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: h to finish in that top six. So that's another bat.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: The battles aren't always at the top. There's a lot
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that can be said. And the other thing in Hockey
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: East for me is so you're looking for the top
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: four spots too for the teams that are going to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: host the quarterfinals. Well, b season third at forty two points,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Northeasterns at forty one, proferences at forty so you've essentially
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: got a three way tie or three team race or
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: two spots hosting in the quarterfinals. Again, it's chaos in
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Hockey East a lot of the time here this season.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: And why should it be limited to just the top teams.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we are going to have just because I
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: think talking through these tournament formats is using. I mean,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: every conference has their own tournament format. They're all a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: little ridiculous and talking through it does not make it easier.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: We're going to have an article up on usccho Todd's
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: gonna work on to sort of lay out the different
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: tournament formats, so keep an eye out for that. But yeah,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: one of the things with Hockey East is that they
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: play like they play on the weekend and then play
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: midweek and then play again on the weekend. Their tournament
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: is not like you don't get a week off in
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: between games. So not having to play in that first
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: round game is app is a huge advantage this time year.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Everybody's speed up, everybody's tired, and just getting that little
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: bit of extra rest is huge, especially for a team
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: that is going to look at you know, are you
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Because we've seen so much chaos, we know that it's
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: not a given that the number one team here is
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: going to get the NCAA bid. So I'd argue there's
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: probably four to five teams that are likely that are
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: like above fifty percent could win this and then several
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: more that could just absolutely go on a run and win.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: This conference is autopen, and the way that the pair
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: wise is it's autopen or nothing for this conference. So
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: all those little details that we're sort of we're looking
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: in on here, like, really I feel in this conference
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: particularly really matter in terms of your placement and where
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: you end up sort of in the bracket at the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: end heading into the conference tournament.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: We will talk bracketology and go through all of that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit later in the show. Today one one
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: more result they want to get to Vermont three two
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: over Boston College on Saturday, Rose Marie brochure two goals
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and assists. That did tighten up that Vermont's towards the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: bottom of the standings, but BC is in that race
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: for a top four spot and that tightened that up
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit. It's it's it's been a little bit
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of a rough go for BC these last few weeks
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in terms of, you know, finding consistency, and that's that's
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: got to be a little bit of concerning as you're
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: getting towards the end of the season that if you
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: can't find a predictable path, it's it's not magically going
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to show up in the postseason.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the loss, but they won the game
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: before that seven to one, and like looked as good
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: as BC has looked. Like were the team that we
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: saw earlier in the year that you know, was getting
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: upset wins and we were like, Wow, this is a
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: team that could do this. They were who like they were.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: There was a cohesion, they were skating together, they were
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: passing like it was. There was a goal where I
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: was like, well, where has this been all year? Like
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: if you guys can pass like that and like read
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: each other so well, that doesn't come out of nowhere,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that doesn't just happen magically, like that's been building all year.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: And so it was like, I just watched this game
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: where you dominated seven to one, where you played the
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: best you know you've played all season, and then they
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: turned around and lost three to the next day, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: it was like this, this is why I don't understand,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Like I somebody explained to me that pair of games,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Like I this is where I get very confused by
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Hockey East and like and BC is one of the
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: teams that consistently is a head scratch for me, Like
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: you said, the consistency is just never there, And I
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: don't understand how you go from what they did in
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: that game. And again, it's not just the score, but
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: the fluidity with which they played to turn around and
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: just struggle so much the next game.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: That is uh kind of like you mentioned, just a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: feature of hockey and it's.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Not just this year, Todd, that's been kind of you,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: but it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Is not okay, fair enough. We'll move on with that
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: before we take a quick break just talking about Atlantic
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: hockey because we've got the number one and number two
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: teams booked in for that. Penn State, as I mentioned, UH,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: wrapped up the title at home with a four to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: three overtime win over Mercyhurst last Friday, Lindy Lobdell with
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the overtime goal. Merciers led three to one in the
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: first period of that game before Penn State came back.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: But Mercyhurst, you know, needed points to to to make
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: sure they were not letting Syracuse creep up on them.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: They got them with three to two regulation win. On Saturday,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Penn State led to one after two Julia Shallon Vanessa
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Upton scored for the Lakers and the third that I mean,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: you look at it, Mercy hears won that series then
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: four points to two.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: If you're looking at that, Mercyhurst was like, congratulations on
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: your title. We're ruining your perfect season, goodbye.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to take it of something here on
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: our way out.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I really appreciated that. Yeah, just like we're still we
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: still have stuff to play. For like you you eked
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: out that, you know, overtime win, but we are mere
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: laying down here, and I appreciated that.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So that gives Mercy her a s lock on second place,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and that's you know, important in Atlantic hockey because that
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: means they avoid the the the one game quarterfinal and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: get a week off. And so you know, maybe that's
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: not always the best thing. I know, some teams just
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: don't like taking a week off in the you know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: before eighteen.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Is key, I know that, but man, that's everybody's banged
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: up now. There's just not a team that isn't couldn't
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: use sometime for everything to heal up the little stuff,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: the bangs and bruises and pulled muscles and things.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, So we'll see how that plays out. Or
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Lakers for the Lions as well as they'll get the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: other they'll get the buy as the number one seed
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and hosts as long as there as long as they're
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: around in the tournament. So I just.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Want to point out too, I will I'll drop a
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: link in the post when we when I share the
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: link for the pod tomorrow. But there is this amazing
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: picture in Penn State's Instagram and It is Tessa Janikey
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: walking off. She's got you know, her arms up, she's
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: got the trophy. It's a picture of them behind. She's
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: got the trophy in one arm and she's slapping and
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: you know, high fives to kids. So she's walking off.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: It is just a beautifully composed photo. One of the
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: best photos I've seen in a while. And so I'll
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: make sure I link to that. I want everybody to
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: see it.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna take a quick break. We still
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: have w C h A, we still have E c
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: AC to talk about, but we are going to take
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a break. Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome back
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the podcast. Hoot Maluski and Nicole Hose here with
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: you as always. Let's get into what we saw from
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the E c a C last weekend, and it's another yeah,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: what do we make of this kind of weekend? In
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: some respects, Cornell took care of business. They won four
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: nothing at Rents Lair on Friday and two to one
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: at Union on Saturday. But Colgate dropped a little bit
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and is a little bit further back, three and a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: half points back now with two games remaining, after they
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: took up three two overtime loss Saturday at rentse Lair.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Natalie Tulchinsky with the overtime goal there for rent Lair.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Give us your thoughts on on where the top two
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: stand right now. It seems like we're, you know, with
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a week to go. This looks like Cornell is to lose,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and it's you know, looking pretty good for them.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think, as we've sort of harped
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: on recently, like you got to win those most important games,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: you you got to close out, and Colgate didn't do
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: that this weekend. I mean it, I would have said
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: that I thought Colgate was a very balanced team. That
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: they were without Kalti Culton Covid this weekend, who was
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: playing with Chechia in the Women's europe Hockey Tour, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I think it was real obvious that they were missing
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: their top goal scorer. And I think not just goal scorer,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: but I think just maybe sort of like the the
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: fire plug, right the the the person that really gets
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: them energized and also like I think, leads a lot
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: of the charge up the ice. So I obviously there
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: are still plenty of other goal scorers and really good
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: players on their team, but I think I was surprised
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: at how obvious it was that like they were missing
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: a single player.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: The Uh So we go into the final weekend, Cornell
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and Colgate both play at home, both against the same
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: two teams in reverse or Cornell against Brown and Yale
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: gets Yale and Brown, and so you got But in reality,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: you know, Cornell wins the title with a win in
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: one of our regulations, win in one of those games,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and so that could be done Friday night, leaving Saturday
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: for you can't say that, even if it's wrapped up.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: You can't say that the second game would be pointless
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: because we know the pair wise is still in play
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: there because those teams are four and five and that
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: order can flip, and that means who's hosting who in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the first or the second round of.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: The not even that Cornell is like point one behind
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Minnesota for in the pairwise at the moment, right, So
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: they're playing not just to hold off Cornell for the
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: four Colgate for the fourth spot, but they're playing to
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: play their way into the third spot.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That that We've talked about this a lot. The
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: difference between those few seeds in the middle there, the three, four, five,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: six is incredible because you're talking about either you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of that, you're having to play two games.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: You get the throws and four in the middle, you
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: know who your opponent is. If you're in the five
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you have to go on the road, though the four
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you have a home game, but it's against a tougher team,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and theory and the three you get to sit and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: watch two other teams battle it out and maybe go
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: to overtime and maybe double overtime two days before they
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: got to play you. Whoever emerges from that. So yeah,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of things in play there on this last
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: weekend and then going through the next few weeks of
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: playoffs in the ACAC.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I again, like I said, think the scheduling gods
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: for for that one. The travel partners worked out there
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: because it's fun that those two teams are playing the
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: same too. And yeah, I at this point have no
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: idea who to I mean, I think, like you said,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Cornell has the inside. But if I had to predict games,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: if I were a bet in person like I would
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: not have done well this year. So who knows? It
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: all feels a bit like a toss up and you
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: never quite know, you know, sort of what the impact
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: is going to be, Like, is Culty going to come
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: back and be okay after you know, a really tough
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: weekend with national team and you know, tired and all
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: that sort of Like it's just there's there's a lot
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: of different things that hinge here and as we saw,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: you know, we have got a w station this weekend,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: but we saw several injuries in just one series, Like
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: things can change pretty quickly.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Saint Lawrence did wrap up a top four spot
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in the ACAC with wins over Quinnipiac and Princeton. Abbey
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Hustler scored a tie goal and second and a winner
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and the third and a three to two win over
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Princeton on Saturday, So that gives us Cornell, Colgate, Saint
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Lawrence locked in the top three, one more spot up
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: for grabs in the final weekend Clarkson's and fourth right now,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: but there are only two points that had a Quinnipiac
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: which is tied with Yale which is and a half
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: points at a Princeton, which is a half point ahead
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of Brown. So what's that five points for separating one, two, three,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: four five teams? So that's that's a fairly exciting way
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to go into the final weekend.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Here, Yeah, way to go Brown to be even in
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: that conversation, like, that's just not something that would have
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: happened a couple of seasons back. So showed out to
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: them making some waves and playing their way further up.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: They're a team that a few years ago was one
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: that was, you know, pushing for the ECAC to include
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: all twelve teams in their postseason because they kept being
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: on the outside looking in. So that did change. But
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: like they're they're like, well, we don't have to worry
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: about that now we're competing for a much higher spot.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: So shout out to them for that. But yeah, I
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: what's going to happen there? Who knows? I assume that
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: like Saturday afternoon is one we'll have an idea.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was looking at the schedule and we'll get
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: into this at toward the end of the show when
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: we're looking ahead. But I mean, yeah, that's a weekend
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: where the top teams generally play the bottom teams in
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the ECAC at least. Compare if you're just dividing the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: line between six and seven, and yeah, upper and below,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: upper and lower, but top.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: And bottom meaning where the standings. Yeah, exactly, no udge,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: no value judgments.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you for explaining that better than I did. But yeah,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that's there's there's so much going on. Uh, and again
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: it goes beyond just the top spots. You're talking about
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: getting into that fourth spot, and then you're talking about
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: hosting in the first round if you're in the five
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: through eight area, and then trying to get up to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: that into the eighth spot. And so yeah, a ton
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of things to watch are on AC hockey this weekend,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: which is the way we love it when it comes
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: down to the final weekend. We I hate it when
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: everything's decided and there's nothing to play for and you're
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: just gonna have teams playoffs. Yeah, so love to see
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that things are head in that direction. Well uh, w
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: c h A. There are still some things to play for,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: but not the championship because Wisconsin wrapped that up with
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a really convincing weekend against Minnesota. I don't so. I
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: watched Wisconsin for a living, and that's part of my job.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I've been as impressed by them
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: as I was this last weekend, even when they beat
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Ohio State at home six nothing whatever that was. I
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I you knew that after Wisconsin beat Minnesota eight the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: two on Saturday, that the Gophers were going to have
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a really strong push on Sunday. And they did, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin saw that and it was like, yep, we see you,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and we're going to push right back. We take your
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: push for the first ten minutes and then we give
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: it right back and that leads to a six to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: one win in the second game of that series. It
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: so Wisconsin won the season series against Minnesota for nothing
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: for only the second time in program history. I think
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: it was. I can't remember off the top of my head.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Was it sixteen seventeen or seventeen eighteen? Was the other?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Wasn't very long ago, but Wisconsin's previous high for goals
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: scored in the regular season four games against Minnesota was seventeen.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They scored twenty three this season in four games. And
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: that's remarkable that Minnesota is not a bad defensive team.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: They've got really good players and Wisconsin was able to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: put up twenty three goals on them. What did you,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I guess, what did you come away with from from
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: those couple of games.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I felt like on Saturday, like I kind of try
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: to just take a step back and appreciate that we
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: were watching some of the most complete, pretty talented hockey
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: maybe in years maybe. I mean it was from start
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to finish, from the macro to the micro level, all
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: of the details, like they just it was so good
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: and you were so aware that you were watching so
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: many national team players. I mentioned earlier, So Wisconsin had
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: two or two defenders get in and leave the game
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: during that so as I joke to Todd, like, how
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: bad do you got to be if you're like one
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: of their competitors and they go down to defenders and
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: their replacement is Leila Edwards, who's playing defender for the
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: US national team. Like she's a forward, uh with the
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: with the Badgers, but like hey, like we'll just put
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: on her US national team defender back there, like.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: The leading goal scorer in the country by the way,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: because she can go back and play defense too.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gotta be so frustrating. Like I remember the
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: we've talked a lot because we was playing Minnesota and
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: we were talking to Minnesota broadcaster Dan Hammond, but about
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: the team that went undefeated, and like that was the
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: type of team where it felt like they just kept reloading,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: like there was just never There were a few seasons
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: there where it was like the where are where are
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: they create? Like where are they manufacturing these players from?
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Like because it just felt like for everybody there was
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: no and and that I imagine that is the similar
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: feeling that other people are having about Wisconsin right now
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: when they, you know, lose several players to injury, still
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: have the weekend they did, but that aside, Like I've
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: been to several World Championships, I you know, like you
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: and I have watched a lot of hockey. Yeah, and
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, I just was from forwards playing a two
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: hundred foot game and blocking shots to poke checks that
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: just like literally every little thing that you want to see.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: There was a penalty kill that looked that the Badgers
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: looked better on the penalty kill than they maybe did
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: on their power play at one point, like it was
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: just nearly flawless hockey. Like it was so pretty and
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: so talented and so like what makes the women's game great,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: the fluidity, the transition, just all of it. And there
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: was there was a rush at the end where I
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: just because Minnesota switched out their goalie and they put
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: in a goalie that had played three whole minutes in
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: her career. And the first thing that happened is Minnesota
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: did not cover a transition and in about five strides
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: I think it was five seconds because I went and
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: did some screen caps. The entire Wisconsin offense was bearing
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: down on this woman with like maybe one defender the tweeter,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: and it was it was the top line, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: like Casey O'Brien's probably one of the fastest players in
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: the country. Like, I mean, it was just that poor
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: girl and it was like twenty seconds into the period.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, I don't want to come off
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: as fawning or however it is, but it just we
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: watched some really great hockey this weekend, and like you said,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: on Sunday, we expected the Gophers to be pissed and
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: to really come back out and it ended in a
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: scoreless first period. But what in Minnesota had like three
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: shots in it. I mean, for all of a pushback
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: that they did and how all they were able to,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: I guess slowed down the Badgers and it did. It
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: was not as pretty on Sunday at least to start
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: as it was on Saturday. But in the end, all
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: of that did not end up in a goal for
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: the Gophers and really not much dangerous for them on offense.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, we've talked a little bit about how
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: they get a gap between you know, sort of the
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: top and and the next group. And and I feel
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: like Wisconsin went out and said, like, yes, there is.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: We just proved it to you. Yeah they've got you know,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: they and they felt it, like we said. We asked
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Casey O'Brien in the post game about like what went well,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: and you know, she said, we could feel that we clicked,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: like we we slogged. The last couple of days. It
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: wasn't going well. We were we were slow, all those
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: sorts of things. And they went out on Saturday and
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: all of the things just fell into place and and
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: you could tell they they were just vibing and feeling
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: it and they were all so comfortable. I mean, there
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: are a couple of goals that like, we were ridiculously casual,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: just like bristers from the slot. And you could just
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: tell they like they had no worries, they like everything
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: just was coming really naturally. And and that's, uh, that's
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: not a place I think anybody but Wisconsin wants to
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: see Wisconsin being. But I think they've just they've got
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of They've put a lot of pressure on
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: themselves for this, right, Like they they went out and
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: showed what they're capable of and and and I think
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: it could be easy to get cocky. I think they
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: put an even bigger target on their back, and there's
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: just a lot of expectations, Like if they don't want
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: they don't want a title, I feel like there's gonna
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: be some some major disappointment and it's going to feel
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: like a big lost opportunity. And to have that feeling
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: before we even reach the playoffs is, uh, it's hard
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: to put on some student athletes.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Right, and so yeah, and it's just because of this
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: collection of talent that they've put together, and you know,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of it is not going to be
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: there next year in case O'Brien is gone, you know,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Marianne Picard has gone. Sarah was Navitch's his you know
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: in her final season or is she? Am I making that.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Show your day?
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: So yes, had a flash my kicking someone out the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: door before they're brother out of Elisabella.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: No, But plus all the Olympians will be in and
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: out right doing national team stuff and gone for a
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: lot of February.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of significant time without players
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: who are in Olympic camps next season, so it's gonna
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: look a lot different. So, yeah, Wisconsin's kind of lined
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: everything up this season to put exactly what they've done
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: out there. And so that's credit to them for taking
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: this scene, this opportunity, and taking it and doing so
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: far everything that kind of I think a lot of
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: people expected of them.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Do you am putting you on the spot and asking
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: you this historical question, but comparing this team to the
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: what is it sixteen seventeen when Annonne won the Patty
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Sarah Nurse, that whole crew was there and that team
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: also felt very like destined and then they didn't.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't win it. Right, So there are two
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: teams in Wisconsin history that have finished with winning percentages
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: of nine hundred or over nine hundred two thousand and six,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, they're second in a row, second
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: national championship in a row. And then the twenty ten
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to eleven team that had Hillary Knight, Breonna Decker, Meghan Duggan,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know, Knight and everybody coming back from the Olympics
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and Mark Johnson coming back from the Olympics.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: So and it really disappointing.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: You're in twenty ten, yes, and so that those two
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: teams have kind of always been the gold standard for
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: at least the way I look at it. At Wisconsin,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: you can be a really good team, but if you
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: don't come out with a win in the last game,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: you don't get up on that level, right, And so, yeah,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: that that sixteen seventeen team, it just kind of rolled
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: through that and they could have been the third if
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: they would have won the last game against Clarkson, but
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Clarkson wonted three nothing, and that was you know, changed
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of perceptions of that team and how we
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: look back at it. And it had the you know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: am Renade Debien is the greatest statistical goaltender in Badger's history,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: but she never won a championship, and I know that's
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: something that a lot of people just kind shake their
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: head at that. You know, you know, Minnesota stood in
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: their way a couple of times. Clarkson didn't her her
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: final season. It just didn't emerge that way. But you know,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: this season is shaping up to be one of those
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that challenges for the the UH the title of best
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: ever at Wisconsin, which is a yeah, pretty pretty high bar.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, It's it's tough to get into there.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm just I was trying to remind myself
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: who was on that sixteen seventeen roster and just wanting
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: to point like several p UB players, right like Melissa Channel,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Sam Coben and uh, Sophia Shaver, Sarah Nurse, Lauren Williams
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: who's now a coach in the Pee, dub Any Pankowski,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Emily Clark and yeah, there was a lot of There
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: were a lot of national team and big name players
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: on that roster. And and you know, kudos to Clarkson
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: because Wisconsin was never really in that national championship game.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: They just came out real flat. And yeah, I'm sure
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: they're lessons to be learned there. I'm sure the coaching
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: staff will be talking about that. But uh yeah. And
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: on the opposite side, I mean, wow, Gophers, I mean,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Wisconsin really shut down Abby Murphy. She had what two
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: shots that the first game. Wisconsin took advantage or or
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: hold motivation from from the Gophers getting some penalties and
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: from things getting chippy, and and we were able to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: build on that, but yeah, I the I was. I
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: stayed home on Sunday, uh and watched from home, and
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: the broadcast was sort of talking about Hannah Clark as
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: though the game the day before was her fault with
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: those goals. No, the girlfriends uh No, a freshman goalie
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: handa Clark who's been playing very well was not the
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: reason that Wisconsin one ate two. She was not getting
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of defensive help, and to be fair, they
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: were missing a couple of players to Olympic qualifiers. But yeah,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: I I don't know, it's uh that wasn't the same
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: gover team that we saw play Ohio State the week before,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: and like maybe maybe that's the reason, Like, but it was.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: It was surprising, to say the least, and I one
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: of the interesting things. I mean, I'm loath to but
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I saw some talk about like those that was such
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: an embarrassing weekend and it's been so long since Minnesota
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: has been a national championship contender that there were conversations
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: about a coaching change and I thought, well, that is
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: really interesting.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It is and I think unwarranted as of now. I
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: think Brad Frost writes his own ending. Yeah that's just
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: my I mean, I'm not as as tied into the
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: program there as a lot of other people are, but
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I just feel like he's he's built it to the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: point where, you know, if if they all of a
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: sudden are no longer a top three team in the country,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: maybe you have that conversation, but let's let's look at
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: where they are just in the big picture of things.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: They're still in the top three in the country.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it was an interesting timing because there's been
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: points in recent years where they didn't really make the
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: tournament and we're struggling with some of that stuff. So
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: it was interesting to me that this was the thing
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: that brought that up. But I mean, you have to
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: care enough far yeah that you said a high bar.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Yes one Minnesota, Yeah.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to be fair, Yeah, like we're we're talking a
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: level that like what three coaches or four coaches have
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: to to meet. And and I love the team that
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: they're they have fans passionate enough to be out here
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: like calling for a coach's head, right, Like, to me,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: that is a level of like fandom and people caring
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: in a way that we haven't necessarily had in our sport.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: And so I do appreciate just that that people are
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: that cluted to be like, well, we haven't been there
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: in this long, we haven't done that in that long.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: I agree. I just I thought it was an interesting
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: talking point. I do think too, it's always funny to
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: me that the second anybody talks about the Minnesota job,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: there's a question of whether Nidie, Buzz or all would
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: go back and take it, which is a whole separate
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: fork to that discussion. But yeah, I I don't know,
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think you could look at
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: that and be like, well, that's a poorly coach team
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: after what we watched last the weekend before, right, or
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: really anytime Frosty has been at the head of that team.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: So it did seem, you know, like you said, not
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: at the right time to make that, But I did
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: still think it was an interesting that, like it was
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: being embarrassed in the border battle, was like the last
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: the last jow being swept in the season series.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say that the list of players scratched
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: out of the lineup for Minnesota was I think longer
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: than the list of almost longer than the list of
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: forwards in the lineup for Sunday's games. So there's there's
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: been some some challenges there obviously for them this season,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and that some of those you can't look forward to
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and expect, so it is about how you deal with
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: them sometimes.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: So that's yeah, everybody's gonna deal with that, particularly this
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: time of the year. Like you said, how they deal
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: with it as part of it. And and you know,
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: one of the things that wiscon makes Wisconsin standout is
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: the depth, is the fact that their fourth line of
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: freshmen would be you know, standouts or second lighters at
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of other programs. And you know, Dan Hammond
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: said this team is probably deeper than the Gopher team
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: that went undefeated, and like, I think that's probably fair.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: And you just you saw the difference in depth between
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: those two teams this weekend for sure, as the injuries
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of started piling up. I think it
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: will be important to see what happens with the Gophers
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: this week with Saint Cloud State. You would have liked
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: to see the rebound on on Sunday in Game two,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: but I think just as important as how they look
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: in this series with Saint Cloud, Saint Cloud is capable
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: of beating them. Saint Cloud is also a ranked team.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Saint Cloud has a incredibly good goaltending and scoring has
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: been an issue, particularly if Abbey Murphy is either not
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: playing because of injury or just if they're able to
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Snegny her. So yeah, I and as I said, Minnesota
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: has a point one point one zero PAIRAWISE lead over
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Cornell at this point for third place, and so these
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: games are incredibly important and they need to come back
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: out I think for perception, but also their own confidence
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: and and sort of like to build on heading heading
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: into the end of the season and into the postseason.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Minnesota still can finish second in WHA and just by
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: winning out, so they don't need help from Ohio State.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Ohio State has five point lead, but has also played
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: two more games in Ohio State is off this weekend,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: as is Wisconsin because this coming weekend is when they
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: were originally scheduled to play and they moved that series
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: early January because of the game that was played at
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Raley Field. So Wisconsin, ohiose State or off. Minnesota has
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: sink Clouds stay at home and home like you mentioned,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and then finishes with Minnesota Duluth. So not exactly an
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: easy route there to make up those points. But they
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: do have that in their their hands to determine whether
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: they finish really third or second. And I suppose there's
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I don't have the standings in front of me, but
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I think there's technically a way that Duluth could catch them,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: but I'd say that would probably be unlikely.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I expect Minnesota to gig points like not did not
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: go as over over the next four games.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, So Ohio State left that open though by
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: needing overtime to beat Saint Thomas five to four on
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Friday in a really wild games Thomas led and this
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: is at Ohio State led to nothing three to one
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: and four to two in the third period before Jenna
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Bouguglioni and just On Amos scored for Io State. The
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: tie at that amoskol came with twenty nine seconds left,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: so Saint Thomas was that close to getting out of
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: there with a regulation win.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, Ohio State had to pull their goalie
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: for the extra attacker to pull that off. Yah.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Then Joy Dunn scores a powerplay goal in overtime for
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: a five to four win, and but that you know,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: only gets the two points instead of three, and so
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: they they sid five points ahead of Minnesota instead of six,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and have they do have the tiebreaker with the Gophers
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: had the head so that would have potentially left it
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: up to them to close it out. But a window
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: open there. If if finishing second or third really makes
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: much of a difference for you, I mean, I it
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: doesn't who you play in the first round and if
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: you make it to the semi finals. Uh, in the
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Luth it would mean the difference between last change and
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, But those are pretty small all things.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Considering that being said, you know, second place, Ohigh State
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: would play, second place would play Saint Thomas. Third place
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: would PLAYESA State. As the Seinings stand now and Saint
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Thomas is by far the scariest of the Lake bottom
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: four or five teams, and then the w c J
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Steeennings at the moment, I would say.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: In terms of recent results.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ensowing what they're capable of for sure, So yeah,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: I mean so in doubtly it's a it's a big difference.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I would say.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: One last series I want to mention before we take
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: a break, Minnesota Duluth ended their six game losing streak
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: with two nothing and six nothing wins at Bamiji State,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: tinder Holme got two shutouts, made nine saves Friday and
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: thirteen on Saturday, so not a lot of work to
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: do them, but you still have to make all saves
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: to get the shutout, so kudos for that. Kiton Kramer
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: scored two on Friday and then another one on Saturday.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Olivia Walleen with a goal and to assist on Saturday,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: So Duluth getting back going. They needed that, they needed
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: some positive direction and that as they move towards, you know,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: trying to you know, to fire where they are in
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: the pair wise, I guess and first and then you know,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: making a run in the WHA playoffs too. It was
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: important for them to to get the wins. But also
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: I think doing that by shutout a couple of times
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: in a row kind of just extends what they've been
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: doing because they were they were doing pretty well on
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: defense against Wisconsin last week. You gave up two goals
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: each game and just didn't didn't get the wins because
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: they only scored one. But I think when you're talking
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: about d Luth and its defense, it's a pretty good
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: time of the year to be playing the way that
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: they are.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's uh, I don't know what it's
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: interesting to me that it was Tinderholme, that it was
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: backup goalie. I'm guessing that probably was just some maintenance
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: time for v Guscon. But it's good for all of
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: them to know that, like, no matter what, they've got
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: strong goaltending back there. And I think too, I Caitlyn
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Kramer is probably my favorite player of the last couple
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: of years of U eighteens. Just I just think she's
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: a really complete player. I think she is someone that
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: when she gets ahead, it's almost like she's skating downhill.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: I think she in the next few years is going
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: to grow into, you know, sort of the premier forward
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: in NCAA hockey. She's just she's a really good player.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: She was good the moment she stepped on. I mean,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: she was the standout of their very first series against
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Ohio State. And so I think the three goals this
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: weekend are important. Just like we were talking about, they
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: weren't scoring enough getting all those goals period this weekend.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: They just needed some momentum, they needed some confidence boost.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: They It's I mean, we talked about this with Saint
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: clet it's so disheartening and so frustrating to be in
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: games and not come out with those results. And so
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I just think for their sakes, it was a really
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: good series for them to build on, as you said,
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: like because they have a push to make for the postseason.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: It's not all sort of set in stone for them, right.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: All right, that's our really extended look at what happened
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: last weekend. Coming up, we'll talk a little bracketology. We'll
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: talk about what's coming up this weekend in a really
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: important set of games. So stay with us on the podcast. Hi,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: welcome back to the podcast. Todd Luski and Nicole Hase
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: with you. Let's look into bracketology for the week. Not
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of changes around the top of the pair wise,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: just one, so let's go through it. One Wisconsin to
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Ohio State, Minnesota and three Cornell and Colgate, and four
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: and five still Minnesota Luthan sixth. And here's where we
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: get a little bit of a change to Saint Lawrence
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: up to seventh after Penn State drops to eighth with
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: their lost to Mercyhurst last week. Quinnipiac in nine, and
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: that's where the cutoff is for at large teams. As
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: we do this every week. I mentioned that we're using
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the team that's currently in first in their conference as
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the expected not expected, the proxy of the tournament champion
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: that will get the automatic bid. And so in Hockey
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: East right now, that's Boston University. They are twelfth, though
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: they're all in the pair wise and it knew how
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: that's Long Island, which is thirtieth in the pair wise,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: So they take up spots ten and eleven in the
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: eleven team bracket. So if you put that into where
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: it would go in the bracket, it's basically one little
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: shift from what we had last week. So number one
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin hosting the winner of the number eight versus number nine.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: That's Penn State versus Quinnipiac. In the number two we
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: have Ohio State. They would host the winner of Saint
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Lawrence seven against Boston University. The ten, the three is Minnesota.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: They would host Minnesota, Duluth or Long Island after our
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: first round game there. And the number five versus number
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: four is Colgate at Cornell. And that's, as we always mentioned,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: that is locked in even though that's a conference battle.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: The committee has said they want the five and the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: four overall to play regardless of whether they're from the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: same conference or not. So there's one thing you could
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: do for this bracket to move Penn State back to
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Ohio State's regional because that would give them a bus
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: ride instead of a plane flight. It really gets into
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: a like, I don't know if that's really worth doing though,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: because I feel like they've they've been pretty good about
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: keeping to bracket integrity over these last few seasons of
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: an eleven team bracket. But you never really know for
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: sure who's gonna make that decision of like, well, we
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: got a lot of flights this year. Maybe if we
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: can save one of them and move Penn State and
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: swap them with Saint Lawrence and essentially give us the
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: same bracket as we had last week, that could happen.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna say no, I'm going to say they
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: stick with bracket integrity, and so that kind of leaves
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: it basically like what we saw last week. We've got
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: four WHA teams, we've got four ECAC teams, and one
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: each from Atlantic Hockey, Hockey East and New hat So again,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: all this will change by the end of the weekend probably,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: so it's got a limited short life shelf life here.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: But I think it's we're starting to see this kind
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: of all settled into a few tiers here of where
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: teams aren't going to move much farther than where they
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: are now just because of a limited number of games left.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Really, so, looking at this where UMD would be playing
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: in Minneapolis and playing for a chance to play the Gophers,
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: do you think um D is cheering for Canal to
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: take over that fourth spot? Do you think they're stick
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: of playing at Minnesota or better the enemy.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: You know, over the third spot?
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: You mean yes, I'm sorry, yes, for hosting.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean how many times
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: has Duluth had the regional at ritter and try to
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: get you the last three years? Right, go for Minnesota
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: to try to get to the frozen floor. Yeah, I would.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I guess I wouldn't be surprised. Would you trade the
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: having to go on the road and get on a
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: plane and and you know.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Team you're less familiar with for to.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Avoid a conference foe? And yeah, boy, that's a that's
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: a really good question.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's some like gut check to you
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: and like can do we do we believe in ourselves
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: enough to take down the Gophers.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Right, Well, maybe we'll know more about that after Yeah
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: that helps.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just when you read it as Minnesota to Minnesota,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: I just thought, I wonder knowing how close the three
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: and four pair wise are right now, if you're the
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: lufy like we're death to Ridder, I am done. We don't.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: We avoided having to go to Rinder this year for
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: the conference tournament we're hosting. We don't want to go back. Yeah,
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: that's were the frozen four. Then we're good.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Right when what you mentioned about the small gap between
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: three and four and uh in the NPI and therefore
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the pair wise, I I do kind of wonder, are
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: we in the overtime win versus regulation win kind of
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: make a difference yap of make Yeah, how much of
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: a difference. It's real small, It seems like it would
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: be right. I mean that, Oh see.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: You just cut me off, like, uh yeah, that's fascinating.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: But yeah, well, I mean, I the one thing I
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: would love I need to like either teach me, I
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: need to like get somebody to write me a program
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: that saves the pair wise regularly, because it's the one
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: thing I hate. I would like to be able to
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: refer back and see how much movement is happening. So
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: I need a little script that will just you know,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: save me once a day or whatever. I'd be interesting
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: to see for sure. But yeah, when I when we
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: got that to the pairwise at the end of the
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Gopher Wisconsin game on Sunday, I was, whooh, that's a
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: small little gap. And I just want to be clear,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: like I would also wanted to point out, like the
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: gap between Wisconsin. I have to I want to make
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: sure I'm saying this right. The gap between where Wisconsin
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: is in the pairwise and Ohio States or in the
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: NPI is larger than the difference between number two Ohio
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: State number fifteen Princeton. Like that's how big it is
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: at the top and how close everything is in between. Yeah,
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: that's pretty nuts. It's a six point nine seven to
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: two difference, or at least it was when I wrote
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: about it yesterday. But that's the difference between Wisconsin's NPI
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: and Ohio States NPI, and then Ohio State it's to
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: Princeton and fifteen of the NPI like that, that's bonkers.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: That's a very small gap between teams two to fifteen.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm telling you, so, yeah, there's I just
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: expect that there can still be quite a bit of movement,
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: and then it will be interesting to see what happens
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: when some teams are still playing regular season and some
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: are not.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's I mean. The big thing about this
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: is that even the teams you know that are in
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the you know, the eight, nine, ten range are really
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: not feeling very good, I would imagine right now, because
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: there's a chance you could get I mean, I don't
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's very good, but there's a
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: chance you can get a team from outside the top
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: four in the w c h A or the top
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: four in ec A C to win a conference championship
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: in a spot, right and for everyone else, there's gonna
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: be one Atlantic Hockey team unless it's you know, someone
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: beats Penn State. All right, let's look at that possibility too.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: If someone knocks off and if Penn State has enough
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: you know, two survive that in terms of their eight
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: in pairwise, right now, if they you know, basically win
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: everything in that one game is not enough to keep
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: them in as an at large, then we're talking about
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: two from Atlantic Hockey. Hockey East looks like it's gonna
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: be a one bid conference from from where they are
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: in the rankings and we know New Haws, So yeah,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: where that line ends up, I think it's almost always nine,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: just from the way it's you know, being more predictable
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: teams winning conference championships. But man, that's got to feel
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: that's got to be painful if you're sitting at nine
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: going into the last day of the season and you
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: have some things shaking up.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: Now when I'm with you that I are you probably
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: what seven, eight, nine, I would I wouldn't feel secure,
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: just because we know how much the NPI can move
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: and between that and the upsets you're talking about, Like,
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: to me, that's all a little shaky. I would. I
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: would certainly not feel secure in any of those spots,
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: or you know, feel like it's a given that your
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: postseason is happening that way.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's how it shakes out this week selection
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: show this year, I believe it's the same as last year.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Was on ESPNU. It is on ESPNU. It'll be on Sunday,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: March ninth. That'll be eleven thirty am Eastern, ten thirty
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: am Central. So good way to kick off your Sunday,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: there by then figuring out a lot of these schools
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: figure out where they're going for a couple of days
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: after that.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: This is one of those interesting things because a lot
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: it required that the conference curants wrap up on Saturday,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: which in the past had not necessarily been the case.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: We were still like I have been driving home from
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: whas in the Twin Cities and pulled over to watch
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: the selection show in my car, usually at a quick
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: trip with free WiFi somewhere in middle Wisconsin. So a
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: big fan of the conference being wrapped up and just
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: having that, you know, ten thirty in the morning local
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: time here on ESPNU. So just that's an interesting shift
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: to me. But it's a huge deal that it's televised
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: again and not a streaming show. So that is one,
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: you know, good step in a positive direction and one
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: of the things that I think came out of the
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: equity reports that NCA has done for women's hockey.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: So okay, let's look ahead to the final week of
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: play in ECAC Hockey and Atlantic hockey this weekend. Still
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: another weekend to be played in Hockey East New hat
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: w c h A after this e C A C.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: As we mentioned, UH has a kind of a gap
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: here the the top teams are playing the teams in
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: the lower half of the standings. For the most part,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: we have Cornell hosting Brown and Yale, Colgate hosting Yale
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: and Brown in the opposite UH order there. Then it's
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Saint Louis Saint Louis, Saint Lawrence hosting Dartmouth, and Harvard
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Clarkson hosting Harvard in Dartmouth. So one, two, three, four,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: they're they're getting the same kind of teams and those
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: those bands there Quinnipiac hosting rent Lair and Union, and
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Princeton getting the reverse with hosting Union and rents s Layer.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: So it doesn't necessarily scream, you know, upset potential in
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: any of those bounds. Yes, but all you have to
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: do is really look at the results from the last
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: few weeks. There's been an upset I think almost every
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: week at least one, so you know, there's you could
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: go into that and say, which one is it going
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: to be this week and what's it going to mean
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: in terms of UH, you know, who wins the championship,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: who gets that final spot for a first round by
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: who hosts in the first round? All these kind of
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: things could get shaken up by an upset in any
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: of those games.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I you know, RPI has got to be flying
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: after their win over Koli last week. I think anybody
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: that overlook Brown is going to be in a world
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: of hurt. Yeah, but you know, Harvard has almost pulled
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: it up set in the last couple of weeks. Startmouth
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: has proven what they can do. I mean, Yale is
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: Yale and has you know, still has really great goaltending.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: Uh So yeah, I in Union too. I mean there's
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: just I don't these all feel like a little bit
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: like trap games for for the raked opponents and so
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: uh that is part of what makes it fun. And
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: I obviously am rooting for chaos. Uh. I hate that
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: all the games are happening at the same time. I
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: suppose for you know, like like European football style decision day.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: It's great, but it just means that one of them
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: goes to intermission. They all go to intermission, and then
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: I can't watch anything. So that's annoying. But yeah, I
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: just wish I do wish they were they were staggered
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: a little bit. Usually we get at least twitter two
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: day games, so I want to be watching this at
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: like noon on Friday, just like make it happen all day. Uh.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think Cornell's got the most to lose,
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: both at the top of the conference and within the pairwise,
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: so that is the one that I will be paying
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: the most attention to. But yeah, you know, roll your
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: dice and make some predictions, but assume that nothing will
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: go as we plan. So ecc is I think gonna
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: be the fun one to watch this week.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: So the ECACE playoffs will start next weekend with a
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: one game opening round hosted by the teams in fifth, sixth, seventh,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and eighth that can be either Friday or Saturday next weekend.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Winners are those going into the quarterfinals to meet the
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: top four teams. We get a buye and then those.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: Are best of three because reasons correct again.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: We'll have this all up on us e h O
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: dot com this week in a hopefully easy to follow
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: article format that will lets you see which which ones
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: you you want to find out.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I think it's you and I have both been
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: doing this for ages and the fact that like we
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: have to go look it up and figure out what
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: the heck is happening in each individual conference just shows
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: you how convoluted this all is. Like this needs to
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: be more standardized. Like this is the hill I'm dying
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: on now, because I just this is ludicrous. Just do
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: you know one and done to start, then move to
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: best of three, then go back to one and done,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Like what is the reasoning? What are we doing?
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: I honestly, I I salute Hockey East for committing to something.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: You know, one gay single games the entire way through.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: You've got a Wednesday and a Saturday, and a Wednesday
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: and a Saturday. And because of their travel being easier
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: for love, Yeah, that's you can do it. It's you know, okay,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: very clear, you want to you want to get through this.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: It's gonna it's gonna be The NCAA tournament doesn't do
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: best of threes, So get used to it. Here, I e.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: SEC expanded to include all their teams and then went
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: to this model where it feels like, well we included you,
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: we don't actually want you to win. We would like
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: our star routines to win. And so that part I
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: just annoys me, and I just I think it's the
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: waffling back and forth. I don't have a problem with
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: the best of three series that you know, like that
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: works if that's your first round. You know, I'm not
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: a like not opposed to it in theory, but the
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: the waffling back and forth is the part, like you
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: commit to a commit to a style and go with it.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: At least no one has gone through mini games or
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: anything like that, Like yeah, Vision III.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: But I feel like between this and the half points
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: and like sometimes a win is to like every there
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: are just so many things that they were like we
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: shall standardize this, and like it's still not and it's
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: just like every time I think, like if your goal
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: is to grow the game, and I know that is
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: not the only goal in the student athletes experience and
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, but like, y'all are not
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: making this easy to be a fan.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: Not if you want to crossover from conference to conference, No,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: definitely not. Atlantic Hockey has potential potential semi final matchups
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: previews this weekend, with Penn State playing at twelve. This
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: it would be in a different place Penn State versus
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: rit this this weekend, it's in Rochester. That's the potential
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: one versus four matchup in the semi finals. Syracuse playing
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: at Mercy Herris this weekend as a potential two versus
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: three matchup. Of course, lynden Wood and Robert Morris will
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: have something to say about that when they play against
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: rit and Syracuse in the first round. But Lindwood and
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: Robert Morris have to decide who finishes his fifth and
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: who finishes sixth. They'll do that in a series at
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Robert Morris. So some things still to be decided in
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Atlantic hockey, but also a potential for you know, if
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: you're just kind of looking to see, well, how I
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: think they shoot out, this is uh, this could be
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: the weekend to look at it.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, but it's awesome to see, Like on no
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: planet should the fifth and sixteen playing like be an
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: exciting matchup, but because of the implications of it, like
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: that's like, that's one of the exciting games happening this
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: weekend and the last or second to last weekend of
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: the regular season, which I enjoy. And I'm keeping my
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: on linden Wood because they've announced a ton of international
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: signings over the last couple of weeks. Maybe and I
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: don't know that they're all for next year, but some
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: moves being made for linden Wood and so to me,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: I've just been kicking and I on what they're doing
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: and sort of how I think some of that will
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: will come together in the future.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, Moving along the conferences that still have two
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: weekends of play left Hockey East is one of them.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: They have home and home series of Friday and Saturday
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: between Northeastern and BC, between BU and New Hampshire, and
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: between Providence in Yukon. So all those, as we've talked
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: about before, having something to do with whether it's talking
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: about first or second, whether it's talking about fourth or fifth,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: or you know, having something to do with the final standings.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: There also Maine playing two at Merrimack and Vermont at
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: holy Cross Saturday and Sunday, so those being more involved
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: with the lorens and the standings the last couple of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: series that I mentioned there. But I'm intrigued by Northeastern BC,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: especially because, as we talked about before, I don't know
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: what to expect from either of those teams.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: Both teams could dominate, both teams could.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: Not. I guess I really I look at it, look around,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I know what to expect from
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: be you in New Hampshire or Providence, Yukon either for
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: that matter. So hey, let's let's let let a ride
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: and see what happens.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Also, Hockey East coming through with the two o'clock Eastern games.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: Yes on Friday. Uh, Northeastern BC is at two and
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: so is main mayor Max. So my my desire to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: spend all day watching whom it's college hockey is being fulfilled.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Hockey East.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean that's just it. Honestly, either one
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: of those teams could fully dominate the other, and that's
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: why both of those teams have kind of you know,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: I keep saying this because I the euphemism I got
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: is crap the bed, So I was trying to think
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: of something better. But yeah, I just, uh, you don't know,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: you don't know. If BC plays like they did last
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: week in the first team against for a month, like
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: I think they would be sweeping the rug with most
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: everybody in Hockey East. So like, if they find that
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: magic again, great, But Northeastern's also got Lisa Johnson, and uh,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: I think that's a problem for most everybody's offense. So yeah,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: good luck there.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Okay, then new how race is getting heated?
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: As we mentioned long Island and Post have a home
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: and home series Thursday and Friday, so that one, you know,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: sets the tone a little bit, and so Sacred Heart
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: knows when it goes to the end of its series
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: what it needs to do to keep pace, I guess,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: or or move ahead. Sacred Heart playing at Franklin Pierce
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday. Let's let's regroup a week from now
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: and see where we're at going into the final weekend there.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: At this point, I just want them to be tied.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm pulling for, because it's fun when you
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: know everything comes down to the last few minutes and
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: at this point, yeah, who, I don't know what to
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: pull from any of these games. I don't. I just
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: I feel like it feels like I'm letting everybody down,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: like we should have better things to say about this.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: And it's not that I like don't have thoughts on
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: the teams. It's just the the outcomes recently have made
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: it so it's really hard to predict what's going to happen.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: And this is the thing I've sort of been harping on,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: which is like, well, the opportunities there, you have to
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: take it. And so that's where we get in that.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: I'm not mad, I'm disappointed, Like you you have this chance, like,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: please go out and win the games you're supposed to win.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: Do do what you you know you need to do
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: to secure the title. So that's that's kind of where
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: we're at.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: So New High is best of three quarterfinals at the
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: top four seeds February twenty eighth, March first and second
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: winner is going to single game semi finals at the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: two higher seeds on Wednesday, March fifth, and then winners
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: going to the championship game one game. They're at the
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: higher seed on Saturday, March eighth, So you can see
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: where home ice. Then you know, when you're talking about
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: who finishes first between l Iu and Sacred Heart, gonna
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: mean something there. If we think that they're going to,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: you know, end up meeting for the championship, Let's see
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: who's who's barn. That's in be fun to watch that happen.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: So in the w c h A this week, getting
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: back to my list, here, the one that stands out
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: to me, I think we mentioned earlier Minnesota and Saint
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Cloud State with a home and home series Friday and Saturday.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: I think that's well important for well, both sides, but
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: you know, for Minnesota to bounce back and show that they,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: you know, are more the team that beat Ohio State
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: in the first game of their series and less of
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: the team that you know, gave up fourteen goals to
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin over last weekend. And for Saint Cloud, you know,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: they're they're eleventh in the pairwise, and so that's not
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: a I mean, it's there's still a pretty decent gap
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: there of trying to get into the top nine and
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: knowing that if you're talking about getting in that large spot,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: that means you lose your last conference playoff game, whether
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: that's in the championship game, the semifinals, in the first round,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: that means you're you're taking another loss somewhere. I don't
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: know if they have enough losses to give, to be honest,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: even if they were to, you know, come through this
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: weekend and sweep Minnesota, let's say, I don't know if
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: that still does enough for them to be able to
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: find it at large spot. So for Saint Cloud, really,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: I think it's about getting ready for the playoffs, and
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: this is a team that you might have to beat
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. If you are able to get through
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the first round.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: Well, two things. One is that I think the bonus
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: for Saint Cloud State is that they are playing a
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: team ranked ahead of them, where you know, clarks and
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: Quinnipiac Penn State, which are the three NPI teams above them,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: are not. So the quality win bonuses on the table
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: for Saint Cloud and so I think that is a
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: huge sort of difference end gap. Just the possible points
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: from a weekend sweep for Saint Cloud ors I think
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: much higher than for those other teams. They have to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: do that obviously to be at that point, but I
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: do think that makes this more interesting and makes that
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: gap sort of less intimidating. The other thing, I love
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: when teams play a home at home with Saint Cloud
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: because Sink Cloud has that massive rink, and so I
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: think playing two games in one weekend and two very
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: different sizes of ice is just really fascinating and shows
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: a lot about a team's adaptability. If we're talking about
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: Minnesota being down, like you said, their number of players
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: not dressing was about as long as the number of
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: players that were, and then you talk about playing on
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: the big ice at Saint Cloud State, that's going to
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: be a factor so yeah, I think they play it
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: right or the first game and sink in her Brooks
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: the second. So that Saturday game in St. Cloud, I think,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: in assuming that the injuries are what they were last week,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: I think that favors Sint Cloud quite a bit in
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: that second game.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're talking about having to getting into the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: sixth period of a weekend series and then go chase
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: an extra fifteen feet there, you know, an extra seven
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: feet to the boards from the face off dots or
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: something like that, Yeah, that's that can add up a
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: little bit and contribute to some some heavy legs, I know.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like Saint Cloud's offense and sort
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: of their prowess this here has been using that space
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: and really doing really well on the break and doing
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: some coast to coast passing and breakouts and things, and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: so I think they're really gonna try and push that
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: pace and widen things out and just really tire Minnesota out.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: And so I think, you know, for so many reasons,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: that's a that's a when you are when you're clawing
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: for points and for position. I think that is about
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: as good as Saint Cloud. Like, perfect scenario for them,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: right to be against a team that is struggling a little,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: that is going dealing with injuries and is coming to
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: play in their house. So and and Saint Cloud just
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: we know what they can do in terms of slowing
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: teams down. And again they've got just amazing goaltending. So
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: when the Gophers starts scoring a ton, yeah, there's just
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: there's a lot in the mix there that I think
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: can slant things for Saint claud State could really make
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: things interesting in terms of pair wise for both them
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: and for Minnesota.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Definitely, before we wrap up, I wanted to mention I
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: should have mentioned this earlier when we were talking about bracketology,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: but got a question in the inbox this week from Melissa,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: And thank you Melissa for for listening and for writing in.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: You can always follow or drop us a line on
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: on in the emails in our show notes, or follow
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: us on social media and drop us a line there.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: But Melissa's question was do tournament games count in the
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: pair wise or NPI calculations? And I got back to her,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: but I thought it was important to mention it here
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: because if there's that question out for for one person,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: there's probably more people that are wondering and yes, they do.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: All all the games up until the the selection show
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: essentially count towards pair wise NPI unless they're exhibition games,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: of course, But yeah, everything everything counts, and really that's
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: going to when you get into those last few games
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: of the conference championships. You're talking about teams that probably
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: are pretty usually close to each other and the pair
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: wise are you know, there's a good chance of some
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: movement happening based on the result there. So so yes,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: those those do count, and we thank you Melissa for
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the message. If you do have a message, please send
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: it along at the email you'll find in our show notes.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Anything else this.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: Week, no, I would add to that. Then it the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: teams that are still when you get to the final
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: weekend of a conference championship, we've got only four teams
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: still playing in each That means the others are not
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: getting any pairwise points or NPI points. And so again
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: that's sort of why we're talking about the fine details
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: of like a bracket and how that bracket lines up,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: because a team that can play deeper into their tournament
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: has more chance to affect their standing.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: The really interesting thing that I don't think we've seen
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: happen yet, but is always possible is if the gap
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: is so small between two teams and if they're not playing,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: but the teams that they have played are playing, that
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: those results could create a very small change in the
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: other team's numbers. You could still have movement even if
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: you're not playing anymore.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: So, right, because again that number is a sort of
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: an infinite calculation of your previous games against each other,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: and so it is essentially calculating your NPI against everybody
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: else's NPI. And because their MPI can change, then so
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: can yours. So there's it's a like we say, it's
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: like a calculation that can go out for an infinity
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: multiplaying against each other. And so yeah, you can be
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: idle and still have your number changed because your opponents
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: NPI is part of the calculate.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: And we have that.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: All on the website and we have linked to it before.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: But if you ever, you know, if you can google
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: like my name in us h O and NPI explanation,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: that's how I find it for myself.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: So good to see that still comes up as a
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: as exact.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's just it does. It's a very confluted math.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: We have both talked aboutfore we are not math. People
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: do not ask me to explain it technically, but I
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: have tried to explain it in a way that I
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: would understand reading it, so hopefully that helps other people
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: because I do not math right.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: All right, I think that wraps it up this week.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: We thank you for listening back next week to talk
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: about the start of playoffs and a couple of conferences
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: and the final weekend of the regular season and what's
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: still to play for for three of the conferences. So
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: I hope to hear you well, hope that you're hearing
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: us then, and we thank you as always for listening.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: For Nicole hosey On Todd Luski, thanks for listening to
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: the Bottle