Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Inside the U18 Women's World Championship and an NCAA outdoor game

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Inside the U18 Women's World Championship and an NCAA outdoor game · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Speaker 1: Us cho dot com.
0:11
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, welcome to the podcast, us cho dot COM's
0:14
Speaker 2: weekly look at NCAA women's hockey and a little bit more.
0:18
Speaker 2: This week, I'm Todd Maleski here with Nicole Hasey, and
0:21
Speaker 2: Nicole is joining us from Finland, so there's some h
0:24
Speaker 2: This is the first chance we've gotten to actually, you know,
0:27
Speaker 2: find the times common enough between the two areas of
0:31
Speaker 2: the world that we could have some time to record.
0:34
Speaker 2: So Nicole, tell us why you're in Finland and you
0:38
Speaker 2: know people that have been paying attention, no, but for
0:40
Speaker 2: everyone else, what's happening there?
0:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
0:43
Speaker 3: So I am just outside Helsinki and Vanta for the
0:47
Speaker 3: U eighteen Women's World Championships, so we have been playing
0:50
Speaker 3: for about weeks. Semifinals are tomorrow, Finals tomorrow Saturday. Semifinals
0:56
Speaker 3: are Sunday. So yeah, that's I've been. You're in the
1:00
Speaker 3: snow and the wind and the cold. Though I know
1:03
Speaker 3: it's like that a bit back at home, but yeah,
1:04
Speaker 3: there's eight hours difference between Todd and I, so trying
1:08
Speaker 3: to find I'm going, I'm well asleep when he is,
1:11
Speaker 3: you know, after after his workday. So it's it's been
1:15
Speaker 3: difficult trying to find stuff, and I just apologize to him.
1:17
Speaker 3: I think I'm gonna end up beyonding my way through this.
1:19
Speaker 3: It's a little after ten here, well.
1:21
Speaker 2: And we're recording this on on Friday, Friday afternoon in
1:24
Speaker 2: the US and you know, late later in the night
1:28
Speaker 2: in Finland. And this is the off day, so you've
1:31
Speaker 2: you've had a chance to do some stuff and look around.
1:33
Speaker 2: But I mean, the the reason why this this tournament
1:36
Speaker 2: is really a connection to college hockey is that. I mean, Nicole,
1:39
Speaker 2: you put this on us ho dot com. There's forty five,
1:43
Speaker 2: I believe was the count of college committed players playing
1:47
Speaker 2: in this tournament.
1:48
Speaker 1: College committed or currently in college.
1:50
Speaker 2: I guess when we want to consider Chloyd Primurano from
1:52
Speaker 2: Minnesota and probably going to be more than that when
1:57
Speaker 2: it all shakes out. Because I know you've seen some
2:01
Speaker 2: college recruiters, college coaches looking around at that tournament.
2:07
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, It's always funny to be wandering the halls
2:11
Speaker 3: and suddenly like I've used to see some of this stuff,
2:13
Speaker 3: so I don't there's that disconnect. Oh wait, yes, it
2:16
Speaker 3: is weird to see. You know. I've definitely seen some
2:18
Speaker 3: Ohio State here. I saw someone from Mercy Hurst and
2:20
Speaker 3: so yeah, there's definitely recruiters here. There are definitely players,
2:25
Speaker 3: particularly those not playing in the US and Canada, that
2:30
Speaker 3: have expressed that they are hoping to, you know, come
2:33
Speaker 3: to the NCAA. So it's definitely a path and those
2:38
Speaker 3: forty five players, like, that's not just the US and
2:40
Speaker 3: Canadian players. There are already several players from non North
2:43
Speaker 3: American schools that are hoping or that are already committed
2:47
Speaker 3: to come play. So yeah, that's the connection. I mean,
2:49
Speaker 3: I have always been interested in this tournament. We were
2:53
Speaker 3: lucky that it was hosted in Madison in twenty twenty two,
2:55
Speaker 3: after the IHS had said they weren't going to host it,
2:58
Speaker 3: they were cancel it. You know, USA Hockey. They basically told,
3:01
Speaker 3: if you USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, if you want
3:03
Speaker 3: this event happen, you're gonna host it. So that's that's
3:09
Speaker 3: how we ended up in Madison. But being there just
3:11
Speaker 3: made it so obvious to me how important it was
3:13
Speaker 3: to cover this tournament. You know, it's twenty twenty five.
3:16
Speaker 3: The twenty nineteen tournament in Slovakia was broadcast on basically
3:20
Speaker 3: a doorbell cam with like a live barn feed. Uh. So,
3:25
Speaker 3: you know, this just isn't and to this point, like I,
3:27
Speaker 3: you know, the last two years, I've been the only
3:29
Speaker 3: North American reporter here. So yeah, it's it. These are players.
3:33
Speaker 3: Many of these players are already playing in the Senior
3:35
Speaker 3: World Championships, will play in the Olympics. These are the
3:38
Speaker 3: you know, not just the future of women's hockey, but
3:41
Speaker 3: the current of women's hockey. And so I think it's
3:44
Speaker 3: important to make sure that this tournament gets covered and it,
3:47
Speaker 3: you know, it makes me a better reporter. I know
3:49
Speaker 3: who these players are when it comes to talking about
3:51
Speaker 3: them collegiately and internationally. So uh, it just holds a
3:55
Speaker 3: little a little special place in my heart, this tournament,
3:57
Speaker 3: and I'm just really lucky that I get to come
3:59
Speaker 3: and cover it.
4:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I wonder if we'll get into the kind
4:04
Speaker 2: of some of the results we've seen and look ahead
4:06
Speaker 2: to the semi finals on Saturday in a minute here,
4:08
Speaker 2: But I wonder maybe just can you give me your
4:10
Speaker 2: impressions or what the vibe is around this tournament this time.
4:14
Speaker 2: Is it different than the ones you've seen in the past.
4:18
Speaker 3: That's an interesting question, I feel like. So the first
4:24
Speaker 3: one we did was Madison. Then the following year I
4:27
Speaker 3: was in Osterritan, Sweden, which is in the middle of
4:30
Speaker 3: the country. Last year we were in Zoos, Switzerland, which
4:33
Speaker 3: was just outside of Zurich. So I've kind of been
4:36
Speaker 3: in and out of major cities and it's always like
4:39
Speaker 3: I felt like in Sweden there was more of an
4:42
Speaker 3: excitement for it. When I landed in the Ostertian airput part,
4:45
Speaker 3: there were signs everywhere, like the town all knew it
4:48
Speaker 3: was happening. So maybe the fact that I'm in a
4:52
Speaker 3: bigger city, but there's just there wasn't any signage here
4:54
Speaker 3: and so that's kind of disappointing. There has been fans
4:59
Speaker 3: support some, but like not massive, and so that's just
5:04
Speaker 3: always like sad and hard to see. But I also
5:07
Speaker 3: come from a different perspective where like, you know, we
5:10
Speaker 3: see the big support in Madison, and you know, we've
5:12
Speaker 3: seen these cellouts from p WHL games, and according to
5:15
Speaker 3: people here, these are like these are big crowds, and
5:18
Speaker 3: these are the biggest crowds that most of the Finland
5:19
Speaker 3: girls have played in front of. So you know, it's
5:23
Speaker 3: it's I think that it can be better, but I
5:26
Speaker 3: think that people here think that this is this is
5:28
Speaker 3: pretty good and it's exciting, and there are young boys
5:31
Speaker 3: and young girls in the crowd, you know, wanting jerseys
5:34
Speaker 3: and reaching over for hands, uh, you know, handshakes and
5:38
Speaker 3: things like that, so there is some excitement. But yeah,
5:40
Speaker 3: I think it for me, I'm a little tempered because
5:43
Speaker 3: I think it could be better. But yeah, the vibe
5:46
Speaker 3: is it's the hockey is so good and it's like
5:52
Speaker 3: just disappointing for me when when there's not more attention paid,
5:55
Speaker 3: right and like these games are only on a nh
5:57
Speaker 3: WEL network in the US and and things like that,
6:00
Speaker 3: so it's always you know, a little positive, a little negative.
6:03
Speaker 3: I think. I don't know if that answers any questions, but.
6:07
Speaker 1: Well, and I think it's it's something that.
6:11
Speaker 2: You know, I'm I'd be curious to see if and
6:13
Speaker 2: when it does come back to North America, which I
6:16
Speaker 2: would imagine is happening soon.
6:19
Speaker 3: Canada next year. In Canada next year.
6:23
Speaker 2: You would imagine the profile gets raised a little bit there,
6:26
Speaker 2: But then what does that do?
6:27
Speaker 1: Does that? Uh?
6:29
Speaker 2: Does that change anything? When it goes back to Europe?
6:31
Speaker 2: Are we talking about something else? And whether you go
6:33
Speaker 2: to the uh, the smaller areas for the reason you
6:38
Speaker 2: were talking about that, it's no everyone that's there knows
6:41
Speaker 2: about it as opposed to it being just kind of
6:44
Speaker 2: another event than the Hell's Greater hell Sinky area. So yeah,
6:50
Speaker 2: I wonder if if how that how that plays out
6:53
Speaker 2: over the next few years, what what they look at
6:57
Speaker 2: for for hosting that term right now.
7:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was thinking about this too, because you know,
7:03
Speaker 3: I'm like almost perspective of being the one that's here,
7:06
Speaker 3: and like, I know that in Canada next year it's
7:08
Speaker 3: going to get a ton of attention because it'll be
7:10
Speaker 3: nearby and easy for people to cover, and then you know,
7:14
Speaker 3: then it'll go back into obscurity again, and that's just
7:16
Speaker 3: like kind of frustrating to me. So like it, I'll
7:19
Speaker 3: be excited that people will pay attention and look next year,
7:21
Speaker 3: but ever hopeful that it that manifests in something as
7:28
Speaker 3: opposed to just being because it's there in Canada and
7:31
Speaker 3: easily accessible in North America. You know when the twenty
7:35
Speaker 3: twenty one was canceled and how we ended up in
7:37
Speaker 3: Madison in twenty twenty when twenty twenty one was canceled
7:40
Speaker 3: and the tournament was the men's the World Juniors continued.
7:45
Speaker 3: There was massive outcry and all these outlets covered, you know,
7:48
Speaker 3: the supposed sexism, and you know, how could the IHF
7:52
Speaker 3: do this? And when we rescheduled for twenty twenty two
7:55
Speaker 3: and it was going to be in Madison, I literally
7:57
Speaker 3: googled who wrote about it being canceled and I reached
8:01
Speaker 3: out to every one of those outlets and said, I
8:03
Speaker 3: live here, this is I know what I'm talking about,
8:05
Speaker 3: this is what I cover, Like, will you now cover
8:08
Speaker 3: this tournament? And nobody wanted to. I mean, it's telling
8:11
Speaker 3: them it's twenty twenty five and I'm I pay for
8:14
Speaker 3: me to be here. I come and I write about
8:16
Speaker 3: it for the website that I own. Right, I'm not
8:19
Speaker 3: like nobody sending me to do this. I'm not getting
8:22
Speaker 3: nobody's letting me do it on bigger sites. And so
8:25
Speaker 3: that sucks. There's no simple way to say that. That's
8:29
Speaker 3: still where we're at. And again, like there's there's probably
8:32
Speaker 3: a half dozen to a dozen players here that are
8:34
Speaker 3: already playing at the senior level. You know, last year
8:37
Speaker 3: Canada or two years ago, the US lost their semi final.
8:41
Speaker 3: Last year Canada lost their semi final. Like we're not
8:45
Speaker 3: on a collision course, that's an assumption of US and
8:48
Speaker 3: Canada in the final anymore. Like this is where the
8:51
Speaker 3: growth is happening. This is where you're seeing like what
8:53
Speaker 3: happened with Chechia at the senior level, Like that's trickling
8:56
Speaker 3: down here. And so yeah, there's just there's a lot
8:59
Speaker 3: of really interesting stories to be had here and it's frustrating,
9:02
Speaker 3: like I don't have enough bandwidth to cover it, you know,
9:05
Speaker 3: like I'm writing five thousand words a day about this
9:09
Speaker 3: and I wish I could do more. So I guess
9:14
Speaker 3: maybe I don't know, does that sound angrateful? But yeah,
9:16
Speaker 3: I just it's there's so much that could and should
9:19
Speaker 3: be done here, and it's frustrating that it doesn't get more.
9:22
Speaker 3: I guess that's what I'm saying.
9:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let's kind of take a look at what
9:26
Speaker 2: you've seen there on the ice so far. And I
9:29
Speaker 2: don't think there was too many surprises in the quarterfinals
9:33
Speaker 2: on Thursday, Sweden beating Switzerland for to one, the US
9:38
Speaker 2: beating Slovakia nine to one, Joshia beating Finland six nothing
9:43
Speaker 2: in Canada with a epic route of Japan seventeen nothing.
9:47
Speaker 1: And I know people saw that number.
9:49
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of outlets putting that number out
9:51
Speaker 2: on social media after the game on Thursday, and it
9:55
Speaker 2: was kind of like, you know, eye popping emoji was
10:00
Speaker 2: all you could really do on that and I guess
10:03
Speaker 2: maybe start at the end there seventeen to nothing, huh.
10:05
Speaker 2: That's and it seemed like that was a pretty accurate
10:09
Speaker 2: representation of what the game was.
10:11
Speaker 3: It was but by that point I think Japan, let's
10:16
Speaker 3: go back. Japan very very nearly beat Finland Japan. Sweden
10:21
Speaker 3: needed overtime to beat Japan in the opening rounds, like
10:24
Speaker 3: they came in here and let me post only stuff.
10:28
Speaker 3: I have to keep paying backwards. Okay, So the IHF
10:30
Speaker 3: is a tiered there's promotion and relegation. What I am
10:34
Speaker 3: at is at the top tier there is Division D
10:37
Speaker 3: one A right below this. The top team in that
10:40
Speaker 3: group gets moved up and the bottom team in our
10:43
Speaker 3: group gets moved down. So last year, Journey got relegated
10:46
Speaker 3: and Japan got promoted. One thing that we've talked about
10:50
Speaker 3: this week that's really difficult for Japan is that all
10:53
Speaker 3: of these other teams get to play each other, and
10:55
Speaker 3: particularly when we're talking the European teams, the teams that
10:57
Speaker 3: aren't the US and Canada where they're going to school
11:00
Speaker 3: and at this kind of elite level of development already.
11:04
Speaker 3: Those The one of the things that helps is that
11:06
Speaker 3: the European national teams play each other and have every
11:12
Speaker 3: year all year to play each other in several different
11:14
Speaker 3: tournaments and iterations, and that, you know, helps them know
11:18
Speaker 3: where they stand and helps them get better. Japan is
11:21
Speaker 3: far far away and doesn't really have the opportunity to
11:24
Speaker 3: do that, right, Like their players aren't playing in leagues,
11:27
Speaker 3: they aren't playing semi pro, they aren't going to prep schools,
11:31
Speaker 3: like there's just such a difference in what they're able
11:34
Speaker 3: to do to be able to be prepared for this tournament.
11:37
Speaker 3: So the fact that they came in here and pushed
11:41
Speaker 3: Sweden and Finland in their opening round games, like they
11:44
Speaker 3: they had leads in both of those games, and like
11:46
Speaker 3: mostly their coach said, you know, we don't have any
11:49
Speaker 3: idea how to play with the lead, Like it was
11:51
Speaker 3: just a massive experience for them. It's unfortunate that that
11:55
Speaker 3: they had to get it by losing those games, But
11:57
Speaker 3: like you have to learn how to play with the lead,
11:59
Speaker 3: you have to learn how to let to like handle
12:02
Speaker 3: those emotions, and particularly the teenagers and at U eighteen,
12:05
Speaker 3: I think they're less about coaching the skills and they
12:10
Speaker 3: are more about handling the mental side of the game, right,
12:13
Speaker 3: Like that's this is the first international tournament for most
12:15
Speaker 3: of these people. This is the first big time wearing
12:19
Speaker 3: their their country's sweater and so handling all of that. Yeah,
12:23
Speaker 3: so all that have to say is that, like I
12:25
Speaker 3: feel like, man, that's seventeen nothing does not do Japan
12:29
Speaker 3: justice and I hate that that's how that kind of
12:32
Speaker 3: closed out and like what people are going to see
12:34
Speaker 3: from this because Japan played really well, the US beat
12:38
Speaker 3: them fix nothing, and this Canada team isn't three times
12:42
Speaker 3: better than the US team, you know what I'm saying,
12:44
Speaker 3: Like the seventeen nothing, it's more about Japan being in
12:47
Speaker 3: their fourth game, being mentally fatigued, not being prepared because
12:54
Speaker 3: it's hard to be when you live on the other
12:56
Speaker 3: side of the world for this tournament. But yeah, yeah,
13:00
Speaker 3: so that wasn't fair. I hate that that happened for them.
13:04
Speaker 3: You know, they they're two preliminited on were eliminary round
13:08
Speaker 3: games that they lost. The girls were in tears because
13:11
Speaker 3: they it was so close for them, you know, they were.
13:14
Speaker 3: It was the generally the promoted team is not a
13:17
Speaker 3: team that I expect to come in and do stuff.
13:20
Speaker 3: And uh, in fact, you know, at the end of
13:22
Speaker 3: last year, I like Switzerland really struggled. They won their
13:26
Speaker 3: the final games to stay up in the top, you know,
13:29
Speaker 3: the top tier, so that Germany got relegated, but I
13:32
Speaker 3: mean Switzerland's really surprised. They took a huge step forward.
13:35
Speaker 3: So the hockey's been really good and so I hope
13:38
Speaker 3: and I know it's hard because the games aren't widely
13:40
Speaker 3: televised and people aren't don't get a chance to watch,
13:44
Speaker 3: but I hope that seventeen oh isn't what people take
13:47
Speaker 3: away from this tournament because it's it's just not indicative
13:50
Speaker 3: of the hockey that was has been played.
13:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple of pat tricks for Canada and that
13:54
Speaker 2: game record is a blockie from a Northeastern command three
13:59
Speaker 2: goals to assist, same line for Maxine Cimmaroni from well,
14:03
Speaker 2: Ohio state. I keep saying from but they're not from yet.
14:05
Speaker 2: They're in Ohio state. She's in Ohio state. Uh. Cloyd Permano,
14:10
Speaker 2: the Minnesota freshmen, had two goals and three assists. So yeah,
14:13
Speaker 2: that was a pretty impressive showing from Canada's skilled players.
14:19
Speaker 1: Really.
14:20
Speaker 2: I mean it's it's skilled, right, right, That's what shows
14:22
Speaker 2: through in these kind of events, and and that's that's
14:25
Speaker 2: what they brought.
14:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think too, like there's there's just no the
14:32
Speaker 3: japan is so small and when you get them against
14:35
Speaker 3: a team like like that's part of why the Sweden
14:37
Speaker 3: game was so impressive to me, because like Sweden is
14:41
Speaker 3: a super physical team. There tend to be like larger
14:45
Speaker 3: girls and because the SDHL where many of them play
14:47
Speaker 3: the pro league in Sweden allows body contact. For Japan
14:54
Speaker 3: to do really well in that situation was just I thought,
14:57
Speaker 3: really amazing because they're they're just they're gonna bounce off
15:00
Speaker 3: some of these players. They're just much smaller, so they're
15:03
Speaker 3: using their speed, they're using sort of more finesse and yeah,
15:07
Speaker 3: so the skill level is just really different when you
15:11
Speaker 3: get to Canada, and you're also like everybody is pretty
15:14
Speaker 3: bad on the first game or two because they're all,
15:16
Speaker 3: you know, they haven't been playing together very long and
15:18
Speaker 3: they're still figuring it out. When you get Canada on
15:20
Speaker 3: their fourth game of the tournament, they're firing on all cylinders.
15:25
Speaker 2: That the US nine to one win over Slovakia. That
15:30
Speaker 2: one was the first goal allowed by the US in
15:32
Speaker 2: the tournament. And you've got some information on how far
15:35
Speaker 2: back it goes, since the US has allowed to even
15:38
Speaker 2: strength goal.
15:39
Speaker 1: This in the U eighteen tournament.
15:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, so back to twenty twenty three, so two and
15:44
Speaker 3: a half tournaments ago, twelve games ago. The last even
15:47
Speaker 3: strength goal they gave up was to Kaitlin Kramer of
15:50
Speaker 3: Canada in twenty twenty three in their opening round game.
15:54
Speaker 3: So since then they've given up eight goals. I believe
15:56
Speaker 3: it's one short handed, seven power play goals, but yeah,
16:02
Speaker 3: seven and twenty six minutes plus of hockey played over
16:08
Speaker 3: what are we talking almost two years that the US
16:12
Speaker 3: has given up an even strength goal? And yeah they're
16:15
Speaker 3: goalie is this year Morgan Stickney Is I think maybe
16:18
Speaker 3: not who everyone expected to get the starting job. Natalia
16:21
Speaker 3: Dilbone was on the team last year, and yeah, Morgan
16:25
Speaker 3: went through the opening rounds. She's the only goalie ever
16:29
Speaker 3: so to have three consecutive shutouts. So she's having a
16:32
Speaker 3: heck of a tournament. But so is their defense. They haven't.
16:35
Speaker 3: The US is not given up a whole lot of shots.
16:39
Speaker 3: I mean she she herself said, I haven't been super tested,
16:42
Speaker 3: but in that game.
16:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
16:43
Speaker 3: I think the same with Slovakia is they just don't
16:46
Speaker 3: have the same depth. They are. They're doing a good
16:48
Speaker 3: job of growing, you know, where they are since we
16:53
Speaker 3: first saw them in twenty twenty two. I think there's
16:55
Speaker 3: huge strides, but they they're just they started to run
17:00
Speaker 3: out of gas that you know. Their coach said, we
17:03
Speaker 3: don't have players that play seven days a week. They
17:06
Speaker 3: practice two or three times a week. They don't have
17:08
Speaker 3: the same conditioning and fitness, and so I think Slovakia
17:11
Speaker 3: just hit a little bit of a wall when it
17:13
Speaker 3: came to that. But they have two players that are
17:15
Speaker 3: committed to the NCAA. Nola la Pusinova's committed to Wisconsin
17:20
Speaker 3: and Emma Totava is committed to Ohio State. Nela their
17:23
Speaker 3: team has nine goals, and Nella has nine points. She
17:27
Speaker 3: has either scored or assistant on every single one of
17:30
Speaker 3: their team's goals, and Emma Totava has five points, so
17:36
Speaker 3: she's got two goals and three assists. So I would
17:40
Speaker 3: not be surprised if we see more Slovakian players coming over.
17:45
Speaker 3: Nella moved to the US two years ago and is
17:47
Speaker 3: playing with Bak Slex And it came out this week
17:51
Speaker 3: that she's like the Buffalo Bills, like football player of
17:54
Speaker 3: the year too, just like she's she's like casually the
17:59
Speaker 3: very best app anyone's ever seen. It's ridiculous.
18:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gonna be fun to see that develop over
18:09
Speaker 2: four years of college too, I think. I mean, there's
18:12
Speaker 2: obviously a lot of expectations coming in when she gets
18:16
Speaker 2: to school at Wisconsin, going to a big program like that,
18:20
Speaker 2: But if her game is still growing and it's already
18:25
Speaker 2: where it is, I mean, man, you're talking about something
18:27
Speaker 2: pretty special.
18:29
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, she was the MVP of the twenty
18:31
Speaker 3: twenty three tournament at fourteen years old. The EU eighteens
18:36
Speaker 3: changed format last year, so it used to be sort
18:38
Speaker 3: of all the strong teams in one group and all
18:41
Speaker 3: like the you know, sort of rankings one through four
18:43
Speaker 3: in one group and rankings five, three and another. Last
18:46
Speaker 3: year that changed and it's it's sort of the groups
18:48
Speaker 3: are sort of like snake, right, Like one is one,
18:51
Speaker 3: Group A is number one, Group B is number two,
18:54
Speaker 3: you know, so sort of a snake across Nella and
18:58
Speaker 3: Slovakia struggled a little bit last through with that first change,
19:01
Speaker 3: but made huge strides this year. I think, like you
19:04
Speaker 3: could just tell that they you know, that first time
19:06
Speaker 3: around it was very different, and this year they're definitely
19:10
Speaker 3: much more prepared. Those two Nola and Emma definitely are
19:14
Speaker 3: little bit head and shoulders above their teammates, and their
19:17
Speaker 3: teammates I think still defer to them. There was a
19:19
Speaker 3: point where you could tell that Slovakia panicked a little
19:21
Speaker 3: and it was like get the buck to Nella and
19:23
Speaker 3: it's like, okay, guys, like deep breath, you all are
19:26
Speaker 3: good players. You don't need to you know, it doesn't
19:29
Speaker 3: behoove you to telegraph that the bug is always going
19:31
Speaker 3: to their But yeah, and Nella's game has just progressed.
19:36
Speaker 3: I mean she was trick shots and she was dominating
19:38
Speaker 3: sort of that lower tier group and now and then
19:42
Speaker 3: last year struggled a little with that higher level of competition,
19:44
Speaker 3: and now you can just see there's more of a
19:46
Speaker 3: two hundred foot game. It's not you know, just what
19:49
Speaker 3: she can do trying to dangle through opponents. There's just
19:52
Speaker 3: you know, some maturity and growth to her game. So
19:54
Speaker 3: that's good to see you obviously, you know she's still
19:57
Speaker 3: only sixty as well, which is just tilly right for
20:01
Speaker 3: the US.
20:03
Speaker 2: A couple of two goal scorers in that game, Evelyn
20:05
Speaker 2: Doyle and Yale commit and Wisconsin committed Haley Box both
20:09
Speaker 2: had two goals and an assist, and so that sets
20:12
Speaker 2: up the semi finals on Saturday. USA versus Sweden is
20:15
Speaker 2: the early game, Canada versus Chechia the later game.
20:19
Speaker 1: Both of those starting in the morning.
20:21
Speaker 2: Here US time uh seven am starts Central time for
20:25
Speaker 2: the US Sweden game. Tell me what you expect to
20:29
Speaker 2: see out of those Like you mentioned before, don't assume
20:31
Speaker 2: anything out of semi final results at this tournament because
20:35
Speaker 2: we've been you know, surprised before.
20:38
Speaker 3: So uh well, Sweden is the US two years ago
20:41
Speaker 3: and checks who beat Canada last year. So we've got
20:44
Speaker 3: maximum intrigue, which is nice that the re received going
20:49
Speaker 3: into this, so we weren't sure exactly how that would
20:51
Speaker 3: go down. But yeah, so we've got two rematches of
20:53
Speaker 3: the last two big upsets from Sweden. They have been
20:56
Speaker 3: playing with just a bit more depth. They've got some
21:01
Speaker 3: really good defenders they've got they're moving the puck a
21:04
Speaker 3: little bit more as I said, they're just a very
21:06
Speaker 3: physical team. The US is gonna Liz Keaty Norton, the coach,
21:11
Speaker 3: talks about her team being dirty dogs. She wants them to,
21:14
Speaker 3: you know, really be gritty and finding room in front
21:17
Speaker 3: of the net and cleaning up and like, so many
21:19
Speaker 3: of their goals in the quarterfinals were on second and
21:22
Speaker 3: third opportunities, and Sweden's gonna try really hard to not
21:26
Speaker 3: let that happen in any way, shape or form. Like
21:28
Speaker 3: they're they're gonna try it on the ice. They're gonna
21:30
Speaker 3: try and keep the US to the outside. They're gonna
21:33
Speaker 3: try and win battles along the boards. So I think
21:37
Speaker 3: the two teams match up pretty well in terms of
21:40
Speaker 3: their style, in terms of like what they would like
21:42
Speaker 3: to accomplish, and so yeah, I think it's just gonna
21:45
Speaker 3: be a battle of wills. I also think it's gonna
21:47
Speaker 3: be a battle of not taking penalties and spending the
21:49
Speaker 3: whole time on special teams. Yeah, Sweden has not scored
21:57
Speaker 3: as much as I think that they would like, and
21:59
Speaker 3: they have struggled a little with It took till the
22:02
Speaker 3: corner finals for them to really play the game that
22:05
Speaker 3: their coaches wanted them to play like to put all
22:07
Speaker 3: the pieces together, and I think their coaching staff was
22:10
Speaker 3: a little frustrated heading into that game, so it was
22:12
Speaker 3: good for them to do that. And there's always something
22:16
Speaker 3: with the coaches at this age where they're like, well,
22:19
Speaker 3: they know what to do, but they're not doing it.
22:21
Speaker 3: So I don't know, because teenagers, it's very interesting sometimes
22:25
Speaker 3: to watch the hockey and you can almost forget how
22:28
Speaker 3: young they are and then you go in the mix
22:30
Speaker 3: ow and you're like, yep, these are all girls. So yeah,
22:34
Speaker 3: I think they had things come together, and so it
22:37
Speaker 3: will be that battle of wills of sort of physicality
22:40
Speaker 3: and who can find space down the ice to do what,
22:43
Speaker 3: like to really put their stamp on the game for
22:46
Speaker 3: US and US and Sweden.
22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing I want to mention looking at the
22:53
Speaker 2: top scorers in the tournament. Now, this is obviously swayed
22:56
Speaker 2: heavily by that Canada result that they in the quarterfinals,
23:00
Speaker 2: but looking at the top five scorers represent UH commits
23:06
Speaker 2: or players current players at five different colleges, which is
23:09
Speaker 2: pretty cool to see that. You know, obviously there's no
23:13
Speaker 2: Hoose they commit there as a Wisconsin commit. There there's
23:16
Speaker 2: a Minnesota player there, but there's also someone committed to
23:18
Speaker 2: Northeastern and someone committed to Clarkson. When you go ahead
23:21
Speaker 2: a little farther, uh, there's a player committed to Yukon. Uh.
23:24
Speaker 2: There there's a player that's uncommitted because I believe she's
23:28
Speaker 2: still not eligible to have a.
23:33
Speaker 3: Have ah yeah, has not yet en c eligible.
23:37
Speaker 2: So there's there's uh, you know, more than just you know,
23:41
Speaker 2: the the heavy hitters there. As you're looking at the
23:46
Speaker 2: the who's committed to to where I mean, obviously there's
23:49
Speaker 2: that's represented in that group, the big the schools that
23:52
Speaker 2: are near the top of the poles and the rankings
23:54
Speaker 2: and pairwise, but uh, I think that that's a good
23:58
Speaker 2: thing to have, you know, things spread out a little
24:00
Speaker 2: bit and see uh see some of these players that
24:03
Speaker 2: have have this international experience that.
24:04
Speaker 1: Have done well.
24:05
Speaker 2: Uh then going to different schools uh in a in
24:09
Speaker 2: a year or two.
24:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been pretty cool. Kind of starting goalie is
24:13
Speaker 3: committed to U n T. Sofia Ishmael had a really
24:16
Speaker 3: big game. She's committed to Penn State. There was one
24:21
Speaker 3: more I was just going to shout out, I'm sorry, Oh,
24:26
Speaker 3: a really big d from Canada. Alex theory. She's committed
24:28
Speaker 3: to u n H. So yeah, there's just the fans
24:31
Speaker 3: need to know that there's there's girls here that aren't
24:33
Speaker 3: you know, it's not just a case of the rich
24:36
Speaker 3: keep getting richer. There's a lot of pretty cool different
24:39
Speaker 3: representations here and I like it's been enjoyable to watch
24:43
Speaker 3: and I just I'm excited. You know, Morgan Stickney, the
24:45
Speaker 3: US goalie that had the shutout Street, she's committed to
24:47
Speaker 3: Penn State. So I'm just excited to see these players
24:52
Speaker 3: when they make it, you know, to the college game
24:55
Speaker 3: and see how they you know, it's it's I got
24:57
Speaker 3: to watch Caitlyn and Kramer have her come out in
25:00
Speaker 3: Sweden two years ago, you don't have this big breakout
25:03
Speaker 3: year for Canada, and then to see her have this
25:06
Speaker 3: big freshman season at UND It's been fun to be
25:09
Speaker 3: able to follow those through lines and see them make
25:13
Speaker 3: a difference and also get to you know, Canada roster.
25:17
Speaker 3: I think all but one are committed, but like half
25:19
Speaker 3: the US roster is not yet old enough to commit
25:21
Speaker 3: to the NCAA. They went pretty young this year and
25:26
Speaker 3: Mary Sierra Baker is one of the reasons why because
25:28
Speaker 3: she played last year at fifteen and handled herself. She
25:31
Speaker 3: was really good, and that gave them the confidence to
25:33
Speaker 3: know that they don't have to that they can widen
25:35
Speaker 3: the net for who is playing. And for many years
25:38
Speaker 3: it was like, oh, you had to be in you
25:39
Speaker 3: know whatever, you're born to be eligible. And that's just
25:42
Speaker 3: we're not seeing that be the case in North America anymore.
25:47
Speaker 2: Well, good stuff about the tournament. Stay with us here
25:50
Speaker 2: when we come back. We're going take a quick break.
25:51
Speaker 2: When we come back, we will talk about what we've
25:54
Speaker 2: seen in NCAA hockey since really the start of the
25:56
Speaker 2: year and since things picked up again. Stay with us
25:59
Speaker 2: on the podcast.
26:07
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast.
26:08
Speaker 2: Todd Maluski here with Nicole Hosey, who is in Finland
26:11
Speaker 2: covering the IHF Under eighteen Women's World Championship. And Nicole,
26:17
Speaker 2: I know you haven't really because you've been covering those games.
26:19
Speaker 1: You haven't had a chance to watch a lot of NCAA.
26:22
Speaker 2: Games since the start of the year. But we've seen
26:28
Speaker 2: I know you've seen results, you've read some things. We
26:32
Speaker 2: had a really big series right out of the gate
26:35
Speaker 2: for twenty twenty five, number one Wisconsin against number two
26:38
Speaker 2: Ohio State and we know when those two teams get together,
26:41
Speaker 2: there's usually a lot to unpack out of that, and
26:45
Speaker 2: I think there definitely was. With a Wisconsin six nothing
26:48
Speaker 2: win last Thursday and then a three to three tie
26:51
Speaker 2: on Saturday at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the outdoor game
26:54
Speaker 2: part of the Big Tens weekend of games, Ohio State
26:58
Speaker 2: won the shootout, won nothing in the Oh jeez, what
27:02
Speaker 2: was it the seventh.
27:02
Speaker 1: Or eighth round?
27:03
Speaker 2: There are so many I think it's seventh. I wrote
27:06
Speaker 2: down eighth, but I think it was the seventh. Yeah,
27:09
Speaker 2: And and so that's, you know, was a really important
27:12
Speaker 2: result for Ohio State to come back and you know,
27:16
Speaker 2: show that six nothing was was not the way this
27:19
Speaker 2: is going to go for the rest of the season
27:21
Speaker 2: for them against you know, good competition. So important result
27:26
Speaker 2: for them, even though it wasn't technically a win, they
27:28
Speaker 2: felt like they came away with a win with the
27:30
Speaker 2: shootout result. What do you take out of of seeing
27:35
Speaker 2: those that pair of results.
27:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting because the frozen friendly game or friendly
27:46
Speaker 3: frozen confines game. And you can talk about this, I
27:48
Speaker 3: know that, you know, particularly as the game went on,
27:51
Speaker 3: people were complaining about ice conditions. I mean to watch
27:54
Speaker 3: the first two periods and then fell asleep because it
27:57
Speaker 3: was three am here or something like that. So I
28:01
Speaker 3: don't know, and you can tell me, like, should should
28:03
Speaker 3: we be taking the that second game's results as like
28:06
Speaker 3: indicative of the play or is the was the location
28:11
Speaker 3: the bigger factor in what happened in that game?
28:13
Speaker 1: I think it was a factor.
28:15
Speaker 2: I don't think it was a deciding factor, though, because
28:17
Speaker 2: I think the deciding factor was that Ohio State had
28:22
Speaker 2: he really was pretty much embarrassed on Thursday and came
28:27
Speaker 2: out and did something about it. That was the the
28:29
Speaker 2: takeaway that I that I came back with, because yes,
28:34
Speaker 2: the the ice wasn't great, but you know, they're they're
28:38
Speaker 2: both playing the same way.
28:39
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's the same idea.
28:42
Speaker 2: But I do think that outdoor games are are not
28:48
Speaker 2: necessarily conducive to teams that try to do a lot
28:52
Speaker 2: with the puck. And we've seen Wisconsin in the past
28:55
Speaker 2: and really a lot of this season.
28:57
Speaker 1: They play that.
28:58
Speaker 2: Style because they can successful, yeah, and it just doesn't
29:03
Speaker 2: work on how door ice. And we saw that in
29:05
Speaker 2: the show a couple of players trying to make moves
29:08
Speaker 2: and just lost the puck and didn't even get a
29:11
Speaker 2: shot on goal, and it was really you know, tough
29:14
Speaker 2: to make the kind of cross ice passes that we've
29:17
Speaker 2: seen out of the Badgers throughout the year and to
29:20
Speaker 2: set up one timers, and so that wasn't playing into
29:24
Speaker 2: their favor. Now they they had a lead, they you know,
29:29
Speaker 2: came back from House States scored in the first minute.
29:32
Speaker 2: The Badgers came back to take it to one lead,
29:35
Speaker 2: hence sorre. Ohio State came back to take a three
29:38
Speaker 2: to two lead. Then the Badgers tied it with five
29:41
Speaker 2: minutes and change left to to force the overtime.
29:46
Speaker 1: But that was.
29:49
Speaker 2: It really got squirreling from there because in the last
29:51
Speaker 2: few minutes of regulation and the entirety of overtime were
29:56
Speaker 2: kind of crazy, uh, to watch the chances going both ways.
30:00
Speaker 2: Ohio State ended up with a power play in overtime
30:03
Speaker 2: because Wisconsin got called for too many players, which was valid.
30:06
Speaker 2: They had four on the ice in a three on
30:08
Speaker 2: three situation for tens And.
30:13
Speaker 3: I did not realize that that's news to me if
30:15
Speaker 3: that's hilarious.
30:16
Speaker 2: Just out of the fact that it was going so far,
30:20
Speaker 2: you know, so fast, both directions Wisconsin had, you know,
30:24
Speaker 2: was trying to come back and had an extra player
30:27
Speaker 2: jump on when when one came off, and it's kind
30:33
Speaker 2: of the overtime. It was just you know, Wisconsin had
30:36
Speaker 2: had calls for a penalty on Ohio State Casey O'Brien
30:42
Speaker 2: had a chance down the stretch and what I don't
30:47
Speaker 2: really call it a breakaway, it was kind of a
30:48
Speaker 2: breakaway and she got tied up and no penalty call.
30:51
Speaker 2: They let him play on And that was something that
30:54
Speaker 2: I thought was a little interesting out of that that game,
30:56
Speaker 2: is that the referees, you know, we've seen in Ohio
30:58
Speaker 2: State Wisconsin games kind of let them play. I mean
31:00
Speaker 2: they then evenly matched. They know that unless there's something
31:04
Speaker 2: that's obvious it's you know, somebody taken down on a
31:07
Speaker 2: clear scoring attempt or uh something that you know, a
31:11
Speaker 2: foul that caused a turnover that's going to lead to
31:13
Speaker 2: a scoring attempt, you got to call those. But they
31:15
Speaker 2: typically have let them play, like they did in the
31:17
Speaker 2: National Championship Game last season. But this one was was
31:21
Speaker 2: a lot more special teams driven. I think Ohio State
31:24
Speaker 2: had six, Wisconsin had two, or maybe that was just
31:27
Speaker 2: a number of penalties called, but.
31:30
Speaker 1: It was it was a little bit different.
31:32
Speaker 2: There was some body checking calls, it was there was
31:37
Speaker 2: a lot to work through there, and that ended that
31:41
Speaker 2: it still was a really good game between two elite opponents.
31:45
Speaker 2: And I think that's, you know, hardly the last time
31:48
Speaker 2: we're going to see them playing each other this season.
31:51
Speaker 2: And and so I just, you know, wonder whether this
31:56
Speaker 2: game kind of sets the stage for the next one
31:58
Speaker 2: or if it was just kind of a you know,
32:01
Speaker 2: a throwaway one because of the ice conditions and because
32:05
Speaker 2: because it was such a unique environment playing outside and
32:09
Speaker 2: you know, with a a big venue, I don't know
32:12
Speaker 2: if we're gonna be able to read much out of
32:14
Speaker 2: that if we see them playing again in the w
32:16
Speaker 2: c h A tournament or in the NCAA tournament.
32:19
Speaker 3: Yeah. I guess one of the things that I was
32:20
Speaker 3: wondering is because I expected that Ohio State was going
32:23
Speaker 3: to come out, you know like that as you said,
32:27
Speaker 3: they were embarrassed. That's that's not what they want. That's
32:29
Speaker 3: I mean, any team would feel that way, but particularly
32:32
Speaker 3: an ad and thus we're all coach team, it's gonna
32:34
Speaker 3: you know, really be pissed off and come out and
32:38
Speaker 3: so does it Like for me, I'm thinking, like does
32:40
Speaker 3: that mean they did that in Wisconsin was study it
32:43
Speaker 3: and came out with essentially a tie, Like is that
32:45
Speaker 3: a positive? Like just wiscone to look at that as
32:48
Speaker 3: a positive, like we poked the hornets nests and the
32:51
Speaker 3: best that they could come up with after that.
32:54
Speaker 1: I don't know.
32:54
Speaker 3: That's why I was trying to ask about the ice
32:56
Speaker 3: and like what what to take out of the tie?
33:00
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, right.
33:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think Wisconsin felt bad about much of
33:05
Speaker 2: anything there, you know, other than the shootout result not
33:08
Speaker 2: going their direction. Yeah, still massively ahead in the pair,
33:12
Speaker 2: Wiser's still massively ahead in the w c h A.
33:16
Speaker 2: They don't have a lot to worry about in those
33:19
Speaker 2: races necessarily yet unless things go incredibly wrong for them
33:25
Speaker 2: in the second half of the season. But you do
33:30
Speaker 2: know that when it's going to come down to a
33:33
Speaker 2: one and done situation in a tournament setting, is you know,
33:36
Speaker 2: for the potential next time you're playing Ohio State, you'd
33:41
Speaker 2: much rather be going into that with the memory of
33:43
Speaker 2: a six to nothing win than a three to three
33:45
Speaker 2: tie in a shootout loss. So that's where I just
33:48
Speaker 2: don't know, if you know, they just take that that
33:51
Speaker 2: game and like ball it up and throat and trash
33:53
Speaker 2: and it's like all right, we're moving on. Yeah, I'll
33:57
Speaker 2: say I do have to say this. So the jerseys
33:59
Speaker 2: on both sides were incredible. A big sweater person, I
34:04
Speaker 2: don't like radom or anything like that, but I thought
34:08
Speaker 2: they were both great. And Wisconsin had a white sweater
34:13
Speaker 2: with a cursive Wisconsin on the front, and Ohio State
34:17
Speaker 2: had a black one with a red stripe through the
34:21
Speaker 2: middle with a mascot brutus that I haven't seen that
34:26
Speaker 2: imagery before and maybe that they haven't ever used that
34:30
Speaker 2: before on any of their sweaters.
34:32
Speaker 3: So, and any Ohio State rep that's here in Finland
34:37
Speaker 3: was wearing something with that brutus on it, which I
34:39
Speaker 3: thought was funny. I spotted it immediately.
34:42
Speaker 2: So yeah, the aust players didn't know what was on
34:46
Speaker 2: those sweaters until the day of the game, which I
34:48
Speaker 2: thought was an interesting way of doing a real you know,
34:52
Speaker 2: because I hadn't seen anything about it until that day
34:54
Speaker 2: for sure, And it was like it came out after
34:57
Speaker 2: the game that Yeah, that was the first time they
34:59
Speaker 2: saw him and they got to the stadium that day.
35:02
Speaker 1: There's a different way.
35:03
Speaker 3: Of doing that I would have liked Wisconsin's and cream,
35:07
Speaker 3: and I heard that that was a logistic thing. They
35:09
Speaker 3: also would have liked them in cream, right. I really
35:13
Speaker 3: liked the Wisconsin men's jerseys, but I'm a big fan
35:16
Speaker 3: of like stripes or hoops. It's their jersey terminology goes.
35:21
Speaker 3: So the men's team jerseys, the Wisconsin men's change jerseys
35:26
Speaker 3: did that well. But yeah, all because there were four
35:29
Speaker 3: men's teams that also played in UH really, and all
35:33
Speaker 3: of the teams had I thought did interesting things, some
35:37
Speaker 3: better than others. But specialty jerseys can go very good
35:41
Speaker 3: and very wrong, and I didn't feel like anybody went
35:43
Speaker 3: very wrong, which was nice. And yeah, I think the
35:46
Speaker 3: women get fewer opportunities to do, you know, the interesting
35:49
Speaker 3: one off jerseys. And I thought both teams in Ohio
35:52
Speaker 3: State and Wisconsin did a really good job. Just there
35:54
Speaker 3: were some really cool details. And Wisconsin also had a
35:57
Speaker 3: hoodie that I already like. I screencapped one of the
35:59
Speaker 3: girls Instagram stories because they had like a hoodie with
36:04
Speaker 3: the baseball diamond on it, and I thought it was
36:06
Speaker 3: really cool. I was like, Ooh, I'm gonna have to
36:08
Speaker 3: ask about that when I get back. I just thought, Yeah,
36:12
Speaker 3: all the details were great. I just for both teams
36:16
Speaker 3: and all the pictures that came out afterwards. There were
36:19
Speaker 3: a couple of different photographers that have posted a bunch
36:21
Speaker 3: of their things from both ends, from both teams, from
36:24
Speaker 3: both sides, and yeah, just some really cool you know,
36:27
Speaker 3: it's always nice to see the hat the took on
36:30
Speaker 3: the goalie on top of the goalie mask and the EyeBlack,
36:34
Speaker 3: and you know, the Badgers some of them walked in
36:39
Speaker 3: their their varsity jackets which worked in that setting. And yeah,
36:43
Speaker 3: there were just so many cool little details. And you
36:46
Speaker 3: could tell the players from both women's teams who I
36:48
Speaker 3: follow several on social media just they're still posting stuff.
36:52
Speaker 3: It was a really cool experience for them, and they
36:55
Speaker 3: got to be on regular B ten and I hope
36:57
Speaker 3: you know, like it was so cool to have the
37:01
Speaker 3: number one number two t like the two best teams,
37:03
Speaker 3: the best that you can get in women's college hockey
37:06
Speaker 3: right now, being showcased in that situation and then going
37:09
Speaker 3: to an eight round shootout like it was it. If
37:13
Speaker 3: we could write it, that's how we'd want to write it.
37:14
Speaker 3: You don't want the six to oz games as being
37:17
Speaker 3: the one that's being highlighted in the middle of of
37:19
Speaker 3: you know, this frozen confine. Like it was just cool
37:22
Speaker 3: that it all worked out and everybody came out of
37:25
Speaker 3: it healthy and it was a really good game and
37:27
Speaker 3: a really good showcase for women's college hockey.
37:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I was there for both of the days
37:33
Speaker 2: of the the event. There's two men's games Saturday or Friday,
37:37
Speaker 2: and then the women's game Saturday and then another men's
37:40
Speaker 2: game on Saturday, and it was it was really well
37:43
Speaker 2: put on.
37:45
Speaker 1: They got what they wanted out their four really good games.
37:48
Speaker 1: I mean there were.
37:48
Speaker 2: Two that ended up three to three, one four to
37:52
Speaker 2: three that was one in the last minute, and then
37:55
Speaker 2: one four to three.
37:55
Speaker 1: That was one in overtime.
37:56
Speaker 2: So I mean that as far as competitive games and
37:59
Speaker 2: good TV and good watching, it was. It was all great.
38:02
Speaker 2: The setting was was awesome. It was it was chilly.
38:07
Speaker 2: Luckily I was able to be in the press box,
38:09
Speaker 2: which was warm. And I'm gonna ask because the press
38:13
Speaker 2: box there is uh kind of looks like it's being
38:16
Speaker 2: held up by wire at times a little bit. It
38:20
Speaker 2: had some renovation done in the last uh five years
38:24
Speaker 2: ago or whenever.
38:25
Speaker 1: They did a lot of work but.
38:29
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, luckily the windows did close, and if you're
38:33
Speaker 2: in the first row and next to the windows, it
38:35
Speaker 2: was it was cold. So luckily I was Yeah, yeah,
38:39
Speaker 2: I was not upset to be a little farther away
38:42
Speaker 2: from it, other than the fact that I do have
38:44
Speaker 2: to say that some of the numbers on the sweaters
38:47
Speaker 2: were really hard to read from that distance, and I
38:51
Speaker 2: knowed that. I know, I'm old and I have bad eyes,
38:53
Speaker 2: but black numbers on black sweaters with just you know,
38:58
Speaker 2: through the red stripe not helpful. Wisconsin's women's sweaters not
39:03
Speaker 2: helpful because of the the curve makes the two.
39:05
Speaker 1: Look like a seven. It was.
39:06
Speaker 2: There were a couple I was just like, no, I've
39:08
Speaker 2: got no idea who that was. But yeah, it was
39:14
Speaker 2: a cool event. So hopefully there'll be more of those
39:17
Speaker 2: kind of you know, spotlights for women's hockey, uh down
39:21
Speaker 2: down the road. And we know the Big Ten. You know,
39:23
Speaker 2: when you have Big Ten schools that are part of it,
39:26
Speaker 2: that's that's someone who can pull off something like that,
39:28
Speaker 2: So I know there'll I'm sure there will be another
39:31
Speaker 2: Frozen fenway down the road that we'll see some maybe
39:34
Speaker 2: some hockey schools involved into so pretty cool to get
39:38
Speaker 2: that experience.
39:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, one thing I wanted to mention also about.
39:44
Speaker 2: Last week's results. I know we're a little bit delayed
39:48
Speaker 2: this weekend. Like I mentioned before, we've we've had some
39:51
Speaker 2: time issues of trying to find um time here and
39:56
Speaker 2: looking back on the weekend, one of the things that
40:00
Speaker 2: stood out when I was looking back at results and
40:03
Speaker 2: I knew that Clarkson had lost twice. One of them
40:08
Speaker 2: was to Cornell, one of them was to Colgate, both
40:11
Speaker 2: of them at home. But I didn't know right away
40:14
Speaker 2: the damage that did in the pair wise because I
40:17
Speaker 2: didn't find them right away when I was looking through
40:20
Speaker 2: the pair wise. And it turns out Clarkson fell to fourteenth,
40:24
Speaker 2: which is a number that I did not expect.
40:28
Speaker 3: Because there's two other ranked teams.
40:30
Speaker 2: Like what were exactly, and you know, it's that's a
40:37
Speaker 2: that's a rough fall. And not not to say that
40:41
Speaker 2: you can't turn that around again because they're gonna be
40:43
Speaker 2: playing more ranked teams obviously as they're going through.
40:46
Speaker 1: An ECAC schedule.
40:49
Speaker 2: But now they've got their work cut out for them
40:51
Speaker 2: and there's not a lot more sliding that they can
40:55
Speaker 2: do through the second half of the season.
40:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you told me that they had drive
41:00
Speaker 3: so far, and I was really surprised. But then I
41:01
Speaker 3: also went and looked in Their strength of schedule is
41:03
Speaker 3: thirty second, and so I think that means that, you know,
41:06
Speaker 3: when you have a rinked game and you don't come
41:08
Speaker 3: out of it with any points, like that's that's how
41:10
Speaker 3: that calculation is going to really work against you. So
41:13
Speaker 3: Colgate's strength the schedule I think is thirty and so
41:17
Speaker 3: if the same thing happened to them, they would take
41:19
Speaker 3: a similar drop. But yeah, that's that is a rough
41:22
Speaker 3: hit for them. It's still early, we're still early January.
41:28
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's that's that's rough some of this.
41:34
Speaker 2: Clarkson fell the seventh in the uc h O dot
41:37
Speaker 2: com rankings at RPI and at Union this weekend, so
41:41
Speaker 2: a chance to get back going in a positive direction there.
41:44
Speaker 2: But I don't know how much you know, even if
41:45
Speaker 2: they win those games, how much that nets them in
41:48
Speaker 2: terms of results or pair wise kind of results.
41:52
Speaker 1: So I'll have to wait and see on that.
41:56
Speaker 2: Kind of spinning through some of the other results out
41:59
Speaker 2: of last weekend, Saint Lawrence with a win against Colgate
42:03
Speaker 2: three to two. We had a one to one tie
42:07
Speaker 2: between Yukon and BC.
42:09
Speaker 1: The U kind of won the extra point in a
42:11
Speaker 1: shootout there.
42:12
Speaker 2: And there was also a result that you were texting
42:16
Speaker 2: me about during the Saturday game when I was in Chicago.
42:23
Speaker 2: I think I don't know if it was I think
42:25
Speaker 2: it was for nothing when you when you texted me,
42:28
Speaker 2: because Penn State ended up with a six to two
42:31
Speaker 2: win at Minnesota, which I mean, you know, Penn Sate,
42:36
Speaker 2: you know, clearly a good team, but doing that at
42:39
Speaker 2: Minnesota is really an eye opener. Penn State led four
42:43
Speaker 2: nothing after the first period but on only six shots
42:46
Speaker 2: on goal.
42:46
Speaker 1: Was the real like WHOA wasn't necessarily expecting that kind
42:51
Speaker 1: of moment?
42:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I knew you were busy and in Chicago,
42:54
Speaker 3: and when I'm live hosting about the games, I'm pretty
42:58
Speaker 3: much constantly on Twitter and Blue Sky, and so I
43:02
Speaker 3: was seeing the updates happen and I was like, holy cow,
43:04
Speaker 3: I'm so surprised, Like I was sad that I couldn't,
43:07
Speaker 3: you know, put it on and see what was going on.
43:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was was an outcome I was not
43:12
Speaker 3: prepared for, like, not necessarily that Penn State could win there,
43:15
Speaker 3: but that it was you know, four holes on six
43:18
Speaker 3: shots in the first period. I mean, this was something
43:20
Speaker 3: Minnesota hosted called the East West Classic. It was Minnesota,
43:23
Speaker 3: Penn State, Brown and Bamidgee and in. You know, I
43:27
Speaker 3: think Minnesota hosts something like that. The expectation of walking
43:31
Speaker 3: away with winds and so yeah, that was definitely a
43:35
Speaker 3: statement for Penn State. And Penn State has been aggressive
43:39
Speaker 3: with their non conference schedule for several years now because
43:41
Speaker 3: they know that they you know, they usually sit on
43:44
Speaker 3: that edge, right on the outside looking in if they
43:47
Speaker 3: don't win their AUTOVID and so good for them for
43:50
Speaker 3: going out that. That had to give them a huge,
43:52
Speaker 3: huge bump as well.
43:54
Speaker 2: So yeah, Penn State started this weekend's play at tenth
43:58
Speaker 2: and pair wise. But you know that again, that's that's
44:01
Speaker 2: a position where you're going to be probably needing to
44:03
Speaker 2: win your the Atlantic Hockey America Championship, postseason championship anyway
44:09
Speaker 2: to get if you're around that number, because that's a
44:13
Speaker 2: that's right on the cusp of falling out, especially when
44:16
Speaker 2: you're talking about other teams from other conferences than getting in.
44:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, a lot, sure, a.
44:22
Speaker 2: Lot to play obviously, still before we're talking about what
44:25
Speaker 2: those numbers really mean, but definitely a better spot.
44:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, pen State, Well, pen State knows that they're not
44:33
Speaker 3: going to get strengthen to schedule within their own conference,
44:35
Speaker 3: right like they're usually the only team possibly someone might
44:39
Speaker 3: you know, sneak in into fourteen or fifteen, and so
44:42
Speaker 3: they go out and get those aggressive non conference games,
44:45
Speaker 3: and I just think it's it's a really smart move
44:47
Speaker 3: by Jeff Campersoll.
44:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, one thing that stood out to me.
44:50
Speaker 2: So every once in a while I try and do
44:52
Speaker 2: a bracketology kind of look at, you know, how things
44:56
Speaker 2: stand right now and what the tournament might look like
44:59
Speaker 2: if things would end this way. And I don't think
45:02
Speaker 2: there's any possible scenario where it's going to end up
45:07
Speaker 2: like this in March. But looking at it otherwise, as
45:11
Speaker 2: this weekend started, you had Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, Minnesotaduluth
45:15
Speaker 2: in the top four spots, So all four regionals would
45:19
Speaker 2: be at w c HA sites. The rest of the
45:23
Speaker 2: teams in the tournament would be from Eastern schools, and
45:25
Speaker 2: so this is that would shape up to be a
45:31
Speaker 2: let's just say the NCAA probably would love seeing that.
45:34
Speaker 2: From a financial standpoint.
45:37
Speaker 3: A very expensive tournament.
45:38
Speaker 2: For the very expensive tournament, is right, and you know,
45:41
Speaker 2: not necessarily getting a lot of fans traveling, probably for
45:45
Speaker 2: those from from the Roads teams, you know, parents obviously,
45:48
Speaker 2: but that I don't know that that would be great
45:52
Speaker 2: a great outcome, And I don't think it will be
45:54
Speaker 2: the outcome because you're talking about I don't think you're
45:59
Speaker 2: going to see some movement in that, especially in that
46:00
Speaker 2: middle area.
46:02
Speaker 1: Uh you know the.
46:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, not all of those teams can keep winning all
46:08
Speaker 2: of their games obviously because they weren't playing each other Wisconsin, Minnesota,
46:11
Speaker 2: House State and d Luth. So you're gonna see some
46:14
Speaker 2: movement there. You're going to see some movement among the
46:16
Speaker 2: ec A C schools. You know, b C and BU
46:18
Speaker 2: are going to be squaring off a couple of times,
46:21
Speaker 2: and yeah, there's a lot that's gonna happen there. But
46:24
Speaker 2: I just was looking at that and I was like, oh,
46:26
Speaker 2: that's uh, that could uh make for some some costly
46:31
Speaker 2: team travel when it gets to to March.
46:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, that gives me like a mental image of someone
46:36
Speaker 3: at the NCAA like ouigy board, magic a ball, Robin Sage,
46:42
Speaker 3: like whatever they can do. I mean, yeah, I'm obviously
46:45
Speaker 3: making jokes but yeah, that's that's a lot of travel costs,
46:49
Speaker 3: particularly you know, the ones that would host a prelim
46:54
Speaker 3: game and then you know, like a playing game and
46:56
Speaker 3: then the host team. So h yeah, they're definitely not
47:01
Speaker 3: hoping for that. I don't think it's not ideal.
47:05
Speaker 2: Yeap, just want to take a quick spin through a
47:06
Speaker 2: couple of the games between ranked teams that are happening
47:10
Speaker 2: this weekend. But by the time you're listening to us here,
47:13
Speaker 2: a lot of these games, series or games may have
47:16
Speaker 2: started or maybe done. So take that for what it is.
47:19
Speaker 2: But Cornell and Colgate are playing home and home. That's
47:24
Speaker 2: a Friday Saturday Princeton at Quinnipiac on Friday, a Friday
47:31
Speaker 2: Saturday series between Saint.
47:33
Speaker 1: Cloud and Minnesota Duluth and WHA.
47:36
Speaker 2: But then we did want to mention also Tuesday night
47:38
Speaker 2: is the start of the bean Pot, which the semi
47:41
Speaker 2: final night is being hosted by Northeastern this season, Number
47:45
Speaker 2: thirteen BU playing Harvard, Northeastern playing Number twelve BC in
47:50
Speaker 2: the semi finals, both of those games being on Nessen
47:53
Speaker 2: and then leading into Tuesday night, January twenty first, they're
47:57
Speaker 2: playing the third place game in the championship game at
48:00
Speaker 2: t Garden for the second straight season, which is a
48:02
Speaker 2: massive step for that tournament to be having that that
48:07
Speaker 2: platform and that facility available for them to play the
48:10
Speaker 2: championship night in. But beyond it just being for the
48:15
Speaker 2: bean Pot Championship, there's there's some pretty important games there
48:19
Speaker 2: for the in terms of pairwise, in terms of in
48:23
Speaker 2: Northeastern too, I mean Northeastern's eleventh in the pairwise, so
48:27
Speaker 2: they're not exactly out of things here either, So a
48:31
Speaker 2: lot of movement could happen there in terms of some
48:35
Speaker 2: of those results that take place.
48:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, last year was the first year they got to
48:40
Speaker 3: play at tea place and they got a massive crowd,
48:44
Speaker 3: and I really hope that that continues. I hope that
48:46
Speaker 3: wasn't you know, the excitement of the first time around.
48:49
Speaker 3: I saw, you know, some of the fellow journalists I
48:51
Speaker 3: follow they were doing they had a whole media day
48:54
Speaker 3: already and we're doing different video packages. So really awesome
48:58
Speaker 3: that Nessen and Hockey East to have teamed up on
49:00
Speaker 3: this and really have made it such a big deal,
49:02
Speaker 3: and that the the women's being Pot is getting the
49:06
Speaker 3: same attention, and you know, it's the word that I want,
49:11
Speaker 3: like the details, right, they're getting the media the whole
49:15
Speaker 3: package and not just sort of also rans alongside them then,
49:19
Speaker 3: so definitely people need to tune in. They should tune
49:22
Speaker 3: in anyway. But as you mentioned, these are going to
49:24
Speaker 3: be some pretty good matchups and there's a lot on
49:26
Speaker 3: the line. I mean, they're technically non conference games, but
49:30
Speaker 3: the pairwise does not care about that. So yeah, lots
49:34
Speaker 3: of This is the first time in several years I
49:37
Speaker 3: feel like that that so all like three of the
49:41
Speaker 3: four teams like these are these are massive games.
49:44
Speaker 1: Yep. All right, Well that's going to wrap it up
49:47
Speaker 1: for this week.
49:47
Speaker 2: Nicole, give a plug for where everyone can read your
49:50
Speaker 2: U eighteens coverage on Victory Press.
49:53
Speaker 3: Yes, the site is victorypress dot org. There's tons of
49:56
Speaker 3: stuff that is posted for free. We also have sense
49:59
Speaker 3: of description options and one of the things that you
50:01
Speaker 3: get as a paying member is videos from postgame mix Zone.
50:06
Speaker 3: So not just with it's cool to be able to see,
50:10
Speaker 3: you know what, what the US and Canadian players and
50:12
Speaker 3: coaches and singing are saying, but also some of the
50:14
Speaker 3: players from other countries as well.
50:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
50:17
Speaker 3: So Victory Press dot org. That's my website. That's where
50:20
Speaker 3: I'm posting stuff. I have been using Twitter because that's
50:24
Speaker 3: where I HF posts all of their stuff, so live
50:28
Speaker 3: tweeting all those games there. I will continue to do that,
50:32
Speaker 3: try to share some on Blue Sky as well.
50:34
Speaker 1: But huh, that's a pretty massive side before you said Twitter.
50:41
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I would very much love to divest of Twitter,
50:46
Speaker 3: but sports as a general rule is still very much
50:50
Speaker 3: on Twitter. So no teams really have moved over to
50:54
Speaker 3: any to Blue Sky or anything like that, so I
50:57
Speaker 3: would ideally not be there. But yeah, since this is
51:00
Speaker 3: my job, that's where we are.
51:01
Speaker 1: And so yeah, business is busy.
51:04
Speaker 3: Victorypress dot org is the answer to that. And then
51:06
Speaker 3: my Twitter handle is just my name at Nicole Hazy.
51:09
Speaker 3: The same thing on Blue Sky. Oh and if I've
51:12
Speaker 3: been posting a ton to Instagram, so not just in
51:17
Speaker 3: arena tournament stuff, but in and around hell Sinky as well.
51:20
Speaker 3: In my Twitter or I'm sorry, my Instagram is at
51:22
Speaker 3: Nicole Hasey fourteen. So yeah, And there's a highlight for
51:26
Speaker 3: Finland so you can watch old stories. So everything from
51:30
Speaker 3: being out today in the snow seeing some different light installations.
51:34
Speaker 3: There's a there's a pretty cool art night light installation.
51:38
Speaker 3: I went to a sea fortress. I've been doing all
51:40
Speaker 3: trying to put as much as I can out on Instagram.
51:42
Speaker 3: So if you want to see what I've been doing
51:43
Speaker 3: in Finland, as well as stuff from inside the arena,
51:47
Speaker 3: check out on Instagram.
51:49
Speaker 1: Sounds awesome. I'm jealous.
51:51
Speaker 2: I wish I could take in something like that one
51:53
Speaker 2: of these days, and maybe I will eventually, but but yeah,
51:56
Speaker 2: well we don't.
51:58
Speaker 3: We don't know yet where we're in Canada next year
52:00
Speaker 3: I have maybe it'll be somewhere or we can go.
52:04
Speaker 2: It's not gonna be quite like Finland though, or Sweden
52:06
Speaker 2: or Switzerland or any of these.
52:08
Speaker 3: No, I am lucky. Shout out to my husband first
52:12
Speaker 3: and foremost, and to the subscribers the Victory Press. I'm
52:16
Speaker 3: very lucky I get to do this awesome.
52:18
Speaker 2: Well, we thank you for joining us here. We will
52:20
Speaker 2: talk to you again next week on the podcast