Taking Away the Luck of the Irish

Gophersports.com

After a week to relax and recoup, and probably party a bit, the Gopher Hockey Team will play its toughest road series of the season this weekend when they visit the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame for a two game series.  The Irish were ranked #2 in the country going into their first ever series in Hockey East at Vermont last weekend, and Gopher fans were hoping the Irish would play well enough to set up a #1 vs #2 match-up in South Bend this weekend.  Unfortunately, Vermont had other ideas, and spoiled the match-up beating Notre Dame 2-1 on Friday night, and taking the Irish to the brink Saturday night before Sophomore Wing Sam Herr scored two goals in 1:02 of the third period to send the Irish home with a 3-2 win and a series split.  The Irish dropped a few spots in this week's polls to #3 in the USA Today poll, and #4 in the USCHO poll.


The Gophers of course are the #1 ranked team in the country in both polls, and are one of only two undefeated teams left in the NCAA, the other being St. Cloud State.  The Gophers and Irish played one game last season, on a Tuesday night in January.  The Irish football team had lost the National Championship game to Alabama the night before, and the Gopher fans reminded the Irish of this fact multiple times during the game with Alabama-clap-clap-clapclapclap chants echoing from the student section.  The Gophers would come out hot against the Irish when Nate Condon scored on the first Gopher shot of the game.  Sam Warning would add another in the first period before the Irish scored their only goal of the game to cut the Gopher lead to 2-1 after one period.  Christian Isackson scored in the second, and Zach Budish added an empty-netter in the third to cap off the 4-1 Minnesota victory, and cement their ranking as the #1 team in the country. The Gophers are 23-13-3 all-time against Notre Dame, and 5-4-1 all-time in South Bend.

The Irish have several potent playmakers on their team, and are lead by their Senior Goalie, Stephen Summerhayes.  He is 6-1 on the season thus far and has a goals against average of a minute 1.49.  The Gophers potent scoring machine will need to be hot this weekend, as the most goals the Irish have allowed in a game this season is 3. 

As for the scorers, Notre Dame has plenty of them as well.  Their most feared sniper is Senior center TJ Tynan.  He is tied for the team lead with 8 points so far this season and was the team's offensive player of the year in 2012.  Sophomore left wing Sam Herr leads the team with five goals on the season.

However, probably the most well known Notre Dame player would be Sophomore winger Mario Lucia.  The son of Gopher coach Don Lucia, and Minnesota Wild draft pick, is off to a bit of a slow start this season with only three points in eight games.  However, you can be sure that he will pick his game up against his dad's team.

This game will also be interesting for people interested in the future of these squads.  Notre Dame has several high profile recruits from Minnesota, and specifically Edina coming in the next few seasons.  Dylan Malmquist and Connor Hurley are the two most notable names.  Many Gopher fans were hoping that the two of them would become Gophers, but instead they followed former Hornet and Irish player Anders Lee to Notre Dame.  Hurley is expected to be a freshman next season, while Malmquist will be a freshman in 2015-16.  

The games will be a bit of a challenge to find on tv and radio this weekend.  Friday night's game will face-off at 7:00 PM Central, and will be broadcast on the NBCSports Network.  The Radio broadcast will be on 107.1 FM instead of the usual 1500 AM due to Gopher Basketball.  On Saturday, the game will face-off at 6:00 PM Central, and is not on TV.  The game will be live streamed on NBCSports.com, as will Friday night's tilt.  The radio will be back on 1500 AM for Saturday's game. 

What they are saying on the Twitters:

Notre Dame is the reason for all the problems in college hockey @Cbeck34 @BPoli19 #confirmed
— Alex Quirk (@aquirko) November 5, 2013

I'd like to think its North Dakota...but to each their own

Already looking forward to watching the Minnesota v. Notre Dame hockey game this weekend 😈
— murray (@knmurray24) November 4, 2013

Yes, I am as well but probably not for the same reason

And for the ladies of "Our Lady"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nazi U comes to Minnesota

Sorry about the photo, but it was the best photo I could find of "hot" co-eds from UND. The one in the Sioux green isn't that bad I guess? Bogart...would you?

Thats right, the University of North Dakota and their traveling band of racists visit the the University of Minnesota for a weekend series in the WCHA. Both games are at 7 PM this weekend.

If you read the paper and look at the college hockey polls you will be led to believe the North Dakota is coming into this series red hot. They have recently been ranked #3 in the country which is comical seen as how they are the 3rd best team in the WCHA. UND is also riding a 7 game win streak, which is impressive, but those 7 wins have come against the 3 teams tied for 7th place in the WCHA and the last place team in the WCHA. Like I said, a seven game win streak is always impressive, but beating up on a bunch of cupcakes rockets your team to a #3 ranking in the country??? WWWWWWWWWWW, this would be similar to the Gophers football team being ranked #3 in the counrty after the first four games each year during the Mason era.

The Sioux's top line is always a concern. The Gophers must keep them off the scoreboard like they did a few weeks ago in Grand Forks. If North Dakota has to rely on their #2 and #3 lines the gophers will keep the games close and have a shot to steal a game or two. As always TJ Oshie will be hot!

North Dakota's defense has stepped up its play in the past couple of weeks and that has been the biggest reason for their 7 game win streak. The Sioux have only surrendered more than 1 goal once in their past 6 games. No matter how pathetic the competition, that is an impressive streak. Hopefully the Gophers can open up a lead each game and make the Sioux open up their play a bit more. If the Sioux can sit back the Gophers will only muster their normal 1-2 goals per game.

As stated above, the biggest concern for the gophers this weekend will be generating goals. The gophers actually looked dominate last saturday vs Wisconsin but could only muster two goals and had to settle for a tie in a game they should have won going away. The Gophers must find a way to score 3 to 4 goals minimum in both games if they want to have any chance at gaining points this weekend. As usual, North Dakota leads the WCHA in penalty minutes, but Gophers PP is so pathetic this season that they most likely won't take advantage of it.

Lucia did reunite several lines last weekend and it seemed to spark the level of play (still didn't lead to more goals though). Barriball is back on the top line with Wheeler and Gordon. Carman, Flynn and Lucia are on the 2nd line and Howe, Hueffel and White have been reunited on the 3rd line. The Howe line totally dominated the Sioux back in December. Much of the same will be needed this weekend for the gophers win as the lower lines will most likely determine how(e) this weekend goes.

As much as it pains me to say this, I see a tie and a loss for the Gophers this weekend. Friday night 3-3 tie and Saturday 5-2 loss. Either way the Sioux will leave Minnesota as a bunch of Criminal Racists and still suck.

**Dawg will be writing up a review of Fridays game as he will be taking the game in live from Mariucci. Look for that early next week. Dawg, will you be wearing a #95 gophers jersey?**

Arf-Arf-Arf! Gophers vs Dawgs Preview

The Gophers travel to the twin ports this weekend to take on the UMD Bulldogs. Just like when the Gophers travel to UND, this is like the Superbowl, World Series and Olympics all rolled into one for the people of Duluth. This always makes for a good an environment but always leaves me wondering why someone would get excited about beating a 7th place team. That would be like someone getting excited for beating Northwestern and Penn State in basketball right?

I am not going to put much effort into breaking down what the Gophers need to do this weekend because I am tired of writing the same shite and trying to put a new twist on it. They also gutted me last Saturday so I refuse to give my best effort. So here you go. Score a couple power play goals, don’t give up goals from the blue and red lines, don’t wet yourself when you have a lead in the 3rd period and play physical for three periods. Hopefully that covers it for you.

One positive going into this weekend is Jeff Frazee has finally been told to "F off" by Lucia, at least I hope so. If you missed last Saturdays game here is a recap of Jeff’s one period of work. Frazee gave up a first period goal from between the blue and red lines. Drinky then followed that up by getting beat from the far blue line as the horn sounded to end the 1st period. Luckily two SCSU players where busy enjoying the song "Cotton Eyed Joe" as it was being blared into the arena for the tenth time that period and forgot they where offsides. Lucia gave Frazee a death stare and promptly yanked him from the game. This should mean we will finally see Kangas for the majority of the games down the stretch. "Jeff, you suck, drink to much for a 20 year old kid and I want you to leave....now!" If Lucia would have listened to me months ago we wouldn’t be having these problems every weekend. God I should have his job.

UMD is currently sitting in 4th place in the WCHA. That sounds good, but they suck and have played 2 more games then all of the showers of shit that are behind them in the standings. UMD has been a fairly good team at home this year with a 6-1-4 record, this is not a good sign for the Gophers who have struggled over the years at the DECC. Also, if Brandt Nicklin is reading this blog, I still hate you and think you are a complete douche bag.

The Bulldogs rank near the middle of the pack in most key conference statistics, including scoring offense (5th) and defense (5th). Their key players are????? Well they really don’t have any key players, just a bunch of solid guys who work hard. Alex Stalock can be dominant in the net for UMD and has improved from his freshman season. Stalock currently has a .909 save percentage and a 2.43 GAA. Stalock can be very fun to watch and has a little flair to his game. He can also have a bit of Frazee to his game so lets hope we see the latter this weekend.

My prediction is a split this weekend, because neither team is really that good. UMD wins on Friday night 3-2 and the Gophers rebound 4-2 on Saturday.

On a positive note, the Gophers received a commitment this week from Zach Budish (Edina). Zach had narrowed his list of schools down to UND and MN. Obviously this shows Zach has taste and is not a racist. Below is a description of Budish I stole and plagiarized from another blog.

The Gophers landed a big recruit yesterday. 6'2, 210 lbs. Edina forward Zach Budish has given a verbal commitment to play for the Gopher hockey program. Budish is well known as being one of the top players of his age group in Minnesota and his recruitment has been a much discussed situation on the message boards during this past year. The final battle for Budish came down to the Gophers and UND. He had visited both schools in November and had been mulling over the decision ever since.

Budish is a physical forward with soft hands and good play making ability. His skating is above average for a player his size but I would imagine that improving that aspect of his game will be a main focus for future improvement. He is strong on his skates and works well in the corners and around the net. But his biggest asset could be the intangibles he brings to the table. He is very much known as a leader and I have heard more than a few of his peers speak highly of him in regard to his effort and leadership. He is a kid who could very well wear the "C" for the Gophers someday.

On a national scale, Budish performed well at the Selects during the past two summers and was been chosen to be a part of the USA Selects team that would play in an international tourney in the late summer (Three Nations tourney in Rochester, NY in 2006 and the Five Nations tourney in the Czech Republic this past summer). He was one of (roughly) 45 of the best 1991 birth year players invited to try out for the USA National Development Program in Ann Arbor this past spring but he was not extended an invite when all was said and done (only former Chaska HS defenseman Nick Mattson made the team out of the MN kids invited to the tryout).

Congrats to Coach Lucia and the staff on landing another important recruit during a rather frustrating season. Welcome aboard Zach!

* An interesting side note for those who aren't aware of it, Zach's father (Kim) played football at the University of Minnesota back in the 1970s. (According to the records I see via Gophersports, he was in the football program in 1972 and 1973). So Zach is following in his dad's footsteps to some degree. Fortunately, I think Zach's college team will be far more successful than any of the Gopher football teams since the 70s!

Lastly, Congratulations are in order for UND. UND finally swept a home series last weekend breaking a streak that lasted 15 months! Also, congratulations to Snacks on his wedding this weekend.WWWWW, will you be blogging live from the wedding?

Special thanks to Gopherpuck.blogspot.com for writing my Budish comments.

Garth Snow = Douche Bag

Below are a few of the comments Garth Snow had to say about Don Lucia, The Gophers Hockey Program and Kyle Okposo. All of the comments where taken from an article in todays Star Tribune.

New York Islanders General Manager Garth Snow on Thursday criticized Don Lucia's coaching, saying that was the reason sophomore Kyle Okposo is leaving the Gophers hockey program and negotiating a contract with the Islanders.
"Quite frankly, we weren't happy with the program there," Snow said in a telephone interview. "They have a responsibility to coach, to make Kyle a better player, and they were not doing that."

Asked for specifics, Snow said, "[Okposo] just wasn't getting better -- bottom line. And to me, that's the frustrating part. We entrusted the coach there to turn him into a better hockey player, and it wasn't happening. We feel more comfortable in him developing right under our watch."

Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi, when told of Snow's comments, was dumbfounded.
"He must feel that somebody's angry," Maturi said. "And I can understand why; you took a kid from a team in the midst of the year and he's probably trying to justify it. And that's his right.
"It's my understanding they now have a roster spot for [Okposo] and therefore our coaching is bad. It doesn't make any sense to me."

Still, Snow didn't feel the Gophers were a right fit for Okposo.
"It's well-known in hockey circles that the situation for college players is to develop and get better," Snow said. "And quite frankly, it's a big responsibility for a college coach -- a program -- to handle these kids."Whether it was Kyle or another player, until things change in that program we'd probably make the same decision. There should be a coach there that looks in the mirror."

He was asked if he thought it was OK for a player to leave midway through a college season.
"I don't think we'd be at this point if he was being coached properly," Snow said.

Snow then responded "he'll get better coaching" when asked what Okposo would get in the Islanders system.

Basically my thoughts on all of this are as follows. Garth Snow is a classless idiot. What is actually taking place is the NHL and Islanders are taking a ton of heat for plucking Okposo off his team in the middle of the season. Garth Snow is now trying to justify that move by blaming it on Lucia. How is Okposo going to receive better coaching from the coaches in New York. Name the last player that New York developed into a star??? Thats right, you can't.

Although I sometimes question Lucia you can't argue what he has done as a college coach. 2 national champions, 1 runner-up, 500+ coaching victories, 4 or 5 WCHA titles and countless all-americans. Most of those numbers where also accomplished at Colorado College and Alaska Fairbanks. Both of those programs where Ruddy Ducks (bottom feeders) before he arrived on campus. All of that sounds like a guy who can't coach. To put this in terms so WWWWWW can understand it, this is like calling Mike Krzyzewski a bad coach because Duke players aren't good pro's. Lucia is a hell of a college hockey coach and deserves better then being called out by a GM who runs a team with all the money in the world into last place.

Since when is a college hockey coaches priority to develop players for the NHL??? I thought his job was to win college games and titles??? D. Blais was 100% wrong in his previous post. A player has to be able to defend if he is going to play in todays NHL. Your arguement about Vanek was also way off. Vaneks defending was over exagerated by Sioux fans with inferiority complexes. Saying Vanek didn't defend was the only way they could justify Parise was as good of a player. Vanek is also on record as saying the hardest thing he had to learn in the NHL is playing both ends of the ice. Once he started playing with passion at both ends of the ice he lead the NHL in +/-. Okposo better not complain about having to play a defensive style because he will be skating 3rd line at best over the next couple of seasons.

Basically I think the islanders forced Okposo's hand. There are rumors floating around that they told him either leave now or don't plan oncoming for a couple years. We most likely will never now what really happened, but either way this whole things stinks like a grand forks sugar beet factory. Either way Garth Snow is a classless twat who's opinion matters as much as mine. Here's hoping Snow chokes on his christmas goose. F'ing twat!