NCAA Hockey Preview #1

The above picture has nothing to do with NCAA hockey but I felt I had to give the readers of this blog a photo of some trashy pelt to make up for WWWWWW’s poor lack of judgement. Snacks, you will not be able to spin this photo into anything that has to do with your fetish of boy and girl love, so be on your toes until WWWWWW post another disgusting pic later tonight. There is something about girls in camo and bullets that is strangely hot. Holy Hell will definitely be soiling some of his mom’s linens after this photo.

A quick recap from my experience at last weekends WCHA Final Five Championship Game. I would like to start by thanking The Bear for allowing be to attend Saturdays Championship game basically by myself. Last weekends snow storm confused the big fella and sent him back to his cave for a couple more weeks of hibernation. Thus leaving me to attend the game with some old wrinkled bastards who have gopher season tickets next to me. To make things even worse, I was surrounded by idiotic Nodak fans (more to come on them in a minute) and what I believe was a crazy father and son combination right next to me. The father in the pair was possibly the angriest man on the face of the earth. Yes Bear, even angrier than you. All I heard the entire game was this old mean bastard of a father telling his 40 something kid what a loser he was, how drinking is bad (nice advice old man) and if the "kid" questioned his hockey knowledge one more time he was going to "knock his f’ing teeth down his throat." At that point everyone in my section got a little nervous and you could cut the tension with a knife for the next five minutes. Luckily the Gophers scored their one and only goal minutes later so the entire section could explode and release said tension.

Now to the Nodak fans. Not to generalize, but they are all a bunch of F’ing losers. To the guys in front of me who thought they where a combination of Chris Rock, Richard Prior and Chris Farley, duct taping DU over the Sioux logo on jersey is not funny. In the future you don’t need to stand up for the majority of the game laughing and taking photo’s of each other. Your bit was as old as the guys I was at the game with. Here’s a question, Why would you ever openly cheer for another rival team/school (DU) when you don’t have money on the game? The more I am around these Nodak fans the more they puzzle me. I have never seen a group of people with a bigger inferiority complex than UND fans have to the U of Minnesota. Losers! Super Sioux fan I am not lumping you into this group. You are super funny, hot and real intelligent.....especially about hockey. How do you like that for a compliment girl!

The game finished 2-1 with the Gophers losing their 4th WCHA Final Five Championship game I have attended. Other than Jesus’s play in goal the game was rather boring. The highlight of the night came afterwards when Kangas won MVP of the tournament. I cried at this point. Like anyone was going to vote against him on Easter weekend. That is enough breakdown.

The real NCAA tournament start tomorrow night when the puck drops on the NCAA hockey tournament. WWWWW, your hockey readers want to thank you for also offering a NCAA hockey contest. I guess you where out of old things laying around your house. This would have also given you a chance to redeem yourself after your basketball bracket performance. Man where your picks bad!

Here are my predictions for the NCAA tournament. Friday night the East and West regional’s begin play.

East Regional (Albany, NY)-

#1 Michigan vs #4 Niagara- This game should be a cake walk. Michigan is really, really good and Niagara is average at best. 6-1 Michigan.

#2 St. Cloud State vs #3 Clarkson- St. Cloud State has never won an NCAA game and this is by far their best opportunity to do so. The one thing St. Cloud has to do is find a way to score even strength goals. A perfect example of this was last weekend vs the Gophers. St. Cloud went 1-7 on the power play and ended up getting beat 3-2. They rely much to heavily on the power play. I still think they are to much for Clarkson. St. Cloud gets the monkey of their back and wins 4-2.

East Regional Final Michigan vs St. Cloud. Michigan is just way to deep and a much better team than St. Cloud. I am guessing Motzko and Co. will try and slow the game down a bit and that is not St. Clouds strength. If they decide to skate with Michigan they will also get out played. Their only hope is their mouth breathing goalie stands on his head and there is a better chance of WWWWW winning the DWG basketball bracket than that happening. Michigan wins 4-1.

West Regional (Colorado Springs, CO.)

#1 New Hampshire vs #4 Notre Dame- This is actually a really pesky #1 vs #4 matchup. Notre Dame is a descent team that just hasn’t clicked all season. I wouldn’t be shocked if Notre Dame pulled the upset here. The only problem is Notre Dame sucks at all sports and has about as good of a tournament record as St. Cloud. New Hampshire has frosh James VanRiemsdyk who was the 2nd overall pick in last years NHL draft. James only had 31 points this year but is extremely fun to watch when he is on his game. New Hampshire wins 3-2.

#2 Colorado College vs #3 Michigan State- This is one of the two top games in the first round of the tournament. Michigan State is the reigning NCAA champion and CC is the WCHA regular season champion. If the game wasn’t being played in Colorado Springs I would take Michigan State going away because CC also sucks in March. Because of the games location I hesitantly select CC to win 3-2. I could also see Michigan State winning 3-2. The stars of this game will be the goalies.

#1 New Hampshire vs #2 CC- Once again CC sucks in March, New Hampshire wins 3-1. That is the kind of hard hitting breakdown readers come to DWG for.

Tomorrow I will break down the Northeast and Midwest brackets. I would do it now, but I am hungrier than WWWWW before a trip to Old Country Buffet.

WCHA Final Five

The WCHA final five begins tonight at the Xcel. Tonights play-in game features the Gophers vs St. Cloud State. The winner of tonights game moves on to Friday's semi-finals to play #1 seed Colorado College. The other semi-final will feature the University of we hate native americans vs the Denver Pioneers.

The Gophers head to the Final Five after possibly the longest 3 game series in the history of the WCHA. The Gophers lost 1-0 in double OT, won 2-1 in OT and won 3-2 in double OT to advance. There are three keys to tonights game for the Gophers. 1) Kangas, 2) score 3+ goals and 3) stay out of the penalty box. They follow my keys and I guarantee victory.

Next years Hoby Baker winner needs to continue playing like he did last weekend. That might be a bit much to ask, but I have never been one to shy away from asking for to much. Kangas either gets shutouts all weekend or I write him off faster than Frazee! Seriously, if the Gophers want any chance of advancing this weekend Kangas can not allow more than two goals a game. Sad, but true.

Next to the Play of Kangas goal scoring is the next biggest factor for the gophers. I know that sounds like the dip shit analyst who says "whoever scores more goals will most likely win the game", but the Gophers need to find a way to score 3 goals without playing 100 minutes of hockey. Last Sundays game was a perfect example of what I am talking about. The Gophers had numerous chances to score goals right in front of the net and instead of putting the puck in the corner of the net the forwards would rush shots and hit the Mavericks goalie in the chest. The Mavericks goalie (Zacharias) played well last weekend, but the Gophers made him look better than he is. Mouth breather Jase Weslosky is not the goalie Zacharias is, so 3 goals isn't like asking for the moon.

ATTENTION TO THE BEARS GUY PELTIER!!!! The 3rd key to tonights game for the Gophers is staying out of the penalty box. St. Cloud basically lives by it's power play. Their #1 unit of Roe, Lasch and Nodl is possibly the best power play unit in the country. As a team, St. Cloud leads the WCHA in PP efficiency at 21.9%. That means the Gophers can only take necessary penalties. Note to Peltier, we don't need any Cross Checking, Roughing, Boarding or whatever other dumb penalty you decide take 60 feet behind the play. Those are the penalties that will get the Gophers beat tonight. Maybe the gophers should just sit Peltier all weekend? Hey Bear, nice player!

Predictions for the weekend.

Play-in game MN 4 St. Cloud 2. The Gophers will be to tired to skate all over the rink which is a good thing for this team. They will sit back and play "system" hockey and rely on Kangas to make saves. How much does it suck that the Gophers have turned into the Wisconsin Badgers of college hockey? God I can't wait for some actual talent to get back in the program next year! Also, keep your eyes out for the Todd slinging his shit on the ice if the gophers happen to lose. I am on record as saying The Todd doesn't have the arm to get it over the glass.

Semi-final #1 Denver 3 UND 2. Upset of the weekend. UND has been playing to good for to long. The also looked very poor last weekend. On top of that, Denver will be looking forward to this game after the cheap crap UND pulled up in Grand Forks last month. Yet another banner slips through the fingers of Neanderthal Hakstol.

Semi-final #2 CC 3 MN 1. Gophers have nothing left and even if they did Colorado would still beat them. I still think CC is the class of the WCHA.

3rd Place Game. Who really cares other than the Sioux fans who will still act like winning this game is a big deal, f'ing losers!

Championship- CC 5 Denver 2. Denver can't skate with CC. CC locks up a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Tom Pohl update from the University of Minnesota. Gophers Pohl in Intensive Care Following Surgery at Rochester Hospital. University of Minnesota senior Tom Pohl is in intensive care following surgery resulting from an injury suffered in the Golden Gophers double overtime victory over Minnesota State on Sunday in Mankato . Pohl sustained a skull fracture when his head hit the boards in front of the teams bench at 6:09 of the second period. The injury resulted in bleeding on the brain and Pohl was airlifted to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester . Successful surgery was performed to stop the bleeding and stabilize the fracture. Pohl remains at the hospital for further observation.We are very fortunate that he has tremendous medical care, said Minnesota coach Don Lucia, who is in Rochester with Pohl and his family. Were looking forward to him returning to school at one hundred percent and our thoughts and prayers remain with Tom and the Pohl family.

Here is a link to the Gophers incoming recruits. Things are really looking up talent wise. Only two questions marks coming in over the next two years, Brandon Martell and Josh Birkholz. Martell just isn't that good and Birkolz comes off as a whiny kid who pouts when things aren't going his way....f'ing cake eater! http://gopherpuck.blogspot.com/2007/01/committed-gopher-recruits.html

Kyle Okposo played in his first NHL game Tuesday night for the New York Islanders. The Black Ginger played 14 minutes and registered two shots on net. It looks like two months of Minor league hockey got his development back on track. Good thing he got out while the getting was good.

Lastly, even though the smartest man in Grand Forks is on record as saying the Gophers won't make the NCAA tournament they are a lock. The worst team to make the NCAA tournament in Gophers history....without a doubt, but I will still take a game or two in the NCAA after the season this team has had.

Lastly, Lastly....WWWWWW, nice NCAA picks! I thought you where suppose to be the hoops guy on this blog? The Sports Guy knows more about college hoops!