Some say it is the greatest rivalry in college hockey but calling it the greatest doesn't do it justice.
That was entertaining. Gophs certainly controlled most of the game but UND was never behind. These teams rarely disappoint when they get together.
Looking at the Big Picture I think tonights game was better for both teams, UND carried the play tonight but the Gophs showed a lot of grit which is something they haven't really been known for in the past....they blocked 25 shots tonight as UND had 80 shot attempts tonight to Minnesota's 38. If both teams play at tonight's level they should both be a factor come March.....Duluth looks just plain nasty right now, they just come in waves and they get Avery Peterson at semester break. I was impressed with the Gopher D Men.....a lot more responsible in their own end than previous groups. Really impressed with Ryan Collins this weekend as he was hardly noticed out there which is a good thing for a D Man. I like the freshmen Lindgren too.....although if he played for UND everyone would call him a goon or a hack.
It's funny that Minnesota controlled more of the action on Friday but never led en route to a tie. UND controlled more on Saturday but Scheierhorn stopped anything the Gopher D couldn't and the Gophers won 2-0.
Minnesota gave up 4 goals in the third period on Friday to choke away a 2 goal lead vs. Northeastern. Fortunately we rebounded to win at BC on Sunday and salvage the weekend. Nice work this past weekend Sparty.
I feel like Minnesota has been off for a month (because ignore Holiday tournaments with horrible opponents).
True. D1 & D3 and some schools (Colorado College for instance) that are D3 for everything else play D1 hockey. The NCAA changed the rules a few years ago so you can't go just D1 for hockey but if you already had D1 hockey you are grandfathered in.
Some play D1 (Mankato, St. Cloud State, UMD, etc). I'm not sure if the rest don't have a team or if some are allowed to play down to D3.
Went to the WMU v Denver game last night, pretty unimpressive from both teams honestly but it was nice to see the Broncos bring home the W.
Just got back from Grand Forks and watched UND salvage a split with Miami after blowing a 3-1 lead in the third Friday night for the first time in 82 games.
Myself and the defending champs are hanging in there. Been wildly inconsistent this year but unlike last year where you had 3 teams with a shot to win it, this is looking to be another year where it won't be a surprise if the 13th or 14th team in(last team in when you consider the autobids) will have a shot to pull a Yale or a Providence and win it all. It is exciting for college hockey to see Penn St. doing so well this early in their D1 history! Hopefully it encourages a few others to make the jump. Nice to see Smirnov doing well....fun player to watch for the Fargo Force. If the season ended today, here is how the Regionals would look. East(in Providence, hosted by Brown) BU vs. Ohio St. Mass-Lowell vs. Cornell Northeast(Manchester, hosted by UNH) Penn St. vs. Bemidji St. Minnesota vs. Western Michigan Midwest(Cincinnati, hosted by Miami) Minnesota-Duluth vs. Boston College Union vs. Vermont West(Fargo, hosted by UND) Denver vs. Air Force UND vs. Harvard *If teams are currently tied in conference, I used the lower ranked team as conference champion for the autobid. It is possible that the committee would swap the MN/WMU game with the Union/Vermont game for attendance reasons. St. Lawrence and Omaha are the hard luck teams right now as they are bumped by the lower ranked autobids for Air Force and Bemidji. The next 5 teams on the bubble are SCSU, Notre Dame, Providence, Robert Morris, and Miami. Lots a hockey to be played and will be some moving around but history says that 11 of these teams will be in the tournament.
UND goes for the split tonight against UMD. We were badly outplayed last night and are missing Jost and Janatwainan tonight which won't help against a team we are out talented by at forward. Heading to the Ralph shortly. Sad thing is, Johnson gave up 2 terrible goals last night to turn a game where we were being outplayed but ties at 1 to a game where we were being outplayed and now down 3-1....Had a little momentum in the 3rd and the crowd was amped and then Wolanin took a stupid 5 minute major and killed that.
2 wins on the road vs #1 and got to listen to the Penn State commentators cry about the refs the whole 3rd period tonight
UND played so-so tonight, had their moments but couldn't finish.....and that is not going to get it done against Duluth who is the better team this year.
Yeah. A team that can roll out Tufte and Avery Peterson on their 3rd line is going to be a tough out.
To any UMD fans here, can you tell me how well Riley Tufte has been playing recently? I've seen how he's started scoring lately, but I wanted to know about anything the scoresheet isn't telling me.
I've only been able to catch about 5-6 games this year, but Tufte looks considerably more comfortable with the college game than he did earlier in the year. He came straight out of HS versus spending a year or two in the USHL. Peterson centering him now definitely is not hurting either.
Nice last minute win to complete the daily butt fucking of Michigan. Penn State seems to have fallen off a cliff while Minnesota is rolling.
It is only the midpoint of the conference schedule but as far as B1G Hockey is concerned, these next few weekends will go a long way toward determining who is contending for the league title. Minnesota & Wisconsin are currently tied with an 8 point lead over PSU. If PSU is going to climb back in to the race, they have their chances with a road trip to Wisconsin and home stand against Minnesota the next two weeks. The following week, Wisconsin goes to Minnesota. It will be interesting if it is a 2-way or 3-way race at that point.