College Hockey Thread

[sachmoney]

We split a two game series at Yost this weekend against ND. We really lack a strong in front of the net presence and we don't crash well. We won today because we scored three of the freakiest goals I've ever witnessed. When I get a video of them, I will pass that along to you guys.

I also noticed that BU is #1. I don't pay any attention to hockey east, but I was wondering if anyone had any impressions on that team. Yeah they're number one, but are they any good? Can they make a run in the tourney?

 

[sachmoney]

The aforementioned highlights.

 

[Hendu's Gait]

We split a two game series at Yost this weekend against ND. We really lack a strong in front of the net presence and we don't crash well. We won today because we scored three of the freakiest goals I've ever witnessed. When I get a video of them, I will pass that along to you guys.

I also noticed that BU is #1. I don't pay any attention to hockey east, but I was wondering if anyone had any impressions on that team. Yeah they're number one, but are they any good? Can they make a run in the tourney?

I only saw the 3rd Period and OT, and some of the 2nd, v. Maine last Saturday, and they didn't look like a #1 team. They are undefeated, but are coming off home-and-home ties to Merrimack (not a good thing). They've a lost a LOT of talent the last 2 years, are young, and seem to be missing the quick, pro, hands of teams in the past. However, they skate well and keep possession well. Maine looked more polished. But very SSS. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do at Agganis against BC and New Hampshire and in the Terrier Invitational at TD in February.

 

[sachmoney]

We thumped Lake Superior State, which is more well known for its top ranked programs in Fisheries and Wildlife Management and Fire Science than it is for its hockey, last night. Great spread of goals, Hagelin, Lynch, Merrill, Scooter all scored. Hunwick started poorly, but was solid for the last two periods. We scored 4 in the first. They pulled their goalie. We continued to score goals. The vuvuzela was in full force last night. It will be again tonight.

It's Teddy Bear toss night. Bring your Teddies to Yost and help out some kids. Go Blue!

 

[Fred not Lynn]

We thumped Lake Superior State, which is more well known for its top ranked programs in Fisheries and Wildlife Management and Fire Science than it is for its hockey, last night. Great spread of goals, Hagelin, Lynch, Merrill, Scooter all scored. Hunwick started poorly, but was solid for the last two periods. We scored 4 in the first. They pulled their goalie. We continued to score goals. The vuvuzela was in full force last night. It will be again tonight.

It's Teddy Bear toss night. Bring your Teddies to Yost and help out some kids. Go Blue!

Lake Superior State actually won an NCCA Championship a while back. I'm pretty sure ice hockey is the only sport they're actually any good at all in. They brought a better game tonight, though. Yost IS a fun place to see a game.

Michigan's next home game should be even more exciting. 109,901 tickets sold. What, can't find room for 99 more to break the 110k mark?

 

[jsinger121]

Lake Superior State actually won an NCCA Championship a while back. I'm pretty sure ice hockey is the only sport they're actually any good at all in. They brought a better game tonight, though. Yost IS a fun place to see a game.

Michigan's next home game should be even more exciting. 109,901 tickets sold. What, can't find room for 99 more to break the 110k mark?

They won 3 titles. 1988, 1992, 1994. They also made the Frozen Four in 1993 but lost to Maine in the championship game 5-4. You may remember Blaine Lacher was the goalie on Lake Superior State back then.

 

[jsinger121]

Nice weekend for Quinnipiac as they sweep the weekend with wins over Dartmouth and Harvard. So far a 7-4-1 start to open the season.

 

[sachmoney]

Lake Superior State actually won an NCCA Championship a while back. I'm pretty sure ice hockey is the only sport they're actually any good at all in. They brought a better game tonight, though. Yost IS a fun place to see a game.

Michigan's next home game should be even more exciting. 109,901 tickets sold. What, can't find room for 99 more to break the 110k mark?

When you've got 9 championships, every other program seems....
/complete and total arrogance

Yeah, I was just pointing out the ridiculousness of those majors. They're still a CCHA school, which in my mind means they should have some pretty good hockey players. However, besides Schofield and a few others, I was not overly impressed by the Lakers. They seemed to have a lot of big guys who cannot skate very well. Trotman, who we rode the entire game, was a traffic cone. Mahoney-Wilson, one of their goalies, actually went to Catholic Memorial, but he started both games as the back up sieve (he came in for two periods on Friday after Kapalka gave up 4 in the first).

The star of the weekend was certainly Kevin Lynch. Friday was a complete team effort, so I can't really say that anyone in particular stood out. Last night, Lynch scored two of the goals (Burlon sniped the other) and doubled his total goals from 3 to 6 over the weekend.

I'm still waiting for Carl Hagelin and Louie Caporusso to really get in the groove. Hagelin has to be one of the best skaters in college hockey and it seems with the responsibility of the captaincy, he is taking a more assertive role all over the ice (he's been more physical than he last year). He's been playing primarily with Matt Rust (probably the most overlooked player on the team) and Lynch. I believe they played with Chris Brown instead of Lynch for most of last year. Caporusso was a huge reason why we made it to NCAAs last year and won the CCHA. Obviously, Hunwick's emergence energized the team, but Louie was absolutely on fire for the second half last season. Every time Michigan needed an important goal, it seemed he would step up. He's not having a bad start, but I definitely could see him doing more. Both these players were in the Hobey Baker conversation at the beginning of the season, although Carter Camper might be running away with that right now.

I have high hopes for this team. I think they've got great depth, and any line can do some damage. It says something when your three top scorers (Hagelin, Wohlberg, Vaughan) heading into the weekend (goal scorers I mean) are all on different lines. The defenders are contributing too. I've been very impressed with what I've seen from Freshmen, Jon Merrill. He has started since the beginning of the season and we needed someone to step up after Chris Summers and Steve Kampfer graduated. You have a strong senior class led by Hagelin, Caporusso, Rust, Langlais, Hunwick, and Hogan. You also have an emerging sophomore class with Lynch, Brown, AJ Treais, and Lee Moffie. It should be a very good season.

Before the Big Chill, we still have trips to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. Should be interesting. I'm not going to have anything to do on my Friday and Saturday evenings.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Before the Big Chill, we still have trips to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. Should be interesting. I'm not going to have anything to do on my Friday and Saturday evenings.

Well, December 4 you can get a Big Chill preview and be part of what's hoped to be a record attendance for Div 3 game between Adrian College and Concordia. There's also a full schedlue of something like 25 High School games on the Big Chill rink, and some youth games -- or as they've been named by the participants families on a t-shirt seen at Yost on Friday "The Little Chill at the Big House".

I did notice that basketball doesn't play in AA again until Dec 4 either, and that volleyball's last game of the season was yasterday too.

Actually, being in Ann Arbor (and I'm sure any other major school that proioritizes athletics) is sort of like being at the Olympics - you just have to look at master schedule, and decide which sports to go watch that day.

 

[JShams]

Nice weekend for Quinnipiac as they sweep the weekend with wins over Dartmouth and Harvard. So far a 7-4-1 start to open the season.

Shutting out Dartmouth is the much more impressive of those two results. Harvard is the only team I see that is a lock for a road playoff series this year. They invested way too heavily in the Biega family, who have all been/were varying degrees of busts, and their one big-time recruit who did pan out (LeBlanc) bolted after one year. As a Brown fan this year's Harvard team reminds me of half the Brown teams from the last twelve years where you look at the roster and wonder "who the f*ck is going to score on this team?" and "This is our #1 power play line?". Richter's going to need to be awesome for them to have a chance and they're going to have to grind out a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 wins to do anything in this league.

Even Clarkson looks to have improved from last year's dismal effort, but they're not the top of the league caliber team they have been in the past.

 

[jsinger121]

Quinnipiac falls 3-0 to Princeton tonight in front of basically no crowd thanks to the holiday break.

 

[sachmoney]

Tied Wisco for the College Hockey Showcase last night, face Minnesota tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm trying to do my best to get people ready for the Big Chill. I would venture to guess that may be 5,000 students tops have been to a hockey game, and that's about a fifth of the undergraduate student body. I want to make sure that people are prepared for the game and that they know all the chants. It's not a football game. I want to bring out some of the Yost flare to the Big Chill. May be part of this is because I have a big chip on my shoulder always having to convince people that hockey games are the best.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

In the meantime, I'm trying to do my best to get people ready for the Big Chill. I would venture to guess that may be 5,000 students tops have been to a hockey game, and that's about a fifth of the undergraduate student body. I want to make sure that people are prepared for the game and that they know all the chants. It's not a football game. I want to bring out some of the Yost flare to the Big Chill. May be part of this is because I have a big chip on my shoulder always having to convince people that hockey games are the best.

Great to hear that the important preparations are underway -- and the game isn't for two more weeks.

 

[TFP]

Great to hear that the important preparations are underway -- and the game isn't for two more weeks.

Hey, sach is doing yeoman's work here while you're just kicking up your feet and relaxing. Sheesh, the nerve.

 

[sachmoney]

Michigan drops one tonight to Minnesota 3-1. I think the Olympic sized ice was a problem tonight. It seemed beneficial in the offensive zone because of our skill players, but it really hurt in terms of the neutral zone and defensive zone. Seemed like they got tired at times on shifts and didn't have that extra burst to finish shifts. It's a tough loss.

OSU Friday night. It'll also be on the Big Ten Network.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Michigan drops one tonight to Minnesota 3-1. I think the Olympic sized ice was a problem tonight. It seemed beneficial in the offensive zone because of our skill players, but it really hurt in terms of the neutral zone and defensive zone. Seemed like they got tired at times on shifts and didn't have that extra burst to finish shifts. It's a tough loss.

Hope they don't mind Olympic size too much - that's what they'll be on in the Big House.

 

[Rasputin]

Apparently there's something called a CBS College Sports channel which, if you have DirecTV is channel 613.

And they are showing BC/BU Friday and Saturday nights.

 

[Hendu's Gait]

Apparently there's something called a CBS College Sports channel which, if you have DirecTV is channel 613.

And they are showing BC/BU Friday and Saturday nights.

Yep, watched it all the time for SEC college football games, live and reruns

856 on Comcast

 

[Rasputin]

I picked the wrong time to take a leak.

 

[Senator Donut]

Not one but two hockey games on in HD tonight! BC at BU on CBSC and UM at tOSU on BTN. Unfortunately, Comcast screwed up and I can't watch Notre Dame at Miami.

Damn, Boston College looks unstoppable so far. Shades of the first few weeks of the season.

 

[Rasputin]

It's a traveshamockery is what it is. 4-0 three minutes into the second.

 

[sachmoney]

Michigan grabs defeat from the jaws of victory. They let OSU tie it with 10.4 seconds left. Then, after Rust tries to do much turning it over in the offensive zone, OSU buries one past Hunwick to give OSU the dramatic overtime win.

 

[Senator Donut]

Notre Dame comes back from 2-0 and 3-1 to defeat #6 Miami and also takes sole possession of first place in the CCHA.

 

[sachmoney]

Comeback victory over OSU behind two David Wohlberg goals. I believe that brings his goal count to 8 for the season. Another win for Hogan, who is now 7-2.

 

[doldmoose34]

Sux 2BU

weekend sweep

now if we could only beat SinaMack

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Meanwhile in Ann Arbor...

 

[Philip Jeff Frye]

A 5-0 rout of Union moves Yale to the top of the polls. As somebody who has been going to Yale hockey games for 30 years, I can safely say I never thought I'd see this day.

 

[sachmoney]

Two days til the Big Chill.

Brown and Merrill were selected for the preliminary 29 man World Juniors roster. That'll be whittled down to 23.

Berenson announced today that Bryan Hogan will be starting the Big Chill at the Big House.

 

[Hendu's Gait]

I also noticed that BU is #1. I don't pay any attention to hockey east, but I was wondering if anyone had any impressions on that team. Yeah they're number one, but are they any good? Can they make a run in the tourney?

BU is now being destroyed for the 2nd weekend in a row, losing 3-0 @ RPI in the 2nd period. (NHLN)

Same score for the Big Chill, as the Maize and Blue are on top after 2 @ Ann Arbor. (BTN) Hunwick is in net, Hogan injured in warmups or something. Hope you're having fun, Sach.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Final Score Michigan 5 - Michigan State 0. Attendance 113,000+. Largest attendance at any NCAA sporting event in any sport. Ever.

 

[Senator Donut]

Final Score Michigan 5 - Michigan State 0. Attendance 113,000+. Largest attendance at any NCAA sporting event in any sport. Ever.

Highly dubious

 

[sachmoney]

It was fun.

I think they did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. I was hoping it would be an event that would introduce people to the great environment of college hockey. It sort of ended up being a culture clash between hockey and football. There were a lot of people who pregamed like it was "hockey saturday" or something. The stands reeked of vodka. The main thing that bothered my was the lack of cohesion within the student section. People doing the "you suck" chant instead of the "goalie-sieve" chant. People having no idea what was going on. Just the coordination was poor. The athletic department did do a good job of trying to tie in the goal counts and things of that nature. Also, it was nice to be able to do the CYA Chant without having an usher breath down your neck.

After this experience, I can say I'm not much for outdoor hockey games. They're a unique experience, but I prefer the cozy confines of Yost. I was looking at all the turf surrounding the rink and thinking "Wow, Yost could almost fit within that football field." Huge contrast in intimacy. Additionally, I wasn't a fan of the fireworks or the B2 stealth fighter. I know, it's really American to have these things. They symbolize the patriotism and badassness of this country. They just seem pointless to me. But that's just me. I didn't stay for the fireworks after the game.

Lastly, there were planes flying around advertising different businesses. One of them was advertizing for Deja Vu Showgirls and a couple others for local car dealerships. I was really hoping one of them would advertise ASHLEY SCHAEFFER BMW.

Oh, the most important thing was that we won. Great performance from all. I was interested to see some of the line changes. The olympic size rink really suited us.

 

[czar]

Surprised by the total turnout-- given the e-mails going around our department this week, I would have pegged the stadium at ~80% capacity, but it was pretty full, pretty early. Near ice mics were good for getting sound up into the stands but came out sounding kind of tacky and delayed. Good idea, but could have figured out better implementation (there were huge "dead zones," etc.). Was a crock that Hunwick was not one of the three stars (34ish saves), but enough students chanted his name that whoever did PA gave him "honorary fourth star" and he got a curtain call. I had not been to a UMich hockey game, but had season tickets every year at Cornell so the chants weren't totally unfamiliar-- that said what is with the siren chant on the PK? Most annoying thing ever.

The main thing that bothered my was the lack of cohesion within the student section. People doing the "you suck" chant instead of the "goalie-sieve" chant. People having no idea what was going on. Just the coordination was poor.

This seemed to be because the student section tix did not require ID upon entry like they do for football games. We were in section 33, but all my friends over to my right said that the student section was filled with a ton of townies and older alums who bought the tickets on Craiglist or eBay. That and it was obvious that only about 2/3 of the students in attendance treated this (as you said) like a football game and clearly don't show up for a lot of hockey games. My favorite was when half the student section did the "wave the State player into the box" followed by whatever random curses you crazy Michigan people feel the need to scream when it was actually a State powerplay because Glendening got called for two minors.

After this experience, I can say I'm not much for outdoor hockey games. They're a unique experience, but I prefer the cozy confines of Yost. I was looking at all the turf surrounding the rink and thinking "Wow, Yost could almost fit within that football field." Huge contrast in intimacy. Additionally, I wasn't a fan of the fireworks or the B2 stealth fighter. I know, it's really American to have these things. They symbolize the patriotism and badassness of this country. They just seem pointless to me. But that's just me. I didn't stay for the fireworks after the game.

Agreed on the scale. I had been watching the webcam on and off this week but the rink looked like some sort of toy when you finally got inside the stadium. Even with Olympic dimensions, it's just so much harder to follow the game, especially when you are not along the sidelines (see pics below). I really tried, but sightlines and depth perception gave me trouble trying to stay on top of the game for the full 60 minutes. I always think flyovers are a complete waste of money so I'll reserve comment on the B2, but I thought the fireworks were a cool touch. It was a clearly a "spectacle" game, so stupid things like that just add to the ambiance. The show after the game was actually (surprisingly) good and helped the upper bowl clear out so we didn't have to wait 30 minutes to get to the exits (row 30).

Lastly, there were planes flying around advertising different businesses. One of them was advertizing for Deja Vu Showgirls and a couple others for local car dealerships. I was really hoping one of them would advertise ASHLEY SCHAEFFER BMW.

Big fan of "The Landing Strip" plane which presumably replaced the Deja Vu one somewhere around the start of the 2nd period.

Couple pics for scale:

 

[Fred not Lynn]

I think the "watchability" of the game was much better than at previous outdoor games I've seen. Doing an Olympic size rink was the right thing to do, it fit much more nicely into the space than an NHL rink would have - congratulations to Red Berenson for having the vision to go along with the idea. It's NOT supposed to be just like Yost. It's supposed to be an over-the-top spectacle, and it was.

I also question the fly-over a little. I mean, why send a Stealth bomber when you're trying to create a spectacle?

 

[doldmoose34]

even without a tooting interest, I enjoyed watching the Big Chill

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Highly dubious

The attendance at those Soldier Field games in the '20s is totally unauthenticateed - and widely considered to be vastly overstated.

 

[Senator Donut]

The attendance at those Soldier Field games in the '20s is totally unauthenticateed - and widely considered to be vastly overstated.

It looks like the University of Michigan "vastly overstated" their crowd by 27,960 people. Guinness says only 85,451 fans were at the game.

 

[Average Reds]

It looks like the University of Michigan "vastly overstated" their crowd by 27,960 people. Guinness says only 85,451 fans were at the game.

Trust me when I say that if there had only been 85,451 people there, the upper reaches of the stadium would have looked empty. So they didn't vastly overstate the crowd.

What the article makes clear is that for whatever reason, there is a discrepancy between the number of tickets that were scanned and the actual number of people in the stands. Many possible reasons for this, and I expect the folks at Guinness to eventually up their number, but just looking at the picture in the article itself makes it clear that it was a full house.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Trust me when I say that if there had only been 85,451 people there, the upper reaches of the stadium would have looked empty. So they didn't vastly overstate the crowd.

What the article makes clear is that for whatever reason, there is a discrepancy between the number of tickets that were scanned and the actual number of people in the stands. Many possible reasons for this, and I expect the folks at Guinness to eventually up their number, but just looking at the picture in the article itself makes it clear that it was a full house.

There was some sparseness in the crowd in the student section, to be sure - but the place was full other than that.

All I can say, is that the guy who sugested that the rink in that stadium should be Olympic sized is a genius.

 

[sachmoney]

Slow period at this time, Great Lakes Invitational this week. Brown and Merrill are with Team USA for World Juniors I believe. Michigan will face Michigan Tech tomorrow and MSU or Colorado College on Thursday.

 

[sachmoney]

We won the GLI.

Merrill is playing on the top defensive pairing for Team USA too and Brown is having some impact. Caught some of the game against Germany last night and Merrill had two points. Brown drew a penalty in front of the goal.

Away and home with Michigan State next weekend. It should be very exciting.

 

[Senator Donut]

Also, Jack Campbell has looked really good in net.

 

[twibnotes]

Ugh - after smoking MSU 5-0 at the Big House, Michigan loses 4-3 @ MSU in OT.

Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this Michigan team has enough firepower. MSU is a pretty lousy team...bad loss.

 

[sachmoney]

Ugh - after smoking MSU 5-0 at the Big House, Michigan loses 4-3 @ MSU in OT.

Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this Michigan team has enough firepower. MSU is a pretty lousy team...bad loss.

Yep and the next day they ace State to the tune of 4-0. "Hot" Carl Hagelin scored 2 goals leading the Wolverines and Mac Bennett scored the first goal of his career. So MSU in Ann Arbor has been outscored 9-0. Ouch.

As far as the firepower goes, I would say the problem is that there's too much of a pass first mentality. Sometimes, you need to pepper the goalie and attack the rebounds. They have a lot of players who can do that, but they like to cycle, pass, cycle, pass....I would say right now, it's more of a mindset that needs to change. Hunwick looked solid in net, but Jon Merrill looked tired having played for the US in Buffalo and two straight games. Hope that dude gets some good sleep in the next few days. Ferris State next week.

 

[sachmoney]

HUGE WIN for Michigan tonight after playing one of their worst periods of the season. Michigan started off very slow and lackadaisical. Ferris State took advantage of this, taking a two goal lead early in the second. Michigan fought back hard though, getting two goals from their point men before Chris Brown capped it to give the Wolverines a 3-2 lead. The third period provided more chances for both sides, but neither team capitalized. Ferris State poured on the pressure at the end, but ultimately the Wolverines held on.

They head up to Big Rapids tomorrow for the second of a home and away with Alaska awaiting next week. Very proud of the resilience tonight.

 

[sachmoney]

Michigan completes the sweep of Ferris State. We've now won 7 of our last 8 games. The Wolverines tossed 9 goals in on the Bulldogs over the weekend. Where's the firepower now? Everywhere.

 

[JShams]

Raise your hand if you're sick of this being a Michigan hockey thread.

I'd like to hear from more of the ECAC people here because it's shaping up to be an interesting 6 week stretch run for the league this year. Yale was #1 in the country for 5 weeks running, but that is in jeopardy after being upset by Brown last night on a beautiful last minute goal. Dartmouth knocked off UNH this past week. Union and RPI are solid squads that are knocking on the door of making the field of 16. Even Cornell has bounced back after a rough start to the year.

Only Harvard and Colgate are going to be non-factors down the stretch and are pretty much locked into the 11 and 12 spots. Yale will finish first, but you could make an argument for almost any other team having a chance to finish in the top 4.

 

[Rasputin]

Raise your hand if you're sick of this being a Michigan hockey thread.

Beanpot aint that far off. We play BU in the first round which is kinda lame.

 

[kenneycb]

BC-BU playing on NESN now. BC up 1-0 with a Whitney goal on a perfectly executed 3-on-2 with a nice snipe.

 

[kenneycb]

Holy shit. Four touch passes to Gibbons who has a wide open net. 2-0 BC.