2005-06 College Hockey Thread
 

I know guys like St. Cronin and RPI Fan will be viewing so I felt I'd start a thread.

I am watching Michigan vs Boston College tonight. Amazing game. Watching Jack Johnson is something to see. Such a damn solid defensemen, I can't say enough good things about him.

This game has been excellent.

Anyways, Michigan and BC are two young, talented teams, but I still suspect a Frozen Four of Colorado College and Minnesota in the finals.

PS .. How has Kessel done so far?

Fuck Kessel

Haha. Care to elab?

I was a season ticket holder at the Kohl Center the last 4 years. 'Nuff said.

I think the Badgers have a chance to make some serious noise this year ... they've been quietly building the last two years, and, other than their superstar goalie, didn't lose anybody significant from last year's top 10 squad.

Bah I knew this. My fault. I forgot you were a Badger fan.

Wisconsin should be solid though.

Jack Johnson just knocked BC's goalies helmet off with a shot. Amazing.

Cogliano is playing so much. He's looking damn impressive.

I don't know anything at all about east coast hockey. I don't think I could name a single player in any of those conferences. Having said that, I think anything less than a championship for Minnesota has to be considered a disappointment. They were the most talented team I saw last year, and everybody good is back, plus Kessel. Briggs is a solid goalie. They're like the Yankees of NCAA hockey.

Michigan beats BC 3-2 in an exciting game.

The big three freshman for Michigan (Johnson, Cogliano, Sauer) all played well as Michigan improves to 3-0.

Awesome game.

Probably ought to figure out how to name David McKee, who would have to underperform to NOT win the Hobey this year.

Gophers just lost in OT to a scrappy Alaska-Fairbanks team. Only played for one period while the Nanooks played hard throughout the whole game. Nice little wakeup call to start the season. Hopefully tomorrow night is a different story.

He looked okay. Kind of seemed like he was pressing for his first goal tonight as he looked a little too aggressive in some situations when he probably should have pulled it back. I'd put money on him burying one tomorrow night.

Thanks for the update, Sov.

Gophers looked like a team that knew they should win and played like it. Too many guys standing around and watching UAF skate around them. They scored in the last minute short handed to tie the game and then proceeded to get caught on a 2 on 1 and UAF buried it. I thought Kessel looked good, his skating ability definitely pressed UAF to the max and almost caught the goalie napping on a rebound from behind the net.

Here's a great article about Kessel from yesterdays Star Trib

http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5668415.html

Going to the BU season opener tonight against UMass-Lowell. Should be a good game between two top-5 Hockey East teams. Hopefully Johnny Curry can keep up his solid goalie play from last year. Also Looking forward to seeing how BU's PP is this year with the loss of Chris Bourque. All in all I'm amped for the start of the season, hopefully an early conference win tonight!!

Gophers get another late goal to tie, this time on a non-call by the ref allowing them said score. UAF played the Gophers tough and probably deserved to sweep them. 3-3 tie, no goals by Kessel. Another horrid night defensively by the U of M.

Hows wheeler doing at minn? He is prob in kessel, frazee, and the frosh's shadows, but we was a top 5 pick a year or two ago(i confuse the last two sometimes)

Wheeler is doing well so far with 2 goals. If you are a Coyotes fan, their is quite the Minnesota connection with Taffe, Ballard and Wheeler. Also Tanabe is a Minnesota product via University of Wisco.

BU knocked off UMass-Lowell 3-1 to start the season. The frosh all looked pretty good. The refs are definetly enforcing the "hit from behind rule" as a 5 minute penalty. Happened once for each team. The PP looked looked pretty crappy i thought but all in all a dominating performance by the Terriers against a team that is supposed to be an Elite Team in Hockey East.

Ditto thought I'd add in Michigan/BC each team lost a player to the check from behind. During the intermission BC's assisstant coach said both penalties were legit and it's great to see them taking a stance against it.

UM-L is the most overrated team in hockey east. At least before Walter left, UM-L fans were talking about winning Hockey East, but now that he's gone they won't even get home-ice for the playoffs.

The way they looked last night, Vetri is their only chance at staying out of the cellar of HE. He's on an island on that team. If Vetri wasn't in net last night the score would have easily been 8-1.

UML had a 5 minute PP and had ZERO shots on goal. That's incredible and it's definetly not all BU's PK. The only thing i can see is that they started out incredibly slow last year and ended the reg. season as the hottest team in HE. I think they were 11-2 down the stretch last year.

Michigan is up 9-2 on Merrimack with 50 seconds left.

Another impressive win.

Western lost 5-2 to Robert fucking Morris.

We won't win more then 5 games this year. Fucking Culhane.

Will FSN or ESPN show collegiate hockey or is it with regional sports channels? I am really interested to watch but if the product isnt being shown...

I have been disappointed with the U of Arizona hockey team the past two years. From 21 straight years of making nationals, they have been shut out the last two years. Is this the year for the Icecats?

If you have the FSN College Sports package (<$2/mo for me), they show a handful of games each weekend.

Gophers games are on FSN North all the time.

Kessel just scored his first collegiate goal on a penalty shot. Gophers up 4-2 against MSU-Mankato. w00t

Minnesota wins 5-2, Kessel's line(which includes Wheeler) has 3 goals and 3 assists, Mankato was 0-10 on the PP.

Badgers off to a middling start, 1-1-1. They have a superstar goalie, but don't score enough goals, blah blah blah.

Superstar goalie?! That's a good one!

Brian Elliot has had one bad game in his career, unless I forgot about one. Every time he's had a chance to play, he's played great. He's got better physical tools than Bruckler, and is thought by most scouts to be a better pro prospect.

UVM 5-2 over Minn-Duluth.

I think Superstar goalie is a stretch, the system that Wisco plays makes him look better then what he is.

Fine, we'll take Elliot, you keep Briggs, we'll all be happy :D

Fine, not only will we take Briggs, we'll also take Frazee and Kessel to boot. Hmmm, when is the last time Wisco was in a Frozen 4 again???

What's the bigger rivalry?

Min/ND or Min/Wis?

I've met a couple players through some hockey tournaments I helped with (Stafford at Shattacks is one guy I talked too) and it seems like ND/MIN is much bigger between the schools then Wis/Min but am I wrong?

Sometime in the Ming Dynasty, I think. But that's why it's better to be a Badger fan than a Gopher fan. When they do finally reach those glorious heights, it is all the sweeter for having waited so long... Gopher fans are expecting a championship this year. Anything less will be disappointing.

If Wisco could be a better team, that would help. :D

If you look over the entire history and the fact that MN plays Wisco in many more sports, then it's Wisco. In hockey, because UND is better then Wisco, it's UND-MN.


It's also amazing how much st.cronin knows MN hockey and it's fans, especially living all the way down in New Mexico.

Min/Wis covers multiple sports, and is a very intense rivalry for the fans, because most students/alumni have close friends/relatives with ties to the other school. I don't know much about Min/ND.

I lived in Madison for 4 years. My fiancee is a UW grad.

Yep.

I think this proves my point about not knowing much about MN hockey and it's fans. Having had season tickets the last few years, Mariucci is electric when UND comes to town, Wisco, eh. I think it's more alive when SCSU comes to town.

I'm also referring to the remark about anything less is a disappointment, a championship is the expected goal at Minnesota, that's why Lucia was brought here and that is what he is aiming for, year after year.

Yeah, St. Cloud is another good one. GOPHER REJECTS CH-CH-CH-CH-CH!

Hell, I was a Gopher reject who ended up going to SCSU. :)

Well I don't think I have ever suggested that I was an expert. I was merely posting my perspective. FWIW, the craziest crowd in recent memory at the Kohl center was for the UND games two seasons ago, when UND came in ranked #1. So, I don't know what your point is.

And you live in Moorhead, man, you've got issues! :D I take it you are a Gopher fan? Even with Lee going to UND?

Well, you are the one touting "Superstars", I'd like to think you know something if you start throwing that label around.

My point is, people get fired up big time when the Flickertails come to town a lot more then when the red cheese come here.

And if you knew anything about BADGER hockey you would realize I was pointing out it's the same old same old in Madison.

I grew up disliking the Sioux, since I'm from Fargo (and therefore root for the NDSU Bison). But I've grown to respect the hockey program they've got up there, so I'll root for them when I'm not cheering on the Gophers. It's nice though; I get to watch both teams on TV each weekend. :)

Yeah, I know that they don't sell out unless Minnesota or UND come to town.

Can't bring myself to cheer for UND, but even I have to admit that I've never seen teams work harder then them. Especially when Blais was there.

Gophers up 4-3 after 2, all goals on the PP. No goals by Kessel.

RPI snagged a road win over a ranked BU team last night... hopefully we can keep things going to make this season a little more interesting.

Heh. Didn't think the RPI in your name meant Rennselaer. I find it a little humorous because I've been doing research on college football rivalries as part of my attempt to recreate college football history over in the dynasty section. Rensselaer came up three times because of their trophy games against Union (the shoes), the Coast Guard (the shotglass), and WPI (the transit). Though Rennselaer isn't rated for pretty much all of the seasons I have, I was able to track down a site that had the histories of these series and am hoping to incorporate these series (and a lot of others, I've come to discover) into the replay because I can play single games based on the scores of those games historically.

Edit to add: Oop, for some reason I thought this was football-related...didn't read the thread title closely enough. Pardon the threadjack. :)

Gophers hold on to win 4-3. They killed a 5 minute major with 7 minutes left to win.

Niagara 3, WMU 2

0-2-0.

Automatically 0-4 with two games vs. Ohio State next week, so the search for the 1st win will be the 4th and 5th vs. LSSU.

Yeah....I was quite unimpressed...BU DOMINATED and then RPI showed an unreal no-quit attitude and won. Congrats to them! But BU should have smoked them.

BU definitely was faster than us. But our rookie goaltender has looked very solid at times early on, and our #1 line is just as good as your's in the offensive zone, I think.

Go RPI!!!

Yeah your goalie was definetly on top of his game. The SOG was largely in our favor but it didn't matter at all, he made some very quality saves.

RPI with a nice home win tonight 7-5 over NU after trailing 4-0 in the first period. No penalties for either team in the 3rd -- good hockey game that was fun to watch and I'm glad the home team could get a positive result!

Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott has allowed just seven goals in his last six WCHA games.

I stand corrected

WMU 5, #4 Ohio State 1

Gophers are headed for a split, Kessel has a shortie tonight.

Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott has now given up eight goals in his last seven WCHA games. He has played every game this year and is 4-1-1, with a 1.40 gaa and a .940 save percentage.

Woohoo, hang the banner already bucky, you just swept Alaska Anchorage(at home), tied and beat SCSU. :rolleyes:

I am teh suck at predictions.

Western 5, OSU 4

UMass came out Friday night and outplayed an overrated UNH team, but couldn't finish and lost 4-1 after a couple late goals. Then Saturday we played Maine and were completely disgraceful. Worst display of hockey I've ever seen for two periods, and in the third Maine was probably just sitting back since they were up 3-0 already. At least the goalies look pretty good, but it's gonna be a long season with all the youngsters and the fact that no one can score on this team.

One other note, I know most of you will disagree, but Thomas Pock was the best player in college hockey two years ago. In the two years since he's left it's become more and more apparent just how special he was.

BU won last night against #6 Vermont, 4-2. Vermont really didn't look that good. They were huge...but didn't seem to be all that skilled. It could have just been a bad game because they have played 4 games in the past week but they certainly didn't look like a team that can hang with the big boys in Hockey East.

Badgers sweep North Dakota in Grand Forks, 4-2 and 4-1.

How'd the Gophers do again?

Gophers on top of Alaska-Anchorage 7-0 after two. Kessel has five points (1 PP goal, 4 assists).

Final is 9-0. Wheeler added two goals and Stoa snapped in a wrister as well. Kellen Briggs with his UM record 9th shutout.

Next weekend, Michigan has Minnesota and Wisconsin coming to town. Talk about some awesome hockey.

Johnson vs Kessel will be awesome.

Actually it's two weeks away.

You go ahead and hang that November banner bucky. Briggs shut out AA tonight, I guess he's now the best goalie in the WCHA. :rolleyes:

I heart Brian Elliott

Gophers sweep the Championship Contender Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.

When I saw Vermont last year, I wasn't really impressed.

Like you said, they have good speed and a couple of bigger guys, but just not that much skill. I have my doubts as to whether they'd even finish in the top half of the ECAC (who's having a down year as it is).

Hmm, where's that post that reports the Worlds Greatest Goaltender held those WCHA superstars from Mankato to 1 goal, can you believe it folks? Brian Elliot held Mankato to 1 goal at home!!!!!

On the Maroon and Gold front, Gophers pull 3 points out of Denver this weekend and if Karim is reading this, Chucko broke a 17 game goalless streak with 2 in the third to complete the comeback tonight.

Brian Elliott has gone 14 straight starts without giving up more than 2 goals.

I dont follow college hockey too much but how is miami doing...just by looking at their two goalies they shouldnt be doing too poorly...

Miami (OH) is 6-1-1, got a win and a tie against Notre Dame this weekend.

Just for you, Cards4ever, the WCHA standings:

So, when do you get that banner for being the National Champs of November Bucky? Just who has Elliott beat in those 14 games? Has Wisconsin ever sent all 5 of their players across the red line?

I actually made a typo; it's FIFTEEN straight starts with 2 goals or less. He is also now 3-0-1 with a 1.25 gaa against teams in last year's Frozen Four.

Yeah, but somehow he sucks. I don't get it.

I don't care if they aren't crossing the blue line at all and are plyaing pre schoolers, the guy is doing something right.

So, CC and UND brought back the players that Graduated or left and they played against Wisco this year? Amazing!!!!


Troy, as for what you said, are you telling me a guy that hits .350 for the Rockies is exactly the same as a guy hitting .350 at Petco?

Listen, I am a former goalie, and no matter your team, when you're going 15 games without giving more then 2 goals thats fucking impressive.

We'll see this weekend though as the Nations top team Michigan takes on both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

So, the people that I know that happen to scout know nothing? He's a decent goalie that puts up good numbers because of the system. St Cronin comes on here and proclaims he's some kind of superstar. He's on a run, but like I keep saying, they don't hand out banners in November. Lets see how these teams look in March.

JS Gigure is the same way. At some point though you have to give credit to the kid and not the system because you can't just plug someone into the system.

As I said, he's a decent goalie. The team is on a run, just as Minnesota was last year, UND the year before, Michigan the year before that, did ANY of those teams win the title? The Gophers just took 3 points in Denver, do you see me pounding my chest proclaiming how great the Gophers are because they just took 3 from the Defending National Champs? Hell no, look at all the points and experience Denver lost, they are no where near the team they were last April and they are probably not the same team they will be next April. In other words, it's a long season, settle down Bucky, see how it shakes out. If Wisco is in the Frozen 4, talk all you want about how great they are.

People say the the same shit about Marty Brodeur that Cards4Ever says about Elliott and he's won all sorts of titles. I think Elliott is better than Bruckler ever was, and he was widely considered the best goalie in the WCHA. At the beginning of this thread, I said the Gophers should be favored to win it all - but the Badgers will be good, too. I think it's funny how he insisted Gopher fans don't care about the Badgers, and then for the next few weeks all he does is mock the Badgers. I have never trashed the Gophers, here, or anywhere; they are a solid team that I enjoy rooting against.

I always mock fans that hang November Banners, SCSU fans that I've worked with in the past can attest to that! :D


Comparing Elliott to Brodeur is a good one, can't wait to pass that on to some people I know, they'll love it!

After yesterday Elliot now has 16 consecutive games allowing 2 goals or less.

Also, anybody inferring that I compared Brian Elliott to Marty Brodeur has reading skills such that they probably could not attend ANY college, much less Minnesota.

I was comparing what you say about Elliott to what NY Ranger fans bitterly complain about Brodeur every time he shuts them out ... "It's the system, wah, they don't play fair, we need a trapezoid behind the net..."

Ah yes, the insult my intelligence to deflect from the hockey issue, good job!

Just to put this to rest, if you honestly believe that Elliott would be this good in a wide open system, fine. We will just have to agree to disagree. I just hope that if Elliott takes some beatings, you come on and report on those like you do when he beats all of these cupcakes.


BTW, I still want to know how many trips to Grand Forks you made to see Parise play when he was at UND.

Only two.

"I saw a lot of him at NoDak. He's a very unique player, and I think you're lucky to have him. I expect him to be quite good, maybe something like Holik in his good years."

I saw a lot of him is 2 trips to GF and the 2 trips to Madison?

Not the same, but I wouldn't assume the Rockies hitter sucks either. (take a look at how many Rockies hitters have actually hit .350 and you'll be surprised at the list)

A few things:

1) It's not just the goals against. Look at the save percentage. The stats I found said he had the #1 save percentage in college hockey. So it isn't that he's facing fewer shots. Maybe fewer wide open breakaways, but not fewer shots. His record is impressive no matter how I try to slice it up.

2) I don't really care where we are in the year. He's been impressive and he's on a hell of a run. I'm not proclaiming him to be the best goalie of all time, nor have I seen anyone here do so.

3) What scouts think he'd do in an open system is irrelevant. It also doesn't matter if he's projected to be a pro goalie or not. He's playing college hockey, not professional hockey. And he's in a slow it down system, something that isn't going to change. (unless st. cronin can tell me that Wisconsin is planning on running and gunning soon, which I don't think likely) Tommie Frazier couldn't operate a west coast offense and he was never going to the NFL. He won a couple of national titles.

4) You keep saying "Wait until the season ends. . ." Who cares? We all have brains enough here to understand that the performence now means nothing until the playoffs start. But we can appreciate solid performences until then. I guess you're saying if a Gopher were lighting things up through 20 games, you wouldn't speak highly of him because, well, ya know, he hasn't proven anything yet. BS.

1-They are on a roll, see #4

2-See post #29 in this thread

3-If he had something behind him that said that, I would agree, this is first year as a starter however.

4-Guess you don't know me that well, look through the thread, the Gophers were the #1 team preseason, did I pound my chest about that? Again, it's a long season, I've seen it happen several times in a row now, it's about who's hot in the last part of the year and it's about getting a good seed in the NCAA's, that's all it's about. Until then I just like to watch hockey and cheer for the Gophers, but don't mistake me just for a homer, I've seen quite a few of these kids play before they have went off to the different WCHA schools, including a captain at Wisco that I know very well from the Bloomington system. My dislike is for UND, Wisco is just a minor irritant.

Actually, it's not just this year. Elliott, as the backup, had as many shutouts as Bruckler last year (3 apiece), and vastly better stats (granted he generally didn't start against Minnesota or CC or Denver).