The Look of Triumph

And here it is, folks:

The beauty my eyes beheld last night.

What you don't see is Evan Schwabe's absolutely amazing goal. He worked for that one. You don't see Tim Hambly's superhuman effort, including 8 shots on goal, and one big fat goal in the first period that gave us the lead. We never trailed. Tim Stapleton had 9 shots. Jay Rosehill nearly doubled his season point total (and spend a long time in the penalty box.) Isaac made some amazing saves (and let out some big fat rebounds, but the Gophers couldn't cash in.)

What you don't see is the policewoman that stood behind me for over half the game. Or my acrobatics as I nearly fell over the rail each time there was an exciting play. Or the people sitting in front of me who thought I was insane. Or Doug Woog's bald head not 20 feet away, who could hear every word I screamed. I'm sure the whole stadium could.

But Christmas Present 2 of 2 is just as lucky as 1 of 2.
[no more picture!]
WHERE HAS THIS TEAM BEEN????????
I'm glad they're back, though. Broadmoor Trophy, here we come!

Reading Between The Lines

Here's the scoring summary from College Hockey Stats, but you won't really understand the game without my expert analysis. This game was special and magical.
1st Period (20:00)
CC-1 Brett Sterling (2-Interference) MND 1x1 1:26
MND 1-0 6x5 PP Evan Schwabe (14) (Tim Hambly, Tim Stapleton) 2:08
*Yes, that's right folks, Evan Schwabe scores ANOTHER goal within 2 minutes of the game's start. AND the 'Dogs get ANOTHER power play tally.
MND-1 Evan Schwabe (2-Boarding) CC 1x1 12:08
*Evan Schwabe gets called for boarding? He's like 160 lbs, soaking wet!
CC 1-1 6x5 PP Jack Hillen (2) (Curtis McElhinney) 14:02
*Note, the goaltender gets an assist.
CC-2 Jimmy Kilpatrick (2-Obstruction Hooking) MND 1x2 15:51
MND-2 Bryan McGregor (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 16:13
CC-3 Weston Tardy (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 16:13

2nd Period (20:00)
MND-3 Justin Williams (2-Slashing) CC 1x2 0:14
MND-4 Brett Hammond (2-Obstruction Hooking) 5:50
CC-4 James Brannigan (2-Diving) 5:50
CC 2-1 6x6 Brett Sterling (20) (Jimmy Kilpatrick, Marty Sertich) 8:45
MND-5 Todd Smith (2-Elbowing) CC 2x3 9:27
CC 3-1 6x5 PP Joey Crabb (10) (Marty Sertich, Aaron Slattengren) 10:19
*Here's where most folks left the 'Dogs for dead. But not me!
MND 2-3 6x6 Josh Miskovich (4) (Justin Williams, Tim Stapleton) 11:54
MND-6 Luke Stauffacher (2-Holding) CC 2x4 12:33
MND 3-3 6x6 GT Travis Gawryletz (2) (Brett Hammond, Josh Johnson) 14:58
*This, ladies and gentlemen, I will call one of my top ten moments of the season. After being on the ice for the entire penalty kill, plus 0:25 after Stauffacher got back on the ice, Hammond gets the puck to Gawryletz, who came out of nowhere, and Gawryletz buries it. You try killing a penalty when you can't clear the puck out of your zone, then skate your ass off down to the other end and put the biscuit in the basket. He should get a freaking medal. And so should Hammond. Also, since McElhinney got an assist, Johnson thought he'd better get one too.
3rd Period (20:00)
MND-7 Justin Williams (2-Boarding) CC 2x5 10:56
CC-5 Jimmy Kilpatrick (5-Spearing) MND 1x3 12:45
CC-6 Jimmy Kilpatrick (10-Game Disqualification) (Served by Braydon Cox) 12:45
*The 'Dogs could have capitalized on this chance and taken this game from the #1 team in the nation. The 'Dogs, too, were a #1 team at one point. But try as they might (and they did get some shots on net), the 3rd period was the period of the goalies.
Overtime (5:00)
*Both goalies made game-saving grabs in this back and forth overtime. Everyone got their money's worth.
End of Game
*Let's Go 'Dogs!

Guess Who's Back?

The 'Dogs are back!

Oh, I'm so excited! I mean, yeah, we're going to play Colorado College next weekend, but they really struggled against North Dakota, only winning by one goal, only scoring 3 on the weekend. And yeah we don't score many goals and our goalies aren't as good as Philippe Lamoreaux. But after the 5-1 win on Saturday (I'll forget about the 5-2 loss Friday night), I think the 'Dogs remembered who they were. Maybe a giant cloud that looks like Junior Lessard came to them in a vision in the sky and told them, "Remember who you are." Like in the Lion King. But how long will they remember? That's the key.

The Saturday night game was sort of bizarre, with C.J. Beaurline getting injured after Smitty knocked Reeder right into him, and a UW-Superior style brawl at the end (although our Rosehill did not get kicked out!) However, I would like to point out, that in the box score, not a single Bulldog had a -, they were all E or +1. And did you know that we went 3 for 8 on the POWER PLAY???????? And we had a shorthander???????? And Evan Schwabe scored twice???????? And even Bryan McGregor kicked some major ass? And Evan Schwabe took someone to the ice? Little Evan Schwabe! Who would have thought? And Hooton thought he was tough, but wouldn't go toe-to-toe with Jay Rosehill, who is ready to fight, no matter what.

Oh yeah, that brawl? Here's the penalty list:

STC-8 Konrad Reeder (2-Roughing)
STC-9 Konrad Reeder (2-Roughing)
STC-10 Aaron Brocklehurst (2-Roughing)
STC-11 Aaron Brocklehurst (2-Roughing)
STC-12 Josh Singer (2-Roughing)
STC-13 Josh Singer (2-Roughing)
STC-14 Casey Borer (2-Roughing)
STC-15 Casey Borer (2-Roughing)
STC-16 Aaron Brocklehurst (10-Misconduct)
MND-13 Tim Hambly (2-Roughing)
MND-14 Tim Hambly (2-Roughing)
MND-15 Marco Peluso (2-Roughing)
MND-16 Marco Peluso (2-Roughing)
MND-17 Bryan McGregor (2-Roughing)
MND-18 Bryan McGregor (2-Roughing)
MND-19 Evan Schwabe (2-Roughing)
MND-20 Evan Schwabe (2-Roughing)
MND-21 Marco Peluso (10-Misconduct)

All of those came at 18:51. Oh Marco, you are a hot head. But you're hot.

Anyway, my good friend dagies from Sioux Sports posted this:

Question about scoring goals:

Can a team get too focused on putting the puck on net and not focused enough about where the puck is going?

Sioux teams historically have outshot opponents but what I'm wondering about is whether players lose the edge to try and make each shot count.

For example, from what I read about games this weekend it appears we had a player with a breakaway who put the biscuit in the goalies bread basket, not the net. Last week I saw Fleming for the gophers with a bit of space and he aimed his shot in the upper corner stick side and guess what, it went in. I realize sometimes you miss the net on a deal like that but I wonder if we're too focused on just getting the puck at the net. Maybe that's accounts for the puck not getting by the goaltender. The shooter's job must be to not only get off a shot, but try and direct that puck where it has a chance to be successful.

Maybe that already happens. I'm just grasping at straws. There has to be a reason why we can put a lot of shots on goalies consistently without scoring the requisite number of goals.

So he got me thinking, and I responded:

I think you may have something here (not just with North Dakota, but with the 'Dogs as well. I'm going to have to quote you on my site.)

I don't listen to many of your games, but I am constantly hearing things about how "the puck won't lie down" or "he fanned on it" or "he just got his stick on it" or any number of things about the 'Dogs' offensive, um, struggles.

It's quality, not quantity. You can shoot the puck at the net all you want and run up the totals, but if you shoot it right at the logo each time, quantum physics says there's only an infinitesmally small chance that the puck will, rather than reflect, go through the goalie. I hope they aren't waiting for that.

I've been frustrated for awhile about the 'Dogs' flurry of shots with little results, but now you've got me thinking...

I don't know. I guess maybe those shot totals aren't telling the whole story. When they take their time and make a good shot, it goes in. You can't just shut your eyes and shoot. The Force isn't with us.

I guess I should make long posts more often, as when I was more committed to this site, we were doing better. And then I stopped posting so much, and we sucked. Then I post the mid-season review, and we rocked (for one game)!

And I'm going to the 'Dogs-Gophers game on the 29th! Yeah!

As promised...

Christmas Gift 1 of 2.

[no more picture]

Gift 2 of 2 is coming, as it did not fit.

Let's Go 'Dogs!

I'll be wearing this 29 January, it better be good luck!

I CAN'T STAND IT!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFGEHDjfgr.

This crap has to stop. What's the problem?
Is it coaching? Is it leadership? Is it talent? Did Lucien Jr., and Beau carry this team that much last year?

Let's look at some stats.

Last year our overall record was 28-13-4. This year, we are 8-11-4, so to repeat that, we'd have to win out the season. We won't. Duh. That's not pessimism, that's just a fact.

Right now, we're at 69 goals, 116 assists, for 185 points. Our opponents have 69 goals, 114 assists, for 183 points. But for shots on goal, our goalies have 675 to the opponents' 803. We are absolutely killing our opponents in SOG, but we can't get the puck in the net. Opponents have a save percentage of .914 to our .898.
Last year, we ended up with 185 goals, 311 assists, for 496 points, to our opponents' 123/199/322. Instead of being tied in the goals category, we were 62 goals ahead of our opponents. BUT, Isaac/Josh faced only 1311 shots for a save percentage of .906, while our opponents faced 1474 with a save % .874. Because we put the puck in the freaking net. All right?

Penalties. We're at 209 penalties with 451 PIM, the average penalty being 2.15 minutes. Last year we were at 382/808, with the average penalty being 2.11 minutes. Since we're at the halfway mark, that makes us headed for 418 penalties and 902 PIM. I know that we've got this new officiating mandate, and it is often actually followed, so I'm going to let that go for now. Our opponents have had 212 penalties for 467 minutes and a 2.2 min avg. (projected numbers 424 penalties, 934 PIM), vs. last year's totals of 383/828 (2.16 min avg.). So we should have 6 more power plays than our opponents. Hm. But I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see stats on how long our power plays LAST.

Special Teams. I don't even want to go there, but I have to. We're 23/150 on the power play this year (.153), and 126/152 (.829) on the PK. LY we were 59/228 on the PP (.259) and 198/233 on the PK (.850). We are TEN PERCENT WORSE on the power play, and about 2% worse on the PK. TEN PERCENT is UNACCEPTABLE. Although, as I alluded to before, a lot of our PPs were short-lived.
*********Here's what I don't get AT ALL. In the conference, Ev and Marco are #1 and #2 on PP points. WHAT THE F$%&? How can we be #1 and #2 in points but 5th in the league in PP????????????***********

League Stats. Just going to run the table here on the team stats. This Year/Last Year. Then I am going to puke.
Scoring Offense 6/2
Scoring Defense 6/3
Penalty Minutes 3/5
Power Play 5/1
Penalty Kill 5/3
Combined Special Teams 5/1
Special Teams Net 6/1
Scoring 6/2
Goals Allowed T7/3

Goaltending. I love Isaac (despite the horse face) and Josh is really coming through for us this year (and is much more attractive than last year), but I'm going to do some comparison anyway. Conf. Rank
Save % GAA Win% %Time GAA S% W%
Isaac (TY) .893 3.05 .393 61.8 12 14 11
Josh (TY) .912 2.62 .500 37.6 10 8 10
Isaac (LY) .909 2.64 .694 83.1 5 2 2
Josh (LY) .915 2.39 .556 16.5 - - - (Min. 33.3% time not met)

Yeah they were better last year, but not by that much. When their GAA is 3.05/2.62 and we're only scoring 3 GPG vs. last year's 4.1 GPG (with opponents at 3 GPG vs. 2.73 GPG last year) what can they do? I also think that there isn't a real leader on the defense (Sorry, Petey, you just won't cut it for me) and so Isaac and Josh are being hung out to dry. When you lose an All-American, you've got a big hole to fill. And Jay might be a giant, but he isn't Beau. I think the goaltending has been solid, absolutely solid. Josh is really impressing me. Isaac maybe has had a few games where he's had some difficulty, but I still have faith in him.

Recap:
There's no leadership. There's no goals being scored. There's no specialty teams. That means no trophies. No flowers. No flashbulbs. No wine. They're haunted by something I have just defined.

Let's salvage the season by making it to the Final Five! Yeaahehaehahafasjk!

About that last post...

I meant the SCORE would be 1 googol to 0, not the freaking SHOTS ON GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a fat lady warming up her vocal chords... let's get the Broadmoor, boys!

Hockey's Back

All I have to say is, it better be 1 googol UMD, 0 Alaska Anchorage tonight.

FINALLY I get the feed.

2 'Dogs jerseys for Christmas. Pictures to follow.