Is the West really the best? Or are you just stoned on weed?

An All-WCHA Frozen Four.

Sick, ain't it? Who would have thought?

Well, a lot of people. It would be much better, if the Bulldogs were there, but ending up 6th in a conference where all 4 teams are in the NCAA semifinals... well, it's not like we ended 5th in the CHA. It's not like we're in the CHA at all. So we can be proud of that.

I don't usually make picks for tournaments (although UCONN won me some money last year in the basketball tourney), so I didn't have any picks on who would make it to Columbus. However, I guess I can take a shot at the champion now.

My pick is not North Dakota, because they have been playing strong of late, but the 2-week break will kill their momentum. 2 week break = 0 velocity. Momentum = mass x velocity. 0 x mass = 0 g*m/s.
My pick is not Denver, because they do not play great hockey. They play decently enough to get this far, but they bored me in the Final Five Championship game. ZZZZZZ. Good thing for beer and wings.
My pick is not Minnesota, because Briggs is weak and Barry Tallackson has netted his last goal as a college hockey player. They managed to catch Maine on their only mistake of the day. They did not deserve a #1 seed.
My pick is not Colorado, because they play an amazing game of hockey one day, and go out and suck the next day. Who knows who will show up?

So, basically, no one can win. Riiiiiiight.

p.s. if CC can get past Denver they will win it all. And they should be able to do that!

Lucien, Jr.

Oh yeah. That's pretty great. Junior Lessard, before the Bulldogs, before Hobey Baker, before that ugly picture of him drunk that was on SiouxSports.com.
Thanks to the Penalty Box for the link!

That's All, Folks

Well.

I'm at a loss. I'm stunned. I'm totally in disbelief. The season went out, not with a bang, but a whimper. Evidently the only person really playing this weekend was Tim Stapleton.

I didn't give up. But it seemed like some of the 'Dogs did.

Here's to next season. I'll be waiting.

The All-WCHA Hottie Teams!

What you've been waiting for!!

This year's hotties cover 9 of the WCHA teams (CC did not have any candidates! They didn't even bother to look nice or even comb their hair in their photos!)

Coach: Jamie Russell (MTU)

1st Team
F- Evan Schwabe (UMD)
F- Chris Porter (UND)
F- Gabe Gauthier (UD)
D- Zach Blom (UD)
D- Kyle Peto (MSUM)
G- Kyle Nixon (MSUM)

2nd Team
F- AJ Degenhardt (UW)
F- Colin Murphy (MTU)
F- Charlie Kronschnabel (UAA)
D- Aaron Brocklehurst** (SCSU)
D- Ryan McMullan (UAA)
G- Cam Ellsworth (MTU)

3rd Team
F- Brad Thompson (MSUM)
F- Chris Connor (MTU)
F- Justin Bourne (UAA)
D- no one hot enough
D- Alex Goligoski (UMN)
G- Jake Brandt (UND)

Freshmen
F- Merit Waldrop (UAA)
F- Ryan Dingle (UD)
F- Malcom Gwilliam (MTU)
D- Zach Blom (UD)
D- Aaron Brocklehurst** (SCSU)
G- no freshmen goalies were good looking

*not enough hott defensemen
**only made it for his resemblance to Jim Morrison

Applause! Applause!

The hotness that is Marco Peluso is the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week. AND the 'Dogs are on the radar in the PWR.

That is all.

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.

If You're Unhappy And You Know It...

...you're a 'Dogs fan. Yeah, it sucks. We pulled a "last year in the Final Four semis." I'm not too happy about it.

So I was at work and couldn't enjoy all the fun of hearing us blow it, but I did call my dad to find out that it was tied and we went into OT. I called later and he did not answer the phone. I crashed into my house, coat and shoes still on, checked the scores. OT LOSS. This is NOT the NHL. OTLs don't COUNT for CRAP.

The 'Dogs are off for a long time, and I hope they do a LOT of thinking about what they've done. Sitting in a corner. With no dessert. And early bedtimes.

As for me, I'll be sitting here with a bar of soap in my mouth.

Merry Stickmas and a Hockey New Year!

If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands

*clap, clap*

Yeah I'm happy. I mean, I hate ties, probably more than most people, but I would like to see us rack up some points this weekend, and we racked up 1. Now we should whip out a win tonight, and then we'll have 3 shiny points to show for this weekend.

But let's back the truck up here.
Derek Shepard was the referee? What? We had only 4 penalties? We had less penalties than the other team? HUH?????
Have we gone through the Twilight Zone here?
We even got a power play goal. (Denver got a PPG and a SHG, but forget about that.)

We even had a lead. A lead!
Now I don't know about you, but I'd be happy with a 5-4 loss tonight, if only we'd gotten a win in the Frozen Four... but I'm focusing on the positives here.

The Hams (Hammond and Hambly) come up with a goal and an assist each.
For a team with an average of 21.1 PIM, we only had 8.
A win tonight puts us in a tie for 5th with Denver.

I want to listen! I hate working retail! I don't want to be at work til 11:30! I want to listen to the gaaaaame! I wish I was in Duluth!!!!
*end whining*

Let's Go 'Dogs!

An Early Christmas Present

So we squeaked out a win against NoDak in the final minute last Saturday.
I couldn't be happier! That hottie Evan Schwabe getting 2 goals, including the game winner!

I guess I could have been happier if we hadn't been pretty much thumped on Friday night. That was sort of embarrassing. And I wasn't listening on Saturday! Laaaaaaaaaaame.

Anyway, tonight we're facing Denver. This is a must-win. Every game is a must-win.
But we have to beat Denver to make up for last year's embarrassing come-from-ahead loss in the NCAAs. WE should have been kicking Maine's ass, not Denver. Isaac R. should have been a wall during that 5 on 3, not Adam B.

Tonight, let's bring out the broom.

Blowin' Up The Stat Counter

Holy crap! I was lying when I said there were naked pictures of me on this site! I didn't think anyone would actually believe that! But I guess how else do I explain over 100 new hits in just a few days, when I was lucky to get one hit some days? I guess it also explains why no one stayed more than 30 seconds.

On a sad note, I guess Rhino Lining doesn't sponsor all the hits anymore, so the joke doesn't make any sense. And they don't have those great Keyport Liquor commercials! Depressing.

You know, I started this site with grandiose hopes and dreams, but I Am Lazy, so now it's sort of unstructured. And UMDDogz never posts. And the Alleged Webmaster never designed me a nice site. And I have only seen one game so far this season.

But that's all well and good! Because I'm still having a good time keeping this site afloat.

The current goal is to go to Duluth on Friday.

DOES ANYONE HAVE AN EXTRA TICKET FOR THE UND-UMD FRIDAY NIGHT GAME? YOU DON'T HAVE TO GIVE IT TO ME FOR FREE, EITHER. I AM NOT A DEADBEAT AND WILL PAY. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

Ahem. Thank you. That is all.

Drivin' With The Dogs

So, here I am in Buckyland, mourning the 'Dogs' defeat. But losing 3-2 against Wisconsin ain't too shabby. I think we're READY for next weekend and a win or two against the Sioux, who just lost to the Underwolves.

I sat behind a person I thought was going to be a total jerk, but he ended up being a pretty nice guy. I also embarrassed some BADger girl with my superior knowledge of hockey. So I had a nice time even if we lost. I was proud of our boys. We played hard and took shots. We played like the old 'Dogs. We even had a lead!

There were a few chances that Wisconsin failed to capitalize on where it could have been 4-2 or 5-2. Once a player had a great opportunity and the blade of his stick fell off. It probably would have been in the net otherwise.

Lots of power plays for both teams, but we couldn't get it together! We should have done more with our special teams, the penalty kill wasn't too great. I think we are ready for North Dakota next weekend. OH YEAH!!!!

I feel like a total internet geek because I was missing my family chat rooms and posting on Siouxsports. HELLO!!!! I was at LIVE HOCKEY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Oh how I've missed it. Gotta try for a game next weekend.

I'm being accused of looking at X-Rated pictures so I'd better go. LET'S GO DOGS!!!!

Runnin' with the Badgers

While I'm listening to the end of the Sioux game for my buddies at SiouxSports, I'll discuss the 'Dogs game from this evening.

Yes, we lost. Boooooo. That sucks.
BUT we played an AMAZING game. That buzzer beater power play goal by Stapleton in the first showed we weren't going to give up. When it was 3-1 Schwabe shot it to Anderson right off the faceoff and we came back within 1. It was a tough loss, but I think we stepped it up.

Tomorrow I'll be there. Tomorrow we'd better kill them. MacMurchy is going to be beaten to a bloody pulp by me. I will flick Robbie Earl lightly on the shoulder and he will crumple in pain. I will throw fans through the stands if they dare to insult my 'Dogs. I am hungry for Badger blood.

Of course, there were the usual non-calls and other bullshit, but it's to be expected, it's Wisconsin at home. Robbie Earl "accidentally" knocked the net off when the 'Dogs had a big chance. MacMurchy punched Rosehill three times but the zebra didn't see it. Kerry and Greg were on KissCam.

Guess who's excited for hockey tomorrow??????????????????
THIS GIRL!

This Is A Test, This Is Only A Test...

Only a test? Who am I kidding??? This is THE test, the yardstick to see where we measure up this season.

A win at Wisconsin will be a step in the right direction.

A s-s-s-sweep at Wisconsin (though very improbable) would be amazing.

My uncle told me I expect too much out of these puppies. "You've got to have a Twins attitude," he told me. I bow to his wisdom. "If you're there, they won't dare lose." And I will be there, tomorrow night! My first game of the season (too long in coming, if you ask me!) and it's going to be a tough one. Last year, under my watchful eyes, the 'Dogs were 2-0-1. (I didn't go to a lot of games.) Last year, I taunted the fans at the Kohl Center. This year I will sit there in my borrowed jersey (please please buy me one for Christmas? Youth XL) a bit more demurely. I am older and wiser, I have seen what should have been the season of 'Dogs fans' dreams crumble before it began, and I have witnessed the horribleness of Wisconsin fans.

I want to see you win tomorrow, boys. I want to hear you win tonight. Get out there and forget about the Catamounts (we'll never figure out what they are), forget about the Underwolves, and just kick some Bucky ass.

Dear People From Siouxsports.com,

Thank you for visiting. Sorry this is boring, but if the team does not win, then I don't have much to say. I just pat you guys on the back for your wins and then go cry and drink myself into oblivion.

Sincerely,
Donna (Runninwiththedogs, to you)