Despite being an all-league weekend, it was still kind of odd – a Thursday/Friday series, games being postponed due to snow … crazy.
Speaking of that snow … if any of you in Minnesota want to ship that out here to Colorado, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
– Michigan Tech may be scrappy, but they’ve got to generate more offense if they want to improve in the standings. The Huskies were outshot 84-38 this weekend, with the worst of it coming on Thursday, when UNO won the shots battle 53-19.
– While it’s nice to the Mavericks stop their little slide, it’s not nice to see the Huskies continue theirs.
– Sometimes, in a post-game interview, one coach will say something that will spawn a reactionary question to the other coach. For example: Coach A says it was a dead-even game (something you may not agree with). Therefore, you ask Coach B if he agrees with Coach A. Sometimes you get good responses; sometimes you don’t. USCHO arena reporter Matthew Semisch used this tactic on Saturday and I kind of like the responses.
“I thought our guys deserved two points tonight,” Tech coach Jamie Russell told Semisch. “That’s not to take anything from UNO, because I thought they played great in both games, but with the courage and determination that our guys played with, the adversity we’ve faced with all our injuries and players playing hurt, they sucked it up … our guys battled their butts off, especially tonight.”
Then, he presumably asks Dean Blais if he agrees with Russell’s assessment, despite the fact that UNO won 3-1.
“I felt bad (for us) after last week and Jamie’s sitting with one win in the league, so I know how he feels. It’s tough, but we had to take care of business here and look out for our team first, but there is sympathy (for MTU). Not pity, because they could’ve won that game tonight and I don’t think they deserved (to win) like Jamie did, but that’s his thoughts. He’s proud of his guys and he should be.”
– The other league Mavericks were unable to keep their momentum from sweeping Minnesota going, getting swept by the rejuvenated Fighting Sioux.
– It wasn’t for lack of trying, though, as MSU got out to an early lead each night; the team just couldn’t hold it. Fellow columnist Tyler Buckentine called it a weekend of missed opportunities for MSU.
– Looking at the flip side of the coin, it was a great weekend of tenacity for the Fighting Sioux.
“It was a pretty gutsy weekend,” coach Dave Hakstol told Tyler. “We had our ups and downs. Our level of competition was good enough to win in the second and third periods.”
– St. Cloud continues to stumble, as they were swept by CC.
– That being said, CC coach Scott Owens still had high praise for the Huskies after Friday’s 3-0 shut-out.
“This was a good road win,” he told the Colorado Springs Gazette‘s Joe Paisley. “Aren’t they the best 11th-place team you’ve ever seen?”
– It’s no secret that both SCSU goaltenders are struggling, and CC took advantage of it Saturday, scoring two goals 25 seconds apart on Dan Dunn.
“The first 10 minutes we were playing hard, honest hockey,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko told Paisley. “Then all of a sudden they hit a two-run homer and we never got back into the game.”
– Paisley also posted an interesting snow-related tidbit on his blog regarding the officials for the weekend. All four of the officials for the game were Twin Cities-based and all four drove back Friday night, despite the weather forecasts. So, on Saturday, when it came time to travel for the game, the normally 90 minute drive to St. Cloud took the men in stripes five and half hours instead. I think I would have just gotten a hotel.
– The Seawolves’ streak of splits came to an end, as they were able to only manage one point in their weekend series with Denver.
– Interesting to note is that Adam Murray got the start on Friday over Sam Brittain. Part of the decision may have been motivated by the fact that Murray is an Anchorage native.
– Unfortunately for Tom Serratore, who I spoke with last week, his team’s fortunes turned just as quickly, as the Beavers were swept by Wisconsin this weekend.
– The surprise of the weekend was Minnesota, who took three points from Minnesota-Duluth … something I don’t think any of us saw coming.
– For the Gophers, it was good to see Kent Patterson step up and have a good weekend, as he was called the difference-maker in Friday’s game, particularly in the third period.
“Patterson was big for them in the third period; made some huge saves,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin told USCHO’s Brian Halverson. “Give him credit you can’t control that. You can control effort and I thought our guys went out and played a lot harder [in the third period] and gave ourselves a chance.”
“I thought we had a good first period and a good third period but [Patterson] was the difference.”
