Likens Gives Wisconsin Overtime Win With First Collegiate Goal EAST LANSING, Mich. - Freshman Jeff Likens (Barrington, Ill.) notched the overtime game-winning goal to give the Badgers a 2-1 win over the No. 14 Michigan State Spartans Saturday night in the College Hockey Showcase. After beating No. 7 Michigan 3-1 Friday night, Wisconsin will leave with a sweep in the College Hockey Showcase and extends its unbeaten streak to 10 games. http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/mhky/headlines/full_story.aspx?story_id=2003_11_29_21_53_09_mhky
SUCKS TO BU!!! 5-2 to the Eagles, wasn't anywhere near that close, shots were something like 50-16 in favor of BC...Voce gets a hat-trick, Pat Eaves got one, and we got an empty-netter with about a minute left, didn't catch who scored that one.
Denver missed ending Wisconsin's unbeaten streak by inches on a 2 on 1 with 15 sec. left in OT. Just over the net to the goalie's left shoulder side. DU was down 2-0 with 3:30 left. 3:10 left, PPG goal by Greg Keith, who crashed the net, hung out and took a feeder pass for the first goal. Lukas Dora slid one from a real tough angle with about 1:20 left to tie it. Rough overtime, with a mini-scrape at the end. I hope tomorrow night's game is on TV, I'll be back from skiing in time to check it out.
The couple of times of I've seen BU play this year, they simply don't look very good. I wasn't even slightly surprised that BC took it to them that way. The only surprise, was that BU needed only 16 shots to get their usual pair of goals; usually it takes 40.
UNH-Merreimack As I write this, the paint is probably peeling off the walls of the Wildcats' locker room. They gave up 5 goals in the 2nd period and now trail 6-1. Over the summer there was a lot of talk about how UNH was losing a lot of offense to graducation but the defense should still be OK. It sure isn't looking that way now.
Here's a stupid question from someone who doesn't follow college hockey? How are college players treated in the NHL draft? Are players from the Canadian Junior leagues given preference, or do college players get treated equally? Thanks in advance.
College players are treated equally in the sense that teams draft the players they think will be the best players. College players aren't taken at the same rate that Canadian juniors or Europeans are, but a fair number are taken every year. In particular there are some teams that will take College players in the lower rounds because the teams know the players will get 3 or 4 years of development that they won't have to pay for.
18 year olds (as of opening date of NHL training camp) who intend to or are playing in college (Rick DiPietro at BU in 2000), can opt into the draft, but they lose their eligibility. Otherwise, 19 year old college players are draftable. Unless they've changed it that I'm unaware of.
Players who haven't enrolled in college yet can opt into the draft with no eligibility penalty, FYI. If you look at the first round of the draft last season, nine college or college-bound players were taken. The previous year, it was six.
My new away message on AIM is "World's biggest sieve: (crossed out)Sean Fields(/crossed out) Saddam's bodyguards"
Clarification appreciated. I'd been confused about that since Rick Dipietro was drafted in 2000. Mods, should this go into the Hockey sub-board?
Was at the Minnesota vs. BU game tonight, and I think I have a new team to hate. Maybe it's the hideous Wisconsinesque red jerseys...maybe it's the cheap shots and hits from behind...or maybe it's because they have an angry oompa loompa playing for them.... Anyways, F*** BU.
Thanks. I've always been pretty indifferent about non-WCHA teams. That definitely changed tonight, though.
For those of you who like facts and stats.... Over 27,000 people attended college hockey games in the great state of Minnesota tonight. Not bad, eh.
Saturday featured a pair of upsets in New England. Northeastern shut out BC for their first HEA victory of the season, and UNH found a way to lose at home to a Yale that isn't a power in the ECAC this year. I watched about half of NU-BC, and I was once again struck by the conundrum that is Bruce Crowder. It's pretty obvious that he doesn't recruit especially well, although that may have more to do with resources and NU's un-storied history, and he doesn't seem to have a lot to offer in terms of tactics. On the other hand, his teams always play hard, so if the Huskies catch a couple breaks, and their goalie stands on his head for 60 minutes, they can shut out the 2nd ranked team in the country. Unfortunately, I watched all of Yale@UNH. Three hideous defensive errors and lousy shooting at the other end are all that's needed if you want to squander the kind of domination the Wild Cats had most of the night. Hey Adam, are the alarm bells going off at Minnie about giving up 10 goals to BU over the weekend? Even with a couple of recent blow out wins over cup cakes, they're only averaging 2.6 goals a game.
I didn't get a chance to see Friday's game, but I wasn't really all that concerned with Saturday's result. We produced offensively and kept our cool when BU was taking cheap shots. We did seem sluggish at times, but most of that is being attributed to the long break and disrupted practice schedule over Christmas. The main problem, IMO, was goaltending. Justin Johnson was absolutely horrible. He was slow to react and out of position on several of the goals. He let in 4 goals out of something like 17 shots and was pulled. Had Briggs played the whole game, we probably would've won, IMO. There had been some rumors of Lucia bringing in another goalie midway through this season. That doesn't sound like a bad idea right now. Troy Davenport, who impressed me a the state Tournament last year with Simley, is now playing in the USHL. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in maroon and gold next year.
Welcome to the club I've been gone for awhile...but how in the FUCK did we lose 3-0 to Northeastern?!?!
Pardon me if it's been discussed elsewhere, but can they get last year's goalie back? If they get the G situation together, Minny will be right there at the end. I think they play CC this weekend. Last year I saw CC rout them 6-2 in Springs. I think that was the last Gophers loss all season.
Theoretically we could bring him back. Travis Weber, the goalie you're referring to, still has 2 years of eligibility left. The odds of him coming back aren't very good, though. He's stated that he just simply got burnt out on hockey and wasn't having fun anymore. He's currently a bartender back in Hibbing. Nice kid, though.
NU's better than their record and playing with a lot of confidence now, Gibson was on top of his game, and BC was a little off, seems to be the consensus. Yes and no, on all counts. Crowder has had some major hiccups while recruiting, but he's also scored some notable successes, in particular Jim Fahey and Mike Morris. The team was in dire straits when he arrived, and then again got put through the wringer when Robitaille left early and some other players ran into injury problems. The recruiting thing is a mixed bag as well, although I do tend toward the opinion that Northeastern is in a difficult situation between being a private school (which hurts against the state schools) and being the 4th choice in Boston behind BC, BU, and Harvard. Nonetheless, Crowder has had some success, although never as much as we'd like. The same goes for tactics -- there's been some griping among the fans about some of the systems he plays, but the team has had a stellar record playing with a lead in the third period throughout Crowder's time at NU, so he must be doing something right.
UVM will be joining Hockey East in 2005/2006. No indication now as to whether the conference will look to go up to twelve schools by then or stay at ten, but I'm not sure there's the candidates out there right now to go up to twelve.
I've always wondered why Vermont wasn't in Hovkey East from the beginning. Good move for the program if you ask me. Will help recruiting, and UVM has always been well supported to begin with. Getting out of the perenially one step above limbo ECAC is great for them.