MTU Hockey continues to slide. Friday night's loss to Denver (5-3) and
Saturday's tie (4-4) gained MTU one point in the WCHA.
 
John Nash ([log in to unmask]) at Wisconsin correctly identified part of
the problem as lack of support for goalie, Jamie Ram. But the problem is
much deeper: MTU started the season ready to play hockey and scored
easy victories over the league's top teams, culminating in a 4-0 against
Wisconsin. Then they snapped and haven't had a win since (10 games).
 
The same problems reported before (puck control, aggressiveness, shots
on goal, and lack of support for the goalie) continue to exist. The
inability to change also points to a lack of leadership on the part of
the team. On Saturday night, Coach Mancini took some of his Senior players
(Peca and Hill) and benched them. Saturday night's play during the first
and second periods was notably better (perceived fromt he radio teleplay)
but faltered during the third period. MTU's low zone play seemed better
than previously reported as well as their ability to sweep up rebounds.
 
I have not seen box scores: usually our local paper reports them but
they were absent in Saturday's copy and the paper is not printed on
Sunday.
 
Judging from the radio broadcast, refereeing was again excellent although
I do not know who they were.
 
We now have some non-conference games  against LSSU and then the GLIAC
tournament. This is a good time to regain form and to attack the second
half of the season. Certainly Saturday's play is progress in this direction.
 
 
 
Walt Olson