YAWWWWN.
 
I was really looking forward to the College Hockey Showcase, and much
has been made of it being perhaps the finest tournament of the year
(in terms of quality of the teams). But after the watching the first
of the two games, I can only say: booooring!
 
The good news: there were three good periods of hockey in this game.
 
The bad news: that includes the six periods played in total, between
both teams.
 
In the first period, it looked as though Michigan was in for it.
Wisconsin came out flying fast, handling the puck very nicely. They
outhustled the Wolverines to every puck it seemed. Erik B. suggested
they were still suffering from the effects of a big meal from the day
before. But Michigan did score first, putting in a shot on a delayed
penalty. But it was clear that Wisconsin couldn't be held silent for
long, and the ended up scoring twice more in the period to end the
first 2-1.
 
This was Wisconsin's downfall, however. They were unable to score
more goals while they were dominating, looking sharp and skating
fast. Because in the second, Michigan finally showed up to play, and
that was it for the Badgers. 5-2 at the end of two, and 7-2 the
final.
 
Some comments: four of the Michigan goals were scored on power plays,
I believe (forgive me if my memory fails me). They may have a tougher
time with a team that kills penalties better, like Minnesota. On the
other hand, they may deflate that particular Gopher stat. At any
rate, success for the Gophers will mean staying out of the penalty
box. Add in the delayed penalty call, and only two goals were scored
as normal goals. The specialty teams are impressive. The penalty
killing did a nice job, too, stopping a couple of crucial Wisconsin
power plays in the second period that could have put them right back
in the game.
 
Wisconsin is a team that gets easily frustrated. Minnesota fans saw
this in the two game series, and everyone at the Civic Center saw it
last night. The game got quite chippy, especially in the second
period, and got worse the further that Wisconsin fell behind.
Daubenspeck, the Badger goalie, was particularly cheap. Several times
he hit players with his stick (a couple of times in the face), did
plenty of jabbing and poking, and (luckily for him) didn't get called
on any of it. By the end of the third period, I almost expected to
see the two teams digging trenches and putting up fortifications.
 
The officiating was nearly non-existent. The refs chose a style of
"let them skate", which was fine by me. Plenty of stuff, from both
teams, was ignored. The calling was very consistent, though. I wasn't
sure what it would to take to get a fighting DQ, however, because
there were at least a couple instances of punches thrown, and the
players sent to the penalty box with double minors for roughing.
Finally, two players were thrown out (although I apologize, because I
don't remember who). I thought that some of the rough stuff could
have been avoided if more things had been called earlier, but I was
glad the officials were consistent.
 
So overall, I thought Wisconsin had one good period of hockey, and
Michigan two, but unfortunately they didn't overlap. I hope tonight's
game between Michigan State and Wisconsin is a little better.
 
Key for Michigan: get the size involved. They have a HUGE team, and
they should use that size in their favor. They also need to start
skating in the first, although, if trends mean anything, they don't
have much to worry about from Minnesota in the first.
 
Key for Wisconsin: stay in the lead, or at least close. Once the fell
behind, they got frustrated, blew their cool, and ended up in the sin
box, which resulted in them falling even further behind. They have a
good chance if they just keep cool.
 
Face-off in less than four hours!
 
                                                Lee-nerd
                                                [log in to unmask]
 
"Violence is the last resort of the incompetent." --Isaac Asimov