NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

[joecct]

It's true.

Also, Wisconsin and the WCHA in general were wildly overrated this year.

/tosses grenade, leaves

The Liberty League is strong and is now 3-0 vs. the B1G/WCHA in NCAA finals.

Union is on the clock.

[vicb]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

I get the Union and Clarkson references, but since I've never heard of the Liberty League, is St Lawrence part of it? If so, the league is at least only 3-1 because St Lawrence lost to UMD in the 2001 championship game in women's hockey. Most surprised I've ever been by a hockey game was Union's win over the Gophers. While watching the game I remember thinking, who are these Union guys?

You are correct. SLU is part of the Liberty League.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_League

[bluffrinkrat]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

You are correct. SLU is part of the Liberty League.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_League

I deleted my post and was just going to ask what teams made up the Liberty League? Thanks for the link. RPI defeated Mayasich's Gophers in the championship game in 1954, too. I see the runner-up banner every time we go to Mariucci.

[Sean Pickett]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

I get the Union and Clarkson references, but since I've never heard of the Liberty League, is St Lawrence part of it? If so, the league is at least only 3-1 because St Lawrence lost to UMD in the 2001 championship game in women's hockey. Most surprised I've ever been by a hockey game was Union's win over the Gophers. While watching the game I remember thinking, who are these Union guys?

Yes, and so is Rensselaer. So the Liberty League schools are 3-1 vs WCHA/B1G schools since the founding of the league in 1995, but are just 4-4 all-time in Frozen Four Championship games. However, if Joe was referring to just the B1G subset of schools in the WCHA then he is correct that they are 3-0 since the founding of the league (and 4-1 all-time).

Sean

[pokechecker]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

I deleted my post and was just going to ask what teams made up the Liberty League? Thanks for the link. RPI defeated Mayasich's Gophers in the championship game in 1954, too. I see the runner-up banner every time we go to Mariucci.

yup, the beginning of the Gophers men's teams history of choking when playing small schools/schools not that well known for hockey in the NCAA's
speaking of which, hopefully Cornell takes care of UMass-Lowell for them

[Blackbeard]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

Your comment also bring up the point that many times the championship game in any sport is not as well played, exciting, thrill packed, etc., than an earlier tournament game.

Sean

Is this not, in fact, true?

[bluffrinkrat]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

yup, the beginning of the Gophers men's teams history of choking when playing small schools/schools not that well known for hockey in the NCAA's
speaking of which, hopefully Cornell takes care of UMass-Lowell for them

I think I can still hear some echos of Sioux fans chanting Holy Cross, Holy Cross!!

Cornell? So it's about 4 minutes into the overtime of the Cornell/Gopher NCAA West Regional Final game in 2005 and I look over at the Gopher's bench and there's Tallackson climbing over the boards onto the ice heading straight for the Cornell goalie Mckee who has been absolutely brilliant so far in net. Howe hits Tallackson with a pass and Barry puts the Gophers into the FF. We then head over to The Leaning Tower of Pizza or whatever it was called then to celebrate. We wait in the car to listen to the UM radio channel to see how the women did against Harvard. At one point I said, "Dam it sounds like they lost," the way the radio guy was describing the game. Finally, after what seemed like forever he mentions the Darwitz goal. The beer never tasted so good!

UMass-Lowell? Yeah, I think they've been tough on the Gophers lately. But if Schierhorn does't play well Saturday, it will be Notre Dame that will have to worry about Cornell or UMass-Lowell.

[FireKnight]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since I have been here, but I wanted to make a few observations. All of this, of course, is my own opinion.

ARD deserved the PK award. 'Nuff said.
Tiley was the better goalie in the championship game. She made the stops that she had to make (Nurse's breakaway, etc.). She gave up a number of rebounds but, whether by design or by luck, the rebounds were directed away from whichever Badger was coming towards the net.
It seemed that WI spent more time in their offensive zone than anywhere else. For whatever reason, WI wasn't able to capitalize on their chances.
For being the #2 scoring team this season, Clarkson came into the game with a methodical approach which obviously worked. Maybe that's how they normally play, but it's not like there is a ton of tv coverage where I could see that in action.
WI didn't lose, Clarkson won.

Clarkson played Clarkson's game on Sunday. In fact, their semifinal game was the one that they played more to their opponent but it was similar to the way they played the Gophers in 2014, so I think that it's coaching and gameplan. As far as being the #2 scoring team in the nation, the ECAC has a lot more "have-nots" than the WCHA, although the tops of both leagues are similarly strong.

[bluffrinkrat]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

Clarkson played Clarkson's game on Sunday. In fact, their semifinal game was the one that they played more to their opponent but it was similar to the way they played the Gophers in 2014, so I think that it's coaching and gameplan. As far as being the #2 scoring team in the nation, the ECAC has a lot more "have-nots" than the WCHA, although the tops of both leagues are similarly strong.

I think that's true and always has been. Even though the WCHA has won most of the NCAA championships, the FF games between the WCHA teams and the eastern schools have almost all been extremely close all the way back to the very beginning.

[D2D]

Re: NC$$ Title: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

As far as being the #2 scoring team in the nation, the ECAC has a lot more "have-nots" than the WCHA, although the tops of both leagues are similarly strong.

Similarly perhaps, but this made me curious. So I looked at the records. The top three teams in the WCHA were Wisconsin, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. In the ECAC it was Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Cornell. Neither North Dakota or Princeton - the 4th place teams in the WCHA and ECAC - played teams in the other conference, so they do not figure into the comparison.

Including the NCAA games, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth were a combined 6-2 vs. ECAC opponents, outscoring them 24-14.
And similarly, including the NCAA games, Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Cornell were a combined 2-4 vs. WCHA opponents, and were outscored 12-18.

Probably too small of a sample size to read too much into it, but by my count those are the numbers for this past season.

And oh yeah, the ECAC rep did come through when it counted the most.