"It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

[nmupiccdiva]

NMU is coming off a less than satisfactory final trip out to Aromaha. The 'Nooks are coming off a lopsided CCHA sweep in _airbanks. (Thanks for the heads up, Suze!)
The last time these two teams met, the games ended in NCAA ties, and CCHA shoot out wins for Alaska.

Discuss.

[mmf]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

The Nooks were at home this weekend, tied Friday night’s game (lost the shootout), and got totally, totally manhandled, outworked, outplayed, out-coached in an embarrassing fashion Saturday night. If you do not see our “A” game next weekend then we don’t have one. Period.

[nmupiccdiva]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

The Nooks were at home this weekend, tied Friday night’s game (lost the shootout), and got totally, totally manhandled, outworked, outplayed, out-coached in an embarrassing fashion Saturday night. If you do not see our “A” game next weekend then we don’t have one. Period.

Yeah, Suze repped me with my mistake.

And when I say "CCHA sweep", I meant losing the shoot out. Sorry, I was doing this in a hurry.

[NMU8405]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Two evenly matched teams faceoff this weekend, both looking for consistancy and momentum as the season winds down.

[MOJO]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

NMU looked really pathetic during its loss on Friday night in Omaha. They were slow to loose pucks and didn't show much heart or resiliency. The same cannot be said about their performance on Saturday night where they competed very hard and just ran out of time in a very good college hockey game.

I was a harsh critic for the game they played on Friday but can say with conviction that there efforts on Saturday made this trip easier to take. Had they rolled over, and I never expected them to, it would have spoken volumes about where they are headed.

While NCAA hopes are pretty much dashed it is time to revisit expectations and hope for as high a CCHA finish as possible. While I hate to see this happen another visit to Detroit wouldn't be all that bad. Hell, win two at The Joe and we'll put all the bad weekend prior to this behind us.

Go Cats!!!

[Squarebanks]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

One thing to keep in mind for Alaska...Coach Ferguson indicated at the post-game presser on Saturday that Steve Thompson would get a start this coming weekend in net.

I agree with mmf though; if we don't come out with a chip on our shoulder, then we're just playing out the rest of the string at this point. That's two weeks in a row that we've been completely caught with our pants down in subzero temps embarrassed.

[NMU8405]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Some thoughts on this series, and some lingering thoughts on the UNO series:

On Alaska: Two very evenly matched teams. NMU battled hard in Fairbanks in November to pull out two ties (lost both in the shootout). But both nights NMU fought back. Stewie was not at his best that weekend, to say the least, and he will have to play better than he did against Nebraska.

Greenham has played all but 2 games this season, though it sounds like Thompson will get at least one game. NMU will have to shut down Andy Taranto, who as a freshman is averaging over 1 point per game. Taranto and Yamerchuk beat up the cats fairly well on offense.

NMU Goaltending looks like it will be Stewart in net. If there was ever a chance for Walt to make a goalie change it would have been Saturday after Stewart gave up 5 goals (3 of them in a short period of time) though 1 1/2 periods. By starting Stewie Saturday night, I feel Walt gave him a vote of confidence. Had this been early in the season, I could see Ellie starting, but Stewart is a senior goalie, who has taken this team on his back to the Joe the past two seasons. A little confidence can go a long way at this point in the season.

NMU Offense: I do like how the team fought back in the Saturday night game. Coming back to tie the game in the third, and overcoming two-two goal deficts. I talked a few weeks ago about players stepping up on offense, and since that Chewy (who I didnt mention) had a 3 goal weekend, doubling his season total. But Hanson had a nice weekend against Bowling Green. Still looking for Brown to get it going. Look for him on the Powerplay to put some home. He is close on those one timers from the faceoff dot. If he can get that shot going, he can turn some goals around.

Special Teams: NMU is ranked 11th in the NCAA on the Powerplay, currently running at 21%. Penalty Kill is around 82%, which puts them 26th in the nation. NMU has only 2 for 12 on the PP this weekend, which has to be better against Alaska. IF Nmu can sweep this weekend and take a full 6 points, they will be just 1 point behind Alaska, and right back in the mix for a first round playoff series (which this team needs to focus on-forget 4th place right now).

[nmupiccdiva]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Wow, I'm feeling the excitement here, folks...

[Billy Blanks]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Wow, I'm feeling the excitement here, folks...

It's hard to get excited after allowing 12 goals the previous weekend...

[kariya]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Lets hope for a better weekend. So much for the NCAA dream! Go CATS

[WildcatGoal]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Really a big weekend for the Cats. Looking at the standings and games played, fourth is still in sight but...

I really thought Stewie would be better this year. Kind of a head shaker to me.

[Billy Blanks]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Really a big weekend for the Cats. Looking at the standings and games played, fourth is still in sight but...

I really thought Stewie would be better this year. Kind of a head shaker to me.

Agreed, if we were to graph it out, his stats would look like the Rocky Mountains. If we don't sweep this weekend our slim chance of getting an at large is crushed. We can only hope for yet another trip to the Joe and then on top of that hope for a miracle that puts us into the Championship game. I'm guessing there is some type of probability that if we were to make it to the Championship and lost we may still make it. I think we'd need to pretty much win out from here on or maybe get away with one loss.

[NMUFAN]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Some thoughts on this series, and some lingering thoughts on the UNO series:

On Alaska: Two very evenly matched teams. NMU battled hard in Fairbanks in November to pull out two ties (lost both in the shootout). But both nights NMU fought back. Stewie was not at his best that weekend, to say the least, and he will have to play better than he did against Nebraska.

Greenham has played all but 2 games this season, though it sounds like Thompson will get at least one game. NMU will have to shut down Andy Taranto, who as a freshman is averaging over 1 point per game. Taranto and Yamerchuk beat up the cats fairly well on offense.

NMU Goaltending looks like it will be Stewart in net. If there was ever a chance for Walt to make a goalie change it would have been Saturday after Stewart gave up 5 goals (3 of them in a short period of time) though 1 1/2 periods. By starting Stewie Saturday night, I feel Walt gave him a vote of confidence. Had this been early in the season, I could see Ellie starting, but Stewart is a senior goalie, who has taken this team on his back to the Joe the past two seasons. A little confidence can go a long way at this point in the season.

NMU Offense: I do like how the team fought back in the Saturday night game. Coming back to tie the game in the third, and overcoming two-two goal deficts. I talked a few weeks ago about players stepping up on offense, and since that Chewy (who I didnt mention) had a 3 goal weekend, doubling his season total. But Hanson had a nice weekend against Bowling Green. Still looking for Brown to get it going. Look for him on the Powerplay to put some home. He is close on those one timers from the faceoff dot. If he can get that shot going, he can turn some goals around.

Special Teams: NMU is ranked 11th in the NCAA on the Powerplay, currently running at 21%. Penalty Kill is around 82%, which puts them 26th in the nation. NMU has only 2 for 12 on the PP this weekend, which has to be better against Alaska. IF Nmu can sweep this weekend and take a full 6 points, they will be just 1 point behind Alaska, and right back in the mix for a first round playoff series (which this team needs to focus on-forget 4th place right now).

Good points, NMU8405.

I think losing Billy Smith for what could possibly be the rest of the season could be a very bad thing. His offensive numbers weren't all that special but his speed and constant high energy will be sorely missed. I'm not sure who on the roster can replace his work ethic on a game to game basis.

[aparch]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

I'm guessing there is some type of probability that if we were to make it to the Championship and lost we may still make it. I think we'd need to pretty much win out from here on or maybe get away with one loss.

As of right now, not calculating any RPI changes by the other teams:
http://siouxsports.com/hockey/rankin....php?teamid=15
Winning the remaining 10 of 10 games gives an RPI of 0.5444.
Which is currently good enough for 13th:
http://siouxsports.com/hockey/rankings/rpi/
Winning the next 8 of 10 games is a 0.5305, only good enough for 19th.

Eight of the next ten games also are played against teams that are higher in RPI than us, so plenty of room to jumble comparisons in our favor.

[mmf]

Re: "It's Kind of Like a Pooolar Bear, eh?"- UA_@NMU, Jan 29/30

Since I know little about hockey, it’s easier to look back at what happened instead of trying to predict what will happen. Especially with this team. I find it interesting if nothing else. Read across for where a team has taken points and read down for where a team has dropped points.
*****http://i130.***********.com/albums/p248/mmffbks/SCAN0015.jpg******

The Nooks should be in Marquette soon and probably on a slow simmer. The Coach can chew butt all he wants, but at some point it’s time for a personal gut check. I would think this team has a little bit to prove to the Coach, themselves, and their fans. But, they are facing a similarly frustrated team, on the road where they don’t do well, against what historically has been a hard working team. The Nooks need to outwork everybody they play if they want a chance to win. This is the time to step up.

And we’ve got the guys that can do it. They are good young men, can play hard, do well in the classroom, and don’t use travel as an excuse. Coach mentioned that the team just posted a personal best 3.57 cumulative GPA. Not too shabby given the amount of class and lab time missed because of those 5 or 6 out-and-back road trips a year. You know, the one everyone complains about making once every two years.

And finally, since each series is worth 6 points and a number of teams have games in hand, including NMU, the next few weeks will be a scramble. I think UM has the best chance to nab the last bye spot. Just hope we stay in the aforementioned scramble.

Remaining schedules:
LSSU(32 pts): Miami, FSU, UAF, NMU
UAF(30 pts): NMU, MSU, OSU, LSSU
ND(29 pts): UNO, WMU, BG, UM
UM(28 pts) : MSU, BG, UNO, NMU, ND
UNO(27 pts): ND, OSU, UM, Miami
OSU(26 pts): FSU, UNO, UAF, WMU, Miami
NMU(23 pts): UAF, FSU, WMU, UM, LSSU

Go Nooks!