Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

[Sec2, Row 13, Seats 5,6,7]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Best Ending Ever. But how does Michigan State explain how they lost ?

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Best Ending Ever.

Except for Calle's OT GWG in Denver!

But how does Michigan State explain how they lost ?

By scoring fewer goals than ND.

Wow. 2 majors. Both fair calls. Fortunately 2 of the 3 goals scored during the PK were by the shorthanded team! I have never seen Calle Ridderwall commit a penalty like the boarding call in his time here. He checked Daulton Leveille with near-reckless abandon. He had been animated all night, and it spilled over at the end. Thankfully he did not receive a misconduct...or worse. Thankfully Leveille is "only" concussed.

3 shorties on the weekend. 22% on the PP for the weekend. 90% on the PK for the series. Great play, score sheet contributions and energy from the seniors. Same goes for the freshmen. And special kudos to junior Sean Lorenz with the game winner. Shorthanded and pretty. Nice combination.

It was nice to see many different players dressed over the weekend and see most of them have great games. That's a happy conundrum to have lots of choices. Lots of good choices.

Go easy on the turkey, boys. NoDak awaits.

[Sec2, Row 13, Seats 5,6,7]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Best ending ever on home ice !

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

The win tonight impressed me more than Friday in a number of ways. First of all, I'm a big fan of resilience. And Notre Dame was the definition of resilience tonight. They outskated MSU pretty thoroughly in the first, but like last night had little to show for it. They had to hold on for the final couple of minutes in the second to take a lead into the third. Then when the Spartans scored late to tie it up and appeared to have all of the momentum going their way, the light scoring Sean Lorenz rips an absolute beauty of a shot that nearly tears a hole in the net behind Yanakeff. Through all the bad calls they kept skating, kept playing to the whistle, kept making the next play.

A lot of things are going well for them right now. The penalty kill is unreal. Throw in the 6 short-handed goals and the opposition has netted zero advantage on their power plays. Through 13 games and 59 chances, that is a pretty remarkable stat. Our number 1 goalie is starting to remind me just a little of Jordan Pearce. Not in his mechanics, style, or his gaudy numbers, necessarily, but in the confident way he is playing between the pipes. He is managing to be both aggressive and patient at the same time. Has he had a game yet with two bad goals? And the scoring is being spread around pretty well too. 11 of the 21 skaters who dressed this weekend scored at least a point. And all four of the forward lines played well defensively, probably the best weekend worth of back-checking we've seen so far from them.

It gets really tough for the next two weeks. 4 tough games in two tough environments. As well as they have been playing, the season could easily hit the skids a little against teams like Miami and North Dakota. If you're not slumping going into those games, those are two teams that can PUT you in a slump. We need to keep making fewer mistakes (still a work in progress but improving) and probably see some power play improvement to have any success.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Oh how I wish I could go to North Dakota for the weekend, but alas, I'll settle for watching the 2 ND's on t.v. Friday's is scheduled now. I suspect Saturday's will be picked up later this week. So, what would I be more thankful for than pumpkin pie and leftover turkey? A couple road wins.

The 2 ND's have quite a few similarities other than their logo. NoDak is 8-5-1 while ND is 9-3-1. Both teams are 3-1 in their last 4 games. Both teams have 5 players in double digits on the stats pages. Matt Frattin (15 points), Corban Knight (14), Chay Genoway (11) and Evan Trupp and Jason Gregoire (each with 10) are NoDak's top guys. ND's top scorers are T.J. Tynan, Ben Ryan and Ryan Guentzel (each with 16 points), Anders Lee (12) and Calle Ridderwall (11).

NoDak averages 3.14 GF while giving up 2.86 GA. ND averages 3.77 while giving up 2.54.

Both teams have sophomore goalies who have gotten the majority of starts. Fighting Sioux Aaron Dell is 7-4-0 with a save % of .895 and a GA of 2.26. Fighting Irish Mike Johnson is 7-2-1 with a save % of .915 and a GA of 2.3. That's not to say Sioux junior Brad Eidsness or Irish freshman Steven Summerhays won't get a start in this OOC matchup. My guess is Dell and Johnson will be in net both nights...

The differences between the 2 teams are noticeable in special teams. NoDak's PP is a robust 22.1%. ND's is still malnourished at 14.3%. NoDak has scored 15 PPG's, 8 of them coming off the sticks of Frattin and Knight. (Here's a thought: don't let them tee up...). They've given up 10 PPG's. ND has 10 PPG's, 6 of which are from Ridderwall and Mike Voran. ND has given up 6.

As for the PK, NoDak is 84.4% in that category. They have scored 3 shorties, but given up 2. ND is 89.8% on the PK. ND has scored 6 shorties (thus negating the opponents 6 PPG's...) and given up a big fat goose egg. Those are stats I can smile at. NoDak is +2 as a team. ND is +54 as a team. Again. Smiling.

Another difference would be in who dresses each night. NoDak has averaged 8 freshmen and sophomores per game. ND has averaged 12 first- and second-year guys in the lineup.

The Apache say, "It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand."

[Third Family Member]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Well, I guess my pique at the USCHO poll, which JJfP has wisely counselled me to pay no attention to is mitigated by the fact that Notre Dame pretty much owned Players of the Week honors this week. Congrats to captains Lavin and Ryan for offense and defense players of the week and to Mike Voran for Rookie honors. Again, ND continues to own RotW.

[siouxinminny]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

We like Irish in Grand Forks. Stay a while. Put your feet up. It's just the WCHA. Remember, you were members at one time.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Wow. Exactly how many pies did the boys consume yesterday?! That was just bad. Bad backchecking. Bad forechecking. Bad passes. Bad penalties. Bad face offs. Bad shifts after a goal.

I would say that a win tomorrow would be okay. Salvaging a split on the road, and all. But given that the team I've been watching for nearly 2 months apparently fell into a missile silo and was replaced by my beer league team, I got a bad feeling.

[dolan]

Wow. Exactly how many pies did the boys consume yesterday?! That was just bad. Bad backchecking. Bad forechecking. Bad passes. Bad penalties. Bad face offs. Bad shifts after a goal.

I would say that a win tomorrow would be okay. Salvaging a split on the road, and all. But given that the team I've been watching for nearly 2 months apparently fell into a missile silo and was replaced by my beer league team, I got a bad feeling.

Don't worry, you aren't the only team we've done that to.

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Yikes. Jeff Jackson needs to break out some cliches for his post morning skate conversation with the team.

Haven't seen the team look this much like the freshman laden collection they are since the second game of the season. And even then it was pretty much in the defensive end only. Odd that in the 14th game of the season they look as inexperienced as they have all year. Every bad thing they've done so far this year they managed to do in the game last night, and it bit them repeatedly. Worst of all was how badly they got outworked on every area of the ice. What's up with that?

We'll see now how this group of players deals with the adversity of knowing they just got their lunch handed to them. They didn't belong on the same ice as North Dakota and with the way this team has competed so far this year I find that a bit surprising. Win, lose, or tie tonight, they need to come out with an urgency that was appallingly lacking last night and simply compete. Remember, that's the one thing you can do regardless of who you are playing, where you are playing, or what the score is. There is never a reason not to. If the guys who dressed last night won't do it, dress a few tonight who will.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Much better effort tonight. Still too much coasting to pucks and getting outworked physically (by a wide margin). Mike Johnson played well, especially since he faced more than 80 shots this weekend (with about 45 coming tonight). It will sound like sour grapes, but the penalty on Jeff Costello for "goaltender interference" was complete horse poop. He and a NoDak defender were on the other post when the play stopped after Costello went hard to the net. The 2 skaters barely touched each other, let alone having Costello interfere with the goalie. I also have to say that the tripping penalty on ND with 39 seconds left in OT was questionable at best (he was going for the puck after an ND skater went down) and virtually never called that late in an OT at worst.

This weekend was weird. I've never seen ND hit so many posts (I believe at last count they hit 4). I've never seen Calle Ridderwall whiff so many times. On any other night, he would've had 2 goals, but not tonight. And the last NoDak goal last night was completely his fault. While I was quite disappointed in Riley Sheahan's play last night, he did much better tonight, including coming oh so close to winning it in OT shorthanded. He did assist on that shortie earlier, though. And, yay for Sam Calabrese, who had a solid weekend (unlike many, many of his teammates) and got the GTG. And no, Dell was not interfered with. The ND player (Rust?) had his skates taken out from under him, thus causing him to slide into NoDak's goalie.

I wish they could've split the weekend, but this may have been just what was needed to bring them down to earth, show them that it won't be easy to surprise people based on pre-season expectations and they need to...everyone in unison...value the puck. Next weekend is the battle to win back first place.

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

I'm watching this game, and from the moment Notre Dame tied it up I kept saying "just hang on, baby." That thought alone bugs me. This team is good enough that none of us should be worried about "just hanging on." Against anyone. 2-2 with 3:03 left means there are 183 seconds left in which to win the darn thing. Now of course walking out of Englestad Arena with a tie after twice trailing is a decent outcome, certainly better than one of the alternatives. But it shows me that there is still a lot of learning left for all this talent to do.

[SwedishJustice22]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Does anyone know where I can get my jersey lettered with the fonts that the boys have on the back of their sweaters? If Im gonna get it done I want it done right

[swedenflag_inSEC7]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Does anyone know where I can get my jersey lettered with the fonts that the boys have on the back of their sweaters? If Im gonna get it done I want it done right

My dad got my Calle one numbered at Paige's in Granger. They do a really nice job, I go there for everything I need screened.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

The first day of December. I looked out the window this morning and saw a light dusting of snow. I can now listen to my Xmas music (I limit myself to the month of December so I don't get sick of it). I love Xmas music.

I've decided all I want for Christmas is 4 or 5 Irish victories on the ice. (Admittedly, one of those 5 would be post-Christmas...). I'll live with 4, as that would mean we had split with Miami. On the road. If I get 5 victories, I'll make the team fudge. I make great fudge.

Miami frightens me. Well, Carter Camper frightens me. I'm sure he frightens most goalies and defensemen he encounters, too. He's the (obvious) early pick for Hobey. He has 1,382 points this season.

Actually, he has 32 points. In 16 games. He's followed by Andy Miele with an almost as scary 27 points. The others in double digits are Reilly Smith (who along with our Riley--Sheahan, that is--were the 2 NCAA players invited to try out for Canada) with 19, Pat Cannone (15) and Andy Hirschfeld (10). Smith leads the team in +/- at +12.

ND has some frighteningly good freshmen. T.J. Tynan, CCHA's rookie of the Month for November (joining teammate Anders Lee who was ROTM for October) leads the team in scoring with 18 points. He also leads the team in +/- at +8. Ryan Guentzel is next with 17, followed by Ben Ryan (16), Lee (12) and Calle Ridderwall (11).

ND dresses on average 8 freshmen per game. Miami has only 2 freshmen on their entire roster.

Coach Blasi has been splitting time in net between Cody Reichard (6-2-0 with a GA of 2.31 and a save % of .901) and Connor Knapp (3-2-3, 1.79, .915). Mike Johnson is 7-3-2 with a GA of 2.56 and a save % of .911. I would expect that Steven Summerhays will start the post-Christmas game. If he starts pre-Christmas, I don't think it would be til next weekend, when ND is at home.

Miami averages 3.75 GF and gives up 2.12 GA. ND averages 3.6 GF and gives up 2.73 GA. Miami takes just over 7 penalties/game and is 89.2% on the PK. They have given up 9 PPG's and scored 3 SHG's. They have scored 17 PPG's behind a PP that hits 22.1% of the time. They have given up 4 SHG's. ND takes just under 6 penalties/game. Their PK is effective 89% of the time, giving up just 8 PPG's. Almost negating those PPG's against are their nation-leading 7 SHG's for. They have scored 11 PPG's of their own with a PP that works only 14.1% of the time. They have given up zero SHG's.

Miami's and ND's best O by far both occur in the 2nd period. It wouldn't surprise me to see both teams score 3 goals in each 2nd period given the statistics. ND has pretty even D throughout. Miami, like MSU, tends to give up more and more as the game wears on. Miami is 6-3-3 whey scoring first. ND is 8-1-1 when they register the first tally of the night.

I hope the freshmen make a good first impression on the Redhawks because you never get a 2nd chance for that first impression.

Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.