Weekly Update 11/18/08

So that's what a shootout looks like, eh? It's good fun and I guess exciting, but I'll take conventional 2-point games rather than 3 if it's all the same to you, thanks. I still don't like the idea of some games being worth more than others. A 3-2-1-0 or 5-3-2-0 system wouldn't bother me -- I'm not anti-shootout specifically, rather anti-inconsistency.

Not much to report on the games themselves this week, due to writing time constraints. I promise to do better next time. Yay for the 4th line continuing to skate well and provide solid contributions. Boo for a generally lackluster Friday night in earning the tie/SOW. Much better Saturday with 10 different players tallying at least a point in the 5-2 win.

This week's Quip of the Week is from Brainasium's description of Calle Ridderwall's shootout score:

To describe Ridderwall's SO goal as "sick" is an understatement. I have never seen a goalie beat so badly that the shooter goes five hole to the top shelf.

This week also brings a bonus quip courtesy of the JACC student section (Section 6), dealing with Lake State's verbosely-named goalie:

Mahoney Hyphen Wilson Mahoney Hyphen Wilson Mahoney Hyphen Wilson Mahoney Hyphen Wilson Mahoney Hyphen Wilson, you suck! It's all your fault!

The show where everything's not made up and the polls don't matter:
USCHO poll: 5 (Opponents -- BC: 4, MU: 7, UM: 9, DU: 10, UNO: 19)
USAHM poll: 6 (Opponents -- BC: 4, MU: 7, UM: 9, DU: 10)
INCH Power: 4 (Opponents -- BC: 6, DU: 8, MU: 13, UM: 14, UNO: 17)

Go Irish! Beat Falcons!

Weekly Update 11/11/08

*tweeeet* ... uh, oh, I think Friday night's refs just called another penalty. 10 penalties (20 minutes) in the first period and 24 penalties overall? Holy crap. On one hand these teams don't like each other very much and the refs were trying to keep the game under control, on the other hand it was as though having 5-on-5 hockey was somehow verboten.

Officiating aside (and it wasn't unfair, just excessive), excellent performance for the boys in Conte. Hardnosed game, strong defensive play -- especially shutting down their PP 0-8! The empty netter makes the score look a bit less close than the game was, but ND controlled the run of play for much of the night even though BC seemed to actually out-possess the Irish, so I have no real complaints. Jordan Pearce was fantastic, and really shut the door any time that the ND defense lagged even the smallest bit. Overall a tremendous performance Friday.

One final thought is a protest that Billy Maday's goal was kicked in. What is it about these teams and kicking the puck, you'd think they were all soccer players or something.

Oh, right, and we played Providence too. Lost in the much-talked about National Championship Game rematch was the followup versus PC. ND again was perfect on the kill and Pearce ended the weekend with a GAA of essentially 1 (slightly higher than that due to delayed penalty time). Other than the fact that both games were 4-1 with an empty-netter they couldn't have been much more different ... a total of 5 penalties between the two teams for the entire game, and whereas BC handily outshot the Irish, ND outshot the Friars 28-27.

Quip of the Week:

When they pulled Muse, the crowd was quite enthusiastically chanting "Let's go Eagles". Deeth then quickly scored an EN/SHG, and it became apparent what they really had been doing was announcing their intention to vacate the premises.

The show where everything's not made up and the polls don't matter:
USCHO poll: 9 (Opponents -- DU: 4, BC: 5, UM: 8, MU: 10, MSU: 17)
USAHM poll: 9 (Opponents -- DU: 4, BC: 6, UM: 8, MU: 10)
INCH Power: 7 (Opponents -- DU: 4, BC: 8, UM: 11, MU: 15, MSU: 18)

Go Irish! Beat Former Fighting Jeff Jacksons! (er ... Lakers!)

Weekly Update 11/03/08

Much better against NMU this weekend. Granted their season hasn't exactly met the lofty expectations placed on them thus far, but it's always nice to pick up 4 points on the road. Further, the team looked (well, sounded ... I couldn't make it up to Marquette) good doing it. Even further it's nice to see a good effort in games that could easily be taken for granted looking ahead to the national championship final rematch next week.
A nice all-around effort spreading the puck (and thus the points) around with effective PP and perfect PK:

Blatchford 0/4
Maday      1/2
Hanson     1/2
Thang      1/1
Lawson     1/1
Cole       1/0
Ridderwall 1/0
Kissel     1/0
Deeth      0/1

Third Family Member delivers the quip of the week recalling an anecdote told by Fr. Jim Riehle, the long-time hockey (and seemingly every other ND sport) chaplain, who died last week:

There used to be a team of skating priests that would travel round the country, challenging local college players to games, and one year they came to Notre Dame. It was before Adam Parsons graduated, because I can remember he was one of the players who took on the priests--who included Fr. Riehle. Adam tried to illegally check someone, a priest, obviously, and Fr. Riehle had the game stopped, made Adam kneel at center ice, and confess his sins.

The show where everything's not made up and the polls don't matter:
USCHO poll: 12 (Opponents -- BC: 2, DU: 6, UM: 7, MU: 8, MSU: 11)
USAHM poll: 12 (Opponents -- BC: 2, DU: 6, UM: 7, MU: 8, MSU: 11)
INCH Power: 12 (Opponents -- BC: 3, DU: 6, UM: 9, MSU: 10, MU: 11)

Go Irish! Beat Eagles! (ND 3-0-1 in last 4 regular-season meetings with UBICH.)