Friday, March 4, 2011

Seawolves 4, Mavericks 0

Freddy's three thoughts of the game:

1. Spring break: All of the other Minnesota State students went on spring break on Friday night; apparently the Mavericks did, too. In what seemed to be its worst performance of the season (or at least since Thanksgiving), MSU didn't look like a team trying to avoid being the first-ever 11th place team in the WCHA. The Mavericks put 35 shots on freshman Chris Kamal, but the goalie didn't have to get too acrobatic to score his second college shutout. MSU went 0 for 5 on the power play.

2. Holy moly, what a ... When the Seawolves went up 3-0, the previously red-hot Austin Lee was pulled from the Mavericks' goal in favor of Phil Cook. Lee had faced just 11 shots before getting the hook 7 1/2 minutes into the second period. "You can't give up three goals on eight shots," coach Troy Jutting said, referring to the shot total on the board at the time (officially, it was 11, according to the final summary sheet). "And you can't have 35 shots and not score. It's a disaster." Anchorage scored a 4-on-3 power-play goal with 1:23 left in the first period when Tommy Grant crashed the net and tipped in the rebound of a shot from the wall. The Seawolves' second goal came off a faceoff in the Mavericks' defensive zone. Winger Nick Haddad got behind the defense and wide open in front of Lee right off the draw, and Jordan Kwas found him for an easy goal. The third goal was deflected in from the hash marks by Craig Parkinson after a soft pass from Sean Wiles in the left circle.

3. Where they stand: The Mavericks are all alone in 11th place in the WCHA, thanks to the loss and Bemidji State's tie with Minnesota. Here are the standings, heading into tonight's regular-season finales:

1. North Dakota 41 points
2. Denver 35*
3. Minnesota-Duluth 35
4. Nebraska-Omaha 34
5. Minnesota 29
6. Colorado College 28
----------------------------------
7. St. Cloud State 26
8. Wisconsin 25
9. Alaska-Anchorage 24
10. Bemidji State 21
11. Minnesota State 20
12. Michigan Tech 6

* Denver currently holds the tiebreaker over Duluth (I hope I have that right!)

The top six teams have all clinched home ice and will host tournament series next weekend. But nothing will shake out until Saturday's games are complete. The Mavericks can finish no higher than 10th now. Currently, they would go to Denver for the first round. However, Duluth and Omaha also remain possibilities

Read Friday's box score here.

1 comment:

BIGhkyfan said...

God awful...

And what PP???

The same guys are not getting it done, yet rewarded for what, being seniors? They should be the ones telling coach to try something different with players on the bench! what can it hurt? By the looks of tonight, nothing.

Sure I want to be positive for "our" MAVS, yet how can I when we are out coached game after game.

If they ain't getter ur done, don't play'um.

Start a completely different line. Mix it up cause the "same old" like the pre-game into music just ain't working.

Perhaps when the "can do no wrong" senior D move on, this can become a TEAM as we had in the early-mid 2000's.

The younger guys on this team deserve better from their teammates and leadership.

That's just the way it's been pretty much all season and we better not hear about a season ticket increase for next year or ...