The University of Denver chased off the leading goaltender in college hockey in less than 10 minutes of play and it looked like it "Black Friday" would soon be a forgotten memory. Unfortunately the University of New Hampshire didn't get the memo and a four-goal third period brought heartache to Magness Arena on Saturday night.
Despite the losses to the east coast visitors, DU remained #3 in the Pairwise Rankings and firmly in first place in the WCHA.
19 comments:
Hell of a weekend against the eastern teams for du. Nice fan salute (giving them the bird) to yale after the game winning goal what a classless fan base. See what halpens when you play a few good teams? Your not that good.
Gwoz said he would booed after the Yale game, after last night I say REFUND! Who cares about pairwise rankings? Two nationally ranked teams came into DU and rolled them. I have to question this teams heart,desire and passion. They go up 3 and it seemed like they sat back and let UNH come to them and they came. UNH used two men on the puck and speed through the neutral zone to trap DU.
Does DU have a system? dumping the puck to center ice is not a system. I am usually not this critical but what I am seeing this season is not worthy of a high national ranking. Where is the leadership on this team? No one seemed to be upset when UNH came back last night. It was a lackluster performance at best. If things do not chnage this week, the Bddgers will roll up DU as well.
I am now scared. We needed that win tonight. Our PWR is currently 3rd, but that is because UNH is ranked so high. If UNH falls in the polls we are toast. We have no quality non-conf wins to bolster our PWR at the end of the year. Looks like we now have to finish in the top two in the WCHA or win the conf tourney. The PWR doesn't mean a thing right now boys, so I wouldn't be too comfotable with our current ranking. Beating BU is a MUST.
The upcoming schedule is brutal. 2 against Minn, 4 against UND. Can't expect more then splits in any of those series. At St. Cloud, and two against CC who will be out for blood and would love to ruin our season. I really hope we didn't peak too early.
Former DU assistant coach John Harrington, a forward on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, watched the game from the press box. He is a scout for the Avalanche.
Joey LaLeggia was awful last night. He was -4. He was the poster child of bad decisions and overall apathy of the defensemen.
His swing and a miss in the last minute was his crowning achievement in a forgetable game.
It's sad when Ty Loney was the only one who showed up.
They had a great start and everyone started beleiving they are Superman. A little dose of reality early in the season could get these kids back on track.
Britian didn't help . Three soft goals. Worst game I've ever seen him play.He should have been pulled like The New H. guy was.
Two Colorado teams and only one point between the two of them on the weekend, and Denver gets no points at all. How do you spell pathetic? CC AND Denver is the answer to that question.
Not DU's finest hour, for sure.
DU played about 2 good periods out of 6 this weekend and while they deservedly lost both games, they were still in both games until the very end. This was a very good lesson about the level of work ethic that is required.
I expect DU's practices to be a little different this week...
Firstly props to New Hampshie & Yale for coming in and getting the job done. Two very entertaining games for sure. UNH does a great job of springing thier forwards for one on none breaks. Also two very good crowds this weekend.
Two shorties & no power play goals tells you all you need to know about the weekend. Hopefully changes are acomin'.
Plenty of blame to go around from the lack of atmosphere in the arena, to the players & the coaches. It's on all of us.
I agree that the Pairwise is precarious because of our average record against TUC's & noncons.
DG, got to disagree w respect to fans. Good turnout both nights. Any lack of atmosphere was a function of lack of effort on Pioneers. The question in my mind is why does this continually happen? Not exactly AL Huntsville, but why no effort on noncon games?
When things are going right the bad habits tend to creep into the game. What happened to the 45-60 second shifts. The scoring lines figure they can take 2-3 minute shifts and the number 1 power play line figure they have the right to play the whole 2 minutes. They have no gas to stop the short handed attempts plus maybe having 3 D-men on PP they should be thinking a liitle more about their position as D-men out there too. Lets regroup and get back to the basics start playing "D" first and shorter shifts. The goals will come but you can't win if they keep scoring at will out there. This has to start with the coaches on the bench last time I checked they are suppose to be running the bench and not the players.
Oogly. No question about it. Far more concerning to me than 'phoning one in against Yale is getting outscored 6-1 in two periods, at home. How does that happen? That's a rhetorical question which no doubt Gwoz and the team will be struggling to answer. Credit to Yale for hanging in there in a game they "couldn't" win. And to UNH for also hanging in there after getting lit up in the 1st.
In 48 hours we go from dusting off a space for that 8th trophy to wondering whether we can even get in to the tournament. Oogly.
Old pio its called playing good teams old man. Noy beating up on cup cakes.
The answers start in the d-zone. If DU better manages the puck (turnovers are endemic and must be controlled) and then straightens out the coverages/gap control issues, the offense will come out of transition.
DU's power play consistency has almost always been an issue in the Gwoz era because the combination of over-skilled players looking for the pretty goal combined with lack of commitment to get dirty in the crease. If DU can find a way to get the dirty goals in front, it will force defensive changes that will limit the shorties going the other way.
I can only sum up DU's effort with one word...PATHETIC. The team is definitely going to have to work on special teams but also on character. I was disappointed how some of the players finished the game last night and there's no place for it on this team.
DU fans have been so used to good goaltending performances that Sammy's bad night last night stands out in stark relief. If you ask Sammy, I would bet he would say that at least half of UNHs 6 goals were very save-able shots and ended up as softies.
I am also not a fan of home games when the students are away on break, especially against good teams. DU needs its students at the games to have any semblance of home ice advantage. Without the students, these games really lack crowd engagement.
The sky is not falling. Who really thought they would be 9 and 3 right now. They are a goood team that will bounce back.
Intense debate going on here right now at my house; I need your help. What is the name of the song they play at each DU game, when the Referees skate around before the players? My know it all wife says it's a TV show theme. I say no. Anybody???
them from TJ Hooker
No that's not it.
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