Brief Bemidji Postgame Comment Count

Brian

carl-hagelin-versus-bemidji

Bork. Daily photostream.

Currently in Fort Wayne and about to go explore the wonders of central Indiana—as indicated by my mysterious tweet, the War Memorial Coliseum is hosting the Indiana Alpaca Invitational next weekend, which I would totally go to if it was in Jackson.

Anyway, items:

Bork! Good thing the enormous Swedish flag made it out here. It would have been a shame not to have it during the few minutes in the third when Hagelin took over and turned the game from terror incarnate into a pleasant victory. It was retroactively weird to watch Hagelin wind up on his own blue line and think "this can be a breakaway" when two Beaver defensemen were a good twenty feet in front of him, but that's exactly what happened. There were a couple other shifts when he was just flying all over the ice. He's equaled Ortmeyer in my book.

Apparently he's a lock to come back next year, which is good. Not getting a senior year out of him would be heartbreaking.

Ice conditions: wack. Apparently the Miami players laid into the ice quality at their postgame press conference and in the stands you could tell something was wrong by the number of people plain falling over. At first these were mostly UAH players and given the rest of their play it was within the realm of possibility that their skating just included a lot of falling over, but when a bunch of Miami players got in on it that was proof enough. In the second game it seemed a little better but not much.

Refereeing: thoroughly wack. My favorite was the crosschecking call when a BSU guy was on a partial break and no one on Michigan could have cross-checked the guy if they had go go gadget arms, but the chintzy roughing penalties paired with an uncalled boarding on BSU that could have been five were second. Third was Hagelin getting two for getting hit after the whistle. He's Swedish, man.

This John Gravallese guy is one of those refs who makes his calls like he's bringing Truth and Justice to hockey. Just make the calls like a robot, thanks. This goes double when the calls in question are questionable to outrageous.

Hunwick: !!!. I thought "that's a goal" like four times in that game and Hunwick made three saves (the other whistled over the net), most of them impressively agile reactions to rebounds or passes. That was an excellent game, and not "for a walk-on." There was even a significant reduction in the number of shots kicked into the slot to linger and terrify.

Turnovers: guh. I didn't really mind Llewellyn's penalty since it seemed to be one of those that get called for hitting a guy too hard, but he was the culprit on a couple of late-game turnovers that would be considerably worse if they happened against Carter Camper. Burlon was the other guy who seemed to struggle. He let a BSU guy wide on their first real scoring chance and Hunwick had to make two quick saves in succession. No one should ever get around a guy who skates like Burlon.

Miami: flat? I don't know. They dominated according to shots and play but they didn't score an even-strength goal against a bad team, only got their second PP goal because of some hilariously bad play from the UAH goalie, and didn't seem to have a huge territorial advantage at 5x5 after the first ten minutes. Miami resistance in the neutral zone was minimal in the second and third during the brief stretches UAH wasn't killing a stupid penalty. Maybe that was a strategic move… but their performance didn't make me think the CCHA semi was a fluke.

Not that I expect 5-1, Temporarily Benevolent Michigan Walk-on Tolerating God. I'm just saying that I don't expect the ice to be slanted much either way and this is way more of a coinflip than you'd think given the season-long metrics on both teams.

NCAA: lol. There are video boards at the arena. They never show replays of anything.

Fitness? The Miami game was at least close enough that the Redhawks couldn't take the third period off, but I'm slightly worried that all those penalty kills will take their toll. At points late in the second Michigan looked really tired and the fourth line took considerably more shifts than I expected in a game with an extra 2:30 of commercials every period. A lot of people were complaining about fourth lines being nonexistent with the extensive TV timeouts, but Michigan's took a regular shift. Diabolical plot to be fresher today or penalty-kill-induced damage mitigation?

Atmosphere: meh. I really like the War Memorial Coliseum, as it's one of those buildings where the seats go straight up and the sight lines are great, but announced attendance yesterday was 4k. I can't wait to see the dozens of people who make the trek out to St. Louis next year.

It's time to go to home sites for top seeds. As I was flicking through the channels on Friday to see what ESPN2 was televising instead of NMU-SCSU in overtime, I struck upon a Division II women's basketball game between Emporia State and Fort Lewis. It was packed out. It was in a 2,300 seat arena. It had way better atmosphere than frickin' Albany. The Frozen Four can fill an NHL building. The regionals obviously can't.

The NCAA should got to a system where schools submit bids at whatever arenas they want as long as they meet certain standards and the top seed in each regional to submit a bid that meets approval gets it. This avoids the "what if Huntsville gets a one-seed" problem.

Please win tonight. K thx.

Comments

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

March 28th, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^

OMG video boards. I think the NCAA must have some kind of anti-replay policy, because I was at Vermont/Air Force last year in Bridgeport (this was supposed to be Michigan/Vermont but Volkening happened and he almost happened to Vermont also) and that game had a very weird finish and we all walked out of the arena going "ok, no seriously: what just happened?" Call me crazy but I think if the audience walks out of the arena and doesn't know why someone won, that's not good.

(P.S. - it was actually because the refs and/or video officials were on their toes, believe it or not, and reviewed a play from about two minutes before the actual stoppage and determined it to be the game-winning goal. But they never put the replay on the board and the arena announcer said literally nothing at all. The ref pointed at the Vermont bench and then at the goal and that was that.)

Alvasin

November 5th, 2011 at 2:25 AM ^

What I wouldnt give to have a debate with you about this. You just say so many things that arrive from nowhere that Im pretty certain Id have a fair shot. Your blog is terrific visually, I mean people wont be bored. But others who can see past the videos and the layout wont be so impressed with your generic understanding of this topic.

Website Design Philadelphia

 

UMMAN83

March 28th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^

can't commit to a weekend pass. If I could have purchased a single game ticket for last night, I would have been there. In any regard, I voluntered for the Frozen Four weekend in Detroit. I expect UM to be there and I will be in the stands after my events. Go Blue!

streaker

March 28th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^

with every point. Somehow Hockey East officials think that hitting isn't allowed in hockey. Or maybe they don't like our helmets.

Anyway, I enjoyed the Michigan student section shout down of elitist Redhawk fan trying to quell the howling over the penalties. I guess tDynasty has assumed CCHA governmental rights on cheering, too.

GCS

March 28th, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^

Anyway, I enjoyed the Michigan student section shout down of elitist Redhawk fan trying to quell the howling over the penalties. I guess tDynasty has assumed CCHA governmental rights on cheering, too.

Is it possible to provide more details for the people who can't attend because they're more than 1000 miles away?

JustGoBlue

March 28th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^

Miami stole all of our cheers, like we did for Cornell. Some Miami fans stayed to watch our game against Bemidji. Obviously, they were rooting against us, because they'd rather play the 2 seed than the 3 seed. So, we do the "whoop whoop" on the PK. One of the Miami fans thought it would be entertaining to do the "whoop whoop" on our PP. It was embarrassing for him as he was not good at and we made fun of him. Additionally, when Cornell came to Yost for a regional and we stole all their cheers, we outnumbered them. At least last night (and hopefully tonight) we outnumbered the Miami fans.

But that's Miami fans. They're perfect. Just like their team. And Rico. No losing happens, ever. Everything they do is a win. Yes I'm adding a generalized attack to Miami fans. I don't like them.

EDIT: At least that's what I recall. There could be numerous instances and this could be a different one.

Catholepistimiad

March 28th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^

I found a lot of general nastiness from the Redskin fans, at least in the concourse (I was in the UAH section, for whatever reason, so didn't have problems in the stands). It also didn't help that liquor was sold in "lounges" around the arena, and the MU fans were getting well-sauced while watching NCAA hoops. I'm not obnoxious (except in the stands, while watching the game) but I did fear things escalating...there is a lot of hate out their by the 'Skins fans against us. Not that I care, it's just funny considering their incredible lack of championship hockey over the last 60 years.

streaker

March 28th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^

kept turning around and standing every time Michigan fans howled about a penalty, which was frequent between the end of the first and the middle part of the 2nd period.

Stood on his seat in his bright red sweatshirt yelling for the Michigan fans to STFU about the calls. Now, some of the penalties were justifed (yes, the Lynch xcheck, maybe the Burlon center ice trip...) but other calls, (like the Rohrkemper penalty) were bogus and some, as Brian alluded to, were either evened up or not called on behalf of tBeavs.

Finally a few of the students started an unrecognizable chant
(I think it was Buck-eye re-ject) that made the tool stop.

Geaux_Blue

March 28th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^

controlled the entire tempo for 2 periods. only in the 3rd did they start letting the kid gloves come off and 30 seconds after Michigan made 3 bit hits they scored and cut the game wide open. it was bizarre. Bemidji made 2-3 hits. UM retaliated 2-3x harder. puck pops open. goal.

ommeethatsees

March 28th, 2010 at 12:30 PM ^

Sorry Brian. I agree with every point except for the call on the cross-check (I think it was on Lynch). I think it was a good call and was a poor penalty for Michigan to take. The Bemidji player had two UM players right on him and wouldn't have been able to take a good shot anyway. Michigan has to be more careful tonight not to take so many unnecessary penalties. Miami is a better team than Bemidji and we can't afford to make that mistake with them.

pz

March 28th, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^

Right on.

I guess the only other concern for those involved would be that they would have to clear/hold the schedules of all of the potential host arenas well in advance, which would undermine the ability to schedule important things like alpaca conferences.

(Really, though, I guess there would probably be some resistance in the case of arenas that could have booked something to generate $ and then didn't because their team was a potential #1 seed.)

They've got to come up with something to make it better - even if ND were playing in Ft. Wayne as a 1-seed, they probably wouldn't have filled it up.

mjw

March 28th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^

Can't believe the ice was better in our game than in the first. I personally thought it was really bad in ours.

From my seat had a perfect view of the penalty called on Tristan. How the ref (why no names on their backs? is it b/c they know they are bad?) who was still in the Beav's defensive zone can call a nonexistent elbow on a hit on the opposite side of center continues to boggle my mind and let me know we were in for a bad night of reffing.

Overheard someone say that Miami maybe exerted themselves for maybe 10 minutes of their game which is a concern in terms of how much work our team did, as pointed out in the post.

and does anyone know which refs we'll get for the game tonight? or does it not matter b/c of equal suck?

slacker

March 28th, 2010 at 1:33 PM ^

My buddy and I bought tickets from the box office during the Miami game for $30 each. They were for the 600s sections, but we sat in the end zone near the Michigan band with no resistance from the ushers.

ATL Blue

March 28th, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

Did anyone else notice that they took the time to paint all the logos on the ice, but didn't bother to paint the trapezoids behind the net?

Are there any rule buffs out there - is the trapezoid area not universal in college hockey?

pinkfloyd2000

March 28th, 2010 at 3:28 PM ^

And I speak from experience...because I am one (and an alum).

1. Most of them grew up diehard OSU football fans. Geography, ya know. Most of them never knew Miami football as anything but a MAC punching bag (minus a few Big Ben years), even though my dad assures me all the time that Miami had great teams in the 50s and 60s -- and they most certainly did. But the point is, the hate of Michigan is most certainly there. A lot of these people root harder for OSU football than Miami football. And you know, I don't have much of a problem with that, given that I root for Michigan football a helluva lot harder than Miami football. And, let's face it -- Miami football has been ABYSMAL lately. Even worse than ours.

2. Miami has NEVER won a National Championship in ANYTHING except for ice dancing. Seriously. And, as everyone knows...they were just a few seconds last year from doing so. Chip on shoulder is big.

Anyway...

I went to Miami from 1992-1996, and hockey was king for me there. Miami didn't suck ass at it like they did the other major sports. So, I am approaching tonight's game with a lot of conflict. I have as much love for the Maize & Blue as anyone who actually attended Michigan. But then there's my alma mater, always on the outside, looking in... man, I dunno what to root for tonight. A good game? I guess either way, I can be a winner.

Homer

March 28th, 2010 at 3:35 PM ^

We were wondering about that, too (although not enough to actually look it up afterwards). Is a race, a shearing, or an ultimate fighting-type contest? And how does one earn an invitation?

WCHBlog

March 28th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^

Huntsville's arena would actually be fine since it's a nice 6000-seat arena.

The bigger problem is how do teams get into an arena that they don't own on a week's notice? Does Ferris State have to rent out Van Andel for one weekend every year on the 1% chance they get to host a regional?

Bando Calrissian

March 28th, 2010 at 7:27 PM ^

The NCAA DOES have a policy regarding replays at regionals. They also directly control what band plays when, and if a team doesn't bring a band, uses canned music to fill in for their "time."

Having been to 3 regionals, I can unequivocally say the NCAA spends an inordinate amount of time and effort to make said events as sanitary, boring, and completely devoid of any of the pageantry of college hockey as humanly possible. This is the NCAA Tournament. Quit treating it with "OMG competitive advantage!" kid gloves.

truferblue22

March 29th, 2010 at 3:02 AM ^

I know this is completely the wrong place to post, but since I don't feel like hunting reading anything else painful (or starting my own thread), I'll put it here...it's 3am, I am still awake, and I still, very much want to die...