Notre Dame vs Michigan Hockey Tonight at 7:35
I must say that I envy anybody going to this game tonight but this should be a good one. The Wolverines are wrapping up the end of a difficult season and currently have 40 pts overall in the CCHA standings. A win tonight would give them 42 and put some distance with the Buckeyes who are below Michigan at 8th in the conference. But they have their handfull with Miami in Miami tonight so go redhawks! Michigan should win this game though the Irish have been lousy this season sitting in the bottom of the conference so I am expecting great puck possession by Michigan tonight and Hogan being solid in net. JUST WISH the damn game was on CBS College Sports or Big Ten Network because I dont get FSN Detroit. Any feeds anyone know of for tonight?!
February 25th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
It'll be nice to have the students actually there for Senior Night this year. The last few years it's been while they were on Spring Break.
That said, if we don't sweep and NMU can't lose one for us, many of the students won't be there for the first round playoff games. Yost just isn't the same without the students.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:57 AM ^
I just checked and there are tickets still available at the UM website.
Also, a couple of points of clarification (which should only make the game more interesting). Michigan now has 40 points in the CCHA and is in 7th place. With a sweep of ND, we would finish the season with 46 points. Alaska's CCHA season is done and they are in 4th place with 45 points.
GO BLUE!!
[Edit, Nebraska-Omaha is in 5th place with 44 points and their CCHA season is also done. That leaves Northern which is in 6th with 42 points and a weekend series with Lake Superior.]
February 25th, 2010 at 11:03 AM ^
I just bought a pair of tickets in the student section (Sec. 15) - Is it usually a free for all in the student section as far as seats go?
I'd like to sit where my tickets are but I can't get there super early to make sure that I get the seats.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
It's a free for all, but most students won't show up until about 5-10 minutes before game time. And even if you can't get into your actual seats, you should still be able to find good ones that are open.
February 25th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^
I appreciate the info. I'll just have to see what I can find when I get there.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:10 AM ^
Yeah, it should be a great atmosphere tonight. I'm a little worried about this game because I've seen Michigan get frustrated and struggle against teams like ND who seem to be satisfied with shortening the game to single period by playing boring and systematic defensive hockey.
I was going to post this last night as a new thread, but I don't have enough points.
Shakedown
Michigan (18-16-1, 13-12-1-0 CCHA)
Notre Dame (12-14-8, 8-11-7-2 CCHA)
There is a possible first-round playoff bye at stake. We can finish anywhere between tied for 2nd and 9th, though even 4th (the last place that earns a bye) is a long-shot.
What we need for a bye assuming we take care of business:
* No. 17 Alaska finishes against Anchorage with no better than a tie. Unlikely.
and
* No. 19 Nebraska finishes against No. 6 Bemidji State with no better than a tie. Probable.
and
* Northern finishes against Lake Superior with no better than a win. Unlikely.
ND Cliffs Notes
Callie Ridderwall. He's responsible for almost one out of every four Irish goals this season and is the only guy with double-digits in that department. In my opinion he's a defensive liability, though the Irish are 7-2-2 when he scores. Obviously, my opinion doesn't matter. Ridderwall's also Swedish, so someone should make a sign ripping him in Swedish that only he and Carl would get.
Their best player is probably Billy Maday, who returned last week after missing eight games with a shoulder injury. He didn't do much in the boxscore last week, so he may not be 100%, but there was no reason for the Irish to rush him back. I didn't see him play this year due to the games being on Comcast, though he caught my attention last year as a dangerous playmaker with above-average defensive skills. The Irish are 3-0-2 when he scores.
Game Plan
Limit penalties. It's not that ND has a great PP, in fact it's average at 18.6%, 6th in the CCHA, but that 46.2% of their goals come on the PP.
Pester Ridderwall. He's prone to take bad penalties, so we might as well encourage him to take himself out of the game.
Unfortunately, their PK is impressive at 87.2%, 2nd in the CCHA and only 0.1% behind Miami. If we get behind, I suspect will see a more active defense immediately. This is a little troubling considering how poor our defensive decision making as been most of this season.
Our roster is much deeper than ND, so expect the Caporusso and Treais lines to get more ice time than usual to exploit the advantage over thier Irish counterparts.
I've seen a few ND games on TV against other opponents this year. They have a tendency to spend the first period trapping, the second playing hockey, and the third choking away any lead they had or throwing in the towel.
Result
This team hasn't proven they can rise to any occasion, one win this weekend.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:50 AM ^
Nothing Nebraska or Alaska does this week has ANY bearing on what bye we may or may not get, considering they aren't playing in conference, which is the only way to get points in the conference standings. And Northern can take no more than 4 points from LSSU this weekend. We win the first conference tie breaker-total wins. That's a win and a shootout loss or two shootout wins or any scenario that gives them less than 4 points. 5 points on the weekend and there is nothing we can do to catch them. If we get 6 points we automatically pass Nebraska and Alaska, so really only Northern matters and everyone should be rooting for LSSU as hard as possible...
February 25th, 2010 at 2:44 PM ^
That's what I get for writing this while watching olympic hockey.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
Notre Dame has had injuries all season and were playing three forwards on defense when the two teams split earlier in the year. They still have a few injuries but its not as bad as before.
And with this Michigan team, frankly, I'm always worried about how they perform.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
I don't know if I can take any more pain this week...
February 25th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^
So if we win this, we're into the medal round?
February 25th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^
All we need to do is get three more points than Northern this weekend. Two more points would put us in a tie with them and the first tie-breaker would be conference wins (14-13 them right now). We could theoretically finish in a second place tie with MSU and Ferris if we sweep and they both get swept by Bowling Green and Western respectively (not going to happen).
http://www.uscho.com/standings/?season=20092010&conf=1&type=d1&gender=m
February 25th, 2010 at 3:55 PM ^
We don't just need to out-gain Northern, we also need to get at least 5 out of 6 points to move ahead of Nebraska and Alaska.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:14 PM ^
You're correct. I forgot about those two. Well, a sweep and 3 or less by Northern satisfies passing them as well.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:34 PM ^
Note: Shootout results will not be used to break ties in the standings for playoffs-http://www.ccha.com/weekend_action_features_several_battles_for_playoff…
At the bottom of the page. Thus, Northern has only 11 (current) wins to our 13 (current) and as long as we get 2 more points than them we win the tiebreaker and the bye (assuming we also get the 5 to pass Alaska, we win the tiebreak with them too, 11 wins total for them, 13 for us, right now).
Also, even if it did include shoot-out wins, the only situation we still don't pass northern by getting two more points is if they win two shootouts and we win two in regulation.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:15 PM ^
I went to the game with my old man (his first time at Yost). Great experience and a great game played by the whole team. Hated to see Hogan go down, I hope he's alright. Notre Dame is also full of a bunch of sore loser d-bags...but we already knew that, didn't we?