Monday, March 12, 2007

111 minutes, 33 seconds...and a win

Wow. What a game. The Huskies finally prevailed last night, riding the nations top goaltender and Hobey Baker candidate, Bobby Goepfert to a 3-2 triple overtime win over the UMD Bulldogs.

Sadly enough, someone had to lose that game. Going from overtime to overtime, seeing both goaltenders make amazing save after amazing save was awesome.

Off to the WCHA Final Five go the Huskies. A match up with North Dakota, the hottest team in College Hockey, is on the horizon. SCSU, still 3rd in the pairwise rankings, have secured a #1 seed in the NCAA's, but to take the WCHA final five is something all of us want.

Josh Johnson, the UMD goaltender, was all world this weekend. If not for a fluke goal on Saturday night, Duluth would be in St Paul this weekend. I enjoyed watching the great net minders all weekend long.

Having spent the better part of my college winters at the National Hockey Center and it's famous Dogg Pound, I wish our fans had been a bit more respectful at the end of the greatest college hockey game most of us will ever see.

Yeah, we call out the opposing goaltender after every goal, but after 3 regular periods and almost 3 full 20 minute overtime periods, it seemed to me a bit much. Johnson had a helluva series!

Has anyone ever seen 67 saves? Half of Goepfert's 67 saves were due to his ninja like skill in goal. I still have no idea how on earth he stopped a few of those shots, he's simply the best goaltender to ever play at the NHC.

So, what's going to happen this weekend.

Thursday night, Michigan Tech plays Wisconsin in the play in game.

Wisconsin should win, 5-2.

Friday at 2pm, the Huskies match up with North Dakota, and one of my favorite players in the WCHA, Ryan Duncan. Call me a homer, but I have SCSU winning 4-3.

Wisconsin plays the rodents, Golden Gophers on Friday night. Wisconsin will upset the Gophers 3-2.

North Dakota will be Minnesota in the consolation final, score? It doesn't matter.

St Cloud will beat Wisconsin to be the WCHA champion. The Badgers have it tough as they will have to play 3 games in consecutive nights. The Huskies got their scare this weekend and will fix their power play woes this weekend in St Paul, propelling the Huskies to their first National Championship.

Anyway, 111 minutes, 33 seconds. It took 4 and a half hours to play it though!

What a game!

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