{"id":699,"date":"2009-10-25T20:46:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T01:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/blogs\/?p=699"},"modified":"2009-10-25T20:46:40","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T01:46:40","slug":"what-i-think-week-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2009\/10\/25\/what-i-think-week-3\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Think: Week 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trying out a new weekly installment of the blog — some random (and not-so-random) thoughts on the week prior.<\/p>\n

* I’ve never seen this before. And neither have you, unless you were a Minnesota hockey follower in 1930 and were around for those momentous games against the Tulsa Athletic Club and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Denver blanked the Golden Gophers in both games of a WCHA series on this, the third weekend of the season. Minnesota hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games since a 0-0 tie with Tulsa and a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

You can argue that it was a shot in the dark, a complete anomaly. But look at the Gophers’ season to date: four games, three of them shutouts. It doesn’t take much to get them riled up about the Gophers in the Twin Cities, so I suspect this isn’t sitting well.<\/p>\n

Minnesota has Alaska-Anchorage heading to Mariucci next weekend, which you normally would think would be a welcome sight. But given the Seawolves’ victory over North Dakota on Saturday, maybe not. Of course, the games probably will<\/em> be welcome after what I’m guessing will be a pretty grueling week of practice.<\/p>\n

* I posted this on the USCHO Twitter feed<\/a> when it happened, but in case you missed it: When Boston University lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday, it fell to 0-2 and became the first defending national champion to open with two losses since Denver in 2005.<\/p>\n

Yeah, not too long ago, really, so it wasn’t a stunning development. But remember that the Pioneers didn’t make the NCAAs in 2005-06 despite a 21-15-3 overall record and a 17-8-3 WCHA mark and second-place conference finish.<\/p>\n

Those early losses seem to haunt teams, so it was important that the Terriers responded with a victory over Michigan on Saturday. A home-and-home series with Massachusetts-Lowell next weekend should tell us quite a bit about both sides.<\/p>\n

* Since everything I write here today seems to have at least a connection to Denver, here’s another one: Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky earned his 500th victory on Saturday.<\/p>\n

That’s in a little over 23 seasons, working out to an average of a shade under 22 victories per season. By comparison, Ron Mason, the all-time wins leader with 924, averaged over 25 wins a season over 36 seasons. Not a fair comparison, of course — I’m not sure there is one when Ron Mason is at the other side — but interesting to note.<\/p>\n

* Wisconsin got called for two major checking from behind penalties in the third period Saturday night at Minnesota State, and the Mavericks scored the eventual game-winning goal on the power play resulting from the second.<\/p>\n

And they were bad<\/em> checks from behind. Craig Smith got Geoff Irwin first and rightly earned a game disqualification that will keep him out of Friday’s game against New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin tri-captain Ryan McDonagh hit Eriah Hayes 4:30 later. That one could have merited a DQ as well, but the defenseman got off with just the major and game misconduct.<\/p>\n

The double trouble got me thinking about the idea of progressive penalties when a team is called for multiple checking from behind majors in the same game. My first reaction was that maybe you punish a team more for the second major in the same game to try to emphasize how awful it is that you saw it happen earlier and did it again.<\/p>\n

But leaving your team on a five-minute penalty kill is already a pretty hefty fine. Unless we start seeing an uptick in checking from behind majors, maybe status quo is punishment enough.<\/p>\n

* In beating Michigan Tech 8-5 on Saturday, Colorado College scored five times in 10 power-play chances and added two shorthanded goals (one into an empty net). A night earlier, CC scored three power-play goals and an empty-netter in a 4-1 victory.<\/p>\n

I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but there is no good light to be found there for the Tech penalty kill, which is now operating at a national-worst 60 percent early this season (18-for-30).<\/p>\n

* Here’s my top 20:<\/p>\n

1. Denver<\/p>\n

2. Miami<\/p>\n

3. North Dakota<\/p>\n

4. Boston University<\/p>\n

5. Massachusetts-Lowell<\/p>\n

6. Michigan<\/p>\n

7. Yale<\/p>\n

8. Vermont<\/p>\n

9. Notre Dame<\/p>\n

10. Cornell<\/p>\n

11. Nebraska-Omaha<\/p>\n

12. Bemidji State<\/p>\n

13. Princeton<\/p>\n

14. Colorado College<\/p>\n

15. Quinnipiac<\/p>\n

16. Boston College<\/p>\n

17. Alaska<\/p>\n

18. Massachusetts<\/p>\n

19. Michigan State<\/p>\n

20. St. Cloud State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying out a new weekly installment of the blog — some random (and not-so-random) thoughts on the week prior. * I’ve never seen this before. And neither have you, unless you were a Minnesota hockey follower in 1930 and were around for those momentous games against the Tulsa Athletic Club and Wisconsin. Denver blanked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1444],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Think: Week 3 - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trying out a new weekly installment of the blog -- some random (and not-so-random) thoughts on the week prior. * I've never seen this before. 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