{"id":98734,"date":"2017-03-17T20:56:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T01:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/nchc-blog\/?p=644"},"modified":"2017-03-17T20:56:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T01:56:46","slug":"three-takeways-from-minnesota-duluths-win-over-western-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2017\/03\/17\/three-takeways-from-minnesota-duluths-win-over-western-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Three takeways from Minnesota Duluth’s win over Western Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Bulldogs second period<\/strong> “Well, I think their second goal woke our bench up for sure,” said Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin. “I thought we played better toward the end of the period and got a goal and tried to carry that over into the third. We have to get better in the second periods. You know teams are going to make a push when they’re trailing and we were up 2-1. Very similar to the game we had there Saturday where we were up 2-0 and they came out and made a real good push in the second.”<\/p>\n The same six games also saw freshman goaltender Hunter Miska’s save percentage suffer, stopping just .852 with a goals-against of 3.33 compared to the prior six-game stretch where he sported an unworldly .958 mark with a GAA of 1.33. For the season, Miska holds a .917 save percentage and 2.21 GAA.<\/p>\n Both the second period woes and Miska’s lower save percentage come at a time where the Bulldogs are allowing seven less shots per game in the last six games versus the previous six.<\/p>\n Western road woes continue<\/strong> In neutral-site games, the Broncos are 2-1 including Friday’s 5-2 loss, scoring 2.33 goals per game while allowing two goals a game.<\/p>\n “We’re actually pretty good at neutral-site games if you check that,” said Broncos coach Andy Murray. “This is what you’d call a neutral-site game; we’ve won quite a few neutral-site games this year. They’re seven other pretty good teams in this league too.”<\/p>\n With only neutral-site games remaining, the Broncos need to find a way to score away from Lawson in hopes of a making a strong tournament run.<\/p>\n “Lawson is definitely a tough building to play in,” said senior defenseman Taylor Fleming. “Nice to have those fans and they help us out and give us a lot of energy. Any time you are on the road, it’s always going to be a tough game. I don’t think there’s a reason for us being a .500 team on the road; we just have to be better, because the rest of the season is going to be on the road, so we have to pick it up.”<\/p>\n Chasing a one seed<\/strong> Losing Saturday will end any hope the Broncos have for a one seed. Duluth will need Denver to lose at least once and get some help from teams that played Denver, such as Air Force.<\/p>\n Check out this scenario in the PairWise Predictor:<\/p>\n
\nOutscored 12-7 in the second period in the last six games, Minnesota Duluth bucked the trend by tying Western Michigan 1-1 in the second stanza. Despite being outscored almost 2-1 in the second period down the stretch, the Bulldogs were 4-1-1 in the stretch.<\/p>\n
\nThe Broncos’ road woes continue. At home, Western Michigan is 10 games over .500 (14-4-3) while just one game over 500 away from Lawson Ice Arena (8-7-2). Offense seems to be an issue, as the Broncos score an average of 3.85 goals at home vs. 2.94 away from Lawson. Defensively the team is playing slightly worse.<\/p>\n
\nBoth teams came into the game staring at one seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Western had a half-game lead on Minnesota for the final one seed, while Duluth had locked up its one seed and had a chance of the top overall seed. Western’s chances were significantly hurt with Friday’s loss.<\/p>\n