Alaska

[Falcon Fanatic]

Never Give Up!
Never Surrender!

This REALLY applied to tonight's game! Very proud of the boys for hanging in there and getting the tie after being dominated for a good chunk of the game. The series next week at Mich Tech is HUGE. We're one point behind them in league play.

GO FALCONS!!

[jbakerifm]

I'll admit that the goalie rotation worked better than I thought it would, but it has to be shaken out by now. Way I see it, Nell plays good all the time, Burke plays well most of the time, sholl some of the time, and this is dating back to last season when it was just Burke and Sholl. If they are worried about wearing Nell out (doesn't make sense to me since he probably played more games per season in junior, but maybe) then put Burke in occasionally or every other.

I wasn't a fan of the rotation to begin with. I know the mantra is that the competition between teammates makes everyone better, but it also possible to destroy a guys confidence with the constant uncertainty. While goalies obviously have to be able to deal with intense pressure throughout a game, I would agrue that is a different type of pressure than what goes on during a game.

Mini rant over. Tons of credit to the guys on a night they could have easily put the game in the gutter and given up.

[pdt1081]

This game likely spells the end of Sholl for the rest of the year. Nell should be the starter with Burke backing up. We're too far into the season to still have a revolving door in net.

Before tonight, BG had two goalies in the top 10 of most of goaltender categories. Nell, and whichever of Burke or Sholl that had reached the 1/3 of team's minutes played threshold.

Is the rotation over? We'll find out next Saturday, maybe.

And say what you want about the goaltending, but don't forget about the guys playing in front of him. Lazy effort in the defensive zone. Guys standing around watching. Not clearing pucks. Not blocking lanes. Pretty much allowing Alaska players to do whatever they wanted. They should feel lucky the lead was never more than 3. 1 of 7 on the powerplay is unacceptable. It HAS to be unacceptable when you are trailing 4-1. This game was perfect to make a statement about BG hockey. Especially after the way the third period went Friday night.

Now it's time to go to a slumping Tech team. Tech is a good team. They don't have the record they do, or the place in the standings, without being a good team. An effort like this next weekend could make a first or second place finish very difficult.

[rood]

Not to take anything away from him - three shutouts are still three shutouts - but is Nell that good or has he been a little lucky in his starts? He hasn't really played against any top teams (RMU's record notwithstanding).

Looking at his stats in juniors I didn't expect him to be anything more than the usual third string goalie who maybe gets to play 5 minutes at the end of the occasional blowout. He had a 3.46 GAA two years ago and a 3.18 last year and now he's undefeated with a 1.41 and 3 shutouts? Is this the greatest recruiting coup ever or what?

[BGhockeyfan94]

I didn't expect nell to do this well either. I figured burke and sholl would split time like last year. But now I only want nell in net. Regardless of who he played, I still feel like he is a strong goaltender. I don't see him giving up weak goals, and he seems to be fairly consistand and he makes huge saves when we need him to.

Great recruitment find on him.

[jbakerifm]

A few of Nell's starts have been against softer teams, but he doesn't exactly have a choice who he plays against. Hes made the most of his opportunity so far. Can't deny hes gotten pretty lucky as far as the effort level in front of him, but again, only do much he can do to control that either.

On a different note I've been wondering what's up with Desalvo. Obviously he had a big target on his back being the top returning scorer, but to be this far into the season with no goals and 9a s is surprising. I almost wonder if he doesn't have a nagging injury or something. There are times it seems like his feet' aren't moving and he isn't skating as hard. His linemates are doing OK, so I'm just a little curious what's up

[apollo]

Huge credit to the players and coaches for their execution of the 6-5 strategy. That type of comeback can really give a team confidence. I still don't think we are a top 15 team, but we are doing a good job against all the second tier teams, which is what the top teams do.

[Freddie]

... I still don't think we are a top 15 team, but we are doing a good job against all the second tier teams, which is what the top teams do.

Once again your ignorance and negativity are over-shadowing the true picture.
You continually rant about the weakness of our schedule, pining for the good-ol-days when we played the big boys.
We ARE a top-15 team by ANY measurable standard:
#5 in PWR and RPI....and the Strength of Schedule component of the RPI says we have played the #9 toughest schedule in the country. How can that be when we don't play anybody that anybody's ever heard of? Simple...name recognition only matters to the ignorant masses...and it appears you are intent in being the banner carrier for ignorance.

Facts are these:
Minnesota State and Michigan Tech are both better than Michigan.
Alaska, Northern Michigan and Robert Morris are all better than Ohio State.
Bemidji and Clarkson are both better than Notre Dame.
With the exception of Huntsville EVERYbody on our schedule is better than Michigan State.

[BGhockeyfan94]

... I still don't think we are a top 15 team, but we are doing a good job against all the second tier teams, which is what the top teams do.

Once again your ignorance and negativity are over-shadowing the true picture.
You continually rant about the weakness of our schedule, pining for the good-ol-days when we played the big boys.
We ARE a top-15 team by ANY measurable standard:
#5 in PWR and RPI....and the Strength of Schedule component of the RPI says we have played the #9 toughest schedule in the country. How can that be when we don't play anybody that anybody's ever heard of? Simple...name recognition only matters to the ignorant masses...and it appears you are intent in being the banner carrier for ignorance.

Facts are these:
Minnesota State and Michigan Tech are both better than Michigan.
Alaska, Northern Michigan and Robert Morris are all better than Ohio State.
Bemidji and Clarkson are both better than Notre Dame.
With the exception of Huntsville EVERYbody on our schedule is better than Michigan State.

[jbakerifm]

Still not a top 15 team huh. #5 in the pairwise while playing a top ten ranked schedule is apparently meaningless.

People still butthurt over the demise of the ccha annoy me. Looking at the current rankings most of the old teams aren't exactly tearing things up. At some point you have to acknowledge that being at a monster state university isn't necessary to have a solid hockey program.

[apollo]

Wow....talk about hitting the wrong cord. We'll see what happens....this weekend against Tech will say as to how good we really are. I'll just drop it...obviously the I'm dealing with some great hockey minds and I'm out of my league. As long as the team keeps winning the games the computer rankings really won't change and we'll be sitting pretty. I just honestly don't know how we'll get past all these powerhouses the rest of the way? It's gonna be tough.

[Freddie]

I just honestly don't know how we'll get past all these powerhouses the rest of the way? It's gonna be tough.

Of course it will be tough. If it were easy, everybody would do it.

[jbakerifm]

Just saw a timely tweet on Twitter from college hockey news. 4 teams each from hockey east and NCHC. 3 from WCHA and ECAC. 1 from the big ten. Our schedule is fine, when you include the other two strong teams in the conference and Miami. I think Alaska would be set a lot higher if they hadn't had their post sanction hangover

[BGFan]

Apollo, here is the list of NCAA Hockey national champions. Tell me if you see any type of dominance by "name" schools: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Divis ... ampionship" target="_blank

Ever hear of Union College? They won it last year. The only advantage of playing "name" schools is attendance at the game. Perception versus reality are two different things. The fact is, playing Big Whatever schools this year would bring our SOS down because right now Big Whatever Hockey pretty much sucks.

[jpfalcon09]

The Tech series is going to be huge. They struggled over the weekend with NMU and I'm sure they're looking to right the ship against a team ahead of them in the PWR.

Speaking of PWR, its a little dangerous to get caught up in them in January. We'll need to wait and see how everything shakes out conference wise in March to truly determine if BG gets to go to the tournament or not. The wins against Miami, Minnesota State and RMU are looking really good and are keeping us afloat. RPI is going to drop after the Tech series as we see four games against Ferris, two against LSSU and two against Huntsville. BG needs to be concerned about simply winning games, trying to win the WCHA and positioning themselves for a deep league playoff run. Everything else will fall into place after that.

As for SOS, this is what makes college hockey so special. Name notoriety doesn't really count for a whole lot. Yeah, it sucks that the CCHA disbanded but we're finding out this year that the WCHA has some very well established programs, and they're schools similar in size to BG. I'm really stoked for the remainder of this season as I think 20 wins can be attained which should guarantee the team a spot in the NCAA tournament.