Evaluating BG hockey

dannyk · Post by **dannyk** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:42 pm

Before some of you instantly start up the flame throwers here is a question.

It has been said on this forum for the last few years and often recently that we are doing a great job of recruiting, and that this program will return to the top of the ccha and the ncaa tournament.

While i agree our recruiting is decent I think we are recruiting more offensive minded players compared to what Buddy Powers brought in. It is more fun to watch a wide open game, the loss doesnt seem as bad because of all the action.

I hope I am wrong but I do not see BG going to the NCAA tournament in the next 3 or 4 years. Our goal production is up but we are also near last in all of all of college hockey in goals against.

Sometimes it seems that things under Pooch seem better becuase we lose games 5-3 instead of 2-0 under Powers.

It is good to be optimistic and I think this team can finish around 7th next year but this year we thought the top 4 was possible. Every team in the nation thinks next year will be better. How long is it possible to just live on next year for a program.

pdt1081 · Post by **pdt1081** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:55 pm

dannyk wrote:Before some of you instantly start up the flame throwers here is a question.

It has been said on this forum for the last few years and often recently that we are doing a great job of recruiting, and that this program will return to the top of the ccha and the ncaa tournament.

While i agree our recruiting is decent I think we are recruiting more offensive minded players compared to what Buddy Powers brought in. It is more fun to watch a wide open game, the loss doesnt seem as bad because of all the action.

I hope I am wrong but I do not see BG going to the NCAA tournament in the next 3 or 4 years. Our goal production is up but we are also near last in all of all of college hockey in goals against.

Sometimes it seems that things under Pooch seem better becuase we lose games 5-3 instead of 2-0 under Powers.

It is good to be optimistic and I think this team can finish around 7th next year but this year we thought the top 4 was possible. Every team in the nation thinks next year will be better. How long is it possible to just live on next year for a program.

I honestly don't know if you're asking a question, or trying to make a point.

BGFan · Post by **BGFan** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:18 pm

Our goaltending struggled early on and our D is relatively young. Give them time. Spratt has shown what he can his last couple of games and we have a couple of highly rated defensemen coming in next year. Last night we gave the third ranked team in the country all that they could handle and, if not for a fluke goal, who knows what would have happened. We're closer than you think

svillefalcon · Post by **svillefalcon** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:19 pm

BGFan wrote:Our goaltending struggled early on and our D is relatively young. Give them time. Spratt has shown what he can his last couple of games and we have a couple of highly rated defensemen coming in next year. Last night we gave the third ranked team in the country all that they could handle and, if not for a fluke goal, who knows what would have happened. We're closer than you think

i agree completely, spratt has really shown why he was drafted the last couple games. the recruiting class is very good. very good defense coming in. things are looking up!

heyman · Post by **heyman** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:11 pm

anybody need more proof than pulling the goalie and costing us the tie and throwing us into last place? id e ut

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:20 pm

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Losing 5-4 is the same as losing 4-3.

pdt1081 · Post by **pdt1081** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:22 pm

heyman wrote:anybody need more proof than pulling the goalie and costing us the tie and throwing us into last place? id e ut

Costing us the tie? WTF are you talking about? Pulling the goalie for an extra attacker is what you do in hockey when you are trailing late in the third period. We were down a goal, pulled the goalie and they scored. It happens. Our last goal (the so called "tie goal") was scored after the empty netter. That goal was scored with the goalie pulled as well. How you can think pulling the goalie cost us a tie is beyond me :shrug:

FlagCityFalcon · Post by **FlagCityFalcon** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:22 pm

He was supposed to predict we'd get the 4th goal?

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:26 pm

FlagCityFalcon wrote:He was supposed to predict we'd get the 4th goal?

Of course, but he was too busy turning water to wine, walking on water, and trying to make a UT student understand 2+2.

falcons86 · Post by **falcons86** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:28 pm

Heyman, get a freakin' clue. They didn't pull Spratt when the game was tied. Before you go spouting off, at least have an idea about what was really going on. You sound like a moron.

GO FALCONS!!!!!

PGY Tiercel · Post by **PGY Tiercel** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:37 pm

Last night was the first game I have been to in a while. It was a great time, and I'll post some pictures tomorrow. that said, Tech and I thought Spratt was pulled a bit early to be honest. BG would have been up one man for the last ~2:00minutes without pulling the goalie. I'm suprised they didn't try to get the goal with the 5-4 until about the 1 minute mark. But this is the observations of an untrained eye so take it for what its worth. Miami had done great job with PK all night with the 5-4, so having 2 extra attackers wasn't a bad idea.

redhawk95 · Post by **redhawk95** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:22 pm

i missed the first game at goggin earlier this year, so last night was the first time i'd seen bg this year. i think that team is a rock defensive pairing away from being in the top half of the league. you guys have a lot of speed up front. i was very impressed with their open ice ability, but maybe not quite enough size to compete down low. brad robbins, miami's soph defenseman, had his way all night down low, but when the bg forwards got open ice, they were extremely hard to defend and very fast. shore up the blue line next year, get a little more size and you guys could be top 6 easily next season.

as it is, knocking off uno and coming back to goggin for another weekend would be fine with me. good luck at omaha.

Tech83 · Post by **Tech83** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 5:50 pm

PGY is correct. We both felt that Spratt was pulled a little earlier.

To recap, there was 1:58 (?) left in the game and we were at the start of a 5 on 4 powerplay. A time-out had been called by BG (I think) and we came out with 6 skaters and an empty net.

My first reaction was man I love the aggressive play. Of course, it bit us in the rear. But isn't that how aggressive play works, if the empty net goal by Miami hadn't happened, BG ties the game and we go into OT. You are either a goat or a hero when you make a gutsy, aggressive call.

BTW - We still went out with six skaters and ended up scoring to end the game at 5--4..... tough loss. Just to clarify a few things, we pulled Spratt a number of times during the game for a extra skater. The coaches were pulling out all the stops and it was great to see them trust their players that much. It had to have an mental effect on our team.

With some sleep and time to think about the game. BG is continuing their rise from the ashes. Can anyone really be that upset that we lost two games to the #3 team in the Nation by 1 point? If that is what a #3 team looks like, I like our future.

So Color Me Orange!!!!!

TG1996 · Post by **TG1996** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:42 pm

Tech83 wrote:Just to clarify a few things, we pulled Spratt a number of times during the game for a extra skater.

Just for the hell of it? Or was there a delayed penalty coming up?

Tech83 · Post by **Tech83** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:58 pm

I can't clarify that..... But lets assume delayed penalty. I personally thought when we did pull him we had great advantage at the moment the extra skater would push us over the edge. Miami was getting very excitable (in the sense of "oh crap what do we do!") every time we did it.

Evaluating BG hockey

Evaluating BG hockey

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