FWIW, this league has 2 nationally ranked teams in it. Ferris State (ranked 6th) and Minnesota State University at Mankato (ranked 18th). Our record against them isn't bad. We played Ferris twice and had a loss and a tie. We played MSU 4 times and split with them 2-2. Of the 4 games, 3 of them went into OT. We also played number 3, Union and had a loss and a tie with them. Not too shabby against ranked opponents, overall.hammb wrote:I made it out to the game Friday night and enjoyed seeing the win.
Glad to see the record of BG Hockey is better than what it has been but as a VERY casual fan I have to think a lot of that is due to the much lower level of competition than we're used to. I'm no hockey expert but the quality of our opponent this weekend didn't look even close to the type of team I was used to see playing against us. I realize that the CCHA dissolved and there was nothing we could do about that, but in this new conference I have to say that anything less than consistent championships is a big time disappointment for this program.
That said I do like the consistent year to year improvement we've seen under Bergeron so I do think another year with all of HIS players is warranted (as I thought it was for Louis Orr several years back). But in this conference? Anything less than a conference championship should be considered falling well below expectations next year.
And I say this as a total casual fan that doesn't watch more than 2-3 games a year. I used to follow the sport pretty closely when I was actually at BG, but it lost my interest with it's continued sucktitude, and it'll take a lot to get it back.
We fell a little flat in the second half. It's conjecture on my part, but with Mingo declared ineligible and the return of Carpenter to the line up, I think that the line chemistry that had been developed in the first half got screwed up and it took a while for them to gel again.
The Bimidji team that you saw isn't a bad team and they have made it to the NCAA playoffs as recently as 2005. Granted, they are having a down year but they have also knocked off some quality opponents this year. If you want to see us playing a better team, come to the playoff games this weekend. Michigan Tech is a good, fast team and we will have our hands full.
