KFAN talks hockey

Ryan Cardinal was on KFAN today with Paul Allen and talked about the Fighting Sioux and Minnesota Gophers series this weekend down in Minneapolis.
[listen to the broadcast here]

PA and Cardinal are on with 16:45 left in the middle hour of the broadcast. A couple of things that caught my attention while UND has been 4th and 6th in the national rankings they are sitting at 9th in the pairwise, I don't know if I am ready to say that UND is an elite team. I think UND is a good team that should make the NCAA tourney if they keep playing consistent. The Fighting Sioux have a lot of potential to make some noise in the national tourney, if they can play consistent.

I also thought I heard Cardinal say that he kind of admires the way UND plays the game, interesting because a lot of Gopher fans I know think they play a rough and tumble goon hockey.

On the UND defense: Joe Finley might have been walked a few times in the Mariucci Arena, but that is history, I believe Andrew MacWilliam is a much better skater than Finley was and plays against all of the top players in the WCHA. While I wasn't a Finley hater by any stretch of the imagination, I think MacWilliam is a better defender than Joe Finley.

Here is a link to the write up that Ryan Cardinal did for Gopher Puck Live.
[Click link to article]

So, while it’s nice that the Gophers have been able to string some wins together and get back above .500 for the first time all season, it should not be lost on fans that they still haven’t shown the ability to consistently beat average to above average teams, and that is all they play the rest of the way, starting with North Dakota this weekend at Mariucci.

So far this season, the Gophers have been awful against good teams, which is why they are facing a big up-hill battle to get home-ice for the WCHA playoffs and making the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota is 3-9-1 vs. teams with a winning record, and only 1-5-0 at home in those games. The atmosphere at Mariucci Arena this season has been pretty marginal, due to the team playing at a lower level than they have in years past, but also due to the fact they have played a pretty soft home schedule and, when they’ve played good teams, they’ve been handled by the Denver and Minnesota Duluth’s of the world.

The Sioux came into this season with high expectations despite having 10 freshman on their roster, and got off to a hot start, going 7-1-1, including taking three of four points against the Gophers to start the season in Grand Forks. However, in a 4-2 series-opening victory over St. Cloud State on Nov. 13, SCSU’s Aaron Marvin hit UND defenseman Chay Genoway from behind, with the 6-3, 205 lb. Marvin essentially cross-checking the 5-9, 174 lb. Genoway’s head into the glass. Genoway, who had 10 points in nine games at that point and was likely on pace for a first-team All-American selection, suffered a concussion and hasn’t played since, and his prognosis for the rest of the season is still up in the air.
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From a Minnesota perspective, the Gophers are going to have to hope their improved play of late translates as the speed limit goes (way) up this weekend, as Head Coach Don Lucia likes to say. Between Minnesota’s offensive issues and North Dakota’s defensive prowess, the Gophers hopes to winning this weekend could fall on the shoulders of junior goalie Alex Kangas, who will for sure get the start on Friday, and likely against on Saturday unless the wheels really come off in game one of the series. Kangas has shown the ability in the past to steal games, and he may have to do that more than once during the next few months if this team is going to ascend in the WCHA standings. The Sioux have had Kangas’ number, as he’s just 1-4-1 all-time against the Sioux, and has a save percentage of .854 save percentage in his last three starts against the Sioux, all Gopher losses. Now, four of his five starts have been at Ralph Engelstad Arena, which is a hostile building for any goalie to have to play in.