College hockey scores from 10-24-2008.

Friday, October 24, 2008
CCHA
Ferris State 1 at Western Michigan 1 ot: WMU Wins Shootout
Bowling Green 1 at Alaska 0
Miami 2 at Notre Dame 0
Northern Michigan 2 at Michigan State 2 ot: MSU Wins Shootout

Analysis

Gotta love it, two shootouts in the CCHA action last night, both WMU and MSU were the victors after participating in the most exiting play in hockey the shootout. It will be interesting to see how the fans in the CCHA respond to this as the season goes on. If CCHA teams lose in the shootout they still get a point and it counts as a tie in the RPI rankings. Miami showed that it is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the CCHA by beating Notre Dame.

Hockey East
Massachusetts 1 at New Hampshire 1 ot
Vermont 2 at Boston College 3
Providence 1 at Mass.-Lowell 4
Northeastern 5 at Maine 0
No shocks in Hockey East last night.

WCHA
Minnesota-Duluth 3 at Alaska-Anchorage 4
Minnesota 2 at Wisconsin 2 ot

Analysis

UMD loses to UAA in Anchorage I still see a split in that series, Sioux7 got the ire of RWD’s with his predictions and is looking better today after picking UAA.

Last night I watched the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Wisconsin game on FSN and it was basically a penalty feast; there were 42 penalties called during the game. You wonder if the league officials are going to have to join a health club and get into the gym. Seriously folks, the refs are going to have to work out on their arm muscles to strengthen their arms muscles because they will have their arm in the air all night calling penalties at this pace.

One has to wonder if the league officials are over doing just a bit it to make a statement to the fans. You know the ok well show you, you wanted penalties called we are going to call penalties. That is one theory, or that this really proves how bad the officiating had degraded during the last few seasons and now finally the WCHA is trying to get the officiating back to where it should be? Stay tuned this is a work in progress.

During the off-season there were a lot of fan including my self that wondered if the WCHA was going to enforce the rules per the rule book. Two week into the WCHA season it is evident that the WCHA officials ARE going to call a lot of penalties this season. Last night on the power play the Golden Gophers went a not so impressive 0-10, while the Wisconsin Badgers were a little more successful going 1-9 on the man advantage.

I thought the Badgers came out strong at the beginning of the game then were out shot 10-2 in the third period. Badgers sieve Shane Connelly who had been brutal coming into this weekend (0-2 record, 5.59 gaa and a sav % of .874) improved his stats to gaa 4.2646 and a save percentage of .896 on the season.

I would imagine that WCHA teams are going to be spending a lot of time working on the power play and penalty kill. I think eventually this will work itself out and the players will learn that if you take your hand off of the stick you will be penalized.

Non-Conference

Mercyhurst 1 at Nebraska-Omaha 3
St. Cloud State 2 at Bemidji State 4
Colorado College 1 at Clarkson 1 ot
Ohio State 1 at Denver 3

Analysis

I am still waiting for an arena report from the “Commish” to let me know what happened during the BSU and JBSU game. At first I thought this was a misprint. Good for the Beavers because it stops and 0-4-0 start to the season.

This game was also a penalty feast as there were 52 penalties called during the game.

Colorado College tied Clarkson 1-1; one has to wonder if the Tigers are a good as they are advertised to be or if Clarkson is really that good. There were only 32 minutes of penalties called during this game. From the stats it says that the Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich stood on his stopping 34 out of 35 shots.

Linkorama --- a few things

Alaska gov. Sarah Palin will drop the puck for the Blues and L.A. Kings games, this will be the second NHL game that she has dropped the puck in.

ST. LOUIS - Republican vice-presidential candidate and self-proclaimed ''hockey mom'' Sarah Palin will drop the ceremonial first puck Friday night at the St. Louis Blues' game against the Los Angeles Kings.

Palin dropped the puck for the Flyer's opener and was met with mixed results as she was booed by some in attendance. Also, the Flyers have yet to win a game this season. I was wondering if we could get her to drop the puck in Detroit?

You see, Sarah Palin dropped the opening puck for the Philadelphia Flyers regular season. For those of you who don't follow hockey, the Flyers were expected to do pretty well this season. ESPN even tabbed them as the team to win the Atlantic Division. So, dare you ask how the Flyers are doing?

They're currently sitting at the bottom of the division with a ridiculously horrible 3 points through six games. They also have yet to win a game, too. Yikes.

If Sara Palin had a 6th kid she would name it Zamboni. Yikes...

Palin said if she and husband Todd had had a sixth child, they had already picked a name for a boy joining siblings Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

"I always wanted a son named Zamboni," she said.

Gophers get two home regionals in a row.

This was posted on Brad's blog today. Nothing like stacking the deck in the Gophers favor. I can just imagine we will hear some silly statements about how the Xcel energy center isn't a home game for the Gophers. Yeah OK... The Xcel energy center is is a nice arena and a great venue for the Sioux to stomp the Gophers yet again.

Maybe the NCAA will send the Sioux out east. I see some nice venues out east as well. I can imagine we will hear complaining from some fans about teams holding regionals on their home arenas. The Xcel energy center will drawl well and will be a great place to watch a regional and the regional will sell a lot of tickets if the Gophers make the regional.

Xcel Center to host 2010 regional
The Xcel Energy Center and Minnesota have been awarded the 2010 West Regional, the school announced today. That means the Gophers will host the next two West Regionals. This season's is at Mariucci.

Future sites:

2009
Northeast: Manchester, N.H.
East: Bridgeport, Conn.
West: Minneapolis (Mariucci)
Midwest: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Frozen Four: Washington, D.C.

2010
Northeast: Worcester, Mass.
East: Albany, N.Y.
West: St. Paul (Xcel)
Midwest: Fort Wayne, Ind.
Frozen Four: Detroit (Ford Field)

2011
Northeast: Manchester, N.H.
East: Bridgeport, Conn.
West: TBA.
Midwest: TBA.
Frozen Four: St. Paul (Xcel Center)

2012
Frozen Four: Tampa