{"id":42338,"date":"2012-02-29T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=42338"},"modified":"2019-09-17T20:12:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T01:12:06","slug":"wednesday-women-previewing-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2012\/02\/29\/wednesday-women-previewing-the-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Women: Previewing the playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Candace:<\/strong> Well, the playoffs are underway, and we’ve already had one fairly interesting upset. I don’t think either of us anticipated Quinnipiac knocking out Clarkson in Potsdam. And while it’s not as big an upset, I was surprised to see St. Lawrence sweep Dartmouth. Now the Saints face Harvard in the semis, instead of Cornell, thanks to Quinnipiac’s win. I can actually see St. Lawrence winning that and advancing to play most likely Cornell. In Hockey East, Providence dismantled Maine, and looks like a potentially dangerous opponent for Northeastern, while Boston College and Boston University get a whack at each other. In the WCHA, all four quarterfinals were sweeps by the favorite, something I didn’t anticipate. Minnesota-Duluth now plays Wisconsin, and Minnesota gets North Dakota. What’s your take on last weekend’s results?<\/p>\n Arlan:<\/strong> The ECAC action was by far the most interesting; the Cornell series was the only one where much separation between the teams was demonstrated. Harvard was tested by Princeton in each game, and while the Crimson passed, I didn’t feel that they were sending any message to the rest of the league that they’d moved to a new level. Still, any wins in the postseason are good wins. One couldn’t ask for much more out of the first game between the Saints and the Big Green, a see-saw battle that ended in favor of St. Lawrence 22 seconds into overtime. It’s funny how often that happens in sudden death — the Zamboni makes new ice, and it gets used for less than a shift. Whether Dartmouth suffered a hangover from that loss, it fell victim to the lack of offense that you mentioned during the season, or it was all about SLU and goalie Carmen McDonald playing well, the Saints are the team that stayed hot and advanced. As for Quinnipiac winning that series, it unfolded just like I predicted in our picks contest last week — what, you didn’t get my e-mail? Seriously, that would have been a tough one to call correctly. Not that the Bobcats aren’t a quality team, but they lost five straight prior to salvaging two wins in the final regular season weekend, so they weren’t exactly sizzling in relation to Clarkson. It looks like Quinnipiac surprised the Golden Knights twice in that series, first with a three-goal blitz early in the first game, and then with their ability to put the clamps back on Clarkson in game three after the hosts had battled back to tie the series. Looking at the season results as a whole, the Bobcats are dangerous when they get good goaltending, and vulnerable when they don’t. I realize that the same could be said for most of the other teams that will be in action this weekend; it just seems to be more glaring for Quinnipiac. I think they’ve had more in-game goalie changes than anyone else still in contention.<\/p>\n The only real surprise in Hockey East was how one-sided both games were. New Hampshire is perhaps a touch relieved to see the offseason arrive, because the last few weeks have been rough in Durham. The story may be that the Terriers played great in their 9-1 win, but everybody seems to play well against the Wildcats of late. Providence handled Maine with such ease that one has to look at the Friars as a serious candidate to claim the Hockey East championship. Northeastern was only one goal better after 125 minutes of hockey two weeks ago, so I’d expect a very close game in that semifinal. The real question for me in that tournament is where is Boston College at? And no, I don’t mean on Chestnut Hill. The Eagles have mixed in some clunkers in recent weeks against teams that will be joining them in this field, but they are still the highest-ranked club nationally from HEA. Will BC prove to be the class of the competition, or just a team that played it’s best hockey a while back.<\/p>\n No surprises at all out of Madison or Minneapolis. The Duluth series was close throughout, but the Bulldogs proved to be a bit better than the Buckeyes, just as during the season. The revelation out of the WCHA was how well North Dakota did defensively, holding Bemidji State to less than 20 shots in each game. That’s one way to overcome any supposed weakness in net: don’t let the other team shoot. Whether they’ll be able to keep that level of team defense up against a Minnesota team that averaged around 35 shots per game during the season series will be revealed on Friday night.<\/p>\n The one other bit of news out of Madison last week was Minnesota State coach Eric Means’ decision to not coach Friday night’s game. That stemmed out of an incident in Duluth on February 17, where he allegedly took exception to UMD calling a timeout in the final minute of a game the Bulldogs led 4-1 and encouraged his players to retaliate against UMD players when they came out for a power play. Mavericks junior Lauren Smith apparently took him at his word, and went after Haley Irwin and Audrey Cournoyer, receiving two major penalties, a game misconduct, and a disqualification for her actions. The whole thing to me seems almost like road rage, where an inconsiderate act by one party escalates to a dangerous response by another. If you want revenge against an opponent, take it on the scoreboard, not by setting penalty records. What did you think about that incident?<\/p>\n Candace:<\/strong> Putting on the foil coach. Honestly, stuff like that makes me wonder. I generally follow college hockey much more than pro hockey, in part because I hate some of the thuggery that percolates through the pro game. I keep hoping that the NHL will take steps to ban fighting, but if you go to a game and see something like that break out, the whole crowd roars, and you depressingly realize it’s unlikely it will ever happen. For a coach to encourage retaliation like that, well, I just don’t think there is any excuse. I still feel that Marc Crawford should have been permanently banned from the NHL, along with Todd Bertuzzi, for the incident involving Steve Moore. If Means did in fact encourage his players to go after the opposition, I think stronger action might need to be taken. It’s one thing for players to lose their cool in the heat of battle; it’s something entirely different when it’s premeditated and encouraged by the coach. What’s your take?<\/p>\n Arlan:<\/strong> If events are as they are reported, I definitely think that at a minimum, Means needs to sit down with his administration and decide whether the women’s game is for him. It would be one thing if he’d just come over from the men’s side and didn’t understand the culture here, but this is his third season. He knows what type of behavior to expect from the other bench in some rinks, so he needs to find a more constructive way to channel frustrations. The beauty of the WCHA is you get another shot at your opponent the next day. If you want to hurt them, then inspire your players to put the puck in their net and keep it out of your own. Don’t take it out on some kid who is only on the ice because her coach sent her over the boards. And don’t throw your own players under the bus by putting them in a no-win situation. All of these players are in college to learn, and there are more important lessons than winning and losing. At the end of the day, you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be okay with what you see. Whatever happens at Minnesota State, the situation has a few months to play out.<\/p>\n Back to the playoffs. By this time next week, we’ll finally have the eight-team field about which we’ve been speculating for months. Given Mercyhurst is the only CHA team with a chance, that means 13 teams trying to fit through an opening that can only fit eight. Five teams will be squeezed out. Or looked at in the more traditional sense, three auto-bid winners and five at-large teams secure berths. Starting with the ECAC, is that still Cornell’s crown to win, or can Quinnipiac, Harvard, or St. Lawrence break the Big Red’s run?<\/p>\n