...Ladies?
There's still one hockey team on campus with a shot at earning home ice in the WCHA playoffs. The Minnesota State women's team pulled off a dramatic sweep of St. Cloud State at home last weekend on senior weekend to pull into a tie with Ohio State for the 4th spot in the WCHA.
The Mavericks lost a two-goal third period lead in the first game of the series in St. Cloud, but scored with less than a minute left in overtime to win the game. They shutdown the Huskies offense on Saturday to get a 2-0.
The women play Ohio State this weekend, which is the last weekend of the regular season, at the Sell-Your-Soul Center in Columbus. The winner of this series will gain the final home ice playoff spot. Ohio State comes into the weekend with a slight advantage, in that they swept Minnesota State earlier this season at All Seasons Arena, meaning a split this weekend would give the tiebreaker to Ohio State.
Regardless of this weekend, the Mavericks can finish no worse than 5th in the conference. Theoretically, Bemidji State is only four points behind MSU could catch them this weekend, but BSU travels to Madison this weekend to face a Wisconsin team that has only lost once all season, and has only allowed 34 goals all season(Four Wisconsin players have more points than that). Even if the impossible happened, MSU would still hold the tiebreaker over BSU.
As far as the NCAA tournament goes, MSU currently sits at 13th in the Women's PWR(for all of the PWR's flawed math, the Women's PWR is actually currently the same at the RPI. Go figure.). Since only eight teams get into the women's tourney, they probably need to win the WCHA tournament to have any hope of making the NCAA tournament.
So the mission for the Mavericks this weekend is simple. Win both games, or get a win and a tie, and they'll host Ohio State in the WCHA playoffs. Lose a game and they're forced to play in Columbus in the first round of the playoffs. In fact, if I were coach Jeff Vizenor, I'd threaten the team by saying that if they lose a game, the team will do things Alaska-style and just spend the week in Columbus instead of flying back home. Lord knows the prospect of spending a week in that hellhole would motivate me to play harder.
The Mavericks lost a two-goal third period lead in the first game of the series in St. Cloud, but scored with less than a minute left in overtime to win the game. They shutdown the Huskies offense on Saturday to get a 2-0.
The women play Ohio State this weekend, which is the last weekend of the regular season, at the Sell-Your-Soul Center in Columbus. The winner of this series will gain the final home ice playoff spot. Ohio State comes into the weekend with a slight advantage, in that they swept Minnesota State earlier this season at All Seasons Arena, meaning a split this weekend would give the tiebreaker to Ohio State.
Regardless of this weekend, the Mavericks can finish no worse than 5th in the conference. Theoretically, Bemidji State is only four points behind MSU could catch them this weekend, but BSU travels to Madison this weekend to face a Wisconsin team that has only lost once all season, and has only allowed 34 goals all season(Four Wisconsin players have more points than that). Even if the impossible happened, MSU would still hold the tiebreaker over BSU.
As far as the NCAA tournament goes, MSU currently sits at 13th in the Women's PWR(for all of the PWR's flawed math, the Women's PWR is actually currently the same at the RPI. Go figure.). Since only eight teams get into the women's tourney, they probably need to win the WCHA tournament to have any hope of making the NCAA tournament.
So the mission for the Mavericks this weekend is simple. Win both games, or get a win and a tie, and they'll host Ohio State in the WCHA playoffs. Lose a game and they're forced to play in Columbus in the first round of the playoffs. In fact, if I were coach Jeff Vizenor, I'd threaten the team by saying that if they lose a game, the team will do things Alaska-style and just spend the week in Columbus instead of flying back home. Lord knows the prospect of spending a week in that hellhole would motivate me to play harder.
posted by Chris at 2:01 PM
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