Not a bad year for MN winter sports

[Libertas]

Gopher girls hockey team won national championship 4-2 over rival WI.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7706733/noora-raty-lifts-minnesota-gophers-ncaa-women-hockey-title-wisconsin-badgers

Gopher mens BB still alive in NIT, going to NYC for final 4 and have a date with Washington.

Beat a fesity Middle Tennessee St team to get there (and their 3rd straight road win!).  Andre Hollins (native of TN) had a big game.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=320812393

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/bracket/_/id/111/2012-national-invitational-tournament

And Gophers mens hockey (WCHA regular season champs) are in NCAA playoffs and if they can get past BU they could have a rematch with WCHA playoff champ North Dakota and a potential date with UMD in the Frozen Four if both get that far.

http://www.uscho.com/ncaa/mens-division-i-ncaa-tournament/

4pm game Saturday, hope I am out of my district convention in time to watch the game!

[Miltrainer]

Gopher girls hockey team won national championship 4-2 over rival WI.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7706733/noora-raty-lifts-minnesota-gophers-ncaa-women-hockey-title-wisconsin-badgers

Gopher mens BB still alive in NIT, going to NYC for final 4 and have a date with Washington.

Beat a fesity Middle Tennessee St team to get there (and their 3rd straight road win!).  Andre Hollins (native of TN) had a big game.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=320812393

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/bracket/_/id/111/2012-national-invitational-tournament

And Gophers mens hockey (WCHA regular season champs) are in NCAA playoffs and if they can get past BU they could have a rematch with WCHA playoff champ North Dakota and a potential date with UMD in the Frozen Four if both get that far.

http://www.uscho.com/ncaa/mens-division-i-ncaa-tournament/

4pm game Saturday, hope I am out of my district convention in time to watch the game!

Hey you forgot to mention that the wrestlers came in second at the NCAA tournament.

[Libertas]

I did forget!   

Thanks for the assist.   

[Magnum]

I watched the Gopher Women beat the hated badgers on Sunday for the Ncaa's and I was pleasantly surprised on how the quality of the women's gamed has improved through the years.

Hats off to the lady gophers...................

Gopher Women's Hockey celebrates 2012 National Championship

BUT with the good comes the bad and the ugly.

The &*$#@$  &^%*&#%   men's team lost 6-3 to the suewage after being up 3-0 with 5 minutes to go in the second period.

Gopher hockey highlights: Minnesota falls to UND 6-3 in Final Five

How the ^%$# can you lose when we were so dominate through half the game. If they don't step it up this weekend when the west region comes to the X (hopefully we get a rematch with the suewage) they will have a long summer to think about what could have been.
 

[Libertas]

Yeah, 6 unanswered goals, it was painful watching that game.  I hope the NCAA performance is better and I can get that rotten taste out of my mouth, a rematch and crushing of ND would pretty much achieve that!

Dang cool Gopher whackin' Bucky thingy ya got there!   

[Libertas]

Woo hoo!  Gophers got revenge on North Dakota, beat them 5-2 yesterday to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa!   

Got the toughest Semi-final match up, Boston College, top-ranked, tops in Pairwise, won 2 of the past 4 championships.  They beat defending champ UMD 4-0, I hope they cannot make it through another WCHA team!

But, the draw is the draw and I'll be glued to that game cheering them on!

http://www.uscho.com/ncaa/mens-division-i-ncaa-tournament/

[Libertas]

 

Gophers beat top seeded Washington 68-67!  Go on to face Stanford in NIT final.  Williams & Andre Hollins led the charge but Austin Hollins added some key buckets too, and we came up with some key rebounds.  Would like to see them clean up the turnovers, but they played well and got out to a big lead before it got nibbled down.  It should not have gone to OT but the officials missed a clear foul (two actually on the same guy) that would have put a good shooter on the line with a few seconds remaining that could have iced it, but they pulled it out in OT anyway.  Letting the players play it out is one thing but come on man!

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=320870264

Final is Thursday night, MN is entered a #6 seed (23-14) & Stanford is a #3 seed (25-11).  Don't know much about Stanford's team this year but they rebounded like crazy against UMass and are good at the line, where MN seems to be shooting better.  Should be a good game.

[Libertas]

Bummer, Stanford beat MN 75-51.  MN started well, but then Stanford started playing better defense and MN started missing opportunities and had too many turnovers.  Once Williams fouled out it got fugly, and then Andre Hollins fouled out.  Stanford really stepped up and started getting 3 pointers and other shots to drop.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=320890024

Good experience though, and if Mbakwe comes back, our young team could be decent.

While it would be nice to snag a 4-star recruit sometime, they do have 2 3-stars lined up.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballrecruiting/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2012/minnesota-31

Frozen Four is next, MN plays #1 BC Thursday night April 5th.

http://www.uscho.com/wp-content/pdf/general/2012bracket.pdf

[Magnum]

Man Libertas I am already getting nervous for the hockey game Thursday night against Boston College.

If/when you have time here is a link you might like. http://www.gopherpucklive.com/

When you get there hit Community (right under puck) and scroll down to Main Forum then it lists all the topics that you may enter into. I mostly go to Gopher Hockey.

I sure hope we hear this alot this weekend!

The Minnesota Rouser

GO Ski-U-Mah

[Libertas]

I think I've perused that site before, been quite a while though.  I like the thread on frozen four talk, guy in the first post doesn't waste any time getting to the point - "Look if the Gophers (team USA) can beat the Russians .. I think we can handle BC!"-Hobey Baker.

USA vs Russia!  I think that is probably pretty close to the mark.  BC is loaded, they've reigned the top of the polls for what seems like an eternity, and everyone has all but crowned them champions.  If we play them 10 times they might win 9, but not tonight!  Their time is OVER!
 

Seriously, it is going to take all hands on deck - no slip up, no let up, and I think they are going to have to be physical in both zones, charging the net hard on offense and cashing in on any PP opportunity they have and clearing the bodies out down low and banging the board on D, and Patterson is going to have to play the best game he has ever played in his life.

That this level of effort is required just to get to the championship game speaks volumes.  I think whoever wins this game wins the whole enchilada!

PS-I like the poster refering to ND as the Whioux!  Heh, first time I heard that one!   

I liked that curb-stomping of the Whioux, but I want more!

Go Gophers!!!   

(I know I'm going to be a nervous wreck Thursday night!  But I'll be glued to the game!  ESPN2 7pm CT!)

[Libertas]

Ugh!  6-1, what a kick to the groin!

 

http://www.uscho.com/2012/04/05/minnesota-it-just-got-away-from-us/

http://www.uscho.com/box/mens-hockey/2012/04/05/minnesota-vs-boston-college/

BC as far as I could tell had zero weaknesses, that team is loaded top to bottom, and there should not be any shame in losing to such a dominate hockey team.  I think the only way BC can lose a game is if enough players decide they aren't up to it, and that just did not happen.  Frankly I am amazed we got 31 shots on net, there was never a second where a Gopher didn't have a BC guy all over him.  This BC team is about as complete and dominate a team as I have seen in 30+ years of college hockey.

I think Ferris State is in for a long night Saturday!

Gophers are a young team and hopefully they use this experience to put some fire in the belly for next year, and hopefully Bjugstad stays in school, they could make a good run at it next year (our last in the WCHA, we go to the new Big 10 Hockey Conference in the 2013-2014 season).

Gophers had a great season, go get 'em next year guys!

[Magnum]

Good Points all Libertas.

Once the Gophers fell behind and encountered a hot and good goalie it was all she wrote. I thought maybe we had a chance in the first and second periods, but when we don't bury our chances as Boston College did, it is hard to overcome. However Boston College was the better team and congrats to them!

This team met and surpassed all my expectations this year.

I sure hope Bjugstad stays another year! And yes I agree as a young team next year hold much promise. I already am looking forward to next season.

[Libertas]

Ferris State was a strong defensive team and still BC pumped 4 goals in on them to claim the title.  It's unfortunate the Gopher game got out of hand at the end and we lost our composure, but they had a heck of a good season and I also look forward to big things next year.