Well, it was a disappointing weekend for BSU Men’s hockey against St Cloud with the last second overtime loss on Friday and thumping on Saturday. Give the Huskies credit, they played well both nights and are on a roll winning 6 in a row. That after dismissing 2 players after the Holiday Tournament too. Saturday night was a let down defensively for BSU from the start and it was bad timing not only because BSU needs points to move up in the WCHA standings but also because it was the single largest crowd to ever witness a BSU home hockey game. They didn’t have much to cheer about, St Cloud took the crowd out of the game right from the start….something every road team hopes to do. Nonetheless, BSU still sits in a position to move up a couple of places at least in the standings if they can take care of business on the road. They face Mankato next weekend and the Mavs sit in 11th place and then it’s on to Michigan Tech who sits in 12th place. No road game is easy, even if it is teams with worse records, but it does give the Beavers some chance at retribution after last weekend. My guess is after the weekend off, they will come out flying in the first period at Mankato next Friday night.
The regular season is quickly progressing and there are only 10 games left, of which I’ll be in the broadcast booth for 7. I won’t be traveling to Michigan Tech and have to leave Grand Forks after the Saturday afternoon game due to a work conference in the cities that starts on Monday. That rare Saturday/Sunday afternoon series, which is due to the North Dakota State High School Hockey tournament being played at the Ralph, didn’t work for my schedule this year. I’m bummed, that’s one series I always look forward to. Oh well, I still get my dinner at the Brass Boot (really the Bronze Boot I think)….but I’ll miss watching Sunday’s game.
It will be interesting to see where the Beavers end up in the standings. A good run the next couple of weeks could get them into the 6-8 place race. They won’t finish 12th, but they could fall anywhere from 6-11th. Ideally they want to avoid playing UND or Denver is the first round of the playoffs….not that UMD, UNO, or Wisconsin would be easy either but UND and Denver have both had BSU’s number in the D1 era. I guess only time will tell.
One final note and this one’s for Schultzie. I will put in writing and you may want to frame this because it is extremely rare, but for the 2nd game in a row I will be cheering for the…..Green Bay Packers. I couldn’t stand to have a Bears team so weak get to the Super Bowl and I’d rather not hear about the Steelers winning their 7th Super Bowl….or however many it is….. that’s enough for them already. The Packers won the first two a long time ago….so really they’ve only won it once in 40 years…. so, much as it pains to type it, go Pack. I hope Packer fans will do the same in the future if the Vikings are ever able to get there.