A reader and St. Cloud State hockey fan takes me to task for my remarks on the Huskies participation in the NCAA hockey tournament:
I've loved your blog for some time, but calling us undeserving of the hockey tournament is a little below the belt there, fella! We've played a very difficult schedule this year and have battled injuries all season. We've beaten the best in the WCHA, four others of who are also in the tournament. And the rules for putting extra weight on strength of schedule came last summer, so we were just playing by the rules.
After attending yesterday's West Regional semifinal games I have to admit I was wrong about one thing. St. Cloud State didn't deserve to get into the tournament (especially in light of the fact that UMD was not selected) but they were not the most undeserving team participating as I had claimed earlier. That distinction clearly belongs to Mercyhurst.
It wasn't just that Mercyhurst was pounded by the Minnesota Gophers 9-2 (it was 7-0 five minutes into the second period) it was the way that they rolled over and accepted their beating that was so appalling. As the Gopher forwards and defensemen walked around their defense time after time, as Gopher skaters sat unmolested in front of the Mercyhurst net with enough time to pound a heater or two, and as the Gophers peppered shot after shot on the poor Mercyhurst goalie the Lakers did little or nothing to even attempt to stop it. Trip somebody, slash them, knock them down, just make an effort, even if it's in vain, to keep from getting throttled. Lumbering Gopher defenseman Matt DeMarchi (not exactly known for his offensive prowess-career Gopher penalty minute leader) skated unmolested down the slot on more than one occasion while the Mercyhurst skaters seemed perfectly content to watch him unload on their net from fifteen feet out. Thank you sir may I have another?
After a while it was actually getting embarrassing to see a team being so completely humiliated. The pathetic thing is that the 9-2 final score and the 56-18 shot advantage for the Gophers don't even accurately tell the story of how thoroughly the Gophers dominated every phase of the game. It was worse than those stats indicate and if the Gophers had continued their second period play into the third the score easily could have been twelve or thirteen to nothing.
We have this tournament in Minnesota every March that Mercyhurst might want to think about next year. It's called the Minnesota State High School hockey tourney and I think the Lakers just might have a shot although I'd have to take this year's high school champions from Anoka over Mercyhurst if the two teams were to play today.
Finally, there were a lot of comparisons early in the year between Gopher forward Thomas Vanek and North Dakota's Zach Parise, both freshmen. When Parise got off to a great start Gopher fans were wondering if they missed out on the best new player in the WCHA. While Parise is a great player and has a great future ahead of him I think that in Vanek the Gophers have struck gold. Difference maker, the x-factor, game breaker, whatever cliché you want to call it Vanek is the man. He's got speed, hands, size, toughness, a shot, and incredible play making ability. It's not just the plays that he makes that amaze you, it's also the ones that he almost makes and last night he had us shaking our heads in wonder a number of times. He is definitely a future NHLer and Gopher fans should enjoy his gifts now since I don't see him sticking around after his sophomore year.
