Episode 4: A dominating week for the WCHA and more on officiating

Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski look back on results from Thanksgiving weekend, where Ohio State, Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth got impressive performances. Plus, hear part two of Nicole's conversation with Krissy Langley, the NCAA national coordinator of women's ice hockey officiating. And the episode finishes with a look ahead to the first games of December.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, everybody, and welcome backto the podcast, The us CHO Women's
College Hockey Podcast. I'm Nicole Hasey. That's Todd Maleski. We're here to
talk women's college hockey. This week, we had some really interesting results over
in non conference and tournament play.Full disclosure, Todd and I are going

(00:22):
to tell you that after this week'sresults, the w c h A is
the best conference in the country andthat's pretty uh undebatable for us at this
point. But I know that we'llget a little bit of backlash for that.
So as of right now, righttoday, yes, you're going to
get the backlash on that, butright after the results of Thanksgiving weekend,

(00:42):
I think we can say that,Yeah, absolutely so. I think maybe
one of the more surprising results wasMinnesota Duluth coming away with a win and
a tie with then number two Colgate. So UMD, the fourth team in
the w CCHA definitely showed that theyhad there, maybe better than their rankings

(01:03):
had showed prior to this. Whatwere your thoughts watching those games? Yeah,
and I think I think I saidlast week that maybe I had some
questions about Duluth because you know,the struggles that they had and you know,
really just in results against Minnesota athome. I guess I was expecting
a little bit more from the Bulldogsout of that series. And maybe it's

(01:27):
just a like like you did saylast week too, that you know,
the it ended up just being thatway. Those were some pretty competitive games,
but for Dilute to come back,have Colgate come into its building and
get a shut out the first gameand then almost get a shut out again
the second game. Colgate, ifI'm not mistaken, had to score fairly

(01:48):
late to tie that game and sendit overtime. Yeah, final minute,
wasn't it. Yeah, I thinkso. And with well it was technically
short handed they were on the penaltykill but still pulled their goalie. So
yeah, gets a little confus thinkabout how many skaters around the Yeah,
right, But I think for methat result did kind of show that,
Okay, this is I think theluth Is is definitely in that pack of

(02:13):
of being a contender. When you'retalking about when we get to March,
you know, it comes down towho you're playing and how hot you are
at that point in the season.But definitely they they went back up a
notch for me talking about the luthand I guess the questions now, I
guess there. I mean a littlebit on Colgate side to me is you

(02:37):
know, we saw them split withOhio say it first first weekend the season,
correct, I remembering that, right, Yeah, And since then it's
just kind of been a role andand now there's a little bit of question
again on you know, how isthis going to look towards the end of
the season for Coldgate. Obviously,no one's a finished product in in November

(03:00):
and now we're getting into December.But I would think they've got they've got
some uh, some things to workon, some things to take out of
that series, which is always what'sgood about these first half series between the
the really good teams is you findout something about yourself and you find out
where you need to improve and whatyou need to be better at, you
know, the next time you're ina big situation. And that was I

(03:23):
think for me. One of thethings you've got to take away if your
Colgate is that there's you know,you got to finish chances, You got
to you know, bear down ona lot of those. And they did
get one to get the the secondgame into overtime, but yeah, I
was. I think I think there'sa little bit of like, Okay,
let's let's do some reassessing now andand and take a look at the big

(03:44):
picture and a couple you know,a couple of months again. But I
mean I don't I don't necessarily thinkthey're you know, it's suddenly a poor
team or a danger in in thenational picture. But is that's when we
can where you're going to say,okay, let's let's evaluate what we have

(04:04):
to do to be a a betterteam the next time this comes around.
Well, for sure. And Ithink you know, you know what I
brought up at the beginning is thatyou know, we're talking about the number
four team in the w c hA and Clokate has been far and away
the best team in the ECAC.They're undefeated in ECAC play. You know,
they have their like six points clear. I you know, to the

(04:26):
eye test, I think we allwould have said that the ECAC and w
c h A have been you know, sort of more neck and neck and
more you know, competitive, havingas many teams ranked nationally things like that.
So when you look at this result, you look at their number two
team is Saint Lawrence who will talkabout how that went against Ohio State,
Like spoiler alert, it wasn't good. Not good. When you start looking

(04:48):
at all of this stuff sort ofdown the line, then it's like wow,
So like is the what's was itthe eye test? What? Like?
What we have is to say teams, how teams perform head to head
and head to head did not gowell for the ECAC this week, So
it'll be interesting. You know,Colgate and UMD were pretty like neck and
neck in that first game in termsof like shots and blocks and those sorts

(05:10):
of stats were like they were prettyeven and UMD came out ahead three nothing
right, And then in that secondgame, Colgate came out like they put
thirty eight shots on goal. Ithink they shot them like thirty eight to
twenty one something like that, andstill couldn't couldn't find that equal lights until
that that literally the last minute.And I think the fact that they lost
that game came out like clearly pushingmore, playing harder, and still you

(05:34):
know, barely eked out the tielike that. As you said that likes
there's a lot for them to goback and look at. But you know,
you're also talking about a Colgate teamthat won the conference last year and
then lost to Wisconsin in the regional, like hosted Wisconsin in that regional semifinal
and got that loss as well.So like, I just think that there's
probably a discussion, like a deeperdiscussion to be had in terms of like

(05:57):
what does it take to get tothat next level? And you know,
we've talked about like Hockey East maybedoesn't get those games where they're prepared for
those games against those top opponents,but like what do we do? What
do the ECAC teams if they're notgetting if they're not being able to pass
those wha opponents in these games,and like those ECAC games also aren't preparing
them, So like they need tostart looking at what they can do to

(06:20):
prepare for this kind of stuff.That's probably a good segue to get into
what did happen in Columbus last weekend. It's just a beatdown in terms of
numbers, Ohio State winning eleven nothingin the first game and then five to

(06:41):
one in the second game. AndI think I would have guessed those the
rest, you know, the winloss result of those games, but not
those scores. That was especially thefirst game. That's that's kind of shocking
to me. Yeah, I absolutelyexpected closer games for sure. I mean,
Ohio State put already one shots ongoal in each game. Saint Lawrence

(07:01):
got fifteen in the first game,nine shots on goal total in the second
game. Just absolutely I think thesame relentless sort of push for check,
like not letting teams out of thezone, the same thing we saw from
Ohio State that really shut down Wisconsintwo weeks ago, like even more so
overwhelmed Saint Lawrence. And I guessI just I think maybe Saint Lawrence has

(07:24):
never seen a team that can dothat sort of line after line after line
and really just keep that up.You know, Nadine Morel has them so
disciplined in Columbus that she loves theword relentless, and like I struggle sometimes
to come up with a different one, not wanting to like just repeat the
same thing, but there is nota better word for like that pressure that

(07:45):
they put up and down their linechart, just really hemming them in.
And I mean, I think it'sabsolutely bonkers to think that they held Saint
Lawrence to nine shots in that secondgame and that wasn't even like arguably that
was the better of the two gamesfor Saint Lawrence. To be fair,
that first game, I think youknow what happened. There was kind of
a backbreaking a couple of minutes inthat second period where it went from being

(08:07):
I think like a two goal leadto five nothing. They scored Ohio States
scored three goals in a matter oflike less than three minutes, and it
was like the wind just completely wentout of the Saints there. So I
do think that the scorer got outof it, like I think that they
just mentally didn't didn't kind of knowhow to handle that and kind of checked
out. So I do think thatthat store that score got a little overblown.

(08:31):
Like obviously the next day five one, so that was all Ohio State,
and again like Saint Lawrences number twoteam tied for second I think in
ECAC right now and having just anabsolute banner year for them. So this
just got to be so disheartening andI feel bad for those players who had
been riding a high through the startof the season to just like kind of
get smacked in the face as theydid with this series. Yeah, and

(08:54):
that's one of those things you reallyhave to then try to figure out,
did we just have a really badday or is this something you know,
did did one period get away fromUT seven in the second period? Did
that did that you know, justfeel like a bad period? Or is
this a reflection of who we are? And that's I think where you start

(09:15):
to look at those things after aresult like that, and you spend a
lot of time when you are youknow, on the road and you're in
a hotel and you've got you know, hours until the next game or whatever
it ends up being. That's uh, that's a lot of time to sit
with with the result like that andeither ride or flight home, right uh,

(09:37):
and never an easy flight getting orbus rider or or whatever when you're
yeah, right. So I Ithink that's a you know, if they
can if they can take that andbe better for it when they get back
to E C a C play,you know, good for them because that's

(09:58):
you know, you don't like tobe on the receiving end of a of
a score like that, but ifit's happened, you've got to make the
most of it. And I thinkthat's that's where you know, you need
your veterans, you need your leadersto say, hey, look, you
know we've this happened. It's donewith what are we going to do?

(10:20):
Yeah, you know, and andand and step on from Linger in it
and yeah, exactly. And Ithink there's there's a lot to be said
for you know, having older playersdo that kind of you know, leading
from without having the coaching staff haveto do it. Uh. And so
we'll see whether that's uh, that'spart of things. But uh another w

(10:43):
C h A over e C.I sorry to continue to the theme here.
I don't mean that you know,pick on the e C, a
C or anything here, but Minnesotafive Cornell one in the second day of
the d C Shootout, Cornell beingthe other team tied for second in the
a C see at the moment,right, And so that that was another
one of those here's how you know, college basketball does these things where they

(11:07):
kind of match the the top teamin one conference versus the top team in
another conference. And these some ofthese you know, early season kind of
events. And it's not a directone to one comparison here, but if
you're looking at the results, itwas kind of close to it, right.
So that was I think an importantresult for Minnesota, uh to kind

(11:31):
of continue what they've been doing herein the last couple of weeks, but
also to and especially on a neutral, neutral rink to do that Thanksgiving weekend
when a lot of the other teamsare off and you're you're out and you're
you know, playing in a differentbarn. But that's uh. I think
for Minnesota was a pretty good resultto come away from from that weekend with

(11:54):
a win over Harvard, maybe alittle bit closer of a win that I
thought it would have been, butthree to one against her. That's interesting,
right, Yeah, just comparing likesome Minnesota you know, closer result
against Harvard and then Harvard lost toSaint Thomas the next day in Minnesota beat
a much better team in Cornell.Just like this is as Mark Johnson would

(12:16):
say, this is why they playthe games. Uh, I'm pretty much
every coach right, But yeah,it's just those results are interesting to me.
I was like, I don't knowthat we learned a ton like those
are all like contradictory to each other. So I'm not sure that what to
take away from that other than youknow, I had said earlier in the
season, I think that that Minnesotacan't survive on Abby Murphy alone. But

(12:37):
like man did she seemed to bewanting to prove me wrong, and like
or power to her because everybody knowsshe's the one that's going to score the
goals, and like yet she's stilldoing it. So you know, it's
like it's from a you know,macro standpoint, Like it's good to see
she was sort of you know,behind someone goal and Taylor Heisi and so

(12:58):
it's really cool to see her kindof come into her own and really own
like she's a very good hockey playerand sort of now that the spotlights on
her, like we're seeing some lessa little bit less of the stuff she
was doing before in a little lessphysical game and her just you know,
showing off that amazing risk shot amongother things, and just her ability to
pick out a part of the netand take on four defenders and still score

(13:20):
a goal. Like it's absolutely amazingto watch. She's a lot of fun
to watch on the ice. Shecan just impose herself in any game.
It seems like, you know,when she wants to be a physical part
of the game, she's going tobe a physical part of the game.
But hey, she's also going toyou know, find a top corner,
a shot from the slot, orsomething like that. So it's like,
yeah, you get a lot ofor a little bit of a lot of

(13:41):
parts of a game from heavy Murphey. Yeah, and she I think she
scored her fifty goal, her fiftiethgoal in like her seventieth game something like
that. Like just pretty ridiculous numbersfor what she's been able to put up
considering she wasn't the primary goal scoreror you know, like the primary focus
of offense the first two years,and now it literally gets the focus of

(14:03):
every defense she's playing. And she'sstill you know, had three goals this
weekend. So we talked about thethe Nutmeg Cup last week, and we
have a champion of Connecticut gentlemen.It is Quinnipiac defeating Yukon and defeating Yale
in the tournament that was at Yalethis year. I think we we kind

(14:26):
of talked about that that first game, the Yukon game, as being one
of those that was a Okay,let's see see what these teams are about.
And you're talking about different teams fromtwo different leagues, you obviously probably
pretty familiar with each other just geographically. But I and Quinnipiac came away with

(14:46):
a four to two win there.So that was a uh, you know,
I think one point where you cansay, here's, uh, here's
here's what a has to offer,here's what hockey says to offer, and
h on that day, the ECACteam came out ahead, and it seems
like that's kind of been the waya little bit right now for for the

(15:09):
way things are out East. Yeah, it's a little I mean, obviously
with Northeastern, you know, havingdominated for the past, what is it
like, did they win six ina row or something like that. Now
that they you know, they graduatedsome of some of the best players in
women's college hockey in at least adecade. Now we're seeing this opportunity for

(15:31):
other teams to step up. Soit's I mean, it's really cool to
see a team like Yukon be atop hockey East. Definitely, we're necessarily
on people's radar, you know,they came out that that Quinnipiac Connecticut game
was interesting to me because Quinnipiac scoredfirst, but then Yukon scored too,
you know, and two quick onesto take the lead. But Quinnipiac came
out back and scored right away totie it again and I think that's that

(15:52):
like little bit of extra that likeQuinnipiac can dig down and get and really,
you know, like they were outshot, I think, and maybe
I'm thinking the other game, itdoesn't matter they I just thought it was
that to me showed that little bithigher than I think Quinnipieck is that they
can, they'll go they they're notout of any game. You know that
they're gonna respond immediately, make surethat that game doesn't get out of hand,

(16:15):
and you know, just sort ofbreak down opponents that way. So
I mean, I do like seeingwhat's happening over in Hockey East. I
like, you know, other teamsgetting an opportunity. But yeah, I
think it's you know, we sawBC in Wisconsin early this year, and
like that was a blobout game,right, Like BC played a really close
game in one game and then theBadgers blew it out. And so now

(16:36):
like with BC at the top ofHockey East, it's like this is all
we have to sort of compare,right, And so it makes it definitely
wonders makes you wonder like sort ofthe relative and if we're just gonna see
a Hockey East champion come out andyou know, not be able to get
very far when we talk the nationaltournament. Yeah, and I do wonder
whether there's a second half charge inone of the teams out of Hockey East,

(17:00):
it you know, b C oryukonnor I don't know if maybe Northeastern
has has something in them too tomake a charge down down the stretch.
But they've you know, kind ofthey're playing from behind, so they've got
some ground to make up. ButI don't know if that's gonna be a
league where there's going to be ateam running away with the second half,

(17:22):
or if if it's gonna be onewhere there's you know, kind of a
lot of beating up of each otherand one team emerges the end to just
you know, win the league bya couple of points and then let's see
what happened to Yeah. Well,the I think, like my general feel
of Hockey East the maybe in thenon Northeastern years or maybe if we're like

(17:42):
taking Northeastern out of the pictures thatlike there have been over the past few
season opportunities for teams to like reallystep it up. There's been room to
like push back at times at Northeastern, and and like I feel like none
of them have ever like sort oftaken on that opportunity, you know,
like they don't see that as like, oh, this is our chance to

(18:03):
go out and do something, likenobody there's been stuff there for the taking
and nobody has done it. Sothey'll be like a team that you know,
is within a point or two andthen the next week they go out
and get swept. And so Ijust I would love to see sort of
a bit more of that determination anda bit more sort of go get them
from a team in that in thatconference that says like this is our opportunity
and we're not going to let anybodyelse take it. You know. Well,

(18:26):
that's our look back at last week'sgames. Now we'll have a look
ahead at what's coming up a littlelater in the show. But when we
come back from the break, we'llhave part two of Nicole's conversation from last
week with Chrissy Langley, who isthe NCAA National Coordinator of women's ice hockey
officiating. So stay tuned for that. Welcome back to the podcast. As

(18:53):
promised before the break, here isa second part of Nicole's conversation last week
with Christy Langley, who is thenational coordinator of women's hockey officiating. And
when I was in Sweden last yearat the U eighteens, I went out
to dinner one night with a lotof the officials and it was just really
eye opening and a really cool experienceto hear about what they were doing.

(19:14):
And these are women from around theworld, and you know, there was
a woman who was still nursing herdaughter and like the I believe it was
IHF had brought her mom to beable to babysit the daughter. And so
it was just cool that that kindof support exists and the understanding that like,
you know, women that sort ofage out of the college, like
you are, women in that agerange that you want to be officials,

(19:34):
also have other priorities, and sowhat can we do to make sure to
support those priorities so those women canstill continue, like they don't have to
choose between being an official and startinga family. And so yeah, it
was just it was really eye openingand cool. And so it's a little
pet project of mine to make surewe talk about this a lot, just
so that people see that there isthere are other paths and that like if
you're if you're not happy, withofficiating. One of the ways to get

(19:56):
into when we used to fix itis to work from the inside. So
it's definitely not easy, but Ithink it's a really cool I think it's
cool to think about that, likemaybe you didn't make the national team,
maybe you know things haven't gone exactlythe way that you want meet, but
like those those World championship for Olympicdreams could could look different, and that's
pretty cool. I love that youbrought up there was an official. Yes,

(20:18):
at the under eighteens, they flewin her mom and she was still
nursing her child. At the AdvancedOfficiating Symposium this last summer in Columbus,
Ohio, Joy Topman was there andshe's one of the officiating coaches from Great
Britain, and she went in thelocker room to supervise after the game and

(20:40):
the official was in the rescuting.It was such a shock to her.
She goes, wait a minute,why am I surprised by this? This
is beautiful and this is one ofthe best officials in the world, and
we're doing everything we can to supporther in her life journey. And she
just worked a pretty darn good hockeygame. In my mind and make this

(21:02):
happen. And another great example iswe had two female officials in the United
States invited to that summer camp withthe Advanced Officiate and Development program that we're
pregnant, and one of them went, and she is such a competitor.
Oh my gosh, She's like,I'm going to do everything, Chrissy,
I'm gonna get on the ice,I'm gonna do the office. I was
like, please don't. It's sixmonths pregnant, and the most important thing

(21:26):
is being there, being present andopening up people's minds to the fact that
you're gonna have a family this season, You're gonna have another child, and
come January, you have goals tobe back on the ice at the highest
levels possible. Yeah, and here'syour pool, here's your toolbox, here's
your resources to help get you therein your support structure. So she's now

(21:48):
she's got her second baby about twentytwo days ago, and you know,
the first three weeks are pretty criticalto rest, recover, find the new
life. And then you know,what is she going to do here in
the next month and a half tosee if she can get back on the
ice. Yeah. No, it'sreally cool and I think it's just a
part. It's a conversation that westarted seeing for players, you know,

(22:11):
with USA Soccer and then USA Hockey, and so I'm just glad that it
just needs to be talked about moreoften, and when we're talking about women's
sports, it's just part of beinga woman in sports, right that this
is a conversation that has to beaddressed and has to be had openly and
publicly. And so yeah, Ijust when we were sitting there and talking,
and then one of the officials inSweden had also said that like she

(22:33):
was pregnant though it was brand new, and so it was just a really
cool moment for me to be like, these are some badass ladies and people
need to know more about it,you know, and I think officials particularly,
that tends to be the untold story. So yeah, it was very
heartening to hear the support that theywere getting, because that's not always the

(22:55):
case. Well, if there's moresuggestions support, I tell you we're all
ears because as coaches are talking aboutit as well, you know, how
to coach and have a family,and what does that support start to look
like because not everybody has parents orgrandparents or people nearby that can help so
finding solutions. You know. It'snot like we have a daycare service at

(23:19):
the rink, you know, butit's important to the future of the sport.
If all of our best officials,coaches, who the players, all,
you know, have to make adecision between having a family and continuing
on with the game, then youknow, there's sort of a what's the
word, like an end to allof their careers that would be premature,
Like they have so much to stillgive to the game, and so it's

(23:41):
just it's just such an important conversationto have when you're talking about women's sports.
Yeah, definitely, Hi, welcomeback to the podcast, the USCCHO
Women's College Hockey Podcast. Think somemuch to Christy Langley, who is the

(24:02):
NCAA National Coordinator of Women's ice hockeyof Fishing for giving me her time to
talk about such an interesting topic.If you missed the first part of that
conversation, make sure you go backand listen to last week's episode. Christy
and I talked about the increase inmajor penalties and there's some pretty amazing stats
in there, so definitely go backand listen to that. But looking forward,

(24:22):
we've got some interesting games this weekend. We spent a lot of time
in that first time talking about MDand they will be playing at Wisconsin this
weekend. Todd, what are youlooking forward to in that series? Well,
for one, we have a possiblereturn of Caroline Harvey. She's been
on the ice with the Badgers practicingno contact jersey, but still looks I

(24:44):
mean, you know, from froma distance and from my untrained eyes are
partially trained eyes, I guess looksto be moving pretty well. She had
a knee injury, it suffered inmiddle of October, and so that's that's
that's a big player if the Badgersget her back, especially these last two
weeks before the break. Badgers havehome against Duluth for two this weekend and

(25:08):
then at Minnesota, and so Iknow that they definitely missed her presence against
Ohio State, but you can't rushan injury back, especially to someone who's
going to be really important for youtowards the end of the season. And
so I don't think it was reallyeven a question of that she was going
to be potentially available for that OhioState series, but she's potentially going to

(25:32):
be available for these final two seriesbefore the break, and I think that's
going to be a big boost tothe Badgers in depth wise and defensively,
and power play wise and just reallyall over the ice. Of what she
can create would be a really bigthing for Wisconsin. Have back. What's
what's jumping out to you about thatseries? Well, I just wanted to

(25:56):
add about KKs that I like,I'm shocked that we're talking about her possibly
being back here in November. Imean, obviously the games will be the
first week and in December, butwhen that happened, I think everybody thought
that could be the end of theseason, anybody that is, both the
Wisconsin and US national team fans,so like, it's it's almost boggling to
me that she, you know,is already back on the ice practicing in

(26:19):
that non cocitext jersey. So Ijust as you mentioned, just such a
huge opportunity for the Badgers to possiblyget her back, and they obviously won't
rush it right and like she ifshe needs more time, having that long
winter break definitely helps. But no, I think it'll be really interesting.
We've seen how UMD you know,can be so shut down on defense,

(26:41):
and we saw how Wisconsin struggled againstOhio State two weeks ago. So I
think, first of all, justhaving two weeks to stew in that Ohio
State series, how the Badgers,who sort of historically come out slow in
the first game of a series,come out stay that very delicately. But
seeing how they come out just asreaction, like how how they as a

(27:03):
team, you know, sort ofcarry themselves much like you mentioned with you
know, Saint Lawrence, how theyneed to react after that Ohio State series.
I think it's really important to seewhat the Badgers do. I think
they need to you know, notcome out slow, which is really obvious,
but it's definitely you know, Ithink it's just they I think for
them to feel like themselves and tofeel secure and feel like they have moved

(27:27):
on from that Ohio State series,they need to come out and make an
impact early in that first period.So that's something I'll be paying attention to.
And then just we know what umd'sdefense can do. We know how
they can slow down the game andyou know, sort of keep a team
out around the perimeter, all thosesorts of things that really can work against

(27:48):
the Badgers. And we you know, we saw that from from the Badgers
early earlier on the season where theywere getting frustrated with shots around the perimeter
and things like that. So Ithink we know what you and he's going
to do. And so the interestingthing is how how the Badgers react,
and I think importantly like whether ornot they get frustrated. And looking back
to last season, Duluth got twowins out of the series at Labon Arena

(28:14):
last year. That was part ofthat five game stretch where the Badgers lost
five in row for the first timeand well forever it seemed like, and
the luth won three to one,one nothing. So to your point,
they know how to win tight gameson the road at Wisconsin. Uh.
For the players that are coming backand that they'll have some familiarity with that,
and I think that'll that'll do themwell, even though that's you know,

(28:37):
maybe not the a huge part oftheir team, uh, you know,
the players that really drove things forthem last year uh being back,
but that's uh, there will therewill be some memories of I'm sure there
for some players to build on.Yeah, And I think, you know,
importantly for a Wisconsin team that likehad put up so many goals to

(28:59):
start the season, you know,we're leading in all these scoring categories to
have not to have only put upone goal last week, and then you
know, talking historically of that seasonor that series last year with um D,
like they can't have one like thatwhere they're not scoring, right,
Like that's they just they have tobe finding the net like both simply because
that's how you win games. Wouldalso I just think like mentally they need

(29:19):
to be putting puts in the netto really get a reset and set them
up for heading into the break withthat series at Minnesota. So I just
think it's that's a really important partmentally for them. There's an interesting series
coming up in the CHA this weekRobert Morris playing at Penn State, two
teams that are currently tops in theconference. If I'm remembering the standing correctly.

(29:45):
What's I guess, first of all, is that a surprise that Robert
we're talking about Robert Morris as oneof the top two teams in the CHA,
given that this is their what they'retwo and a half months into being
back as as a team, andand and what do you think they need,

(30:07):
you know, to get some successout of a series at Penn State
this weekend? Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm not surprised, but
also like that's unfair to them becauseit is surprising, Like that's it's a
huge accomplishment for them. You know, many of their players had transferred away.
They have you know, they hadsome girls that just didn't play hockey
last year and then turned around andrejoined the team this year. Like they

(30:30):
they're working with the you know,sort of from below zero, from behind
the starting line, right, Andso the fact that they they've come out
and put themselves in this position justa couple of points back from Penn State,
I think is so impressive and probablysomething like not enough people are saying
and pointing out right, I thinksometimes the cha you know, we get

(30:51):
talking about these other ringked matchups,but like this is such a big deal
for them, and I like,like it's just so cool, right,
Like I'm so happy for them andsod and glad that this program not only
got to come back, but asyou know, sort of proving the naysayers
right, like they belong they weregood before they left their good again now.
And so I think in terms ofthe series with Penn State, importantly

(31:12):
for them is that they just haveto be tighter on defense. Like Penn
State's got some offensive weapons, RobertMorris is just they've given up too many
goals, right like they're doing They'redoing quite well overall, but just if
they're going to make a push forthe top place in the CHA and pushing
for national prominence, then they haveto tighten up on defense. And so

(31:36):
I think that will just be hugefor them, is seeing if they can
you know, keep Tessa Janiky inany sort of check and then just generally,
you know, sort of try andcontrol the puck a little more and
not let Penn State have their havethe run of the game. I think
that's probably the most important part forthem in this series. Yeah, looking
at Robert Morris's numbers here, they'refour and two in conference play, but
they're minus six in terms of goaldifferential scored eighteen given up twenty four And

(32:01):
that's those two losses, one toMercyhurst nine to two and one to rit
seven to three. And I guessthat does it there. When you yeah,
have a couple of a couple ofloss and they happen to be blowout
losses and your wins are a lottighter than that, that's I guess how
that happens, you know, atleast six games into the conference season.

(32:22):
Now, yeah, those games arekind of outliers though too, right,
So it's just really interesting. Imean I kind of feel like Robert Morris
skits a pass this year for however, you know, however it goes for
them, and so I like,certainly not critical, but I think,
you know, anything they can doto sort of find that equilibrium again and
just try and keep things is youknow, not too high, not too

(32:45):
low, because I think when thosegames start to get away from them,
they really get away from them.And yeah, I just I hope that
they can come out and play thosesome of the hockey that's gotten them,
you know, those closer wins thanas opposed to those losses. Yeah,
in Hockey East on a Saturday Saturdayafternoon, a game on Nessen number fifteen

(33:07):
Bust and College at number eleven Yukon. And there's two teams with like we're
talking about before, an opportunity toshow, Okay, if you want to
be at the top of Hockey East, these are probably the teams you're gonna
have to beat the do it right. The one of these teams can emerge
from from that matchup and and havea have a at least for the time

(33:28):
being, have a little bit ofa step on the other team. That's
that's kind of in that that packnot necessarily you know, right next to
each other or anything like that,but well they are right next to each
other, but they're the two thatare that are at there at the top,
and and b C can can nudgeahead even though Yukon has a game

(33:50):
in hand. Yeah, absolutely,I think the big thing, the big
difference there right again is like Iguess Defenseman's Championships, but you know,
you kind has given up only aeleven goals like a goalie game in conference
play, which is just kind ofcrazy. They've just been absolutely Megan Warner's
been really good in goal, andyou know, they've just been really really
good on defense and limiting. AndI think a lot of that is that

(34:13):
they have a more confident offense andthey're possessing the pac a lot more.
But you know, by comparison,Boston College has given up twenty seven goals
in conference, but BC also haseleven more goals for them, So like
it's just a it's a really interestingmatchup of two very different styles, and
you know, their BC's eight threeand one, Yukon is eight and three
in Hockey East, so like differentroutes to get to ostensibly the same place.

(34:37):
And so yeah, I think it'llbe really fun to see how the
the two matchup and how they goagainst each other, because as you said,
these are these it's likely that oneof these two teams is uh the
one that's going to emerge. Soit's a really cool to have this sort
of at the midway point to seehow they match up against each other.
There's another one, Ohio State.He continues on with this so home stretch

(35:00):
that they're on hosting Saint Cloud State, and that's after what Ohio State did
the Saint Lawrence last week. Idon't know, that's it, right,
Like the last two weeks not happened. I would be kind of excited for
this series, but then you startto wonder, Okay, you know,
is Ohio State just kind of goingto keep this, keep pushing this through

(35:22):
the rest of the season. Imean, everyone has a down game,
and as an opponent, you hateto have to hope for that, but
sometimes when the team is that good, you do have to hope for that.
As as your entry into you know, having a chance in some games.
And I think we've seen a lota lot more out of Saint Cloud

(35:44):
State this season, but I don'tknow that they're in the caliber of Ohio
State. Even though it's a numberone versus number ten. That feels like
a big gap between number one andnumber ten right now. Well, yeah,
I mean I think at this pointthe gap between Ohio State and everybody
else is pretty large, right,Like that's a huge step they made out
in the past two weeks. Yeah, Like I said, I if this

(36:06):
was happening before I saw the lastfour games from Ohio State, I think
I'd be really excited to see whatSaint Cloud State could do against them.
Now I feel like a little bitlike I'm watching through my fingers and worrying
that Saint Cloud State is gonna getthe same kind of slap in the face
that Saint Lawrence did, so,you know, for the Husky stake,
for anybody's sake, I hope nobodygets that from Ohio State anymore this season.

(36:28):
No offense to the Buckeyes, Ilike, I'm not begrudging them their
wins, but like the mental offacing that when you're you're so high and
feeling like you've done so well.Yeah, it'll be interesting. Saint Cloud
State has two of the best goaliesin the country. You know, they
have really interesting scoring, you knowfrom Clarah and Larova, and they brought
in so many cool transfers that havereally like sort of diversified what they're capable

(36:52):
of doing. But yeah, Ijust no offense to Saint Cloud State.
But I don't I don't see howanybody goes into Columbus right now, like
remotely as though they can walk awaywith dignity. Yeah, that seems strong,
but probably not inaccurate. I mean, but for me that the goalies
are really the X factor there becauseif yeah, I mean it may take

(37:15):
fifty saves, but we've seen itbefore where from each one of them right
where they where they both have havebeen able to do that, So hey,
you never know, right, It'sit's one of these things where if
it was decided before the game started, why why are we even playing them?
But yeah, we know what ahouse they can do. We've seen

(37:38):
what a house they can do toteams both on offensive side and the defensively,
and in not having to play defensein a lot of ways not having
to have the puck in their ownzone. So, uh, if that's
the case this weekend, that's sometrouble. Yeah, absolutely, I you
know, should be should super beinteresting to see what you said. I

(38:02):
think the pup possession is just goingto be really telling in that game.
And so yeah, I think we'llknow pretty early on which team is gonna
win out there. But as Istrange, less strange things have happened than
Ohas or Saint Cloud State putting ona show and goal and pulling out a
one or two OHO win. Soit's definitely on the table, but I

(38:22):
think far less likely than I thoughtit was a few weeks ago. Well,
I think that's going to wrap itus or wrap it up for us.
Almost got that out there, wrapit up for us this week on
the podcast, Nicole, good totalk with you again. Absolutely nice talking
to you and we will be backnext week. So thanks for joining us.
Make sure you hit us up onsocial media at Nicole Hasey, is

(38:45):
Nicole at Todd Maleski is me.Drop us some lines and with some ideas,
things you want to hear or questionswe can answer here on the podcast.
So thanks for joining us. We'lltalk to you next week.