Looking ahead to the Olympics, another meeting between No. 1 and No. 2

The Olympics women's hockey tournament starts Thursday, and this edition of the PodKaz from USCHO.com starts to break down what to expect from the U.S., Canada and other countries.

In NCAA hockey, No. 3 Minnesota overcame the absence of top scorers to beat No. 1 Wisconsin in overtime last Friday but the Badgers did the same a day later for a 6-1 victory in Minneapolis.

No. 2 Ohio State started its Olympic absence period by dropping four goals on No. 9 Minnesota Duluth in the first 20 minutes of its series en route to a sweep.

ECAC Hockey continued to be unpredictable: No. 5 Quinnipiac entered last weekend on a seven-game winning streak, then lost to No. 11 Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Clarkson couldn't get a much-needed weekend sweep, however, losing to No. 8 Princeton.

No. 6 Northeastern got the better of No. 13 Holy Cross in a Hockey East series, and No. 4 Penn State won an outdoor game to launch a sweep of Robert Morris.

This week's top series is No. 1 Wisconsin hosting No. 2 Ohio State in a rematch of the last three NCAA championship games.

The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for us? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [e-mail].

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
USCHO dot com and welcome to the podcast. I'm Todd
Blowski here with Nicole Hosey. We're from us e h
O dot com. We're gonna be talking a little bit
of Olympics later in this week's episode, because that starts
on Thursday. The Women's hockey tournament does before the opening ceremonies,

(00:26):
like usually happens, you have to stretch that out an
extra day so we get bonus day of Olympics. Really
two bonus days of Olympics to call if you're a
curling fan, because you get mixed doubles curly on Wednesday,
which I know all of you are big curling fans,
so you should be a fear.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm a big fan of every obscure sport possible when
it comes to the.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
The greatest thing about the Olympics is the sports you
never see. And my summer's Olympic sport is handball, and
I'm like, I just love watching elite level handball for
no goody. So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, I'm going to become like the world's foremost fan
of ski mountaineering. Next week is that it's a new
new sport this year. Yes, can you hike up the
mountain with your skias on your back and then you
have to ski back down.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Why not put all the all the efforts together, right absolutely?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay, well yes, anyway, also a great start here because
there's been a ton going on. We had a series
last week between the number one and number three team
in the country, Wisconsin at Minnesota, that ended in a split.
We've got a series of this coming week between number
one Wisconsin and number two Ohio State, which I don't
know how that's going to end up. I mean, one

(01:44):
of the things that we talked about last week was
what is the impact going to be of the players
that are off at the Olympics and away from their teams.
And there are a bunch of them. There are a
lot of teams that have been impacted by this. We
definitely saw it in the Wisconsin Minnesota series last week.
We saw it in a few other places too. Ohio
State losing some players didn't seem to bother them. They

(02:07):
they kept scoring, they they played pretty good defense in
sweeping Minnesotada luth It may have, you know, hurt some
teams like Saint Claud's State, who's goalie Emilia Krico is
off in the Olympics and Jojo Shoback goes in and
it gets the Huskies overtime against Saint Thomas, but they

(02:30):
lose that game and then the next day too. It's
it's it's a real thing. But we're all seeing some
opportunities for players to jump in and make names for themselves,
like we saw in Minneapolis last week.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Honestly, yeah, apologies to Avery Hoblin, but when she scored
the goal from Minnesota on Friday, I went, I'm sorry
who And it's not a name that I had heard,
you know, through play by play or you know, obviously
we are often in the building for it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
But yeah, she definitely was a highly visible part of
what Minnesota did this weekend. And so I mean that's
the thing that we've talked about, is like, who's going
to step up and take these opportunities as they're presented, right,
And I think she was my winner this week for
for most obvious player that got more time and did
what she needed to do with it. I thought also

(03:19):
maybe not as obvious, but like the I thought the
Minnesota defense stepped up offensively, and so you know, Molly
Jordan scoring, Sidney Morrow scoring neither of them are like
a surprise or players that haven't already been involved, but
they're not necessarily the ones that that team is looking
to to sort of support the offensive effort that way.

(03:39):
And then both of them did gorgeouschool by Molly Gordon
Molly Jordan to win in in overtime, So uh yeah,
I think we'll continue to see that. I think, you know,
we saw some players that were surprises, like at Ohio stage,
just the name most stepping into an even bigger role. Right,
She's already a huge part there, but she just showed
that she's she's ready to take on what they need

(04:00):
as well. So I think we'll continue to see who's
who steps up in the coming weeks as well.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah. That Minnesota Wisconsin Cerius. It was a three to
two Gophers win on Friday. Hannah Clark had a great
game for the Gophers. In goal twenty five says stop
Cassie Hall on a breakaway in overtime right before the
Gophers would went the other way and scored. But then
the Badgers did turn around and win six to one

(04:28):
on Saturday. Cassie Hall stymied on Friday's game, scored three
and added an assists Vivian Jungles, the defender, scored two
goals for the first time in her collegiate career. Ry
Stewart the goal miss.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Vivian Jubbles is a former
Minnesota in miss hockey and she just seems to find
that extra level when she's playing the Gophers, and I
appreciate that level of petty for her. I'm a big
fan of people who can find that little that little
extra and she just she is a a sort of
more quiet player, but she just she seems to perform

(05:04):
particularly well in those situations. So good for her.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
And she's I've been talking to a few people about this.
She's deep pairs with Caroline Harvey. So when KKs, oh, yeah,
you're gonna take You're gonna take second fil oh right,
this is Vivian Jungle is kind of time to shine now.
So yeah, and she she did a pretty good job
with that. On Saturday. Brian Stewart, the goalie for Wisconsin,
who was making her first WHA start with Aba mcnatton

(05:29):
off at the Olympics, made twenty four saves on Saturday
for the win there. Wisconsin says two points ahead of Ohio.
State and is now five on Minnesota with three week
left in the WHR regular season. We'll try and kind
of give you an idea where some of these conference
races stand as we go through things this week. But
I wanted to turn to Ohio State right away because

(05:52):
had they had Minnesota Louth in their building. Got a
six two win Friday and the three to one win
on Saturday. Hayley McLoud gooding goal for the buck Eyes.
Jocelyn Amos when a hat trick on Friday and then
another goal on Saturday. You mentioned her scored four in
the first in the opener opening period on Friday, chasing

(06:15):
f Gascon, and that was I think a little bit
of a statement of Kay, you can take a lot
of people out of our lineup, but we're still here.
That's what it felt like to me, is like four
in the first off we go.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean they were playing with thirteen skaters, I think,
which is impressive on its own right, like to go
out and just play two complete games that way. So
to do that and then, like you said, to do
it emphatically to score four against any one, but we
know how good of of Gascon is. Just kind of
everything they did everything right, and to me, it was
we I think we definitely saw in the Wisconsin Minnesota

(06:48):
game that little tentativeness in that first gear that series
as they both teams tried to find their footing without
the players that they have, and clearly ohios D just
didn't have that, I mean the way that they want.
And it's unsurprising right like that, Uh that's their mo
to play super confident and just truly like believe that
they nobody can really match up with them. And so

(07:09):
it doesn't surprise me that uh Muzzrel had them, Nadi
Musrel had them prepared for that. But yeah, I think
if we were gonna say, there's you know, five or
six teams that were looking to see how they handle
missing so many players in that first game, and they
went out and scored four goals quickly, it was like, okay,
well and not only that, but we've talked about UMD
scoring struggles, so like that put the game out of

(07:29):
reach for UMD pretty much immediately. And so yeah, I
was I was really impressed with I know that you
Ohio stated is dealt with some injuries in skating short
and they were ones that had moved you know, joy
done to defense when they needed to, so that bit
has not been new to them. But yeah, I thought
of all the teams this week, they were the one
that was had the least amount of issue with adjusting

(07:53):
to their missing their missing teabades.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, definitely. So the story for this season in ECAC
hockey has been that we've seen, We've talked about this
a lot. Teams look like they're about to go on
a run that gets cut short, and then teams that
have been on a run take quick steps backward with
two lost weekends. And we kind of saw both of

(08:17):
that happening this last week in a couple of results
I want to highlight here Clarkson beating Quinnipiac for to
one on Friday, and then Quinnipiac losing a second game
of the weekend to Saint Lawrence three to one on Saturday,
but then Clarkson also losing on Saturday to number eight Princeton,
And so it just felt like a Clarkson, who is

(08:37):
right on right on the edge of NCAA tournament, right
on the bad side of the edge right now of
the NPI for the NCAA tournament, needs to string together
to win weekends, and they couldn't get done this week,
that six to one loss at at Clarkson or against Clarkson.

(09:00):
I guess, Kristan, sorry, yes, is uh really the margin there?
Surprises me that that one got away from them.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Princeton scored two short hunged goals on one penalty kill
and that was pretty much the end of of I
think the hopes there. Yeah, I mean, I think what
you know, we can. We've talked about Elsie's about sort
of taking opportunities when they're presented to you, and Princeton
sort of handed it to the rest of the ECA
Seattle platter last week, and quitt PA found themselves at

(09:32):
the top of the standings heading into this weekend and
promptly lost both of their games. You know, it's just
like there have been chances and Princeton now turns around
and as would we say, a four point lead in
the standings after this weekend. So it's just it's I know,
it's not so simple. I certainly am not. I don't
think that it is, but I it consistently fascinates me.

(09:57):
These are high level, super competitive, real hardcore athletes and
like to not grasp the opportunities sometimes fascinates me. To like,
not when you have a bad loss to not respond
and come back and prove yourself. That's the sort of
things that kind of baffle me in the the ECAC
this year.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, so it's a three point lead for Princeton over Clarkson.
Now with what did we decide? How many weeks? And
they did we decide? They have two weeks? Two weeks
left in the season.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, so acc in the h A right are the
ones that are only have two weeks and everybody else
has three?

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yes, that's all right? So yeah, some important results there
too for QUINNIPIACU came in on it came into the
weekend on a seven game winning streak that ends with
the loss of Clarkson, but then losing to unranked Saint
Lawrence on Saturday. It kind of, you know, hurts in

(10:58):
a few different ways there. Yeah, big NPI hit. But
also now they're down in fourth place behind Princeton, Clarkson,
and Yale.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
So I mean, like from a fan perspective, amazing to
got Princeton to be at the top to go you
know Quinnipiac the next week, can know Quinnipiac with two
games and they're fourth, Like amazing amazing for the chaos
of it all. And I'm still I think it's so

(11:29):
much fun that work this far into the season and
then one or two losses can can just change things,
you know, like not only you take care of your stuff,
but everybody else too. But yeah, I just how frustrating
for them, and They've had such a strong, consistent season
and I'm probably one of the best in recent memory
for Quinnipiac and now to come at this point and

(11:49):
have that happen and it just has seemed super detrimental
to their their postseason hopes, just in terms of like
who they could draw on the e SEC tournament and
then also NPI.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, Emma Sophie Nordstrom with thirty five stays for St.
Lawrence and that win on Saturday. Another one to mention
upset out of ACAC hockey last week on Saturday, Harvard
beating the number twelve Cornell three to one. Zoe Bousamra,
I'm sorry, I probably got that one wrong, but scored
two goals, So uh for that's amazing, that's all I know, Yeah, right,

(12:26):
that's all.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, it was a lot.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Well, we're starting to see where the line is. Lines
are being drawn in the SAC hockey a little bit
where the difference between fourth and fifth means you get
a bye or you play in the first round, right
and fourth right now is Quinnipiac get thirty five and
a half points. Fifth is Brown at thirty two, Sixth
is Cornell at thirty one and a half. So obviously

(12:54):
a lot can change over two weeks, but we've seen
a lot change in two weeks in the e c
SEE pretty regularly this year. But that's starting to shape
up as the the gap between four and.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Five there, Yeah, that's not, I mean insurmountable, but in
two week that's a lot of room to make up,
like I would imagine.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Looking Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale left on their schedule.
So yeah, so that of a trap schedule.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
It it is a little bit, but I mean it's
it does feel like there is opportunity there for some
teams to at least make a run at either solidifying the.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Top four spot or for sure yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Lining back into a to one of those. And I
don't think I'm feeling secure necessarily if I'm Yale with
thirty six points either, that's I mean, that's.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
No, Yeah, it's it's that it's right on that edge
of like well, but normally I would say, like while
I would be shocked for that a bunch of that
to flip. But the movement we saw in the top
four in the last two weeks makes me feel like
anybody's gonna like has the opportunity to flip that pretty
easily at this point. What's going to be interesting is
the half points. If we see ties, I just that's

(14:19):
I mean, we hate them and I hate one conference
having it different from everybody else. But also when we're
this close, that's that's going to fascinatingly come into play.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Sure. A big series last weekend in Hockey East with
Northeastern playing holy Cross in a home and home ish
series because like we've talked about, Northeastern doesn't really have
a home, so they played their quote unquote home game
in Walter Brown Arena at BU that ended up a
three to three or sorry to two tie on Thursday night.

(14:51):
After holy Cross jumped out to a too nothing lead,
Northeastern rallied in the back half of the third to
get a to two ties rules Constantinople, scoring with thirty
one seconds left to force overtime. Nowhere there, but Northeastern
did get the extra point where they one nothing shootout
win in six rounds, so that was a kind of

(15:15):
a stalemate for most of that one. But Northeastern did
win the Saturday game at holy Cross two to one,
and so that five point weekend for the Huskies opens
up a thirteen point lead in hockey, so with six
games left, so pretty much settled there as much as

(15:36):
anything really is settled.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
But yeah, that's a bummer over a series for holy
Cross because I think any other set of circumstances they'd
be real happy with a one goal loss and a
tie and shootout loss against Northeastern, like that's massive improvement
for them. But they're, you know, they're sort of not
really on the bubble. They're on the bubble of the bubble,

(16:00):
but I mean they have some hopes right now, and
to pull some points there more than they did would
have been really big for them.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
And so.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
I hope that even though they're disappointed in not getting
a win or not holding gun to that game that
was Thursday, right, that was a weird it was a
really great series from pulling Cross and I felt kind
of like prove that. I mean, at this point you
can't be ranked where they are and be a fluke, right,
Like the numbers don't lie. But I just thought it
was a really good proof of what they've accomplished there

(16:29):
this year, and like the team as a whole, what
they can do. Northeastern tide that because they pulled their
goal and had the extra attacker, So like that holy
Cross is doing that to a team and pushing them
to the very limit, I think because it's so cool
and so huge, and I hope that it's just a
sign of what else we could expect from them coming forward.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Right. And also in Hockey East on Saturday, New Hampshire
got an upset win at Yukon three to two in overtime,
Julian Cabral scoring the goal for the win there. Miami
Martinez forty nine saves for the Wildcats there. That's a
pretty good night's work, especially in an upset that getting

(17:12):
that done, and you know Yukon that, I mean, it
didn't look like it. It pushed them down, I believe
in the MPI, I don't have six full but they
were so maybe they stayed six because Northeastern was five
last week and so maybe they stayed six. I don't
remember the exact numbers, don't have that in front of me,

(17:33):
but it's those opportunities that you know, overtime losses don't
count as much as regulation losses obviously, but it's still
a chance missed there for Yukon.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, I agree, and it's there's the difference between four
and five and the NC Tournament is a big one
or I'm sorry for yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
For five and five and six, right, those are big
changes all down the line there. Yeah, so keep an
eye on that as we go on here. Outdoors at
Beaver Stadium in State College last Friday, Penn State beat
Robert Morris three nothing in an afternoon game played on
some rough ice, shall we say, a lot of stoppages

(18:23):
That sounded like and look, we know this is kind
of what you sign up for when you're in outdoor games.
It's not going to be pretty. It's there's going to
be some weather and ice related issues they're going to
have to deal with. But it was part of a
bigger weekend of outdoor activities there at Penn State hockey

(18:47):
games a few different levels. Penn State, which has already
clinched the HA title. I neglected to mention that last
week they took care of that. They're fourth straight in
either the CHA or the AHA, depending on which ye're
in format you're looking at. Who care that? And then

(19:08):
also one five to two on Saturday, even though they're
down to nothing early in the second, then reeled off
five straight goals starting pretty quickly after they fell behind
too nothing, so Penn State in hand there, and really,
you know, we know they they've got the regular season
championship locked up. They're playing for that number four or

(19:29):
better overall seed in the tournament because if if they
get that, that means their road to a championship. They
don't have to leave their building.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, I know, the outdoor game experience can be starticulated
for the players. I don't want to take that away.
I also, I mean I literally turned the game off
because we were standing around for so long trying to
figure out difficulties, Like there was no continuity to that game.
And that sucks because it was a conference team. And
so I mean, I guess it doesn't matter that the

(20:04):
since the conference is already wrapped up, And I'm glad
that it didn't matter to the greater you know that,
like Robert Morris wasn't you know, looking I don't know,
I just it was. Uh. It also just it makes
me mad. There seventy seven thousand people watched the men's
game in eighteen hundred was the announced attendance for the
women's game, and that seemed really generous based on the

(20:26):
TV these that was a re a new record attendance.
Rector for Penn State women's hockey is also a bummer, like,
just all around like that. What was this super exciting
thing on the men's side was just a super bummer
to me. On the women's side. I hope that it
was a good experience for the players, but yeah, just
a not ideal situation. Also, the women need to play

(20:49):
at one o'clock on Friday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
So also a not an ideal situation, right, absolutely. I
was actually having a conversation, Oh go ahead, I was
just gonna say I was having a conversation with someone
in Minneapolis this weekend about just when players prefer to
play games, and the question came up of would you
rather have? I think it was would you rather play

(21:17):
Friday Saturday or Saturday Sunday? And my thought is, well,
you know, wouldn't you rather have kind of the spotlight
of the Saturday Sunday and have those slots both for yourself.
But I guess the results when people have polled players
is that they would rather play the Friday Saturday. So
even though the Friday afternoon games are not well attended,

(21:40):
it sounds like that's what players actually prefer to be
kind of more on a traditional schedule, to have a
Sunday off and then reset for Monday and not have
you know, different weeks, having different days off and kind
of a short week here in a long week the next.
But I just thought that was interesting.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I mean, I would want to go from a game
on Sunday to platsroom Monday morning. So I get that
from a student athlete perspective.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
I think I'm just very of the opinion that, like people,
and I think we've seen this that like when when franchises,
when colleges, when leagues treat women's sports like they matter
or don't like that tells the public how to treat them.
And so putting the women's game at one o'clock on

(22:29):
Friday afternoon is intentionally or not putting out into the
world like that this is not important and we don't
expect you to be there or treat it well. And
so to me that was a bummer. I mean, I
feel like I also could say, how do you feel?
The So it was bordered back a week in Minneapolis.

(22:50):
So the badger men at Mariucci, which Marucci and Ritterer
like they share as essentially a Zamboni tunnel, is the
best way I can think to just like I can
see the Ridder or the the mary Ucci ice if
I'm over on that side of Ritter underneath. That's why
I was laughing through a world for us. So they
were like, look at this long wat for Ridder, and

(23:11):
I was like, you can see the mary Rider. Shut up.
But anyway, uh, those being started at our apart. So
the women started at six and the men started at seven,
and so uh again, I you know what's gonna happen there.
It's not going to be a sellout at the women
and fewer people at the men. And I just I

(23:32):
don't know what to think, Ritter, how to say about it.
I don't know if like an eight o'clock ASSX and
an eight would have been nice where you could go
from one to the other. It must have sucked for
you to try covering both. I was joking with my
husband that you were like running back when Wisconsin and
when the women went to overtime indeed, But yeah, I
just it's things like there there's schools out east that

(23:54):
don't like require a ticket, like you literally just kind
of show up and try more and get to walk in,
and you know, I feel like that's just putting out
how people. Why would I take it seriously if you
don't as the university, you know, and so uh, yeah,
that's all a greater conversation, but that the seventy seven
thousand at the Penn State men's game in the eighteen

(24:16):
hundred announce at the women's game was just a bummer
for me overall.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
I hope the players enjoyed it. That's all that ultimately matters.
But sure, that and the some of the scheduling stuff
we see is just kind of like, well, yeah, of
course people aren't paying attention. You know, the marketing and
the way things are presented and how the access and
all of that stuff they matter and they make a
big difference. And we like there's literal studies on it,
and you know, we see bad feeds with inexperienced announcers,

(24:46):
and we wonder why there isn't growth of a wire
viewing audience. And you know, we have talked You and
I have talked about like the NCAA tournament and when
those games are available, and not playing all the pork
finals at the exact same time and things like that.
So I think we've got a long way to go
in the in NCAA women's hockey with that.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, those are all valid points, and a lot of
it is prioritization, right, These are choices that get made
and based on what maybe has always been done at
places because you know, let's look thirty years ago, when
there wasn't really women's hockey at the level we're talking
about now, men's hockey always got the Friday night and

(25:29):
Saturday night spots because that that was traditional, and so
it's always felt like since then women's hockey has had
to find its own spot around that, and whether that's
on nights when the men's team is not there or
on days before the men's game, when we're talking schools

(25:53):
that play there and women's games in the same buildings,
it's it. It really does feel like a convenience of
historical you know, what's always been done, and yeah, for.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Me, it's frustrating to look at it. I mean the
you know this year the Gophers and the badger Men
was a better matchup or well was on paper on paper,
but like argue, but like looking at you know, you
look at those things and you're like, these are two
of the top teams in the country. Obviously the Olympics
took away something, but like the idea Wisconsin Minnesota playing

(26:27):
each other was on BTN plus, was not hyped at all,
was not like they're just there was so much opportunity
there that should be absolutely prime time BOST schools should
be talking about it and pushing it out on their socials,
and it's just it isn't It's it's like a I
feel like both schools are very sort of ambivalent about like, yes,
we have good women's hockey programs, that's great and all,

(26:48):
but like they don't. It's not marquee to them. And
so you know, the Penn State outdoor game being at
the same time didn't help with BTN as well. But
uh yeah, I just I feel like there have been
a couple of key marquee matchups we've seen, not just
in the w c h A in the e c
AC when you've got these high rate teams playing each

(27:10):
other and like it just feels like, I mean, the
teams aren't even you know, tweeting about it or sharing
goal goal videos, and it's just like these all could
be hyped and made to be bigger than they are
and tell people what a big deal this is and
how what great hockey they're going to see, and it
just it still doesn't happen at really a grassroots level

(27:31):
from their own schools. That's frustrating because I this is
this is an easy cell, particularly in an Olympic year,
but like easy cell, it's it's on a platter and
it's not happening. And maybe I mean I think we're
probably preaching to the choir anybody listening to this, But yeah,
it's just, uh, it's there's an opportunity. I mean, we're

(27:54):
in a in a great time from in sports period.
We're in a great time for women's hockey with the
p dub they're in a great time because of the
Olympics and and all of that stuff, and and KK
Harvey and Abby Murphy and Layla Edwards have been some
of the biggest names pushed out pre Olympics for Team USA,
and I just it's crazy to me that there's not

(28:15):
more like there's not a connection that to come back
to that, it's just kind of like, well, yes they're
at Wisconsin, but that's you know, they're there Minnesota or
there you know Tessa Penn State. So I just think
there was there's probably better pr and marketing than all
of those places could do in connection to that. Oh,
I did want to say I want to shout out.
I saw today Franklin Pierce is doing watch parties on

(28:36):
their campus. They have a player on Team Italy, and
they were putting out stuff about doing watch parties on
campus and doing like free snacks and things, which like
college kids are always going to show up for that,
but I just thought it was really cool and cute
and it's I mean, it's not to say that's not
happening other places, but I just it was the sort
of thing where it was like, Yes, this is what
we should be doing to celebrate these players on an

(28:57):
international stage and making sure that other people know about it.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
That is cool. Yeah, a couple other things I want
to get to before we take a quick break and
then come back and talk Olympics, mentioning Franklin Pierce in
a little bit of a rough patch, all three and
one in their last four games, and it's now cost
them first place in the New HA. Sant ansel now
four points up after.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Sweeping past Oh, we shouldn't have noticed. We shouldn't have
talked about that and should have.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Like let them be under the right, right and then
I it's just flipping back and forth here, but uh,
sant ansel sweets post Franklin Pierce gets swept at home
by Long Island U two to one overtime game and
then a four to three loss. So, uh, six games
left there and might rarely come down to that last
weekend where Franklin Pearson sant Anselm have a home and

(29:46):
home series, So it could be something to look for there. Yes,
every twentieth and twenty first that last weekend of the
regular season, that in New Ha and uh yeah, that's
uh something to look forward to in a couple of weeks. Okay,
we've covered last week. When we come back, we're going
to cover what's coming this week with the start of

(30:08):
the Olympics and then after that the NCAA games coming
up this week. Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome
back to the podcast, Todt Nicole with you. Let's talk
some Olympics. The women's hockey tournament begins Thursday morning in

(30:30):
the US time, bright and early. I think that's a
is that a six o'clock a certain starting remember, yeah, yeah,
And so it's uh that that one Sweden Germany is
the one that kicks it off. That's a Group B
contest in the The format that gets used Group A

(30:56):
is the top five teams in the rankings, So the US, Canada, Flynn, Chechia,
and Switzerland they all automatically moved through into the quarterfinals
in some order that the round robin of pool play
will determine. Uh, and the top three of the Group
B teams, which are Japan, Sweden, Germany, France and the

(31:17):
host Italy make it into the quarterfinals as well. So
that's a format that's been in place for quite a
while now if I'm remembering it right. Where they're going
the direction of having play each other.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Worlds used to be like this and then moved away
from it. But at the Olympics we're still here. So
I think people like kind of forget that this is
what we were at but yeah, I mean it ensures
at least one US Canada game, which I think they
are smart to ensure.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yes, yeah, there's.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Rankings are so interesting to be I mean, Switzer and
five they you know, they're this kind of ongoing. I
think Russia would still be like sixth overall in the
ih F rankings even without playing at all in the squad.
So yeah, the rankings are interesting to say the least.

(32:17):
I think it's really helpful for Switzerland to be fifth
and be in that top group. Sweden's got more work
to do and I think, you know, probably a little
and not necessarily unfair, but I think the level of play
for Sweden is higher than that would imply. I think
I think Sweden is a team that can compete for

(32:39):
a medal at the very least, And so yeah, it'll
be interesting. It'd also be you know, Italy brought in
a bunch of players. They have, you know, former Canadian
Olympians and a few other players, and so I don't
know that they're necessarily something to count out. And the
other interesting team is France, who did not technically qualify,

(33:00):
but because Russia was ruled out, France was the best
team left the best second place team left, so they
get to be in here. And what's fun for them
is the France is hosting the next Olympics, So if
nothing else, this is a really great experience knowing that
they're going to get to do this again in four years.
So yeah, I don't I mean, I think there's some

(33:22):
pretty interesting opportunities for upsets in that bottom group. I
don't think we're I feel like Sweden is the team
that I assume will come out of there, and then
the other four spots, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I don't want to just keep like my focus on
the fact that it's the US and Canada again, but
it's it just feels like that's that's what I want
to expect, right when you're when you're maybe taking an
outsider perspective, that's just who's always been there, you know,
ninety five percent of the finals seem to be right, Yeah,

(33:59):
I mean just role yeah, everything. Yeah, but the Olympics, Yeah,
it's up been all at one and it just feels
like we're on that collision course again. Even though you know,
Canada and the US have kind of taken different approaches
to all their rosters look right.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, I mean Canada, Well, Canada doesn't have any collegiate players.
They went older they I mean, this is something they
tend to do anyway. They really prioritize experience, not just
like playing years experience, but like having been to the
games before. Like they seem to really prioritize that, like
the mental game of the Olympics, the string, the interruptions,

(34:43):
all that sort of stuff, Like they seem to think
that it is important to have players that can handle
that over maybe somebody giving somebody their first opportunity. I mean,
to be fair, Canada has been much more successful at
the Olympics than the Americans. Like Canada the you know,
most of the gold medals, which is not what we

(35:03):
see across world championships and things. So I don't love
Canada's approach overall, but also it is successful for them,
so it's hard to like knock whatever they've done, at
least until it doesn't work right. I think for the US,
this focus has really been on use and I get that,
but also like this, all of the players that are

(35:25):
in that conversation about youth have been at on Team
USA and playing at World Championships. The entirety of this
quot like, none of the this is not new for
any of them. You know, Harvey and Ava Murphy will
be in their second Olympics, and so there's, yeah, there's
this big focus. Everyone keep talking about how young they are,

(35:45):
the youth, and I'm like, I don't know. I mean,
they're mid twenties at this point, and they all have
several years of international experience. Like I do get it,
I do. I do understand. Like it's a very easy
contrast to make in One of the things about something
like the Olympics is we're sort of all of the
storylines will appeal to the lowest common denominator, right, like,
don't look for in depth analysis for most places. But yeah,

(36:09):
I think the US has had the Olympics in mind
since that first roster was built post the twenty twenty
two Games, and so I think, you know, there was
a deliberate choice made to go younger, but also to
get all those players that experience internationally at different World
championships to make sure they would be in the best

(36:29):
possible spot they could be heading into these games. I
don't put a ton of of late on the fact
that the US swept the Rivalry Series. I don't know,
what do you think. I mean, for me, it's hard
to like make any sleepy in the end, Like even
World Championship Cold Battle all it's like nobody really blows
anybody out when it comes to international competition here, Like

(36:50):
it does feel like it's a coin flip and could
be the bounce of one pock or you know, hit
in the post and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, And that's why, like when you said, you know,
maybe not put as much stock into the Rivalry Series results,
I I agree with that, because of the scores of
some of those games, some of those really got away,
and it's we don't really see that at the Olympics.
We rarely see that at Worlds. It's it's it doesn't

(37:22):
feel like that was you know, the real top, top
level competition.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, not indicative of what capable of Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Right, So I yeah, I don't I'm inclined to say, yeah,
don't don't put a lot of stock into those results.
I will say, however, that I do like the the
blend of USA's team in that there's there's the scoring,
there's the grit, there's you know, the experiences, and and

(37:54):
that's that could be in a couple of players too.
I mean, it's it. It's a group that has a
can I think check a lot of different boxes in
terms of what kind of games they can win. And
that's the thing. You know, there's gonna be a lot
of games where they can just win just out skilling
the other team there. That's probably not gonna be the

(38:16):
way it works against Canada. So they're gonna have to
be heavily invested in getting their hands dirty. And you know,
we know there are a lot of players on the
US team that that seem like they're okay with that.
Some of them may be more than others, but I
think it's valuable to have that as part of part

(38:36):
of your team's makeup.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Yeah, And honestly, the biggest thing I think that rivalry
series sweep does is give the US confidence. I would
have to imagine that regardless of all everything that you're
supposed to say and do and everything, knowing that you
are not the team that generally comes out of the
Olympics with the gold medal is in the back of
all of their heads. Somebody was saying that Amamalte was like, well,

(39:03):
people are calling off Canada. Was saying people are calling
off the underdogs, calling Canada in an underdog right now,
It's hilarious to me who is doing this. I think
that the US has is the one that has to
prove themselves, and I think some of what has happened
in previous Olympics is mental mistakes and things like that,

(39:24):
you know, like they had you know, some games in
hand and let them slip away in and so I
think the having the confidence in themselves is one thing.
Going out improving it game after game in the rivalry series, really,
I think is an underrated sort of bonus for them
that like, there's they believe in themselves, but the belief

(39:47):
played out and they did it consistently, and particularly because
the rivalry series has not gone well for them in
the past years, you know, being reverslept and things like that.
So I think there is I think the whole thing
is seriously going to be a massive mental gain in
being prepared, in arriving for the moment, in peaking at
the right time. If you are going through a and

(40:07):
you have a bunch of easy wins, what happens the
first time you face the diversity or or vice versa, Like,
do you get tripped up by Chechia or someone like
that in an early round and can you respond. I
think those are all those are all the things that
will go into who is gonna win, you know, the
gold medal here, and I think, yeah, I think Canada

(40:27):
walks into that gold medal game knowing that, like, no
matter what has happened elsewhere, they keep walking out with
the gold medal the only way they didn't in the
lifetime of these children on a pedalty shootout. So like,
you know, that's yeah, so yeah, I don't know. I mean,
I would be great to give further adalyse to be like, yes,
I think this team has the advantage. I think the

(40:48):
people that are really putting the US front and center
and saying like this team has the advantage, YadA YadA,
rivalry series like that that feels way overconfident to me
in a way that I don't think it serves to
USA or really tea Canada at all. So yeah, it'll
be interesting things too, like goaltending right like this is yeah,

(41:09):
Averney having a ton of experience versus Aaron Frankel and
things like that. At this point, Aaron is not a newbie,
but she is in this to be the starting goaltender
at this point. Right like we were, we were mixing
things up a little more. I don't know, there's there's
there's a I really think you could flip a coin.
I think the interesting thing will be if teams like

(41:31):
Finland and Chechia and maybe Sweden are in contention for
something other than a bronze medal, like can one of
those teams trip up US Canada. I think it probably
could be easy to look too far ahead and have
your eyes in that gold medal game and so what happened?
You know, we've seen and we've seen it at the Olympics.

(41:51):
The US is you know, played for a bronze medal
and things like that. So uh, I don't I don't know.
I feel like the gap is still too big. I
feel like we're in the World Championships that will we
get to quarterfinals and semifinals. It doesn't feel like any
one team fight has the ability to put sixty minutes
against US, the North America teams, US or Canada. But

(42:13):
what do you think? Do you think there's an opportunity
for an upset there?

Speaker 1 (42:17):
You mentioned US opening with Chechia, and I really like
that opening for the US because I think check is
on the up upswing, and I think this may be
that the Olympics where they really start to show that, look,
we can we can be in if not one or two,
we can be three for sure, and then start to

(42:40):
challenge for one or two. Now, it doesn't always play
out that way. It's still you know, it's still a
shorter tournament, right where you play four games in the
in pool play and then you're into the knockout round.
So it doesn't always work out that way in that
kind of tournament. But I think if the US needs

(43:05):
to to show something in that game that you know,
they're not just going through the motions in an Olympic opener.
They need to look at that as a team that
they might be playing in a metal round game. And
we'll see there whether you know what the gap is.
I guess it may close over the tournament, it may

(43:26):
grow over the tournament. But I think that's a real
good indication for the US, that first game of where
they're where they're at going in the things.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
And I think Check You Too is probably the team
outside of North America most consistently able to put up
a physical, fast and skill the sixty minute game. Generally
with the teams outside of North America, you get some
variation of those three things in it in combination, but

(43:57):
like not all at one hundred percent. You know, you see,
like Sweden is very physical, but usually in focusing on that,
they give up you know, some other things like they're
not going to be as offensive and stuff like that,
and so that might end up being if you face Sweden,
might be more like a grinded out game, right But
I think, yeah, I agree that it's really good for
the US to hit that as their first game and

(44:19):
really be forced to be on their on their toes
and playing their best classible game right away. Ultimately, do
opening round games that are for Group A not really.
I mean, I think anyone in Group BAY should be
able to handle their quarter final matchup against you know,

(44:40):
a Group E team or the bottom ranking team in
Group A. But it's there's room for error early on,
there's a little bit of for error. But I do
think it's it'll be important for them to set the tone.
And again, I think that will test sort of all
the different US facilities in terms of playing physically not

(45:01):
getting pushed out of their game. What happens when systems
go to hell and how you group and what that
looks like. So yeah, like you said, I think that's
a really good and early test for them.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Well, by the time we talk next week, we'll have
a bunch of games already in the books to kind
of analyze where things might be headed early in the tournament,
and we will do that again next week.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
But for EXTI to say, those games are scheduled to
be on USA Network, and NBC is showing that some
of those years will also be on play at night
for people, and they also all stream on peacock. But
it does look like USA Network is the home of
women's hockey Live, and most games are taking place sometime
between six am and three pm Eastern time. That's the

(45:53):
start times. It's like on a SPOT game day, it's
like six, eight thirty ten and you're eleven and three
will be your approximate start times.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Yeah, one of the helpful hints that I saw, if
you don't want to subscribe to peacock, but you are
already subscribed to cable or satellite, you can sign in
using that on the NBC Olympics site and get those
live games or live everything throughout the Olympics. UH, streaming
that way too, so that will be helpful for those
early morning games that may not be on live or

(46:25):
may you know, there's a couple of games that overlap
in the middle of the schedule there, so that'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
I like to tell myself what watch the game, but like,
let's let's be.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It sounds good, but yeah, stay in a real ofant
I don't know. It might be one of those ones
that I turn on at five o'clock, but then by
five or five I'm back asleep with the TV on.
So it has happened before. Okay, we're gonna take a yes, right,
We're gonna take a quick pause here. When we come back,

(46:58):
we're gonna look ahead the number one Wisconsin against number
two Ohio State and other games upcoming this weekend in
NCAA women's hockey. Stay with us on the Podcorst Welcome
back to the podcast. Todd and Nicole here to wrap
things up for the week, talking about number one Wisconsin

(47:21):
against number two Ohio State Saturday and Sunday in Madison.
Saturday game is on Big ten Network, so that one
does get a little bit of national run this week,
as is very well deserved. When these two teams get together,
it's going to be the fourteenth and fifteenth straight times
they've played with both those teams in the number one

(47:41):
and number two spots in the poll. So that just
gives you a little bit of a window into what
these last few years have been like in women's hockey.
A lot of teams chasing these two and not getting there,
so mostly because they've only really lost to themselves a
team in this group. I mean, Ohio State has lost

(48:03):
a couple as well the other teams. Wisconsin's lost a
few to Minnesota. But really, this is what it's come
down to in the WHAU and nationally for the last
couple of years, and I think we're there's nothing telling
us that we're not headed that direction again. I mean,
some other teams are gonna have a say about that
in the NCAA tournament, but just looking at where this

(48:26):
is gone, we might be looking at another national championship
game between these two teams.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, I feel like we could end up having most
of the same conversation about these two that we just
said about US Canada in terms of it's a quid flip, right, Yeah,
it I feel like I feel like it was good
for Wisconsin to have that bounce back when on Saturday.
I think it was good that they did the same
thing last time they lost to Minnesota. I, however, think

(48:55):
it seems like Ohio State it's kind of in a
better position right now in terms of handling their their
different lineups. Both teams are short handed. You know, do
you know, is Hannah Halferson out for longer than you know,
the regular season or anything like that that had something.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yet Yeah, she she was. She was talking like it
it wasn't going to be as bad as maybe it looked.
She was on crutches on Saturday, but I think they
were hopeful that it was uh that maybe that was
more precautionary than anything that, you know, just.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
She didn't go back to play.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Yeah she did, and I was kind of mildly stunned
by that, given how it how it looked. But I
don't know what that means for this week, but it's
it's it was. It was definitely another blow to their
their forward, uh core.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
That's the point of the point of the conversation, not
that we not.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
That it meant that anything. Obviously, in the end, they scored.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Six, so yeah, but it's about it's a numbers game
for all of these teams right now as well. It
was a Becknzie.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Jones that went up in George from d Right.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Again, both of these scenes are just you skating really
thin benches for what they're used to, and so that
every everything like that, every little twinge, every possible injury
is just something that can can play a bigger role
in these in this series than I think would normally
otherwise be the case.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
I think the the more we get into this stretch,
the third periods of games are going to be really
fascinating to watch because by that point, you know, you're
rolling three lines at best at forward and at Wisconsin
it was on Saturday they had five defenders, but really
we're using four and a half maybe, I mean just

(50:58):
as it averaged out. So those defenders were playing a lot,
a lot of minutes, and by the end of a
Saturday a second game of a series, that does add up,
and there's there's some opportunities to you know, let some
things slide that normally don't, and so that might be
some opportunity in a close game to take advantage.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, yeah, I think too. If you think about like Oh,
it's not that we're talking. These are two teams that
would normally run like through their their whole roster, right
like it would be four full lines on offense and
if they do tighten up then and maybe run you know,
two more offen or three more often. So it's not

(51:41):
like I expect everybody on both these two teams to
be incredibly fit and getting ready, but like these are
we're just putting players in situations they're completely not used to.
They're they're on the ice more, they're being called more
off and they're on power play. And that's what's going
to change things. It's not that they aren't you know
it in in game ready. It's just if the game

(52:03):
shortens up and your line is the one that is
now sitting on the bench more often in a tight
game at the end, and now we're expecting you to
not just not have that, but also be playing consistently,
and like you said, like by the third period of
the second game, it could be could be quite interesting.
I think the Badgers escaped something with Maggie Ciannel looking

(52:25):
like she might have been injured and not being that
that would have been a huge blow for them in
terms of available for them in this short situation. The
Badgers did win both the two games when these two
teams played in Columbus. Wisconsin does tend to be quite
good in their home arena. But I do you have
any feeling, I mean, I think this is most likely

(52:46):
to be a split again like last weekend. I don't
know it'll be I Ohio State has Wisconsin this week,
Minnesota next week. Wisconsin has a two point lead in
the conference scening, so these are some pretty interesting games
from that aspect as well, and likely NPI. I would
imagine if Ohio State takes the majority of points this

(53:07):
weekend that they would move up right.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
I think that's for Wisconsin. If you know, getting a
split gets you a little bit closer to some of
those goals of you know, at least getting out. If
it's three points to three points, you know, you never
know what split could mean overtime either way and that
could adjust it. But if they come out of this
weekend with a two point lead or better in the standing,

(53:33):
I think they're feeling pretty good about themselves, and that
probably also means they're still on top of the NBI
and still on track for the number one overall seed.
But there's also that chance in the NPI conversation that
they could play again right before selection Sunday for a championship,

(53:57):
and that could change things again right there. That that's
still got a lot of wiggle room there the NPI discussion.
But we're getting down a lot close to the end
of the the regular season championship, and I think this
is this is just such an unusual situation with the

(54:19):
teams not having some of their best players and having
to basically, you know, feel their way through getting through
an entire game with the lineups that they have. And
I don't know that it's the the best way to
decide championships, but I do like the fact that Wisconsin

(54:40):
is playing Minnesota, Minnesota is playing Ohio. Say, Wisconsin is
playing Ohio. Say. These teams are playing each other through
the stretch, and it's not just the well, you know,
get get the good games out of the way, quote
unquote good games you know that are gonna decide yes.
So this is a real tests for these teams, and

(55:03):
it's I really don't know. We saw a little bit
of how much depth matters in your lineups last week,
Like you were mentioning Avery Hoveland for Minnesota scoring a
really important goal to tie that game against Wisconsin. I
feel like there's players out there that are going to

(55:25):
do that through these next three weeks too, and it's
just gonna have to be, you know, a player that
maybe has two or three goals on the season scoring
a big one and we shouldn't be surprised by that
when it happens. I guess no.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
The other thing I was gonna mention is there wasn't
a ton of special teams in the Wisconsin Minnesota series,
and so there usually is in Wisconsin states to put
it delicately, and I that will be interesting from a
Wisconsin standpoint because their top part play unit is all gone.
Not only that, but that on zone is a problem

(56:04):
problem that they have to overcome. But the beating quarterbacks
on your like you can't replace KK Harvey as the
quarterback and your power play. So what does not power
play one but powerfulay two look like for Wisconsin? And
that's not a thing that really got a lot of
time to figure out this past weekend. So if special teams,

(56:26):
which I think generally these, the games are physical, so
I imagine that we're going to see more special teams in Wisconsin,
Ohio states and what that looks like could be interesting, right.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
I didn't see Ohio state, but Wisconsin was essentially running
their first Bower play as their top line and top
dep pair, and the second was the second line and
the second deep pair. Because that was really like you're
saying that you don't have that right now, and so
that's who you have, is who you have, and you'll
you'll figure it out from there. I do want to

(56:57):
mention a couple of other games going on this Weekekend
Friday Night, number nine, Yale hosting number eleven Clarkson. We
talked earlier in the show about Clarkson not getting the
sweep last weekend, staying in eleven in the NPI, just
outside of the the spot that would give them in
that large bid if the tournament ended or the tournament

(57:22):
was selected. Today, h Yale is, we have a Ripley
appearance on the show.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
It sirs.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
If you're watching us, Ripley is, or if you're listening
to us Ripley. Nicole's dog is making sad kind of
eyes at the camera right now.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
So he's he that's all he does. Yeah, he just
he just pushed his way.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Well, hey, that's okay. Everyone wants to part of the podcast.
I can understand that. It's it's another important step here
for Clarkson to try and do whatever they can to
push themselves into that spot at Minnesota LUTH's expense, because
Minnesota Luth hasn't been you know, hasn't been doing great,

(58:07):
keeps sliding down a little bit, down to ten now
in the NPI, and so they are the last one
in as things stand.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
See no conference upsets. I mean, we've have been loathed
to ever use the must win, but it sure feels
must win for Clarkson, doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
I yeah, I mean I don't know that they have
to necessarily win out, but so you know.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
There's no but against Yale, like and things like that.
It feels like this of of the games that they've got,
this one feels particularly important to me. And also just
to sort of right the ship and put them in
the ring. So they have Yale Brown Coal Game Cornille
left on there, so Yale would be the only one

(58:53):
with ranking them. So yeah, that's the one. This is
the one that they need I think the most.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Yeah, that sounds accurate. I do I'm gonna be like
really paying attention to what happens when you get to
the like this this in the EC, I see the
second round of the playoffs, because the teams that get

(59:23):
that buyer probably you know, there's gonna be some teams
that are probably in the tournament. You're you're unless things
really go haywire, You're Quinnipiac Princeton maybe looking pretty good.
But then you're gonna have some teams that are kind
of playing for their lives at that point.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
So an ability to pull upsets throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Yeah, So I'm looking forward to that. There's a lot
a lot to play before then, but that weekend is
is gonna be fun to kind of scrutinize what what
goes down there. Another big weekend here coming up for Quinnipiac,
I think because just you know, had had come into

(01:00:07):
last weekend winning seven in a row, lost two games. Now,
where does it go. You don't want to drop any
further in the NPI. You don't want to drop any
further in the standings. It's Friday against at Harvard, Saturday
at Dartmouth. So we've seen Harvard play pretty well against
some of the better teams or the the higher ranked

(01:00:29):
teams at ECAC Quinnipiac. You gonna have to be ready
to go on that one Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Night, bring your bring your ability to beat the goalie,
because it can be tough for you. It's not going
to make it easy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
M hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah. I don't think nothing. The e SC regular season
title isn't going to come easy to never ends up
being able to grab it. Like things right, it's there
is no easy game. I mean we said that most
of the year, but I think particularly right now, nobody
wants to be the team that gets to be you know,

(01:01:05):
like everybody's playing for pride at this point and it's
really hard to There's no way QUINNIPIEC isn't feeling the
effects of like you know, they're they're upset with themselves.
They know what they did wrong and that it could
hurt them so sorry. I just think that nobody's more

(01:01:30):
conscious of it than they are. But that's a really
hard come back to make, particularly when it feels like
these games are must win and win it's it's it's
down to the wire. So you know, they painted themselves
into a little porter a bit, and I think they
I think if they come out of this weekend very
successful at bones well sort of for the rest of
their postseason, Like I think they got to sort of

(01:01:51):
prove their metal a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Does Ripley have any games to watch this week?

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Really will be an approximately this same position. While I
watched all the games this weekend, what I'll be interested
in is we saw lu be able to you know,
put a wrench in things for Franklin Peers, and they
will be facing Saint Ansel this week, so we'll see
what la you can do there to maybe change things
up a little bit. And then on Saturday we have

(01:02:19):
Boston College Yukon and I think that's one of those
games that could kind of is less about where they're
ranked and can just be about you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Who.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
I don't know, I'm not saying it well, but I
just I think it doesn't matter that the BC's you know,
maybe not as highly ranked as they were, not the
same in the standings. I think you CON's got a
tough road there to face them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Yes, well, between the Olympics starting and a bunch of
good games in NCAA hockey, there's a ton to wash
this weekend. We hope you enjoy that we hope you
check out the schedule and the scores and the stats
and everything, Nicole writes on us h O dot com,
And also at Victory Press, you'll have a bunch of
Olympic stuff happening there. Do you have anything you want
to tease for the Victory Press side of what you've

(01:03:03):
got coming.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I will have previews for every one of the teams
as well as sort of a tournament preview that should
have all the leaks you need for being able to
watch and find things. And hopefully in the middle of
all this, I'll also get to finish up a story
I was writing about Czerlan goalkeeping from you eighteen up
to the senior level. So lots of good stuff coming
over there. We also just put a piece out today

(01:03:28):
talking to simple PWHL players about their thoughts and expansion,
and I thought it was really nice to hear from
them in terms of like, what are the things they
want to see aligne and happen before the teams keep
coming into the league. So uh yeah, definitely check out there,
and we'll have stuff at usc CHO. I'll put up
something with the players the collegiate players over there as

(01:03:50):
well that are in the Olympics, so lots of coverage
in both places.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
All right, If you have any thoughts for us, drop
us a line. There's an email address in the show notes. Otherwise,
we thank you for joining us this week. We will
talk to you next week on the podcast.