The Beanpot wraps up, upsets in ECAC Hockey and an early Bracketology

Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com look ahead to Tuesday's Beanpot championship game between Boston University and Northeastern, who won semifinals last week but then dropped games over the weekend.

A look back to last week's results includes overtime wins by Brown and a pair of losses by Clarkson in ECAC Hockey and an Ohio State sweep at Minnesota Duluth.

The final segment has a look at how the NCAA tournament bracket might look as of today. Check out Nicole's story from 2023 on the selection process.

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Usccho dot com. Hey everyone, it's the podcast Todd Muski
here with Nicole Hasey. We're back talking about NCAA women's hockey,
and Nicole is back from Finland where she was seeing
some really good U eighteen women's hockey, and I want
to get in that real quick before we get into

(00:24):
what's been happening back here in the States. We talked
briefly during the tournament, Nicole, but since then, Canada won
the championship with a three nothing win against the US.
What was kind of the the thing that you saw
from that game that maybe, uh surprised you or or
was it really not a surprise at all.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
No, it was a surprise.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Canada was shut down on defense, Like the US just
absolutely could not.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Get out of the zone.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
They couldn't do much in transition, and if they got
up into the offensive zone they were kind of smothering.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was over with. I mean, they just really Canada
really shut them down.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
And I think when that happened and they had to
regroup and try and find something else, like nothing was working. So,
I mean, I have some personal feelings and sort of
the like maybe robotic nature of some of the stuff
of Canada, Like when we were interviewing the players that all,
they also say the exact same thing, and it's very
sort of by the book and by wrote and you know,

(01:24):
like I but I can't say that it wasn't successful.
But I also think, you know, Canada built a team
to go back and win that gold medal they won
bronze last year. You know, they brought Permorano even though
she's already a collegiate. Like that, that team was an
older team and it was built to sort of wipe
away what happened in twenty twenty four when they lost

(01:45):
the semi final to check Ya. On the other hand,
the US team I think had seven players that are
not yet eligible to commit to college. So like it
was not just a young team. It was a very
young team. And that seems to just overall be a
USA philosophy. And and you know, coach Liz Key Norton
did say, like, this is the team I wanted. I like,

(02:05):
I didn't pick anybody based on age. I picked the
players that I wanted to pick. But there's there was
a lot of learning moments for them, I think in
that in that final game, like when they kind of
came up against the diversity and it didn't work, and
Canaja just really really shut them down. So yeah, I
think the positive for the US to take out of

(02:26):
it is that that a lot of those players will
be returning. I think, you know, you often learn more
from losses like that than you do from winning it
at all. They won the gold last year. I mean,
it's never bad to win silver. I think obviously you
go and wanting to win gold and wanting to repeat,
But yeah, I don't US just looked a little a

(02:46):
little flat, a little listless in that that gold medal game,
and I think Canada just kind of power it up
heading into it. And I think that again, like that
that was their goal. They had, They had a mission.
They they really wanted redemption for having lost that semi
final game, and they went in with a very like
sort of clean and methodical attack and approach, and that's

(03:11):
what they did and it was successful.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Well, a lot of those players, as we've talked about,
beforriably ending up playing in college. I would imagine almost
everyone from US and Canada for sure is going to
be a college team. And as we've talked about before,
a lot of the European teams getting involved more now,
and a lot of the schools here in the US
are getting more involved in the recruiting of a lot

(03:36):
of those players. So that's why that's an important thing
to keep an eye on here from the NCAA side
of things. But as we kind of look back now
and go into the what we've seen in the first
couple of weeks of the NCAA season for twenty twenty
five parts since the breaks has been over, We're going
to get to that in a while. But what we've

(03:58):
got coming up this week on Tuesday, the third place
game in the championship game of the Bean Pot Tournament,
happening in Boston for the second year in a row.
It's happening at TD Garden. The final game or the
final games of that tournament. It'll be Boston University and
Northeastern for the championship after Harvard and Boston College play

(04:18):
for third place. Both of those games available on Nessen
if you're not able to go, if you are able
to go, if you're in the Boston area, that just
sounds like a really cool I mean, we saw last
year it was well attended, it seemed like it was
well run. That would seem like just a pretty cool
thing to be close to on the ground floor of
getting into one of those first ever ones at TD

(04:39):
Garden for the bean Pot. On the women's side, it's
been a staple there for the men's tournament forever, but
this is a really cool opportunity that they get.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah, absolutely, and just generally we don't see the Boston
college teams get huge attendance numbers, and so to see
them fill TD Garden last year and see everybody come
out and support them, I think, you know, obviously the
PWHL as well, but has just grown sort of the
awareness of women's hockey with with the Boston Fleet, and
so many of the Boston Fleet players played collegiately.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
In Boston, so that helps.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, for me, I'm just hoping that it wasn't selling
out TD Garden wasn't because it's the first time it happened.
I hope that everybody shows up again this year. Obviously,
the teams deserve it and the players deserve it, and
this is this is the kind of environment they should
get to be able to play in, and it's you know,
the beam pot is going. What is it like the
forty sixth year for the women's beam pot, which is

(05:36):
actually kind of crazy, like the fact that they've been
you know, playing for that long. We don't see that
on the women's collegiate side. We don't see that kind
of history that much. So it's cool that they finally
are getting that recognition, getting the ability and getting the
I mean, they get the full media push from Nesson
as well, which I really appreciate. So the game's on
Nesson on the East Coast. If you are not on

(05:57):
the East Coast, you can watch it on ESPN Plus.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, and I saw that the announced attendance for last
week's semifinals was just about thirty three hundred at Matthews Arena,
and that was a pretty cool. Uh you know, it's
it's good to see that when it's on campus and
when it's in you know, those home buildings that that
people get invested and get involved too. So that that
was that was nice to see. And they saw a

(06:21):
couple of pretty good games. I was able to watch
the bu overtime win over Harvard two to one when
the Terriers came back scored in I believe it was
in the final minute with an extra attacker to to
make it a one to one game and then scored
in the three on three overtime to advance. And then

(06:43):
Northeastern one four to two against Boston College, going up
three nothing in the first period and kind of keeping
the foot on the gas from there and getting thirty
seven saves from Lisa Johnson in that even though they
were out shot. And so that's that brings up a
you know, BU Northeastern final. What do you think we're

(07:08):
looking at there? I mean, this is these are a
couple of teams that you know, BU has been a
little bit on the rise this year. We've talked about
them a lot, and Northeastern has been trying to kind
of find the right formula it seems like a lot
of the season, and maybe they found it, but then
again they they slipped up a couple of times over
the weekend after that big win on Tuesday. Uh so

(07:30):
of course, so did be you So they lost on
the weekend as well. So I really know what to
taken out of those those results over the weekend, knowing
that they've got these this really big championship game coming
up on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
No, And I just say, like, obviously, these games like
these aren't regular games, right, Like they get extra hype
for them. I mean, on paper, there's no reason be
you should have needed to come up behind and win
an ot over Harvard. Sorry for no offense, but the
way the seasons have gone, like BU is the better team,
and that shouldn't have gone the way I think too.
I didn't realize that was the attendants numbers. The thing

(08:03):
about Matthews is when it's full like those, that upper
deck is like those players are on top of you.
So that to me, like that in the three to
zero start, like those those players were playing at home
and having that many people around and so makes a
difference then that they're going to be at TD and
like there's just different pressure, different layout, all that sort
of stuff. I kind of wish just from like I

(08:25):
was looking at stats over the weekend in terms of
like different voting and stuff, and I wish Johnson had
been playing more all season, Like she's having a great season,
but at this point she's only got like ten or
twelve starts something like that, Like she's still in the
teens of versus kind of some of the other leading goaltenders,
but she's she's really emerged as a stellar goaltender, which

(08:46):
was obviously unsurprising from Northeastern, but she I think what
is really good about that for them is, as you said,
they haven't they haven't found the right formula yet, and
having her back there gives them a chance to keep
testing things and trying stuff and you know, you can
you can make a mistake, and you can try something

(09:07):
that might not work and make a mistake when she's
back there, right Like, that makes a huge difference to
have sort of that confidence in your goaltender. But in
terms of what to I don't know. Northeastern to won
the last two Northeastern, you know, sort of has the
big game experience. Also, the last two times Boston University
has made the Beam Pot Final, they've lost in overtime

(09:29):
to Northeastern. Uh so that that was last year and
then when we say twenty twenty, be you last won
it in twenty nineteen. So yeah, there's a whole lot
of things that play And I think it's just that
push pull right, Like, I don't know, I think I'll
feel better after the first few minutes about being able
to tell what's going to happen that game.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, And you know there's a discussion every time a
in season tournament goes to overtime, because you know, it
used to be you could play the twenty minutes, keep
playing like it was a playoff game. And that's not
the case anywhere because the NCAA, I think when I
put everything together, put all the factors out there, I

(10:10):
think they made the right call in that. Look, this
is a regular season game. It needs to be played
with regular season rules, which means you play three on
three for five minutes. This is this game counts like
every other game in the NPI and then the pair wise,
so it has to be played under the same regular
season overtime rules. And that's not great when you're talking

(10:33):
about playing for a championship or playing for a you know,
getting to a championship game like b you and Harvard
were in overtime last week. But I think it's probably
the right, the right move, the right you know, just
decision to make things even all the way around. I

(10:54):
understand where it doesn't sound right when you're talking about
if this game on Tuesday goes to itchampionship game goes
to overtime, you're kind of getting a little gimmicky, like
people say with three on three or then even a
shootout to decide a champion. I just wonder if you
have any thoughts on that, because that seems to come up,
you know, every time we talk about an overtime game

(11:15):
in the bean Pot or any other you know, in
season tournament.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I mean I'd argue that, like automatically you and I
are not the best. Like to some extent, I will
never understand the bean Pot, like it's four teams they play,
you know, like it's a chance. Like I would think
that anybody in Boston and anybody that plays for those
four teams would say that they want to play on
until there's a winner, right, And so like for me,

(11:41):
I don't get that because I'm like, this is is
just not that big of a deal, but it is
to them. And then the other thing that you have
to like the positive of being able to take sort
of that feeling out of it, is that like putting
the student athlete health or however you want to say,
you know, at the forefront is to say they can't
play and infinitum, like you're like, this is a Tuesday night.

(12:04):
They just played games. They played last Tuesday, then they
played games over the weekend. They're gonna play games next weekend.
They've still got a month of this season. It's already
a really long season. It is not healthy or like,
it just doesn't seem like a good idea to let
that happen. And again, these are student athletes. They're you know,
anile side like not getting paid right Like, so we

(12:26):
say that with air quotes now, But I just yeah,
it's just to me that I get it.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
I get the passion.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
I appreciate that I will never quite fully understand it
as a Midwesterner for the bean Pot.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
But I also think, like it's.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Not the only in season tournament, right Like we see
other in season tournaments, and the rules have to apply
across all of those. And so even though like there
are people that would argue that this is more important
than you know, the Badger Holiday showed out or Great
Lakes invitation or any of those things, like it can't
be separate and different.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
It can't the Smashville tournament and giving a weekend. Yeah,
it's you know, it's not the only one where this supplies,
and it's uh, I really think the that the people
it benefits the most are last week BC in Northeastern

(13:16):
Because if you've got it, if you're the second game playing,
and the first game is going to three overtimes. That's
rough because you're there, you're ready to play.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
You've got through your routine based on the timeline.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, you're playing. You're going off the the the the
the schedule that that's out there, and well we know
that doesn't always work out.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
But like a five minute overtime and a shootout can
only take so long, Like it can push you back
a little, but not so much to throw everything.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, we're talking about you know, do I need to
grab some more food before we get on the ir Yeah, yeah,
where we've seen that happen in in uh you know,
postseason things in the past.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
I Like I said, I think to some extent where
you're we we could ever have the right take on
this just because it you know, it's not our wheelhouse
on this.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
But I also think that that means that.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
We don't have the sort of blindingness of the passion
for it. So yeah, I'm sorry being put folks, but
I think for the student athletes, it just does not
make sense to go out there and play Infinity over
times until it's just.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
In a vacuum.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
It's a bad idea and then putting it in the
fact that we've added extra games into their calendar and
they're playing games more often than they maybe would have otherwise.
I mean, I know the hockey sometimes has mid mid
week games, but like these are high level, most important,
Like you've already sort of messed with their schedule and
put more pressure on them. Just it doesn't seem wise.

(14:43):
And if somebody got injured during that, and whether it
entered their season or their career, like that would just
be such a shame.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, well, that should be a good Tuesday of hockey
in Boston a TD garden. Check that out if you can.
We will be back shortly and we've got more talk
about this. We won't be talking about last week's games.
We'll be talking about what's to come, and we'll be
giving a look at where the NCAA tournament stands as
of right now in terms of what the brackets might

(15:10):
look like, who's in, who's out. We will get to
all of that when the podcast continued. Welcome back to
the podcast. Todd Luski here with the Cole Hasey and Nicole.
Let's look back at last week and a couple of
things stood out in the ECAC Hockey World. Brown getting

(15:34):
a couple of upset victories if you want to look
at them that way of over ranked teams, I guess
winning an overtime against St. Lawrence four to three on
Friday and then winning three to two at Clarkson on Saturday,
both of those games on the road for Brown, And
so that's a you know, Brown's a team we talked
about earlier this season, has done some good things, had

(15:56):
a little bit of struggles, like kind of we thought
maybe they would it would happen that way. It's you know,
it's never really a straight line when you're trying to build,
and we saw where that's gone up and down for
them this season. But this is another big up for them,
getting a couple of road winds over ranked teams.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Absolutely, and with the travel partners, like they called it
the first sweep over the North Country teams in quite
a while, which I appreciate it. You're never going to
get that full weekend sweep over two teams in ECAC,
but I liked the way they put that. Uh yeah,
just not only are they wins, but like these overtime wins,
I mean, it's it's that's the difference between you know,

(16:36):
an okay team and a good team, right, It's like
when you can come from behind one, you can pull
out those tight games. So I thought that was just
just another really important sort of step for them. There
were eleven nine and one. I mean it's still you know,
like you you look to like there's still nineteens in
the pairwise who knows, you know, like but their team
I wouldn't want to play in the SEC tournament.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
And so.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
It was nighteen game winless streak against Clerkson for them,
and I, yeah, I just I was really impressed. I
thought it just overall like it was different players scoring
though Monique Lyon continues to have an outstanding senior sorry
rookie season, And yeah, I just I they're fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're moving the pock.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well there, it's these these aren't flukes right like they're
they're playing a great game hockey, and it's it's I
can't wait to see where this keeps going. I hope
that it you know, that we're seeing this continual build
and that this is something that we see from them,
uh continuing in the in the coming seasons.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Right, and we know that much like we've seen with
teams like Saint Cloud in w c CHA. It's not
easy to crack the top group in ECAC hockey because
of the quality of teams that are up there. You're
normally talking three four five deep of teams that are
ranked in the top fifteen in the US EHO dot

(17:59):
Com pole. So it's not easy to make that happen.
But you start to chip away and you start to
put the baby steps together, and then all of a
sudden you go into a season and you're talking about,
all right, let's finish top four. Let's make that a
legitimate goal. And I don't know that they're there yet,
but they're right that that maybe hey, one of these times,

(18:25):
Brown's gonna be uh knocking on the door there.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, I mean they're within three points of six, So
like that's the top half. That's the first step, right,
and the teams above them are also teams that are
beatable for them.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
I it's maybe not like maybe I'm getting too excited,
like maybe it's overblown, but yeah, I just that's the
first time they've ever swept both those teams on the road.
It's the first time they won at Clarkson since two
thousand and six. Like these are huge steps forward. And
again they're above five hundred, which is just that they're
all things that you have to do in the process
of growth, and they're all steps they've been taking little

(19:02):
by little, and and yeah, I just it's it's exciting
to watch. It's good for the game. It's good for
the growth of our our game, and for women, you know,
for the NCAA programs and and and teams need to
see that it.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Can be done.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
So yeah, you know, they're they're three and one and
over time, that's that's like a huge That's one of
those things you you don't see from bad teams, right,
like you have to be able to to tough it
out and uh sort of not that's sixty plus minutes,
you know. So yeah, I was excited to see it.
And and like the flip side is, like you said,

(19:36):
Clark's and Clarkson's lost four of their last six. Uh,
they're down to eleven and the pair wise, I mean,
they're still sitting fourth in the conference, but they are
good six to a half points behind Saint Lawrence and third,
So at this point they're you know, they're not one
of the teams competing for the ec AC title. And
and they're going to be playing for their postseason hopes, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
They're gonna need a strong, uh, you know, final five
weeks of the season to go into the postseason thinking that, okay,
that you know, even if we don't win the conference
postseason championship, we're still feeling pretty good about in a
large spot because yeah, they're they're in a spot right

(20:22):
now where they do not make it as an at
large team and just hovering around five hundred is not
gonna get there. So they're gonna need to win you know,
you know, six seven games just thinking about if you've
got ten left, I'm not exactly sure how many have
left and don't have their schedule up in front of you,
but you're gonna have to make a run there to

(20:44):
make sure you're not you know, just kind of hovering
in the same area you're at right now in eleven
because that's not gonna be good enough.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
They have eight left and it's two Weigainst. Saint Lawrence, Colgate, Cornell, Princeton, quinnypiac, Harvard,
and Dartmouth, So I.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Mean there's there's something they definitely should win there. But
there's a lot of games that account for their losses, right,
toss ups in terms of what we've seen so far.
So yeah, there it's it's go time now. There's no
no more waiting around to see, well, you know this
will shake out for us. It's it's time to put

(21:22):
what you've got out there and and let her rip.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah, and those are like those are teams drinked above them.
There's that Highway eleven rivalry with Saint Lawrence, Like none
of these are like, this is a gauntlet they're doing.
They're home for Saint Lawrence and uh to start and
then and then at Saint Lawrence, at Colgate at Cornell,
like these are these and they get Princeton Quinnipiac at
home and then and the season at Harvard and at Dartmouth. Uh,

(21:47):
it's a that's a bit of a gauntlet for a
team that's that's been struggling. So yeah, it's it's one
of like we've talked about, you know, you have to
win the big games. You have to like kind of
the stuff we've been saying on Hockey East right, like
if if you want to be in consideration and if
you want to be competing for that top spot, like
you can't be dropping you can't be dropping those close,

(22:08):
close games. And I'll be picking on some of those
Hockey East teams later, but yeah, it's it's a rough
go and the kind of when one of those tests
were like, I imagine they're having some team meetings this week
and they'll be talking about it and they're heading into
a huge rivalry weekend and they have the opportunity to
share with They're made out.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah, Colgate and Cornell got a couple of wins each
over the weekend. A Friday for Colgate had to come
from behind to beat quinnin pac four to two, then
got a four nothing went against Princeton. Cal Cova another
good weekend. I think she scored three, had two two
four On Saturday.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
She scored it between the legs goal. It's absolutely sick.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
She's she I mean, she's leading the country and goal scoring.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
And then me and Leila Rhords are tied at the four.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Originally I'd seen somewhere that she had a hat trick
on Saturday and so no, it was only actually two goals,
so I think, yeah, they're they're tied, and so it's
and and Leilah Edwards scored four on Saturday and another
one on Friday for the Badger. So yeah, that was
kind of a trying to keep up with who's actually
in front there was a little difficult for a while

(23:21):
on Saturday. But yeah, that's she's I mean, this is
what we expect out of her, right, I mean, this
is you know, she's she's there to score goals, and
you know she's doing it. She's given them every chance
to win these games by by putting herself right in
front of the offense there.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah, and she's a player that truly has shown like
growth on the ice, Like her skill set has continued
to grow in her time in college. And I think
like that's all that you could ask for. And she's
put herself into consideration with the Czech national team, and
there's been some other stuff off the ice, but I
just like you can't deny that, like this the player
that she is on the ice right now, Like it's

(23:59):
so far from what she was as freshman and sophomore
year that you could see the potential, but like it
really has all come together and she's really sort of
blossomed the last few years of Colgate and she went
from being you know, sort of a player that just
really used her size and kind of pinballed around in
people and used that to get space. And like I said,
she scored one between the legs. She had a breakaway,

(24:21):
just used a bunch of speed and went bar down
like her goals are this weekend were of particular note,
and you were just like, okay, sure, yeah, casual, that's.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
As what we expect. Yeah, there you go, right. So
the big series in the WACHA last weekend was number
two Ohio State going to number four Minnesota Duluth, and
the Buckeyes came out with a couple of road winds there,
three to one Friday to one on Saturday, which seems
fairly close. I believe there was an empty netter in
the Friday game, But then you look at the shots

(24:55):
on goal which were sixty one to twenty in one
game and forty six to fourteen in another.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
So it was shout out goalie of guess Con for
making one hundred and two saves this weekend.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
And getting coming away with no wins out of it,
which is the unfortunate part. Yeah, that's you had mentioned
when we were talking off the air here that the
loop was really shorthanded for the Saturday game. Sounds like
there's some some illness going on.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
So yeah, I think they were down to I think
I read they were down to thirteen players for defenders,
Like they even had players that started the game Saturday
and had to leave the game sick. So on that
in light of all that, you got to be like, well, hey,
pretty good job against number two Ohio State. And the
fact that they I say this like not as a

(25:44):
knock on the defenders, but like they only had eleven.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Blocks each day, so all those shots.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Were getting on gas Gone, so like just a plus
effort from her. I don't I'm not not blaming the defense,
and Ohio certainly can pick their shots, but yeah, that
just means that, like Gascon was truly getting peppered and
everything was getting in on her. So the fact that
she gave up four goals right three at the empty

(26:10):
nutar like, that's an outstanding performance.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Former podcast guest McKenna Webster with the go ahead goal
in the second period of that Saturday game for the Buckeyes.
Just love throwing out the former podcast guests there on
that interview we had with her earlier in the season,
and our you know, find that in our archives. I
guess on either on usc h O dot com or
wherever you're getting this podcast, So I love to have

(26:35):
people check out what's been out there before. The Hockey
East talked about the bean Pot coming up and what
the games that were semifinals last weekend or last Tuesday,
championship game, third place game this Tuesday, in the middle

(26:55):
of the teams that are going to be playing for
the championship head ay, not so great weekend. Northeastern was
swept by Providence in a home and home series. Boston
University lost to nothing at New Hampshire Sadona Blair with
a twenty six save shutout for the Wildcats there on Saturday. Again,

(27:16):
it's you know, Hockey East being Hockey East this season, right,
not really, don't don't assume that because a team has
a number in front of their name, that's going to
come out.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
With the win, right I mean?

Speaker 3 (27:28):
So standings right now are Boston College Yukon tied top
with thirty seven points, bu is third with a game
in hand with thirty six points, and Northeastern It's worth
with thirty two points. So there's still a lot to
be played there and a lot and Providence in fifth
has twenty nine points. So they're only eight from from first. Yeah,

(27:49):
I you know, at this point, I would never predict,
like you asked, who's gonna happen, and I don't know
he he's leading the conference, Providence had I'm sorry, Harvard
has like two wins or something like that, and they struggle.
It's just it, I don't know what's gonna happen on
any given day. I'm not sure the teams know what's
gonna happen on any given day. I mean, I guess

(28:13):
as someone who loves chaos, I'm all about it. But
it's also just like, seriously, this is on a platter
for you, please like take it.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
And run with it.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, And I think that just it speaks to that
there's there's parody there in those teams. No one who's
who's you know, running away with anything like we're seeing,
you know, is let's say, and uh Atlanta Hockey or
w C h A. You're not seeing necessarily a team
that's like, Okay, this is clearly your your your best
team as of right now. There's it's a little bit

(28:45):
of a grab bag there for that spot. And in
Hockey East, you could at any point give give that
moniker to any number of teams. Really.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, so that does make it fun, and it's gonna
make their because they went to the one one game
playoff like they don't they're not doing three game series.
So at this point it's clear anybody in that conference
can beat anybody else, and so I think that's going
to make.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
It a lot of fun for the conference tournament.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
But in the meantime, yeah, it's just I don't know
what I didn't you know, I don't expect no goals
from any of these teams, and so to go out
and yeah, I mean kudos to Providence. Man, they played
a really good weekend and they clearly were prepared and
took advantage of Northeastern having played that extra game. And
because I think BC and B you only went out

(29:33):
and played one game this weekend instead of doing a
two game.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Set to sort of help make up for some of that.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
So yeah, Providence took advantage for sure.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Yeah, let's touch on a couple other things where before
we take a quick break in New ha It's things
have gotten interesting at top there after Stonehill got a
shootout win after a three to three tie at Sacred
Heart Last Riding, and then one at Sacred High on
Saturday three nothing Alexa Kuran with they thirty two save

(30:06):
shut out there in the second game. That puts Sacred
Heart and Long Island tied at thirty six points a
top the league. And lo and behold, those two teams
are playing Saturday and Sunday in a home and home series.
So that's that. Those are the kind of things we
love to see towards you know, we're getting towards the
end of the season. Those are the kind of things
that you know, start separating teams and you know, you've

(30:28):
got two games here that could really play a big
role in the championship race.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, I mean it's a bit like what we just
said with hockey's right, like it just it's what makes
it fun. It means that you I mean, we talked
about earlier in the season, like one period, one given
up goal, like all that stuff can make a difference
at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
And so.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
You know we were talking about like sort of Clarks
this upcoming schedule and that that last weekend being not
the the other RINGD teams, Like I love that we're
seeing like these team like last week's results.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Now put the Sacred.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Heart Lau games like Front and Center. So you know,
it's amazing to be talking about games having postseason consequences
and like sort of being must win and we're still
in January. I mean there is only like four to
five weeks left depending on the conference, so there aren't
that many games. We are nearer to the postseason than

(31:25):
you think we are. But also like, yes, are we
talking like or tie on January twenty fifth?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Amazing?

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, that always, you know, hits me at some point
in January that you know, as soon as you get
back from the break, it's like, Okay, that's two months
and that's it. We're done with the regular season, so
that that really becomes a race when you get into
the you know, in the second half of January, you're
you're coming down to it. It's getting to be pretty

(31:52):
important times in the regular season there.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah, it sort of really hit me, right because I
missed those couple of weeks too, being overseas, so I
was sort of organizing this weekend and getting my ducks
in a row and sort of presetting up some things,
and so I was like looking at at dates and
like and I'm like, oh, that's that's four weeks from now. Great, Yeah, awesome,
that's when did that happen. It's always amazing to me

(32:16):
when like we're like, this is the longest season and
then also like, oh it's almost over. But yeah, that's
for me. It was It came this week when I
was trying to over the weekend sort of reacclimate myself
to the college game after having not been able to
watch a lot for a couple of weeks, and I
was like, oh, yeah, wow, that's that's a month. So

(32:37):
uh great, not at all stressful. No, No, it does
mean Yeah, it means good things. It's it's means excited hockey.
It means these games matter even more, and uh it
means great things for the fans.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah. In Atlantic hockey, one more to touch on before
we go. Pensant has has pulled away from from Mercyhurst
a top of the league. They're nine points clear in
first place, but last Friday they needed the Nittany Lions
needed one nothing overtime win over Syracuse to get that.
Don Caitlin Roberts with the goal three minutes into the

(33:15):
extra session, and that's I mean, kind of gives you
the impression though that you know, even though a team
is clearly the number one in the league. It doesn't
mean those games aren't gonna be are gonna be easy
for them. They're gonna have to, uh, you know, they're
gonna have some teams gunning for them. When when you've
kind of established yourself as the top of the league.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, and shout out Syracuse goalie Ellie Kelly, who became
the new NCAA leader in SABS.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
I would imagine she played.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
A big part in the Penn State needing overtime to
win on Friday. But yeah, that's that's it's just this
crazy number because she's you just have to face some anymore.
It's one of those numbers, like the previous holder was
Louis's slander from RPI. So yeah, it's just this crazy number.

(34:04):
I'm sorry, I don't have it right in front of me,
but shouted out to the ali for doing that, Like
it's I can't imagine facing the barrage of shots that
you have to face to set that record, and you know,
she's obviously still got games to go, right, all.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Right, that's look at last week. When we come back,
we're going to take a look at where the brackets
stand as of right now. And then ahead to what's
coming up this weekend. Stay with us on the podcast.
Welcome back to the podcast. Todd Molusky and Nicole Hasey

(34:43):
here wrapping it up for this week. I want to
mention a couple of things you can read on us
cho dot com. Some awards, watch lists and nominees are
out in the last week. The Hockey Humanitarian Award as
announced fourteen nominees for this year's award for the College
Hockey Finest Citizen. It's a great ward. I know, Nicole,

(35:04):
you've written a lot in the past about some of
those nominees and finalists and it's really really humbling to
read about and hear about what a lot of college
athletes are able to do outside of the rink in
helping their communities. And I know you've seen a lot
of those over the years.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
It's like you said, it's humbling and just sort of
on inspiring, and like I always say, like, think about
what you were like at twenty one and now these
are elite athletes that are also students at top universities,
and then they're like, also, let me spend all of
my free time volunteering and making the world better in
myriad ways it is. I mean I consistently say that

(35:47):
like women talking about like I'm just always so in awe.
There's so many stories that need to be told, like
they're just there's so many cool, badass ladies doing stuff
that more people should know about. And like I said,
I think it's for me. It's about thinking about like
what I was, like a fat age and and and
just so impressive how organized and giving of themselves they

(36:08):
are and and these are sort of you know, the
people the top tier. But there isn't a college athlete
or a collegiate hockey player that isn't doing something with
their team, right. They all, they all hold clinics, they
all go to hospitals, they all. That's just a part
of what it means to be a student athlete in
this day and age. But I like, yeah, I think
if you are, you know, feeling like you need to

(36:31):
remember about humanity and the humanity of people and and
a little uplifting ego and read some of We do
have profiles of them every year of the finalists, and
so the last few years will be up obviously on
us c h O and you can find those and
several of the people this year are repeat nominees. But yeah,
I just, uh, I'm always humbled and impressed and I

(36:54):
just think they're they're sort of the best of us.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
And it's uh, it's worth of taking your time to read.
And also.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
I just think it's it's always really cool to be
able to sort of humanize the players beyond them being athletes.
Even sort of when we talk to to players here,
we talk to them about their game, so it might
be beyond, you know, a little bit beyond. But to
talk to a player who, you know, who is doing
soil work in foreign countries because they want to be,

(37:25):
you know, a scientist in the future. It's not just
about like volunteering to volunteer. Some of it is like
sort of even further and like they're going to go
into policy work and things like that, and you just
it's it's a good reminder that these just aren't athletes
or they're hockey players, but just so the depth of
some of these players is just really impressive.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, absolutely thrilled at us cho dot Com has been
a partner of the Hockey Humanitarian Foundation for a lot
of years and love love seeing that come out every
year and then getting to hear more about those stories
and then seeing the presentation that the men's Frozen four
in April is always really cool. But one of the
other awards that had a watch list come out last

(38:08):
week was the National Women's Goalie of the Year Award
for twenty twenty five, and that watch list is determined
by you qualify by having a goals against below a
certain number or a safe percentage above a certain number,
and it ended up being thirty three goalies on that list,

(38:29):
and Nicole, I know you have some thoughts about that
because you can read them all on usho dot com,
But I don't know that that really necessarily narrows down
anything for us in terms of the Goalie of the Year.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
No, bless their hearts, and I don't want to take
anything away from the players that were named to it.
But also there are forty one teams women's T one
college hockey and I believe fifty two women that have
played at least one game in NET and the watch
list was thirty three, So yeah, absolutely, Like I think
it's something all of them have goals against below two

(39:03):
point something. I don't remember the exact number, which is
super impressive and amazing and I don't want to take
away from that, but also, as you said, I don't
think that watch lists narrowed down for us who are
going to be the finalists or who who's the top
goaltender in the country, So that it was both like,
I'm glad for those players to be recognized and also

(39:24):
what are we doing.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, I think we'll get into that a little bit
more of terms of in terms of narrowing down you know,
what we're thinking about for awards for the goalie for
the Patty Caz. Eventually this season we're still a few
weeks out from from really seeing you know, more complete
resumes in their place, so we'll get to that. But
you know, I understand this is a bit of a

(39:49):
marketing thing too, because you had every yeah, had a
press release able to go out and something go on
their website about how their their goalie is on a
watch and so that's, Yeah, it works, and a lot
of these done are done. And think of college football,
they are watch lists that are out before the season
before anyone valid Yeah. I've always kind of chuckled at

(40:11):
those like, yeah, okay, that's great, but let's let's watch
this play out please.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah, I feel bad reggan on it a little, just
because I don't want to take away from the players.
But yes, my thought when I saw that was like
thirty three. It was kind of like, you know, I
saw it in passing while I was in Finland and
had a chuckle and I said, I said that to
Todd like kind of as soon as me we got
on before we started recording, because I was like, I

(40:38):
needed somebody that would understand why Like that was my reaction,
because I just, oh, yeah, but you know, I think
it's important, I think to recognize the really, you know,
the high level. I just there are plenty of goalies
and you know, not an NCAD when women's talking that
would like goals against averages or say centers is that low?

(41:00):
So it speaks to the quality of the players in
the league and all of that. But yes, but also
I can find it silly and laugh a little.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Ye, find the joy where you can, that's correct, Yes,
all right, let's find some joy in bracketology for this week.
This is something I've been doing for a little while.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
See is this for anybody else?

Speaker 1 (41:22):
But you probably not, But hey, let's mention some teams
and what might some brackets might look like. But I guess,
first off, this is you know, purely hypothetical this season
too early. Yeah, and it it changes, you know, day
to day sometimes week the week obviously in terms of
where the pair wise rankings are. But if you start

(41:45):
going down the list, it's you know, pretty simple to
put things into the bracket the way it shakes out,
and it seems really simple this week the way that
it looks because you've got three of the top four
teams being from the w c H. You've got in
the pair I got Wisconsin at one, Ohio State at two,
Minnesota three, and then Cornell moved in the four ahead
of Minnesota du Luth after the Bulldogs lost two games

(42:08):
last week in Cornell won two. So the Luth at
fifth would be playing at number four Cornell in the
first round or the second round. Sorry the they you
know they because that's the one that doesn't play first
round game. Yep. Because of the eleven team tournament. And

(42:28):
then the way it would shake out to me, it
seems like you have Saint Lawrence at eight playing Boston
College in ninth and that one going on at Wisconsin.
Then the Ohio State Regional would be Penn State number
seven against number ten. And this is where I might

(42:50):
be different than some other people. I have BU in
at ten because I go by the the current points
percentage across the league to an automatic bid. We don't
know that'll be that's the conference champion at the end
of the point. Right now, BU has the best points percentage,
and so I put them in the tournament, which knocks

(43:11):
out a team in tenth of the pair wise, which
I believe is Quinnipiac would be in if there was
only one Hockey East team, that being Boston College and ninth,
but obviously a lot to play out there. So had
Penn State BU playing at Ohio State in the winner

(43:34):
to play the Buckeyes. That leaves Colgate and six against
Long Island the new Hall leader by number of wins.
I believe was the difference that I had because they're
tied in everything else and they split the earlier series,
so had to go deep in some tiebreakers there to
come up with who would be the new HAW representative
in this.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Six Just to call back to a state, how important
games this weekend should be?

Speaker 1 (44:00):
This weekend? Oh, of course if they split, maybe not.
But we'll see six col Gay against eleven Long Island
and then the winner to play three Minnesota in Minneapolis,
which of course is the site of the Frozen Four
as well this year. So it's it'll be different next week,
it'll be different five, seven weeks from now, whenever the

(44:21):
selection show is. But it's starting to take some shape
of I think I mentioned last week or the week
before that the top four teams at that point were
all from the wh which really made it a West
heavy hosting. Obviously that's changed a little bit where now
Cornell uped into the four spot, gets to host that

(44:42):
second round game. So I don't know there's a lot
to learn there, but it's it's just an interesting exercise
to get us through some of these January days.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
No, I think there's a couple of things. One is
that Parois right now looks pretty different than the polls,
which I think is interesting just sort of maybe perception,
but like the entire year at Cornell has been ranked
below Colgate in the polls, but pairwise has them up
at four, which is I just think interesting. And like
we said, we saw the movement with Clerkson and then

(45:13):
I had a question someone asked me on social media
about like does pairwise, pairwise versus NPI, and so we
just wanted to talk a little bit about that. Yes,
they are technically sort of two different things. They just
so happened to have very closely related and matched.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
To each other.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
Is that like the best way to the past couple
of years.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Yeah, we haven't really seen the pairwise differ much from
the NPI. The NPI is a one of the components
of the pairwise So you're comparing every team or each
team to every other team in the country, and that
makes the pairwise ranking. So the number of comparisons you
win based on the criteria is how many pairwise points

(45:54):
you have if you want to look at.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
That criteria, MPI being one of those.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
NPI being one of those, head to head results being
one of those, and record against common opponents. If I'm
remembering it right, I'm going through the manual as you speak,
because I always forget about if there's anything different a
year to year, and so those were the things that
I remembered. So NPI had to head record versus counterpoints.

(46:20):
Those are the three things that get comparison. If there's
a tie in in those of the NPI is what matters.
So that's where NPI has a little bit of an
outsized weight to the way things go in the pair
wise because if it ends up being even there, you're

(46:42):
going with whoever's head in the NPI anyway. So there
are some I know, Nicole, you wrote something a couple
of years ago, we could probably we change from what
this means and how it all plays out, and so
we can link to that too in the non.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Math person's explanation of the math. Uh yeah, I think, yeah,
I just maybe it's goning go just a little more.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
So.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
This is how the at large teams are selected, Like
there will be a ton of teams that earn auto
bids by winning their conference tournament, and then the rest
of the teams in the in the tournament, I receive
at large bids and those bids are given by a
committee and they use the NPI and pairwise to make

(47:23):
those decisions. They have pretty closely followed those numbers the
past few years. But uh, it's we're not that far
away from them not doing that. So it's one of
those things that we never quite know if the committee,
and we did talk to someone from the NCA last year,
we do expect them to mostly follow that. But yeah,
so to some extent when we're talking, pair wise is

(47:46):
a little interchangeable with NPI, but that is just because
those numbers have so closely followed each other. Technically, NPI
is a component of pair wise, and pair wise is
what it is. I should I guess we should say
our best guests because we technically don't know, right, it's
our best guess of the calculation that the committee uses

(48:08):
to create their own rankings.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
We've been Yeah, it's u s c h O dot
Com has a basically a replica of what the committee uses,
and that's what we call the pairwise rankings and has
become basically they default in college hockey of being known
as pairwise rankings because that's the system that they use

(48:31):
and have used for for many years. I don't know
that the seating can be different or the matchups the
community can change, but they're pretty strict on saying that
you have to go by the pairwise.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
For We talked about that as a hypothetical last year.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
There are some there's some language that still exists in the.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Right, which is why we asked about it.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Right in the criteria, it says in situations where a
high impact player is unavailable to the committee. They consider
this as part of its evaluation of the above criteria.
But I have never seen that actually use that don't
remember that ever having been used, and so I don't
think that's a real anything to be can sit to

(49:19):
really think about, Yeah, thinking about this, right, there's a
lot to think about, But I don't think that's what
that's that's.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Part of it, right, agreed, And I just I'm looking
back for the date. But we did speak to someone
from the NCAA committee last year around this time to
you know, to sort of ask some of these questions
because we did have like we had a situation where
it was possible that like they could choose like the
teams that the sort of last in teams were so

(49:49):
close that we were we were asking whether or not
sort of things could change, right.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah, And we were told that, you know, this is
what's been set up for them, and they are they
told that this is what you use. And so there's
no question about that. If the numbers go on your
favor you're in. If they don't, sorry you didn't do enough.
That's that's kind of the black and white of it.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, that's episode sixteen talking NCAA Tournament selections of committee
chaer Jeremy Gibson from March six, twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
So, yeah, if you.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Want to scroll back in our in our history and
you have questions sort of about the committee selection and
how that all happens, that's a good sort of recap.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
On that, which reminds me, I believe the committee is
going to have to have a new chair this year.
I thought I heard that Jeremy Gibson was no longer
the chair of that, and I've reminds me I have
to check on that, so stay tuned for that.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
But that doesn't make what he said in US relevant.
I actually thought it was really cool. We reached out
to the NCAA and said, hey, we have some questions
like who could answer, and they like, they gave us
the committee chair fly and nothing was off the table.
So that that was pretty cool as far as I
was concerned, to really have to ask those questions and
have sort of direct answers with sort of no ops skating,

(51:11):
you know, and guessing.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
I was thinking this, I'd heard that. Sorry that, Yeah,
Jeremy Gibson had been changing jobs. He's now at Lehigh,
so I don't know when exactly that's happening. I know
he's introduced recently at Lee High. Former Meryormacker has been

(51:34):
at Merrimac for quite a while and that's how he
was on the committee and as the chair. But we'll
see who fills in or if he's still going through
the season. Not sure, we'll have to look into that.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yeah, we'll follow up on that with y'all.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
All right, let's look ahead to what is coming this
week in NCA hockey. I want to start with a
wh series Sink Cloud at Wisconsin Saint Clouds. It's still
trying to find the consistent form that is going to

(52:10):
get them competing for a top four spot. I don't
I don't know that that is coming this season. We're
still uh thinking that they're on the rise. I think,
I mean that that's my perception, but I don't create
how far that rise goes necessarily.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
But a little like what we said with Brown, I mean,
they but Midgiesty gave them a lot this weekend and
they came out of it with two wins. So I
think you know, you can, you can nippick a lot
of the stuff, but ultimately coming from behind and getting
the two wins is, like we said, the marker of
a team, you know, maybe one of those separators in
those tight games, and you must win games when you're

(52:46):
in a fight, you have you you pull those out.
That that says something, So we'll see, right. I mean,
Wisconsin's been sort of ridiculous, especially I think they just
keep getting strong. I mean the eleven one win over
Saint Thomas uh was a lot so I uh yeah,

(53:07):
it's not easy for any team against them. It's not
easy for any team in Labon. So between those two,
but Saint Cloud also has a history of stifling the
Badgers even in Madison, and their goaltending has been.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Some of the best, right. That's what always makes that
compelling is that Saint Cloud has always found a way
to hold down the Badgers, regardless of how good the
Badgers have been offensively. Saint Clouds has been there with
a shoutout or a one goal two goal game or
something like that to make it seem like, well, okay,
don't don't automatically include this as yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
This is agreed, it'll be interesting. I Mean the sort
of game that sticks out was that fill the role
that Jojo Chobac had that massive game, and she hasn't
really been playing for Saint Cloud, so uh yeah, it'll
be interesting to see. I know, you know, they've had
some injuries and stuff and what how what Saint Cloud
goes with in net I think will be an interesting
tell for them this weekend.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Right in ECAC Saint we mentioned this before, Saint Lawrence
and Clarkson with a home and home series Friday and Saturday.
Uh Saint Lawrence, well both they seems lost to Brown
last week and so there's a little bit of picking
up to trying to do, I think more on on

(54:25):
the Clarkson side, to to really see what what they're
made of. In a lot of ways. You get into
this rivalry series and you know, big important points online,
important uh in pon pairwise points on the line too.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
I mean that's the only ECC game with two ranked teams.
But Yale and Brown showed us last week that the
their games with Quinnipiac and Princeton this weekend are definitely
going to be more interesting than maybe I thought. Princeton's
one of those teams where you know, like we talked
a few weeks ago when they had that twenty some goal,
h you know series, and then you know they they've

(55:03):
dropped a couple of games again, and so they're currently
sitting what thirteenth in the rankings? I guess, I don't
know what in pair wise, Princess down at fifteen in
the pairwise, but yeah, I mean arguably they are. They're
also still contending and hoping to be a postseason team,
as as Quinnipiac. So those are those are tougher games
than maybe we would have thought a few weeks ago,

(55:24):
knowing what Brown and You have been able to do
the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Yeah, and thinking about you know, where teams are in
the pairwise, We're talking about Saint Lawrence and Clarkston. Saint
Lawrence at eight, Clarkton at eleven. So I'm not loving
if I'm either one of those teams. Yeah, neither, Yeah,
because it doesn't take much, especially if you don't win

(55:49):
your last game, It doesn't take much to drop a
few spots. So lot to be playing for U for
both those teams here as these next couple of weeks happen.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yeah, not only are you talking about like not being
able to get the win points, but like when you
if you if you exit early in your tournament, then
the other teams are playing while you're just sitting there
on your uh in your number. If that's that's not
an ideal position to be either.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
We'd mentioned the bean Pod final and the third place
game coming up. We'd mentioned the Sacred Heart Long Island,
a massive series in New ha uh to to keep
an eye on this weekend. What else do you have
an eye on as we go forward?

Speaker 3 (56:27):
BC at Providence in Connecticut at Vermont this weekend? I think, yeah, hockey.
I think every every weekend in Hockey East is going
to be is going to be interesting. And just again,
we we sort of seen the ups and downs from
these different teams. If Providence was able to do that
to Northeastern last weekend, what are they doing to Boston
College this weekend? So yeah, for me, the the Hockey

(56:48):
East games or some of some of the must watch ones, well.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
It should be another good weekend. We hope you enjoyed
and we hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of the podcast.
For Nicole Hasey on Todd Maluski, thanks for joining us.
We will talk to you next week.