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Originally Posted by RangerBoy
Minnesota Duluth was the only team besides BC which could have been the #1 seed in the entire tournament. If Duluth had won the WCHA last week,they would have been #1 seed over BC. We covered that topic in the last thread.
The winner of BC-Duluth takes on the winner of North Dakota-Minnesota in the frozen 4. 4 of the top programs in college hockey. 3 WCHA schools. In the other semifinal,its Ferris State-Union. Seems kind of one sided.
http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-brac...ehockey-men/d1
Air Force decided to take some chances with 4 minutes left in the game. 4 minutes? They needed to open it up a little earlier. Then they took the penalty and were trying to kill the penalty. Get the puck it deep and pull your goalie. Air Force couldn't complete a pass. Every time they got a scoring chance,their forward needed to be a different shot. A right handed shots only option was backhand. It was a lefty,he would have had a better opportunity to finish. BC used to be a free wheeling open the ice up and skate team. Now they play like the Rangers and Bruins. Blocking shots. Deflecting shots with his sticks. Getting in passing lanes. Jerry York tweaked the system to fit the players.
Since 2006,the top seed facing an Atlantic Hockey team has not advanced to the Frozen 4. |
To be fair, Air Force had some really good chances throughout the game in short spurts. They didn't exactly open up and start sending their defense in, but for most of the game, it was a 1-0 game, and they had enough chances to the point where they didn't need to start opening up and take their chances earlier, but BC's defense and overall team game was stifling defensively. Milner was good when he had to be, and BC's penalty kill was amazing. All of their players make concerted efforts to step it up big on the penalty kill, and they're very offensive minded.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HatTrick Swayze
Two things that made me happy watching Kreider last night:
Beyond him getting on the scoresheet, that was the best overall game I've seen him play in a while. Extremely engaged. Kid knows how to step it up when it counts.
Air Force was extremely impressive in terms of skating ability, physicality, and overall defense. One of the toughest tests BC has had to face. On a day where some of his teammates had trouble getting offense going (Almeida, Whitney, etc.) Kreider got it done.
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Completely agreed. They really stifled Barry Almeida and Steve Whitney all night, and I thought at times they had better shifts together than Kreider and Hayes. Almeida's one of the top goal scorers in the NCAA too, and he's feasted on most teams in the NCAA. Pretty impressive feat for Air Force.
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Originally Posted by Ih8theislanders
I mentioned this before but I'm really impressed by Gaudreau. Wish we could steal him from Calgary just like Erixon.
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Gaudreau has been one of the most impressive players on BC's roster during their entire 2nd half of their season. His speed is very impressive, and he's got a good set of hands and good hockey IQ. Goes to all the high traffic areas, and isn't afraid to get his nose dirty. Very small, but likes to drive to the net, which is probably the thing that impresses me most about him. Would love to see him make it at the NHL level, but at that size, it could be tough for him.