Positive Numbers: Whitecaps (Last Week: -6). OK, I did not see this coming at all. The Whitecaps ended the regular season with a 3-1 Loss to the Connecticut Whale at home. They ended the season on an eight-Game losing streak. They didn't just limp but crawled into the playoffs (which are only four teams; I was grossly mistaken in thinking all seven teams in the Premier Hockey Federation made it and Minnesota would have to break a seven-Game home losing streak in their First Round matchup) to face a Boston Pride squad that only lost four times all Year and scored 40 more Goals than they allowed. The Pride are doing what The Boston Bruins are doing in the NHL.
Make that "were!" In an upset that kinda-sorta rivals Farleigh Dickinson taking out Purdue in gob-smacking impossibility (OK, maybe not), the Whitecaps not only beat but swept the Pride in Boston this weekend. Hell, even more than that, neither contest was close; it was 5-2 Thursday and 4-1 last/Saturday evening. They scored as many Goals in this sweep as they did during their losing streak. What happened? Well, maybe paradoxically, the reason their Offense broke out like a virus is because Goalie Amanda Leveille returned from injury. (I don't know how long she was out or when she returned, and that would have been something I would've liked to have known.)
So maybe the Whitecaps can do what the Gopher men's hockey team still might be able to do and what the Gopher women's hockey team failed to do (see below): Give the Twin Cities a championship. They will face either The Toronto Six or the Whale in a single-Match championship next Sunday night in, of all places, Mullet Arena, the new home of the Arizona St. men's hockey team and the temporary home of The Bastard Winnipeg Jets. And since this is at a neutral site, the Whitecaps don't have to worry about trying to break that home losing streak in the Isobel Cup Final. Roll 'Caps!
#0: United FC (Last Week: -3). Emanuel who? The Loons went on the road and defeated The Colorado Rapids -- a team that an anonymous survey of Major League Soccer front office folks by The Athletic was named as having The Worst Ownership In The League, 2-1. They trailed in the 49th, but tied it up on a Penalty Kick in the 54th by Luis Amarilla, then won it in the 82nd on a header by Miguel Tapias off a fantastic Free Kick by Franco Fragapane.
It's the first time MNUFC has ever won at Colorado (well, Denver ... well, actually Commerce City, Colo.). And they have seven Points through the first three Matches of the Year. I really like how this side is coping, and even scoring, without its talisman. Now to hope they can keep it up at home Saturday against Vancouver. The season has just started, but this squad has only dropped Points at Allianz Field and are perfect through two Matches on the road.
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). I looked at the schedule this ballclub had this screening Week and I saw the Oklahoma State Mizuno Classic. Never heard of it before, and I didn't remember typing out that tournament name for last Week's survey. Then I scrolled up to see the Shocker Invite, a tournament I did mention in last Week's WMNSS. The Gophers had two Games in that Shocker Invite, both Wins, both played on Friday. But the U. then went from Wichita, Kans., to Stillwater, Okla., to play the Arizona St. and the host Cowgirls the next Day. Huh?
Blame the weather. Back on Wednesday, the U. put out a release that the rest of the Shocker Invite on Saturday and Sunday was cancelled due to bad weather. However, Minnesota apparently rejiggered the schedule on the fly and got a spot in a tournament the next state down in a matter of, what, days, if not hours? (Also, the Games Saturday and Sunday of the Shocker Invite were canceled on Wednesday, if not Tuesday? You can see the impact of bad weather three or four days in advance? Technology, I tell ya.)
The Gophers defeated the Sun Devils 4-3 and got shut out by the Cowgirls 6-0. (Oh, by the way, they finished up their Gopher Indoor Classic last Sunday with dominating victories over Drake and St. Thomas, thus sweeping all five Games they had at U. S. Bank Stadium.) The U. played both contests yesterday/Saturday afternoon. In fact, they started the Game vs. Arizona St. at noon; they finished their previous Game, versus Wichita St., at 8:48 p.m. So they got done Friday night, hightailed it from Wichita to Stillwater to get to Okie St. by noon Saturday, and played basically a traditional Doubleheader against two different teams. I suspect that they didn't want to change their flight-out plans for Sunday, so they got impromptu coach service to drive them ... oh! Only two hours (mostly down I-35!) to Stillwater and back. They got at least a couple Games in this weekend (and against quality opponents, no less), and I guess now the players have time to do homework and/or relax today/Sunday before coming home.
And that was it for their non-conference schedule. They begin Big Ten play at Northwestern for a three-Game series starting Friday ... weather permitting.
I will say this. Many college hockey diehards, and I consider myself curious in that sense, believe the formation of the B1G Hockey Conference destroyed the fabric of men's college hockey. That realignment lopped off the most powerful schools in the WCHA and CCHA, hockey-only leagues that survived and thrived between, respectively, 81 and 42 Years. Its strange mix of well-known schools across football and basketball and largely Division III programs just worked, and the sport became its own strange but stable entity until Penn St. was formed in 2012. After the move was made and Minnesota stopped playing longtime rivals like North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth, attendance and attention plummeted (which, to be fair, coincided with a notable downturn in the on-ice success of the Golden Gopher men's program). I remember there was a sign a fan held up during a Game in an early B1G tournament that said, "B1G MISTAKE."
I don't know how it is in other places that were affected by this schism, but it took until this season, and really this calendar Year, for Golden Gopher men's hockey to be back to where it was, and for Mariucci Arena to be the rollicking hothouse it had been during its halcyon days. The last several Games at 3M have been sellouts, mainly because the fanbase finally had a club worth watching. Also, there appears to be a budding rivalry with Michigan brewing. Minnesota might have the better PairWise rating, but the Wolverines are the ones whose players are getting drafted in the top 10, if not top 5, of the NHL Draft in recent Years. That has set up a lot of chippy Games between the two, and I'm pretty sure last/Saturday night's title tilt was no exception. The success of the teams combined with the building of a foundation of a rivalry with a school that did not even exist in hockey until a decade ago is the only way to (and I know this term is harsh, and I don't like any of what's happening, but I think it is accurate) erase the memories of the old WCHA. The Big Ten needs to make men's hockey work, and to the detriment of the sport's history, I think it started to work this season.
In a change that is welcomed by me, the men's hockey tournament selection show will be tonight/Sunday night, not in the morning. I tried going to Hooters as soon as they opened at 11 a.m. because that was the traditional time the NCAA revealed the field. This is better. By the way, all the bracketologists agree that the U. will be playing in Fargo and will face Canisius in the First Round of the tourney next weekend.
This team, by the way, represents the best chance the Twin Cities has of enjoying a championship of some renown. It's been a long goddamn time. No pressure. But please don't fuck this up.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). I thought I was going to talk about Lindsay Whalen's "resignation" in a separate blog post, but I have to be real and admit that's not going to happen, so I'll expound a bit here.
All those who thought hiring her was a disaster was right. I don't like it; I was hoping like hell she'd succeed. But Whalen had no experience coaching -- not as a Head or an Assistant, not in the pros or college or even high school. Athletic Director Mark Coyle hired her because she was Lindsay Whalen, and he thought her name and star power alone would keep recruits in-state and fans reliving her playing days packing Williams Arena. I hate calling her tenure a "failure." But it's accurate. (By the way, people who wanted her to stick around one more Year to see if her highly-touted class next Year could turn things around forget that she had a highly-touted class this Year and she didn't do a damn thing with it.)
The subsequent hire usually has strengths the predecessor lacks. In this case, Coyle needed to hire someone with, you know, actually coaching experience -- successful coaching experience preferably, but really, any experience would be an improvement, sad to say. In that sense, Coyle, who hired Whalen, seems to have made a very good hire in plucking Dawn Plitzuweit from West Virginia after only one season. Before that she was at South Dakota for six Years, the last of which culminated in the Coyotes' first-ever run to the Sweet Sixteen. And her first Head Coach job was at Grand Valley State, where she won the Division II NCAA title in 2006. Why did she ditch the Mountaineers after just one season? She's a native of West Bend, Wisc.
The talent appears to be there. I believe all four heralded freshmen this Year said on social media they're all staying. If Plitzuweit can keep them and keep the next class together, she might be able to coach them up into something resembling respectability. The program's future looks bright right now.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -1). The division is getting really competitive, and unfortunately for the Mild, they got the short end this Week, sandwiching a wild Win in St. Louis (featuring actual fights and a near-fight between Goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Binnington) with defeats to Arizona and Boston. They are tied in Points with The Bastard Quebec Nordiques, but are technically in third in the Central. And this Week is going to be a busy one -- hosting Washington, at New Jersey and Philadelphia, then home to Chicago, each Game being played every other Day beginning this/Sunday afternoon.
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). This goddamn team is so fucking hard to figure out. They clobbered The Bastard St. Louis Hawks on the road, but then lose to Boston, Chicago, and Toronto. The West remains tight -- 3 1/2 Games separate fifth and twelfth -- but the Two Elves currently sit in eighth, two Games below .500.
And now Ant is out. He fell awkwardly and rolled his ankle, and he'll be out for the time being. Add this on top of Karl-Anthony Towns supposedly starting to work out in anticipation of a return to action in ... "coming weeks," whatever the fuck that means. This is a real bad time for your starts to be in traction.
This Week at least is a quiet one. Only two Games: At New York (and former Head Coach) Tom Thibodeau tonight/Sunday night, then home to said Hawks Wedneday.
#-6: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -4). Got swept at West Virginia with last Sunday's 7-4 Loss. Split a mid-Week pair against Gonzaga at Oooos-Bahnk. Then lost the first two Games of a three-Game set at U. S. Bank Stadium to Houston. They already are 3-17. One more vs. the Cougars today/Sunday at noon, then a quick two-hitter Tuesday and Wednesday at Illinois St., and then they open up Siebert Field with a trio versus Creighton to round out non-con play.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher women's hockey and Gopher wrestling (Last Week, respectively: Positive Numbers and Re-Entry!). Another fucking sigh to give for the Golden Goofer women's hockey team. I guess I can't complain too much. They reached the Frozen Four for the first time since 2019, after all. But just like last Year, they were upset by an unseeded team, in this case Wisconsin. In last Week's survey I said that this tilt should be a laugher. I regret saying those words. They struggeled against the Badgers all season; in their four meetings, the U. lost to the Badgers three times (one via Shootout), and its only Win was via Shootout. Minnesota was the overall #2 Seed, by the way; even if the Game was decided in Overtime, by Seed the Goofers should have won.
But they didn't. They did not play to Seed, which would have been a championship showdown with Ohio St. this/Sunday afternoon. If the SEC has football, Minnesota should have women's hockey, so I would like to point out that Minnesota hasn't reached the title Game since 2019 and they haven't won a championship since 2016. I do not mind asking Brad Frost what have you done for us lately. Unlike with Lindsay Whalen, to whom I believe all U. fans should be forever indebted for what she did as a player at Minnesota, Frost doesn't have that list of unprecedented accomplishments, so I don't mind casually tossing around the f-word -- failure.
The U. had a live chance of getting this title-starved metropolis a championship of any sort since the Whitecaps captured the Isobel Cup in 2019. They once again fell short. What else is new?
Oh yeah, the Gopher wrestling club. The NCAAs finished up last/Saturday night at Minnesota finished a distant, unmemorable 15th. Aaron Nagao was the team's top finisher, taking sixth at 133 lbs. Michael Blockhus finished eighth at 149. Hey, remember when they won the NCAAs back in 2007?
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