*** OFFICIAL GOPHERS/UNION NATIONAL TITLE IN-GAME THREAD ***

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Even though the Gophers snuck by ND to get to this game I was so hoping they were gonna put the whooping on these guys but instead they played pretty much the same and got the whooping put on themselves.

Again thanks Adam Wilcox for holding your team in it. Otherwise this game would have been a national embarrassment.
 


Nax91 said:
Good point, GophersInIowa. I forgot the women's team lost the National Championship as well. Not a great year, I suppose haha.
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Don't forget wrestling! We are racking up second place finishes this year.
 




Unfortunately just like the ladies. Play a bad game in the final and choke away a title to a less talented team.
 

The University of Minnesota should be in the Frozen Four at least 2 of every 4 years, and should win a National Championship 2 of every 10 years. If the current AD and President were here 3 to 5 years ago, instead of the other 2 buffoons, Lucia wouldn't even be around anymore. Lucia realizes he has to step it up because joke Maturi and bumbling Bruinicks are no longer around. Instead, there is accountability! MN is Far and away the best hockey state, The U should have the most dominant college hockey program! Instead, 8 other programs have won National titles since MN last won one, and 11 long years have passed. With a team from the East winning 6 of the last 7 titles. 1 title game appearance in 11 years! EMBARRASSING! At least we have Kaler and Teague now.
 


This image culled from the title game will forever remain to me as emblematic of Lucia's idea of tough defense: Union puck carrier crosses our blue line uncontested as four Gopher defenders quickly collapse deep into a nice tight box in front of the net. Well played if we had been on the PK and if they weren't changing lines at the time. Of course the outcome was another decent shot on goal.
 



46Gophers said:
Unfortunately just like the ladies. Play a bad game in the final and choke away a title to a less talented team.
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Not sure I agree totally with this. Yes, the women would probably beat their opponent 9 out of 10 times and were more talented. Not so much for the men.
 

Yeah, easy to say we were more talented but talent doesn't always beat experience and the average age of the Union team was 2+years older than the Gophs. We lost 5 underclassmen from last years team to the NHL and they lost none in the last 3 years.

So the Gophs lost to a Senior laden, talented team full of former kids that played 2 years in Juniors in Canada and then came here and played 3-4 years of college hockey.

No excuses, our D under performed and we lost this game because we lost focus at several key points. That said, if we can return all our FR and SO (and Wilcox) to this team plus our incoming FR class, this team will be better next year.
 

Frustrating night, for sure. Gophers were outplayed on all ends of the ice. Union hustled more the entire game, and out-executed the Gophers, who let Union do what they wanted offensively and just kept popping the puck into the corner and passing it around on offense instead of barraging the net. Note that of all 10 real goals scored today, weren't 8 of them off of rebound? All 4 Gopher goals were off of rebound. Suggests that Union had the better gameplan, to go along with hustle and execution.

Some said Wilcox played a great game...I disagree; he let up too many rebounds and obviously too many goals to suggest that. Perhaps the team was shell-shocked that he was actually fallible tonight, and mentally never recovered. The very first goal by their star seemed to shock Wilcox and he seemed shaken thereafter.

It was disappointing that the Gophers didn't win the title, but they ended up #2 of 59 teams, and that's still a very good accomplishment. Congrats on a good season!
 




GopherinPhilly said:
Yeah, easy to say we were more talented but talent doesn't always beat experience and the average age of the Union team was 2+years older than the Gophs. We lost 5 underclassmen from last years team to the NHL and they lost none in the last 3 years.

So the Gophs lost to a Senior laden, talented team full of former kids that played 2 years in Juniors in Canada and then came here and played 3-4 years of college hockey.

No excuses, our D under performed and we lost this game because we lost focus at several key points. That said, if we can return all our FR and SO (and Wilcox) to this team plus our incoming FR class, this team will be better next year.
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Both teams had five seniors. Union had 12 upperclassmen, MN had 11.
 

Our defensemen were just plain terrible in our own end. They looked confused, didn't seem to know who to cover, made bad decisions, and when they ended up in odd-man situations, frequently covered nobody.
 

Union the better team no doubt. USHL experience. 23 year old versus 18 year old kids. I will say I disagree Lucia on his philosophy of making the perfect pass on the power play and then the one timing it. Union did a great job of rushing the net on power plays. No shame in losing in the finals to Union.
 


ruppertflywheel said:
Union the better team no doubt. USHL experience. 23 year old versus 18 year old kids. I will say I disagree Lucia on his philosophy of making the perfect pass on the power play and then the one timing it. Union did a great job of rushing the net on power plays. No shame in losing in the finals to Union.
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Union's power play went 0 for 7 against us. We got a power play marker in the third.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Both teams had five seniors. Union had 12 upperclassmen, MN had 11.
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Class versus age. Our upper classmen are 20 and 21, and are the ones that didn't get $400k thrown at them after their SO years. Their upper classmen are 23 & 24 and weren't drafted.

If our most talented players were Seniors instead of playing in the NHL as Rookies...but that's college hockey.

No excuses, just a fact. We are very talented team that lost to a much more experienced older team. We lost composure for 5 minutes to end the first period and they took advantage. We got on our heals a couple of times and they put the puck in the net.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
Class versus age. Our upper classmen are 20 and 21, and are the ones that didn't get $400k thrown at them after their SO years. Their upper classmen are 23 & 24 and weren't drafted.

If our most talented players were Seniors instead of playing in the NHL as Rookies...but that's college hockey.

No excuses, just a fact. We are very talented team that lost to a much more experienced older team. We lost composure for 5 minutes to end the first period and they took advantage. We got on our heals a couple of times and they put the puck in the net.
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Not entirely true. All five of our seniors are 22 or above, two are 24. The average age of our upperclassmen is 22, theirs is 22.4. Yes they are older, but not as much as some are making it seem like.

I guess it really doesn't matter either way, we just got outplayed regardless of the reason.
 

MN Daily: Column: Gophers come up short in Philadelphia, ya feel me?

Saturday’s game resembled last Monday’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game. Kentucky was loaded with NBA guys set to leave after one season, but upperclassmen led Connecticut to the title.

It takes years to develop championship-caliber chemistry. That bodes well for the Gophers moving forward.

On Saturday, though, they weren’t quite ready.

Ya feel me?

http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-...feel-me?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Go Gophers!!
 

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