0:08 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:26 Now, live from the frozen floor in Tampa Bay, Here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:42 Good evening from Tampa. 0:45 Well, devastating loss for the team tonight, guys, here with Ekas, where Chris Ekas usually writes for us. 0:52 And of course, you guys know Veegs. 0:54 We'll start with you, Veegs. 0:57 Pretty good start, pretty good first period. 1:01 After that, you know, after the Nelson goal, they hardly had any shots after that. 1:07 It was over, and Quinnipiac wins the national title. 1:11 Yeah, I think it's a real heartbreaking loss for all the players, all the fans, anyone who's in Minnesota, and we have a little bit of scar tissue with these kinds of things. 1:21 And they had the game plan in place where they did not want to give any rushes to Quinnipiac all game. 1:28 And until that last play in overtime, Quinnipiac did not have any odd man chances. 1:33 With the puck, they wanted to be smart with the puck. 1:36 They didn't want to be coming off wall battles behind their check. 1:39 They wanted to keep Quinnipiac to the outside. 1:41 And I think they did that for most of the game. 1:44 It's just, they were never able to relieve, did get the puck. 1:49 And when they get the ice to the tawn. 1:51 Right, because that's not relieving pressure. 1:54 That's getting off the ice. 1:55 And they never maintained that possession to really change any momentum. 1:59 And they were just chasing and chasing and chasing and Ran Pecknoll pulled his goalie with a couple of minutes to go and it paid off. 2:07 And quite honestly, Chris, Quinnipiac deserved it tonight. 2:11 They played better in Minnesota for most of the game. 2:13 Completely shut them down in the second half of the game. 2:15 Yeah, you know, it's, I think this game, I'm not sure that it conclusively answers which team is definitively the better team, but I think Quinnipiac certainly played their game better than Minnesota played their game tonight. 2:29 And that's, the shots were 30 to 15. 2:32 Like, that's not Gopher Hockey. 2:34 Yeah, so very few shots from second half on, and you know, everyone's going to say, Moscow can't win the big one. 2:41 You know, those St. 2:42 Claude fans are going to be pushing it, but he didn't even care about that tonight. 2:47 He knew they didn't play their game and they are pretty devastated. 2:50 Yeah, I was one of the first people in the locker room because they open up locker rooms for these NCAA tournament games. 2:56 And it was just dead quiet. 2:59 And it's tough going into that room because for this team, a lot of them are going to be signing contracts. 3:05 Moving on, some of the seniors might be coming back. 3:08 We've talked about that, maybe with Justin Close, maybe with Bryce Budzinski, maybe with Jackson Nelson. 3:14 But it seems like Ryan Johnson's going to sign. 3:16 Brock Faber's going to sign. 3:18 Jackson LeCombe's going to sign. 3:19 Matthew Nye's probably going to sign. 3:21 Logan Cooley might sign. 3:23 So it's going to be a really different team next year. 3:26 And this was just tough because I talked to Jackson LeCombe after the game and he said, this is the game they wanted to be in all year. 3:33 And it's just crushing for it to end 10 seconds into overtime. 3:39 Yeah, it was quick, but really, Quinnipiac just had all the momentum, Chris. 3:45 And they finished them up. 3:47 They really just finished the Gophers off, after getting back into the game. 3:51 I mean, every time you see these pressers and the losing coach always says, you know, tip your cap to the other team. 3:58 And Bob certainly said that. 3:59 And I think rightfully so, Quinnipiac played a hell of a game. 4:03 You know, the Huglin and Pitlick were the guys in the presser. 4:09 You know, they drew the short straw on that one, but both they and Bob talked about a group of guys. 4:18 And I think, you know, it's devastating when your season ends. 4:22 It's devastating to lose in the last game of the year, but these guys were close. 4:25 This is as close a Gopher team as I've seen. 4:29 And I think there's a bit of an extra, you know, an extra hurt because a lot of those guys know, like you said, they're not going to be on the team next year. 4:38 And it's hard to play for this all year. 4:41 Everybody came back for this and they come up a little short. 4:45 But only one team can win, Bigs. 4:47 It sucks. 4:48 Boy, the fans were here in droves. 4:52 Fun week, but it's kind of a Minnesota thing. 4:56 We're kind of used to some of this devastation. 5:00 We're maybe too used to it. 5:02 And maybe we almost expect it sometimes. 5:06 And you just need a group to change that mindset a little bit. 5:09 And I thought this was a group that might be able to do that. 5:13 I've been critical of Rand Peck all the maybe not adjusting in game when things aren't going their way and just sticking to what they do. 5:21 I felt he made a good adjustment in the second and third period. 5:25 His defensemen got more active in the offensive zone. 5:28 Early in the game, his defensemen would back off the bull line. 5:32 A lot of times when the Gophers got the puck, as the game went on, they came down and applied more and more pressure to Minnesota on those ball battles. 5:42 And I thought that was a little bit of a difference in the game because Minnesota was not able to come out with possession. 5:49 And so credit to them for doing that. 5:51 I thought that kind of surprised Minnesota a little bit. 5:53 You know, Bob did shorten the bench to basically 10 forward since the game went on. 5:58 I felt he was playing Brock Faber every other shift on the third period. 6:01 And, you know, they just couldn't break it. 6:04 So I do think both coaches were trying to make adjustments. 6:07 They were, but they had a lot of pressure. 6:10 And like you said, they just couldn't do anything. 6:13 Well, they did get the odd man rushes in the third period. 6:16 I think Rodzinski had one and he passed it, kind of forced it early. 6:20 It wasn't maybe what I was expecting up top. 6:23 And maybe because they're under so much pressure, he doesn't make the decision that he usually makes. 6:28 And then Jimmy Snuggerud had that two on one possession with I think Matthew Nyes. 6:33 And he had plenty of time, but he was just maybe a little tired and a little stretch catching the pass. 6:38 So he didn't quite have the shot we expect from Jimmy Snuggerud. 6:42 And Bob too, in the presser afterwards, he talked about the goals they gave up. 6:47 You know, the first one was a turnover on the fourth line. 6:50 I think that was the last fourth line shift that we had in the game. 6:53 The second one late in the game with the goalie pull, Bob said, you know, that was one that we'd like to have back. 6:59 He didn't think that that one should have been a goal in the first place. 7:02 And, you know, sure. 7:06 But at the same time, if you're playing that defensive shell for two periods, like a bounce is gonna happen. 7:11 You gotta start playing some offense at some point in order to assert yourselves. 7:16 And I just didn't feel like the Gophers did enough of that tonight. 7:19 I seem to notice I don't have the stats of shooting the game. 7:21 I can't, I just noticed it lost a lot of face-offs and they lost a lot of important pass-ups, including that last one where they tied the game. 7:30 Yeah, it's tough. 7:31 I was asking some of the players in the room after the game about that. 7:35 And they just got frustrated because they won the initial draw, but it goes to the Quinnipiac bench. 7:41 The next draw, they lose it. 7:43 I think they were trying to force a turnover in the neutral zone. 7:46 That was something that I looked at in looking at Quinnipiac trying to scout them as you could pressure their D. 7:52 And it looks like that's what they wanted to do because they put Mike Kester up kind of on the boards to cut off the attack that way. 8:00 And Jackson Lecombe was the only D left in the middle. 8:02 And Quinnipiac just beat everybody up the middle of the ice. 8:05 A faster transition than I think the Gophers were expecting and caught them flat footed. 8:10 And the fastest overtime winner since at least I think it was 1977, they were saying. 8:17 Ever, fastest overtime ever. 8:18 I think the last one was like 27 or something. 8:20 Yeah, they beat the 77 record, like Wisconsin winning. 8:24 I got strong Yale vibes. 8:28 I don't know if that was 10 seconds, but it was a very similar kind of situation. 8:32 Something happened behind the net on that one, wasn't it? 8:34 Yeah, Marshall behind the net, dagger to my heart. 8:37 It's painful, I'm sorry. 8:39 So I don't know what else we could really say, gang. 8:42 Everyone's devastated down here. 8:44 You know what? 8:46 Tampa did put on a great show again. 8:48 They did, like you mentioned, Gopher fans were here in droves. 8:51 That is one thing, obviously a crushed, devastated Bob. 8:55 I'm sure to bring up that the fans were great all year and they were great here. 8:59 And it's hard, you were talking to your son at home, who's crushed and he said, the other team wants to win too. 9:08 And only one team can win. 9:09 And the Gophers made it all the way to the championship game. 9:12 It's obviously crushing for us and for all the fans out there that they didn't do it. 9:17 But what a special team. 9:19 And hopefully, as we get some distance from this, we'll be able to remember the special. 9:24 I had a fun week here. 9:25 So you had a fun week too. 9:29 We got to see a lot of people. 9:30 And that's one thing I always enjoy about this college hockey thing is seeing the people we see all the time and see the people we only see at the frozen floor. 9:38 And things like that. 9:39 So that part was fun. 9:41 The good news is next year, we don't have to travel so far. 9:44 Yes. 9:44 Jackson LeCombe said afterwards that, you know, it's crushing for them not to be able to have this goal that they'd set their eyes on, but the guys next year have a chance to go back and do it again. 9:54 And it'll be in St. 9:55 Paul next year. 9:58 Even bigger crowd. 9:58 Let's get her done. 9:59 Even bigger crowd potentially. 10:01 So Biggs and I will be back next Wednesday to wrap up this entire season. 10:06 I do see there's some comments there. 10:08 I don't really know what we can talk about, gang, because it's, you know. 10:13 We appreciate you guys watching this live. 10:15 I see some thanks by a couple people there. 10:18 So we appreciate you guys tuning in for a couple live shows remotely, which we've never done before. 10:25 But like you said, on the next season, like you said, we'll wrap it up on Wednesday night, next Wednesday. 10:31 And that's really it, folks. 10:35 Terrible ending to the season, but what can you do? 10:37 So thanks for tuning in to us live from Tampa this week, and we'll see you on the podcast Wednesday. 10:46 Wrap it up.