0:06 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:23 Now, live from the Frozen Four in Tampa Bay, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:40 Good evening, Gopher fans. 0:42 We are here live in the press area for a Gopher 6-2 victory in the National Semi-Final leagues. 0:48 All is well. 0:50 All is well. 0:50 It's kind of dicey there, I think, for the Gophers. 0:53 Throughout that second period, it felt like BU made a really good push. 0:56 I thought the pace of this game was absolutely perfect, really delivered an irritating game, and that's what we wanted to see tonight. 1:05 Gophers, really good on the power play, man. 1:08 That was looking good. 1:09 Yeah, I think with these ECAC officials, there were a few more power play chances that I was anticipating. 1:16 I talked about in our podcast, how it was really important for the Gophers not to use their sticks, fend with their skates. 1:22 I didn't think they did that. 1:23 I didn't think BU did that either. 1:25 And we saw a lot of power play opportunities. 1:27 Looked like the Gophers were trying to move some players around up top to get BU out of their structure and try to prevent them from blocking shots. 1:36 And it paid off at the end. 1:37 I mean, Luke Middlestad had a great game. 1:39 Mike Kester had a great game on the power play. 1:41 It was the second power play that was really coming through for the Gophers. 1:44 So often this year, they've relied on that first power play unit. 1:47 It just shows the depth of this team. 1:49 You mentioned the referees. 1:51 You said it was the ECHC crew. 1:53 It's going to be NCHC crew on Saturday. 1:56 What do you feel? 1:57 How do you feel about that? 1:58 Well, I feel like it's going to be officiated different than it was tonight. 2:02 I think NCHC officials might let some of those battles on the faceoff plays go a little bit more. 2:07 I mean, they are penalties. 2:09 You know, by the book, that's how they go. 2:10 But I feel like an NCHC crew might let that stuff go. 2:14 And there will be more battles and more five on five play. 2:16 I mean, we'll see what happens on Saturday night. 2:18 Ryan Kay commenting, get Jupe a box. 2:22 I can't, Big's just too tall. 2:24 That's just how it is. 2:26 That second goal, Big's, between the legs pass. 2:32 I said it, I don't care. 2:33 I thought it was kind of a holy shit goal. 2:35 I honestly did, that was quite the goal. 2:38 That's right. 2:39 And it was definitely on purpose as a pass. 2:42 When I first saw the play live, I was like, he's trying to put it between the legs on goal. 2:46 Definitely not. 2:47 I think he must have heard Rep Pilek. 2:49 We didn't get a chance to talk to him about that pass specifically, other than it was a nice play. 2:54 And just really a skill play there for Minnesota. 2:57 And they tried it again. 2:58 I swore I saw it again later on in the game. 3:01 Well, I think Minnesota was taking advantage of BU, maybe gaining fatigue and losing their shape. 3:06 And when you get that chaos around the net, and you've got guys who get disassociated from each other, there's space in front of the net to make plays. 3:14 I think that's something Minnesota was looking for as well. 3:16 So, game started pretty well. 3:18 A lot of close, close calls. 3:21 But Boston University gets on the board first. 3:24 Not the greatest start for the Gophers, even though they had a lot of pressure. 3:29 Yeah, I was worried about that a little bit. 3:31 Plays around the net. 3:32 Getting on the wrong side of players in battles in that area is a big no-no. 3:37 And it was against BU's fourth line. 3:39 And we talked so much about BU's talented defensemen. 3:42 And it was one of those plays where their defensemen made a play to attack space and create some traffic in a shot lane. 3:50 And Jackson Nelson just got on the wrong side of his player at the wrong time. 3:54 And it was an easy goal. 3:55 Maybe a bigger rebound that close would have liked. 3:59 But it was right there for BU and they took advantage. 4:02 Just a non-existent tonight. 4:03 They're the defensemen for BU. 4:06 Was he non-existent tonight? 4:07 I don't know if he was non-existent, but I think he got fatigued as the night went on. 4:12 And that's one thing we talked about because they don't play a full-court defenseman. 4:16 They usually don't. 4:17 Yeah, it seemed like 20 and 23 for BU were just coming on and off for each other almost. 4:22 And that was just a recipe for disaster tonight. 4:24 Because the Gophers were on the power play so much, there's so much special teams time. 4:29 They got tired. 4:30 I think they weren't as able to get engaged in the play as BU likes to depend on. 4:36 And so it was kind of playing three on five down low for BU in the third period. 4:39 Two-two game after the second. 4:41 How are you feeling about that? 4:42 Because you know, we've been seeing this. 4:44 We've watched this game a long time, Bigs. 4:46 Anything can happen. 4:48 Anything can happen. 4:49 I think the biggest worry for me was, you know, in the past, Minnesota gets in these spots and they start having one-done rushes. 4:57 They turn over the puck at the blue lines. 4:59 They missed the net. 5:00 Tonight, that was a big key. 5:02 I think they missed the net at least 21 times on 70 attempts. 5:06 I'm not exact on those numbers, but that's about what it was. 5:10 It's tough to win games when you give away the puck on those missed shots, especially when you miss wide and you clear the zone for the other team. 5:17 Snuggerood is the propensity to do that from where he's shooting from. 5:21 If he misses the net, it's going all the way around and out. 5:24 I saw that at least once or twice tonight from Snuggerood. 5:27 Yeah, I think that Nye's, Cooley, Snuggerood line, they were all pressing a little bit. 5:32 It's a big stage. 5:33 Snuggerood and Cooley obviously want to make an impression. 5:36 Nye's, I think, feels like he's got to make an impression because he's in that Hobie hat trick. 5:40 He wanted to have a big night. 5:42 It felt like they were pushing just a little bit too much. 5:44 There were a couple of times they had long shifts, extended shifts, where me as the analyst of X's and O's, as I'm going, they got to get off, especially during that second period. 5:55 That's not when you want to take an extended shift. 5:57 They got away with it, but they didn't really get on the score sheet until the empty netters at the end. 6:01 So they come into the third period, they have the two-man advantage. 6:05 I know that they scored on the first. 6:07 Was it a two-man score? 6:08 I don't believe that. 6:09 I think it was just after. 6:10 It was five on four. 6:11 Yeah. 6:12 And then they get another one right after that. 6:15 Then they kind of locked it down, didn't they? 6:17 Yeah, it looks like Minnesota definitely put four back and one trying to pressure. 6:21 Yeah. 6:21 They were trying to keep BU to one side of the ice as they came up and just kind of skate them into dead ends. 6:28 I know Minnesota's done that a couple of times where they'll just kind of wall off players, let them skate into a dead end and then transition the other way. 6:36 Sometimes their gaps were a little too loose to do that effectively, but it definitely felt like they were trying to slow the game down at that point, and they had enough of the resource hockey. 6:44 Luke Middlestad, you mentioned is he even going to be a sneaky player. 6:49 You tweeted back at me from, we talked in the podcast, you like his game and, boy, he came up pretty big. 6:54 Well, he was one of those defensemen who created that extra space, manipulated the shot angle and used traffic to put the puck on net. 7:02 Just an outstanding game for Luke Middlestad. 7:04 You know, he'll be an overager for the draft here coming up this summer because he got passed over somehow last year. 7:09 Despite being an almost point-of-game player in the USHL for Madison, no one took a chance on him. 7:14 And I think the biggest thing for him is those plays of the blue line, that patience to extend the play, and then his physicality to skate through players and win puck battles. 7:24 I know Bob's really happy they played the early game because you just never know how late you're going to play and whatnot. 7:29 So they can go back, they can watch this next game. 7:32 This game is about to start in a few minutes, I'm guessing. 7:35 What are your thoughts on this next game? 7:37 Has it started yet? 7:37 It might have. 7:38 It's probably almost puck drop right now. 7:40 I think 7.42 was the time. 7:43 So I'm looking for in this game how disciplined Michigan is with the puck. 7:47 Do they turn it over and give Quinnipiac chances to get ahead early? 7:51 Because I think Quinnipiac is a team that can lock it down and maybe feed off of counter attacks. 7:56 So looking for that, I'm not sure who the officiating crew is in this one, but if it gets to be a Spellteams battle, that's going to benefit Michigan a lot. 8:04 Their power play is super dangerous. 8:06 And it will, but Michigan is also susceptible. 8:09 Quinnipiac gets that first goal. 8:11 Quinnipiac can really lock it down. 8:12 They could probably stop just about anybody. 8:16 But maybe a team like Michigan or Minnesota can break that? 8:20 You can break that. 8:21 If you can move the puck laterally on prets and you can get good quality shots, that's not something he sees a lot during their season. 8:27 You know, they had like a 40th strength of schedule rating in college hockey. 8:32 They're not seeing elite competition. 8:33 They're going to be in for a battle tonight. 8:35 Speed limit way up against Michigan. 8:37 So are you feeling it's going to be a Big Ten final now? 8:40 That's what I've been expecting all year. 8:43 And it'll be a great game on Saturday if that's what it's going to be. 8:45 Michigan's got a lot of fans here. 8:47 I've seen them around town already. 8:49 Gopher fans really showed up today. 8:51 Holy cow, they showed up. 8:53 It was loud in there at times, it was a fun atmosphere. 8:59 Boy, looking forward to that title game Saturday night. 9:02 What other thoughts do you have? 9:04 I think a big key for Minnesota is to focus on the positives they had on tonight and keep that going into Saturday. 9:12 I thought the cooling eyes, the soccer line was pushing a little bit tonight. 9:16 I think a little bit of refocusing of the things they do well, and refocus and reset for Saturday will be really important for them, and not try to build on, okay, try harder. 9:27 It's almost like let the game come to them, be okay being on the perimeter and possessing the puck, and wait for those moments to shine instead of forcing them. 9:35 Gotcha. 9:36 We'll have a wrap up of story from either Veegs or Chris Hekka is here later on tonight. 9:42 We're going to go relax and try to watch the next game, and just do that. 9:45 Relax, don't you think? 9:46 Yeah, I've been up since 3.30, so I'm ready to go. 9:49 Go to bed. 9:50 Thanks for watching, folks. 9:52 We'll hopefully be live again Saturday night. 9:55 We'll have to wait and see. 9:56 Let me lean down here, on air broadcasting here. 10:00 So thanks for watching, gang. 10:02 And we'll catch you on Saturday, hopefully.