{"id":873581,"date":"2019-01-21T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=873581"},"modified":"2019-01-21T07:00:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T12:00:50","slug":"und-hockey-the-weekend-in-review-g1w1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/und-hockey-the-weekend-in-review-g1w1\/","title":{"rendered":"UND Hockey: The Weekend in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
Good Morning! We\u2019re approaching the home stretch. After 23 games, the University of North Dakota hockey team is 12-10-1, 6-6-0 (NCHC). Currently, UND is sitting at 22 in the Pairwise Rankings. If the NCAA playoffs started today, UND would be sitting at home, for the second season in a row. Lucky for UND, the NCAA playoffs don\u2019t start today.<\/p>\n
After UND split their weekend series with Omaha (4-3 W, 3-4 L), fans are unhappy. They\u2019re getting restless. A fair number of UND fan want head coach Brad Berry fired. Personally, I find that a bit extreme.<\/p>\n
Yes, fans have the right to be angry. It\u2019s not just coach Berry, a number of fans are also unhappy with assistant coach Matt Shaw. They want him fired, yesterday. Why? See UND\u2019s power play numbers below.<\/p>\n
From here on out, it only gets tougher. UND\u2019s next four opponents are above UND in the NCHC standings and the Pairwise Rankings. So, not all is lost. There\u2019s still a glimmer of hope, but that is fading fast. UND is sitting two points out of third place. They\u2019ve got a chance to right the ship in the next five weeks.<\/p>\n
If we learned anything the last five in a half years, nothing in this league comes easy. In the past, I’ve compared the NCHC to a meat grinder. With that in mind, UND is in a precarious situation. From here on out, UND will be in playoff mode. They have a daunting task.<\/p>\n
Here are the four teams UND will play the next five weeks. Included is their current Pairwise Rankings and record against UND: St. Cloud 1, (0-0-0) Denver 3, (1-1-0), Western Michigan 14, (0-2-0) and Minnesota-Duluth 4, (1-1-0). UND has a 2-4 record against those four teams. UND plays SCSU and UMD at home. They\u2019re on the road against WMU and Denver.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are about two months left in the season. However, if the NCAA playoffs started today, Boston College 39, Boston University 25, Michigan 26, Michigan State 27, Minnesota 21, North Dakota 22, Penn State 18, Wisconsin 30, would all miss the NCAA tourney. That would be one heck of an NCAA tourney. Maybe the NCAA should consider having an NIT tourney like college basketball does.<\/p>\n
But I digress.<\/p>\n
How did we get here? On January 4-5, 2019, UND was unceremoniously swept (1-3, 1-2) by Canisius College. Currently, Canisius sits at 52 in the Pairwise Rankings.\u00a0That sweep could end up being the dagger that kills the 2018-19 Fighting Hawks.<\/p>\n
There is a myriad of things ailing the UND hockey team. They\u2019ve given up two-goal leads in four consecutive games. Luckily, they went 3-1-0 in those four games.<\/p>\n