Episode 3 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; “N for Knowledge.” This week Tim Braun, Rob Gilreath, Dustin Lindstrom and special guest Matt Wellens from the Duluth News Tribune (times are approximate):
- Impressive Non-Conference weekend for WCHA (1:57)
- Potential Conference Resuffling (21:17)
- Pairwise impact of MTU’s split with Alaska (34:10)
- Preview of Alaska-Anchorage Series (40:40)
- Listener Questions (42:00)
- WCHA predictions (54:20)
As liner notes to this week’s episode, we’ll be including highlight videos from BGSU and MTU games plus links to highlights for the Mavericks big sweep of the Bulldogs in the links above (NCHC.tv doesn’t appear to allow embedding).
We had some great listener questions this week and hope to see that continue. I would like a moment to elaborate on two of them here. Doc McResin’s question about favorite places to visit got cut for time but we all listed our favorites. I said Bemidji because of it’s closeness, the great restaurants we’ve found the last couple years plus the people have been great. Rob spoke kindly of his trips to Alaska and touched on the scenery. We all agreed that the state is spectacular and Dustin took a moment to give a shoutout to semi-regular non-conference location, Duluth. Canal Park and the surrounding area are a great place to spend a weekend with our without the Huskies in town.
The other question came from Noah Lawrence. He asked the implications on MTU’s pairwise of BGSU sweeping. I tried on the podcast to quickly make the point that BGSU and MSU sweeping were both huge, neither likely more important than the other but since I have time now let’s actually take a look.
| Results | MTU PWR | MTU RPI |
| Current | 10th | 0.5478 |
| BGSU loss @ ND | 13th | 0.5446 |
| ND win @ BGSU | 13th | 0.5446 |
| MSU split @ UMD | 16th | 0.5440 |
So after doing the modification to the results on the CHN site, Michigan Tech would have lost more RPI points had Minnesota State not swept UMD compared to BGSU losing either game home or away to Notre Dame. One thing you’ll notice is that home/away doesn’t matter in this situation.
The video below from BGSU kind of touches on a bit of Patrick Koro’s first question about what the WCHA can do to better promote itself. I personally think this highlight package is terrible because the camera work is awful and I’d much rather see the higher angle of these plays than the ice level from someone holding a camera.
Near the end of the podcast we mentioned an interview that Ray Brice did with Views From The 906 and its below on their youtube channel if you’d like to listen to it all. He’s also made at least one other appearance.
A couple things were shortened. One that I’d like to touch on relates to the pairwise discussion. Rob asked how much the loss to UAH hurt NMU so afterwords I went to CHN and took a look. NMU currently sits 33rd in the PWR with an RPI of 0.5064. If they had swept UAH, the Wildcats would be 24th with an RPI of 0.5232. Big difference for that one game.
If you’d like to listen to the full limited edited version of this episode and others previously published, you can do so by signing for our Black Tier or above on our patreon page.
Tim is a 2004 graduate of Michigan Tech. He is a co-founder of both Mitch’s Misfits and Tech Hockey Guide. With recent additions to the staff, Tim is again able to focus on his passion, recruiting. He currently works as an environmental engineer and resides in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area.
