Season 3 Episode 9 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Road Trip!. This week, Rob Gilreath, Dustin Lindstrom and Matt Cavender were joined by Justin Micillo, the Misfit’s Travel Coordinator. This week, the guys recapped last weekend’s series against Northern Michigan, talked with Justin about his experiences with Tech and his role within the Misfits, and went through this week’s edition of the Fantasy Challenge. They also discussed this past weekend in the CCHA and previewed the games this upcoming weekend.
Northern Michigan Series Recap
Matt started the recap off by stating that he was very angry at the game on Friday and that it left a sour taste in his mouth. Dustin talked about the sense of dread he had once Tech scored to tie the game up and added that Tech did exactly what the guys said they couldn’t do last week. Rob was frustrated that Tech dominated in shots and zone time but couldn’t score. Rob also pointed out that in the second game at Northern it was obvious on a couple of the goals that the scorers were patient and waited for the right shot, and they were rewarded with a goal. Matt and Dustin argued whether the big roster for Tech is an advantage or disadvantage based on how the season has gone so far. Justin was the only one of the group at the games and he chimed in that he noticed Northern was much more chippy during the Friday game.
The conversation then turned to the ending of the game and how the goal review was handled. Matt didn’t like that the refs just skated off without an announcement of the review results, but Dustin piped up and pointed out that Coach Joe explained during his radio show that it was never reviewed because all of the equipment was shut down after the game was over. The guys then discussed the CCHA referees a little more. Dustin agrees with Coach Joe that the refs priorities are off right now and that they should be focusing on calling the game as it should be called and not put as much priority on the NCAA rules emphasis. Rob gave credit to the refs for keeping control of the games to this point and noted that there have been no calls that were made, then reviewed, and upgraded to a major penalty which he liked.
Conversation with Justin Micillo
Matt started off by asking Justin about how he discovered Michigan Tech and what made him fall in love with the school. Justin talked about how he was looking for a school with a railroad program because that’s what he wanted to do for a living. From there, everything else fell into place according to Justin. His first hockey game was the military appreciate night against Northern in 2017. His next game was the NCAA tournament game against Notre Dame which Justin said was the game that radicalized him as a Tech fan. Justin then talked about how cool it is to see alumni at all the away games.
Matt then asked Justin about his favorite memory on a trip. Justin talked about his trip to Alabama with the Misfits and then his second trip to Clarkson on the recent series, which he did by himself. Justin then talked about how he is currently enrolled in multiple universities, all online, so that he can travel to all of the Tech games.
Matt continued to ask the questions and asked Justin about being only the third Misfits Travel Coordinator, and what it means to him. Justin talked about how he thought it would be more travel coordination but said that the rest of the Misfits board has been great and doing a lot of the work. Justin did say he would probably be running the upcoming Ferris State trip. Rob chimed in and talked about how he has been impressed with seeing an entire side of the stadium standing. Matt agreed with this and said that seeing all of the students standing, not just the Misfits, was a dream of his back when he was the Misfits president.
The guys ended the conversation with Justin by asking if there was anything the Misfits needed. Flag poles and a couple of missing flags were the biggest needs according to Justin. You can view and purchase items from the Misfits’ Amazon wish list here.
Fantasy Challenge
Dustin started off with a recap of last week which came with big news: last week was the first time ever that Matt won the Challenge. Matt scored five points, which was followed by Tim, Dustin, and Rob all scoring four points. The Ghost came in last place with three points. After last week the season standings are Tim leading with 29 points, Dustin with 18 points, Rob with 17 points, the Ghost with 16 points and Matt with 7 points.
This weeks theme was “The best of the NCHC” and featured the leading goal scorers from NCHC teams. All of the teams this week were ranked in the top 20 and were all playing conference games. This weeks players come from #6 North Dakota, #4 Minnesota Duluth, #2 St. Cloud State, #13 Western Michigan and #11 Denver.
CCHA Review and Preview
The guys then went over a quick review of this past weekend’s CCHA games. Bemidji State swept LSSU which Rob said made him nervous for this upcoming weekend. Minnesota State demolished Bowling Green, though Matt did point out that Bowling Green kept it close in the second game. Ferris State kept it close against Michigan State and Matt thought that it was a sign that Ferris is turning a corner.
Dustin then kicked off the preview of this upcoming weekend games and asked how many goals Minnesota State would score against St. Thomas this upcoming weekend. Matt wondered why anyone would buy a ticket to that game and said it would be over after the first period. LSSU is playing Bowling Green and Rob thought that it would be a decent series. Northern is playing Ferris and Rob didn’t expect much from Ferris and predicted a Northern sweep. Matt said he would not be surprised by a split.
The guys ended with their thoughts on the upcoming Michigan Tech versus Bemidji State series. Dustin didn’t have a whole lot to say and said that his thoughts were the same as last week: Tech needs to put it together and have a complete, two game weekend. Ultimately he was not optimistic about the upcoming weekend and playing against a team coached by Tom Serratore. Matt halfway echoed Dustin’s thoughts and talked about how he wants to see an authoritative weekend from Tech but picked a split. Justin agreed with Matt and thought that this weekend would be a good challenge for Tech. Rob was in agreement with the others and echoed Dustin’s thought about playing against Coach Serratore. Rob also talked about Tech needing to score the first goal to get Bemidji out of their comfort zone.
Cut for time
This week does not have a cut for time segment. The guys did a fantastic job of staying on topic and so everyone gets to enjoy the full amount of content this week.
Learn More
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