Season 3 Episode 10 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Bigger, Badder and Girthier. This week, Tim Braun made his return and he, Rob Gilreath, Dustin Lindstrom and Matt Cavender were joined by Harrison Watt, the play by play voice for the Ferris State Bulldogs. With Harrison, the guys discussed Ferris’ season so far and what Ferris might do to surprise Michigan Tech, last weekend’s series against Bemidji, reviewed the Joe Shawahan Hour and asked Harrison some rapid fire questions. Once Harrison left, the guys went through the Fantasy Challenge segment.
Ferris State’s season so far
Harrison said that Ferris’ season has been up and down so far, but made sure to point out to the guys that everything has been better compared to last year. He talked about Ferris’ series last weekend against Northern Michigan in which Ferris out shot Northern 44 to 18 in one of the games. Harrison’s biggest negative point towards Ferris was that they still need to learn how to finish games and situations and he pointed to a couple of recent games that had late game issues that Ferris ended up losing. Harrison also talked about how well Ferris has done on faceoffs this year and how they are more in shape this season compared to last season.
Matt then asked about what this Ferris team might do to surprise Tech. Harrison’s answer was that on any given night it could literally be anything. He also talked about Liam MacDougall standing out on the penalty kill and his moving to wing changing his career. Harrison also discussed Ferris’ defense being more stout this year and their goaltending also being better. He also mentioned that Ferris has had a number of injuries this season which has taken him to a “what if” train of thought. To wrap up his points, Harrison said that teams have to work with what they have when they have it and good teams figure out how to play without their missing players.
Bemidji series and weekend recap
The Bemidji series recap started with Tim commenting on the number of shots that were from the point with the intent on getting a tip or rebound to score. Tim talked about how this wouldn’t be effective if Tech didn’t put a player in front of the goalie to screen him and Harrison agreed and said that teams have to take away the goalie’s eyes. The guys then discussed Bemidji coach Tom Serratore and how difficult he is for all coaches to play against. Rob mentioned that this past weekend was the opposite of Bemidji’s usual style of scoring one or two goals then locking down their opponents.
Matt talked about how he wasn’t disappointed with the weekend’s results and also discussed how he hoped that Friday’s game will be what Tech does more of moving forward. He also thought Saturday was a good game. The guys then discussed the games that Tech and Ferris have in hand on the other teams in the league and how it will allow both teams opportunity to gain ground later in the season. Rob talked about being OK with where Tech is right now considering that they’ve been playing teams they have struggled with in the past. Overall Matt was good with the split, Tim was happy with the results just frustrated how it happened, Rob agreed and Harrison said that he’d be happy with a split against an NCAA tournament team.
The guys ended this segment with a brief conversation about pulling goalies. Matt thought that Tech is looking dangerous with the extra attacker this season and he doesn’t mind seeing the goalie pulled with three or four minutes left in the game. Harrison pointed out that some stats would disagree with Matt and shared an example from a previous Ferris game. Rob and Tim both had no issues with pulling the goalie earlier than expected.
The Joe Shawahan Hour
Tim started off this conversation by bringing up how Joe talked about Tanner Edwards without actually talking about him. Dustin hoped that Edwards will be coming to Tech via the transfer portal considering he has not played in a single game for Minnesota State despite being there for two seasons. The guys then discussed coach Joe continuing to use the “hard skill” line and how it wouldn’t be hard to figure out who Joe was talking about by looking at the changes in the line charts each week. The guys also discussed Joe’s “what have you done for me lately” philosophy.
Rapid fire questions for Harrison
Before Harrison left the podcast, Matt gave him a series of rapid fire questions to answer. These included “Is cheese a loaf of milk?”, “Are eye drops blinker fluid?”, “Would he rather have a $5 hot and ready or Wendy’s 4 for $4?” and “If poison expires is it more or less deadly?”. There were more questions asked, so be sure to listen and hear them all!
Fantasy Challenge
Dustin had the biggest week this week. His pick scored four goals in total, including a hat trick, which netted him 16 points. Rob came in second with three points, Matt and Tim both got one point. The Ghost was shut out this week and got zero points. Dustin’s big week resulted in a shakeup in the standings. Dustin took over the lead and now has 34 points, Tim is second with 30 points, Rob has 20 points, the Ghost has 16 points and Matt has eight points. This week’s theme was “Goalies again”. All of the players this week have played the most games for their teams and are expected to play both games this upcoming weekend. This week, the players the guys could pick came from #14 Providence, #4 Michigan, #18 Northeastern, #1 Minnesota State, and Michigan Tech.
Cut for time
This week’s cut for time segment is approximately 31 minutes long. The guys discussed Tim being sick and listening to Tech games on the radio as well as the audio issues during the Bemidji series. They also discussed the games starting an hour earlier on some Saturdays and the difficulties that can cause as a fan. There was a conversation about the best pizza joint in Bemidji, and Rob and Tim recalled an auto shop fire they witnessed one time visiting Bemidji. Tim told a story about his misfortunes traveling back from his hometown which lead into him being sick. Harrison talked about never swearing on the air but told a story where he came close to doing so in a game against Tech. Tim discussed some difficult times reporting for THG in some of the bad years of Tech hockey, which lead into a discussion about shot charts and analytics. The guys talked about overtime strategy and how different it can be between the NHL and college games. The guys discussed Minnesota State’s series against St. Thomas last weekend and whether Dryden McKay should have been playing or not.
Learn More
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