Season 3 Episode 19 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Names On The Asses. This week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were joined by Brian Schultz, the radio play by play announcer for Bemidji State. The guys talked about Bemidji’s season so far, last year’s Hockey Day in Minnesota that was located in Bemidji, Coach Sarratore’s absence from the team last weekend, former Bemidji goalie Zach Driscoll playing for North Dakota, Brian’s willingness to answer email questions on air, and predictions for this upcoming weekend.
Perception of Bemidji’s season so far
Brian said that Bemidji has been an up and down team so far and have been hard to figure out. He pointed to their record at home versus on the road as evidence. Matt commented that he loves the “off the cuff” nature of the broadcasts and Brian talked about doing it all for the fans. Brian also talked about how the unpredictableness of the game is what makes college hockey great. He contrasted it to college football and talked about the fact that everyone knows Alabama is going to win in week 6, no matter who they play; the only question would be by how much they win. Brian also talked about how the teams who make plays win games and pointed to Bemidji’s most recent series against Ferris as an example. Matt added his thoughts which included college hockey being beautiful but frustrating because the stats don’t always point to the winner.
Hockey Day in Minnesota
Rob then asked about the 2019 edition of Hockey Day in Minnesota. Brian talked about assisting Tech’s play by play voice Dirk Hembroff on the air because it was so cold that Dirk’s equipment didn’t want to work. Brian then talked about his idea of what he wanted Dirk to do for the broadcast, but Dirk didn’t quite grasp the concept with only 10 minutes before the two went on air. Brian also talked about the first time that Bowling Green came to Bemidji, and their players not knowing about ice fishing shanty towns that appear on the lake.
Listener question
There was one listener question this week from Tech Hockey Guide’s own Old Dog in Texas who asked if Bemidji head coach Tom Serratore being absent last week had any effect on the team and their performance. Without hesitation Brain said Tom’s absence had zero effect on the game and then talked about how the players get the same message from the assistance coaches as they do Serratore. Brian then added that Serratore has been cleared and will be travelling with the team this week.
Bemidji’s adjustments and previous goalies
Given their results last week against Ferris, Matt asked Brian what adjustments Bemidji would need to make prior to the series against Tech. Brain thought that there really didn’t need to be many adjustments and pointed back to Bemidji’s road record and how good they’ve been. Matt, Dustin and Tim all agreed that lately Tech’s series have been impossible to predict because Tech hasn’t been as good as they hoped and play down to their opponents. Rob then added that Tech’s head to head record against Bemidji has not been good lately. Brian then talked about how Bemidji’s previous goalies played a big part in that. He added that the five goals Ferris State scored had nothing to do with how Bemidji’s current goalies played. Brian then talked about the interesting nature of the relationship between Bemidji and Grand Forks, N.D. The guys then briefly discussed the transfer portal and how it may affect some schools. Tim also talked about attending one of the Minnesota versus Michigan games this past weekend.
Email the booth
Matt said his favorite feature of the Bemidji broadcasts are the email the booth function. He asked Brian how he balances looking at those emails and deciding what’s appropriate, all while calling the game. Brain discussed how the game largely dictates what gets read on air, and again mentioned that college hockey is about the fans and he wants to include them. Brian also said that the infamous Mega Lasagna question is when he really started to wonder where the heck the email the booth function was going. Matt then asked Brian a series of questions which included “If you wear cowboy clothes is that considered ranch dressing?”, “Is the band Bowling for Soup bowling to earn soup or on behalf of soup?” and “What do they call fancy plates in the nation of China?”
Tech versus Bemidji predictions
Brian started off the predictions by saying that he learned a long time ago that whatever he thinks is going to happen is not going to happen, so he picked a Tech sweep. Rob said that he feels worse about this weekend now that he knows what Bemidji’s road record is and picked a sweep with Bemidji winning on Friday then Tech on Saturday. Matt agreed with Rob. Dustin also agreed with Rob, but thought both games would be close. Tim picked a Tech sweep in order to not be the same as the other three hosts.
Acquiring InStat
Matt has been using a free trial on InStat and talked about how much he’s enjoyed it. He talked about the stats that it can provide and how it will help Tech Hockey Guide put together more in depth statistical content. There is a significant cost to acquiring InStat, so please consider making a donation to Tech Hockey Guide so that Matt can make these articles happen!
Cut for time
This week’s cut for time for Patrons is approximately 25 minutes long. The guys talked about missing College Hockey Stats and the recent CCHA rule changes to the number of requirements for skaters available. They discussed some of the teams that have been picked to play at previous iterations of Hockey Day in Minnesota as well as how cold it was when Rob, Dustin and Tim attended. There was a discussion about pizza joints in Bemidji. Matt shared a story about living next to the snowmobile trail in Houghton and Kyle shared a story about his old boss coming to Bemidji for the first time. Tim told a story about driving out on the ice on the lake with his daughter. There guys talked about Miami’s (OH) rough weekend against St. Cloud State and the locations of dispensaries in Houghton. The guys discussed Bob Saget and Rob and Tim found some bad game scores for Tech.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 86 minutes.
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Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod. You can submit questions through our email address, ChasingMac@techhockeyguide.com. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review to help us reach more people, and tell your friends. Please check out Jonathan Zamaites’ series previews every Friday and Mike Anleitner’s Old Dog in Texas column every Wednesday (you should definitely read this week’s column). Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles on Tuesdays. As always, special thanks to our patron saint Doc McResin for his generous donation to get this thing running, we hope you enjoy. Also, thanks to The Thank You Notes for all the bumpers in today’s episode. If you like what you hear, check them out at thethankyounotes.bandcamp.com
