Season 4 Episode 12 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Bar-B-Q Water. This week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom and Matt Cavender were joined by the voice of Ferris State Bulldogs hockey, Harrison Watt. In this episode, they discussed Ferris State sweeping Minnesota State last weekend, the CCHA league standings and Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawhan. This episode is being broken up into two parts; this week includes the guys’ chat with Harrison, and next week will have the content once Harrison left the show.
Do you believe in miracles?
Harrison talked about how Ferris State was able to sweep Minnesota State, the means of which included fairy dust and Dan Campbell (Detroit Lions head coach) “grit and knee caps.” Harrison talked about Friday’s game in which Ferris State had very little puck possession, blocked 27 shots and scored twice on odd man rushes. He said Ferris State had the puck more during the Saturday game and gave Minnesota State less quality chances. Overall, Harrison was proud of Ferris State and said they deserved the wins. Harrison also talked about the goalie play for Ferris on the weekend, as well as some other Ferris State players who played well on the weekend. Harrison hoped that weekends such as this can become normal for Ferris State but also said he enjoys being a part of Team Chaos.
What to make of the CCHA
The guys talked about the top of the CCHA standings and Tim pointed out the number of teams that have games in hand over Michigan Tech. Harrison lamented the fact that Ferris State didn’t achieve better results in their non-conference schedule, which would have helped their standing in conference as well as the conference Pairwise. Tim pointed out that the CCHA currently has the fifth best non-conference record. The guys talked about where Michigan Tech is at right now versus Joe Shawhan’s expectations for the team at the beginning of the year. Harrison joked that it would be fun to take a time machine back to when Joe was an assistant coach and see the difference in his coaching style compared to current times.
Matt asked the group what they made of the league so far, with Bowling Green in first, Minnesota State in third and Lake Superior State Lakers bringing up the rear. Everyone mostly agreed that Lakers being so bad was the biggest surprise and the guys discussed some of the problems the Lakers have been having. The guys discussed their surprise at Tech’s season to date, especially given the injuries the Huskies have on defense. The guys gave their thoughts on who the coach of the year award should go to in the league, including a scenario when Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels wins if Ferris State finishes second in the league standings.
Tim thought that the other CCHA teams have been smelling blood in the water with Minnesota State not performing to their usual level. He also talked about being excited to see someone else raise the MacNaughton trophy, even if it isn’t Michigan Tech. The guys discussed the possible scenarios in which the CCHA could get two teams into the NCAA Tournament.
Story time
Towards the end of Harrison’s time on the show, he told a story about Bob Daniels being upset about the league changing names in 2013/2014 and wearing a massive CCHA logo on his shirt. Matt told a story about cheering for Ferris State at 2016 WCHA Final Five and Tim talked about getting yelled at during the 2015 Final Five tournament. The guys talked about pop (aka soda depending on where in the country you’re from) as well as which bottled water is the best.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately 101 minutes long. There is no real “cut content” this week, however the Patrons get the entire episode this week rather than it being split into two weeks like the regular edition for the other listeners.
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 101 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 and Zach Aufdemberge’s Analytics With Augie. Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles that Tim Braun writes occasionally. 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.
