Season 4, Episode 18 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Dead Man Walking. This week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom and Matt Cavender were guestless. In this episode, they discussed Tech’s position in the CCHA, Tech’s series last weekend against Ferris State, the Joe Shawhan Hour, tournaments Tech will be a part of in the future and Tech’s upcoming series against Northern Michigan University.
Shootout woes and their effect on Tech
The discussion started with the guys talking about the CCHA being a tight league this season. Tim pointed out Tech’s lack of series sweeps on the season before diving into Tech’s woes in the shootout. The guys discussed how much teams should be pushing their goaltenders in practice to help them be better prepared for the in-game shootouts. Tim talked about Tech’s lack of sweeps and how it relates to their position within the CCHA standings and the guys looked at the remaining games for both Tech and Ferris State. Tim also talked about predicting how the season will end using KRACH system and rankings.
Ferris State series review
Matt thought that FSU finally found their footing during the game against Tech. He also added that the Saturday game was the best Ferris State game he’d been to in years as a fan, largely due to the atmosphere in the arena. The guys discussed the atmosphere in the CCHA arenas and thought they were the best in the country (there might have been a hint of bias). Matt also talked about his feelings during the time that Ferris State had the empty net at the end of the Saturday game and the guys discussed the percentages of teams scoring during the extra attacker time at the end of a game.
Joe Shawhan Hour
Despite Tim being the only one of the three that listened to the Joe Show, he plowed ahead and discussed it anyway. The guys discussed whether the players are capable of playing 20+ minutes a game in back to back games. Tim shared his thoughts on Joe’s comments about the culture surrounding the team and Dustin thought that there are no names on the current Tech roster that jump out as leaders on the team. The guys talked about the possibility of some of the underclassmen stepping up into leadership roles.
Other CCHA thoughts
Wrapping up the CCHA thoughts and discussions, Matt brought up this past weekend’s performance by St. Thomas. He talked about them not being a bad team and possibly making a run at home ice for the CCHA tournament. The guys looked at the Top 4 in the CCHA, and Tim thought Bowling Green would not end the season at the top of the standings, but that Minnesota State would. Matt took the homer picked (is anyone surprised?) that Tech will finish on top. The guys discussed some possible MacNaughton Cup clinching scenarios that could take place on the last weekend of the season.
Northern Michigan University series preview
Matt commented that he hated picking this series, but ended up picking a split with the points being in Tech’s favor. Tim hoped for a six point weekend for Tech, but decided that wouldn’t happen and predicted Tech to win at home in regulation and Northern to win in overtime at home. Dustin got to play the homer role this week and picked Tech to sweep and added that Michigan Tech goaltender Blake Pietila will steal one of the games. The guys also talked whether fans will see Max Vayrynen play again this season.
There was a brief discussion at the end of the series preview about the Vancouver Canucks recent firing of their head coach.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately eight minutes long. Tim talked about buying tickets for the upcoming series against Bemidji State. There was a discussion about possibly getting a suite for the Great Lakes Invitational next year. The guys discussed the tournament in Palm Springs, California that Michigan Tech and UMass-Lowell will be hosting next season. There was a discussion on the ticket pricing at the Arizona State Tournament. The guys discussed old hockey tournaments that were played in Minnesota while Dustin looked up Palm Springs golf courses.
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 64 minutes.
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Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod. Join our Discord server for discussions covering Michigan Tech hockey and more. 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.
