We don’t want to write it. You don’t want to read it. Here’s the box score, which does a better job explaining what the hell happened at Magness Arena tonight than we ever could: Western Michigan 7, Denver 2
After dropping three of their last four games, Denver has a much-needed bye week next weekend before heading up to Duluth for their only series of the season with the Bulldogs.
But hey, at least the men’s lacrosse team had a good day!
Other than inconsistent goaltending, faceoff nightmares, lack of offensive and a sieve defense, things went as planned. This team is going absolutely nowhere fast. I doubt a bye week will help.
Last weekend NoDak taught everyone how to play DU this season. WMU took advantage of that lesson. Hopefully the relatively weak remainder of the schedule will allow the coaches and players to adjust and recoup from this disaster.
Ugly game last night, needless to say. Pios scored less than a minute into the game. That was great to see. After that, there wasn’t much to cheer about. Carle summed it up well in his postgame comments–the effort wasn’t there, nor was the execution. WMU dominated puck possession, had a sustained and effective forecheck, and was clearly the better team. And DU’s faceoff performance was piss poor. That just contributed to WMU keeping the puck and keeping the pressure on. Overall, it was a bad performance.
DU is still in a good position in the PW (sitting at 8), but suddenly they are in 4th place in the NCHC and now are in a real battle for home ice for the conference tournament. I did not expect that. Furthermore, I wouldn’t classify the remainder of the schedule as easy. There is a home series against last-place Miami, but road trips to Duluth and St. Cloud will be tough, and don’t look now, but a much improved CC team is now ahead of DU in the conference standings.
I hope the bye week is a good thing. After last weekend’s setback in Grand Forks and then last night’s debacle, maybe these guys need a break and a reset.