Western Clutching and Holding Association (WCHA) Game 1 Notes

Pre- Preface: Please excuse the spelling and grammar of this article, as I am writing it at 11:40 local time, right after I got home from the Gopher game.

Preface: Today was my first time on a city bus. Going from my school, to Mariucci arena, which is supposed to take 30 minutes, actually turned out to be an hour and a half because I didn’t know what I was doing. Because of that, I missed the whole first period. We pick the action up at the end of the first with the Gophers up 1-0 on a Ryan Flynn goal.

I was impressed with the play of freshman 17-year-old defenseman Aaron Ness. Ness forwent his senior year at Roseau and took his senior year of classes online to play for the Gophers.

He didn’t score, but he was involved in the offense a lot. He didn’t make many mistakes, which is high praise for a freshman. He’s a really fluid skater, which will make him a very valuable asset in the future.

Another young kid making an impression was sophomore Pat White. He scored a goal, and was all over the place in the offensive zone.

Personally, I hate the kid because he single handedly dominated my High School, Edina, in the state tournament last year. He scored two goals in a 2-0 win, which is really a testament to how good this kid is.

Goalies Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson split time in goal, with each playing 30 minutes. With only 15 total shots, neither proved much. Patterson let in one goal on five shots, on the first shot he faced.

Overall, we had 40- some shots on goal, and pounded British Columbia, but we could have done more. There was far too much cycling and not shooting in the offensive zone for my liking.

Once more, Canada’s system is backwards from ours: in Canada, the good players play juniors, and the average ones play college. In the US, the good players play college and the average ones play juniors.

As it turns out, a 3-1 win might not be that impressive after all.