jk Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 I didn't see the games this weekend; I only listened. Getting only one point out of Denver and 1-4-1 in the last six bites, to be sure. Based on what I heard, the Sioux earned at least two points this weekend, and probably three. They were undone perhaps by their own goaltending a little bit on Friday, and by an outstanding opposing goaltender on Saturday. On Friday, it sounded like UND played a strong first period, followed by a lousy second, their worst of the weekend, and an outstanding third and OT. Saturday they had some excellent chances in the first, were pretty even in the second, and had again a very good third period. My optimistic viewpoint right now is the team is playing well. If they continue to play well, they will win more of these games than they lose. They also got a nice goaltending performance Saturday. The pessimistic view is that not only is a top three finish in jeopardy, but home ice is now in question. "Playing well" is encouraging, but wins and points earn favorable playoff seeds and NCAA tournament berths. This doesn't seem like last year's team to me. They move the puck a lot better, and the defense stands people up at the blue line. The results have been familiar for a few weeks now, though. At Mankato? Two points are now a necessity, but anything more than that would be in the realm of hope rather than expectation. Hosting Duluth? The way Sandelin has them playing, a sweep doesn't seem very likely. At home, with the proper motivation, a sweep should be do-able though. At Wisconsin? I fear a miracle by a motivated Badger squad, but this should be four points. Most likely result down the stretch:4-2 Next most likely: 5-1 Next most likely: 3-3 Eight more points puts them at 36. Everyone can run their own what-ifs to see where that puts them, but it must get home ice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux_11 Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 how did we do tonite i heard it was 1-1 after the 2nd period. i have seen anthing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottM Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 IMO, the TEAM hasn't played a strong game since their first game at Mariucci in January. Since then, they seem to have been phoning it in. Quite frankly, the TEAM just doesn't seem to grasp the fact that this part of the season determines a great deal of who/where we'll be playing after the regular season ends. It's time to step it up and play like they've shown they can as a TEAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux_11 Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 This is really pathetic!!! The Sioux are taking the best start by any Sioux team ever and throwing in the dumpster. They are playing with no heart. It's really sad to see them play this poorly when at this time of the year they should be beating mediocre teams (such as Denver and Michigan Tech) badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2Bad1 Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 If UND loses too many more games they will be pushed out towards the *bubble region* and that is not a good thing. The good thing is they still have a shot at second if they can get their act together. They should be able to beat Wisconsin or UAA at home in a 3 game playoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2Bad1 Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 I was thinking what the heck happened to our offense??? The first line and much of the second line practically disappeared this weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCM Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 I was thinking what the heck happened to our offense??? The first line and much of the second line practically disappeared this weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Watching the Friday game on TV, it was unbelievable what went on, far beyond normal clutch and grab hockey. Denver was literally tackling Parise and Bochenski, rapping arms around their necks, and throwing them to the ice, away from the puck, in the Sioux's offensive zone. None were called. I saw none of the same at the other end of the ice, although Denver fans were saying things were missed both ways, so I'm sure some of the normal hooking and holding was done without calls. Parise could not effectively forecheck because he was thrown to the ice before he reached the puck, every time he went in deep. Tough when you have to try to deke the defense without the puck to avoid getting tackled. I've never seen the inteference, clutch and grab game taken to that extent. I've also never seen even the worst (IMO) of referees allow that stuff to go on. Normally I prefer the "let them play" hockey, but that was so far beyond normal clutch and grab that it was ridiculous. It is not surprising the the top Sioux scorers didn't get on the board; they were literally tackled at every opportunity. And there was no subtlety to the tackling, it was glaringly obvious. It was different than football, however, since you generally have to have the ball to get tackled. It will be interesting if Denver plays the same game in the coming weeks, against other WCHA teams with speed, MN and CC. Would not expect them to get away with it. If they do, they could get home ice; if they don't, both CC and MN will blow them away with special teams. In spite of the tackling, the Sioux would have easily won both if not for stellar goaltending by the Denver tandem. And will teams such as Wisco take note. They are brutally slow but haven't played their clutch and grab game of the past. Don't believe Eaves will allow it. But it is their best chance to beat the Sioux if they get a tackling-friendly referee. Actually, if my team was the outmanned, outskilled team and Anderson got the job, I'd certainly try mirroring what Denver did to even up the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Watching the Friday game on TV, it was unbelievable what went on, far beyond normal clutch and grab hockey. Denver was literally tackling Parise and Bochenski, rapping arms around their necks, and throwing them to the ice, away from the puck, in the Sioux's offensive zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprig Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Teams do that when they can't skate with a team. That is why the other lines need to step it up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCM Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 I agree that we need the third and fourth lines to find the net when the first two are mugged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kr Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 My favorite comment from this morning (Monday) interview: the give and go was give and gone UND is a good team when they cycle the puck, however, cycling was almost impossible as the players were tied up most of the time. Also some good talk on Coach M. Eaves situation in Wisconsin -- regarding players on the roster and him bringing in talent -- this evolved because they were talking about UND getting it done with the current players on the roster. (they were) complimentary of Dubbie from UDenver. Tough weekend in respect that the 20 players who went to Denver all worked hard, it's just the production didn't result (credit Berkhol and Dubbie). How do you coach 'em now? They are working hard -- but they really need some of the upperclassmen to produce. Gave credit to the effort/results put out this season by all 3 seniors (JN, KS, CL). It'll be good to have DH back in the line up but his time will be limited as he lost a lot of strength. There was a lot of good talk, but I imagine most will be gone over again on Wed night -- so I'll leave it to the professionals (PCM and forecheck) to give a good recap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiouxFanInBoston Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 It did sound like DU got away with a lot of would be penalties and that they weren't playing fair on Saturday. But, I'd feel much better about that being the major cause of the results with DU if the Sioux had done better on the power play over the weekend. They were only 1-6 Friday (against Berkhoel) -- you'd think they could have done better against him -- and 1-4 Saturday against Dubielewicz. I'm not saying Parise and Bochenski constantly being tackled wasn't a factor, but even when the Sioux had a power play they had troubling converting it into a goal. (Of course, the tackling, et al. on Saturday may have also been occurring during the power plays ... and obviously, the goalie was really "on" that night, but my point is that even on Friday we had trouble converting on the PP.) All that aside, I'm still very excited about UND's chances. I think we can put together a string of wins into the stretch that will take us into the playoffs with confidence. I think it's that confidence factor that is the main thing now. At the beginning of the season the team didn't worry when they were down. We have to get that back (I think the sweep by CC was the start of the shakiness on the confidence level). If we pull out a few big wins in a row here in the end, I think we'll be all set and back to the never-let-die attitude. Just my $.02! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Regardless of the penalties, the guys didn't put the biscuit in the basket and that is the name of the game. From what I have read here on the internet and the little I got to listen to the game, chances were created, but not finished. Remember this happened earlier this season. When was it, early December? We had questions about whether this team could score or not. It went on to do so. So maybe this is a little scoring slump that will correct itself in time. Just hope it is in time. I also have to say I am finally to the stage of worrying about this team. After the CC sweep I said we'd have to see how the team rebounds. It does with a thorough trouncing of Tech, then gets it handed to them in a "character" loss the next night. Then we got to Denver and have more trouble. Yeah, we miss David Hale, and have missed Canady but criminy every team has had injuries this year so we can't lean on that. Gotta suck it up and get it done. Spiewak carried the 3rd period on Friday and a few other guys have to step up and finish once in a while. That lack of scoring depth so rumored early in the season and put to bed mid season is again a question mark. This is a critical weekend and it could tell us what fortunes await our beloved team for the rest of the year. Another weekend lacking offense with average defense and maybe that's what we'll have to live with the rest of the year. I hope not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sioux,CO Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 After attending the two games in Denver I can tell you this. The Sioux need to flat out play better. Ranny did a great job in net on Saturday and kept us in the game. The problem is that the goaltenders for both teams did well and the lucky break fell to the Pioneers. Give Ranny another chance. I've seen 4 games in CO, 2 vs. CC and 2 vs. DU, and I've only seen the Sioux play 2 good periods. Game 1, Period 1 vs. CC and Game 1, Period 3 vs. DU. This is the reason they went 0-3-1 in CO. Also, the officials were bad at DU. I can understand why Anderson missed so many calls, the only person he ever watched was Greene. The problem is that he blew most of those calls also. Greene earned maybe one of the penaties that were called on him. Let the man check someone without giving him 2 min in the sin bin. Hopefully the Sioux snap out of the funk and show us some good hockey again. I know they can do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverman Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Worried but not that much.The reason, the league is tight. I believe like everyone else the teams that are in the bunch of 3-8 are going to be in for a dog fight. Don't cash your chips in just yet. Remember it's the SLIPPERY 16 not 12! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapshot Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Most posts are commenting about the goaltending, but I think the bigger problem is the scoring!!! It seems that t CB is forever changing lines, the team scores 8 goals against tech Fri and then the lines are changed on Saturday, then changed a different way the next weekend. I just don't think switching lines constantly gives the players any confidence. Also, does anyone else think that Bochenski needs to pass the puck a little bit more, I hate to rag on our leading goal scorer but I do think he is trying to score everytime he touches the puck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Most posts are commenting about the goaltending, but I think the bigger problem is the scoring!!! It seems that t CB is forever changing lines, the team scores 8 goals against tech Fri and then the lines are changed on Saturday, then changed a different way the next weekend. I just don't think switching lines constantly gives the players any confidence. Actually as most of you know Blaiser likes to tinker with the lines. Just his style. It is kind of frustrating though. Even through the course of a game the first line changes. UND has had on the first line. Moterman Speedwack Fyling Prpich Did I miss anyone? Actually I think Jason worked the best of all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrkac Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 goon- how about Lundbohm? i believe he centered the first line on fri. night in denver. (even if it was for about a period and a half) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 goon- how about Lundbohm? i believe he centered the first line on fri. night in denver. (even if it was for about a period and a half) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forecheck Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Did Massen ever play on the 1st line, or has he just played with them on the PP? I can't remember. There was also that game in MN when Parise and Bochenski were split up for 2 periods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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