The Sicatoka

I read somewhere that the suite floor level in the REA was an oversight. At the X in St. Paul the floor in the suites is a couple of feet higher relative to the last row of seats in the lower bowl than it is in REA. That's why standing students are a problem. Remember, students need to be next to the penalty box so next year they can toss Jeff "locked in a crapper in the Minneapolis airport" Finger of SCSU a roll of "White Cloud."

Someone say they didn't have S-SM's roster or stats? http://www.s-sm.org/hockey/prepstat.html No charge.

Wouldn't it be fun if opposing fans would have to say this as a plea for mercy: Less Fylling! As a Sioux fan, that would "Taste Great!"

I'm still in awe over this quote from the Saturday GF Herald: "Jon Casey was probably our last goalie that knew the game as well as Jake does." -- Dean Blais The 'Jake' is Jake Brandt. Since Casey (who I do think was the best of them at knowing and anticipating play) I come up with Brower (rest in peace, Scotty), Belfour, Schweitzer, and Goehring as netminders that seemed to know what was going to happen next and just got there first. That is very big pat on the back to Jake. Goon: Just call him Coach Gwoz.

The next time Finger is 'locked' in the penalty box someone should toss him a roll of Charmin, .... or should that be .... White Cloud?

Big strong tough guy for SCSU locked in a bathroom. http://miva.sctimes.com/miva....37+5+11 You think Bochenski has taken a razzing this year? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

With 10 games left this team could go 2-8 just as easily as 8-2. I normally can figure out a Sioux team by now. Not this one. They seem to run hot and cold. I guess it is the freshman factor (inconsistency). However, I know that most of them haven't played on a team with a losing record for a long, long time. I'm hoping that they play the rest of their season for pride (meaning to finish over 0.500). If they do that, other things will take care of themselves.

Not to sound like some of those USHR junkies (quoting it left and right), but the throwing Matt Greene's name into a search engine came up with this from the July 2000 USHR: Matt Greene, who played for Chris Coury's Little Caesar's squad last winter, is 6'2", 201 lbs, and loves to hit hard. He's still raw skill-wise. That is, the skills are there, they just need smoothing out. In addition, he hasn't finished growing into his body. Greene, with his size and physical style of play, is a potential first-round NHL draft pick. He's going to the U.S. National Program this fall. Also in that report they list "Select 17 Standouts" from the camp in the summer of 2000. Defensemen: 1. Ryan Whitney 2. Matt Greene For reference, Whitney is the highly touted D-man now at BU. Not bad company considering who was next on USHR's list: 3. Matt Jones Currently he skates in jersey #3 for Dean Blais. You've heard of him, yes? http://www.ushr.com/july00news.htm

Do you keep O'Leary and Hasbargen when Canady and McMahon can play that same grinding game plus have scoring talent? I believe that was the deciding factor. The rest of the league sees 10 new faces in Sioux jerseys each night. They know that "payback" time (for 1997 through 2001) is now because it won't get easier in the future. I'm sure Brandon Bochenski, James Massen and the rest have good memories and will return this year's "favors" to the league in coming days. Patience.

On that goal Siembida looked tired. He went to cover it and didn't get there first. I like playing the number 2 goaltender every other Saturday. It keeps them sharp. It keeps the team sharp. It gives the number 1 a rest.

Hot off the wire from http://www.fightingsioux.com : UND to introduce Shantel Gammie as head women

Siembida has played six straight (Mich, MSU, UMn, UMn, UAA, UAA) and it sounds like it'll go to seven tonight. I'd say it's time to get Brandt back in there. Remember, he played well at Wisconsin and got two wins at St. Lawrence before the arrival of Siembida. A number 1 and a dependable number 2 goaltender is needed (for example Goehring/Kollar). Get him some playing time so we know if he can do the job. If he battles Siembida for the number 1 role, all the better.

Dixon Ward as the Gopher trainer? He'd either run them into the ground and leave them for dead: "Whaddaya mean you can't benchpress that Buick off your chest? PUSH! It'll be a Cadillac next time!" or it'd be: Hey boys, lots and lots of beer and chips are good for you! And don't forget the nachos.

Clayton (and his psychic link dagies ): Leaving four skaters only takes 18 skaters on the road.

Along this same line of thought .... The NCAA lets you travel with 19 skaters and no more than 3 (and not less than 2) goaltenders. I figure Siembida, Brandt, and Kollar are all going. Which 19 skaters are going to CC?

In the 1997-1998 schedule, league games went from 32 to 28 per year. How many points has it taken to get home ice since then? 1997-1998: 30 1998-1999: 26 1999-2000: 31 2000-2001: 32

I'll get this out of my system here so I don't start something somewhere else. Eric "Skateblade" Westrom! Matt "The Knee" Doman! Matt "Back Injury" DeMarchi! That should do it for now. Whew! Do I feel better.

I watched Pelawa a couple of times. Imagine Jay Panzer All-American skills (I say Jay because GP wasn't as quick as Jeff) in a Mike Commodore frame but with bulk like Lee Goren. GP wasn't just tall, he was solid. The best comparison at the time was Joel Otto (big, strong, skilled) of Bemidji State then Calgary.

A Siembida/Brandt rotation doesn't sound too bad based on the last six or seven games. The defense needs to learn to make a twelve foot pass and let the forwards move the puck and out. None of them (right now) have the ability to carry it out, or make the long on-the-tape pass, consistently. Give them time. Spiewak and Notermann are best suited for that PK and the "shut down their #1 line" role. When they can be put back to that (meaning not having to worry about creating their own offense but strictly being opportunistic) they will probably show up with more scoring (as backwards as that sounds). Please note that the recent success seems to correspond with the emergence of ..... James Massen. The team began to win when he started playing well enough to be out there with Bayda and Skarperud. Canady and Connelly showed a flash of Waterloo on Saturday. They were all Waterloo had last year and they were good. Now that I've seen Fournier's eyes and hands and Bochenski's shot first hand I know why they were 1-2 in USHL scoring last year. They have trouble in defensive zone. Maybe McMahon could fill in what they lack there. How's Tyler Palmiscno (other than sore and lucky)? Anyone heard?

dagies: I knew the Sioux were screwed on Sunday when Tim O'Keefe mentioned that a UND sweep would eliminate all hope of Minnesota winning the WCHA. Don't talk about no-hitters or sweeps until they are recorded, #@$*@!

Goon, where'd you hear that? PS - He's more than an official, he's the Supervisor of Officials for the WCHL and runs a school for training officials! (http://www.donadamskating.com/officiatingcamps.htm) YIKES!

Officiating recap: Game 1 summary: Tyler Palmiscno is very lucky that he isn't contacting Travis Roy about rehab centers. (The replay from the side was scary to watch. Tyler's chin hit dasher and his head snapped back.) Game 2 summary: The WCHA "referee a split" doctrine remains in place.

Goaltenders, by their very nature, are, how should we say it, unique. Goalies wear "old pads" when they change teams for a good reason. Breaking in a new set of pads is hard. I had a goalie ask me to help break in a set of new, very stiff leg pads once. I was thinking "shot after shot after shot." Nope. We went to a relative of mine's farm, he sprayed down the leather with saddle soap and leather cleaner, and then (what he needed me for, because he couldn't drive one) he had me drive over them with a four-wheel drive tractor. Back and forth and back and forth. Scary thing is .... it worked! They softened up!

My spin on the Minnesota series? Mighty #2 in the polls versus a team that had to struggle (with a four game, road, barely won them, took a couple of OTs, winning streak) to reach back to the 0.500 level (9-9-1). Yes, Minnesota should take four points defending their home ice. Anything less is weakness on Minnesota's part. Next, if North Dakota hung banners for winning the WCHA post-season tournaments, space would have to be made for seven MORE banners (1967, 1968, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1997, 2000) than the seven NCAA titles and eleven WCHA regular season titles. For the record: NCAA Division I National Champions: 1959, 1963, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997, 2000 NCAA Division I National Runner-Up: 1958, 1968, 1979, 2001 NCAA Division I National Semi-finalists (other appearances): 1965, 1967, 1984 NCAA Divison I National Appearances (all): 1958, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 WCHA Regular Season Champions: 1958, 1964, 1967, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 WCHA Tournament Champions: 1967, 1968, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1997, 2000

Running under the assumption that this is accurate. Josh Siembida (through Dec 17): 2.81 GAA (10th in GAA in the USHL) 0.918 save ratio His Waterloo team has scored 40 goals. Sioux Falls has scored 123! Waterloo is one of three in the USHL to not break the team 60 goal mark yet. Waterloo is dead last on the powerplay but third in killing penalties (I don't consider the US NDT a USHL team). Uh, no powerplay but third on the kill? Even (or is it especially) on a bad team, a good penalty kill begins with the .... who? And how can you not like a guy from a place called Porcupine, Onterio. (Edited by The Sicatoka at 4:47 pm on Dec. 21, 2001)