[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern - FRIDAY Gameday]

Congratulations on a terrific game. The better team showed up and won!

Good luck the rest of the way. There's no reason why you can't win it all.

Thanks for your hospitality. 

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern - FRIDAY Gameday]

A bit of good news from the Huskies camp. Cockerill is back in for Owens on D. He adds a bomb of a shot and good passing to the blue line - much more offense than Owens. We may need that O  if your D is able to throttle our forwards. Everything else is the same as last week AFAIK.

The Hawks are the prohibitive favorites as far as I can gauge. For NU, this is a wonderful opportunity to show that we are the team from the second half of the season - not from the first. We've played and beaten some real good teams in the East. This is a whole different kind of challenge to beat the best in the West.

Let's have a great game and may the best team (Huskies, hopefully) win!

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

2 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

Don't.  Just don't go there.   You don't want to see what this thread will turn into.  

Sorry. Wasn't trying to hit a nerve. End of  conversation.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

17 minutes ago, SiouxFanatic said:

Cool, you read Northeastern's thread on the USCHO forums as well? I did too! Great source, amirite? 

Our USCHO and Dieharddogs.com are  child's play compared with what you folks have here. I can't believe how many active posters participate and how prolific they are. I guess you have had enough success that you've built a huge cadre.

One thing before I head home: When you were "urged" to change your mascot and nickname, did anyone try to salve the PC police with a suggestion that you call yourselves something other than the "fighting" Sioux. How could the tribe have objected to your calling yourselves the "clever", "brave hearted", "handsome" "witty" or "virile" Sioux? Something along those lines could hardly be considered to be derogative. It was a great and an appropriate nickname. I loved the unis with the profiled head - especially the Kelly greens.

BTW I've been around long enough to have seen the 1982 NC team and to learn the proper pronunciation of the name Hrkac

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

7 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

Has Tuch been pretty entertaining to watch? I believe he is a MN Wild draft pick, so I'm hoping he has some serious potential. Haven't seen him play yet though.

Not really. He is definitely big. He uses a telephone pole for a stick. However he seems to be more of a grinder that, say, Kreider was. I wouldn't say he puts fans in the seats. BC (they're decent folks so they are capitalized) has far more interesting/exciting players with fan appeal.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

1 hour ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Hahaha welcome to Sioux Sports. We are the kings of the tangent.

Our second line of Rhett Gardner, Luke Johnson and Austin Poganski are big boys that play very physical, but all bring good scoring punch. Poganski and Gardner in particular are dominant in front of the net. Johnson shoots from all angles and the other two try and bang rebounds.

Our third and fourth lines have players that can score. Bryn Chyzyk has a great shot in space, Shane Gersich has game-breaking speed, Coltyn Sanderson has shown a good around the net scoring punch in the second half and Joel Janatuienen is a hard working, two-way player.

I'd take note of our d-corps. Troy Stecher and Tucker Poolman both have dominant playmaking ability. Stecher might be the best player on this team and that includes the CBS line. He does everything for this team. 

Hope that helps.... and makes you nervous

We have to deal with some big boys in HEA like Tuch from BC. Most of them are found on the back line. Our second line a.ka. the 7-8-9 line of #7 McMurty, #8  Gaudette and #9 Sikura are not particularly big, but are fast, clever and unselfish. They play very well together. The third line has two transfers from bu,  (small case is a sign of disrespect - like goofers) Collier and McMurtry. We tried to recruit each, lost them to bu, where they were unappreciated. On LW is our best player, Kevin Roy. He missed a dozen games with a concussion. When he returned, the Stevens/Zar line was so hot that the coach, to his credit, was smart enough not to fix what wasn't broken. Some third liner! The fourth line is a group  of hyperactive pests including  two freshman wings who can score more than the odd goal.

BTW I understand that our coaches went head to head on a couple of recruits. You got Ludvig Hoff from Lincoln while we got Liam Pecararo from the Waterloo team. Both forwards are (were) >1 PPG contributors and should help our respective programs. We'll see when they get here.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

40 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

Lol heard from source northeastern had to cancel fan bus. Couldn't get 30 people on 

I don't think interest is the issue. Just feasibility. It's Easter. Finals are approaching. Co-op and job interviews for seniors. Timing is bad. It's a long, long ride for easterners who are used to having things much closer together than folk from west of the Mississippi.  If  somehow we get to  Tampa, though we expect to pack the building

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

1 hour ago, stoneySIOUX said:

DDC couldn't wait any longer. 

Here we go. It's tournament time.

http://daddydumpandchase.blogspot.com/2016/03/ncaa-tournament-mw-regional-from-queen.html?m=1

Well reasoned. Reasonable conclusion. However, I will take issue with our maligned Defense. Prior to the team's gelling, We were giving up >4 GPG while scoring <2. In the past 23 games, those stats have literally been reversed by comfortable margins. It has been dramatic and kind of amazing. Had we played this way for the whole year, we would have been a #1 seed in one of the regionals and would have to deal with UND (and don't mean the golden gnomers) until the frozen four.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

Wow. This thread has been totally hijacked!

IIRC one of our team's season is going to end tomorrow. I know the Huskies are in Cincinnati a/o last night. They're probably skating at least twice today. What are your guys up to?

I'm really looking forward(?) to seeing your first line in action. The Stevens brothers and ZAR are pretty good, but Boeser's line's stats are really impressive. What do your other lines bring?

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

3 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

Just not Fighting Hawks  

Can't blame you. Would you prefer Fighting Predators? Yeah, we talk funny in New England.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

15 minutes ago, burd said:

Nice to have you here, Hhound.  You obviously know your hockey and your team and know how to be civil, which is much appreciated.   With the rivalries we have here with Denver, Wisconsin, and various Minnie schools, we are not always accustomed to civility and can be a little gruff ourselves at times. 

Thank you. I have had nothing but pleasant encounters with UND (do you prefer Nodak?) fans in the past. Your enthusiasm is unmatched if the activity on this message board is any indication. I know some of you would show up at the South Pole if your team had a game there!

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

25 minutes ago, runaroundsioux said:

By the way, for all you Nattering Nabobs of Negatism. Check out the teams NU beat in their epic,historic,hottest team in college hockey run. Mostly little sisters of the poor more than the Titans of College Hockey. 

You are correct, except for a 5-1 romp over Hahvahd , a sweep at St. Lawrence, and ties with BC, QPac and UMLowell, and a 1 goal+EN loss to bu. The schedule we had us playing the lions in the league before Christmas and the pussycats in 2016. It was an early nightmare until we got our act together, IOW, We played the hand that was dealt us.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

10 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

In short, yes

Also, I will be forwarding your scouting report to Coach Berry for review, thank you for your contributions to UND hockey.

Be my guest. 

If your coaches don't know 10x what I said about our team, you really do have something to be concerned about! BTW FedEx has a great business shipping game tapes on Monday for Tuesday delivery each week.

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

1 hour ago, SiouxTupa said:

I love hearing from opposing fans, welcome Hhound! Teams that come in on that long of a winning streak are often the ones that run out of steam. That's a ridiculous run, but it does remind many of us of some Sioux teams over the past decade. It's quite the Jeckyl/Hyde season.

My big concern is how many open looks we've given teams over the last month or so. Open guys in the slot have burned us. I'm hoping it hit its peak at the DU series last month, but it hasn't gone away completely. Now that the games are do or die, I'm sure we'll see harder back-checking. The good thing is that we've played a couple solid defensive teams after several weeks against weaker ones.

Personally, I think I'm more excited for this first round game than I have been in a while. NU is definitely not your typical 4-seed (that's probably not a thing anymore.) Given that it could be a toss-up, this will be a fun one!

I'm afraid you may be correct. There's no evidence that we're running out of steam - yet, but statistically the odds of extending the streak get longer each time we take the ice. We're bound to lay an egg sooner or later or just have a bad run of negative puck luck. We had a bit of that vs. Lowell.

Our defense has been so porous for so long that the pundits have found it easy to pick on them. They are much better as individuals have matured and the rest of the team has taken responsibility and done their share. Kevin Roy (pronounced Wah) who came to us as an offensive wizard has learned to play a 200 foot game. In turn, this has helped the goalie to progress to the point where he is pretty good - not all-world - but good enough that the players believe in him and play confidently in front of him. We lost one of our more offensive Ds with a broken finger Friday night. Fortunately we got another one back, also from a broken finger, and there was a very slight dropoff.

Another thought occurred to me. One poster commented about how the Huskies couldn't overcome opponents early leads ("chase the game"). During the first 10-12 games we were absolutely terrible, especially in the first period. Our returning goalie was simply awful. He lasted les than 10 minutes against the Goophers (maybe less than 5 minutes) and was pulled after giving up three black marshmellows. The team scored something like 4 goals in the first period during that run. Of course we fell  behind and we lost every one of those games! Since Thanksgiving things have been radically different. We've been more concern with holding leads. BTW, Against BC on Friday, our goalie gave up a softie  after 15         seconds. We then scored four of the next 5 goals and never trailed again. BC never scored until they picked up two in garbage time to make the game look closer than it was.

I know our kids are having the time of their lives. Your team has been where they are. You don't really want to spoil their fun, do you?

[NORTH DAKOTA vs. Northeastern // Mich vs. Notre Dame]

I am a visitor from the East.

First of all Northeastern is "NU" not "NE".

I don't know what message boards you are reading, but we, who  post on Dieharddogs.com, do not consider us to be a favorite. We have a ton of respect for UNDs program and hockey traditions. I loved your Kelly green Sioux unis. Thought they were the best in the land. Big loss :>(.

Let me clear up a couple of things about the NU hockey team. To begin with, we have three good scoring lines and a fourth line that can both check and score the odd goal. The defense is greatly improved from the past and is aided by some serious fore and backchecking by the forwards. The goalie's figures are skewed by the terrible, and I mean terrible, start the team had. It took about 12 games before he got his first win. The team finally came together in Belfast at Thanksgiving. Since then his GAA is well below 2.00 and his save % is well above 9.20. He has given up 4 goals once and three goals twice in the past 23 games. The goals he gave up against UML came on a perfect shot and then a deflection off our defenseman's stick. His game has improved meaningfully since the fall. Interestingly his GA (including the early difficulties) is a full goal lower than he had with Des Moines last season. Who expected that? Kudos to our goalie coach.

The best we can hope for is that we come up with a way to blunt your offense and can spend enough time in the O zone that our forwards can work their magic. We'll be thrilled if we can get past you. We'll cross the Michigan bridge when we come to it.

Good Luck!