Kevin G

Cam Rowe getting tested early.

BU's Lane Hutson just jumps off the screen. Holy cow.

Western Michigan vs. BU is underway. Hoping the Broncos come out of that region.

Benoit as a potential washout or as a guy ready to come in?

As we say goodbye to another year of Sioux hockey, a big thank-you to the proprietors of siouxsports.com for hosting the best college hockey forum on the internet. (And there's not really a second place.) Sioux hockey without this forum would be like a grinder without the white sauce.

Ah yes, the annual "Oh crap, does my cable/streaming package include [insert random ESPN channel here]?"

"The Forks" is dripping with catchphrase possibilities, like whenever one of our players steals the puck, the crows yells, "Fork it over!" Or, if the ref makes a bad call, everyone screams, "Fork you!" Or, as the seconds wind down on another win, the crowd chants, "Stick a fork in it, baby!" All while donning "The Forks" alternate jerseys. EVERYONE's gonna want one or three!! So let's collectively trademark "The Forks" and donate the merchandise proceeds to the SS.com NIL collective.

One of the biggest disappointments of the season was not seeing Caulfield or Kunz develop more assertiveness. (Although Caulfield did seem to find another gear late in the season.)

Persson's height, weight: 6-1, 184 Persson's GAA the past three seasons: 2.62, 3.93, 3.67 Persson's SV% the past three seasons: .925, .894, .891 He's not an overly big goaltender, nor do his stats overly impress. What am I not seeing?

Yes, yes, and yes. Just think what it would do for our program to tap in more effectively to the northern MN pipeline.

How about Jake Brandt? Fairly young, infectious enthusiasm, easily likable, loves UND hockey, KNOWS EVERYONE involved in upper Midwest hockey.

I’m so confused right now. According to the CHN standing, St. Thomas is already in a conference, the CCHA.

The last thing hockey needs is law enforcement monitoring the game for possible criminal charges. Don Adams is bad enough.

Good goaltending covers a multitude of sins.

Maybe, maybe not...but we need 8 to keep growing into his ceiling because he's likely going to get top-6 minutes by virtue of being the team's best faceoff man.

For this year's NCAA tournament, my primary rooting motivation is less about who wins than who doesn't: namely, that neither Denver nor Michigan* take home title #10. I want UND to be the first to double-digits. Also hoping that neither the Gophers nor BU win #6. I don't like any of those guys. A Western Michigan win would be cool. Keep the title in the National Championship Hockey Conference. Doubly cool if WMU gets to eliminate the Wolverines along the way. *Sidenote: Assuming Michigan doesn't win the championship this year, it will have been a quarter century since their last title. Let that sink in.

He's going to need something like this.

I guess I'm not seeing how moving to Omaha (or Des Moines or Sioux Falls) fixes the problems we're seeing in the Twin Cities.

Congrats @bale31. Your boys have earned it, yet again!

Switch up lines or keep the same lines? Damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't.

Addendum: Filling up next year's roster with more portal players than absolutely necessary and thereby burying young, promising players in our own pipeline would equal a failure of coaching.

Excellent, excellent summary. "My only HOPE is that Berry let's them play in a more wide-open system." That is the million-dollar question. Or will Berry employ 11-27-13 as his top, minutes-eating line.

If next year's d-core is as young as we expect, then the gauntlet has been laid at the coaching staff's feet. Here you go, coaches, show us what you can do. The progress of next year's d-core should be a metric used to determine whether we've got the right staff in place.

I have to wonder if the coaching staff is still trying to adjust to this new era of college hockey, in which the NCAA has largely removed physical play from the game. I mean, UND has always been known for physicality. In fact, I'd argue that over the years no college team has been more associated with physical play than UND (maybe Wisco too, like, during the '70s and '80s). It was UND's identity and UND's reputation. Even when we didn't have a Hrkac or a Toews on the roster, every opposing team knew they'd be black and blue after a series against us. So now...what is our identity? And can UND's current coaches reconstruct an identity that leads to success, wins, and championships?

That's freaking incredible! What a great game we follow...even if our team came out on the wrong side of the score.