AJS

Overall, a very good game for UND. Montana is the #1 seed for a reason, they played well also. My frustration is more a cumulative effect with UND basketball. In the D1 era, have they ever had a true upset? Just once in my lifetime would be nice.

The way I look at it, they are playing with house money. I don't expect them to win (just like everyone else), but that can be a dangerous thing in March, a team that has nothing to lose.

Season ticket holders can claim their tickets today until Thursday, then they all go on sale Thursday at 10 am. They'll be available at that point.

I agree, I think it's incredibly mental right now. As a fan watching, I know I have the "here we go again" thought after a team scores their first one when UND is up by a couple goals. I don't know how the players couldn't be thinking the same thing. I mean, it happens pretty much every single weekend.

What did UND in against Omaha a few weeks ago? Friday night, it was Omaha scoring on 100% of their power play opportunities. They scored 1 PP goal against Duluth last weekend. This has been a weird second half, things happening like the stat above which costs them games. If UND / UNO just hit their averages this weekend on Special Teams, I think UND has a shot to sweep. They are the better 5 on 5 team.

Pretty simple, for the second straight year they are in survive and advance mode for the 1st round of the NCHC tournament. Stating the obvious: Lose - Done Win in 3 - Backs very much still against the wall Sweep - Wait and see, might give the team more options Regardless, I think you'd still have to win a game in St. Paul, hopefully it'd give them a few more options with a sweep. Do I think this UND team is pretty good? Yes. This has been a second half of if it's not one thing, it's another. For whatever reason, they can't put it completely together. Hoping this is the weekend. The real question, is can they win on Friday? 1-6-1 in the second half on Fridays is absolutely absurd. If they want to have any chance of making the tournament, they'll need to win one (if they move on), most likely the next two Fridays to have a shot.

This year has been a tale of two seasons. Before Christmas: Average Offense Good Defense Good Goaltending Average PP Great Penalty Kill After Christmas: Average Offense Good Defense Average Goaltending Average PP Average / Poor PK At the beginning of the year, they were finding ways to win, second half they are finding ways to lose. Obviously you have exceptions in the first / second half, but overall, the difference has been (1) Goaltending (2) Penalty Kill. It's going to be tough watching this team miss the playoffs this year, but the one thing that will be comforting is clearly by the Pairwise, but also just overall, they weren't that far off. Early departures will be big for this team this off-season.

I've went down that road a couple times this year, questioning Keane (along with Mattson earlier). It's a valid question, would really like to hear what the coaches think his role would be. *I realize teams need players to play different roles, ect. Keane really does stick out though.

No different than how Schlossman has covered the entire story. Only difference is Jacob's was writing an opinion piece, while Schlossman was supposed to be actually reporting on the story. Still embarrassing how he covered it.

I've always been in the camp that for UND athletics to truly thrive, they needed to be at 16 sports. This is a distraction, but as others have said, just ride it out for two weeks. I remember having the Women's hockey discussion last year when they had a team. Talk about frustrating, looking at that 2 Million money pit of a program that virtually nobody cared about. Much more relaxing now, having the same discussion but knowing UND is in a better place overall.

Of course if they don't make it, UND will only have themselves to blame, but over the last two weekends, the results for teams around UND couldn't have been worse. Still can't believe the results in the Big 10 conference.

I wouldn't want any other situation for this team as it sits right now. It's time for the Hail Mary. The variables all seem to be favoring UND, as @brianvf said, they are playing a team that already has the regular season championship / #1 seed locked up. UND on the other hand is playing for their playoff lives. Is UND still a long shot? Definitely, but I'd rather this match up, although the odds aren't good, a chance to really improve their Pairwise ranking. I think UND wins Friday night.

At Christmas, I would have never believed this team would be in this position. If you look back, they only really had one bad weekend (Union). Knowing how they played earlier in this season, I'm not worried at all past this season. Some of us talk about this team not having "it" and I think that's the case. Giving up two goal leads in four of the past 8 games, their PK against Omaha / Duluth. It's hard to explain, they just couldn't put it together consistently, if it wasn't one thing, it was another. This was a long winded way of saying, I don't think they were that far off this year of being a very good team. We say it in the first half, just not sure what happened to them. Hey, they are still 14th in the Pairwise, which although disappointing, it could be a lot worse. They'll be back next year.

5 more painful games, then put this season to bed. We can check off giving up four straight goals off the list, last weekend I saw a team go 100% on the power play. At least we’re seeing new things all the time. This team just doesn’t have “it”. I’ll still stand that they ultimately underachieved.

Some really bad goaltending by Davies, Century might have scored on 1/2 their shots.

Very surprised, but I'll take it.

Nationally, this story has already passed, but as it pertains with the vocal local minority getting excited about UND cutting Women's hockey last year again, that will pass in a couple weeks. I only say a couple weeks, because I have a feeling the Lammy's / Schlossman want to make a little noise, before it gets buried forever.

This is very similar to last year when UND went into Miami late in the season desperately needing a sweep. We all know the situation, a sweep keeps UND on the good side of the bubble, while a split or a Miami sweep puts them for the first time all year in a truly bad spot. They only have so many losses the rest of the season if they want to make it, one can't be this weekend with Miami's pairwise.

Believe Gersich played for the NDTP as a Sophomore / Junior, so he wouldn't have been eligible to go straight to college. Regardless, I agree with your point that it wouldn't hurt Hain to play another year of juniors.

When is the last time this team has had 16 forwards? Can they have 16 forwards? Of course, but when have they? It's simply connecting the dots, if Berry was 100% certain nobody was leaving early, I don't think we see Huber. Now, could it be somebody else (i.e. a Wilkie situation), maybe, but my money is on one non-senior forward not being on the roster next year.

I think it's fair to assume that Wolanin is gone after this year, that's not a hard piece to put together.

CC in the last couple weeks just got verbals from Middendorf and Cruicshank. I'm not worried about down the road ('19 & on look good), or that this recruiting class is going to sink the ship, it's just more than any other one I can remember, this upcoming one really makes you wonder. Hopefully they'll surprise ('16 class for example has probably out performed how I thought they'd do).

Think Senkbeil was brought in as a D-man recruit, but had to play forward, because of the injury situation.

Were all three in the same class? Have you ever heard of a guy named Jonny Brodzinski? Didn't score much in Juniors, but is playing in the NHL! If you re-read my first post, it has nothing to do with any single member of next years class. I realize how important players like you mentioned are to the team. My frustration is with the number of maxed out players that are in next years class. Note: A lot of it is losing Gersich early, it's just such a big blow for next year. Just one year, it would be nice to be surprised with everyone coming back.

I just don't understand how a school like UND with all of it's advantages has to go this route.