AJS

Here's when players made their decisions last year. Season Ended 03/24 Boeser - Signed 03/25 Jost - Signed 03/29 Poolman - Signed 03/30 Poganski / Gersich - Said they were returning 04/05 Last year everything happened pretty quickly, Schmaltz didn't sign until June 30th the previous year.

Agreed, this year will end up being a little out of the ordinary, where I don't think you'll see 13 also get picked off, but I'd say goodbye to 14 from now on. This year was the perfect storm that was set up weeks prior with the Big Ten completely blowing up the PWR rankings with Minnesota / Notre Dame going 0-6 causing Penn State and Michigan to jump into contention.

What's everyone's predictions on who leaves early? Schlossman named the four who are the most likely in Wolanin, Gersich, Poolman and Gardner. Will there be a Wilkie type that leaves for more playing time? We all realize this is the game UND has to play to attract the top talent, but what's frustrating is after a year where they miss the tournament, there's still possibly four early departures. Looking at the college hockey landscape, besides BU & BC over the last couple of years, no other team has come close to having to replace more players consistently. It's tough, constantly turning over the roster like they have. Just one year of not getting hit hard would do wonders for the team the following year.

Tychonick should be an instant impact player as well, he'll be young, but has put together as good of a draft year campaign as an incoming freshman dman has had in a long time. Poolman definitely is the X-factor though, he's so good, would be tough to lose him early.

I'll start with coaching, what has me slightly concerned is the last two years I would put in the "underachieved" category. They basically made the tournament by one game last year and missed it by one this year. Far from terrible years, but much too inconsistent. This was the first year, that I've ever really questioned the line-ups UND went with, if given the choice, everyone is taking the Saturday lineup this past weekend over Friday afternoons. I'll never understand putting Johnson at Forward and basically having two lines that can't score, while leaving some of the guys they did in the stands. Next year, my hope relies on a couple things (1) Addition by subtraction - from a talent standpoint, there were a couple Seniors that saw big ice time, that will be easily replaced on the score sheet. Either by incoming freshman or players with another year under their belts. (2) Summer and time off fixes the locker room issues, not putting this all on the leadership group this year, but hopefully a change of guard, they can hit the reset button. There was a lot to like with this years team, as disappointing as it was, they were close to being a really good team. They took the #1 team in the country to OT three of their last six games. Played Denver close every game. Had a very solid start to the season. They just couldn't put everything together consistently enough. The outlook for next year will be much clearer once decisions are made from Gersich, Wolanin, Gardner and Poolman. They won't all stay, but if they did, they'd be a Top 5 team next year. Right now, I'd be happy if two of the four stay.

This is my line of thinking as well, as bad of a year as I can remember to be on the bubble. Minnesota / Notre Dame going 0-6 a few weeks back allowing Michigan / Penn State to jump into the conversation was just the beginning.

I don’t know how you can’t question Berry’s line up decision making. This loss is on him. No way they are a better team w/ Johnson at Forward, Rieger on D and Adams / Hoff in the stands.

@Goon posted an interesting quote from a scout about Wolanin on his blog. Basically, Wolanin can become a free agent after this year and the belief is he will. Edit: http://thesportsdaily.com/goonsworld-blog/corey-pronman-discusses-wolanin-and-poolman/

I'm with you where I couldn't imagine a 2nd / 3rd rounder playing Juniors of any sort, or the NHL team that drafts him being ok with that. The question then is (1) Is he done with school (2) Alright playing Juniors one more year (3) If he wants to come in, besides Wolanin, who's out

That's how grades work, June is one of those in-between months, where it can go either way, March would not be.

What's the feeling with this? Hopefully not a repeat of last year where any and everyone who can grad transfer does.

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.