AJS

The only true concern I have right now is with the coaching staff and that being Bubba and Rudy. My hope is Rudy is dismissed after this year as I believe this team will never be able to truly see it's potential with him as OC. What's concerning about it though and I don't know the answer, is how much does Bubba have to say in the offensive game plan. I know it's Bubba ball and he wants to run the ball, which is fine, but the offense having zero creativity, if running isn't working, pass to open up the run and not always the other way around. Will a new OC even matter if he's taking marching orders from Bubba? This year though in a nutshell for me is UND's opponents doing a great job of attacking UND's weaknesses due to injuries. This is a lost year, but if even somewhat healthy at certain positions (ILB / CB), the problem isn't their. Teams are either running up the middle or passing the ball in #12's direction at will. I will have no worries about the ILB / CB position next year. Fix the offensive play calling and this team is back in the playoffs. We talk about lack of depth this year, which is true, but this will pay dividends starting next year.

This, a conference road split is fine. Like @Oxbow6 said though, tonight they need to win. This team does have offensive talent, I think right now it's up to the coaches to find combinations that work. This team has a lot going for it, a very, very good defense & goaltending will keep them in every game. When they find the line combinations, they'll win a lot of hockey games. Coming into the year, I thought they'd be better than last year (4th in league & 10th overall). At this point, I'd double down on that. We all know what Johnson can do with a solid defense in front of him and he has it. I expect this team to have a #1 seed when it's all said and done.

My vote would be for JJ, keep in 29.

UND sits at 4-2-1 and UND hasn't given up more than 2 goals in a game, that's a huge problem, any team with a pulse should be able to score 2 goals. Terrible everything in the first two periods, played well in the 3rd, just couldn't score. Great effort out of Gersich tonight, he was everywhere. Need to find him some new linemates. Need to win tomorrow night, but splits against a team that won't make the playoffs (CC won't), isn't going to cut it.

For whatever it's worth he follows both Berry and UND Hockey Tradition on twitter and they both follow him. He doesn't appear to follow any other college coaches or teams. Does follow both Cawlidge Hawkey Insider and College Hockey Inc. He was given one of two A+ rankings by Jeff Cox of SBNCollegehockey.com during his performance in the BU Prep Showcase. Cox scouting report. SHEPARD, COLE #9 White, 2/1/02, Forward, Shoots Left, Delta Hockey Academy The West Vancouver, British Columbia native is a big time prospect. Shepard was selected in the second round of the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft by the Vancouver Giants. His skating is exceptional. He can fly — straight ahead and he can weave in and out of defenders. His ability to stop and start and stickhandle in tight spaces allow him to maintain possession. He keeps the puck moving and was a step ahead of everyone else. Major junior is a real possibility so it would be a major coup for any college program to land Shepard.

Quick update through 3 series. 4-1-1 record, played well in 5 of the 6 games, 3 of those they struggled to score, but outplayed the opponent. Still like what this team can become offensively, the new guys have been solid (Jones, Mismash, Adams), looking for more from Poganski, Gersich and JJ. I'm stunned where this team is defensively at this point, they were good before Bast (against weaker opponents), but with him it changes the entire D-core. He's so smooth, he's a Top 3 d-man on this team. The PP with him being paired with Wolanin looks, dare I say, really good. With the depth this defense has and Cam playing well (which he does in front of a good d-corps), they'll win a lot of games this year. Edit: As good as this defense is, I'd still like to see Kierstad get in once a weekend. It's important to have 7 guys get minutes down the line. This will be Wolanin's last year, but looking ahead, UND is set defensively for years to come.

BCHL Stats: Blaisdell '01 (F): 3-8-11 16GP Keane '97 (F): 1-6-7 12GP Tychonick '00 (D): 3-5-8 12GP Reid '01 (D): 1-7-8 12GP Scheel '99 (G): 5-2-0-1 1.92 GAA .932 SV% USHL Stats: Senden '98 (F): 1-1-2 7GP Mattson '98 (F): 1-0-1 7GP Mancinelli '01 (F): 1-0-1 5GP Costello '00 (F): 1-1-2 6GP AJHL Stats: Bernard-Docker (D): 2-5-7 14GP NTDP -18: Hain '00 (F): 1-5-6 10GP NTDP -17: Caulfield '01 (F): 4-4-8 7GP Elite League: Donovan '00 (F): 10-11-21 20GP Kleven '02 (D): 1-9-10 18GP Frisch '00 (D): 3-2-5 19GP Kunz '02 (F): 0-5-5 15GP

http://kfgo.com/blogs/und-football-360/30670/four-games-left-what-i-want-to-see-happen/ Agree with everything Kelly said, but I have a couple of other things. Does everyone think it's more important for Mortel to get every snap at LT or rotate him with Bennett? Same goes with Russo, for all I know that's what they are planning on doing.

Anybody know where you can watch the entire Minnesota press conference? They just post a short minute and change video. It was the same thing last year, they have to have the worst pre-game video selection in the country.

Schlossman is a lost cause, it begins and ends with Women's hockey. He'll take any shot he can at Kennedy for as long as he's at the Herald. What happened right away when Kennedy was named President that Miller and the Herald staff flipped a lid over? I remember Kennedy was on a tour of ND and said he'd answer questions when he got back or something like that. Don't remember the exact circumstance, but Kennedy and the Herald didn't get off on the right foot. Schlossman is pretty much unbearable when it comes to anything non - Men's college hockey.

Same and I'm sure it was, probably an overreaction on my part until we see what happens on Saturday. I mean I don't expect him to rip Heidelbaugh, he did the best he could, but him going with Heidelbaugh in the first place the Montana game is a decision that won't easily be forgotten.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but he was thought to be the best incoming freshman d-man. High offensive upside and solid defensively (compared to Troy Stecher).

Don't read this article then. http://www.inforum.com/sports/4344415-und-quarterback-picture-remains-unclear Some quotes: "We're going to see how (Studsrud) comes along this week," Schweigert said. "We took a look at Brad and Andrew's performances and evaluated that. We'll give them both reps this week and make a decision later in the week." "We thought both got better as the game went on," Schweigert said. "They both have a different skill set. Bubba is losing me, if Studs can't go him even considering starting Heidelbaugh is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. Did he not watch the first half last week??

I don't know why they'd share with UND, since they own the rights, but I absolutely would share their broadcast with FSN and charge a decent amount.

There has never been a safer bet that at the end of the year, Minnesota will have a better PP % than UND. Also think this is the first time I've ever read UND's power play and clicking in the same sentence.

Watched the Gophers game today, thought they looked good, especially being down three of their best forwards. Going to be a tough test for UND, going to stick with my split prediction.

Minnesota's injuries to Sheehy (especially) and Reedy are ones to watch. It was nice to see some goals finally yesterday, but given they were so hard to come by the first three games, I'll go with a split. The big X factor is special teams and will be all year, against solid teams, they have to be at least even with their opponents. I bet one of the nights UND loses, their PP with go 0-fer and Minnesota will get a couple.

Clearly depth in certain positions have caused the mess UND Football is in. I'd argue though that it's simply that, certain position groups that opponents have exploited as much as they can. It's been a worse case scenario at ILB, Cam playing now has helped, the last two games. Before he was back, they had no one. CB is the other, but are you saying Blubaugh isn't a D1 talent? He's a true freshman that has been thrown into the fire. Offensively, outside of Heidelbaugh, who this board has talked about that decision, which back up has looked completely lost? I'm probably too much on the positive side, given the results, but I don't think they are as far off to being competitive as the results have shown. It's other teams exposing the weaknesses (MSU / USD) attacking ILB. Montana exposing the CB situation (combined with the coaching staff playing Heidelbaugh). This will be a vastly improved defense next year and I think we'll see improvements the rest of the year (given no other ILB or CB injuries).

I know on message boards especially you'll always see overreaction in the heat of the moment. The backup QB situation though is not one and it's something I sincerely hope the local media pushes for answers for. As everyone has said, this wasn't a situation where the "#3" was slightly better, the difference couldn't have been bigger. It was clear after two series that Heidelbaugh can't run an FCS offense. Instead of going to Zimmerman, they continued with Heidelbaugh for what was the most embarrassing first half of offensive football possible. I also think this has to have an affect on the locker room, with how frustrated we all are, I couldn't imagine being on the team and watching that. I'm genuinely embarrassed for Bubba, there's no amount of spin zone he can do to try to explain it. On a positive note, even with the injury situation, outside of EWU, I think UND can be competitive the rest of the year with either Studsrud or Zimmerman. Given the injury situation in general, start Zimmerman against Montana and it's a 14 point game at the worst. That gives me a lot of hope (obviously next year will be better), but that this one year will just be a blip and they'll be back competing at the top of the league.

I know UND is only 4 games into the season and their competition will get much tougher, but at the beginning of the year, my keys defensively were. Wolanin becomes an elite defenseman, an All Conference type player Shaw / Poolman improve slightly Either Peski / Johnson take the next step and become a solid Top 4 pair guy One freshman step up and become a guy that can be counted on night in and night out, with another of the remaining two being a solid 7th guy It's rare to check all of the boxes, but UND might surpass what I had hoped at the beginning of the year. Wolanin is a stud Poolman hasn't missed a beat Peski / Johnson have both improved dramatically, Peski is a legit Top 4 guy and Johnson could be as well Kierstad has impressed me and we haven't even gotten to see Bast yet This is going to be a very good unit this year.

Solid night, nice to see the puck finally find the back of the net. Happy with the 3-0-1 start, but Minnesota will be much, much stronger test than UAA & SLU. Love the depth they have on defense this year, Rieger will be the 8th dman this year, but liked that the coaching staff got him in. They no longer have an 8th only for emergency situations and once Bast comes back he'll need playing time as well. Kierstad has had a nice start to his career. I'm impressed that the coaches sat Simo on Friday / Olson on Saturday, put what they think is the best lineup out there, regardless of class.

Someone in the media needed to ask Bubba, point blank, what went into the decision to start Heidelbaugh over Zimmerman. I'm echoing what everyone has said, but even though the game had mostly been decided, there couldn't have been a bigger difference between the two. I was very impressed with Zimmerman, especially given this was his first substantial playing time at the FCS level. His best throw of the night, was dropped by Mercer, but it was an elite throw. He had confidence, could make throws, scramble for additional time. I mentioned this before, but there's nothing easier than stopping the run when the opponent knows that's all you can do. This would have been a different game if Zimmerman would have started, the coaching staff (Bubba / Rudy) should be embarrassed with their decision. Looking at the positives. Since Heidelbaugh won't play again unless Studs / Zimmerman are injured, you can throw out the first half offensively. Second half with a competent QB they looked much better. I remember watching the NDSU / Montana game a few years back when a young Trey Dempsey got worked all game. He's now an All-American. Blubaugh was completely exploited this game, but he's going to be a good one. In a lost season, give him all the reps you can. It'll pay huge dividends down the road. Given a couple really short fields, I actually thought the defense (outside of Blubaugh) played a pretty good game. Excited about Canady, Hunt continues to improve at ILB. Would have loved to play that one over with Zimmerman going all game.

The corner blitz two times this game should have worked, terrible decision making by the corners when they had a chance to make a play.

That one pass is the only evidence I need, why the hell did Heidelbaugh start?

I would do the same thing.