AJS

NDSU is currently (and has been for a few years) this incredibly unique situation. The NDSU fans have clearly said, we'll watch this blowout win at home. It's completely embarrassing for the FCS as a whole that outside of a select few, when playoffs roll around, nobody can even compete. It really is wild that you can say with 100% certainty in the Quarterfinals that one team is going to win. NDSU will win easily again on Friday. I do think that SDSU / Montana State can compete talent wise, so that one will be interesting in Frisco. Still would be shocked if NDSU doesn't win the title.

Yeah. What NCHC teams do you think are good? Denver. St. Cloud is clearly solid as well. Do you think Omaha is good? CC? Duluth? Miami? I guess my point is, I think the NCHC overall is really down this year. I don't think Western is very good, but I don't think many other teams are either.

I would say they are on par with a lot of other NCHC teams, not named Denver. I don't think SCSU is that much better either. Honestly, outside of Denver, I don't think the NCHC is that tough. This team talent wise is Top 2 in the NCHC. I do believe that.

Agreed. Small sample size but getting a Tie / Win on the road against a decent team and moving down this past weekend was not what you wanted to see.

Good size, two-year starter for UNM. 27 Tackles last year, 36 in 2021. Currently an offer from Samford as well. Seems like an ideal guy to offer.

After the first half of the season, they are currently sitting at 23rd in the PWR and 7th in the NCHC standings. 7-8-4 (3-5-2) record, not great. Taking a page from @jk post, what needs to happen in the 2nd half. They are in a pretty bad spot, but the results @ Western might have saved the season. I believe that's how close they were to the ledge of the season being more or less over from a practical making the playoffs standpoint. Let's start with the Pairwise. Their RPI is currently .5242 (23rd). The 24th place team is .5083. They are RPI points wise as close to 17th as they are to 24th. The NCHC standings. They are only 3 points away from the 4th place team. They aren't in a great spot, clearly, but they are closer to the surface then we might think. My ultimate reason for optimism, is this team has the talent. That has never been the issue. The pieces are there defensively / in net (DeRidder) to turn that very negative first half performance into a positive. We just saw a glimpse in Western. Where I might disagree with @jk is I think the 2nd half of the schedule is favorable. 5 Home vs 3 Road series. The road series @ Denver (tough as it gets), but then @ CC, @ Miami. Although favorable to really turn things around, they would have too more or less have to use the formula that would win the league (win home games, split on the road). 13-3. That would get them on the right side of the PWR and clearly home ice as well. I would think 12-4 would do it too, would 11-5? I do feel confident that they'll be able to get home ice. I also feel confident that they'll put themselves in position to make it at the very least interesting (in the mix) for an at large bid.

Great weekend, that extra point on Friday really makes a difference. This weekend stopped the bleeding. Taking 5 out of 6 points on the road and staying the same place they were before this weekend (21st in PWR / 7th in the NCHC), shows just how bad of a spot they are in. I do think they put themselves in position where they can start really making up some ground. The second half of the schedule is fairly favorable.

Sac State had no shot. Montana State / SDSU are the only two teams that have a chance at giving NDSU a competitive playoff game.

Playoff game. I realize that seems extreme, but the 2nd half looks completely different if they win tomorrow.

Croal starting to heat up. 1st star tonight, 6 pts in his last 3 games. 18 pts in 21 games on the year.

Earlier this week, called Friday night's game a must win. Still believe that. This is one of those games where I cannot picture them actually winning though. I would be shocked if they won tonight.

Wow! Berry and staff catching fire! Emerson is tied 6th in points in USHL as a late ‘03. Great get!

I would say it’s directly correlated to the extra Covid year. For every guy that stays that extra year, you need someone to leave.

That's my theory. It's also important to note that they were starters, because they were the best on the team at those positions (or 1 of 2). It happens to be that it's sort of a consensus that those were the two of the biggest weaknesses on the team. What I think we'll see based on the list 360 had prior to Senior day is KK / Buckner / Mullin were set to use their Covid year and return this year. If that's the case, you lose 0 Safety's and 1 OLB. From a practical standpoint, I do like that you've now opened a spot for a younger player. A little bit of a shake up, so those positional groups don't stay stale. Clearly a different situation if you have a positional group that's strong. Felt, those two needed a shake up a bit.

I'm starting to feel pretty confident that we will not see anyone else from UND enter the portal. Here's the list. Ledbetter (FR) - D-Line Moe-Tucker (FR) - RB (PWO) Oliphant (GR) - O-Line Preston (JR) - WR Lehman (R-FR) - LB (PWO) Vaughn-Jones (SR) - OLB (STARTER) Coley (JR) - Safety (STARTER)

UND has put themselves in a situation, where realistically, if they get swept, there's no coming back from it. 6-10-3 call it a year. Split minimum to keep hope alive. I'm calling Friday a MUST win game.

Just listened to the UND Hockey podcast. I know some of the advanced stats aren't for everyone but listening to the projected goal stat and how it accurately predicts 6 of the 8 NCHC records to within a game, I'm starting to buy into it. Count me into the group that believes we'll see a turnaround here this season.

Circling back to two offers that are a few days old now: Wesley Elidor: USD receiver. UND offered him 5 days ago. His current offers, UT Martin, McNeese State, Illinois State, NAU, Austin Peay. Blake Peterson: Iowa State D-Line: Other offers. USD, UNI, NDSU, Old Dominion, WKU, Kent State, Illinois State, UNC-Charlotte

You're thinking of Hunter Zenzen who entered the portal from Iowa State.

How confident are we in the QB room behind Schuster? I'm thinking about the "what if" scenario that Tommy gets hurt and they need someone to run the offense. Are we in Heidelbaugh territory or are we in much better shape?

either strong in the regular season and lose in the 1st round of the NCAA's OR miss the tournament all together?

He's also only 255lbs. I've been told that's much too light to play on UND's D-Line.

For a program like UND hockey when it comes to recruiting, I would simply say, be better. That staff is given every advantage, so figure it out. This is in regard to not having a single freshman defenseman they felt was ready. By Christmas last year they should have been looking for someone then. All this talk recently about the UND culture. I just don't understand how turning this program into Transfer U helps. There is no reason this team has to rely on the Transfer portal and 5th year guys to fill out their roster. Again, I'm not saying never use the Portal, if the perfect one-off type of situation arises. What I'm seeing though, is it's being used as a crutch by this staff, because they don't have the proper recruits lined up.

Let's revisit this last off-season. I wasn't the only one that was very frustrated with how clunky it appeared. Other programs seemed so much more calculated; those decisions made sense. How many were neutral at best to Berry deciding to bring back two bottom 6 forwards for their 5th year causing a logjam at forward? Then there was the which freshman are coming in / players who need to be pushed to the portal, which ended with Spicer decommitting. That played out so much longer than it should have. I found the coaching staff not having ONE freshman defenseman that was ready to come in to be very frustrating. Having to lean on the portal not once, but twice. My plea would be, use the portal minimally. If there's a perfect fit, one guy, ok. No more 5th year guys. I'm talking both via the portal or in-house.