AJS

A win tonight and this team gets back to "neutral" in the NCHC standings. They would have officially dug themselves out of the hole they found themselves going into Christmas break. That would be huge.

You're right it's tough to complain after a win, but we all know that doesn't change the overall talent level of the forwards. Talent wise this is the least talented forward group UND has had in 20+ years. That being said, they are solid in net, have a good d-core and tonight found timely scoring. When healthy at forward, they can hopefully find some consistency. I don't think anyone thinks they outplayed Denver. The second game in a row, where I think they got the "breaks".

There's no doubt about that!

The result is all that matters, solid goaltending, penalty kill and timely scoring. They got their split, now let's see if they can steal a sweep tomorrow!

No doubt, this team really needs to get healthy. Having two of your top 6 forwards still out really puts a dent in this lineup, even with Jones back in the lineup.

I thought the same thing at first look. Given who they have healthy currently, they make more sense than at first glance.

Should have clarified, I meant the people who were predicting a UND sweep.

I really like the confidence from this bunch, but it makes me wonder if we've been watching different teams.

Pinto & Frisch selected to play in the 2019 USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in January.

It'll be interesting to see how this team is health wise this weekend. I don't care how they get it done right now, just scratch and claw your way to a split going into the break. Couple things, Scheel gets both games this weekend regardless, make sure they are mentally tough. Even with the injury situation / forward talent issue overall, if this team plays structured (see Minnesota - Miami stretch) and doesn't get frustrated or try to do too much, they are tough to play against. Just split.

World Junior A Challenge starts on December 9th: Team USA: Pinto, Miller and Frisch Canada West: Bast, Blaisdell and Rizzo

Interesting, do you know if that would have been for next year or two years from now?

Like any team in any league around the world, there's always going to be a talent discrepancy throughout the lineup. There's really no way to sugar coat it, the problem with this years team and injuries to this forward group when it happens like it is currently, is the talent depth at forward is non existent. When fully healthy, this can be an average offensive team. The Top 6 is respectable, the bottom 6 is below average. You take out Jones, Adams and JJ and I realize the last two aren't exactly offensive dynamos (either is Jones, but he is solid), but you are left with the line charts we saw last weekend. This team is solid in goal and in net, so if they get healthy at forward I do think they can play with any team in the country. Let's cross our fingers for a split next weekend and then hit the restart button in January with hopefully a full roster.

Same, I never thought they could pull this out. They just need guys back. The forward talent depth on this team is terrible.

They proved me wrong, great win. Scheel was excellent and they played tough. They really need to get healthy, I’ll leave it at that.

Yep, game over.

Let’s see if they can hold on, my gut tells me their pp will be the difference. You just can’t go 0-6 including a 5 minute major.

They need one here.

This PP is so bad.

Prediction: UND will not be leading or tied going into the third.

Culture

Please tell me there aren’t legitimate locker room issues again this year?

This is my fear as well, teams being more willing to pull players early (current roster) or encouraging them to go a different route (incoming recruits). I’m probably getting way ahead of myself there, but what’s going on is not good at all.

Stop. Did you just say Yon and Bowen were highly regarded out of juniors? Did you see their numbers coming in? Yikes, get a better memory or do some research. They both had awful numbers in juniors. Hoff has good numbers and was a big recruit. What I would have done is last summer I would have encouraged Yon, Bowen and Johnson to look elsewhere. Berry needed to do it after their Sophomore year. He didn’t and you have this 5 man anchor of a forward junior class around the neck of this program for two more years. Of those 5 btw, Hoff was the only “highly regarded” one in the bunch.

This years freshman class had a great goalie and two stud defenseman, so yes on highly touted part. The problem hasn’t been defensively this year or last. When you break down the forwards group you have Weatherby (good recruit), Hain (high end role player), Senden ( role player), Keane (role player). You just can’t have 1/2 Forward recruits who at best are solid 4th line guys.