sprig

Given the recruits Hak, Berry, and Eades have brought in, it's extremely tough to critisize any recruit based on where they come from; if the coaches think LaPoint is ready this fall, he'll be here, and no doubt deserves to be here. If all the slots are full, a year in the USHL is good for anyone.

To me the states of hockey are Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, and BC.

I thought the REA was marble

Let me guess. We're not going to be graced with an online pic of prpich's feet anytime soon

Except, NJ has bought the Lowell AHL affiliate, and that will be their farm club next year, I believe. Albany was not owned by NJ.

Tis true; just two games at the john, jan. 26-27. The gopher schedule can be found in this blog.

Super

Genoway did play for SSM, before going to the BCHL after graduating from HS. Unfortunate that Dowzak decided to go the major junior route.

Spirko says he'll be back for his junior year.

Good luck, Mike. Four years is done way too soon. Hope you stop back here and visit us at ss.com in the future. We hope to hear from you.

Good source, with a good rumour.

How did manthy00 finish second with everything right?

Has Greene been a healthy scratch for the last two weeks? Iowa Stars site shows him "on loan" to Edmonton, so I don't believe he's back in the AHL. Hale made it back into the NJ lineup last night. Hope he's the 6th dman when the playoffs start.

Also seniors, Degenhardt and Licari.

Considering all the good goalies that have come through the Sioux system, these numbers speak for themselves. We're glad to have him, whether the NHL wants to give him a chance or not. Look forward to seeing him in a Sioux uni next fall.

There is always room for new fans. For those of us that were around during the sioux/wisco wars of the early 80's, wisco became our second team when the wisco crowd at the 82 championship gave the sioux a standing o when they won the game, shortly after the "Eades is a goon" chant, which I'm sure Eades loved. Badger fans were fun to party with (at Frenchy's) during the 83 FF at the old ralph. That's more than I can say for this year's gopher crowd around GF prior to the MN/HC game. The "there's a few bad fans in every group" stuff that gets repeated over and over just doesn't apply to them. For the gophs, "there's a few good fans" seems more appropriate in my experience. I'd guess you're happy after Saturday night. Nice win.

All may have noticed Gilbert had four shots from the same area that game, the first, he shot it right at Schneider rather than at the open half of the net, shots 2 and 3 were shot at the open side but missed the net entirely, the fourth finally connected. Wisco really should have won in a blowout. Credit Wisco's difficulty in scoring to this game even being close.

Question is, why didn't the Sioux pick up on the long bomb pass from the BC goal line to a BC forward out in neutral ice, opposite the benches, near the Sioux blue line on Sioux line changes. One guy has to stay out to pick up that forward and eliminate that long pass, yet BC scored 3 (or was it 4) off of those passes. It did not happen once vs. Wisco, even though you could see BC looking for it. Since the pass was not made, one Wisco dman had to have stayed out to eliminate that pass (you couldn't see what was happening on TV since it was out of the picture, but had to assume that was what happened). It was hardly defensive breakdowns that led to BC goals, but rather the line changes. I seldom, in all the games I've been at, seen that happen, much less attempted by the offensive team. Did BC catch the players/bench sleeping and they never adjusted? Is this a by-product of wide-open hockey as opposed to the Wisco trapping style?

I don't expect Wisco to get sucked into leaving cherry pickers so alone when changing lines that BC ends up getting good shots from the bottom/inside of the circles. If they do, Elliot will not stop those shots to the top corners off the inside of the pipes no more than Parise did. On the other hand, it's unlikely that BC can be lucky enough to have players that haven't been goal scores all season (Collins the exception) hit those corners on several consecutive shots, like they did on Thursday. BC, however, did have the bounces going for them in the regional, and again on Thursday. If they get that puck luck for one more game, they could well win tonight.

He was held out for many shifts and the PK with Zajac in the regionals when the Sioux had the lead, obviously not 100%. Was hard to tell on Thursday, since Thorne had names so screwed up, when he happened to get a pronunciation right, it was often the wrong player. A very bad outing for him, would think the professionals would do a little bit of study ahead to have a clue.

I've yet to see Schneider in a game that he looked like anything special. IMO he was the softer goaltender on Thursday, in spite of the BC win. Funny how many of the articles have him as "outstanding" in that game while Parise was a sieve. Guess that's the difference between winning and losing, no matter how the game was played.

Schneider outstanding is coming from someone used to watching Briggs and Frazee. Got to take that into account

Today's Herald article on Who will be Back?

A strange game. The BC forwards cherry picked the entire game and got away with it, although it allowed the Sioux an easier time of controlling and cycling the puck. Looked like peewee pond pickup hockey out there, certainly not D1 caliber hockey. Very much like the MN/SCSU final five game. BC got in easy to the circle over and over for shots from good scoring areas. My knock on Parise, and I don't know that he always plays this way since you never see a game like that, is that he got down "very deep" in the crease when BC forwards were skating into the Sioux end uncontested until they reached the circle. Shots from there with Parise deep have a lot more room to go in, seems that he should be out high challenging and cutting down angles until they get below the circles, at least. I don't expect Wisco to get sucked into a pond hockey game, which, imo, is the only way BC as any chance of winning. Sioux might have scored in double figures, but playing the good team D that we've all seen, especially down the stretch, disappeared last night in favor of a pinching, cherry picking back yard game. Not the way to win championship hockey, although it gives both teams an equal chance of winning. BC is just not good enough to beat the Sioux team, yet they did. A disappointing effort.