Wilbur

Completely agree with most of what you said, well put sir. However, I think that BU was the most talented team this season. (Wilson, Shattenkirk, etc.) It would be hilarious if Vancouver signed Schroeder early and took him away from the goofs. The way Vancouver feels about Minnesota and likewise, I could seem them doing something like that.

Very surprised to see that Danny Mattson wasn't drafted.....I think someone might have pegged it that he didn't have a very good showing at the combine or something to that effect. I thought he looked good this past year at the U18 tournament holding some talented forwards off the score sheet. Guess if he's not drafted he should spend four years at UND. It was even a surprise to see that Rajala from Finland go as late as he did. I only saw him play against Canada in the bronze medal game at the U18 but he was still far and away the best player on the ice that day. I liked the comment that one of the analysts made...."Scandanavian players just mature slower...." Hmmm.....yeah okay....

I predict that the Sioux will start slow, and get better after Christmas......like every other year under Hakstol. I also predict that even with the knowledge that the team starts slow there will be those supposed Sioux fans that jump ship and start getting all up in a tizzy because the team isn't performing like they will in late February. And I predict there will be those who will be with the team come hell or high water during the season.

UND is starting to go through goalies faster than back in the Blais days! I'm a little upset that we won't get a chance to see Harrington get in a game. Does anyone know if he plans to play hockey in Edmonton? Is it very good hockey I wonder?

The NCAA should let Walski apply for another year of eligiblity. I mean what does it hurt to give the guy another year? On a side note, watching some of the Aaron Dell footage on youtube made my day. I know its basically footage of all of his best saves, but man there are a lof of nice ones. UND shouldn't be hard pressed to find another goaltender to bring in the mix. I guess I'm of the opinion that they should bring in a kid that would compete for the starters spot almost immediately instead of a guy thats going to simpy take pucks in practice. You know that one of the goalies will probably get nicked up at some point in time during the season, which means that the Sioux would be a heartbeat away from going with a shooter tutor in net if they go with their conventional method in the nets. Does Ranfranz have any eligibility left? Gosh, where in the world is that guy nowadays??

Whoops.....wrong baseball movie....they're all the same though right....

Yeah, that was him. It was at that time that I had a Tom Hanks moment straight out of Field of Dreams.... "We're gonna win......WE'RE GONNA WIN!!!!" Yeah, I based the whole game on how big and tough Morin looked....I was right....

A couple of thoughts after watching the U.S. completely dominate Russia.... ~Jack Campbell is a very poised young man. From the way he warmed up to the way he played in the game. Nothing overly spectacular, just made the saves he should have and as a calm presence. ~I saw Morin taping his stick before the game and my gosh is he a well put together young man. He looked like he was 23 years old and ready for the NHL. Hak needs to find a way to get him to UND.....great player. ~Yeah, Fowler will be in the NHL soon. ~UND is getting a solid skating defenseman in Mattson. ~Denver is getting a bevy of talented forwards....wow..... ~Bourque might be the fastest 18 year old skater I've ever seen in person. The kid can absolutely fly.... By the way, the bronze medal game was AWESOME! There was a lot of people ticked off that they bought tickets for that one, but it was great watching the Finns come back and beat Canada in a shootout. The Bronze medal game was a lot better than the gold medal game, with action up and down the ice. At least the teams were more evenly matched. Ohh, one last thing. Whoever was keeping shots was way off in both games. The Finns had periods where they dominated, but I'm not sure they had that many shots....And 43 seemed a bit much for the U.S. tonight as well.

Evan Oberg likely to sign....yet another one gone from the WCHA..... Now we need to see Stalock sign....that guy owned us this season...

UND was 0-7 this year at neutral site games..... Next year they should schedule Grand Forks Red River at Purper Arena to get the hex off.

Ditto! Thanks to all the seniors who had a tremendous four years! Duncan-I'll miss him scoring from his spot... Walski-Never complained about not playing....just filled his role. Miller-Did what the team needed when we were short on d. Kozek-The game winner in Wisconsin last year was thrilling. Martens-A great job with Brad Miller Time. Finley-I guess I've given him a lot of criticism, but he had a great career. Jones-I really going to miss him going nuts on guys in the corner....gosh that was great to watch... Watkins-Tough to end the season with an injury and a loss, but boy could he grow a playoff beard. The sting of the loss hurts right now, but there are bigger things in life than hockey, and I'm sure all of these guys will be successful wherever they're at.

Okay sorry, he played a lot of minutes his entire career. I would like to say thanks to the seniors though for the last four years. Duncan, Miller, Walski, all of those guys. It was great watching them play and grow as a group. There are a lot of what-ifs that go on at a time like this. You think about guys like Chorney, Toews, Oshie.....what could have been... I think Eidsness played alright. None of the goals that I saw were really his fault....

Finley looked awful the entire game. I know he played a lot of minutes this year, but that final goal was completely his fault. Just let the guy go right by you.....cripes.

Holy moly.....good for the dogs...they deserve it.

Well, now there is really no chance for Denver to beat Duluth in the West Regional Final....

Last weekend that puck goes off the post and out.... Lets see now if the dogs are for real or they'll lie down....

Brian I read your post about puck luck on uscho.com and you are dead on with that one. Stalock is an incredible goaltender, but he got some bounces last week that were straight out of the twilight zone... I'm glad that he's coming back down to earth, even just a little bit.

Here it comes.....

If Minnesota, UND, or Denver would have gotten half the bounces that Princeton is getting against Stalock we might have seen some different outcomes. Stalock is a different goalie once he gets behind in a game. Wouldn't surprise me if Princeton put up four on him here in a bit.

These are some great scores to see. As someone said earlier...its all about parity nowadays. Miami looked like the much better team against Denver although they were a #4 seed, and you knew that one of these years Air Force would get by that first round game. I'm now officially an Air Force backer as well. PS: God it was great seeing Denver in Minnesota's locker room. I bet they walked all over the M.

I think that you nailed it with #3. There were times at the Final Five where I thought "Why in the hell is that line on the ice right after a TV timeout..." With the TV timeout situation the way it is I don't think there is any reason to be rolling all four lines. The fourth line has been huge for the Sioux this year, but so far in the playoffs they've been kind of a hinderance to the sioux. #6 is right on too. Eidsness is no longer a Freshman. The amount of time he's been in the net is greater than most if not all the Freshman goaltenders in Sioux history. We hadn't seen any Freshman mistakes really before the final five, but of all the goalies at the final five I thought that he was the most shaky. Hopefully he got it out of his system. I'm sure those things have been talked about in the locker room, but saying and doing something are completely two different things.

I picked every game of the Final Five wrong, so I might as well be wrong on this one as well. In the end I've got Denver, Northeastern, Michigan, and BU heading to the big show. West Regional: Denver over Miami Duluth over Princeton Denver over Duluth Midwest Regional Notre Dame over BSU Northeastern over Cornell Northeastern over Notre Dame East Regional Michigan over Air Force Vermont over Yale Michigan over Vermont Northeast Regional BU over Ohio State North Dakota over UNH BU over North Dakota

UND is like many teams around the nation as far as their power play goes. Normally they'll start off with what is called an overload on the boards, and then rotate into an umbrella or down into a box and one. A couple of times this weekend they even rotated into a 3-2 when they weren't having success. The reason that the players switch at the point is an old hockey term called "getting their hands right". It makes it easier for the player to one time the puck towards the goal. They did this a couple of times this weekend, but they never really one timed the puck off of it. Its worked for the Sioux before, but like we always say, back to the drawing board.

Well, I had a horrible feeling going into the final five, so like someone already mentioned hopefully they have that out of their system now. They didn't play a horrible game on Friday night, but Saturday was just a game that really nobody could get excited for, and you could even tell that in the body language of the players. That and I really thought that our fourth line as a whole both games had their worst weekend of the year. The Keys to beating UNH ~Contain the big fella. Limit his touches and be physical with him. ~No more assists for Eidsness. ~Get better on the power play. That might mean taking Martens off the darn thing. ~Get the puck to the net!!! Way too many shot opportunities passed up this weekend. Shoot the darn thing! ~Watkins.....I hope he can play....I really do. ~The Seniors as a whole. I really hope this group goes into the postseason with the belief that they have unfinished business left in their careers. They've been great to watch, but I really believe they are the #1 key to getting to D.C.

Wilbur's top five WCHA Final Five Moments: 1. The 15 goal SCSU-Minnesota hockey game. I consider myself a hockey expert, and I thought there was no way in hell that the huskies were going to win that hockey game when it went into overtime. Thank you Jeff Frazee. 2. My first final five was the year Anchorage made it down and actually won the play in game. Watching them beat CC and give it their all against UND was fun. 3. Nick Fuher hitting the glass so hard with his stick while Jeff Paukovich was in the penalty for his hit on Bina that the official scorer actually looked at the glass to see if it was okay. 4. The play in game between UND and Bucky in 2005. Great hockey game up and down the ice. It was a huge win for UND, and a huge momentum booster for the postseason. Jordan Parise was outstanding in goal that game. 5. The goal by Sparky that same final five. UND was getting outplayed to that point because it was their third game in three days, but that goal sent a spark to the rest of the team, and from there the sioux were able to pull it off. I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAD TO THE X TOMORROW!!!! AHH YEAH!!!!!