Wilbur

That was a horrible penalty call on the gophers in the UND end. The officiating has been suspect tonight. Thats not a call that has to be made. Let them play hockey.

Rau is a great player, but does he honestly need to cross check Knight from behind after the whistle there when he can't back anything up?

Nice job getting all four lines involved in the first period. And I thought that the fourth unit did a great job getting pucks deep and getting whistles. If you told me 0-0 after one I'd have said sure.

Nice work in the first period by UND. Dillon Simpson is just playing at a different level.

Nice saves by Saunders.

Not a great penalty to take. 180 feet from your net.

Gleason can't attack the wall like that on a 3-2. He made that into a 2-1 and a grade A opportunity for Minnesota.

Puck CLEARLY deflected off a Minnesota stick....faceoff in the zone....yup.

Serratore fine after that hit.....miraculously....

Yeah.....never questionable calls at Mariucci....checking is a penalty tonight.

I like how he manned up after the whole thing.

Three UND cheerleaders are former students of mine, and to call these girls with literally less than 5% of body fat "Fat Cows" is unacceptable. Why don't we leave the cheerleaders out of the comments. These girls are under enough scrutiny with hundreds of drunks trying to look up their skirts every time they perform.

We have a group of sixteen strong this year. I'm hopeful for a UND-Minnesota showdown at the final five. Would be a meaningful final game with all the departures. Could be unique this year. The six qualifying teams could all be out of the league next year. If: Omaha, Denver, UND, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Wisconsin, Duluth..... Holy crap, the top seven teams right now will all be out of the league next year....

Nice, what section? I believe we are in 119.

I don't know if I'm ready to call UND as deep offensively as the U of M. Well.....Lets take a look here....Lets just take top nine forwards by points: Minnesota 1. Haula-26 Pts 2. Rau-25 Pts 3. Bjugstad-22 Pts 4. Budish-19 Pts 5. Condon-18 Pts 6. Warning-14 Pts 7. Isackson-14 Pts 8. Ambroz-12 Pts 9. Travis Boyd-12 Pts UND 1. Knight-31 Pts 2. Kristo-30 Pts 3. Grimaldi-17 Pts 4. Mark MacMillan-17 Pts 5. Rowney-13 Pts 6. Caggiula-11 Pts 7. Gaarder-9 Pts 8. Mike Parks-2 Pts 9. Mitch MacMillan-2 Pts I'm not sure what the gophers fourth line consists of with Haula back in the lineup, but I tried to make sure it was top nine on both teams. Obviously you have some injuries in there that hurt points, but looking at it this way I'm going to call it a dead heat. Both teams definitely have forward depth though, thats for sure.

One of my best friends in the whole wide world (gopher fan) lives in Minnesota, and he even admits its disgusting to see the bandwagon jumping that occurs with Minnesota hockey, and all programs for that matter at the U. (Everybody remembers that wonderful gophers women's basketball team right? Right?) I'll kind of steal a line from Lou Holtz though. College hockey is better off when Minnesota is relevant. Bottom line.

Anything more than two points for the Sioux is amazing. This program is all about high expectations and winning games, but lets be realistic and hope for two points against a hot team in a tough environment. I'm done with the officials talk. We know they get more pp's at Mariucci, just the way it is. I think a poster brought up a great stat earlier. The Sioux swept the gophers at the mooch one year when there was a 23-8 powerplay differential. I'm thinking the better team will win in the long run in this series. Worked out that way last year when Minnesota was the better team, and the years before when UND ended Minnesota's season.

Its unfortunate that Mac has been sought out by the officials like he has been. Talk about good old fashioned physical hockey going out the door. A big hit is now unfortunately a penalty for him. You can tell how frustrated he is by it as well. I think the player falling down near him was another case of, "what are they going to call on me now?"

The coaching staff should be well aware of this, as should the veterans on the team. They know how it can be at Mariucci, and the good teams of the past have played through it and had some success there. I remember a few years ago a TH rant when a UND player skated by a gopher player in the neutral zone who lost an edge and Minnesota got a power play out of the deal. TH must of went on for twenty minutes about the officiating at Mariucci, and about how the league was worried about having Minnesota at the final five. I don't think its a conspiracy like that. Just play hockey, and hopefully the black and white doesn't have an impact in the game.

Mousseaux does a good job. He doesn't do a lot of the yapping that Anderson and B. Shep do. Calls penalties, gets the players to the box, play hockey.

Although he got the game winner and all, I think Gaarder adds a lot more up front than Jim does. Yes, Jim got the game winner, but he was also playing with Kristo at that particular moment and it was just a tap in goal. I hope Friday shapes up something like this as far as line combos go: Kristo-Knight-Grimaldi Parks-Mark M.-Rowney Drake-Mitch-Gaarder Jim-General-Gleason Mac-Mattson Forbort-Schmaltz Simpson-Panzarella Clark

Good post. They need to figure something out with O'Donnell or he needs to sit. A big bodied kid like him needs to get physical, and show up on the score sheet. Panzarella needs to be a regular. I don't mind Gleason at forward because it means that he isn't getting caught up ice or down below the goal line against a bigger forward. I'm all for Rocco on the top line. Make it happen.

Two points please......

Need to be the more intense team next Friday night. Rivalry games are fun.

Overall Thoughts: ~Thought CC was hungrier for the start of the game....yikes ~Kristo playing at another level. As he goes, UND goes. ~Took a step back defensively.....by garsh...... Can't play like that in their own end at Mariucci....just.....uhhh.....It'll be 7-1 if they do.