SpudsSioux

Could not agree more. Not only does this team not have any full lines in tact from last season; they only have one line that even has two on it that have played together before this year (Croal and Littler). Funny that line is the one that showed chemistry the earliest. I like that DJ is letting them settle in a little bit and build some chemistry. That first weekend the 4th line carried them offensively, but by this weekend the Rickwood line looked to be building some chemistry. I said before the Saturday game that the optimistic part of this team is that so far I really felt like they were winning games solely on grit and being hard to play against; they really hadn't been overly sharp yet chemistry-wise. That will get better as the season goes on, but being able to start 3-1 while they're still figuring it out gives me a lot of optimism for this group.

I thought Emery looked a lot better that period. He really struggled in the first but seemed to shake the rust off. He had a couple great defensive plays

Felt this way too. For a 7th D with protected minutes I’d prefer to get the guy with the higher ceiling reps. That being said, if there’s a plan to rotate early and this isn’t the status quo for the year I’m ok with it. With how many D they could lose this year, keeping and developing Strathman, Laurila and Jubenvil is going to be important.

That’s true. The “3rd line” listed for them last night was their top as far as skill goes. I would think lines 1 and 3 are their top 2 though so still impressive for our 4th to take it to them like that.

The thing that really caught me off guard was who the 4th line scored their goals on. I figured our depth may create some mismatches this season where other teams’ 3rd and 4th lines struggle to hang with our 3rd and 4th. But I think all 3 goals were against UST’s top line. First one for sure was against their top line and top D pair. Zakreski’s was against their top line as well. Pretty impressive

Haha correct. I think Emery is going to take a huge jump this year. Older, put on some weight, and the game should have slowed down for him. I wasn’t advocating for him being out like Oxbow was. I was just reiterating I thought Laurila was very good first game (as was Strathman). I would be shocked if they don’t run 7 most games

I think they’ll have to use the extra skater as a D when they’re all healthy. They’ll want to develop the young guys for future since they could lose a lot after this year. I know it was just exhibition but not sure how you sit Laurila after that game. His breakouts and transition were so good. Seemed like every time he touched puck it was tape to tape going the other way in a hurry.

Thank you!

Can you tell who is playing together? What’s re the lines looking like? And PP options?

Yeah could be nothing to it or just that he was originally projected to come in for 2025 and didn't so that's why he's in red. Still hope he figures it out and makes it here. Lifelong Sioux fan and the Warroad guys have been some of my absolutely favorite to watch at UND.

Just speculating because he's in red on Heisenberg's site which is usually pretty accurate. He moves them to red once they're on campus or no longer committed and we know he's not on campus https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gNRdKGXtofb4ti6cX3nVF9JbAilk4SkCMZM6-Df_zgo/edit?gid=1466169803#gid=1466169803

Great assist by Lindberg on the game winner tonight.

That is odd. Could also be that these are the type of guys that Jackson and co: are recruiting (I know Zakreski was already committed, but Kernan, Mengini and Rickwood were all after the coaching change.

I assumed he was decommitted already. He's been in red on Heisenberg's site for awhile which usually means he's decommitted or coming in/already on the roster.

Agreed. He was on the top pairing for the US team that just won Gold at H-G. He was getting plenty of interest from other schools. Glad UND locked him down as a nice 4 year guy to blend with some of the blue chippers they are after.