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Kaip's scoring more and he's getting chances to play in situations that he didn't get to last year. Kozek is playing much better than he did the first two years and so far I'd say he is the most improved. One player not mentioned is our walk-on and very much improved player, Ryan Martens. Martens has gone from a healthy scratch to a player that creates on the ice. Even before the last two weekends when he got put together wirh Zajac and Radke he showed a lot on the ice. Without a lot of real game time I think he's shown he can play with everyone. My two most disappointing players are Miller and Chorney. I barely notice Miller on the ice and as a forward that's bad. I notice Chorney all the time and as a defensman that's worse. So Kozek and Martens: Improved Miller and Chorney: Not improved

I don't agree. The first goal was all Chorney. Lasch comes in the zone, Chorney looks up, no one trailing, all he has to do is body Lasch like all defensemen are taught to do and he never lays a hand on him until he scores. Weak goal for Lammy? yeah but if Chorney plays the body likes he's supposed to there is not a shot on goal. Now the second goal was not all Marto. The forward coming out of the zone coughs it up while still in the zone. Marto tried to take it back out on his own (his mistake) and coughs it up. They score. So my take is it's not Lammy. My big problem is why the Heck do our defensemen think they are forwards? You have to pick your moments as defensemen to jump into the play but for some reason our defensemen jump in constantly. Don't they realize their position is defense. How many times do I need to see Genoway, Bina, Chorney, LaPointe, and even big old Finley deep in the zone and then nothing to show for it. Hey that's fine but when we give up lots of odd man rushes because of it, IT SUCKS! Play your position and take the man. That's called playing defense in hockey@!#$

So far to me it seems like there a number of men that could be thought of as MIA: Let's see: Martens has played 10 games, has 1 point (no goals) and taken 7 shots Zajac has played 12 games, has 2 points (no goals) and taken 9 shots Trupp has played 13 games, has 3 points (1 goal) and taken 19 shots Miller has played 11 games, has 4 points (2 goals) and taken 12 shots Watkins has played 13 games, has 6 points (2 goals) and taken 36 shots Kaip has played 13 games, has 5 points (but 4 goals) and taken 26 shots. One thing I will say is that Martens has not played a lot even when he's dressed and the same goes for Zajac. Since we are the most penalized team in the country right now neither of these guys plays on the power play or the penalty kill so their ice time is a lot less than Miller, Watkins, and Kaip. What actually amazes me is that Bina and Chorney have not scored a goal yet. We need them to start scoring especially on the power play.

I predict that Derek Sheppard is the referee.

I just saw that as of this moment Duluth is ranked ahead of us in the Krach and Pairwise rankings according to College Hockey News: http://www.collegehockeynews.com/ even though neither is official yet. Duluth has swept St. Cloud, split in Denver, got swept at CC, and won and tied Tech. They have the second toughest schedule so far behind only CC. These should be good games but we need to sweep this type of series at home to get in the top half of the league especially since we go to Denver next weekend. LET'S SWEEP the dogs!

I saw and read this thread but it was not specific about the Sioux. Thus the new thread.

I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say the problem with the list is that it goes completely by the teams they play. Of course it does. The reality is that we should sweep a Mankato at home but traditionally we haven't or at least it seems that way. I feel that we have the toughest league schedule this year. The two top teams we only play one series against are Wisconsin and Colorado College. But that is offset by only playing a single series with UAA and Mankato. So we need to take care of business against the teams that are not as talented as we are. No more making their goalie look like he's a superstar.

This summer I predicted that this year

Yes I'm a Who fan. My brother-in-law and I flew from Fargo to Cleveland a few years back while John Entwhistle was still alive. With Zach Starkey on drums they were one of the best live bands ever. Oh and we were trying to fly United directly out of Fargo since no layovers but if Northwest is cheaper who cares.

Reserve your hotel room now. You can always cancel. We're staying at the Adam's Mark. Price was $149 when we reserved which was actually a good price. Now if I could only find decent airfare. Last I checked it was $388-$420 for a ticket either United or Northwest. If anyone finds cheap airline tickets please post.

Click on the link and then make sure you click on the Brian Lee link in the story. Brian doesn't look the same

Hey AZ, I sent an email 4-5 weeks ago to you but I'm not sure if I'm signed up. I looked at your web page and I didn't see me there. Is it too late or can I still get in?

Hey I'm going to predict even a little more. I sent this to a friend this morning after I told her to book her hotel in Denver since I got 4 extra tickets to the Frozen Four. She stated the last time she planned a trip to the Frozen Four the Sioux didn't make the NCAA tourney. Here was my response. Don't worry they will not only make the tournament but be a Number 1 seed and go to Colorado Springs for the regional. Where we will overcome the debacle in 2003-2004 when Denver beat us 1-0. We will sweep through the regional and then play Clarkson in the first semi final game in Denver. We will beat Clarkson handily and then meet the winner of the prior semifinal between Boston College and Minnesota. Either way we dominate the final game and win 6-3. TJ Oshie is named tournament MVP barely nipping out Taylor Chorney. Lamoureux plays decently but the Sioux basically outscore the opponents and with a veteran defense allow few shots. (Hey it could happen) Now for the WCHA: 1. North Dakota: Solid from top to bottom. Need upper class forwards to score more and solid goaltending 2. Minnesota: Will try to outscore everyone with all forwards back but have to rely on 3 freshmen defensmen and Frazee 3. St. Cloud: Only real question is goaltending. I think they can overcome Bobby's loss 4. Colorado College: Will have a solid team. Lost no underclassmen and have a nice class coming in 5. Wisconsin: Lost a lot but probably have the highest touted incoming class. 6. Denver: Peter Mannino and sophmore forwards 7 Michigan Tech: I'd like to see them do well and I expect they will but not in the top 6. 8. Mankato: Could finish higher but I don't know who they beat out 9. Minnesota Duluth: Lost too much but will upset some people. 10. UAA: Back to the old ways of not being that competitive. I think the WCHA will put North Dakota, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Colorado College, and Denver in the NCAAs. Even though Wisconsin finishes ahead of Denver in the league Denver ends up ahead of them in the pairwise. Minensota and North Dakota will be Number 1 seeds. Minnesota goes to Madison to play and North Dakota goes to Colorado Springs.

I agree mostly with this but I think the real reason we need Greico to step up is that we cannot handle the loss of Phil. If he gets hurt or tweaked like he did last year we need a respectable backup that can handle the load. Also with more experience you prepare your young goalie for next year. As I had mentioned in a previous thread the thing I'm concerned about with Greico is if he will continue his "not so good" practice habits of last year. My understanding was that he did not practice hard and never truly convinced the coaches that he was ready to step in consistently. If he can change his behavior and realize that the he will play if he is better that week in practice than Phil is maybe we will have a nice goaltending duo. I think Phil is the man but we need Greico to be able to come in at any given time. That

I believe that Ryan Malone is the older brother so it was a surprise when the younger brother decided to come to UND rather than SCSU.

Let's assume Toews leaves but that's all. Which of these forwards do you sit: Oshie, Duncan, Trupp Watkins, VanDeVelde, Forney Kaip, Zajak, Miller Hextall, Malone, Kozek Hamilton, Martens, Radke This assumes that Forney shows why he was a top draft pick and also that both Malone and Hextall come in. I have no idea how good Hamilton so I put him on the bench knowing full well he may be very good and beat out some someone. I think Genoway makes more of an impact at defense than forwward. If Lee and Finley stay and LaPoint is as good as his stats (Number 2 scoring defenseman in the USHL, 6'4" 185lbs) then it will either be Jones or Genoway that sits along with Marto. My number one concern for next year since the announcement of Oshie, Chorney, and Duncan is goaltending. We need Greico to step up and be able to play 10-15 games without a drop off from Phil. Greico is young so hopefully he can learn good practice habits and even though he may not be the Number 1 goalie, he needs to be able to step in at any time and do it well.

We left Wednesday from Fargo on Northwest. We met two young guys in the airport bar before leaving. One had won the trip to St. Louis and he had decided to drag his brother-in-law who was a NDSU fan along. The NDSU fan had not seen a hockey game before. We hit it off and the entire weekend we had a great time with them. Arrived Wednesday evening around 7:00 via plane and stayed at the Sheraton City Center across from the Scottrade Center. $42 for a taxi from the airport to downtown. Oh well. Spent most of Wednesday night at Bernie Federko

I do not want Brian Lee to leave school. However Ottawa or even Brian himself may look at his development progress and think differently. There were times I thought Brian was very good like in the Regional finals against Minnesota and there were times I thought he had not improved as much as I expected. Being a Number 1 draft pick the expectations for Brian were set very high before he arrived. I think people thought he would be a dominant force defensively. On the surface it seemed as if Brian regressed somewhat this year. He seemed steadier than last year but also did not jump into the play as much as I would have expected. He may not feel that he is developing as much as he'd like at North Dakota and by moving to the AHL and playing 70 games that development process may be accelerated. I've always felt that defensemen should stay in college at least three years to develop their strength and skills and then decide after their junior year if they are ready for the pounding of the AHL or the NHL. So I think Brian should stay another year at least. Then decide if he needs new surroundings to improve his skills even more.

Being at the game it seemed like BC must have seen somethign in how we do faceoffs because they seemed to be able to get the Sioux player thrown out of the circle whenever they wanted to. I know the stats say Toews took 28 faceoffs but it seemed like he got thrown out more than he actually took.

I said the same thing. He must have meant Genoway.

I wanted to share this article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch in case you had not seen it: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/co...A0?OpenDocument

I spent some time talking with Jeff Sauer during the championship game on Saturday. The first thing he said was that it was too bad that these teams can't play with the referees they play with all season. He said that he used to spend way more time than he wanted simply preparing his team for how the non-WCHA ref would call the game. Unfortunately the team that adjusts first seems to win. I then asked what about Finley's penalty to put BC up 5 on 3. His indignant response was that was not a penalty! I don't want to focus only on the officiating. BC addjusted quickly. They were able to see that Shegos was going to call the big hits and was not going to call the clutching and grabbing. Toews was constantly held and sticked with no calls. If he was playing in the NHL he probably draws at least 5 penatties. The reality of this game was that we had some luck in the second period when BC hit pipes and we still came out tied 2-2. When we went down 3-2 the crowd in St. Louis was quiet. Oshie makes a great play to tie the game and get everyone back into it and then we get a penalty by Finley that was bogus that turns into the true game winning score. Immediatley after they scored I told my wife that Shegos was not done and he would call some against BC since he had let them score the game winner five on three. Of course he did to turn a great game into a wild scramble at the end. Finley's penalty should never been called

A new one just for this weekend: Before the Final Five Youngblood was playing in the car for the kids in back (ok these "kids" were in their 40s and 50s). We then proceeded to kick St. Cloud. I was driving. So the afternoon before we played the Gophers in the regionals I made it a must to watch Youngblood. We won. I'll be watching Youngblood before we leave to St. Louis. I figure that means a win against BC. But then what the heck do I do on Saturday without Youngbood to watch? I may need to find a copy somewhere and then someplace to watch it again. You know Rob Lowe really hasn't aged since that movie

Here's a chat with BC forward Pat Gannon: http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey/s.../032807aad.html My favorite part: What do you know about North Dakota? What are their strengths? What's their style of play? I feel like they breed them out there. Pretty much every player is twice the size as I am. They have strength. They have a lot of speed. They have a lot of kids that can put the puck away that we're going to try to keep off the board. We're going to try to be quicker than they are and hopefully get away like we did last year with a win. It should be a game of speed versus size.

Well according to this NY Times article i'ts actually Dave Raskot and then later on Whitehead: My apologies for posting the entire article but the Times requires a login and I didn't think you all would want to spend the time. ST. LOUIS, March 27 (AP)