OETKB

Wow, what a finish...but who cares. Ten minutes of good hockey doth not a good team make. UND SUCKED for most of the game tonight.

A few thoughts from an old fart. 1) Cam has looked less than great in net (and his % is bad), and not just this weekend, but since the season started. 2) Defensively, this team has a LOT of work to do. 3) Forwards can't seem to handle puck in traffic anywhere near expectations. Lots of near miss kind of stuff this weekend (and way too many shots that missed the net). Need to put some in. Overall, this team looks young and nowhere near #1. Get to work, boys.

UND's defense has been exposed this weekend. Did not look good vs BSU either. This team has a long, long way to go.

Please tell us all again what a great deal we have with Midco, who will not allow these games to be on cable like they used to be. Wonderful.

Back on topic. Schlossman, in the UND hockey TV airing this week, said "Will UND be as good as last year...No." He also characterized last season's team as one that only comes around every 30 years or so. Interesting, from a guy who did not pick UND to win the regional (love the coverage, but you are all over the place sometimes, man). While UND is even younger and less experienced than last season, I think they have a chance to be special this year. Jost & Beoeser together could be great. Looking forward to seeing what Hoff can bring, as well. A key element is goaltending. If Cam can cover for a few young defensive miscues, UND has a chance to go far.

In case anyone is interested, new photos and a few changed stats are up on the roster site: http://www.undsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13500&SPID=6405&SPSID=58685 They are now listing Shane Gersich at 5' 11" and 183 lbs. If he comes in heavier this year, that might help his game.

The coaches knew SB was good, especially on defense. But, the two turnovers in the red zone are what killed UND. IF those had been converted to two field goals, UND wins.

When you cough up the ball twice in a row in the red zone, you lose. UND will be lucky to reach last season's record playing like this.

Five year extension of Midco deal means limited cable games for years to come. I get that they do good productions, but I don't like being forced to watch games via live net streaming (and having to pay extra for it). So, whether or not this is good for fans is definitely questionable.

While the consensus seems to be Gersich, I'm really curious to find out what Hoff can do. I have not seen much on these boards about the freshmen besides Jost. Hoff played on international tourney teams four times (at the U17, U18, U19, U20 levels - twice captain). I wonder if a player like that could be a first-liner, and allow Gersich to make a second or third line even more dangerous.

If it has not been mentioned, the "Before UND" sections for the freshmen have been populated on UNDSports.com.

I believe UND will be very good again this year, with Cam back in net, Jost coming in, and Berry as coach (yes, I attribute a lot of what happened last year to that). However, as a team, UND is even younger this year. Two seniors and five juniors, with 18 underclassmen = extremely young.

Good for the conference finances, but personally I was not too happy that CBS will be back (with their extremely limited schedule).

This year's team has been a treat to witness. 34 wins and a Natty. Now THAT is how you do it, boys! In my mind, this team is second only to '87. A great team, and a great performance (finally).

I had a seat in the lounge/bar area for that tournament. Needless to say, I was in a great mood. I remember how loud it was, and how much fun it was to see the Goofs bounced. A great weekend overall.

I thought the difference last Friday was that Cam let in a few softies, and UND hit 4 posts. The whole "weak-end" left me with a sinking feeling, but of course, this team does have the personnel to get it done, should they be able to refocus for 4 straight games.

Didn't see Saturday's game (thanks, ROOT, for making the game unavailable to most people), but on Friday I thought Denver outran UND with their speed, and caused a bunch of defensive zone turnovers with speedy chaos. UND's defensemen did not look good (with the exception of Stecher), which is the most disappointing part.

Wisco played fast, disciplined, inspired hockey. Their goalie was good, too. UND pulled one of it's typical "home flat" nights (seems like 2 or 3 of those happen every season), and there you go, bad loss for UND. This weekend may go a long way in teaching the team to play hard-nosed hockey. We shall see how they respond tonight.

My take on tonight. I like the skill level of the team overall. Really outclassed Vermont tonight. Some guys that I expected to be very good have been shaky so far. Matt. H. looked good tonight, though. A pretty good night, overall. A win on the road, a GT looking more and more confident.

Thought the boys were REALLY stoppy in the 2nd period, specifically. But, the 3rd was much better. Matt played well, considering he had a 2 year layoff. Looked better and better as the game went on.

The story of this game seems to be: fast start; questionable goaltending; faceoff losses on PK; Poor coverage in D-Zone, especially by some young guys; Lack of any offensive pressure late in regulation. Feel pretty fortunate to get a tie, after all of that.

Berry: "Gotta move the puck North..." (when you're in a tight game). Not much play in the BSU zone in the 3rd. C'mon boys, get it together to support the first minutes of your backup GT. Guessing Matt will start tomorrow, too. Need to move the puck out fast and keep it in the big rodent's zone.

Given that Cam got hurt and Matt got thrown into a tough situation, UND was fortunate to come out with a tie. By the way, what hole did our offense scurry into in the 3rd? No threat to score at all in the last half of the 3rd.

UND's performances at home have been their worst, and that is the single most disturbing thing about today. No wonder nobody wants to come see them at the Alerus. Wow, that second half was just ugly.

OK, so educate me. How is it stupid to assume that, if the controlling broadcaster waits until two weeks before the season starts, that the subordinate broadcaster would no longer be able to pick up games in the short term, because their schedule is already locked down in large part? Please explain. Last season, Fox had very few games until the second half, so my assumption was that they had to wait until the schedule was released, and then it took some time to get games on TV. UND was a major driver to create the NCHC, so those of us that think the TV deal was rotten for UND are critical of it. If the deal does not cause less games to be televised nationally than before the deal, I'd sure like to know why games are not on cable.