Siouxman

The problems this weekend did not involve coaching. The players never showed enough skill to where you could get to the coaching. They could not make a decent pass, they could not catch a pass, they could not cleanly shoot the puck. For whatever the reason, the players could not do the basic hockey functions to complete any kind of coaching strategy. Players had to stop to catch a pass and then start skating. By then the opponent was on them. I can't remember the last time I saw that many whiffed passes, whiffed shots, lazy passes that got intercepted. The mental errors were contagious. The Sioux had 4 mental errors in the first 1:15 of the game against Denver. For whatever reason the team (other than mostly Murphy and Poolman) did not want to play to win the tournament. There were times when they could dominate, and then just lose the focus. This was not the same team that just a few weeks ago was totally committed against St. Cloud.

BC may get to stay home, but whoever comes out of that region will have earned it.

It is time to tell the Target Center that if you guys can't figure out how to install hockey boards, we are out of here. The crazy and inconsistent bounces make a joke out of the games. There are screwball bounces coming off the joints between the glass panes. There were several bounces in the championship game where the puck was shot into the boards at an angle, and it came back to the player at the same angle instead of angling up the ice. The base of the boards is a joke. Sometimes there is no bounce at all, and sometimes it is an extreme bounce. And it is up to each player to guess what the angle will be each time. There is absolutely no consistency to these boards. The Sioux goal today was directly a result of a goofy bounce. The puck was ringing the end boards and the Denver goalie started back to play the puck. Normally this would not have been a problem. But the puck took a goofy bounce off the boards, the goalie held up because he couldn't tell where the puck was going. The Sioux recovered the puck, which they never should have, passed it out and scored. It is difficult enough to deal with goofy bounces from bad ice, but these boards make a joke out of the games. Completely unacceptable.

And Jakobsen (#14)

Good time today. Met some new people: Godsmack, Sioux Fan in Sioux Falls, FightingSioux4Life and a few others. And some Sioux fans from Reynolds, ND got quite a surprise when they just stopped in for lunch, not knowing about the Hoggsbreath gathering.

Last year was so cold in the arena we needed something hot to drink. Coffee was available at most concession stands, but we don't drink coffee. The concession stand right outside of our upper level seats had hot chocolate so that was great on Friday. On Saturday that concession stand was not open. I visited every other concession stand in the building and not a single one had hot chocolate. Following the tournament, the responded to the NCHC request for feedback. I gave them lots of input on what was done right, what was done wrong, what not to do again, and things to add. I mentioned not having hot chocolate available, but coffee is everywhere. So yesterday I did a walk through the Target Center and guess what? Not one concession stand has hot chocolate this year. And none of them have coffee either. I guess that I never thought removing all hot drinks could be a preferred course of action. And the word today is that after bad ice yesterday, TC is "Cold as Ice" today. Dress warm.

Denver may be a little short handed today. #14 left the ice late in the third period holding his wrist dripping blood. They wrapped a towel around it and took him to the locker room. Quite probably a skate cut. Then there was also the boarding incident late in the game that did not get called, but the Denver player was hurting after that one. He may be able to play today

Highlight of the night last night: WCCO TV in their sports segment gave an update of NCAA hockey games and scores. On the screen they posted that the St. Cloud Huskies played the "FIGHTING SIOUX"

I am surprised no one has posted about what led to the St. Cloud second goal, and what could have been a second ugly turning point in the Sioux season. That second goal came about because Nick Schmaltz took the puck off his foot/ankle when SCSU went to dump it into the zone. SCSU immediately had the man advantage as Schmaltz struggled to the bench. I was concerned he was now done for the day and possibly longer. At the start of the next period, all the Sioux players were standing on the bench except for Nick Schmaltz. It turned out the only damage was that it led to the SCSU second goal, rather than losing Nick for an extended period. At this point in the season I will take the loss of the game over losing another top player.

For the caramel rolls??

Drop her off at MOA Saturday morning and then head to Hoggsbreath for the SiouxSports.com gathering.

John Buccigross casts his Richter ballot for Zane.

We are leaving Friday morning. Staying at the Hilton. Our arrival has been delayed because over the course of the season we have had stops at Colorado Springs, St. Cloud, Omaha, and Oxford.

Maine defenseman Ben Hutton gives up his senior year to sign with Vancouver. Had 21 points this year, and totaled 65 points in 108 games at Maine. UMASS defenseman Brandon Mantour, freshman, signed with Anaheim. He had 20 points in only 21 games, playing just part of the year.

I just did the trip to Oxford from western MN for the UND series. You have to stay west of Chicago, come up through Bloomington, IL. It is about 725 miles from Oxford, with a Google Maps driving time of just over 11 hours. You do gain the hour going to the Central Time zone. But leaving right at 6 am gives you 11 hours of time before game 1. You can make up time by speeding a bit, but I would guess that you would get to the first game maybe by the end of the first period unless you are a really dedicated hockey fan. Then you might make it at about puck drop by speeding just a little. You don't need to seriously speed, just push it a little, say 5 -6 mph. You would hit the Twin Cities just before rush hour traffic got too serious.

The B1G tournament should be interesting. Literally every team in the conference is fighting to extend its season. That should lead to some intense hockey. We will have to see.

4-0 Miami with ENG

3-0 Miami after two. After watching this game, it would be a shame for WMU to win. They just are not good enough.

The Big Slubowski pulled after giving up 3 goals on 11 shots.

Williams did take himself out of the crease and there is no way he could have gotten up to make the play. However, the WMU player clearly made contact with the goalie and therefore it should be waived off. Whether or not it impedes the goalie, a player without the puck simply cannot be in contact with the goalie when the puck goes into the net. Otherwise you leave it up to the refs to make another type of judgment call, and we all know how those have gone this year.

And so it begins!

Yes, it is us. We came to give the Penrose Cup a ride home in case the plane can't be deiced. Observations from the game: The penalty on Olson for boarding was bogus. It was clean, shoulder to shoulder, right in front of us. Miami did much worse and never got called once. Cags was absolutely crushed on one hit and appeared to be injured for a while. Nothing was called. Miami fans want a penalty on every hit. They aren't quite Gopher fan bad, but not far from it. McIntyre stole this one. He was absolutely solid and followed the puck quite well. Another game without an even strength goal. Poganski is going to be a beast. Just like against St. Cloud, he was all over the ice. Kudos to Gaarder's line again. They drive the other team nuts. This was a tense game. I don't even want to know where my blood pressure was when the final horn sounded. Being present for the team bringing the Penrose Cup onto the ice was an unexpected plus for this trip. This team is ready for the playoffs mentally. They are committed and bringing it with everything they have.

We did a lot of traveling with our oldest. The weekends in the hotels and hockey rinks were great times, and increased family time. Expenses were reduced because our hockey association hosted a skate exchange where people could buy and sell used equipment, thus reducing cost for everyone. This was especially true for the younger ages. When our son was finally done with youth hockey, I expected to have more money and more time. Funny thing, I never saw it so I don't know what the heck happened.

This is squirts, with checking NOT allowed. When I was helping coach Squirt B's we seriously considered pulling the team off the ice in one game because of the slashings, checking, and other things that were going on that the refs would not call. Kids were coming to the bench with injuries and we were getting concerned for their safety. It wasn't until we yelled at the refs after one of the opposing players intentionally kicked one of ours in the stomach who had fallen to the ice that they finally blew the whistle very late and called a penalty. At that young age, you have to take player safety into consideration. It goes beyond being unhappy with reffing at the squirt level. I don't know if that was the case in this situation. One other thing with the Fargo Squirt tournament. There are teams from many states and Canada that come to compete. The age level for squirts varies from state to state, and at that time they didn't go by age, they went by the squirt level. Our team played teams that were two years older and considerably bigger. We didn't play any teams that tried to be physical so we didn't have any safety concerns, but the difference in skill level was quite obvious. That was a number of years ago and I don't know if it is still the same situation.

Mr. and Mrs. Siouxman will be in Oxford, welcoming the Penrose Cup back to Grand Forks.