Siouxman

I would be a little bit concerned about Western Michigan. They seem to have turned things around since they were swept by the Sioux. They have won some big games.

In all honesty, the rules have not changed that much. The enforcement of the rules has changed a lot. Even though the rules prohibited it, you used to be able to hook, hold, impede, and interfere with players. The rules were against it, but it just wasn't called. You used to be able to beat the crap out of guys standing in front of the net and not get called unless it was really bad. The best example I can recall is the year UND got sent out to the east regional with BU and BC during the Matt Greene era. Matt and the boys literally beat the snot out of those two teams. They did get called for some penalties but in today's game they would have played the entire game shorthanded. There are a couple of reasons. Scoring is way down in hockey from what it used to be. Goalie equipment has gotten to be much bigger, making it tougher to score and that is why there are now some restrictions on the size of goalie pads. Some people are clamoring for even smaller pads. Goalies and all hockey players are physically much bigger and much better athletes, making defensive play much better. When questions arose about how to increase scoring, enforcing the rules in the books became one of the choices. During the last NHL lockout and renegotiation of the NFLPA, the NHL made some significant changes which altered the game. There used to be many players in their late 30's and well into their 40's who still played. They really weren't fast enough, but since the hooking, clutching, and grabbing was allowed the game was played at a slower pace. Following the lockout, the NHL started enforcing the rules and suddenly the NHL had a much faster more exciting game. Older players retired by the dozens because they could no longer keep up. The change in rule enforcement trickled down to colleges and other leagues as a result. Yes, there have been a few rule changes but most of the change has been in enforcement of the rules (also now known as a point of emphasis) when leagues point out stuff they want the refs to start calling. Thus, what many people understand as good old fashioned hockey style can no longer be played without spending penalty time in the box. There is still tough hard nosed hockey, but not like it used to be.

That is unbelievable. I have seen the replay several times and that was a clear head shot. Not necessarily intentional, but the shoulder was to the head. The Gopher announcers are embarrassing themselves on this one.

The Sioux may not have the bruising defensemen of the past, but the mobility of the defensive corps seemed to make it easy to break out of the zone last night. While they have had some mobile defensemen in the past, the mobility of this entire group could bring an asset the Sioux have not had in the past.

If this team continues to play a full sixty minutes of in-your-face hockey with speed like they did last night, they could go far. Then the outcome could come down to a lucky bounce or two. The goaltending will need to remain solid and they need to avoid the injury bug. Guys are stepping up and doing the job. Rodwell is becoming a beast. His combination of size, toughness, tenacity, and high end speed have become a real asset and helped to make the Pattyn line something special.

Unfortunately he is still at -6 in +/- which ranks way down in the NHL.

Next year Bemidji joins in and St. Cloud sits out. They must have just established a rotation.

At least until mid-way through the second period.

On Charter in Fergus Falls it should be channel 393 on Friday night.

Hmmmm.....Did you miss the Hammerism??? St. Cloud instead of St. Clair???

UND evidently brought in a player to replace Tambellini, a certain Mr. Colton St. Cloud

Does it imitate the time twice a day as well?

okay.....How is the Bison football team involved in this?

No, No, and No. The refs will have a field day if the Sioux play old school. The times have changed.

There is a possible chance that he did do it for his teammates.

He was not yet back to practice as of last week. Ausmus was practicing but held out of the games in BC.

Finland 3-2 OT

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/281285/

I actually think this is a good opportunity for the guys to get it back together and get in some good ice time before it all counts again. Injuries are always a risk, whether in a game, in practice, riding a moped, or doing the lawn mower toss.

They've been doing it in ND for about 100 years. It is naturally occurring methane that is in the water. It is nothing new. It is also common in some other states, and has no connection to oil or gas development.

Do not think that the Keystone project as proposed is the end of it. It needs U.S. government approval since it crosses the border. The more complex the project, the more difficult the approval. The pipeline will be able to move more oil than the current proposal. As soon as it is in operation, there will be proposals to tap into it in ND to increase the outflow of oil. Just a relatively few years ago the Alliance Natural Gas Pipeline came through ND. It was a special bullet line project that would carry a number of gaseous products all mixed together and would not be tapped between source and sink, because a tap would require processing equipment to separate the products out. And within just a couple of years of start of operation, the line was being tapped. Start simple, get through the red tape, and then modify. That is the strategy.

Where is the link to the live chat? Is that on the World Juniors site or TSN.ca?

Extreme cold front moving in tonight. I'm sure you will not want to expose your "under the weather" to the weather.

Not at all.

It would appear that some character by the name of scpa0305 is on tsn.ca stirring the pot a little and putting in a plug for the U.S. college route. Well done.