RedFrog

Pehrson (with an empty netter!)

No Ludvig during warmups??

I understand the benefit of first line change and matching lines, but I felt that UND has had a deeper lineup than the vast majority of our opponents and that the line matching shouldn't be as impactful as it seems to be. Not having played hockey, this is also likely an area where I am naive.

North Dakota Fighting Hawks NCAA Division I Overall Record: 24-10-2 (.694) Conference Record, NCHC: 15-8-1, 31 points Home: 17-4-1 / Away: 7-6-1 / Neutral: 0-0-0 Current USCHO Poll: No. 5 The Away record scares me. L @ BU 2-3 Was tied 2-2 going into the 3rd period. W @ BU 5-4 OT UND was up 3-1 in the 2nd and 4-3 in the 3rd. W @ UMD 4-2 UND up 3-0 after 1st period. UMD pulled to 3-2 before UND scored an empty netter W @ UMD 2-0 W @ Denver 7-5 UND was down 4-1 after 1st period and 5-3 after 2nd period. Rallied with 4 unanswered in the 3rd period. L @ Denver 3-2 OT UND was up 2-1 in the 3rd. W @ SCSU 5-3 UND was up 3-1 after 2nd period, SCSU brought it to 4-3 before an empty netter. T @ SCSU 3-3 SCSU Was up 2-1 after 2nd and 3-2 in the 3rd. Berg scored with under 7 mins left to tie it. W @ Miami 5-4 OT UND was down 4-2 after 2nd period. Scored an extra attacker goal to tie it late in 3rd. W @ Miami 4-1 UND led most of the way, 3-1 after 2nd period. L @ CC 7-1 Gave up 4 PP goals (on 5 chances) to one of the worst PPs in the country L @ CC 6-2 UND was up 2-1 after 1st period. Tied 2-2 after 2nd period. L @ UNO 3-2 1-1 after 1st and 3-2 after 2nd period. L @ UNO 4-1 2-0 UNO after 1st period, was 3-0 at one point in the 2nd. Hard to make much out of it and what the issue(s) may be. We have only lost 1 game all year when we have scored at least 4 goals ... a 5-4 OT loss to Omaha at home. Conversely, only 6 of our wins came with less than 4 goals. The Friday night games against Miami, CC and UNO were terrible. There were much better efforts on Saturday nights, but mostly the same if not worse results. The early season road trips weren't that bad, and actually were very good. We have scored 6 goals in our last 4 road games. We need to score early and often and win the race to 4 each and every game.

UND 2 - Miami 0 DU 2 - UMD 0 CC 2 - UNO 0 WMU 2 - SCSU 1 So it is written, so it shall be done.

I count 12 goals (out of 130 total) scored by Dmen this year ... even given some of offensive talent we have had on the blue line the last decade or so, this seems like it is a low number. Just an observation. I think it is indicative of the depth of talent in the forward group as we don't rely as heavily on the shot from the point and lean on the skill of our forward group to create opportunities and shots. I haven't researched to see what our % of goals scored by Dmen has been and may do that this weekend.

Team Points 1 UND 55 2 Denver 44 3 SCSU 44 4 CC 42 5 WMU 37 6 UNO 34 7 UMD 24 8 Miami 7

for RPI, but not for H2H. OT win is a win.

So, if we get 1 or 2 points tonight will they let fans stay until the SCSU v DU game is over, or maybe play it on the big screen? How about score updates from Mr. Looker over the PA tonight?

Quite a bit of line juggling throughout the night. Gaber was giving his normal high effort, but I thought Western did a good job against him but that could be said for the majority. For as tough a style as Western played, I didn't see a lot of the extra slashes, jabs or other after the whistle crap like UMD.

Box 1 checked - Home Ice clinched. Win in regulation tomorrow, and clinch at least a share of the Penrose. Win in regulation and Denver takes at least 1 point from SCSU, clinch outright.

Schmaltz

I was glad to see they had enough of Ludvig getting bumped which led to the scrum that resulted in the 5 minute major. Proper response, IMO, without going overboard like UMD did. Also, in the scrum at the end of the Saturday game you could tell Blake had enough ... he feigned a cross check to one of the Bulldogs' face/head. The guy fell and Blake was bent over him yelling something at him that got the refs to initially waive for Blake to leave the ice (which would have missed the handshake line and TCoS). Not sure why the ref changed his mind and didn't have him leave the ice. Saw Blake and the ref talking after the handshake line and looked like there may have been an apology and an understanding. Blake showed great restraint to not follow through with his feigned cross check as it would easily have garnered him at least one game missed. Not sure if the TV caught that or not. I'll need to go watch the NCHC stream and see.

Any word on why Albrecht took Perron's spot on Berg's line in the 3rd? It was likely after we took the lead and so maybe it was for defensive purposes?

CC has a really funky comparison grid. They are winning their comparison with us (4 H2H wins will do that), but they are losing comparisons to 3 teams below them in Omaha, Arizona State and Augustana. They had a chance to flip the Augustana with a good showing against UNO (common opponent). Now they have DU left as common opponents to all 3, and I'm not sure a clean sweep of DU will flip those. I'm not sure how they factor the winning percentage in those. ASU has a COp record of 3-3-1 with a .5625 rating where CC is 4-4-1 and at .3125.

Need 1 point from WMU next weekend to lock up home ice ... and check a box!

Need to mention that I thought the pre- and early game atmosphere last night was one of the better fan efforts of the year. I did miss the Denver series, so I can't compare to that weekend.

Nice to be able to update this and reduce the magic numbers. 3 for home ice. We also eliminated Duluth from Penrose contention tonight.

1) Persson played well tonight ... a couple of great saves in the third period, but not much challenge otherwise. 2) Giveaways in the D zone were there for the taking tonight, Duluth just wasn't pressuring. It seemed to clean up the second half of the game, but it was still a problem. 3) Scorers scored, Gaber, Blake, Berg (x2), Perron, and McLaughlin. Now it's time to get Schmaltzy his first of the year. 4) Jamernick's penalty was of the stupid variety, otherwise I thought the boys played pretty disciplined. I am getting tired of seeing Ludvig get bumped constantly and wouldn't mind someone taking a roughing to send a message. Was good to see some of that when the boys took exception to the scrum with Blake in the third.

Schmaltz .... yup, I am sure.

Blake

If only winning National Championships was easy. Think of the team Michigan had a couple of years ago with all the first round talent, hell, look at them this year with the talent they have and they are currently on the wrong side of the bubble. The last championship Michigan won was in 1998. They must be an also-ran. The parity in college hockey has and continues to increase making it significantly more difficult to make that final 4 game run. There is no reason to not have expectations that this years' team has the ability to compete for a national championship. Those who think two bad weekends against CC during the regular season, or the season ending results of the last 7 years somehow make that impossible are just fear mongering.

Starting to think you are right ...

Was just thinking the same thing. Will this team learn that they will run into this style of play numerous times leading into and throughout the playoffs and make the necessary adjustments both strategically (coaching) and in level of effort/quality of play (players), or will they be satisfied and chalk it up to CC just having our number this year? Put the black jerseys away for tonight, bring out the greens and play the Sioux Hockey you are capable of.

Berg