tnt

...and we know that Michigan will probably score a ton, which is what the voters focus on. At least next year there will be non conference games to help with comparisons.

We still have no idea who is coming back for Michigan. If Power and Kent Johnson are taken in the top 3 of the draft, they could be gone. Would think Minnesota should be able to score more, but remember Minnesota didn't exactly light it up against defensive minded teams like Notre Dame and Minnesota State. Thankfully for them they play in the wide open Big Ten, but I sure want to see how guys like Lucius react when they are pounded consistently in the scoring zone by guys like Sanderson and Kleven. Certainly they will be high in the rankings, but when adversity hits will tell the tale as to where they end up.

Hopefully this year gives us more momentum in recruiting local kids that could help minimize the number of situations like this that arise, but yeah, the mentality will still be a factor, even with local talent.

He isn’t used to playing in front of fans at home, so he went somewhere that felt comfortable to him.

Hasn’t that been the case for the last 30 years? We’re told all the time how good their recruiting classes are.

It isn't Burgum, it is my understanding that it is an NCAA policy.

But in hockey they have no problem with empty regionals so no team has an advantage at a home site. The NCAA isn't very consistent.

Don’t forget the two former assistant coaches that participated, one as a coach and one as a player, in Rick Wilson and Mark Osieki.

Agree, and it looks like both would have 2 years which would be huge. And both of their #’s 16 and 21 are available to them at UND. We did win a National Championship with a Calder in the past. (I was going to say “Natty”, but I feel dirty using that terminology unless it is to mock.)

No doubt they believed he could develop into a decent college goalie, but I also think the knowledge was there that it wasn’t a huge risk because he has always dreamed of playing for UND and even if he was needed as the third goalie, he would fill that role with character. Being a local guy that has always wanted to play for UND, I would think UND could have waited to watch him play more junior hockey to see how he performs on a stage where he wasn’t playing with a dominant team in front of him.

Not loving playing a presumably top tier team in Cornell when we will most likely be without Sanderson and Kleven for the World Juniors. Hopefully no other defensemen are injured, creating a circumstance like last year in the Pod when we were depleted on defense.

Having not seen Calder, I don't know if he would jump Cruikshank or not. We saw how CC did with and without Cruikshank in the toughest league and we all saw him in the POD, so I would want the person very familiar with our league. We saw what Steven Jandric said about how tough he thought the league was after his transfer from Fairbanks, and his significant drop in numbers. If Cruikshank is off the table, it would be nice to get a guy like Calder. Maybe a 1a and 1b situation, where both could offer UND a lot. Beyond the points, I think the coaches would have already done their homework on character and intangibles.

Would probably make it easier to sell a ticket as well, and less need to have tickets placed at will call.

It has got to be difficult to weed out all the high scorers in high school whose skills might not transfer to the next levels. I certainly thought guys like Slukynsky and Randklev would have put up better numbers in junior hockey than they did. We can just throw out names left and right that put up good numbers at different levels and wonder if UND should be recruiting them. Then we get to cherry pick the ones that succeed and question why they weren’t recruited, while forgetting the dozens or more that fall off the map. They only have a limited number of scholarships to fill certain roles, so they have done a pretty good job keeping the misses to a minimum.

https://www.ushl.com/view#/player/8017/73/jake-schmaltz I thought Jake was the cousin of Nick and Jordan. I assume this is wrong?

I'm surprised more of the smaller name schools don't follow the Maverick's playbook. Yes, you still have to find the right players, but you can compete pretty well with men while some players still are boys comparatively speaking. It is a good reason why it is better to keep players an extra year in Juniors when possible, so they are that much more physically able to compete against teams like Minnesota State.

Other than Hrenak, have they said if any of their Seniors are coming back?

To me if that wasn't going to be the case, then it was very odd that he committed so long ago before they had a good track record in Junior hockey. It says he committed October 2018, and he played for Central in 2018.

Which makes it even more surprising that the team that garnered the most attention can't seem to get any of those people to attend their games.

But don't you think he is being brought in as the "practice" goalie, that would be accepting of his role? It takes a special kind of person to go in and have pucks blistered at him every day with the knowledge that they most likely won't be playing but a period here or a period there, unless a couple guys go down, and even then they would probably bring in another person anyway.

So are you going to pass on your numerous trophies you have achieved in this realm?

I will add that the administrations of many of the old WCHA schools in the NCHC were very upset with the small minded thinking in the teams left in the WCHA and what they could do as a voting block trying to reduce scholarships and such. They were afraid of a Division 2 mindset after the teams bolted for the Big Ten.

Don’t know if Bale speaks for Mankato, but he seems to think Minnesota State would like to be in the NCHC.

They played well enough to win by the way they controlled the play, but ultimately it is up to the players to snipe to score goals, so if you say 100 minutes to score doesn't cut it, you are putting the onus on those that had the ability to change that.

Well, you got your wish, a lot of the guys that didn't score aren't coming back, so I suppose you are very happy now that Pinto, Kawaguchi, Adams, Mismash, JBD, Kiersted are gone because they just couldn't cut it in the tournament.