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Agree. Those people that thought this series was going to be a piece of cake are unrealistic. To me this is the perfect opportunity for the coaches to show the players what will happen in the tournament in playoff type hockey. Take a five minute major and lose one of your top players it will cost you. Run into a hot goaltender it will cost you. Don’t move the puck as fast and well and go 0fer on the power play it will cost you. Use this information and don’t repeat some of the issues and you can win a championship, don’t correct them before the tournament, and your season could end prematurely. Not a horrible performance with the missing guys, but I would imagine they will not be happy with some things.

There is a point when you are committed to a hit, it isn’t as easy to reverse tracks as you seem to think, thus putting your safety in peril.

Don’t think there was embellishment but turning your back to someone late when someone is bearing down on you shouldn’t be rewarded. At some point players have to be responsible to keep themselves safe, and that type of thing could get you some life long regret if someone is going faster and a little further from the boards. Foolish to compromise your own safety like that.

Watching Duluth last night, we saw more of the same. When all of this embellishment is visible on national television, it baffles me how Don Adams isn’t instructing his officials to watch out for the inevitable peeking up through your arms to see if the officials bought it. That type of thing would make me angry as an official, and once the reputation is there, officials should be on the lookout for those things. Right now teams are getting rewarded for disrespecting the game. They should actually be reprimanded for putting actual safety at risk. You would think if you cry wolf too many times, there would be some consequence. If it continues to go down this road, other teams will have to follow suit to maintain a competitive balance. 5 minute majors can really level the playing field for a team that has less talent, not only for the power play time, but for tiring out key guys on the penalty kill, and not being able to roll your depth lines. Imagine what it does for a more talented team like Duluth. You either have to follow suit or be left in the dust because officials can’t recognize this is going on, and it seems to be getting worse, not better. As Barney Fife would say, “Nip it in the bud”!

Would have been nice to get that extra point, as I assume if Duluth somehow made up the 9 points, they would have more wins, which I assume would be the next tie break after head to head. Maybe, since we didn’t play them four times there are other tie breaks. We would really need to crumble for those scenarios to unfold, so not too concerned, but each point puts us closer.

Listening to Micheletti and his oohs and ahhs and stuttering when he gets excited is brutal. Don’t quit your day job Pat.

With St. Cloud still in the running for home ice, I would be shocked if both games were that lopsided. They have won their last four at home, including a sweep of Duluth, so for us to blow them out would truly be impressive.

He's up for Rookie of the Year in the AJHL as a 16 year old. Lot of upside, so hopefully he keeps developing.

Portz is another one who may throw a wrench in things at forward. He has also been consistent down the stretch. If we could get guys like Halliday and Bowen to play another year of juniors, it would make it more likely they could make an impact earlier in their careers. Adams stayed another year in juniors, and it still has taken him a few years to make an impact -- but boy has he been an impact player this year. Some guys are just in a rush to start their careers, see Ryder Donovan.

Riese Gaber and Griffin Ness have been playing really well lately as well. Gaber is four goals clear of the next highest goal scorer. Ethan Bowen and Brendan Budy seem to have tailed off points wise in the BCHL, so you wonder what next years class will look like.

Agree, taking unnecessary penalties is what is going to cost you come tournament time.

Duluth always concerns me because they just find a way to win the one goal games. It has been uncanny how they have been able to avoid the bad bounce or freaky goal that just happens sometimes. We have found a way to win those games this season, but they have a long string going in postseason. Hopefully, the odds catch up with them.

The announcers thought it was lame, but to each his own. Guess when one arena does something, all of them do. I thought the Ralph was a little more original than that, but I am there for the game, so it isn't going to prevent me from having a good time one way or another.

I know, which is why it is odd they continue to do it, because it wasn't well received at the World Juniors from the comments from the announcers and such I heard.

While they are at it, they can ditch the corny music when there is a penalty. Seems they have regressed in their entertainment value a bit.

When you win, the awards come along with it. The preseason awards weighed heavily to Duluth, and rightly so, but there were a few guys I thought that were borderline picks that could have just as easily been from other teams, but were products of Duluth winning. While I would love to have Nick Swaney and Justin Richards on our team, I don't think they were deadlock cinches to be All Conference picks, although they should definitely have been in the conversation. Hopefully we have guys stick around to be in the same spotlight next fall. In the end, none of that really matters, as we just need to win and the rest will take care of itself.

According to some, that would mean we are falling apart because our lead would have dwindled to half of what it is now. Give me a Penrose any which way, because it certainly isn't easy to win.

Right now Duluth is living off the power play which could be huge for them in the tournament when special teams usually decide games. If teams play really disciplined it could make it much more difficult.

Can he even redshirt with his age? You lose a year playing juniors at his age, but don’t know if the rule applies if you are in college.

It may be a bit overboard with the vocabulary, but then again there are many that go overboard at a singular loss in what has been an outstanding season.

I sure would be curious to know how many times penalties get reviewed for majors on UND compared to the other team. Very strange they didn’t review the play where the guy stuck his leg out on Rieger, especially since they evened it up for a UND player sticking up for Rieger. Guess a guy has to be seriously injured by a dangerous hit for that to happen ... oh, wait, I guess they don’t do it then either, as witnessed by the Mismash injury last year.

Looks like Duluth moved all the way up to 6 in the Pairwise with their win. Lot of volatility, as Quinnipiac moved from 19 to 14 with their win against Cornell. Glad we have a little room for error.

I was wondering about the music when somebody goes to the penalty box. People didn’t like it at the World Juniors, and don’t think it plays any better to a college crowd.

What about his other brother Darryl?

Because of our depth, I think that a lot of the time Berry errors on the side of giving the players extra time to heal, rather than rush someone back. I guess we are in a better position to do that as well, but I think it will help us down the road when we don't have a bunch of guys broken down by playing through injuries. That is my hope anyway. Of course if we were fighting for home ice and on the bubble of the tournament, I am not so sure I would want key guys sitting out of the lineup unless it was absolutely necessary.