tnt

The Wild announcers were just stating last week that Mike Reilly said it was tough for him going from the Olympic sized rink at Mariucci to the NHL surface because gap control is a lot different. To suggest a different rink size wouldn't make a difference is not realistic, and the reason for the Olympic rink itself pretty much proves that point.

A dig at Grand Forks from Gorg, or just a funny commentary? At the 1:49 mark of the interview with Chris Porter in the Wild Pregame last night. http://www.foxsports.com/north/video?vid=629519939970

No, probably not, but I can understand their frustration with that call, because it really could have gone either way. Everything has kind of been Murphy's law for Duluth this year though.

You know, looking at it again, at our blueline Poganski was kind of interfered with as well which slowed him a bit, preventing it from being even a bigger gap. Would Duluth have been happy with a 5 on 3 powerplay instead?

I think you are right. They might want to change the phrasing in the rules though, as I am sure there are circumstances where a player is flat-footed and the opposing player at full speed and taken down, but hardly considered from behind. Without the penalty, you would have a breakaway, so maybe they just need to word the rule a little differently.

In retrospect we caught a break, just like in retrospect we caught a break when they didn't give a penalty shot to Poganski at Western Michigan for what met the criteria, and we scored on the subsequent power play. The way we moved the puck on the previous power play on Friday leads me to believe the odds might have been about the same with that momentum. Of course who knows, but we might be on the other end of it if Duluth would have converted on their power play in overtime with back and forth between players that didn't result in any on ice advantage in overtime.

For me, I won't call it a stupid time. I like the fact that Stecher plays up until the whistle, because we have had too many circumstances at the end of periods and games where you think you're safe and one small play would have prevented a late goal. That is Troy Stecher in a nutshell, hard-nosed until the end.

The ironic part is that Duluth needs us to beat Omaha to give them a better chance at home ice for the playoffs, and a game without our best defenseman hurts a little in that regard.

Like I said before, nothing out of the ordinary for a 5 minute major, but since it happened at the end they feel they need to give him something. If that is the case, then why does Neil Pionk get off with nothing for his 10 minute misconduct for verbal abuse of an official. How about some consistency.

Yeah, I don't disagree that it should be 5, but most majors don't result in suspensions. If the thinking is he didn't have to serve any time on an end of game foul, then neither did Pionk with his 10 minute unsportsmanlike after the game on Friday.

I think since BC has a winning record against Denver this year and we have split, it probably helped BC more.

Add to that the fact that 3 guys hadn't had game conditioning for about a month, and then have to deal with a second night in high altitude after a fast paced game on Friday. They are excuses, but sometimes facts like those are a little harder to overcome against a really good team like Denver.

Tim Hennessey said that Chyzk said when they had him in studio the other day that they didn't think Denver was good. I can see a freshman making that mistake of underestimating a fellow NCHC team, but not a senior. You don't win it all by underestimating anyone. They have actually done a pretty good job this year of not falling into that line of thinking, especially with the number of freshmen they have. Hopefully this sticks with them through the tournament season.

They had really nice tickets the first year of the Ralph as well, but maybe they figured it wasn't worth it for something that gets discarded anyway. What I wish they would do again is have the commemorative beverage cups with old hockey players on them. At least you got something to hold on to for that expensive pop. In fact I was much more apt to buy a pop because of the souvenir cup.

So now the reason that UND has great attendance while Minnesota's is pathetic according to some on GPL is that there is nothing else to do in Grand Forks and our team has been good this year. Seems like our attendance has been constant even when Hakstol's teams almost always hovered around .500 the first half. So now the people in the "State of Hockey" with a huge Metro population to draw from need to make lame excuses to explain their poor attendance. Maybe the reason so many people in small town Minnesota go to hockey games is because they have nothing else to do, so maybe they aren't actually the "State of Hockey" after all, maybe they are just bored. The only problem with their logic is that you look at all of the Sioux fans in the Denver area that go to the UND games in Denver. Can't use the "nothing else to do" logic there. Maybe it is just time to admit that UND seems to have more fans that care about hockey than Minnesota. Sure, part of that has to do with them being sick of the Big Ten predicament, but weren't they the ones that were saying UND needs Minnesota, while Minnesota would be just fine. Guarantee you that next year when we play them it will be the biggest series since we played them last time, and tickets will be hard to find.

So you can honestly say a game which all the media and analysts says was a great game is the worst you have seen. Either you haven't seen many games, or that was meant to troll, which I can't respect.

I get what you are saying, 48 years old and a game in which the Sioux outshot a good Denver team means we truly are spoiled. Another way we know we are blessed as Sioux fans is that we haven't heard from you in a long time, but nice you could stop by after a loss.

Some people can realize that college players aren't going to be perfect. Do you rip your kids as much for poor performance?

This is the Sioux Sports I know. Down by a goal to a good team and the sky is falling.

Yeah, there do seem to be oddities in the Pairwise at times that seem baffling, but most of the time they seem to wash out by tournament time. By the last weekend before the regionals teams pretty much know whether they are in or out, or what they need to do to get in.

I give St. Clair a pass because of his work ethic, and leadership, and I have heard the coaches speak often about Simonson bringing the same intangibles, that is why I believe he will be in the lineup on Friday.

With that criteria, then St. Clair sits. Simonson has 2 assists in the last 3 games, one big one to give us the lead at Western on Saturday. Sanderson has been playing well too, but hasn't put up points since the 1st game vs. CC. Gornall also scored against CC, so you have a lot of guys deserving of playing, but my guess is Simonson plays on Friday. Sanderson could fill Olson's spot, depending on what kind of game they think they need to win on Friday.

Doesn't help that a lot of so-called leaders have created an atmosphere that whenever police are involved there is a "guilty until proven innocent" philosophy.

That's all the sport of college hockey needs is a team that has shown a win at all costs history in other sports. Don't want college hockey to have a mentality "If you're not cheating, you're not trying", which in turn leaves the programs that follow the rules at a disadvantage. Don't want it to be like college football where a guy that verbally commits early is still a big question mark on signing day.

Ethan Johnson of TRF scores 4 goals in the third against EGF to overcome a 2-0 deficit. Will someone lock him up before he plays junior hockey?