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You know I haven’t been the one that has an issue with portal players, especially to fill in gaps. I would argue that with Zmolek’s penchant for injury just by the way he plays the game, you could see what the roster would be if he went down, so why not carry 9 defensemen. I also have discussed how I don’t think roster management has been nearly as good as it was under Hakstol, and missing the tourney as often as they have suggests that issue. As far as home grown in the literal sense, are we getting the best local talent? Dane Montgomery, Casey Johnson, John Simonson versus guys like Drew Montgomery, Mason Salquist, Jacob Benson and Jon Lizotte. Know that Jon Lizotte was recommended very heavily to the coaching staff.

True, hopefully they can follow up a big win with another good performance, something they haven’t been able to do for a while.

It’s the first thing that shows up on the online version. Are you talking the actual hard copy? Hardly anybody gets the hard copy anymore, and the front page doesn’t hold the allure it used to.

Need CC to at least push it to OT.

Hopefully lesson learned, especially when you just had to put it off the boards and out. The bigger issue for me, is after that, they went into a shell and Omaha had all the offensive zone time. This happens time and again, and if the coaches can’t get their players to stop reverting to that every time when the game gets close, they need to be held just as accountable for losses in those circumstances as those that make ill-advised plays.

UND getting lulled into being comfortable, then boom they will tie it and take the lead shortly thereafter. Show some fire and intensity and get that next goal.

…and with more puzzle pieces than Hakstol had.

Apparently his dad’s Alma mater didn’t want him either.

Which is why Berry shouldn’t get a pass for our “young” defense which Schlossman went into depth about in his article about veteran and young defense. Veteran defense is important, but the talent level UND should be able to land should offset that, and if completely true, why didn’t UND go the route of Western, in getting veteran portal players. If Schlossman is so convinced it is a huge factor, why did he pick UND and Denver so high and those with veteran defense much lower? I am afraid all of this lipstick on the pig is holding Berry less accountable, and that we need to keep passing the buck to next year or the year after when we have veteran defense. If you don’t lose a few guys to the pros, you aren’t recruiting and developing well enough.

Just for comparison, Jaksen had 32 goals and 32 assists in 45 games his first two years with EGF, and Jace has 13 goals and 27 assists in 60 games. Comparisons are obviously flawed because there are so many variables, but 1.42 ppg is quite a big different than .67 ppg, especially when we see the huge numbers put up in high school hockey in general.

Assuming the Krampotich that plays for Hibbing is somehow related to Mickey Krampotich that used to play for UND.

Is this straight from his mouth? Hakstol competed quite well with some teams that weren't super talented.

National TV on Friday— we’re screwed!

Wow, imagine what place we would be in the standings had we not had the good fortune of getting all those extra attacker goals? Of course it goes with the premise that they wait way too long to have a sense of urgency. Berry's back would really be up against the wall if they only scored in half of those situations. I wouldn't be depending on those goals always being there. Percentage wise, the opposition scoring an empty net goal in those situations is much more common. If I were Schlossman or UND, I don't know that I would be touting how many additional games they could have lost, had the puck not bounced in their favor as much. A win is a win, but they really push it to the limit, even against lesser teams.

I will also add that Omaha’s top four scorers are all Portal Transfers, and all four have more points than our 1 portal forward this year in Carter Wilkie. Hmmm! While I do think Wilkie adds a two way component, we did need to replace the scoring of Blake, and you didn’t get enough of that from Wilkie and the upperclassmen. Swanson hasn’t had the impact a lot we’re expecting, but you can’t count on all your freshmen to transition perfectly. He will be great going forward.

After losing 4 of 5 to Omaha last year, and totally ruining our season with the 3 losses in the last few weeks of the season, Berry better be able to flip the script at home, otherwise where are we at as a program. Rather than being a higher seed in Sioux Falls we have to play Michigan in Missouri and again our one and done outcome. Of course why would we want to take advantage of a regional closer to home. Omaha is another program that has lost tons of players in the last few years, so if Berry can’t get it done now, when can he? Think about it, we took Omaha’s best player, yet if UND doesn’t do something the rest of this season, Cam Berg could very well had a better chance at getting closer to a National title had he stayed at Omaha. Think about that prospect!

You make a lot of stupid statements, it just so happened this was another one I thought was based on a game or two results.

So did the Bison, and most of Hakstol’s teams. Teams do get better, or at least they should.

Just like the Bison being bad this year right?

What if it was a three way tie? They probably still will own the wins tie break.

St. Cloud beats Denver 2-1.

Minnesota scored to go up 3-1 on Penn State, but Penn State challenged a high hit earlier in the play, and Minnesota had the goal taken away and put PSU on a 5 minute power play in which they promptly scored to tie it at 2. Might as well challenge anything close to a high hit if a goal comes off the board on the other end of the ice. Way too much discretion that is going on after the fact.

I said it before, Western plays like UND teams used to play — aggressive forecheck, and good transitions. UND used to get penalties from that aggressive mindset, and now they get penalties by being too defensive, and always chasing the opponent. While I love the mindset of blocking shots, one has to wonder why we are blocking so many shots. Denver doesn’t block many shots because they are in the offensive end most of the time. When you are blocking all those shots you will inevitably end up with more nagging injuries. Let’s not forget Western has 10 rookies and a bunch of portal players, so for us to barely squeak out a win in the season series is concerning. You can tell Ferschweiler’s competitiveness is instilled in his players, as he didn’t want to lose that game, whereas Berry’s teams have had hangovers after winning the Penrose. I’m very glad we won, but the fact that we had home ice on the line and they just had momentum on their side, yet we could barely muster shots on net, is an indictment on the aggressiveness on their part, and lack thereof on ours.

I’d take Josh Morton over Chaves any day.

I am curious though if the line would be considered in the crease. We know the whole puck has to go over the line for a goal, but is on the line considered part of the crease?