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That gives me a little vindication when I wanted St. Clair's speed and work ethic in combination with Grimaldi's last year, and some felt that St. Clair would be struggling to even play. Hopefully Grimaldi sticks around and gives that line a chance to grow together for a while. Certainly we all know that with any team slump, changes will be made and that line combinations will be shuffled anyway. Who would have thought that when Parks gets back that he wouldn't automatically be playing with MacMillan and Rowney!

That's my point. This sure doesn't sound like "hope" just a short time earlier. It's not like the Sioux were playing like crap and all of a sudden caught fire.

So basically you were determining everything on what the outcome of the game was, not how they were playing. So because the outcome changed in two minutes, now the Sioux can sweep Denver?

So in about a half hour of time we go from losing four in a row to a stick salute in your mind? Wow.

There are plenty of young hockey players in Grand Forks that aren't huge Sioux fans. Some may just want to be contrarian, but for whatever reason, you see a gopher hat here or there on youth players.

I could see a few players leave if their stock is high, especially if Minnesota won the big one. Doesn't really matter anyway, because Gersich I believe is only a sophomore, and Hurley a junior. Why do you think Gersich is more likely to go to UND than Minnesota. Everything seems to be pointing the other way around. Hopefully the coaches can show how well the NCHC teams are doing, compared to Big Ten teams, but right now Minnesota is doing the best of those Big Ten teams. Some recruits may be swayed by the Big Ten, but I do think the NCHC has a lot to offer, especially the continuation of more old rivalries that have gone on for a long time.

I disagree that Wisconsin will be bad for years to come. Wisconsin gets great talent, it's just that a lot of them bolt early. Put Justin Schultz along with Zengerle and Kerdiles and you have a middle of the pack team in the WCHA, maybe better. I also think that Wisconsin will be a team that nobody wants to play at the end of the year should Zengerle and Kerdiles be in the lineup. Taking Minnesota down to the wire both nights without your top two guys on the road shows that they can be a factor down the road.

I assume you mean Nolan Zajac?

Do you think that Nic Kerdiles regrets sticking around rather than going to Major Junior? It is true that it all depends on when you play a team, because we will end up playing the Badgers when they have Kerdiles and Zengerle back. Those are two pretty good guns to add to a team that is competitive, just not getting that goal in critical situations like last weekend against Minnesota.

I think for the mostpart every night is a battle for everyone. Minnesota came down to the wire with Vermont tonight and Vermont was without two of their top players. You don't see many easy games across the country period.

So will Lucia call it a coaching career in four years and follow the accomplishments of Mario in the pros? I would think that at some point Guentzel is thinking he will be taking over the head coaching duties.

But I thought the party line was that Lucia was just towing the line of the administration. Don't know the ins and outs, but I would think that Hakstol has a major say in scheduling of teams, and I would imagine Lucia would have quite the pull as well, if not more. Maybe Schlossman can let us know just how much input Hakstol would have in scheduling because that would give us a better idea who is pulling the strings in situations regarding the rivalry.

Exactly, and as far as I'm concerned, they are both true Fighting Sioux. Nice that both finally had a chance to show that they are both very capable starting quarterbacks. Braden's name could be in the Big Sky record books for a while.

So if it is business, who would you rather have on your schedule money wise or institutional wise, UND or Bemidji State/ Mankato State?

Exactly, you don't give up 48 shots on goal if you spend more time in the offensive zone and you backcheck when you aren't in the offensive zone. Everybody needs to improve a bit to bring those stats down. Usually this time of year we are talking where is the offense. Now it is where is the defense. Not sure I like having either one of those conversations, but hopefully the defense will come around and the offense will only get better.

I agree that Minnesota being "scared" is laughable, however I do think that Lucia has a stong influence in no scheduling agreement being made. For years Lucia has shown his contempt for UND by jabbing that "why is it that things like this happen when UND is involved", when in fact we see nasty situations every week in one venue or another. And like I said about a year ago, the proof will be in the pudding as to whether they really wanted to get it done or not. Well, here we are a year later and now they are not only talking no scheduling agreement, but an every other year situation if one does come about because the rivalry is unhealthy. I said then, that Lucia's hate for UND is rooted back when Notre Dame played UND back when Lucia was a Senior and his team was throttled out of the NCAA tournament by UND and their goons who included Dean Dachyshyn and who else, Cary Eades. So you can see that the rivalry being "Over the Top" kind of remarks are not just off the cuff remarks, but a deeply rooted hatred of UND.

At some point if you don't have the huge rivalry games on your schedule on a regular basis, the casual fan that has season tickets will say to themselves, "why get season tickets when I can get tickets to every game relatively easy." The tickets that are impossible to come by are those huge rivalry games like Minnesota, and that goes both ways.

"Worst in the nation". Get real! Might want to ask Clarke Saunders about that since he routinely saw the number of shots we saw Duluth mount on Friday, and by the way Saunders himself said that total was skewed because many of the shots were from the perimeter.

He said it himself that it is not a healthy rivalry and that it is probably good that it isn't every year. What more information do you want than out of the horses mouth himself?

Yes, the Sioux should be happy to come away with 3 points last weekend, but if the Sioux outplay Notre Dame this weekend and end up losing, will the fans focus on the performance or the fact that they lost. I can guarantee you that the performance won't matter to many because they will always find something that isn't perfect. The loss to Michigan in the Frozen Four is a perfect example.

The problem is that if the talent of the players is the problem, then it was the coaches who recruited "water" instead of "wine".

NDSU seems to be doing well with some local players in key positions. I can't believe there is that big of a disparity in talent, but as you say how that talent is coached and their work ethic is a different story. Do the players NDSU recruits care more about their program than the recruits UND brings in. Do some of the players that come into our system think the program is lucky to have them, or the other way around. Did guys like Dan Hendrickson give more to the program than some who don't have a stake in the program's history? As far as coaches go, does UND have the elite coaches required to recruit and game plan with the best of them. I will only say that it is curious that some of NDSU's former coaches end up in big-time programs, while some of our former coaches end up at the Jamestown Colleges of the football world.

Adam Tambellini moved into second in the BCHL scoring race after being named #1 star with a 3 goal, 3 assist performance.

Remember, UND had goalies with awesome numbers before NCAA tournament time, and even some that seemed to be on a roll. The bottom line is you can't have one bad game or be off a bit in the NCAA tournament, and even if you accomplish that, the other goalie can't have the game of his life like the Michigan goalie did. Hopefully Saunders is that guy, but regular season play isn't going to tell us if that is the case or not.

If you read Schlossman's blog today, you see more circumstantial evidence of Lucia's lack of motivation for getting a schedule worked out with UND. When you call the Wisconsin rivalry "a healthy rivalry and not over the top" you know what rivalry he is talking about that he considers over the top. Minnesota fans can claim all they want that Lucia really wants to keep the rivalry going, but his words and actions speak otherwise.