tnt

After both games at last year's regionals, I will be fit to be tied if Mark MacMillan takes a bad penalty. He had 3 in two games last year. One that he got away with at the end of the 1st game, and the others that gave us no chance to come back in the second game.

If Blais only ends up coaching another year as some have suggested, is there a possibility if Morelli performs well he would say if Blais isn't going to be there he may reopen his recruitment? Seems like a free out if it came to that. Don't know if he has actually signed his LOI or not though.

http://gonepuckwild.com/2014/01/12/report-minnesota-wild-encouraged-gustav-olofsson-leave-ncaa-whl/

I know the Wild were trying to get Olofsson to go to Major Juniors midway through the season. Do they have a problem with Scott Owens developing him, because with so many college players on their team, you would think they wouldn't have a problem with the college route. He seemed to become quite a player in his first year of college. Maybe they need him to concentrate more on the defensive side of the game.

... and not going 0 for on the powerplay would help as well. Let's hope now is the time they get on the roll on special teams.

I wouldn't. They have a league championship under their belt and still alive. If UND loses this weekend, Miami, Western Michigan, and Denver will end up having a more successful season in my eyes. Win things along the way in trying to achieve your ultimate goal is the way I look at it.

There is also a reason why CC finished ahead of that Miami team. Don't think Penn State has a Jaccob Slavin or Olafsson who NHL teams are high on.

I still have to laugh that the students think it is a great thing to copy the M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A chant after the school song. Never have liked their spelling lesson, and like copying another schools dumb chant even less.

I argued that Minnesota's strength of schedule is undeniable, but I would hope that you would admit that CC and Miami are much better teams than Penn State. You need not look further than #Maction's post that would bear that out.

The question was about Minnesota's strength of schedule. Playing 17 games against teams still in the pairwise hunt says a lot. Who do you think has a tough schedule, and I could pick apart their wins and losses as well. Who else could they have played that you would consider legit? Hey, I hate Minnesota as much as the next guy, but if we had their schedule we would be defending it loudly.

Where do you get the soft schedule part? Minnesota played 17 games against teams that are still in the running for the National tournament, while UND has played 6 games against teams still in the running, 10 if you want to count Western Michigan. When I say still in the running, I mean pairwise wise.

Yes, they played Penn State and Michigan State four times each, but beyond that, I don't know how you can question their schedule with Notre Dame, Duluth, St. Cloud, and Boston College, and Mankato is not a bad team.

He feels the need to make everybody know how great the gophers are. I believe they call it a complex.

Does Archibald stay at UNO? Will his stock and leverage next year be as high as it is this year?

You mean like one of the bad teams that beat the 3rd best team in your conference? Just because the Big Ten doesn't have any depth to their league, don't assume other leagues don't. Of course, I can understand why you are so interested in the NCHC, because there is no excitement at all to the Big Ten.

The Sioux somehow have to find the level that they had against Denver and Duluth. Don't think we've seen that the last few weekends, and hopefully we won't be pointing at those games as their peaking point of the season.

Western Michigan is in the NCAA basketball tournament as well, so that could affect attendance to a small degree, but doubt there would have been many regardless.

Does anybody know which end the home team defends?

Would guess that you get stamped with an invisible stamp like the did at the XCel, but you may still need your ticket stub.

The Sioux have to come out under the premise that he can and they have to find a way that he can't see or get to pucks.

I think we have talked about this time and again, that it doesn't appear a lot of our teams have had a killer instinct. They seem to play well when they have their backs against the wall, but once they find a little breathing space, they lose, or wait until they are behind the eight ball to start and play. At one point it seemed like a foregone conclusion they would make the NCAA tournament, and now it looks as though they may need to win the NCHC tournament, because all the teams left don't provide a chance to leapfrog teams. It doesn't bode well for the NCAA tournament if they do make it if they wait until half way through the first period to play. No shots on goal through the first seven minutes of both playoff games isn't the way to come out for playoff hockey. When you leave it to chance, you can get bit, and now it looks as though they will have to be fighting against teams that all of a sudden think they have a decent chance at the NCAA tournament in CC, Miami, and Western Michigan.

Liked what the Chyzyk, O'Donnell, and St. Clair line did tonight, but kind of thought that the Gaarder, Rodwell line wasn't quite as effective as it has been the whole second half with Mitch MacMillan on it. Would like to see Keaton Thompson back in the lineup as well. Did Ausmus get hurt, or did they just take him out of the rotation at the end of the game?

... and hopefully fills a need for us as a power forward with some scoring touch that we haven't had in spades since Miller and Matteau bolted. Add Poganski in a few years, and we should have a pretty balanced attack again.

Would love to have him. After all, speed kills. Could use his speed after Grimaldi leaves.

Have you forgotten our loss to New Hampshire in the regionals?