tnt

The inconsistency of these calls is also my pet peeve.

I expected to have that call last weekend when Gaarder got hit from behind, but then again, it was Sheppard officiating the game.

Oh, I guess I just looked at the page with the new additions, and none of them were listed after they verbaled.

Am I missing something? I haven't seen Wade Murphy, Christian Evers, nor Tucker Poolman listed on the 2013 Heisenberg recruiting comittments. Anybody know why they wouldn't be listed on his site?

You never know, but his brother did go to Michigan, so hopefully his college experience was positive.

Adam Tambellini is the BCHL player of the week with 6 points in two games over the weekend.

I guess I wonder with the defense as bad as it has been, why weren't those redshirts pulled? We seemed to pull Golladay's redshirt even though we have more depth at that position than any other.

Was it Hardin, or Ramon Bridges that let the ball roll out?

Too bad UND isn't playing the critical non-conference games after Christmas, because now getting swept at Notre Dame could really put the hurt on this team in the pairwise. I think a timeout could have been warranted in the third period even when UND was holding on to a 2-1 lead. It felt like it was just a matter of time. Maybe if you do that too much early in the year, they don't hold the same authority as they do for the Final Five type timeout. Hopefully were not in for a frustrating first half of the year that will make every game crucial in the second half. At least UND hopefully learned a painful lesson the last two weekends that will help them in league play in the weeks to come.

Don't feel quite as bad about this as the others, simply because I have a feeling he could have had penalty problems in the NCAA as well, but who knows what he would have added on offense and character. He wasn't going to be here for a couple years anyway, so like you said, I think UND has the type of program, that given time to find an elite replacement, will be high up on many recruits list. Would feel worse if they lose Schmaltz.

I believe Lemieux was the recruit that said that when he hung out in the lockerroom when his dad played in pro hockey that the guys who had a college education were the most respected. So much for that I guess. Just hope that Nick Schmaltz doesn't follow suit.

... and when they do, UND could very well have a nickname that you guys can make fun of, especially if the politically correct crowd has a large voice in the process.

North Dakota was going to end using the nickname last January, and they did, until they were told there had to be a vote. During that time before the New Year Wisconsin had already had a scheduling agreement with UND. It wasn't until after UND was told they had to have a vote to end the nickname that Minnesota started scheduling with Notre Dame, etc.

If it is as big as a problem as you say, They definitely need to be better than around .500 before Christmas in this new era of parity, but Hakstol's system of building is hopefully going to prevent UND from peaking at the wrong time. Yes, they haven't won it all under Hakstol, but the fact that we are expecting it every year shows they are heading in the right direction at that time of year. Remember, with our very limited lineup last year we still had a better seed in the NCAA tournament than Minnesota, it just didn't help that we had to face them again in the regional down there.

I am hoping that Ian McCoshen is still in play. Lot of defensemen in the pipeline right now. I would assume that Poolman would be a partial scholarship as are a lot of guys, and depending on how much was offered there may still be enough scholarship money to lure McCoshen.

So, when the rivalry does resume, does it become less intense among the players, or more intense. I know the fans will have that intensity because of the history, but if the players don't have guys to hate from the start, how does that play into the intensity?

Exactly! When they had the rather big window to make the scheduling agreement that Wisconsin did, they didn't. Then almost directly after the vote was required to get rid of the nickname Minnesota locked into their agreements.

I don't think chemistry is born overnight. Not sure how long before Knight and Kristo started clicking together, but O'Donnell has the speed and skills, he just needs to play with them for a while to see if something can build. Caggiula played with them but he wasn't given much time to build chemistry either. I think no matter who you put there, time to build would probably be needed. They did have a nice highlight goal together, but it didn't seem to carry over very well. Kristo was a part of thee goals the night before, but he didn't seem to have his best game on Saturday either. I don't want to call it a complete failure when the team as a whole didn't have their "A" game.

You do realize that the same inconsistency has gone on every year in the first half under Hakstol, minus Frattin's Senior season. You also should remember that the Sioux are "THE" most consistent team in the second half of the season. Yes, it's frustrating that there isn't more consistency throughout the season, especially in this new era where you could have too much ground to make up in the pairwise with so many teams involved, but if I had my druthers, I would rather be more consistent in the second half of the season. Sounds to me like some of you are part of the "Fire Hakstol" crowd.

I know, Anchorage should be ashamed of themselves!

We're really going to argue about meaningless polls at this point in the season? Don't we argue that they don't give trophies away in October?

Exactly, he is averaging the same number of points per game as Kyle Rau and Nick Bjugstad, and he is just getting his feet wet. Besides that, they have played against teams that traditionally play it tight to the vest, and are teams that are tough to play against, much less put up big numbers against. I think the fact that he is getting his chances against them bodes well for us down the line. I like Grimaldi on that line with St. Clair and Caggiula, and think if that line can produce a goal just about every night along with the Knight line and the Rowney line, and the occasional chip in by Chyzyk's, we will be tough to beat. I don't think we'll be giving up over 3 goals very often, so we seem very balanced in that all of those lines should be able to add offense fairly often.

I think the big difference is the defense. Minnesota has big, mobile defensemen, and the Sioux have a few that fill that bill, but otherwise they are a step slow. Bottom line is you need something from the twins in games like these, and they got nothing this weekend. To the contrary, they had some untimely penalties that hurt their chances of coming back. I'm hoping that Candace Molle can be added for the second half of the season, and the addition of Karvinen and Jensen, along with the progression of the rookies will narrow the gap between the two.

Luke Johnson was first star of the game tonight for Lincoln with a goal and an assist. Jack Rowe duplicated those stats tonight and was named 3rd star.

That's why I wrote "Seriously" to begin the next sentence. I was trying to make the point that others have, that we didn't get Anchorage's best effort, and we better be ready for a different team, or at least one that sticks to what they do best.