tnt

True, it's not like your big guys use their size anyways. I love the one where Mark Alt thinks he has Frattin lined up and ends up flying through the air with the greatest of ease

I get concerned when I hear Mussman on the news say "we need to keep things in front of us". I hope that doesn't mean playing off the receivers and guard against the long ball. I guess we will see tomorrow what that means. I would hope that we would be able to compete with another FCS team in athletes and be able to pick our spots to be aggressive.

I guess I am not making the connection with Buning and declining talent in the football program. I think we had some talent, but circumstances with Chappell, Murray, Bamba and Stroup doesn't help. You can't consistently lose your go-to players and not have it hurt the program. I think early on in the transition we were doing o.k., but not having a quarterback to even match what we had at the Division 2 level, certainly must fall on the coaching staff. Hopefully Mollberg will be in the fold and pans out to move us forward in that regard. That would add a level of excitement for the fans and make it easier to get some high-end recruits moving into the Big Sky.

Luke Voltin with 2 goals 1 assist tonight and named 1st star of the game for the USA Under 17 team. Also Luke Johnson with an assist with one period left.

I would say that if the defense isn't aggressive, they could be picked apart and another 400 yards passing could be put up. If they are at least aggressive against that attack, they should be able to come up with a few picks to help offset the passing numbers. If they get it handed to them without any turnovers, it could be a long day. Hopefully the Sioux will get on the board early and can keep the SUU offense off the field.

It would seem the timing of their pending decision and this would be awfully coincidental.

I know we've got some good players too, but just saying that a lot of the recruits from last years and this years gopher teams were players that the Sioux recruited and Minnesota thought were good gets like Hoeffel, Matson, Ness, Sachetti, Larson, Hansen, Budish, Barriball, and not sure on Patrick White and Max Gardiner or Justin Holl. I would guess that Bjugstad was a longshot so not sure on that either. In the end, it comes down to what you do with the guys you wanted. After the fact, would we trade any of our guys we ended up with for Ness, Sachetti, Larson, Hansen or White?

True, if they get Cammaratta as some suggest, they would have recruits and current players with the following heights, Guertler 5'9, Letteri 5'9, Nanne 5'10, Ryan Reilly 5'7, Connor Reilly 5'10, Rau 5'9, Waring 5'8, Justin Kloos 5'9, and Cammaratta 5'6. Michaelson is 6'1 but hardly a power forward. They would really need Fasching and/or Lucia to add to that group, although some might grow a bit by the time they hit campus. They would be set up for the large ice surface, but playing in small buildings would be interesting. Maybe they are just adapting to the new hits to the head rules, as it will be more inevitable with the smaller forwards going up against bigger players. Maybe they have Fasching and a few other bigger players lined up, but as you said, they can't have too much scholarship money left.

It would have been nice to have Guertler as well, but as I said before, Minnesota has won a lot of recruiting battles with us lately. The joke about Minnesota has always been that they can get all the top recruits, but they don't necessarily always put good "teams" together. You have to incorporate role players into the mix. and the Sioux always seem to have a better mix than Minnesota in that regard. Minnesota always seems to be intimidated by our style of play, and I don't see that changing, especially when it is so ingrained into the conciousness of their players and their fans. Heck, I would be afraid of playing against the Sioux as well, if I believed everything Minnesota coaches and fans spout all the time.

It's tough to say how UND would do against Minnesota. I do think that Minnesota was a lot better last year when they had an actual quarterback that could throw and wasn't Sherrills from the Vikings a gopher last year as well? That team still got rolled by South Dakota, and let's not forget they also got rolled by Northern Illinois who the Sioux took down to the wire. Bottom line is that you need to finish off games like that against a higher division. NDSU has done that, UND has not. You can make arguments that Fresno State is better than Minnesota, but UND didn't finish them off when they had a chance. I hope that UND can get to the ultimate in FCS before NDSU, but there is much improvement needed in order for that to happen.

I think it will be the same scoreboard with new video boards. Agree, with new buildings coming on board in the last few years, the Ralph needs to stay state of the art.

If they can't get motivated when the Sioux were picked to finish last in the Great West, then something really needs to change. These are the kind of games where Mussman and the Sioux will be judged from here on out.

It's funny to see all the gopher fans act like losing to NDSU is a disgrace. Guess what, I think at least 50% of people thought they would win. And as expected, since the gophers are bad, they have to call NDSU fans a bunch of farmers. Maybe they should recruit a few farm boys in both football and hockey, instead of the pretty boys they tend to recruit. It's easy to see how they get pushed around so much by the FCS level, because if they are anything like their fan base, they are elitists and don't think they need to have a work ethic to beat a bunch of "farm" boys. They get what they deserve with that attitude.

Really, we don't even know if Bradley might be the guy for the future still. Remember, just last year, the Bison weren't exactly enamored with their quarterbacks. They went back and forth with Mohler and Jensen, then finally settled with Jensen. I'm not so sure Mohler was that great, and early on, neither was Jensen, so lets give Bradley some time to make adjustments to this level before we hand over the position to someone who is equally inexperienced. We really thought we were getting something with Demler with Wisconsin's interest in him, so even though Iowa shows interest in Mollberg, he will have adjustments to make as well. Nonetheless, I am very excited to get the potential he brings.

Yeah, I'm surprised Chambers doesn't start his artcicle "Brad Malone, the guy who broke Jesse Martin's neck, had a goal and an assist"!

I'm sure he would have been more impressed by St. Francis.

Yeah, they now have some good depth. They were picked to finish 4th in the WCHA, but who knows how well they will do, now that the Lamoureux's won't be worn down as much. Looks like they might redshirt most, if not all of the freshmen, if tonight is any indication. The fourth line looked pretty good, and the transfer Monique Weber especially looked like she could help a bit. The Line combos were: 1. Lamoureux - Lamoureux - Karvinen 2. Dahlen - Jakobsen - Wiebe 3. Loken - Ketcher - Dagenais 4. Parizek - Weber - Gilbert They played Margot Miller, who was on the Lamoureux twins line at times last year at defense. The one power play I saw had both the twins at defense with Karvinen, Dahlen and Jakobsen up front. I really like how they can now roll four lines and be aggressive coming at the other team without wearing out. Lamoureux's didn't play much at all in the 3rd period. Be interesting to see if there are changes in the 2nd exhibition game, trying to get Holly Perkins and Madison Kolls in the lineup, or if tonights lineup is in tact. Both those girls saw a lot of action last year, which attests to the depth they have now. Guess we'll find out in the next few weeks how much the depth will help against great teams.

Yeah, I'm sure they would have liked to have him, but I don't think they'll dwell on it. After all, UND has lost numerous recruits to Minnesota in the last 3-4 years, and the Sioux seem to have come out all right. It's what you do with them when they get here that counts.

I would prefer 7 teams with Western Michigan so we have potential to play all our old rivals every year. If St. Cloud is so great, you need to ask yourself why were they not included the first time around?

Maybe someone from the media should also ask them why they would be in a league where the "Fighting Sioux" nickname is still not totally resolved. Who knows, by some miracle they could be in a conference with a hostile and abusive nickname, and how do you continue to protest when you followed them into another league.

I agree that the NCHC made a knee-jerk reaction due to panic. If you truly want to be National, allow for some expansion nationally. Now that you accepted a mediocre school to the mix, the league is not quite as attractive. I liken this to the WCHA accepting Alaska Anchorage years back. The consequences of such action really gave the WCHA problems in travel and everything else, and after it was done, how do you undo it and get rid of them! The same can be said of St. Cloud. At what point do you have buyer's remorse and are stuck with "damaged goods"?

That's twice now Brian Faison has had Sioux fans feeling thrilled with new conferences, only to have it tempered after the initial conceptions are not completely what they were supposed to be. With the Big Sky we needed a conference any which way, but after that blindside, you would have thought they would get their ducks in a row ahead of time instead of having to backtrack embarrassingly. And if it isn't backtracking, why wasn't St. Cloud invited the first time around? Totally agree, much spin to come.

Can you start a ground swell of SCSU fans to protest joining, and threaten state legislation against it!

I personally wouldn't want Gino as commissioner. First, everyone would complain that he plays favorites to UND, and secondly, the probability that he had some sway getting SCSU into the NCHC shows that the good old boys network is alive and well. I was hoping that kind of thing would be left behind in the WCHA with Bruce Mcleod and Gregg Sheppard.

Maybe if Notre Dame falls through, we can get Black Hills State to climb aboard the NCHC express.