tnt

Blais was saying he thought Mike Schmitt was doing the series. Anyone know for sure?

Showing up and arguing with them isn't going to put them in their place, a building without an audience will show what you think of them.

We very well might have 3 less national championships if the best players weren't played based on being walk-ons. Phil Sykes and Matt Henderson were walk-ons that thrived in the National Championship games.

They don't offer any insight to college hockey as far as I'm concerned. Anyone that says the Sioux have no talent at defense like Dubay did at the start of last year isn't worth listening to when it comes to college hockey. The Sioux only had first, second, third, and fifth round draft picks playing for them at the time. Add Nick Fuhrer as a talent and that is a pretty good crop of defense. I would say that NHL scouts know talent when they see it. Needless to say, I won't be listening to those clowns.

I agree with Chay Genoway having better hands than Colby, but his skating doesn't impress me. He reminded me of a Brandon Bochenski type with better skating skills, but great hands and puck smarts.

I don't remember blowing a three goal lead to Minnesota last year. I recall that happening two years ago with all those freshmen in the lineup.

Just watched the replay of the Prpich fight in slow motion and I can't conceive how the Duluth announcers couldn't give Prpich the unanimous decision. Better stop looking at the game through dog-colored glasses!

Looks like Kyle Radke is off to a good start this year in the Alberta Junior league. Click on Grand Prairie game reports for stats. http://www.ajhl.ca/

From what Chris Mussman said on the radio the other day, they tried to get Duluth on the schedule. They even offered to play in Duluth, but Duluth didn't want to. After all, Duluth made the playoffs without playing much stiff competition, why would they want to jeopardize that this year? They can't avoid the Sioux next year though.

I think the Sioux can make a run at the gophers if things fall in place, especially on the goaltending end. I will be upset if the difference between the two is only a few points and the Sioux lose a game at St. Cloud just after the New Year. When is the WCHA going to get it through their thick skulls not to schedule league play during the World Junior Tournament, especially rivalry games. It is not like the tournament is played different times from year to year. Last year we played Colorado College with three players missing, and this year we could be short three, or possibly more players. I believe Minnesota plays non-conference during the World Juniors this year. I am sure other leagues aren't too thrilled about playing conference games during World Juniors either, so I would think that a non-conference schedule could be worked out that would benefit all leagues. Ideally you would like to show league strength for the NCAA when league faces league. I happen to think league standings should hold a greater deal of weight and that everything that can be done to make league play the same for every team, or close to it , should be done.

Wow, Guess I was more than a little off on Murray's second season. Guess the outcome of that season can make up for the point drop. The freshman season was even better than I suspected. Other than Kevin Maxwell's freshman season, I wonder where that rates in best rookie seasons?

I'll split my vote. Best offensive player Hrkac, and best two-way player Troy Murray. Murray was physical at both ends of the rink as well as a great face-off guy and still put up great offensive numbers. (over 70 points in both his freshman and sophomore seasons I believe). I also believe he played during an era which was less wide open with brutal, physical defensive play. It's difficult to know how many points Murray would have put up had he played a third season, although I don't think it would have been in the Hrkac realm. Hrkac only played two years, but had one year of seasoning in the Canadian Development program in between his freshman and sophomore seasons. I haven't researched this, and I'm sure someone could come up with the actual numbers, but I believe Hrkac had about 170 points in his two seasons, and Murray in the realm of 146. I don't think there is any doubt that Hrkac's 1986-1987 season was the most remarkable season in UND history, perhaps college history. Two incredible, albeit contrasting hockey players. Couldn't go wrong with either one.

Let's face it, finding an incredible goaltender is not easy and is somewhat of a crap-shoot. Some of the biggest names coming into college haven't always panned out. Adam Hauser for example. We as fans are too conditioned to expect the same great goaltending that we saw from the Aaron Schweitzer/Karl Goehring era. That said, if you are going by numbers, Jake Brandt isn't doing that bad. I believe he is second in the league in goals against average. I am not quite certain about his save percentage, but I believe it is hovering about 90, not great, but ahead of a lot of goaltenders that are not being so discredited. The bottom line for me is wins and losses. If our goaltenders are making the big saves when they are needed and allowing the team to win on a regular basis I'm not going to be hyper-critical. The problem lately is that we haven't been winning. From what I've heard, Marc Ranfranz had a few decent games but wasn't rewarded. The bottom line in those games was that the other goaltender outplayed ours. Jake Brandt hasn't played very much lately, but he only has two losses, against Colorado College and Minnesota, not exactly bad teams. The Colorado game was probably one he would like to have back, but the team as a whole let down after the 3-0 lead. I do think that consistency is a problem, but he hasn't had the luxury of being inconsistent lately. Back to the original topic, if Ziegelmann wants to come in and is willing to compete, why wouldn't we want him to when finding a goaltender isn't always a scientific equation. The more goaltenders to choose from gives us better odds. If goaltenders near the top of the USHL in many categories are not the answer, then where do we start our search? Canada hasn't given us an Ed Belfour or Darren Jensen lately. The Sioux will have to make due with what they have for now and hope that numbers can give us an edge in the search.

Just the fact that BisonGuy is constantly preoccupied with the Sioux shows the impetus for the Bison's move to Division 1. Be sure to keep visiting this sight over the next 20 years or so and update us on each and every Bison win. Wait, that won't take that long. First loss to Augie in 40 years, first loss to South Dakota in 15 years, first loss to the UND women's volleyball team in 26 years, yeah, now would be a good time to get out of Division 2, because you certainly can't win at this level. At least if you keep losing at the Division 1 level you can brag about how great the competition is. That is all! I have nothing left to say, because I, unlike Bisonguy am not preoccupied with NDSU. We have way too much going on for us to spend time worrying about their visions of grandeur, because we are living a division 1 bonanza already.

Most of the teams picked in the top five have some big questions to answer. I am not convinced that Minnesota is going to walk away with anything. If you look at how Minnesota beat teams last year, you will find the powerplay had a lot to do with it. Will they still have a potent powerplay? The answer to that is probably yes, but I don't believe you can lose a Leopold, Taffe, and Pohl and expect it to be as good. Remember the downfall of the Sioux powerplay last year after losing Panzer, Roche and Bryan Lundbohm? Most Minnesota fans expect Koalska to be their top center. If they can expect Koalska to make that much progress from his Junior to Senior year, we certainly should be able to see one of our freshman make a similar jump in their sophomore season. Remember how Massen and McMahon finished up the season. In short, I don't believe Minnesota can expect to see an upside on their powerplay, while any improvement on our part will help our situation, hopefully winning those one-goal games this time around. Let's drop the puck and see how it all plays out!!