tnt

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!!