tnt

Plus they have some nice transfers in Mastrosimone, from BU, Ty and Dylan Jackson from Northeastern, and Lukas Sillinger from Bemidji State. Add in Josh Doan and Ryan O'Reilly who at one point we were interested in, and they have a decent lineup. They seemed to make easy work of CC last weekend.

Just ask Michigan.

“UND hockey, beating more talented teams since 1948”! There is a reason that Minnesota is the home of perpetual losers, they don’t realize that a little heart and grit goes a long way.

Guess I need a bigger sampling to make that statement. The talent is certainly there, but St. Cloud just swept Mankato, and Minnesota split, not surprising losing on the road. Won’t be any teams they face that have more talent, except maybe Michigan, but there could be a couple teams that could catch them on the road.

A win is a win, and actually we came out better in the pairwise on the weekend than they did considering they were on home ice.

I think part of it was UND trying to stay tight in their box after all the lapses last weekend. Even though we are better equipped speed wise for the ice surface it just doesn’t fit our game of playing physical, because if you take a run at someone and miss there is so much open ice to make you pay. Not surprising, Minnesota is so much more efficient on the ice they practice on every day. Thankfully if we see them again, they won’t have to deal with the large ice surface. Minnesota has had most of their problems with Mankato on the smaller ice surface. I think they realize that it is a disadvantage to them at NCAA tourney time.

James did have some missed assignments last week, so wondering if this is more of a defensive move. We all know the big ice surface can create even bigger problems. I know there were a lot of missed assignments last week, but who knows how practice went this week. Kunz is sitting too.

Why am I thinking Kleven will get a five-minute major?

Things aren't perfect right now to be sure, but how many years have we led the country in attendance. And what problem exactly have they created? Every other program in the country would love those problems. The "problems" UND is having is emblematic of a shift in student interest and other people deciding where/how to spend their money. It is trickling down to UND, but as a whole it hasn't yet become a dire situation like it was/is for the state of hockey's big program.

I don't know, I see a lot of UND fans at all venues in our league and beyond, and I know they don't live in all of those places.

The fact that you are only running into this now is pretty impressive. Plenty of teams run into the lack of hunger even after one championship. Keeping that passion for this long is quite the feat.

So no destination game for at least 3 years after the Vegas game?

Top five, no, but I think any team top 3 in the NCHC should be a top ten contender. Don't remember where they had us last year with 14 new guys, but it was probably top ten. I think Western might surprise a bit, as I think they are well coached and still have a nice talent base.

So where do you pick them to finish in the league?

Why wouldn't they be? Perennial power that is 2-2 with losses to a top tier team. Are you arguing for higher or lower?

All the space on Mariucci's ice surface isn't exactly a cure for bad defensive coverage. Now they have to worry about proper gapping with all the extra room. Thankfully they have the Olympic ice surface at the Ralph to at least have some time to prepare.

Did Kunz's roughing penalty when we were going to be on the power play against Quinnipiac earn him a weekend sitting at home? Does Ness get put back in the lineup this weekend?

Like NDSU hasn't just lived off of ramming the ball down the throats of the opposition for years. SDSU has beaten them the last 3 Dakota Markers games and seem to be the only team that can handle that. I hope UND has an answer for Luepke this time around, but in the FargoDome it may be pretty tough. We'll see if this lights a fire under NDSU and they start to roll again, because if they would have just kept down the path they were going last game instead of trying to be multi-dimensional, it might have been a blowout.

Denver.

No, when he went for the back of the legs of their QB.

Personally, I think that play showed the arrogance of the NDSU coaching staff. You were moving the ball at will against them with Miller throwing and the running game, but tried to show they could do it with anyone and the interception kept them alive. Let someone hang around long enough…

Guess the demise of Minnesota State due to an exhibition loss to Omaha were overstated.

You mean like Tomek? Plenty of times the stud goalies don’t work out. Plenty of goalies are late bloomers. Would rather recruit guys who have success at the junior level and come here at 19 or 20 year olds.

Let’s hope they don’t!

Don’t think Jesus has any eligibility left.