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This quote from a recent Schlossman article on Perron excites me about the prospects for next year, considering the impact Blake has had. Of course how fast he transitions isn’t a given, as evidenced by Isaac Howard’s slower transition for Duluth, but at some point he will make a huge impact. “At 5-foot-9, the knock on Jayden is his size, but he knocks back with his skating, hands and intelligence. Garman says Jayden is comparable to former Steel forward and current Fighting Hawk Jackson Blake in terms of their hockey IQ. But there is a difference. “Blake knew what you were going to do before you did,” Garman said. “I feel like he was always ahead of you. I would say Jayden not only has that ability, but can also manipulate the defensive player because he’s so creative and elusive. And he’s incredibly young. A first-year draft player to have that poise and confidence is pretty exceptional.”

Kinda like an Oshie elevator experience?

But this time we outplayed a team, but weren’t as porous defensively. Before it seemed like we would be playing well in the offensive end, but would give up odd man rushes that would find the back of our net.

But we have no idea who is going to win between the two next weekend, nor what happens between Duluth and St. Cloud the following. Just need to get our own game to the next level down the stretch.

What are the brackets? Who does South play if they beat Century, Legacy or Davies?

It’s very possible that the opening round playoff series for both UND and Duluth will be the same matchup they have during the last regular season games. UND against Omaha and St. Cloud against Duluth.

Another reason that a bigger goalie is preferred, as Castor covered pipe to pipe on that Gaber shootout shot.

I assume home ice is now out of the question since St. Cloud has a better head to head record. Of course Miami would give up a late lead against Omaha.

But here is where I think you see the difference of past teams and this team. Everything was around the perimeter. Where did St. Cloud get their 2nd goal, from garbage time out front, and he is a small player. I saw people skating away from the front of the St. Cloud net on many occasions, when they could be screening the goalie for a shot from the point. Need to get to the dirty areas in the third and either take away the goalies eyes or get a garbage goal. It is like our 5 on 5 is the same as our power play, only St. Cloud has enough guys to defend.

We’re all frustrated by this horrible year, so any positives we can take is something to at least give us hope for the future, even if this season continues down the wrong path. With how things have gone, it’s a positive they didn’t fold when they went down 3-1 after the 5 minute major. Yes, that should be the expectation for UND hockey, but sometimes human nature takes over. Hopefully it’s something they can use going forward this year, but I like some of the pieces they have in place if nothing else.

No they didn’t, but they can only do what they can do at this point, and it was far from UND getting embarrassed as you expected.

Wow, we win and negatives are what you focus on. When did you become GF hockey?

Blake does that too.

If it helped with team discipline in the future it wouldn’t be a bad thing, however we are well past the rest of the players taking it seriously this far in, much like when Rhett Gardner was finally benched.

Slim chances, unless Miami can beat Omaha, but it is still possible to finish ahead of Omaha, since we play them. Guessing St. Cloud doesn’t lose out the rest of the way, so either scenario is pretty unlikely, but UND just has to play well and have at least a little mojo going into post season.

Win tomorrow, hope Miami can upset Omaha, then hope either St. Cloud or Omaha sweeps each other next week. Of course, UND has to keep winning.

No five minute majors tomorrow, and why not just stay out of the box period.

That was interference, but St. Cloud shouldn’t have had a power play when they scored their 2nd goal because that was classic interference that led to a chance in front, and then they called the subsequent cross check on UND. Consistency please.

If I was Peart, I wouldn’t be sacrificing a chance at a pro career by opening yourself up to a check from behind into the boards. Based on the college rule, the refs made the right call, but it was obvious what happened, and they could have given St.Cloud a penalty for cross checking Gaber after to offset the lack of self care by Peart.

https://www.ncaa.com/championships/icehockey-men/d1/future-info Looks like we don't host an NCAA regional next year, so we will probably get in the tournament. I assume that is a typo for the 2025 regional host in Fargo.

Are you thinking Frisch, or are you being facetious?

Really could use a dependable all around guy like Connor Ford this year, but since his numbers weren’t huge last year, people think he wasn’t a big loss. That is why going solely on offensive stats is a big mistake. Heart and soul guys that do things right and make the smart play 90% of the time are indispensable.

Don’t forget about Mac Swanson, who said the coaching staff was the reason he chose UND. We do need to get back to being a hard forechecking team that can still take care of their own end. To be frank, teams like Western always seem to be hard on the forecheck and buzzing in the offensive zone. Maybe the best defense for us is to be constantly buzzing in the offensive zone, without that extra turnover at the blue line that is killing us with odd man rushes going the other way.

I really don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel. I think the team overachieved last year with all of the new guys, and I think they thought everything would be handed to them. We all expressed concern that we don’t pull a St. Cloud with everyone coming back, so that is the coaches job to instill that in his players. If they get back to needing to prove something and do the off-season work to make that happen, there can be a quick turnaround. This is not something that should be happening frequently. I recall they had a nice system in place under Hakstol where they would always have options of people to bring in, depending on development and experience, but that seems to be a bit broken with Covid and the portal. They need to get back to that system and figure out a good mix, especially at goaltending. Let’s get this fixed.

I would argue that the reason we aren't successful is because we seem to be a little softer than we used to be. When we keep talking "no swagger" on the years we are down, there is a problem in the guys we are recruiting. We would always have some skill guys and a complement of players that just had an edge and would go through a brick wall for the team. Everyone would always say that we would be the hardest working team and were just plain hard to play against. When I look at our roster, there aren't that many players I look at and think their distinguishing characteristic is being tough to play against. Some of the defensive lapses are due to being mentally lazy, and some from being physically lazy, and those aren't thing usually associated with UND hockey. Need to find a way to right the ship and truly be a team of "culture"!