tnt

It has got to be difficult to weed out all the high scorers in high school whose skills might not transfer to the next levels. I certainly thought guys like Slukynsky and Randklev would have put up better numbers in junior hockey than they did. We can just throw out names left and right that put up good numbers at different levels and wonder if UND should be recruiting them. Then we get to cherry pick the ones that succeed and question why they weren’t recruited, while forgetting the dozens or more that fall off the map. They only have a limited number of scholarships to fill certain roles, so they have done a pretty good job keeping the misses to a minimum.

https://www.ushl.com/view#/player/8017/73/jake-schmaltz I thought Jake was the cousin of Nick and Jordan. I assume this is wrong?

I'm surprised more of the smaller name schools don't follow the Maverick's playbook. Yes, you still have to find the right players, but you can compete pretty well with men while some players still are boys comparatively speaking. It is a good reason why it is better to keep players an extra year in Juniors when possible, so they are that much more physically able to compete against teams like Minnesota State.

Other than Hrenak, have they said if any of their Seniors are coming back?

To me if that wasn't going to be the case, then it was very odd that he committed so long ago before they had a good track record in Junior hockey. It says he committed October 2018, and he played for Central in 2018.

Which makes it even more surprising that the team that garnered the most attention can't seem to get any of those people to attend their games.

But don't you think he is being brought in as the "practice" goalie, that would be accepting of his role? It takes a special kind of person to go in and have pucks blistered at him every day with the knowledge that they most likely won't be playing but a period here or a period there, unless a couple guys go down, and even then they would probably bring in another person anyway.

So are you going to pass on your numerous trophies you have achieved in this realm?

I will add that the administrations of many of the old WCHA schools in the NCHC were very upset with the small minded thinking in the teams left in the WCHA and what they could do as a voting block trying to reduce scholarships and such. They were afraid of a Division 2 mindset after the teams bolted for the Big Ten.

Don’t know if Bale speaks for Mankato, but he seems to think Minnesota State would like to be in the NCHC.

They played well enough to win by the way they controlled the play, but ultimately it is up to the players to snipe to score goals, so if you say 100 minutes to score doesn't cut it, you are putting the onus on those that had the ability to change that.

Well, you got your wish, a lot of the guys that didn't score aren't coming back, so I suppose you are very happy now that Pinto, Kawaguchi, Adams, Mismash, JBD, Kiersted are gone because they just couldn't cut it in the tournament.

Yeah, fatigue couldn't have been a factor, considering the goalie that only played in that game couldn't make it through the game. When you are needing IV's in between overtime periods, I think fatigue might be a factor.

Is his draft position where some of the trepidation comes from about him showing up here? Is there concern if he is drafted first round he may choose a different route?

True, I’m just saying that we were forced to the limit by a good St. Cloud team, so to suggest UND would have won is easy to just say. As we have seen, beating anybody when you get to tournament time isn’t a given because there are so many variables.

It might just be UMass’ time to win. Like I said before, we beat Denver on the way to our Championship then Denver won it, beating Duluth, then Duluth had their championships, the last by beating UMass. If they can’t come back in the third, maybe it is in the future for St. Cloud, but I hope not.

That is the refrain of losers. We were lucky to come back against St. Cloud at home, so it is easy to just say we would have beat such and such.

I see Kunz and Schmaltz are tied for 4th in the USHL in +/-. That’s pretty impressive considering how Green Bay doesn’t score near as much as Chicago and Muskegon.

Thanks for the heads up. Hadn’t heard anything about it until I saw your post.

Got 4 Kiersted sticks, 2 Mismash, 2 JBD, and a Caulfield and Frisch stick, along with some shin pads. Didn't see any Pinto sticks. Lot's of good deals.

The NCHC wins too many more, the officials from other leagues could subconsciously find a few more calls against NCHC teams that are borderline.

Gino used to say that all the time, and he won National Championships, so it wasn't him trying to elevate his league championships because he hadn't won "The Big One".

Wait, Hakstol made the Frozen Four consistently but remember it was all about Nattys.

For those that want St. Cloud, remember, people were saying the same thing before Duluth won their first title. Funny thing about winning and creating a culture that isn’t about losing to teams you shouldn’t lose to. Once you win, the belief is there and the culture grows, nevermind the boost for recruiting. St. Cloud is doing pretty well for itself now, without getting the cream of the crop. Sandelin brought UND type culture to UMD, and now one of his old assistants is looking to bring the same to St. Cloud. It wasn’t until Blais rebuilt our culture that our program took off again. Hoogsteens and Panzer’s weren’t the cream of the recruiting crop, but after they helped rebuild our culture, we started to get more and more elite prospects and that was without our current facilities. I know it is only one game, but we might be complaining about St. Cloud someday like we do about Duluth.

Seems to me they had the benefit of a few of those non calls against us in overtime.