mikejm

The home team was very, very lucky to get a point tonight. Aside from Trupp's sick goal I didn't see one thing that indicated this was the same team that waxed DU's hind end last night. Eidsness (obviously) was POTG for the Sioux, but he needs to stop by his nearest house of worship to thank someone or something for the post in overtime. That was a full-on clanger that would've sent the fans home disappointed. Denver comes with a full-on forecheck (they had five skaters from center ice in all the freakin' time!), and on the off chance the Sioux were able to break out of their zone and actually carry the puck in on Cheverie, the Pios collapsed into the slot and shut off everything. Two thing I don't know get: 1. Why do the Sioux have such a hard time with this defense? and 2. Why does every team in the country not play this against UND? This was a lucky tie; I hope the team sees and understands that. Oh, btw, Anderson and Campion didn't do that badly a job calling the game. The Sioux were constantly getting beat to the puck, getting passed by forwards breaking out and breaking in on Eidsness. I saw a lot of holds and hooks on the Sioux that should've been called and weren't.

This was the result of Hextall's yapping: DEN-8 Rhett Rakhshani (2-Elbowing) 9:59 DEN-9 Anthony Maiani (10-Misconduct) 9:59 DEN-10 Dustin Jackson (2-Slashing) 9:59 DEN-11 Dustin Jackson (10-Misconduct) (Served by Matt Glasser) 9:59 Add this to that and you have perhaps the ugliest team meltdown in college hockey history: DEN-12 Patrick Mullen (2-Roughing) 10:14 DEN-13 J.P. Testwuide (10-Misconduct) 10:14 DEN-14 Brandon Vossberg (2-Roughing) 10:14 DEN-15 Brandon Vossberg (2-Roughing) 10:14 DEN-16 J.P. Testwuide (2-Roughing) 10:14 DEN-17 J.P. Testwuide (2-Roughing) 10:14 DEN-18 J.P. Testwuide (2-Cross-Checking) 10:14 For those of you scoring at home, that's 46 minutes of penalty minutes dished out in 15 seconds of "playing time". I think at this point I counted 5 Pios in the box and two sent down the tunnel to think about their conduct. To be completely transparent here, Hextall did end up drawing double minors in the 10:14 scrum, but his play led to all the above. You gotta love a kid with that kind of mindset. edit: now that I look at the numbers, I'm surprised Testwuide didn't get a game dq for his outburst; he drew three minors and a 10 for his little outburst against the boards.

Sandbagger.

Wow. Just wow. That was a really, really good hockey team out there tonight. Wow.

That's what I fear...

IMO this is the biggest series of the year for the Sioux and (obviously) sets the table for the endgame. A sweep puts them in the driver's seat for the Cup, first round home ice and all that. Losing two to the Pios might a deal-breaker. Denver is skilled everywhere on the ice, scores well and defends excellently. Big, big test for the home team. I'm all about risk vs. reward; this is a high-risk series, with a huge, huge payoff if the Sioux can get a sweep.

I had hoped that Vandy would be dominant this year; he has all the skills and tools.

Wow. That's quite a roster. Some serious talent.

Oh man, you ARE old... (Of drinking age since 1973)

Once again a more talented and faster team is taken completely off its game by the "slow-down". Hak's teams need to figure out an escape path from clutch-and-grab hocey.

Boy pretty hard to feel good about that.

kfgo.com

um, guys...

I don't know if anyone else heard, or even if this is a proper place to post this tidbit, but on PA's show this morning Kevin Gorg said that after watching last weekend's thrashing of the Gophers, the team that really scares him right now is the Sioux. He was quite effusive in his praise, and made reference to championship form. It actually brought tears to my eyes.

waa waa waa Roman's turning into a real crybaby.

^Awfully. Painfully. Stunningly. Unbelievably.

I have but one word for you: Ben Blood

: brain fart :

Another tidbit from Fargo Sioux Boosters Tuesday: Dane Jackson made reference to a comment about UofM starting to cherry pick the prime recruits from northern Minnesota at the expense of UND. He said he'd specifically heard that Mike Lee, the Roseau goalie who was just named to the USHL All-Star team, and who is headed to play for the Gophers, was a sure sign that UND had lost its allure to northern MN high schoolers. Jackson said that UND looked at Lee, but once they had Brad Eidsness' commitment in hand the coaches "knew we had our Number 1 goaltender". Not meant to be a knock on Mike Lee, merely to point out the confidence Hak et al had in Eidsness before he set foot on campus.

Poor guy just doesn't realize he'll never be an NHL defenseman.

IIRC coaches can't comment at all on a recruit, nor one who has "verballed". Only after a national letter of intent is signed can official comments be made.

When it comes right down to it, and there are lots of people here and elsewhere who will attest to this I don't know nothin'

Yeah. I tried to grab Jackson after the luncheon but he scooted out of there pretty fast.

Jackson was pretty coy about the whole deal. It sounded to me like they didn't mind so much that the fourth one got away.