mikejm

I think expecting another low-scoring game is sort of wishful thinking. The Gophers will be angry, and probably start to show some of the desperation that is missing from their play. They'll take a lot of shots and a lot of chances. I hope JPL is up to the challenge. Because of the real lack of experience the Gophs have at defense, their chance-taking will create a lot of opportunities for the Sioux. I expect we'll see lots of odd-man rushes. If our shooters can be more accurate, this game might well be a very high-scoring one. My biggest question about this game will be answered quickly: which Sioux team will come out of the blocks? The uninspired, can't-hit-a-pass team that luckily beat Anchorage last Saturday, and showed up again in the first last night? Or the team that took over the game shortly after the start of the second Friday. Regardless, really; are there more gut-wrenching match-ups than UND/UMTC games? Every pass, every possession just seems so critical when these two teams play.

I'll take a contrarian position and say the committee did its job admirably by forwarding but one name. I'd just as soon have the next UND president chosen by a group of people whose first loyalty seems to be to UND and not some nebulous idea like the SBoHE. Have you ever applied for a job and not been hired? Did you have egg on your face because of that? This is an immature slant on something that happens often in the real world. Everyone who applied for the presidency knew they were going to be up against a lot of competition. They, for the most part, thought their own chances for hire were great, otherwise why go through the process. But to think someone is going to leave UND because they didn't get the job seems an obtuse projection. Is Hameson cleaning out his office? I, too, hope UND doesn't lose a couple deans. But they might have been on their way out anyway. If they were contented, in fact complacent in their current positions, would they have applied for the presidency? People come and go in academia and business all the time. Sometimes they leave because they feel snubbed; sometimes they don't get along with their co-workers; sometimes they leave just because they want a new challenge. The next UND president has much more important fish to fry than leading the university into DI athletics.

I don't think that's necessarily a dead tradition.

That's simple: we've got nothing else to complain about. We haven't been jobbed by the refs lately; we got no athletic director to be p.o.'d at; and the board of higher education hasn't hired a new president so we can't bitch about that either. Puffy's just convenient is all.

Even if this is the case, I think questioning O'Keefe's "loyalty" based on those two names is suspect, at best.

Livid Lucia Lambastes League Linesmen: Gophers continue slide as coach blames loss on poor officiating (Sidebar headline:) WCHA Commissioner, Head of Officials Fired Woog, Mazzocco named to interim posts

Wow. I didn't realize it would be that easy.

Love this line:

Everyone complaining about the "same old, same old" when it comes to NCAA tourney: You do realize there are only 59 DI college hockey teams, right? And it isn't like there is parity. In any given year there are probably only 30 decent teams in the whole country, and 16 of them get in. So your odds of seeing the same teams in the playoffs is at least 50-50.

^Yes, I do get it. I just don't think the WCHA's goal-scoring drought can be laid solely at the feet of officiating. There are a lot of other factors that enter in. I'd say the number of early-departures is at least as much a factor as is the officiating. And I am not prepared to accept the fact that the Parises, Bochenskis, et al have left college hockey simply because they're tired of getting hacked and held. There simply isn't the level of upper classmen talent in the WCHA that there was a decade ago. (No I don't have facts on this; it is merely my hunch as someone who has watched and actively followed UND and WCHA hockey since the early 70s.) In addition I think the WCHA has been blessed with a very highly talented group of goaltenders, which when coupled with bigger, lighter and better goalie equipment, would also directly (and negatively) impact the number of goals scored. I am not satisfied with the officiating in the WCHA. It is, frankly, embarrassing at times. But that's not the whole story. I am confident though, in saying the WCHA remains the premier college hockey conference. It will continue to attract the best talent. The days of that top-tier talent staying around for four years, and fully maturing as goal-scorers, is passed, unfortunately. We can blame the new reality of the NHL (and a very vibrant AHL) for that.

How do you explain the fact that goal scoring in the NHL is down this year. Did they start NOT calling obstruction?

Puffy's fine. He likes himself a lot. But he's not a bad dude. If it weren't for him there wouldn't be any college hockey talk on the air other than gametime. And I've heard him hatin' on the Gophers plenty, so he's not a total homer rube like Sid.

Jeebus, I watched about 25 minutes of that game! It would've been a BLAST to be there! Up and down the ice; 2 on 1s, 1 on 0s. Shoot. Save. Shoot, Score!!! It was nuts. Lee's name wasn't called to much while I had the game on. I heard him mentioned three times: 1. as the "smooth-skating defenseman from Moorhead NORTH DAKOTA"; 2. a "product of the University of North Dakota"; and 3. "skates on the number one defensive pair of the Binghamton Senators". As little defense as was played in the game, I'm surprised the announcers called Lee's name at all.

It works.

But you're not saying the Sioux have been playing with any measure of desperation lately, right? 'Cause I sure haven't seen it. Would like to. Just haven't.

Huh? 1. Sat vs. UAA and 2. ______________ ? Ya gotta help me here pal. Especially with the desperation part.

nm

Ugly. 2 points and another sweep. But OMG was that an ugly game. If Anchorage had anything approaching the skilled players that UND does, Saturday would've been a very lop-sided loss for the home team. Sometimes an ugly win is a lot more important in the long run than a rout; I'm sure the eighteen UND players who stood around the whole game know they got away with one. The only guys who showed up were Lamoureux and TJ. Interesting weekend coming up.

^ you just gotta keep picking that scab, don't you? Seriously, good for Brian.

Oxbow (I think you meant objective)

Hate to disagree, but Phil wasn't very sharp last night by what I saw. The goal he allowed was ugly: he had no clue as to where the puck was. Granted, there was a lot of traffic, but he made the first stop and then lost it. As I mentioned elsewhere he was the beneficiary of a post and at least one, maybe two crossbars. I don't see him as a star of the game by any measure.

Friends don't let friends post drunk.

That happened right in front of me. The puck, at no time, was even close to being in the goal. Watkins' theatrics were an ultimately futile attempt to get Todd Anderson to give him a penalty shot. Watkins never really had either of the UAA guys cleanly beaten.

That was a battle! UAA is a heckuva lot better team than their record would seem to indicate. They battled and battled, right to the bitter end. I'll give coach Shyiak props for having his team prepared and for pulling his goalie with 4 minutes left in the third. Speaking of the goalie, Christianson played a great game for his first collegiate start. Tough kid, too. One of his "saves" in the second was a shot right off his mask that actually chipped the damn thing! A big ole piece of his helmet went flying out into the crease and he swept it to his left where it lay for awhile. Kid's got rabbit ears though; the folks in my section were riding him pretty hard and I actually caught him peaking our way a couple times! The three goals he gave up are going in against almost any goaltender in the league: Kozek and Trupp's shots were incredible and Patrick Roy ain't making the save on Oshie either after his own defenseman took him out! On our side, JPL got some help from the pipes: I counted two crossbars and a post. And he was cleanly beaten on all three shots. I think he's missing his angles a little too often. I hate to say this, but I saw Robbie Bina struggling on a few occasions out there. He got caught at least twice pinching when he had no business doing so, and he left the point un-manned on the power play when there was no reason for him to carry the puck so deeply into the zone. As well as he's played I suppose he deserves an "off" night, which really isn't a fair assessment. Genoway's sprawling poke check saved his bacon. That was a 2-1/2 or 3 on 1 and somehow Chay played about 6'7" and broke the rush up, although it was really close to a very bad situation. Genoway was inside the dots before he recovered. I like the lines as Hakstol has them now; Kozek seems to have found himself skating with TJ and Duncan. Andrew's goal was a helluva shot. Trupp's was in virtually the same place so I'm sure they were all trying to go top shelf on Christianson. As I said above, Anchorage is a tough team and the Sioux went right after them in the corners and on the endboards. I was a little concerned when Radke took his second penalty in the 2nd, thinking he might be on the road to perdition, but he stayed out of trouble the rest of the way. Finley has really started to assert himself physically. He took two UAA guys out of the crease simultaneously in the 3rd! Just stood them both up and pushed them both out of the way. And TJ... man, he has gotten so strong. Like someone else noted, that kid's arms are going to be black and blue Saturday morning from all the slashes he took. Every time it looked like TJ was tied up or run into the corner or otherwise knocked off the puck, he seemed to pop out of the scrum, still with the puck and still motoring toward the crease. I don't think graceful is a word that would come to mind when watching TJ with the puck, but his play is a thing of beauty. We are lucky to be able to watch him. I think this was a good win for the team because they had to work very hard for it. It would've been nice to see the Sioux light Christianson up for 7 or 8 goals, but this kind of win will prove to be very valuable as the calendar pages continue to fall off.