farce poobah

Takes a lot of confidence in your team to pre-print one of those and bring it to the game ...

Posted this on USCHO too, thought it worth adding here. A few random thoughts, after the Regional: * In NCAA play, Hakstol is now 7-2 as a head coach. (3-1, 2-1, & 2-0 so far this year) * This makes 3 years in a row that Minnesota's season has ended by/at UND (Columbus, in Grand Forks, now Denver) * Also UND wins the season series from MN 3-1. Just twice in the last 11 has MN won it (some splits in there too). * Duncan now has 31 goals, with the nation's leader, Ted Cook of Niagara, at 32. * Face offs, the art of which is little appreciated by us fans, were key to the win. Both Lucia and Hakstol commented on puck possession and that MN had to chase us for 15-20 seconds after most faceoffs. This too is huge, and was probably a factor as the OT went on. * I think the DOT line looked a bit leg-weary on the weekend. They've logged a LOT of miles this season. I'm glad they get a 10-day break between games. * OTOH, the Sioux system of playing is so finely synchronized that I always worry how we'll come out after that 10-day break. * Porter VandeVelde and Watkins looked like they were playing at fast forward throughout the OT, getting better as it went on. * In the OT, UND pretty much went 3 lines, and it looked like Lucia went 3 too (?) ... maybe that led to the GWG ... * Also in the OT, no TV timeouts, no rest for either side. * I wish there was some way to get stats like NHL games - TOI, shifts, etc ... I think Chorney logged over 40 minutes... Enough for now. Interested in what others saw...

Part way into the OT, I commented to my daughter (who's in sports) about how Porter was flying out there, and how he had won the dry-land competition umpteen times in a row, and how all that hard work would pay off. (seriously) So now I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Nice call.

We've been mostly going 3 lines. I've seen Watkins and Oshie with Zajac and Miller....

I STILL have a good feeling about this.

Dammit Radke!!

The conversation focused on going pro, the advantages and disadvantages .... Tim said all the right things.

Who do we think he'll pick?

SOG 20-18 Sioux, IIRC. or, 14-9 SIoux in the second period. We actually started to get some flow there. Picking off a LOT of Minnesota passes in/from their own zone. We need to turn those into scoring chances....

1-1 after 1

Positives: Second line looks good, they are a great matchup. Don't be surprised if Lucia changes that matchup. We're picking off Gopher clearing passes. Hope that turns into 3x2 down the line.

One final observation on yesterday's game - we scored 5 PPG in just 6 minutes of PP time. Elapsed PP time: PP#1 : 18 - Goal PP#2 : 08 - Goal PP#3 1:23 - Goal (the 5x3) PP#4 :59 - no PP#5 : 05 - Goal (Bina) PP#6 :23 - Goal (Oshie) PP#7 1:12 - no PP#8 1:45 - no 5 seconds, 8 seconds, 18 and 23 ... Maybe Red wasn't impressed with the Sioux PP because they weren't out there very long.

Ditto. Well said.

No stickwork. We showed a lot of maturity last night in adapting to how the game was going to be called. We showed a lot of maturity in not retaliating to Michigan's headhunting (they could have been called for another half-dozen head-hits). In a game like this, we have to bury the baggage and extra emotion and just play smart.

Thanks for the link. Red did a great job of not saying anything (but doing so very politely) in the postgame.

Hmmm.... Forney. Forney-cation. F'ng. Works for me.

4: left in the second. A power play we actually don't score on. I hope our Coaching MF Staff chews some butts about this.

"Mommy, what does the MF stand for?"

I'm green with envy. Thanks for the update.

Lammy!!!! with the great stop to prevent Hensick's hat trick and keep Duncan's Hobey Baker chances alive! ... then JMFJ with the incredibly stupid running-the-goalie penalty. Again, really happy that we didn't retaliate.

Looked to me like Bina deliberately shot the puck wide ... I can't fault Sauer on that one. Bang-bang play. In Michigan's system, they NEED a great goalie. Sauer doesn't seem like the kind to steal a bunch for you. Agree Red must be looking for another.

So when Porter tosses the puck out of the zone, did he do it without closing his hand?

Mostly because Lammy started standing on his head. And in the 3rd we started playing decent positional hockey.

Tonight is a night for BUTTS. Let's recap what we have so far, shall we? 1) Lucia squeezed himself a couple diamonds, according to the AF-MN thread. 2) I've got monkeys ... 3) Michigan's collective team butt is getting chewed. Not just by Red. Check the USCHO thread on Michigan's offseason. Their fans are ripping new ones for the whole team. 4) Most importantly, the Sioux survived a great big Butt Check tonight. Lived to play another day.