farce poobah

oh bleep 3-1 bucky

I think Hennessy said its South 20, Central 0 at halftime.

GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL!GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! I don't get to say that very often, you know.

Word is another month ... maybe UMD 12/10 and 12/11,

Well done, Sioux. The National Weather Service says it will be 40 degrees with a chance of rain or snow next Saturday. (I guess that means the game will be played in a driving blizzard.)

Tied at 10 SC gets a 40-yard FG into the wind. Glas misses a 2nd 52-yd attempt, snap/hold were a little late. 6 minutes left. Sioux D needs to step up.

Great comments by the St Cloud announcers ... "there's as many Sioux fans here as Husky fans"

7-0 end of the half. Glas was just left on a 52-yard FG attempt. Sioux D holds SC offense under 100 yds. Sioux dominating a lot of the stats.

The fightingsioux.com feed has been in and out ... here's a St Cloud feed ... click the "listen live" button at left: http://www.kvsc.org/

Sioux with the 7-0 lead end of the first half. Some adventure on special teams, as both teams mess up a punt attempt. No harm done tho.

They are all too old, most of them are 24 or 25 when they come in as freshmen.

I was pleasantly surprised at the refereeing of Zelkin this weekend. After getting hopes dashed on numerous occassions in the past that a new ref might be better than the old, I have to give him A LOT of credit for calling the games fairly this weekend. For those who didn't see the games in person, I would characterize the ref-style as "last years definition of penalties". Which I am just fine with, and which frankly should help the Sioux when facing a speedy non-physical team like CC. HOWEVER, I wonder whether that will hurt us NEXT weekend. Going into Madison, unless Zelkin is the ref (and he hasn't been disciplined by his boss for not calling enough ticky-tack stuff), I would not be surprised if the Sioux fill up the penalty box by doing the same things that they did this weekend. I just have this sinking feeling that we'll take 7-8 penalties in the first period Friday and dig a big hole that we cant quite get out of. I hope to be wrong.

I wanted to pass out Kudos to a handful of players for their performances this weekend: Kyle Radke, whose improvement from 3 weeks ago is startling. As the dude said in Matrix, "He's beginning to believe." Confidence really starting to show in his play, the game seems to be slowing down. Not up to say, Andy Schneider's level of play yet, but settling in to some quality time. Also showing flashes of brilliance on the powerplay. Chris Porter, for consistent hustle. Combining his size and speed is a rare gift, and his physical presence seemed to intimidate CC at times ... guys getting rid of the puck too quickly and ducking the check ... Rory McMahon, for excellent two-way play, and for winning a sh$#load of important faceoffs. Philippe Lamoureaux, as a lot have noted.

With the passage of time, the underachievers fade from consciousness, so its hard to go back more than just a couple years ... I'd add Landon Wilson and Ryan Johnson to the [fairly short] list of guys who really disappointed in their Green and White days. ... while the overachievers live in our hearts forever as young as the day they last skated for the Sioux. A common thread of the national champion teams at UND has been role players that were chronic overachievers. From that 1980 team, which was honored this weekend, Erwin Martens was a Farce favorite, hustling hard every shift, scoring the occasional goal, and playing the game hard but clean. Phil Sykes was more talented, but used every ounce of it to benefit the team. Another characteristic of the overachiever is that their toils often go unrecognized. So I found it very poignant that on the night that Pierre Lamoreaux was honored as part of the 1980 Sioux (Pierre had the 'misfortune' of playing behind not 1 but 2 (!) future NHL goaltenders while at UND,(Darren Jensen and later Jon Casey)), his son stepped forward with a very, very good game, staking a claim to the #1 goaltending job.

Even BC's great PP didn't score 5x4 last night ... it was only the 5x3's. ...

(I know its poor form to quote oneself,) but I'm happy the coaches read this message board. Our play improved after the stern message of benching the C.... Nice last 30 minutes, Sioux. Something to build on.

yeee-haaa

Yeeee-haaaa!!!

Seems like time to bench some guys who are screwing it up for the rest of the team.

... good news ... must ... find ... goood ... news ... Mankato 1, Gophers 1 after 1 hey, its the best I could come up with

A few more thoughts, like dagies I needed the drive time to digest it all. First, the Friday comeback was one helluvan effort. I think its important to remember that we did a lot of things right during the last 30 minutes of Friday's game ... minimal stupid penalties, some of the homerun passes clicked, very few own zone turnovers, some very nice cycling, and in fact it was the Gophers that looked gassed and unable to mount a comeback Friday. When was the last time you saw the 3x5 guys beat the other team to the puck and ice it about 4 times? A lot has been made about all the times Minnesota hit goal posts on Friday. I contend the Sioux had just as many "almost" "coulda shoulda" plays as the Gophers, including centering passes that hopped over a stick of a wide-open guy at the goalmouth, potential 2x1 s that turned into icing, and 1 of Minnesota's goals was set up by a "bad" bounce on a clearing attempt ... I think Friday was a game that could have gone either way, and I think we will be very glad come February to have those 2 points (and that MN doesn't). As to Saturday, looked to my amateur eyes like Minnesota changed their forecheck, taking away the short passes, conceding the long bombs, and the Sioux failed to connect. I don't have enough fingers to count all the icings that were a failed long breakout pass. The rest of Saturday? I expect the coaches to have "movie night" and come up with the adjustments for a March-April rematch, because if I'm Lucia I stick with what worked. I only have one second guess, and that is the decision to start JPar on Saturday. He expended a tremendous effort Friday. From the get-go Saturday, he was fighting the puck.... it was a good call to bring Brandt in. ... while on the other end, every tip the Sioux did hit Briggs. He was good, but he was also lucky. Watch the film, count the deflections, it was just one of those nights. On the bright side ... ... Radke got some quality time and a chance to show his stuff in situations where we needed offense. He shows flashes of brilliance, tremendously quick first two strides, good hands, just lacking experience playing this game at WCHA speeds. ... I loved Spirko's goal Friday. He's knocked down in front, and the only thing he can do is get the stick parallel to the goal mouth, flat on the ice, so when Smaby's low shot hits it, it tips up over Briggs right pad. What I'm wondering is how much was luck and how much is scoring genius at work ... probably both. ... Genoway had an outstanding game Friday, and some unlucky bounces Saturday. We need him to step up. ... Porter looked good both nights. ... Schneider had a good game Friday, and a gutsy Saturday, playing hurt. On the concerns side ... ... refereeing inconsistency clearly messed with our Matts. Talk about your worst case scenario. What was a penalty Friday was not a penalty Saturday, and I think the Gophers read that sooner than we did (ie early in the game Saturday), and took advantage of it ... while our Matts were playing by Friday's rules, the Gophers were using sticks like it was last season to mess up play in our zone. I'll stop now on refereeing. ... Like dagies, I noticed Canady didn't get many shifts until the 3rd period Saturday. It looked like he missed an assignment coming back on a rush in the first period (which didn't cost us), but that's my amateur eyes. Friday, and how we react, will tell a lot about this team. A win in BC would be nice, but its more important to get players on track, to find out which line chemistry works, because its 3 big BIG WCHA weekends in a row - CC, Wisco, St Cloud.

A little historical perspective, for those who are wondering "what's wrong with the Sioux". ... November 1996, at Mariucci, Gophers 10, Sioux 3. We know who got the last laugh that year. I think this year will turn out the same. Stuff happens. What's important at this stage of the season is how the coaches and team react to a little adversity.

Predictions: 1) Friday. 3-2 Sioux. - Gophers go 2 for 9 on the power play. Sioux talk about taking fewer penalties. - Brandt in goal. - Becomes obvious that 5x5 play tilts the ice toward UND. 2) Saturday. 2-0 Sioux - Lammy in net, shuts the door. - everybody stays out of the box, - late goals from Stafford and Zajac - Sioux D has worn down MN and they can't mount a comeback 3) Sunday: churches in GF note that the singing is somewhat hoarse. GO SIOUX!!!

Dude, sweet. Thanks for writing. As always an excellent read.