farce poobah

Western Michigan and Notre Dame going to OT .... a Notre Dame loss would seem to help CC, the WCHA's bubble team....

WOW! Glencross with the 4th UAA goal.... We know the Evil Red Empire can come back from 3 down (grrr) but can they do 4?

Fournier again! 2-0

UNO 2 Michigan 1 after 2

In the CCHA, 1-1 UNO and Michigan. Midway thru the 2nd. (according to USCHO message board). That would be the weekend's biggest upset....

The lap runners got out of shape sittting on their butts against the Sioux.

Fournier scores, 1-0 UAA

I'm listening to the UAA broadcast ... 0-0 3 minutes in. King in the net for UAA, so they have a fighting chance tonight. Bruckler again, of course for UW.

If you go to the individual comparisons page of USCHO's Pairwise Rankings, you'll see UND currently loses the comparison to Maine. UND has better RPI, but Maine has better record vs TUC and better record vs common opponents. And there's no head-to-head points since we didn't play them. IF UND wins the Final Five, and if Maine loses 1 game at the HE tournament, the Sioux record vs TUC would be better than Maine's, and we'd win that comparison. In turn, that would give UND sole #1 in the PWR. Since RPI is the tiebreaker, I think UND is in very good shape for a #1 overall seed. I haven't done the math, but the only scenario where we "might possibly" fall to a #2 would be if we lose twice at the X. Even that may not be enough, tho. The question is really whether we go to Colorado Springs or Michigan. As the #1 overall, I'd hope we go to Colorado. But if CC squeaks in as a #4 seed, then the Selection Committee may decide its more fair for UND to play Bemidji / HC in Grand Rapids.... A key for UND is to stay in the top 2 and get a "cupcake" first round opponent.... As the saying goes, just win baby.

I definitely agree that when this Sioux team brings Pressure, it comes with a capital P. What looks like "flipping the switch" seems to be two things. First, a decision to play more aggressively, especially in the offensive zone. Things like holding the point on D, pinching D, bringing all 3 forwards deep in the zone, Nick Fuher and Andy Schneider carrying the puck deep. I can understand why we don't do it all the time, but it is dang fun to watch as a fan. I would rather not be down 2 goals late in the game for us to have to bring it, tho. Second, the other thing that happens to turn up the Sioux game 2 or 3 notches is when Blais goes to 3 lines. That means a lot more Parise line, and a lot more Lundbohm line, and that's where the bulk of this team's offense comes from. Interesting line combo's late. Parise-Murray-Bochenski. Lundbohm-Stafford-Porter. McMahon-Hale-Fylling.

jk, thanks for the info. I'm not really worried about whether we'll show up next Friday with all cylinders firing ... in fact I expect us to come out aggressive like we did at UMD.

Random thoughts after the Saturday game: It is a tremendous treat to watch a guy who plays EVERY SHIFT HARD. Thanks Zach. Simply the best. Unfortunately, for 40 minutes, Parise stood out because he was going a lot harder than everyone else (both sides). Which triggered some line changes from Blais... I was more than a little surprised to not see Colby Genoway in the lineup tonight. Did he get banged up? Otherwise, he gave a solid effort Friday. Speaking of injured, Prpich didn't look 100% yet. On the winning goal, did anyone else get visions of the 2001 NCAA final - the OT game winner? Stafford circles the d, dekes the goalie, flies across the goalmouth and slides it home. Great speed. Unfortunately for Stafford, he didn't go hard every shift tonight. His step-slow backcheck (maybe lazy, hard to tell), gave a Tech attacker a wide-open look at the net, and he was forced to take the penalty which led to Tech's first goal. But Drew is a true talent, he made a handful of other nice plays. Anybody else notice Zach fish the puck out of the net after the OT GWG and get it to Stafford? In my opinion, the Sioux were lucky to win tonight, with a 30-minute solid effort. A more-talented team than Tech (say CC or MN) would have rung us up for 6-7 goals in the first 40 minutes. I can see how it would be hard to get up for Tech AGAIN after whoopin them 5 straight times, but really ... We'll need more intensity next weekend at the X. And, I expect we'll see the intensity needed to win the Broadmoor.

CC hangs on 4-3 Tigers. Nice night for the road teams in the WCHA. Still a possibility that Thursday's playin game at the Xcel could be Mankato vs. UAA.

CC takes the lead on DU. 4-2 Tigers, 6 minutes left in the 3rd.

Along the theme of getting more raucous atmosphere in the REA, I think we need an Anthem. Something with an edge, little anger, lotta rock, gut-busting drum solo, face-melting guitar, ya know. The school song is nice, and yes I know the words, but its sorta '50s. Let's do something 21st century. Maybe we should have a contest, students eligible to write and perform it. (I'm sure the AD could hire some pros to write or perform, but I'm as happy if it comes from the students, who are after all what the University IS.) Food for thought. ======================== On topic, I'd like to hear a little Good Charlotte, "Movin On".

Moorhead has some big kids. With good hands. That can skate. If their goalie can stop more than 70% of the SOG, they should do fine.

Sounds like BC drew inspiration from a sparse crowd of 3200. (Source: USCHO.) If BU makes it in, whoever is #14 would presumably get bumped (St Cloud, Notre Dame ...) Or #15 if the ECAC bid goes to Colgate...

I can't believe the Minnesota state high school tournament uses WCHA refs.

How much money does it take? (Just curious.)

Seriously this time, Ballard has a tremendous one-timer. So much so that the UND penalty kill "shadows" him by keeping a forward higher than usual to keep him from getting room to get it off.

The shuffling makes sense to me ... If we're going to go very deep into the playoffs, we'll need the first line scoring consistently, and the chemistry with Stafford-Murray-Parise seems better than with Genoway. Just IMHO. Schneider played a lot with Smaby earlier this year, but the chemistry with Bina seems better. Like that pairing.

Maine at 6-1 offers good potential payoff. Ditto UNH at 8-1, considering they get "home ice" for regionals. Of course the only winning tickets will say NORTH DAKOTA on them.

Since this will happen in future years too, the UND men's (and soon women's) hockey teams are likely to host playoffs more often than not, this seems like a significant disadvantage to putting the hoops teams in the same spot. Did UND kiss goodbye to hosting basketball regionals or what?

He can hurl a broom with the best of them.

TOP TEN Rookie Scoring - WCHA games (from collegehockeystats.com): 1 Brady Murray North Dakota 16-15-31 2 David Backes Minnesota State 12-10-22 3 Drew Stafford North Dakota 4-17-21 4 Robbie Earl Wisconsin 13- 7-20 5 Matt Carle Denver 4-15-19 Taggart Desmet Michigan Tech 9-10-19 7 Kyle Peto Minnesota State 3-14-17 8 Jake Dowell Wisconsin 5-11-16 Ryan Suter Wisconsin 3-13-16 Chris Porter North Dakota 7-9-16 Of course, if you want to pick a goalie: 2 Jordan Parise North Dakota FR 813:30 29 2.14 4 Matt Zaba Colorado College FR 991:55 40 2.42 8 Kellen Briggs Minnesota FR 1390:31 63 2.72 10 Tim Boron St. Cloud State FR 561:55 30 3.20 15 Bryce Luker Michigan Tech FR 741:40 58 4.69