farce poobah

Postgame thoughts after Saturday. In a word, FRUSTRATING. Our skating and own-zone coverage continue to be very good. BC got nuthin 5x5, not Friday and especially not Saturday. I believe this will hold true for the entire season; 5x5 nobody's gonna get nuthin against the Sioux defense. Schneider is a rock. Ryan Hale looks more comfortable all the time, and his big hit Friday seemed to wake up the team. Smaby looked markedly better this weekend than vs. UMD. Jones just needs to get healthy, I don't know if he's hurt but he looked a half-step slow. Faceoffs are another bright spot ... if we can continue winning over 60-65%, especially on special teams, that will be huge. PK was good AGAIN. See above points on faceoffs and own-zone play. McMahon was very good AGAIN. I'm sure everybody will have suggestions about how to improve the Sioux powerplay. Of course, there's the obvious ideas - - use Alaska's powerplay, go to Home of Economy and buy a new one, next time take the yardage.... I think its time to consider using 2 defensemen on the PP point - if only to cut down on the @#$% shorthanded goals against. (I am still royally piffed that Anderson didn't call Gionta for tripping Fuher - ARRRGGH - not only should BC not have had a goal, we should have gone 5x3.) Our only problem last night was with the puck. Passes were half-step behind, half-step too far in front, guys zagged when the pass zigged, tip attempts just missed a stick (Bucks right in front). Some of this is because there's a rookie on each line, but some as Blais noted were guys with their head not totally in the game. Jake was good. Made a couple excellent saves, and made all the routine ones. Hope he can continue that. All in all, a very frustrating night. At least we won the game Saturday that comes with a trophy.

Goals are overrated.

I hope Dean splits goaltender time during the Yale series, if only to get more game experience for the two rookies. But if we were playing Minnesota this Friday, I'd want Jake in net.

Amen. Well said. PCM, you should think about a career in writing.

Goals will get tougher to come by once we get past the cupcakes.

The NCAA Rule Book contains a 2-minute minor provision for unsportsmanlike conduct that includes "diving". WCHA refs hardly ever call it (if anything they BUY it...grrrr). Refs in the central or east seem to call it more. Agree about penalties. I think we can beat BC 5x5 (or even 4x4). But a string of power plays (even if its we get one, they get one), is likely a losing proposition for the Sioux. What bugs me was last night's unnecessary penalties ... I imagine the coaches have discussed that with the perps. (Well, OK the BC School of Diving bugged me too.) GOOOOO SIOOOOOOOOUUUUUXXX!

A few postgame thoughts: Comments re BC: BC has tremendous speed, and that includes some big guys. They buzzed the Sioux for the first 30 minutes. Note to the rest of the world - don't take penalties against BC. Their powerplay will kill you faster than you can say "Anderson sucks". Tremendous puck movement and playmaking. Goaltending seems to be the weak link in their roster. Please, please, let some other team have that bugaboo this year. Voce-Eaves-Eaves was as advertised. Comments re UND: Bucks! the guy is a scoring machine. Tremendous hands, great work on the late 3x5 PK. I'd have voted Drew Stafford the #2 star ... he played hard all night long. Rare combination of hands, strength, and speed. Really REALLY gotta shut down on the stickwork. Some plain inexcusable things ... like Greene's last penalty where his blade took off Eaves (?) helmet. (The guy was curling away from the net, it wasn't a scoring play, good grief... Liked our own-zone positioning all night long. Hated the lack of poise with the puck for first 15 minutes, tho. BC pressure had something to do with that, but we were not ready for it. Gutsy, gutsy play by Ryan Hale... After he stopped a BC break right in front of the goal in the mid-second, he went to the bench holding his shoulder, and I thought he was done for the night. He looks better and better on D all the time. I hope he stays there. Nice to see Fylling get some reward. He continues to impress. Blais shortened the bench the last half of the 3rd, and it really kept BC from mounting any serious threat after their last PP. Otherwise, we saw a fair amount of all 18 skaters.... I expect to see some Sioux changes for tomorrow night. Prpich back in the lineup, perhaps we'll see Stafford back with McMahon and Prpich. Lundbohm-Fylling-(Porter?), then as the other new combo. Also, I expect (hope) to see Palmo in the lineup (just a guess), as the speed of these games will suit his style. ======================== Oh - and for all those fans that made it LOUD at the Ralph, let's do it again tomorrow. Excellent atmosphere.

And they got an earful. The atmosphere was good, starting with Fylling's goal, UND's first. Theoretically, a nice nite to make a good impression on young impressionable minds.

I'm putting my money on conditioning. BC just couldn't keep up in the third period, and had we not taken the lead early in the third, I think the Sioux could have continued putting on great pressure. Dean shortened the bench in the third too, after playing alot of all 18 players for the first 35-40 minutes.

Yeah, I'm sure every Bison fan would agree its totally luck for a D-2 team to beat a D-1AA team.

We're saving up trash until 11/7. In the meantime, my freezer is furry and full.

PCM. Dude. You da man. Nice recap.

Since there's a limit on total practice time for the season, probably Sandy decided he'd rather have the week of practice later in the year rather than in September.

If Zach WAS reading POI he wouldn't have used the word "almost".

BEEEEEPPP!!!! Thank you for playing. The correct answer is "David Hale".

Does not yet seem, at least to my amateur eyes, to be what it should be. Fair amount of standing water at the start of the 2nd, little at the third ... I just hope nobody gets a skate caught in a rut ... Any other views? or comments from coaching staff?

Why is it not a surprise you had a picture for us? I had two beagles, one named Casey and one named Jennie (Jensen). We were solid in goal.

Was that a polar bear mascot? It looked like Stuart Little ... Whoever decided to make a rodent into a Sioux mascot ... grrrr. The throwback jerseys were fine on the front. If they would just add numbers on the sleeves/shoulders we could tell the name of the truck ... Bring on the Beagles!

Miscellaneous observations: The line of McMahon - Stafford - Prpich, while they got to play together, was easily the most dominant line for either team. Long stretches of cycling below the dots. Great chemistry; could be mistaken for 3 guys that have played together for years not weeks. Stafford is the real deal. I was thinking "Goren" at the game, and today's Herald quotes Blais as saying he's like Goren only perhaps a better skater (!) Fylling looked stronger. Still fast, still good hands. Hoping he can make more plays this year. After Prpich got the heave ho, several guys played with Stafford-McMahon, but Fylling fit well. The 4th line of Massen-Hale-Genoway looked solid. Their play, especially on the road, will be key to getting the high scorers some rest. Lundbohm-Fylling-Porter had their moments, both up and down. Porter with some typical rookie mistakes. Parise - Bochenski - Murray. Horrendous first period, multiple situations where the Dogs created 3x2 the other way because all 3 guys were caught deep. And where they missed a scoring chance. Frustrating second period, when the Dogs were trying to muscle them - Bochenski with a double minor for roughing after pulling a guy off Zach. Excellent third period, multiple chances. All in all, a good start. Murray - fast, good anticipation, reads plays well. I can see why Blais is predicting big numbers for that line. Jones, Greene, Schneider, Fuher - solid as a rock. if anything, better than last year. Schneider with a great 'save' in the first period (drew a penalty but saved a goal). Smaby - a project. Has the raw material, just needs to get used to the speed of the game. He wasn't the only guy to have problems with the puck on wet ice - the first 5 minutes of the second period, especially. PK: Liked seeing Prpich, McMahon, Hale, Fylling on the PK. McMahon is a stud on faceoffs, which can help take pressure off the goaltender. PP: This was definitely a new look - "first day with your new power play?" Too early to assess, but the results last night were horrifying. Duluth did a nice job on the PK, but we were horrible. Duluth had 5 shots on Sioux PP, and we had only 8. Good news is least there's a couple weeks of practice before BC comes to town. Faceoffs - 45 won, 25 lost. Outstanding. Zach, McMahon, Lundbohm all over 70%. This bodes well for the future. All in all, a good start.

I don't know for sure, but since Schneider got suspended for fighting during an exhibition in 2001 and had to miss the HOF game, I would think that the reverse situation would also apply. Or it could just be wishful thinking.

A UND Intramural all star team would pretty much be at least .500 in the former MAAC.....

With all due respect, I disagree with your conclusion. (The only team I wish a losing season upon hardly ever has one.) Are there a bunch of fair weather fans in the new arena? Da$# right. But I'd still rather have butts in the seats than have four empty seats next to me to set my parka on. Are there people who don't pay attention during the game? who are there to be seen, and are there just because its an Event? Da#$ right. Maybe someday they will become True Fans. If not they will get bored. A free market for tickets leads to ticket scalping today. Like democracy, it aint great but its the best system we got. And I am impressed by how tickets flow among frends and families ... meaning that somebody different may be in the seats for each game, but people are making an effort using the tix. Contrast that to thousands of empty seats at Mary Ucchi... then tell me who has class and who doesn't. ============================== I don't mean to say there's nothing that bugs me. There are things I don't like about the new arena. Sending 1500 students to the upper bowl was a stupid move. Playing loud music for 8 seconds during stoppages is annoying. If anyone wants to go to a Sioux hockey game and hear a pin drop, go to a women's game. But do it fast, because next year, and in the following years, the seats will fill.

I definitely hit it better with a snow shovel. Happy Gilmore, I'm not.

I 'member Rick Zaparniuk. Agile, fast, good hands. Played with some outstanding players and teams, so never got as much attention as guys like Kevin Maxwell, Doug Smail, Dave Christian. Smart, too; if memory serves he got an engineering degree in 4 years. And ... he's got A Ring.