dagies

Borgen threw on in from the center line that hopped Frazee's stick in the first period. That one counted. Then there was the longer one called back because of offsides. I didn't see the game, but saw a replay while out at BWW in GF. As the team came off the bench not only Lucia was staring at Frazee but so was at least one player.

Maybe more later but one comment on watching these games this weekend is that we were impressed with Davidson. As far as I'm concerned he can keep on playing. He's BIG, but you might expect a big lug to look immobile out there. We were impressed with how mobile he seemed (to us) and that he was effective on the ice. Go Davidson! Oh, and for those who felt that announcing the Holy Cross score during the gopher games was in bad taste, apparently they announce the score at every game, not just the gopher games. They were announced both nights this past weekend, anyway. That, in itself, takes some of the "in your face" out of it for me.

At the Sioux Booster luncheon Friday tbe MC was talking about some old teams and players that he'd seen and mentioned that the Sioux need to recruit another guy like Archibald. Hakstol spoke up from his seat with a smile and said something very much like "We've got one coming in next year. His name is Brett Hextall."

At Friday's Sioux Booster luncheon Hakstol said that there were a "couple of recruits" at the midget tourney plus others they were watching. The way he said it, my friends and I felt he indicated recruits who had committed, i.e. David Toews plus another. I guess we'll see...

1987 alum

We're planning on the Shattuck game, Sat at noon.

I would like to see what Forney has if he could get 6-10 games in a row to play.

You're not from around here, are you.

I'm also pulling for Forney and hope to see him on the ice soon. I'd like to see what he can do.

Local media aside, I think Brad Schlossman for the Herald and in his blog, and PCM, in the work he does for USCHO, do a fantastic job with Sioux hockey. Between them, and this excellent website, I feel very fortunate. I think we have better coverage than the team down here where I live (not trying to pick on just one team, it's just that's the only other one I'm very exposed to) and I'm willing to bet better than most. Thanks for posting that link. I had read that story earlier today and felt it deserved a thread here but hadn't gotten to it. Kaip strikes me as the epitome of Sioux hockey. There are the glory guys, and there are the guts. Guys who work hard and toil and then seem to shine as a leader in their senior year. Guys like Porter, Ulmer, Canady, Fabian, now Kaip....insert yours here. Kaip is a significant factor on the team, and it was interesting to read how much he has overcome to get here. Thank you Rylan!

Check out the Sioux season thread on USCHO. The recaps are over there.

How true, how true!

There will be 4 or 5 teams legitimately fighting for the 3rd, 4th and 5th seeds in the Final Five and it will probably be close contests to decide it. That's my guess, anyway. If it were right now it could be anyone in those spots. Things might be clearer when/if we see some teams finding their stride over the 2nd half.

.905 saves % in junior is solid but not the kind of thing that builds too high of expectations.

I have 2 first level tickets for the Friday night game against Tech, 1/11. Face value. Send me a PM or leave your contact info.

Security? We laugh at Security....

I believe this is one of those situations where all you need is enough people repeating something enough times and it becomes fact. Whether or not it really is. Let's be honest, our boys are not choir boys on the ice and they do their share of after-the-whistle stuff, but I agree with others who say UND is no different than other teams, or at least most other teams. I see plenty of that crap when we play MN, and there was plenty from Wisconsin despite what their precious captain said to the media after the game. After the saturday game the SCSU broadcast team was interviewing Chris Anderson who played forward. He said something very close to "pretty much everyone knows that UND is the worst in the league about that" and said Motzko had warned the team to stay out of it because they would get the penalty advantage if they were smart. My prejudice against Motzko is such that I wouldn't be surprised if Motzko is feeding his team the "everyone knows UND is the worst" kool-aid being he and Lucia parrot the "If there is a fight in hockey UND is involved". Poor babies. Maybe that reputation was built a few years ago when we had those trees skating on the blueline that Gary Thorne raved about. The guys that Jordan Parise said were making opponents squeal in pain. So no, I don't think the Sioux are innocent, I just don't think the deserve a reputation worse than some other teams. As mentioned above, at least the Sioux are willing to back it up if someone wants to make an issue of it, and I'm proud of that.

On Saturday Sioux forwards made some poor decisions with the puck even IN the zone. VandeVelde failed to move the puck out of the zone when he could have which led to extended pressure by SCSU and their first goal. Someone, I don't recall who but it might have been VandeVelde again, tried to dangle through traffic across the Sioux blue line, got picked and resulted in a great SCSU opportunity, etc. There were other gaffes of a similar nature, more than I remember usually seeing by the Sioux. It wasn't just forwards either, it was defensemen as well. For example, in another situation a Sioux defensemen took the puck in the corner and started moving up the boards. He was pressured by an SCSU defensemen. It was not clear if he would be checked or if he would beat the angle and skate out of the zone. The defenseman turned 180 and headed back the wrong direction, was immediately caught and coughed up the puck leading to another scoring opportunity by SCSU. The defensemen had 2 other choices in that situation...either chip the puck out of the zone or steel the nerve and blast forward. I realize that sometimes you make decisions and take some risks because the potential reward is great (creating an opening to hit a breaking forward or something like that). I also realize chipping the puck out of the zone often gives the puck back to the other team. I also know that as fast as the game is played a team won't make all the right decisions all the time. We just felt that the Sioux made an inordinate number of these mistakes on Saturday and were lucky to escape with as few goals against as they had. I'm looking forward to watching this weekend's games in person to see if things are the same or improved. And for anyone who thinks I'm got something against VandeVelde I'm not. The guy was a monster working the boards behind the SCSU goal. Fun to watch.

I'm not that familiar with Tech to say much about them. I will say after attending Saturday's game that the Sioux need to play smarter in their own end. They must eliminate some of the poor decisions with the puck, or failed attempts to clear the puck. SCSU made several of those mistakes into scoring opportunities and either just missed or Phil bailed out the team. That won't continue to happen if the Sioux aren't careful. Other than that, I liked what I saw on the ice Saturday.

Pro cycling (Tour de France type) is an interesting sport. In becoming a fan of that sport over the last few years I've learned a little about how critical nutrition is to these guys. Racing 100-150 km's per day over 3 weeks is a killer on the body. These guys have finely tuned nutrition regimens that not only include what you eat, but when. How quickly you need to get what types stuff into your body (liquid, solid, carbs, proteins, etc) so that it can recover for the next day's race. Not only consuming after or before the race, but what they consume during the race as well. There are many riders who will critique their performance after a day's stage and be able to point to a lack of energy to making a mistake on their recovery from the previous day's stage. I would assume these top flight hockey programs have some sort of designed system in place that would work with hockey, but if not, maybe Owens is on the cutting edge. Having energy in the 3rd period makes or breaks games and seasons, and would be a mistake to ignore the effect of diet.

With the emphasis on development and results at this level it would surprise me if teams didn't have something like this going on. What you eat and drink, and when, can not only be huge in helping you perform, it affects how well you recover from one night and be ready for the next.

I don't know that I would say Watkins is one of the more improved players because I think we're getting from him what he have in the past. Solid, dependable and consistent work. Strong on the boards and with cycling. Kozek's offensive contributions are probably one of the more obvious improvements. Finley's solid D has also been pointed out. I like the progression of a guy like Trupp as well. While he may not be more improved than Kozek at this point by the end of the season he might take that award the way he is going. Also, Zajac may not be scoring like he did last year, but have you noticed him on the PK? He's getting quite a bit of time there.

Grieco's stats were not all that newsworthy. Solid only. I sure wish we were recruiting a goalie who was average so we had no expectations...

Over the weekend: Blood - 2-1-3 4pims Cichy - 1-1-2 0pims Gregoire - 1-3-4 0pims Lamm - 0-0-0-0pims Hextall 3-0-3 2pims (1st star) Bruneteau/Fink DNP

Motzko's idea of a fight.