dagies

You are exactly right all around. This is exactly what I wanted to say. Thanks for saving me the time. I agree. I was laughing to myself last night as Bickel was pointing and yelling "NO F.....G CLASS!" at the Sioux last night on the ice. I was trying to figure out what his screen name was.

Trupp

jk, I agree. I was thinking the same thing last night. I was really worried that MN was going to have the mo to get the 2nd, killer, goal. But the Sioux seemed to come back with a vengeance, especially Genoway. He did NOT want to lose. When I saw the intensity I had a small feeling that the Sioux would score. It would have hurt bad if they hadn't, or if the gophs would have gotten the 2nd goal, but it was an expected relief to get the 2nd one. Both teams deserve a lot of credit for how they rose to the occasion last night. As for Kangas, I'm not too excited about playing him. He's not a lucky goalie. Lucky goalies are flopping around making miracle saves. Kangas is like a robot out there, almost never out of position. I fear that he won't be an up and down type of goalie. He'll always be there. I also fear that the Sioux helped galvanize the gophers in the middle of a very tough season. With Kangas in nets (yes, I like him that much) I think they have a chance to beat anyone, and I don't believe the gophers will never score more than 1 goal a game this season. I believe the gophers will be in the Final Five, and with a goalie like Kangas they could win it and make the NCAA. My worst concern is that they come to the Ralph for the first round. If Kangas can win the first game they could play Frazee the 2nd and come back with a fresh Kangas in the 3rd game while Phil has to play 3 in a row. That's not a favorable scenario in a building where the Sioux struggled to play the gophs in December, and recently struggled against Alaska. I can be guilty of looking on the non-bright side of life, but that's a scenario I can readily see.

I remember the game I was most disappointed to be a Sioux fan. It was in Duluth in the early 2000's, don't remember the year. Blais lost control of the team. The Sioux got handled pretty well, and gooned it up most of the night, and I didn't see the kind of provocation that might have come from the gophs side this weekend. Say what you will, but IMO Blais and Hak run similar hard-nosed programs and occasionally things might get out of hand. It doesn't happen as much as they are accused of, but it can. Dean's teams were no better, IMO. Martens did a great job, IMO, this weekend, not counting the assist to Trupp. He was effective. Davidson is bigger and not quite as good a skater as Martens, and on the big ice it probably made sense to have Martens in the lineup. As for Oshie being out with 3 seconds left I remember a couple of things. 1. With 8 seconds left Oshie making a pass to Kozek the night before from his own blueline that resulted in a scoring opportunity that was 98% cashed in. 2. In December, the gophers scoring with less than a second to go in the period. Oshie was taking a face-off just outside the gopher blue line. Who else in our lineup has the slightest chance of winning the face-off and carrying the puck THROUGH the resulting scrum to a point where he can get a shot on net. 1 guy...Oshie. Great post, hrkac!

I should have gone to the game. I've been to 6 games this year, all wins. Oh, Hakstol told Adam on the ice that someone "took a poke at Finley". It may have been provoked.

Several people said they noticed it on the tv broadcast of the saturday SCSU game. It's posted by several in that thread. Well, I guess our lead in the national penalty rankings are safe for another weekend

I've been tough on Chorney but I noticed that time that he waited until he knew that the forward (Kozek?) was backing him up on point before he went deep. So I don't blame him for that one. Chay was giving Gordon an earful. It's a gutsy move because it could have put the Sioux down 2 guys, though I doubt the ref would call an unsportsmanlike for that in OT. However, I couldn't believe our good luck in that Wheeler jumped in. I dig Marney. I'll watch the replay again but I don't know that the shot on Oshie was all that hard. However, having just found out Oshie is hurt makes me think Zajac was probably responding for that reason. I'm not a big fan of the handshake situation, but I did get a kick out of Guentzel apparently yelling at our coaching staff. Finley seems to have had it in for Wheeler for some time for some reason. I'm guessing there's more to that story than we can see from our seats. But Joe needs to deal with that during the game. I wondered if Oshie was hurt because he just wasn't as able to dominate tonite like last night. He looked gassed. I wonder how he got hurt? I fear that we just gave the gophers a reason to rally around each other. They have a top flight goalie, and anything can happen. I would not want to play them again in the playoffs. As for Gorg asking Kangas about taking on Phil, that was humorous all around. I don't see any reason to get bent about that. Did Hakstol really fly the bird, or did it just look that way on the tv? He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would do that, and I wonder if his hand was turned at the wrong angle to the camera and looked like it. If he did he deserves to pay the price. Probably the same price as Motzko calling Vandy a f----g p---y.

I don't know PP systems so I'm sure something else is trying to be set up that I'm not aware of. But I don't understand why Bina and Chorney are so close to each other at the points on the PP. When they pass back and forth it doesn't force the defender to move very far, thus not opening up and space to get the puck to the net. Again, must be something else they are trying to do but it seems strange to me. Everything I said in the first post on this thread is out the window. This game has turned into a 1 game season, winner takes all and MN seems like they are going to play it out. Hoeffel is a killer, he can go pro now, IMO. Take Kangas with you. Frank and Doug seemed pretty down on the gophs at the end of the period but I didn't think the Sioux were dominating that much? Personally, I don't have a good feeling about this game at all. Looked like Genoway and Fairchild were having a laugh chirping at each other. I don't think Phil deserved his diving call THIS TIME, but he's dived so many times in the past I can't blame the ref for calling it. Chickens coming home.... With a short lineup I hope we can win in regulation. With Malone missing a ton of time and Duncan out we'll have some tired legs. It seems like the Sioux are a half-foot away from domination, but they never can make up that half-foot. On the other hand, MN continues to put on pressure. Something will give soon. Personally, I hope calmer heads prevail as I think that's the best chance the Sioux have.

Must be good parenting. I hope you are right. We gave them every reason to be in the game from the first minute, but fortunately held on. MN looks pretty good and the Sioux are going to have to dig deep and pull a little harder. Time to start possessing the puck for a while. Obviously my supposition was wrong. Give the gophers credit for coming hard again, especially with the boost we gave them.

Good to her from you Speez. Does he still hate the gophers?

I just hope we quit making the sweet pass from the guy with a good shooting angle to the guy with the bad shooting angle....and just shoot the puck.

I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by starting this thread! So what will happen tonite. This weekend was/is very important to both teams, but even more so to the gophers who need wins and league points for pairwise and WCHA playoff ramifications. Had the Gophers managed to win last night I would expect a buzz saw tonite as they smell a chance to really make something of this weekend, plus some confidence that would come with winning a big game. However, the late game melt continued for the gophers, and they were stymied on a few golden scoring opportunities in the 2nd and 3rd period, and eventually were dominated and lost the game in OT (was I the only one fearing the old "one team dominates and the other team scores on their only chance" scenario?). Does this mean the gophers will come out with even more determination to win tonite? At what point do they begin to say there's little left to play for (at least in the WCHA standings) other than pride? Is it possible they come out without their absolute best effort tonite? They've lost the chance to sweep the Sioux and pick up all 4 points, and the boost that would give them in the standings. I really don't know, but I can envision the possibility that tonite may not bring the gophers top effort. Pride will always be there, but will it be enough if they don't believe? Did the Sioux learn a lesson through last night's game? Will they bring the last half-game effort into tonite and play that way from the start? If the Sioux "do" and the gophers "don't" I say it's a 4-1 Sioux win. If the Sioux "don't" and the gophers "do" I say it's a 3-1 gopher win. I say 40% chance of #1, 20% chance of #2, and a 40% chance it's a normal Sioux-gopher game and anything goes.

It was too late last night to add but here are some impressions of last nights performance FWIW. Chorney seemed to struggle in the 1st period but he sure played big time the last half of the game. He made several very good plays with and without the puck and seemed to play at the high level he was playing at during last year's end of the year run. Good for him. Bina seemed a little off last night. Genoway was on and off last night. Finley was a monster again. We are sure going to miss him next year. Jones was solid again. Marto is fun to watch when he has the puck. He didn't seem out of place defensively either. Oshie was a man among boys last night, IMO. He may not have had points but he controlled play when he was out there. He is an incredible player and I hope he can continue this level of play the rest of the way. From what I've watched over the last several series, Kozek has outperformed Miller on the top line. I'll be he never skates by the goalie again, though. Had he put on the brakes he might have been able to sweep that puck from behind Kangas just before the buzzer sounded. It would have been very close, though, but Kozek didn't give himself a chance because he skated right by. I thought Malone had a good game, better than some I've seen lately. Good work on the boards and helping to generate opportunities. Martens was also a contributor on his line. I cannot believe the Sioux had 2 shots on goal half-way through the game. I cannot believe the Sioux ended the game with 33-34 or whatever it was. The Sioux still committed too many mistakes with the puck last night, especially in the first half of the game. No small wonder why the 2nd half was better for the Sioux as I think they solidified many parts of their game down the stretch. However, even after the Sioux got some mo on their side, I still couldn't believe how many times they would ice the puck, seemingly on purpose, and at times it seemed like there were options besides just throwing the puck away. I don't recall ever seeing the Sioux ice the puck intentionally as last night. Was that part of the plan? Phil gave up his softie in the first period and nailed it the rest of the way, saving a couple he might have had little business saving. He really saved the game last night. I don't know if he's lucky or good, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more gophers shooting high on him tonite, or faking deke and shooting high on open breaks, etc.

Do you think Kozek will ever skate by the goalie on a play like that or might he apply the brakes and take a peek right behind? He might have swept that puck in with a half-schmidt left. Phil may have let in a softy but he made 2-3 outstanding saves that saved the game, so overall you can't blame him. Gophers probably got as many as they deserved. I just watched this on tape and Kaip held on too long IMO.

yes

Jupiter, that's really nice of you to bring that over here. Thank you.

Yep, that's pretty much what I was going to say. Tried to keep an eye open but didn't see him. Hope he got to see the game, all the way to the end.

At the arena it seemed as though no one in the stands saw it go in. Admittedly we were on the far end and so had less of a view, but we were able to react only from seeing the players react, the crowd just seemed like they missed it too. Pretty weird. Good powers of observation here.

Yeah, the butt end he put into the back of Miller's head in December falls within the rules. Link to the scrum here.

I don't care too much what Puffy thinks, but as to the question of depth I like the direction things are headed with the Sioux. Am I the only one who feels this is the first time in years we have a legit chance to score on at least 3 lines? Obviously the Oshie line is a given threat. Kaip's line has become a threat at any time. And now the Trupp line can score as well. It seems like most years after we get past the first line or maybe line and a half it's been pretty rough expecting to get a goal now and then. Now, I think there's a chance on any of the 3 lines, any game, not to mention from the D. I think the lack of depth perception might come from the top line not being a totally dominating offensive machine like some people might have expected. I think I'd rather have the balance.

I don't agree with that. I think offensively our defensemen are better than the past 4 years, but I cannot believe we are better defensively than we were when we had Schneider, Fuher, Greene, Smaby, etc back there. I do agree our scoring is more balanced, and we are more of a threat from lines 2-4 than we have been for a while.

You forgot Sagard calling in to ask if Hakstol was recruiting Kessel.

That's the Strib sidebar. The PP will have the same story except Shaver and Sonmore are expected to be named to those posts.

Does this preclude going after Olsen if he's that good? Olsen is pretty young still.