burd

Blasphemy alert. As long as it doesn't have a meaningful effect on seeding, I wouldn't mind seeing the Hawks get spanked once before the NCAAs start, as long as it's not due to bad goaltending, for obvious reasons. A loss might even be better if it causes them to be eliminated in the Frozen Faceoff. As was the case in the old WCHA, winning the regular season title is a bigger honor than winning the tournament, and a loss at this time of year should sting and leave a bad taste in their mouths. If it happens, just don't let it be to UMD.

Love Tim, of course. Olson you can keep.

I like Jake.

This D corps is as good as any I've seen at UND, I think. They're scoring a lot of goals tonight, but man those guys can handle the puck at the back end.

Wow. A couple of bounces and seeing-eye shots go the other way, and that game could have been 5-1 Mavs. Hopefully, things go better tonight.

Have they made that a chant at the Ralph? O-MA-HA-HA

Omaha is really really good this year--vastly underrated. With a few good bounces and maybe a flu bug in the other locker room, the boys might win one this weekend.

The playoffs is no time to be taking revenge hits.

Not that I know of, but I haven't followed him.

Robbie Earl was so talented and an excellent player; it's a shame he dove so much.

Brad Berry has been a part of that hard-nosed Sioux tradition for much of his adult life and mentions it often. I trust his judgment.

I've been following Sioux hockey for an equally long time and have seen too many times when undisciplined play screwed up our game. Can't go the distance in the NCAAs with men in the box from undisciplined play.

But who cares, really? It's just hockey played by a bunch of college kids.

That rating in February is a good sign of solid play, but it would nice if it were earned by an extended win streak rather than losses by top competitors.

Bucky appears to be very much back. Good thing.

Bucky's talent is starting to click.

Western score with goalie pulled?

It might be ss.com's obligation to select the conference acting champion at the end of conference play.

Ouch.

It would be great if we could play BC before the tourney.

Yup. A stronger Omaha, Miami, and WMU and a resurgent CC would be good for the conference and for college hockey in general. If it's good for college hockey, it's good for UND hockey and its fans. UND's goal is always to win the NCAA, and the stronger the competition we have in-conference, the better prepared we are to do that.

You're not a blasphemer. It's a legit question. More of a traitor, I'd say.

It's awfully difficult to say where teams could be ranked this year with little or no intra-conference play. We don't even have many common opponent games which would give us some room to speculate. I think we all agree that the NCHC is the strongest conference, and that helps, but how UND or Omaha would match up against BU, Wisconsin, or Michigan is difficult to tell. Other than those prophetic green glasses we all wear.

Good post.

Folks are very critical of Omaha, calling them only average and dirty, but they kept their feet moving last night. Doing that can overcome a lot of faults, and not doing it can nullify a lot of strengths.