jimdahl

Don't feed the troll. UND's 2004 opponents are a combined 31-13 (.705) last year, with the worst still being > .500. This is a great schedule. My only hesitations are if the imbalance in home/away is going to come back to bite us in future years, and it would have been nice to get another in-region NC (though Ferris should provide interesting GLIAC vs. NCC message board fodder).

FYI -- Minnesota-Duluth can now be the first to lock up home ice for the WCHA tournament play-in round with a sweep of the Gophers (UND can, at best, secure a tie for 5th).

As a point of reference, at this point in 2000 we had only won 4 of the last 10, having dropped some tough road games including getting swept at UW. I'm not so much for looking for positives from this weekend because it simply wasn't a positive weekend for the Sioux. We played a tough road opponent and got swept. However, the season goes on and the Sioux are still in the driver's seat in the conference and will make the NCAA tournament. It's up to the team to decide whether this is a wakeup call or a harbinger of the remainder of the season.

UND single-handedly petitioned the NCAA to get the strength-of-schedule index revamped to something resembling statistical validity. The took on this crusade to save D-II's oldest (and most fierce?) rivalry, which is also the most significant/most watched sporting event in the state of North Dakota. Now that I-AA games actually benefit D-II schools' SOS, 4 year home/home contract will be announced. Zzzzz... Mnnn..dj..... gack...... huh? Sorry, I just woke up. I'd be extremely happy with a home/home against GVSU, an in-region strong team, though I don't see it happening this year. I'd be quite happy with the majority of non-conference games being against >.500 in-region teams and being part of multi-year contracts (as this season showed, it's tough to predict in advance when schedule-making which teams will turn out to be good). I'd be sorely disappointed to find out that USD made a mistake and accidentally published UND's schedule to their website as their own.

Eric Schmoldt does the arena reporting for USCHO for Madison. Todd Milewski is a sports reporter for the Capital Times in Madison and is the same guy who does the WCHA column for USCHO.

FYI, you can view the WDAZ broadcast at wdaz.com. After you select 6:00 news and sit through the ad, jump to about 21:00 minutes into the broadcast. It runs for about 4 minutes. In addition to those comments quoted above, the show included short clips of Trenbeath, Dressler, Hendrickson, and Manke. Lennon thought UND had a very good year of getting the guys they targeted in-state. He mentioned how Mike Yilek was a 3-year starter in Eden Prairie, which is a great program. He also mentioned how Wisconsin turned out to be the top recruiting area thanks to identifying players early and sticking with them. None of the players are expected to start early.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a question so diplomatically avoided as Eaves' response to a request to compare his Freshmen to N.D.'s:

From the Salt Lake Tribune Some of my favorites: Don't get me wrong, I'm a devotee of N.D., but I've gotta agree with her on the "needs few city comforts" to live in North Dakota line (though she did allow as to how Fargo was a bit hipper then G.F., where she spent most of her visit).

As per the Capital Times

While working on some improvements to the WCHA Standings Possibilities, I noticed that UND can actually clinch home ice in the WCHA tournament with a sweep this weekend. FYI -- Given UND's success, I know that our real concern this season is PWR, not conference standing; I'm working on it

Great point. When playing with PWR, I'm stunned how sensitive it is to what teams are under consideration. While it seems like a logical system -- compare only those teams that are under consideration for the tournament -- the result is that even the top of the tournament seeding can be wildly affected by what group of middle of the pack teams end up with an RPI >.500 and what group end up <.500.

Our win% is now identical to BC's, but we still beat them in the PWR comparison. (You can see the individual comparison using my handy PWR analysis tool). Our RPI is significantly better due to a much stronger schedule. This tie actually gave BC the TUC edge (this tie will hurt us a lot less if Denver drops out of being a TUC by the end of the season). H2H is a tie and will remain so all season. We have a pretty strong edge on COP, but we have two games remaining against UMD that could change that. As much as stats amuse me, I'm with DamStrait. I'd almost rather go in #3-4 than #1.

With the line reunited, I guess it's time to break this back out.

That does seem to be a popular topic the past week or so; my own disinterest aside, I do try to respond to the demands of the fans. Anyway, congrats to the Bison on the home basketball sweep; two months ago, I honestly thought N.D. had nothing going on, but NDSU has climbed the ladder. Kudos.

UND leads 39-36 at the half. The Sioux have outrebounded the Bison 23-11. The Sioux have committed 16 turnovers :O I think the Sioux had a lead as big as 10 points during the half, but gave up some ground near the end (though I may have heard that wrong).

1st period ends, UND 1, Denver 0 Denver has 3 shots on goal (including 1 powerplay). Sioux have 7 shots on goal (including 1 powerplay). Mich. Tech leading CC 3-2 after 2 Gophers tied with UW 1-1 near the end of the 1st

Sioux fail to score on a PP. About 4 mins remain in the 1st. Lundbohm is playing pretty agressively. Parise always seems to be in the right spot again.

Parise takes it away from a defender and pops in a pretty wrist shot over Berkhoel. 1-0 Sioux. FYI -- UW leads UMN 1-0 at 15:00 into the 1st.

Charging penalty on Stafford. DU goes on power play at 6:18 into game. Parise had a decent SH chance. Sioux owned that PP (now finished).

I heard on the tv that the Gophers had no 5-5 goals; I'm still amazed how well the UND special teams performed against the Gophers. Hopefully the Sioux will be able to handle the Badgers as easily in Madison next weekend.

Hmmm... must be one of those things that broke when the board moved to this new server. I'm actually going to move it back this weekend (perhaps tonight), so will add it to my list of things to verify after that move.

Schools have promoted their Hobey candidates in an attempt to raise public awareness and influence the voters for a while, but I'm rather surprised by the recent trend of schools making an official drive to stuff the ballot box for the fan vote. I'm even somewhat surprised by the fan interest in the fan vote; kudos to Hobey Baker & USCHO for its success. #1 Ross, Jared; Alabama-Hunstville; (Vote for Hobey is hyped on UAH's front athletics page) #2 Connor, Chris; Michigan Tech; (Readers of Mich. Tech's official hockey page encouraged to vote once per day in the fan vote) #3 Lessard, Junior; Minnesota-Duluth; (no formal online push by school) #4 Bochenski, Brandon; North Dakota; (no formal online push by school) #5 Murphy, Colin; Michigan Tech; (Riding the same publicity as Connor, above) #6 Parise, Zach; North Dakota; (no formal online push by school) #7 Munroe, Scott; Alabama-Huntsville; (apparently the #2 guy at UAH, who all the Ross voters put in their #2 slot) #8 Vanek, Thomas; Minnesota; (no formal online push by school) #9 Ehgoetz, Barret; Niagara; (Status of fan voting noted on front athletics page) Apparently the WCHA schools feel no need to encourage their fans to vote, yet they have the most fans voting anyway.

I was surprised to see: WCHA Home 1-7-1 WCHA Road 5-2-2 Then you look at who they beat on the road: Minnesota, CC, Alaska, SCSU Who they lost to on the road: Mankato, Minnesota Who the beat at home: Alaska Who they lost to at home: Alaska, Duluth, Wisconsin, UND It doesn't seem coincidence that they have home losses against 1-2-3 in the conference. Of course, whether facing Denver at their home is easy wins, helping your conference standings; or whether Denver has had the unfortunate luck of facing the best teams at home, is debateable.

Frankly, I've always thought (and mentioned quite a few times during the NCC's turmoil) that there's a fair chance of a big shakeup in the NCAA, which could result in the reclassification of quite a few teams and possibly the creation of new classifications. However, unless that happens, I don't see any immediate impact on the NCC. Honestly, who do you see defecting from the NCC because a few football powerhouses are moving to the ACC? With SDSU and NDSU gone, I don't see any team left that could readily move, as the divisions stand, other than UND. I think the NCC is going to be pretty stable if not growing for a few years.

I disagree; most of the posts by all posters here are actual on-topic content, and that's because that's the way most of us like it. I agree that on certain boards, 90% of the posts are smack, and this board was created and is moderated with a careful and specific intent to avoid that. You have a preference for a certain type of discussion, whereas this site intentionally has a different type. While I'm sorry you don't like it here, I guess my best recommendation is to visit those sites that you enjoy, make your opinions known (as you have here), and market forces will take care of the rest. For now, most of the visitors here seem to appreciate the environment the way it is, and don't seem interested in providing a place for Bison fans to denigrate our team. As you've mentioned, you already have plenty of forums to do that, so the need does seem met.