skateshattrick

As a Sioux fan, I hope he leaves and Goligoski goes as well. All kidding aside, he's a tremendous talent and he's pretty close to being ready for the next level. He's huge and skates very well for a big man, and has a heavy shot. Yes, he has things to work on, but he's still a teenager. He is going to be very, very good. He reminds me of a young Chris Pronger.

Nice. I was thinking along the same lines! This is going to be a tough game. Hockey East has been tough this year. Maine is 4-0 against UND, UM and SCSU, BC is 2-0 against UW. However, most of the games were early, and I have confidence that the Sioux can and will beat BC and get a rematch against Maine.

Sorry to do this again, but does Minot cover FSSN as well?

Siouxnami can address this, but Wisconsin had an excellent recruiting year with Kyle Turris (a Jonathan Toews type player) and the entire line from Shattuck, including Brady Murray's little brother. The style may be boring, but Wisconsin has a long history of success and sending players to the pros, and Madison is a great town with a beautiful campus. As much as I would like every kid to come to UND, Wisconsin is a top program and is going to win some recruiting battles with Minnesota, UND, Michigan, Denver, BC and the other top programs.

Lamoureaux's younger brothers (Jacque and Mario) are at Northern Michigan and the 2 younger sisters are going to Minnesota.

Yes and yes. John Lee is committed to Denver.

I don't disagree with you. However, that doesn't mean that he's a bad player. I'm happy that he will be back. He has a ton of talent. He may not have lived up to some people's expectations of a No. 9 overall pick, but that doesn't mean he isn't a good player. You have to remember that he did not play juniors and is still very young. Up until recently, Blake Wheeler would also have to be considered a disappointment for a No. 5 overall pick. Based upon his recent performances, it appears that his potential is just starting to be realized. Give Brian Lee time. He's a good player. He has things to work on, but he will only get better.

If anyone is from Minot, please let me know who covers Sioux hockey on TV and/or radio and where I might be able to watch the game. I am not from Minot, but will be there this weekend.

The opinion that it does not matter is a minority opinion and is not reflective of every Sioux fan any more than it is for any Gophers fan. Please do not generalize based upon comments of a few. It was very important for the Sioux this year, because if the Sioux had won, they probably end up a No. 7 and get shipped out to Clarkson's bracket. That would have been a win/win for both UM and UND. However, I understand why Minnesota came to play this year--they wanted to build momentum for the tournament so that they did not have a repeat of last year, they wanted to prove that the sweep earlier by the Sioux was not a reflection of what they are capable of, and they were tired of hearing from everyone in the media that the Sioux were the better team. However, be careful what you wish for---neither UND nor Michigan are going to be pushovers. Although I admittedly have a WCHA bias, I truly believe that Minnesota and UND are 2 of the top 3 or 4 teams in the country right now along with BC and possibly Notre Dame. New Hampshire and Michigan are probably next.

I have a hard time blaming Brian Lee for that goal. If you are going to do that, then you have to look at how the play started. Taylor Chorney made a good play getting the puck up ice, but in hindsight, probably should have gotten it in deep rather than dropping it to Watkins. Matt Watkins also had a chance to catch the pass and throw it in deep, but he had difficulty controlling the puck and it was intercepted. The bottom line is that it was a fluke goal created by good hustle on the part of Blake Wheeler. There are lot of lessons to be learned by that goal, but its really not fair to blame any one player or really any of the players. Besides there really is nothing that can be done about it now. The Sioux need to refocus and get ready for a good Michigan team.

You are wrong. Jonathan Toews is a sophomore and does not even turn 18 until the end of April! Both he and Joe Finley would have been high school seniors during their freshman years of college at UND if they did not accelerate their educations. There are many 18 or 19 year old freshman that went directly from HS to UND---Taylor Chorney, Brian Lee, Zach Parise and many more.

The 10 finalists for the Hobey: Drew Bagnell, St. Lawrence David Brown, Notre Dame John Curry, BU Nathan Davis, Miami RYAN DUNCAN, UND Eric Enh, Air Force Bobby Goepfert, SCSU TJ Hensick, Michigan David Jones, Dartmouth Scott Parse, UNO CONGRATULATIONS RYAN DUNCAN!!

I agree with you completely. I was surprised to see either UMD player on the 1st team, although I can accept Niskanen more than Raymond. UMD was brutal for most of the year and I don't think Mason Raymond is in the same class as Toews. Toews missed a lot of games with injuries and the World Juniors, but IMHO, is the best player in the league. His statistics support that argument. I also agree with you about Nodl or Okposo as well. Either one would have been deserving of ROTY, but how does one win the award and end up on the 3rd team??

Connelly is the younger brother of Chris Connelly of the FM Jets. Chris Connelly has drawn interest from Bemidji State and UMD, but he may be back with the Jets again next year. He will play D1 somewhere either this year or next. 3 of his Jets teammates have already been offered D1 scholarships, and Chris Connelly is arguably the best player on the Jets. His younger brother may also be here next year if he is not on an USHL roster. Festler is very talented. SCSU got a good one. Marvin and Jordy Christian of Moorhead have also committed to SCSU.

The Sioux will always try to get the top players, even with the risk of flight in 1 or 2 years. Why? Because they are one of the few schools that can get those players. They seem to always be competing with Minnesota, Denver, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, BC and BU for the same kids. That is one of the primary reasons that UND is a top program. Do you think that MSUM, UMD and MTU would not love to have Jon Toews, Zach Parise, Phil Kessel and those types of players even if only for 1-2 years?? We are not always going to get them because there are so many factors that determine where a kid may play (location, facilities, coaches, coaching style, etc.), but we should never stop trying to recruit those types of players. I would personally rather have Zach Parise or Jonathan Toews for only 2 years than a 4 year muck and grind player that may get you 10 goals their senior year. However, you need both for a team to be successful and I believe our coaching staff knows that. I also like the highly skilled smaller players that were passed up purely because of their size like Panzer, David Hoogsteen, Duncan and even Jason Blake. However, other teams are also starting to see the benefits--look at Jordy Christian going to SCSU. He has great hands and a very quick burst and will be a great college player in a few years. SCSU got him because they did not require that he play in the USHL for a year. The point is that a program cannot only grab players that you think will be around 4 years or you will get burned or end up as a middle-of-the-pack team like MSUM, MTU or AAU. Besides, one of the biggest attractions to UND by top recruits is the fact that so many players go on to the next level and the coaches give them their blessing if they are ready, even if it is only after 2 years of college hockey.

I agree. However, I do believe that strengthening the schedule at the youth level (Squirt, PeeWee and Bantams) will strenghten the programs. The eastern teams not only play each other and "local" teams such as Moorhead, Alexandria, Roseau, Warroad, etc., but will play many Minneapolis teams in tournaments in Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks and in the Twin Cities. There is no better way to measure the success of your program than playing the best competition so that you know how to measure your development. However, the critical development of players is at the mite, squirt and pee wee levels through ice time, practice and good coaching.

I think that is the all tournament team. The all-state team was posted in the Fargo Forum. If I recall correctly, it included: Sean Deichert and Dan Wurden from Fargo South; Tanner Bombenger from Fargo North; Tyler Swanson from West Fargo; Jarret Galbreath, Ryan LaDoucer and Eric Meland from GFRR; Zach Miller from Grafton-PR; Kyle Everson from Devils Lake; Eric Herbel from Bottineau; Andrew Seeburg from Bismarck; Hendrickson and Nathan Stremmick from Minot; Zach Welding from Jamestown; Colby Rehak from Williston. There was also a goaltender from Dickinson. I can't recall if Michael Hillman from Bismarck made it, but I thought so. I apologize if I missed anyone. This is from memory.

Andy Dittus and Tyler Jundt are playing for the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) Marc Mihulka and Marc Harrie are playing for the FM Jets (NAHL) and Alex Olson is playing for the Bismarck Bobcats (NAHL). Lane Smith is playing club hockey in San Diego. I'm not sure if any others from that team are still playing.

I reviewed the article and I was wrong. The coaches do pick the All-State team and the outstanding player. I believe that is a change from past years. I am equally surprised that Pat Arneson did not make it. A lot of credit must have been given to Galbreath and Ladoucer.

Unless something has changed, it is because the coaches do NOT pick the All-State team. That was the case as recent as last year. Rather, the media chooses the All-State team. If that is still the case, that would help explain some of the omissions. That is why I have always felt that being recognized to All-EDC (or All-WDC) is a bigger honor because it is an based upon the coaches' who actually saw that person. It is more a recognition of peers than media people who may not have seen most of the kids and may know nothing about the sport. No offense to Herbel from Bottineau, but I suspect that the reason he won the award is because the vote was split. I suspect that most of the western media picked Herbel, while the East split the vote between Wurden and Miller (and possibly Everson). That is not taking anything away from Herbel--he is obviously a talented kid and deserving of recognition, but Wurden and Miller are outstanding and it is difficult to choose between the two of them.

The "rumor" (that I heard from a pretty reliable source) is that both MSUM and UND showed interest, but recently backed off because of concerns about his GPA.

I'm not sure that I agree that Minot has the most alums playing college or junior hockey. I'm not sure of all of the players, but these are the ND players that I am currently aware of playing either Junior A hockey or D1 college: COLLEGE Robbie Bina, Grand Forks (UND) Phillipe Lamoureux, Grand Forks (UND) Jacque Lamoureux, Grand Forks (NMU) Aaron Walski, Fargo (UND) Tyler Magura, Fargo (Harvard) Nate Ziegelmann, Grand Forks (UMD) Mike Eickmann, Grand Forks (UNO) JUNIOR A Paul Weisgarber, Fargo (Waterloo--USHL) Rody Selke, Minot (Sioux City---USHL) Jordan Willert, Minot (Tri-City---USHL) (UNO next year) Andy Dittus, Minot (Green Bay---USHL) Jundt, Williston (Green Bay---USHL) Mario Lamoureux, Grand Forks (Tri-City----USHL) (NMU next year) Jake Marto, Grand Forks (Omaha---USHL) (UND next year) Erick Galt, Fargo (North Iowa, NAHL) Jon Halstenson, Fargo (FM Jets, NAHL) Marc Harrie, Fargo (FM Jets, NAHL) Elliot Oklund, Fargo (FM Jets, NAHL) Will Aide, Bismarck (Bismarck, NAHL) Alex Olson, Devils Lake (Bismarck, NAHL) I may be missing a few, but it appears that Grand Forks still has the most players in college and overall. Also, if you look over the past few years, these are some of the other ND players: Grant Potulny, Grand Forks (U of M) Ryan Potulny, Grand Forks (U of M) Dan Irmen, Fargo (U of M) Nick Fuher, Grand Forks (UND) Andy Schneider, Grand Forks (UND) Quinn Fylling, Minot (UND) James Massen, Bismarck (UND) I frankly don't see that changing. Minot does well, but not as well as Grand Forks. Arguably, Fargo has as many or more impact players.

Dave Hakstol and Dane Jackson from UND, Scott Sandelin from UMD and Serratore from Bemidji State were at last night's game between the Bismarck Bobcats and the FM Jets in Fargo. Does anyone have any idea who they are looking at?

It did affect the REA and there was some concern about the ice being lost since it takes 24-48 hours for the ice to set.

No. Just like Holy Cross wasn't very tough for the Sioux last year.