skateshattrick

I'm actually not surprised that Vanek may be staying at Minnesota. I received an email today from a friend who knows Wally Shaver, and that is the word in Minneapolis. Surprisingly, however, Paul Martin is leaning towards signing a pro contract. Paul Martin is an excellent player, and will probably make a good pro, but I think Vanek is more ready.

Finally you concede what I've been saying all along-- the Sioux have had"average goaltending" since Karl graduated. It is very difficult to win in the WCHA with average goaltending, unless the team in front of you is exceptional like the Gophers 2 years ago. The Sioux will score this year, and will have great defense. To really do something (especially when the offense has trouble scoring, which happens to all teams), the Sioux must have better than average goaltending. I think Brandt could be that guy IF he plays like he did at the end of the year and is consistent, but that is still the critical issue with this team. Hopefully, Ziegelmann and Parise will also at least be steady and consistent. If the Sioux can get solid and consistent goaltending (not necessarily spectacular), they will make it to the Frozen Four.

You are making my case for me. The Sioux lost to Mankato 5-4 in a game where they outshot them 52-21, and Hennessy called the goaltending by Ranfranz awful. I was at both UMD games the following weekend, and the Sioux got tied 3-3 the first night despite outplaying them badly and outshooting the Dogs 38-20. The next night, they battled back to tie it late (outshooting the Dogs 37-24), but Siembeda gave up one of the worst goals ever when he came way out of the net where Stapleton had no angle, and basically gave him an empty net goal. Blais and Hennessy were very critical in the post-game comments. By the way, the goal was scored when a defenseman fell down, not a forward. The Sioux also outshot Denver the following weekend, only to lose and tie. It seems like we always lose to a so-called "hot" goaltender when the Sioux outshoot/outplay the opponent. How many times did the Sioux steal a game last year when we were badly outshot or outplayed because of our goaltending?? Never?? We have come to expect mediocrity from our goaltending, when we should be winning some 2-1, 3-2 games. You have to win some of the close games in the league, even when you only score 2 or 3 goals. If goaltending had come through, we should have beat MSU-Mankato on the road, swept the Dogs and taken at least 2 points from Denver.

You said it all when you said by Karl's standards. His "off" year in 2000-01 resulted in a 16-6-6 record with a 2.38 GAA, 3 shutouts and a save % of .918. Brandt's freshman year, he was 4-4 with a 3.23 GAA and a save % of .902. Last year, he was 11-4-4 with a 2.40 GAA and a .895 save %. You also said it when you said defense was not the problem, with the Sioux seldom giving up over 25 shots per night. Brandt's best is not as good as Karl's worst, particularly save percentage. Karl also played big in big games. I don't agree that lack of offense was the problem last year, and neither did the coaching staff. I guess I will side with them and blame it on inconsistent goaltending.

I absolutely disagree. The Sioux in 1986-87 were a gambling team and often left Belfour "out to dry" but he would stop some of the shots that he was not supposed to stop (breakaways) and stopped all of the shots that he was supposed to stop. Jon Casey almost singlehandedly beat RPI in the playoffs when they had Oates and Carter despite the fact that the Sioux were outshot badly (Casey had over 50 saves in each of the playoff games). Karl had great teams in front of him, but I can think of about 5 goals total in his career that you can consider soft. By contrast, Kollar gave up 7 goals in a game against Denver in 2000-01 in a game that the Sioux dominated. TWICE in the same game he followed a puck that hit the boards or glass behind him, only to have it ricochet in front for easy tap in goals. He also gave up at least 2 goals from beyond center ice on dump ins, one against Minnesota in the Hall of Fame game and I believe the other against Mankato. Those are killers because they put the team in a hole and the players don't have confidence that the goalie will make the big save when needed. The only time that I have ever another goal from beyond center ice in a college game was the dump-in against Kvalevog in the 1996 playoff game against Wisconsin at the end of the 2nd OT. I watched Kollar play for the Ice Sharks and the Sioux. He posted comparable numbers to Karl, but anyone who watched him knew that he was not in the same class as Karl. He was a good backup, but not ever in the top 5 in the WCHA. I agree that Brandt has gotten better, but he is not even in the same class as Karl, Jon Casey, Belfour, Jensen. He is still plagued by inconsistency and the inability to make a great save when needed. I saw him in St. Cloud last year and he was brutal. 7 goals on about 25 shots, and at least 3 or 4 were very weak. I never saw Karl have a game like that in his career, let alone Casey or Belfour. That was not the only game. He was also horrible in the 3rd period of the 5-4 loss in CC in which the Sioux blew the 3-0 lead. I bleed Sioux green, but I am objective. For those of you who think that Kollar and Brandt are that good, I challenge you to get objective opinions from other WCHA fans on USCHO about them. I suspect that most other fans see what I see--they are at best average goalies.

Statistics can be skewed for whatever purpose that you want. What is the significance of 50%? Why is that more significant than 60% if the goaltending is being shared? I grant you that the last 2 years have been unusual because 3 are in the mix, and that accounts for less than 50%. Before that time, the Sioux have generally split the time (like many schools--see Denver, AAU) between 2 goaltenders with one goaltender getting more starts, particularly against tougher opponents. Have you also considered that many of the starts by the 2nd and 3rd goalies may be against less than quality opponents? Where does that factor into the equation? I will grant you that the last 2 years have been unusual because Dean was trying to find ANYONE to step up and play (recall where Brandt and Siembeda were ranked nationally in save % for most of the year; recall Kollar giving up dump-ins from center ice or beyond the year before and many weak goals), but the Sioux do not have a "history" of playing musical goalies. The Sioux have had years with great goaltenders that played a lot (Casey, Jensen, Belfour and Goehring, and even Schweitzer after Christmas in 1996-7) and years where the goaltending has been poor (Kvalevog, Dickson, Kollar, Siembeda) and thus, the goaltending has been shared until one emerged.

Is it really that unusual to split time between goaltenders? Playing devil's advocate, most teams in the WCHA split time between at least 2 goalies. Denver split time between its 2 goalies Berkhoel and Dubielwicz; UMD did with Reichmuth and Anderson; Minnesota mostly used Weber this year, but in 2001, Hauser had 35 starts, Johnson 6 and Weber 10 (not that much different than this year where Brandt and Siembeda had about the same, and Ranfranz had 10 starts); MSU-Mankato split between Volp and Jensen and Nixon had 3 starts; Wisconsin used both Bruckler and and Kabatoff; Tech used both Ellsworth and Rogers; St. Cloud used both Montgomery and Moreland. The last 2 years have been a little odd for the Sioux because there have been 3 in the mix rather than 2, but I really believe that is a function of very inconsistent goaltending or poor goaltending. When Dean has a good goaltender, he plays him as he did with Karl and with Schweitzer before he got beat out by an excellent goaltender in Karl. Dean does like to have 2 goalies in case of injury and just to push the No. 1 guy.

Very well put. I watched Jon Casey and his brilliant career with UND and Belfour during his great season in 1986-87, but Goehring was every bit as good as both, and in my opinion, the best I have ever seen at UND. His career goals against and shutouts attest to how good he was at UND. I also saw Karl play at many Ice Sharks games the year before he came to UND. If you saw him then, you knew that he was going to be special. I hope that he gets his shot in the pros and they overlook his lack of size. I have a feeling that whoever gives him a chance won't be disappointed.

That is not true either. It is a state offense that he was charged with, not federal. It is conceivable that he could have been charged with a federal offense, but it is speculation to say that the alleged offense constituted a violation of a federal statute. I doubt that you know the circumstances well enough to say whether he could have even been charged with a federal offense, or if there was sufficient evidence to prosecute.

My apologies for busting your chops, but I took it as a shot at UND's program. If you say it was not, then I accept that. I also did not like the bold emphasis that sent the message that this clearly was a federal offense. I don't believe it was, but I don't profess to know enough about the situation despite the fact that I am a lawyer and have been for many years. Minn. Stat. 609.625 is a state crime for aggravated forgery. He was never charged with any federal offense.

And both of those incidents pale in comparison to Woog paying money to his players, Lou Nanne and Glenn Sonmoor recruiting Zach Parise after he already committed to UND, the Clem Haskins scandal, and the numerous other recent scandals at the University of Rodents.

Go away troll. This is a hockey board, something that you have shown time and time again that you know nothing about. We could care less about the high school with ashtrays known as NDSU, Bison football program and its attempt to go Div 1AA, which is the equivalent of "B". I can understand why the Bison are moving to D1AA after it blew it by failing to get a D1 hockey program, but based upon the Bison football team's success at D2 recently, we thought that they might go D3.

My favorite period to watch is the 5 goal second period wipe-out of BU in 1997, an awesome offensive display, especially the 5th goal with the period about to end; what a dominating forecheck. Don't have the 80 and 82 games, however, would sure like to see them to compare to the 87 team (since I think the 82 team was the best ever).

I'm not sure that I agree with this comment. Vanek is a great player, but speed is not his forte. He is an incredible stickhandler, very strong on his skates, and is a sniper, but not real fast. Minnesota has many faster players like Riddle, Guyer, Ballard, Paul Martin, etc. I agree that losing Vanek would be huge because he is a big time goal scorer. I don't see that they lose anything in speed. At this point, all of this is speculation at best. Who knows what is going on in Vanek's mind, let alone the Sabres. I do agree that there is not a whole lot to play for after winnng a championship, particularly with the risk of injury if he stays.

Sicatoka, Handyman and Dagies- all very good and objective posts. Sic, I agree with you about the lower lines. However, the defense played a role in why Parise, Bochenski and others had trouble scoring at the end of last season. In my opinion, the Sioux need to improve on 3 areas: 1. Goaltending. Although this improved at the end of last year, it is still a concern and affects everyone's play because the team needs to have confidence that the goalies will make a stop every now and again if there is a mistake. 2. Transition game, which I believe is the ability of defensemen to carry the puck or break it out of the zone like Ballard and Martin. 3. Depth at forward. The 3rd and 4th lines were not very productive, and also took dumb penalties and gave up some weak goals. The short list is Palmiscino, Connelly and Canady, but Ryan Hale also struggled. I truly believe that the Sioux addressed this concern with some of the new recruits, and Prpich and Fylling will be a year older and better. Time will tell if the other 2 areas of concern have been addressed. I think that they have, and I am cautiously optimistic about this year. I would feel better if the new D man from western Canada was coming this year rather than next year. I think that this could be the Sioux's year if 1 and 3 above are improved even if the Sioux don't have the offensive defenseman. Minnesota, Michigan and BC will be strong, but I believe the Sioux will be right there will all of them.

That is overly simplistic. Defense is not simply defensemen playing well, it is forwards backchecking, playing good position and hustle. The same is true of offense. Goals are not scored simply because of forwards doing their job, they need the defense to break the puck out of the zone (rather than banging it off of the boards or dumping it in), passing the puck well in transition, and holding the puck in the offensive zone. Most (not all) of the Sioux's scoring droughts were directly attributable to the fact that the forwards had to either spend too much time in the defensive zone helping out or chasing the puck in the neutral zone. If the defense cannot get the puck out of their own zone, the forwards will not be able to generate anything. The Sioux seldom had odd man rushes last year, which is more of a defensive shortcoming.

Again, I agree completely. Schneider and Fuher can score when set up in the offensive zone, but we truly lack a player who can break the puck out and start the transition. The Sioux defensemen breakout last year (other than Hale) was often to either bang it off of the boards or the glass. We also used far too much "dump and chase". That may be the way Tech, Wisconsin and Duluth play, but its ugly hockey and does not utilize the abilities of some of the skilled forwards. We desperately need a Roche, Murphy, Williamson type of player. Maybe Andy Schneider can be that person, but he was not last year despite the fact that he had as many points as Ballard.

The teams from the early 80's were stacked with offensive talent and could score with the best of them. Players such as Smail, Sykes, Taylor, Eades could all score. However, they also had great goaltending with Jon Casey, and great defense with Marc Chorney, Howard Walker and James Patrick. Those teams had many, many players that went on to have NHL careers. Those teams played more like an NHL team in that they were physical and rarely allowed shots outside the perimeter. The 87 team was good mostly because they had Tony Hrkac (still the best college player that I have ever seen), Bob Joyce (who scored 50+ goals), Ian Kidd and Russ Parent (2 very offensive defensemen) and Belfour. In other words, they could score almost at will, particularly on the power play, and Belfour would always be there for the big save. Russ Parent was a Curtis Murphy clone. He was very offensive-minded---a great skater who would often lead offensive rushes. Dean's teams are different than Gino's, which is partly because of the changes in college hockey. There was no Olympic sized ice in the 80's, which meant that a physical NHL style was more effective. Now, many of the teams in the WCHA have big ice sheets (Minnesota, Denver, CC, Alaska, St. Cloud). As a result, an offensive defenseman like Roche, Murphy, Williamson, Preissing, Ballard, etc. is more of a necessity. Dean's success has been based upon faster, quicker and better passing teams and the offensive defensemen. In my opinion, that style is much more fun to watch. I would much rather watch a college or European style than an NHL style. The last couple of years, Dean does seem to be recruiting bigger "stay at home" defensemen, but that is probably because Hakstol and Berry recruit the defense and that is the style that they played. Maybe Andy Schneider will take on the role of the offensive defenseman this year. Regardless, the Sioux defense should be very good this year.

Great post JK. I agree with everything that you said.

Well put. Irmen and Potulny are 2 of the best recruits in the country, not 3rd or 4th line type guys. The situation with Ryan Potulny is understandable because he was going to go to Minnesota anyway. Plus, the Sioux at least recruited him. I would like Hakstol or someone to tell Sioux fans, however, why Irmen was not recruited. He is more proven than any of the forwards that the Sioux have coming in other than Brady Murray.

I'm not sure that I understand the speculation about Greene. Yes, he took many stupid penalties. However, no one doubts that he is very talented. He will get smarter and will be a very good defenseman. When Mike Commodore was recruited, I remember David Hoogsteen telling me about a new recruit who could not even skate. Commodore was raw, and took countless stupid penalties. However, he developed into a fine college defenseman. Greene is a much better skater, is bigger, and has a higher upside. He will get better and will be an asset. As far as the QMJHL, I have often wondered the same thing. Denver pulls out recruits from there, and the CCHA teams and Hockey East teams recruit heavily from that league. Michigan, BC, New Hampshire and others also recruit heavily from Western Canada (Kylanos and Kobasew from the BCHL went to Boston College) and the USHL. Is there any reason the Sioux don't go into the QMJHL??

No, I am saying that I question whether Woog ever said that in an interview. When Karl was recruited, he was playing in Fargo for the Ice Sharks. I recall that Karl was offered money by Minnesota, but not a full-ride. I believe it was 1/2, but it may have been slightly less. If you want to find out, contact Tarek Howard or Scott Koberinski. They were Karl's coaches at the time. However, he clearly was recruited by Minnesota. It was in the papers and was discussed at the time that Karl chose UND over Minnesota and Alaska-Anchorage. Look it up.

To clear up any misconception about Karl Goehring, he was recruited by Minnesota and offered money. I believe it was a 1/2 ride. Woog had a reputation for being arrogant about the U of M program, and purportedly expected that Goehring, like many local kids, would come to Minnesota for less than a full ride. By the way, I have heard that accusation leveled at UND recently by many in the hockey community, including 3 different former Sioux players. No one is claiming that UND needs to recruit all of the local players. However, when very, very good players are expected to walk on or take less because they are local players, that does not sit well. That is arrogant, and is very similar to what happened to Woog. Woog did not lose his job because of a lack of quality players, he lost his job because of horrible communication skills with players and because he could not win with great players. He also lost some good players from Minnesota because he expected many to walk on or take less than a full ride. Minnesota North Star, if you never heard of Ryan Potulny or Danny Irmen, then you obviously either do not follow youth hockey very closely . Ryan was one of the leading scorers for GF Red River as a 9th grader, and Danny Irmen was a top 2 scorer for Fargo North as a 9th grader. Ryan was the most talked about kid from North Dakota for many years. Danny was in the Burggraf camps since he was a kid, and Frank told anyone who would listen how good Danny was and was going to be. By the time they were sophomores in high school, they were 2 of the best players in the State. They played on Select Teams and were well known in both North Dakota and Minnesota. They then both left for juniors at age 16, and had 2 great seasons at Lincoln in what would have been their junior and senior years of high school.

I don't disagree that Danny Irmen and Ryan Potulny are close, and Danny may well have gone to Minnesota anyway. However, I do know Danny and his dad, Don, and I can tell you that they were not happy that Danny was not recruited by the Sioux until after committing to the Gophers. The Sioux recruited Ryan Kraft and Karl Goehring even though it was rumored they would go to the Gophers. It made both of their decisions difficult, and Karl was ultimately swayed to go to UND.