forecheck

I e-mailed Wilbur on USCHO to see if he was interested and haven't heard back from him yet. I don't know anyone else who plays goalie, so unless this game is on a different day besides Sunday, in which dbnets1 would play, then we don't have one. If anyone else knows someone who would want to play, let me know.

I was actually surprised that Blais started Ranfranz again on Saturday after pulling him on Friday, but I'm glad he gave Marc a chance to show what he's capable of for the post-season. (Hopper, maybe he took your advice. )Blais said on the pre-game show that he has confidence in Brandt, and wanted to see how Marc would do if given the chance again. Good choice, I'd say. I think we know who our goalie tandem will be for the post-season finally.

dbnets1, thanks. I dropped Bertibm an e-mail last night. I need an address if I'm expected to pay someone.

I think Fylling has been on the point for the 2nd power play unit for a while now. I really like both Lundbohm and Fylling on the point. They both see the ice well and are good playmakers. At the beginning of the year I didn't like Lundbohm on the point the first few times he was there, because he was always trying to skate it in himself instead of staying on the blue line and setting up the play. He seemed like a puck hog. Now his game seems to have taken on a more unselfish role, and suddenly the points are coming. I also noticed last night and last weekend against Duluth that Prpich replaced Massen on the first power play unit.

The team may as well have used your theory of 6 skaters and no goalie tonight with the low UW shots on goal. I'd say our boys found the net.

The first UW goal was a good shot, but the second one I'll have to agree with PCM. Ranfranz had all the time in the world to prepare for the shot, and I felt he should have made the save. It's like Hennessey said, Greene can make that pass and 1 out of 100 times it will go off of Jone's skates, but that 1 time is when you really need to have a goalie who can come up with a big save. From the start I just thought Ranfranz looked shaky, and Brandt came in and looked confident. I was surprised by the move that early, but the team did need the win. What a great game by the Sioux though! We finally got to see them dominate 3 whole periods and WIN! Let's ride this new winning streak all the way through Buffalo now so Notermann can break Lee Davidson's record for games played in a career. And also, whoever said before this weekend that the Wisconsin broadcasters would be worse than Woog and Mozzaco (Goon?) was absolutely right. "Peanut Butter!" I listened to TH, but every now and then turned the mute off the tv to see what they had to say, particularly after penalties. A Wisconsin penalty, and "Parise was acting a bit." Yup, Parise has become good at acting with a stick or arm around his neck. The one guy made it sound like Wisconsin played a great game. Hello, they had what, 14 shots on goal and could hardly clear the zone. Like TH said, it was the men against the boys out there tonight.

Actually, although I was drinking at the time, I'm pretty sure Tawnie Hauser said that Adam was her cousin. At least I remember asking if there was any relation.

Thank you for your discretion Greyeagle. Bertibm, are you still looking for ice?

I think this would definitely work, especially since you want to play the goalie position and we need someone for that spot. Would everyone else be willing to play Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday?

Now I know this is completely hearsay, so take it for what it's worth. I just thought this was interesting. I was talking to one of my professors this morning, who is a huge Sioux hockey fan, and she told me that her daughter goes to school with Kasey Moreland. Word among the high school kids is that SCSU wants Kasey, and made him an offer for after he's spent 2 years in the juniors. UND then made a counter offer saying that they would take him after 1 year in the juniors. Now, of course I have no way of knowing if this is true, but if it is true, then the Sioux are going to have their pick of goalies. Assuming Ziegleman still plans on trying out next year (and makes the team), and assuming that Sedevie is able to play hockey again and will join the team next year, by 2004-2005 the goalie roster would look like this: Moreland - freshman Lamaroux - freshman Sedevie - sophomore Ziegleman - sophomore Brandt - senior Siembida - senior That is an awful lot of goalies, and I have a hard time believing that A) the coaches would keep that many talented goalies around and not use them all, and B) that any one of them would want to fight with 5 other goalies for a starting position. Just some food for thought.

No, unless the game is played on a different day than Sunday, in which dbnets1 would be the goalie. Any ideas?

Thanks for the notice!

I've heard it used quite a few times, but I didn't think I named it. Then again, I can't be expected to remember all the great things I've done in my life. I've seen a lot of beautiful goals scored over the last few years, and since I couldn't name them all I just named the 2 that were a definite turning point in a game and almost lost me my voice.

This senior class will definitely be missed. A hard working bunch who together combine for well over 300 games played over the last 4 years. Wow! A good indication of their abilities and the role they've played in Fighting Sioux hockey. If only every player could leave the program saying he helped win a national championship. I remember my freshman year, it was the first day of my biology class, and of course I didn't know more than 3 people on campus probably. Dr. Carmichael told everyone to turn to the people sitting around them and introduce themselves in case they ever needed someone to form a study group with. A nice young man turned to me, smiled, shook my hand, and introduced himself. Once hockey season started, it took me about a month before I finally remembered why Chris Leinweber's face looked so familiar in the hockey program. I've enjoyed watching Chris progress over the years and be a part of some pretty talented teams. My thoughts/memories of Spiewak and Notermann are somewhat the same as PCM's. Their speed, grit, and again hard work. I too always watch Notermann circle the players before each game and tap them with his stick, and then watch as the last player grabs him and pulls him into the circle. He has shown incredible leadership and is having a tremendous senior year. I also remember talking about the upcoming semifinal game against MSU on the bus ride to the Pepsi Center in Albany. The big talk was the unstoppable goaltender, Ryan Miller, and I said that it would be great if the Sioux could just score right away in the first minute of the game and shake the goalie. Who proves me right, but Kevin Spiewak, blazing in and scoring just over a minute into the game. That was an electrifying game! Most recently, though, I'd have to say the game where Spiewak and Notermann each scored a shorthanded goal 14 seconds apart to spark a Sioux win was one of the best moments I've witnessed. One of the few times I came close to losing my voice. They showed tremendous leadership by taking charge of a penalty filled game and deciding that the better team would win. I hope to see more of that kind of leadership from these 3 players straight through April! Good luck to Jason, Kevin, and Chris in the future, I'll definitely miss watching you in the green and white! Go Sioux!

That's ok, after reading your recap it's obvious I wasn't quite accurate with everything. Oops. My memory is already shot.

jk (and everyone else), sorry I thought PCM was going to post the show. My roommate was talking to me so I ended up missing part of it, but I'll remember what I can. After talking about Ziegleman, TH and CB went on to talk about how fans are absolutely trashing the goaltenders, and they don't deserve it. TH mentioned the only game he thought where there was a bad goalie performance was the second game in Mankato that Ranfranz started, and the team lost 5-4. Other than that, the goalies have been average to good, and Blais joked at one point that he doesn't want to hear anything about the goalie situation for the next 5 years. (of course, I still called in to ask about Ziegleman. ) They mentioned that you should be able to let in 2-3 goals and still win, and they did that at the beginning of the year, but now suddenly the scoring has dropped and they're not winning games. TH asked if you go to the players like Parise, Bochenski, Notermann, Lundbohm, etc. and tell them they need to start scoring more, and CB said no because they know what they need to do, and they're doing it, the pucks just aren't going in. Parise had 6 SOG just in the first period Saturday (I think). TH also said if you go back and watch the replay of the 2nd goal Siembida let in, the one where Greene turned over the puck, that Siembida was in position to make the save and thought that the Duluth player was going to take a slap shot. But then Greene hustled back and forced that player to the outside, causing him to take a different shot instead of the slapshot. TH and CB mentioned that the player (I can't remember his name) is the scoring leader on Duluth and probably their best sniper, and it was a good shot, but had Greene let him take his initial shot, Siembida could have smothered it and gotten a whistle. I also asked about Parise's trend of getting goals waved off, and they said he should probably have 3 more goals. Parise hasn't scored as much in the second half of the season because he and Bochenski are getting paid attention to, and it's hard to play with all the interference going on. JP Parise just tells Zach to keep playing hard, and that he has to play through it. TH asked Blais if he thought Zach, being 18, was getting tired. He always goes after everything hard and isn't afraid to go into the corners, and he wondered if Zach's production has faltered because he's physically tired from all the abuse he takes. Blais doesn't think so. He says Zach takes care of himself and is in the weight room lifting weights, and he attributes the lack of scoring to the attention he's been getting from other teams. They also mentioned that Greene is his roommate and personal body guard, then TH mentioned something about there's a few other beauties in that room too. I don't know if he meant those two get a lot of girls or what, but it was funny. I believe he said today was the worst practice the team has had, and he wasn't happy about it. Some players are waiting too long for plays to happen, then they don't get a good shot off and hit the pipe, so it's not just happening in the games, it's happening in practice too. It doesn't bother the team in practice, though, it's during games where it gets frustrating. They talked a bit about how the team is outshooting teams, but they just can't get any goals. Someone asked if those shots weren't good scoring opportunities, and TH said that if you look at the SOG stat sheet (whatever that thing is where they mark where shots are taken) that most are happening down in the slot, so they're getting good shots off. Blais agreed and talked about the bad luck this team is having, and quote Parise as saying something like, We're not playing bad hockey, right? The team just wants to win the games at hand. They're focusing on Wisconsin this weekend, then they'll take it from there. They mentioned how Wisconsin is close to selling out again this weekend, and how arenas always seem to sell out no matter where the Sioux play. Blais joked that no one is feeling sorry for little ol' North Dakota right now. With all the success the Sioux have had in the past and recent years, and now with the new REA, no one is losing sleep over the slump that the they're in. But other teams still know that the Sioux are a good team, regardless of the record lately, because teams are still saying they don't want to face the Sioux in the playoffs. They mentioned the possibility of the Sioux getting sent out east for the NCAA regionals, maybe playing UNH (?) and then Cornell, then they're in. They like that situation better than going into Michigan or Minneapolis and playing teams on home ice. That's all I can remember, sorry. If something isn't accurate, feel free to correct it anyone who listened to the show. EDIT: Nevermind, I see Pat did a recap, it was just late.

The Wookie... *sigh* I just saw that icon and was waiting for the opportunity to use it. Regarding Ziggy, Blais said on the coach's show tonight that he has in fact turned down scholarships and wants to walk on at UND. Blais hasn't talked to him in a month I think he said, but every time he has seen Ziggy play he looks good, and Blais thinks the plan is still that he will try to walk on at UND next year.

Thanks for the interest dbnets! Because of the delay in finding a goaltender for the Sioux team, I found out today from bertibm (the Gopher fan reserving the ice) that the ice he was looking at is no longer available. He said he would look around for some ice elsewhere, but I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean the game will be on Sunday either. Sorry, it's probably my fault that I didn't e-mail him soon enough, but I wanted to wait until I was sure we had a full team. So if anyone knows of a goaltender, let me know, and dbnets, I'll e-mail you if the game day changes.

Does anyone know a goalie who would want to play? Hopper's friend that was originally going to play is going to be in a wedding, so that fell through. mksioux, thanks. Do you happen to have any goalie pads?

Sorry, I'll try to keep my admirers in line from now on.

No way, Sofie scares me. Blais tried him a couple times in relief of Kollar last year, and the guy just doesn't have the confidence or concentration to play at this level, IMO. He apparently has a great work ethic, which is great and always something you want instilled in the team, but I think Blais is better off going with Ranfranz or Brandt. Regarding Wisconsin, they just came off a sweep of Michigan Tech (including a 9-5 win) and before that they took 3 points from St. Cloud. Apparently this isn't the same team that I saw in MN, who looked awful. There's no doubt that UND needs to just forget the past, play the games, and win by playing solid hockey....and let's just hope the same Wisconsin team that played the Gophers shows up this weekend.

Melissa, you'd probably be able to buy BC tickets when extra tickets go on sale next season, I'm thinking in September. Otherwise it's probably a given that there will be extra student tickets left over, and you can call REA on the Thursday morning before the series at 10:00 and buy the leftovers. You could actually get better seats that way too, if you get there early enough to grab a first come first serve seat. Hmmm, I'm starting to think I could make some money renting out a room during the WJT. How much is the going rate for hotels?

Just wondering. How many of the people who said they were going to be there to play on March 23 will be there whether or not the Sioux make it? Of course I know they Sioux will be there but just in case I want to make sure we'll have a team regardless. If someone doesn't plan on being there if the Sioux don't make it, please let me know ASAP.