Tonight at Lola's:
Hope the #1 ranking isn't the curse. Blais doesn't like that insidecollegehockey.com dropped us 3 spots to #8 because we gave up 10 goals to Mankato, when Mankato beat SCSU and MN. A win is a win. He joked that he's going to have to get a hold of the guy who put the poll together.
3 out of 4 points against Mankato during Thanksgiving was pretty good, and we're still undefeated at home, which is something we couldn't do last year and is pretty special. Road trips are good because they break up the routine a bit.
Some comments on the new recruits:
Brady Murray: Having a great year. Blais says he'll probably play with Parise and Bochenski next year, and he thinks they'll be able to score 100 goals, which hasn't happened in a long time. A capable player with a lot of good sense, not real big, but a good shot, a good compliment to Parise.
Chris Porter: A big strong winger, but he needs to get a little more consistent right now. He made the jump from Shattuck to the juniors, and now he has to get stronger and adjust. Some players take a bit longer to adjust, and he thinks Porter might be a player like Lundbohm who doesn't score much his freshman year, but he has a lot of talent and just needs to work hard get stronger.
Drew Stafford: Crosby was getting all the attention for awhile at Shattuck, but now Stafford has stepped up and is having a very good senior year.
Matt Smasby: He has a big frame like his father. Blais had connections to Smasby through Strinden (I think that's who they said).
Philip Lamaroux: It's tough to leave home when you're a kid to go play in the USHL, but he is a talented goalie. He's small, and some of the guys saw him play, and said that he plays his positions in net just like Karl Goerhing. Side note on Karl, he is making transitions well in his life, he is married now, and one step away from playing in the NHL. He is playing very well, and Blais mentioned that Belfour, Goerhing, and Brandt were all players of the week in their respective leagues.
Lane Sedevie: He's playing well, and appears to be healthy. His save percentage and GAA is up there.
Woog was being interviewed today, and the interviewer (I didn't catch the name) kept trying to get Woog to say that Vanek was better than Parise, but Woog just kept saying that they are two different players who bring different things to the table. Tim thought that was good of him, because as we all know, Wooger is a Gopher all the way through, and Tim figured he would say that of course Vanek is better. Blais agreed, but added that Parise is the type of player who loves to practice, is always lifting weights and working hard, and plays with intensity, while motivation is a problem with Vanek sometimes. He attributed that to their different upbringings. If Parise has ever had a weak point to his game, which isn't very weak, it would be his face off win abilities. He suddenly is getting better at face offs now. Tim said that if you put these two players side by side, he would have to pick Parise, and so do most of the scouts. They both score goals, but how many goals is Vanek going to cost you? Some scouts look at Vanek because he has more size than Parise, though.
Saturday night against Mankato showed how much David Hale means to the team, when they gave up the 3 goal lead at the end of the game. Blais is calling him an All-American defenseman right now, and doesn't think we can win without him, which isn't a knock on the other defensemen. David is just that good. Schneider, Jones, and Greene could also be considered as All-Americans.
Greene has also been accepted to the world junior tournament, along with Jones and Parise now. Blais didn't want him to go and sit on the bench as the 7th defenseman, but the NHL scouts say he can play at a high tempo, and he is playing really well. I think he said something about Jones and Greene being able to play together as a defensive pairing. Blais is happy for him, although we're going to face CC without 3 of our players now. It is a real honor for these players to be representing their country, and they get very emotional in these games. It's the last amateur opportunity to play for your country without getting paid, and any time Blais can promote his players for it, he will, that's his job. He's going to try to go up and watch the games.
SCSU is the only team to beat UND, 7-3, although it wasn't a 7-3 game. This is going to be an electrifying series, and 3-4 points this weekend is really going to put the Sioux into a good position for the second half. SCSU has a lot of character and good leadership, good speed, players who can finish, and they play well on the road. They know they have to be a top 10 team in the country to get into the NCAA tournament, which they aren't right now because of injuries. They are playing for points.
McMahon, R. Hale, and Prpich are bigger and stronger than the Parise line, which was shut down in St. Cloud, and he would like to match them up against SCSU's big line of Malone, Cullen, and Motzko. He's looking for Lundbohm, Spiewak, and Notermann to play well, like they have been.
A caller asked about the goal right off the face off by Bochenski on Saturday that was disallowed, and Blais thought it should have been a goal, the whistle should not have been blown. Parise does this little move where he protects the puck off of the face off, and brings it back, and Brandon got the shot off. The reason the whistle was blown was because Mankato players were coming off the bench and the ref was telling them that they couldn't come out, but then they should have had a too many men on the ice penalty. The next face off, Zach did the same thing, pulled the puck back, and they got another shot off, only it didn't go in that time. Then they talked about how Mason gives the Sioux a too many men on the ice penalty for the same thing at the end of the game, and then Brandt must have said something about it to Mason, because he got a misconduct.
Another caller asked, "Are you doing anything about the powerplay, because it seems like it's not really clicking right now?" Coach, "Well, thanks." You always work on special teams. Tim says it's a typical UND powerplay, either it's hot or cold. You go 0-8, then 3-4. It's something that they're working on, and coach doesn't know if he's using the same guys for PP and PK, and they're getting tired, or what.
Blais never said anything about bringing a goalie in at Christmas, and we have Lamaroux and Sedevie waiting to come in next year. He did it last year, because he thought we were in a bit of trouble, but this year he doesn't think so. He has absolute faith in all 4 of the goalies this year. He's been accused before of being too hard on goalies, but that's the way it is. They have to learn to play better, and he has to learn how to be more patient.
I tried to catch as much as I could. They talked about a lot tonight!
