forecheck

Great weekend for the team! Spiewak made a beautiful deke for tonight's only goal (that counted). Glad his parents got to see him score, since they can't make it to too many games. Too bad for Parise that Anderson screwed up on his goal, since this is the first college series his parents got to see as well. Reiter played amazing tonight, but Brandt impressed me too. I think that has been his best game so far this year. Part 2 of the revenge tour is coming up next week with Wisconsin. Can't wait!

Actually, it was Siembida, Ranfranz, and Sofie who dressed for goalies last night. Brandt was in the stands. Reiter definitely made a bad clearing pass, but he also didn't have much of a chance to do anything else....Spiewak was racing right toward him, giving him a split second to react. It was a good hustle by Spiewak to force a turnover, and a good hustle by McMahon to get into the zone and glove down the clearing attempt. Let's hope the team finishes on more of these great scoring chances tonight!

I was pretty sure that Massen skated with Notermann and Lundbohm the whole game, except when he went in on the powerplay. Massen is probably my second choice for most improved player, other than Fylling, whom we haven't seen for a year. You're right diggerdan, he is very strong on his skates. I think Bochenski has always been strong on his skates, but his speed and fluidity have definitely improved from last year, when I don't remember him once being able to outskate a defenseman on a breakaway. Last night, he did.

The lines tonight were: Fylling-Parise-Bochenski Notermann-Lundbohm-Massen Spiewak-McMahon-R. Hale Canady-Genoway-Prpich Connelly is out sick with the flu, apparently, and Palmiscino is out with a concussion. I'm guessing Marvin was a healthy scratch. This was the second game that Parise was held scoreless, and it seemed like this was probably his "worst" game, although he still played very well, I thought. I caught the end of Hennesy's post-game show, and he mentioned that this was the first college game that Parise's dad was able to attend (parents' night), and that Zach may have been trying too hard. I'm anticipating a big night from him tomorrow. Once again tonight, we got to witness players sticking up for each other. Parise was checked into the boards with what looked to me like a high elbow, and Greene immediately went after Chytka while the puck was still in play. It looked like it could have been a good fight, but no punches were thrown, and Greene got a double minor for instigating. A bit later, Steward checks Leinweber from behind, and Fuher is right there showing him what's up. I love the chemistry on this team! I just want to see Greene lay a good one on someone, and then I'll be happy. Fylling seems to be in a bit of a scoring slump. He had the most shots on goal tonight with 6, 2 more than anyone else on the team, and he came out with an assist. He missed out on some really good chances, including that 3 on 0 that someone mentioned. Hopefully he can pick his game up tomorrow night. The really good news is that we're getting goals from more players now. McMahon, R. Hale, Fuher, and Bochenski with the goals tonight, and Notermann had the rebound goal that was waved off. What does everyone else think of Fuher? Right now, I think he has to be one of the most improved players from last year. I was really impressed with his game tonight, and so far in 7 games he has 3 goals and 3 assists. Not bad for a defenseman. I was much more comfortable with the power play tonight with him back on the blue line, than last weekend when 5 forwards were being put on the ice.

LOL. Oh brother.

How in the world did you figure that out? I was hoping no one would notice. When they said the phone number, I just picked up the phone, figuring I had plenty of time to think of an intelligent question to ask. Wrong. Next thing you know, I hear the music in my phone, and I got tongue tied, and then I swooned when I heard Blais actually talking to me. I couldn't think of what to say, and then they really threw me off when they asked if I was at the games, and I forgot what I was going to say. I was hoping that he would tell us what Adam was saying to Greene, though. I think it's safe to say I don't have Brian Canady's interview charm. Blais was probably just being nice to the challenged girl who figured out how to use a phone. I just remembered something else he said though. They mentioned how Schneider said in the morning show that he was watching the SCSU player's face, and he looked terrified about going up against Greene, and wanted nothing to do with him. It wasn't even Greene's fault that the stick flew out and hit Adam, but he got the misconduct. No word on where Spiewak is skating. The only line he mentioned was the Parise/Bochenski/Fylling line. I'm also hoping he keeps Lundbohm, Notermann, and Massen together. I don't see how he can't when they're playing so well together. I'm thinking they'll start on Friday, since he doesn't seem to like to start Parise's line. Dagies, maybe it's the free food, or maybe Tim just puts Blais in a good mood, but they're always joking around on the Coach's Show, and it does seem like Blais is pretty optimistic. I was surprised when he said that goaltending is not a problem, personally. He mentioned that it is the toughest position to play, but he must see something in practice that gives him confidence in these guys. If he would have open practices in the new Ralph, I'd go see for myself. I went back and edited my post, but I thought about it, and wondered if Blais thinks we can sweep SCSU at home after splitting with them on the road? All I know, is that I wish they would bring back last year's championship video that they played before the Sioux lineup. It's much more intimidating and impressive than this year's video, and it could be a little history lesson for SCSU when they visit. I really like that Blais feels we have at least 2 good scoring lines right now, and that there are still players on the 3rd and 4th lines with the potential to score quite a bit. The depth on this team seems to become more and more apparent.

I was hoping to go to the Denver series since my sister lives 5 miles from the stadium, and we have that Monday off from school, but I can't find anyone who wants to make a road trip. Anyone want to take a road trip? Speez, have a safe trip! Winter has arrived.

Coach's Show from Lola's: Sometimes if you go to another team's building and get one, they'll come to your building and we can sweep them. But if we get swept in St. Cloud, they'll probably come to GF and split. That's the way it seems to work sometimes. (In other words, sweep at home?? ) Blais thought it was good to see the hurt and caring by the guys after the Friday loss. Everybody is mad, but it's no one's fault. It's a little better than the garbage cans and water bottles that get kicked around sometimes. The problem is not goaltending, they are going to get the job done. Blais's own rating for his players is 1 (good), 2 (average), 3 (poor). The goaltending so far has been a 2. Players make mistakes all over the ice, but when the goaltender makes a mistake, everyone notices. Individual meetings are going on right now, they go in and talk to Blais (kind of like going to confessionals) and talk about their performance so far, and the general consensus is that our goaltending is pretty good. Siembida said he wants to win a national championship and 2 WCHA championships while he's here, so hopefully he can help us accomplish that. People say UND is a one-line team, but really, so is every team. But Blais thinks right now we have at least two scoring lines, although players like McMahon and Hale have the potential to score 10-15 goals, they just haven't produced yet. Palmiscino got hit, and yes it was a legal hit after watching the tape, but Blais thinks the SCSU player took 10 steps not 2 steps before hitting Palmo, and he can't believe there wasn't a penalty when it resulted in injury. Palmo has a concussion and is out for a week, with a black eye and stitches. Notermann got cut, too, but he is like a rubber ball, he's hard to hurt. Every good team is going to get beat sometimes. Look at MN, they got beat by Mankato, and everyone around the league was thinking, let Mankato into the league and we'll beat up on them. The team knows they weren't going to go undefeated, and they're happy with leaving St. Cloud with a split. Archibald is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame next weekend against Wisconsin. (How fitting is that?) We're starting to get a reputation of being tough guys, but that's ok. As a coach, he has to be careful not to get players or anyone into trouble, but let the players around the league be looking behind them when they play UND. Blais gets fined $1000 if he badmouths a ref, and that's when he goes down and takes a cold shower before an interview. Adam didn't lose the game for us on Friday, but there was a certain amount of disruption, and it took away from the flow of the game. Alaska isn't off to a very good start. Cygan and Zap are gone. It's going to be a bear of a year this year when Duluth can beat Denver, Mankato beats MN, and Alaska plays CC well. Greene is making a bit of a reputation for himself, and the refs have been watching him from the getgo, but he has to get into a real good fight before any comparisons can be made to Commodore. Brady Murray is 3rd in the league in scoring in the BCHL. Blais said they are excited about their recruits, but he can't really talk about potential signees right now. Fylling is back with Parise and Bochenski. They've played well together, but they got overpowered by seniors on Friday, which is why Spiewak was moved to that line on Saturday. He doesn't think Parise's line was outplayed on Friday, though. We could lose Parise and Jones to the World Junior Tournament. The schedule isn't very good, especially for the fans, but according to Blais, the team is so doggone exciting that even over Christmas break, people are going to keep coming to watch the team play. This kind of schedule shouldn't happen again, though, next year we have a really good schedule. World Junior Tournament info has to be in the mail by tomorrow night, and Blais thinks we are 1 of 3 communities in the running for hosting the tourney. There would be 10 teams here for almost 3 weeks, with very talented players, and it brings in a lot of money. Bochenski probably wouldn't make the tournament because they questioned his skating abilities. Virgil Hill is going to drop the puck on Friday night. Alaska coach John Hill was looking for some points last year, and they got some, but hopefully they aren't looking for any this year, because they aren't going to get any.

That's some good journalism! Good to hear Karl is continuing to play well!

We just figured it included a cuss word somewhere in there. Goon, I think everyone is frustrated with the goaltending, especially after last year, but it is a little early to be giving up on these boys and shipping them out. Blais obviously saw something in them when he recruited them, but not everybody pans out the way we'd expect them to right away. And as for Sofie, why get rid of the guy on your team who works the hardest and stays in the best shape year after year? I see a "Rudy" in Sofie. Even though he may not get playing time, it is still good to have someone with good work ethics around the team. Sprig's right, it is a bit crabby around here.

Yes, nice pictures! Here are some names for your ?'s. Hope you can figure this out, I'm just going left to right, top to bottom. It's easier (for me) than posting all of the pictures. Princeton: Page 1: (the top two that are labeled Jones are actually Fylling), Bochenski, Fuher, Bochenski, McMahon. Page 2: Jones, Bochenski and R. Hale, Prpich Page 6: Fuher Page 12: Jones and Fuher (with Bochenski and Parise) Yale: Page 1: Greene, Massen (with Canady) Page 3: Notermann, Jones (after R. Hale in the lineup) Page 5: don't know who is sitting with Hale, Bochenski, Fuher (with Klema and Massen) Page 7: Notermann and Greene (with Schneider), I believe Parise (with Dwyer), Parise Page 8: don't know but maybe Fylling, Jones Page 11: Leinweber (with Brandt), don't know who is with Trombetta, Bochenski scoring the goal Page 12: Greene and Bochenski (with Siembida), I think Massen (with Jensen), Bochenski (with Boucher) Page 14: Bochenski, Fylling and Greene (with Nam, Parise, Jones, and Bochenski) Hehe, sorry, I probably just confused you.

PCM, that's kind of what I figured. Thanks for the info!

I couldn't believe it. I plan on being in town for the Sioux/Gopher games in January, and I had accepted the fact that I would probably end up spending a lot more than necessary on scalped tickets, since I don't plan on getting rush tickets again and missing the first 10 minutes of the game. What's up with that, anyway? Do season ticket holders really take that long to get to the games?? Anyway, there was someone selling 2 tickets to one of the games, and she actually had one left over that I am going to buy, for the very reasonable price of $30. I wish everyone was interested in just getting butts in the seats instead of making a profit.

Hrkac, the student section really varies. I thought we were really loud when we gave Gravelese (the HE ref) a hard time against Niagara, but for the most part during the game, it isn't as rowdy as it used to be. I think a lot of it has to do with what Diggler was talking about, and some of it also may be the size of the arena. In the old Engelstad, the students made up a large part of the crowd, and the arena was smaller, so it sounded a lot louder. In the new arena, the students are split, half in the lower bowl, and half in the upper bowl where you can't really yell at the players or anyone, because it's tamer up there and no one can hear you. Plus, and this is my opionion, I think the "Green Hairem" is cheesy, and the students seem divided between what you would call the rowdy students, and the Green Hairem and their followers. And what is with the Sioux Crew roping off the first few rows by the glass for Sioux Crew members? Leave those seats for the students who freeze their asses off for an hour and a half outside! The new rules in the new arena suck. One thing that impressed me this weekend about SCSU was that the ENTIRE crowd did the cheers, mainly the sieve cheer. If UND could actually come up with a good, original sieve cheer, and the rest of the crowd (non-students) would sieve along, it would look much more impressive. Right now, it's pathetic.

Massen also said, "And Friday night, you can't really call it a (butt)-kicking when we put 43 shots on net." Somehow I don't think "crap" and "butt" is what he really said. I think he was excited about netting the GWG in overtime Scott, I was at the game, and I noticed two things. Siembida was playing a much better game on Saturday, although it still made me nervous every time the Huskies went in on him after Friday night's 3rd period, and the defense also played much better. For the first time this season, I thought the defense looked a little shaky on Friday night. Saturday, though, Siembida made a few quick toe saves that looked tough from where I was sitting. One thing I didn't like this weekend, was having 5 forwards on the ice for the power play. I don't think Lundbohm has nearly as strong of a slap shot from the blue line as, say, Fuher or Schneider, and at times he seemed a little selfish with the puck. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the job of the power play QB to set up the PP? At times, Lundbohm seemed to try to take matters into his own hands and dance around the penalty killers when he probably should have passed, which ended up in either a shorthanded rush or else the puck being cleared to the Sioux end. Whatever the case, I wasn't impressed with the PP this weekend. Hopefully it will get better with Fuher back in there. I think I was just surprised that Blais didn't replace Fuher with Schneider, since he obviously has a bit of the scoring touch, and a nice low shot. The line of Lundbohm, Notermann, and Massen is really looking good. These guys compliment each other very well, and as others have said, Notermann is really raising the bar for himself. He has always played hard every shift, and has been a key role player, but now the points are rolling in as well. Good for him! Palmiscino and Connelly also played pretty well this weekend, I thought, and ended up creating quite a few scoring chances. Was anyone else surprised that Spiewak played on a line with Parise and Bochenski on Saturday? I was trying to figure out if Blais was changing it up due to the line's combined -8 rating on Friday, or to have some senior leadership on a line that was being shut down by SCSU seniors. Either way, I thought he looked good with those two as well.

Whoa, was it just me, or was that a hard post to read? Sorry, don't mean to be the grammar police. This is a junior and senior league, which is one reason why the WCHA is arguably the best Division I college hockey league. If freshmen could consistently come in and outplay the veteran players, that's not saying much about the development of players throughout the four years of eligibility, which in my mind, doesn't make for a tough league. However, I was surprised to read Dahl's quote that if Parise gets 50 points, he guarantees that he is gone for the NHL. I don't think any coach can guarantee what Zach, or any other player for that matter, is going to do. U2Bad1 is right, though, he contradicts himself in his interviews when he says that Zach is the bluest of blue chippers, but then after keeping him to 0 points on Friday night, says, "You can say all you want--it's a junior-senior league. Unless you're a real blue-chipper, you've got to pay your dues." So is he, or isn't he a blue-chipper? We all knew Parise's scoring frenzy would slow down once he entered WCHA play. He's still learning. That doesn't mean he didn't play a good game, though. He made some really nice passes to Bochenski, but Brandon seemed to be off on his shot Friday night. He had some good chances that didn't go in, when normally he'd be lighting the lamp.

This is true. Al says no keg.

They have clips between periods to educate the fans on the tv broadcasts with Dave Hakstol. Why don't they just use them at the games too? It makes sense. Last year, for each game that was on tv, there was one interview of a player with John Bernstrom. Although I don't care to listen to Bernstrom, I still liked watching the inteviews. And at the games, they would usually show a pre-recorded interview of players with Katie. I don't know why they stopped doing that. They have something good, and they get rid of it. And I agree with Diggler, last year's laser show was much better. (By the sound of it, you wouldn't think any of us go to watch hockey anymore! )

Glad I could save the day.

Tim is proud of his Scooby Doo bandaid that he is sporting, because of a knuckle he injured on the hockey bus. LOL Matt Greene is the only right-handed defenseman on the team. It doesn't bother Blais, but it bothers Hakstol and Berry. Someone called in asking about DQ's, Blais's opinion on fighting, and his opinion on announcer's fighting. Apparently, the guy who wanted to fight Tim said, "This always happens with these "blanks." when the fight broke out in the 2nd period, and Tim replied rather sarcastically about how the Sioux are dirty players, and laughed. That got the second guy riled up, who was calling Tim out. Blais thinks that by not allowing fighting, there are more cheap shots. Parise and some other talented players aren't that big, and we need bigger players who are going to protect them. Blais doesn't mind what Rory did. Taylor is a classy coach, and he didn't send anyone out to make any illegal hits or go after any certain guy. The new thing with our team is, any altercations, the guys who aren't in it, come to the bench. Blais didn't blame Ryan Hale for going after the guy who pushed Siembida, though, because it builds team unity. You have to back each other up. Fuher is the player being left behind because we need 12 forwards, and Marvin will step up to forward Friday night, and they'll play with 5 defensemen. It's too bad because Fuher has been playing well, but someone has to stay back. Blais is happy that other players besides the top line stepped up to score, and mentioned that on Friday, Notermann made a comment "Isn't anyone else going to score?", then he went out and scored two goals on Saturday. Craig Dahl interview: Some of the best games SCSU played last year was against UND, they were hitting on all cylinders. Last year was last year, this year is this year. SCSU doesn't have Hartigan this year, who was good for one or 2 each game. Dahl doesn't care who our team is playing, for a freshman (Parise) to score 20 points in 6 games is phenomenal. SCSU is riddled with injuries, and has been playing without 4 of their top 6 d-men. They've been playing 8-10 freshmen, which gives them experience, but it's difficult. They haven't been able to build any consistency or continuity in the lineup. Cullen and Malone are in the lineup for this weekend. SCSU's powerplay has not been good this year, unlike the last few years. Finger hasn't been playing as aggressive as usual, but his casts are starting to feel comfortable, and he was playing more physical last weekend, making a good hit at center ice. The game has been sold out for a month. SCSU's fans don't care if they win a game all year, as long as they beat MN, but if SCSU can't win it, the fans hope the Sioux win it. There is a lot of respect for the Sioux program. This league is so tough, and there seems to be a lot of really good teams, but no stand out teams. They think Eaves is going to do a good job with the discipline on Wisconsin's team. Tim asked who Dahl he was going to have draped all over Parise, and Dahl says he doesn't think there are many people who can cover him. It's not just Parise, though, Bochenski can also "fire those rocks." Blais thought SCSU was the best team in the country last year, and probably could have won it all last year if not for a bad break and disappointing loss in the NCAA's. Siembida played pretty well last weekend, and it's up to him to continue playing well and get in there. I wasn't sure if that meant Siembida would be starting Friday, though, or not. Blais hopes there won't be any mean fans sitting behind the bench like last year. They kind of got into it with the fans. We have four starters out for Friday, but it sounds like SCSU is no better off than the Sioux as far as players sitting out. Blais said even if our top line had been kicked out of the game against Yale, we still would have won the game. Coach got that feeling as soon as that fight happened, that we would win.

I plan on going on Al Pearson's fan bus, so I suppose wherever they end up, I'll end up. Let's hope for a good weekend of hockey!

Dagies, this is what I had posted on the Scores Update thread on USCHO after the Yale game. Interview with Dave Hakstol: "Good players know when they have a bad game and should be able to bounce back, which is what Lundbohm did. Siembida had a good game. A good sign of character when the team came together after the 4 DQ's. Hakstol thought it was a bad call to throw everyone out, but that's the way it goes, and they will deal with it accordingly. The defense played well, you don't see Jones go down too often, and Hakstol thinks he may have gotten an elbow to the head." That's pretty much what everyone else said here too.

Hmmm.... As of November 4: Scheider 2-7-9 in 6 games Fuher 2-3-5 in 6 games In North Dakota, we have defensemen that can score, too.

How hard do you have to hit the glass to celebrate a hat trick?? John, John, John.... Handyman must be devastated!! The Gophers sure aren't having much luck with injuries so far this season! Luckily, the Sioux have.

Hehe, no doubt. He did seem pretty inexperienced.