SiouxForever

Next year looks very promising. As much fun as it was to watch Gaarder and Senkbeil and even Panzeralla get some ice time this year, that won't be the case next year, their ice time will be limited. Next years team won't have any holes to fill in the line up. With fully recovered players in Grimaldi, O'Donnel, Rodwel, and with new talent in Koules, Chyzyk, Schmatlz and possibly Jones, the team should be pretty deep. I'd say Kristo is 60/40 flight risk. He leaves, big deal. I'm a true believer Rocco will be quite the dynamic player next year in college hockey. I have high expectations after watching him play 4 games, 1 game live, he is that good. He'll easily replace Danny on that top unit with Knight and Nelson. If Rocco, plays center next year, one can move Parks up to the first line with Knight and Nelson. Parks is a better corner player and forechecker than Kristo anyways. I REALLY hope next years squad starts off the season in a winning fashion. I love the second half surge, but would love to a see a Sioux team be consistent from day one and then know they'll make the NCAA tourney sooner without all the pressure of treating second half games like playoff games. In addition, time and time again, we've seen winning the WCHA Final Five is nice, but it usually doesn't translate into too much success in the NCAA Tourney. If I were coach I'd only shoot for a #1 seed in the National Tournament if my team won the league (WCHA) title. Other than that, who gives a rats a$$ about being a #1 seed in the National Tournament. It's completely irrelevant to be a #1 seed in tournament play these days in college hockey, in college basketball, that's a different story. Being a #1 seed this year hurt us by having the Gophers be in the same bracket. Hindsight is 20/20 and no one could have predicated us winning the Final Five and being a #1 seed, but after that victory against the Gophers I had the Sioux being a #1 seed, being in the same bracket with the Gophers. I tweeted a response to Schloss about it that night. He was still skeptical... well, look how it ended up. Back to next year again, next year looks very promising. Let's not forget, besides Rocco this year, Brendan O'Donnel was our best incoming freshman, despite his injury filled season, he still put up 5 goals. With a strong summer of recovery and off ice training, he should step in next year and be a huge impact player. I expect the play of Parks and McMillian to rise another bar next year too. They'll be key assets to the our team. The team should be solid at D and goaltending. Macwilliam is a flight risk to leave, but I think he stays. If he leaves, we are screwed on the defensive end for a hard nosed/gritty D man, and our D corps than has the makeup of a traditional Gopher D corps, offensive and not tough to play against. I hope he stays. One question mark will be developing line chemistry for next year, and how good will Colten St. Clair be? Is he ready to step foot on a third line or fourth line with a deep Sioux team, or will he be watching a lot a games in the press box?

Bottom line, you just need to find it within your team to a keep a closer, low scoring game to have a chance to win. Seriously, how the hell are you going to win a game against the Gophers, let alone anyone in a National Tournament game? This is my biggest problem. Why do the Sioux give up some many goals when it matters and play below their potential on the defensive end? Hats off to the Gophers, they were the better team But a few of those goals we garbage and so deflating. Like I stated, you can't expect to win a game at tournament time when you get scored on 4-5 times...Not Dell fault one bit.

Who's Jess Myers at INCH anyways?

Email sent too.

A couple things from the U of M fans and our fans (UND): 1. Saw a lot of Gopher fans comment to me whether I was wearing my black Toews Sioux Reebok jersey or my Sioux T-shirt - with the people looking at me and commenting for no reason "Hey, the Sioux suck!" ... "You're a Sioux fan, Sioux suck!" etc... -- Having fun and always winning the battle (my mentality on how I was raised and born, not trying to be a jackass) "Hey, glad you remembered how to get to the Xcel this year" ... "Hey, are you going to the third place game today?" (after the Sioux beat the Gophers Friday night) "Hey, did the Gophers have practice today?" comments to Gopher fans at the Championship game between UND and Denver. 2. I met some great Gopher fans; so much so, that they bought me my late night meal at Mickey's at 2:30 Friday night! (A $50 tab amongst 4 people) Also the Gopher fans were cool sh^ts. His comment, "That dang Sioux team, I knew they wouldn't quit when they were down 3-0, they never do!" "Hey, regardless of your name/logo issue your jerseys and fans are awesome, even though every fan base has a few bad apples" 3. My main problem at the Xcel Energy Center, the Ushers in Club row. They got a little heated with our section of 20+ some Sioux fans cheering heavily Friday night, then come Saturday against Denver, they monitored and spot checked our tickets twice throughout the game, making sure we had Club level tickets. - Our group was a bunch of young professionals in the ages of 25-30, yes beer was being consumed, but we didn't use any profanity or make any rude comments around the fans around us...basically the ushers were disappointed because we were a little rowdy and had a lot of fun! -- They also thought having that many Sioux fans 3 rows deep was absurd! Hey, sorry for having friends! And for a good laugh from a St. Cloud fan Saturday morning during St. Patty's day. "Hey, the Sioux suck, you and your fans are losers." My rebuttal Hey, good season St. Cloud, there's always next year. His response, "Hey, we'll see you in the National Tournament." My response: "Sorry, kid you won't, your season in over (St. Cloud), figure it, your comment was the dumbest thing I've heard all weekend!" Lastly one more from a Gopher fan Saturday morning in St. Paul during St. Patty's Day: "Sioux are terrible, they suck." Me: We beat the the Gophers last night, did you not see that, you must be a gopher fan" Her reply: "We just didn't care and didn't really try" ...Wow, what a fair weather fan and response!

I like that, a win, win!

The fan fight was ridiculously. Not sure how it happened or if a Gopher instigated the fight with a Sioux fan. Either way, glad the Sioux fan dropped the Gopher fan for his antics. I don't promote this behavior whatsoever, but when push comes to shove, I'm glad that Sioux fan got a solid right in. It's not surprising that Gophers fans are involved...

Hey, buckysieve, I said it before and I'll say it again, Get Bent!

I still like option 3) That nobody outside of Fargo likes or cares about NDSU. It's seriously the truth. Born and raised in North Dakota. Sometime the truth hurts Bison Dan. Maybe if NDSU didn't have such ugly colors

I'll go with option 2. Because yes, nobody cares about NDSU outside of Fargo. Fact!

There was a voting poll done with hockey jerseys from every league. The Sioux jersey won. It was on some website a few years ago. Prior to the Sioux jersey winning in that poll, there was another similar survey/poll website voting page and the Sioux jersey took runner-up. Schlossman would know and could provide the link. You sound like a old grumpy man, watchmaker49. What's your deal?

Not sure now, but a few years back the players had customized Sioux logo's on their Bauer Total One sticks. i wonder if there's any logo's on their Bauer or Easton sticks this year.

That goal song (Chelsea Dagger) needs to go. It's the Hawks goal theme song. I wish the production crew and Sioux team could find an original song of their own.

He's talking about the "unique videos" and not the music. He is correct, REA will never upload those intro videos to YouTube or Vimeo. If you want to see them and experience them, go to the REA and to a game, that's how it works. I expect nothing less from the people who put long hours in producing and editing those videos.

Did we really win in double OT last year? I thought we man handled the opponent in the Championship game, maybe that was the year before against St. Cloud when the boys damn near ran out of gas. Someone refresh my memory. I have and will be wearing a black Toews sweater, just don't know whether to bust it out from day 1. I wore the jersey in Duluth and they won on Friday night (only game I attended) but the boys haven't played that well in blacks all year -- have to wonder if the blacks aren't going to be worn for the rest of the year. I'd be okay with that.

JL Beers knocks the socks off a Green Mill or BWW burger. Who orders a burger at Green Mill anyways? I don't live in Grand Forks, but I do know the only place that can compete with a JL Beers burger is Five Guys or a well done burger at Culvers.

I agree. This level of theatrics is very embarrassing! I couldn't imagine being out of high school, let alone being a college team and doing this for team bonding, superstition, or whatever. I guess this is the sole reason Grant Potulny receives a paycheck, his biggest contribution to the program. "Hey, let's bring a G.F. Red River tradition to the Minnesota Gopher squad." What a bunch of knuckleheads! They look like a bunch of idiots too! There's no sugar coating it. It's stupid. Plain and simple.

Rocco with his beliefs and McWilliam as Captain next year won't let work ethic and a little adversity get in the way next season. You could also add in the character of General Patton too. The Knight, Nelson, Kristo will need to be intact next year, however if Kristo decides to leave for AHL bus rides, Roccos is more than willing and is one of the most dynamic players I've seen at UND in the last ten years, and I only watched ONE (1) live game of him, the game against the Gophers in Gopherland. He was playing at 65% and was skating circles around a pretty solid Gopher defensive corps. Rocco, is that good and that skilled. His speed sets him apart and his ceiling on his skill level is off the charts. I got goose bumps watching Rocco in that game, the same way I did watching T.J. Oshie dominate his Freshman year because every college team didn't have Oshie on their radar that year when they played the Sioux because that Sioux team was so deep with guys of Toews, Duncan, Stafford, Spirko and T. Zajac.

This year could be the cinderella year. They also have NO PRESSURE going into the Final Five and NC. Next year, the roster and lineup will be the best we have had in the last 10 years. Yes, I'm serious, I don't care how deep last years team was. You have to realize who's coming in next year and who's really only leaving. I don't want to speculate on who's leaving. But with the addition of the Huntsville goalie coming in next year and just with Schmaltz and then with Rocco being healthy alone put's this team on the map to be ranked in the top 3 to preseason. You also through in Chyzyk an Koules and then you see the offensive lineup and it blows you away. You really wonder where St. Clair, Jimbo, Dickin' fit in - extra forwards and bodies none the less. Let's not forget the kid, Brendan O' Donnell and Derek Rodwel, those two have some things to prove next year. One needs to remember, outside of Rocco, O'Donnell was our best incoming freshman forward this year, not taking anything away from the year that McMillian and Parks are having.

I was at the game. A few things that really stood out with UND. They got beat to the puck and were out muscled by Minnesota. Minnesota had bigger, stronger players, not to mention one of the best goalies in women's hockey. Minnesota also had a more complete team with more depth throughout their lines and especially their defensive corps. UND needs to find some women studs on the blue line. It doesn't matter that they have the Lamoureux girl's they can't do it all. Those two girls need help. If no help at that department next year, those girls won't reach their goal of winning at National Title at UND. UND's goalies weren't entirely the culprit of the game. First goal with Ney in net was unacceptable, but it was also a deflection off a skate. Still she looked really shaky, that's why Idalski pulled her and put the foreign goalie in. Enough with the criticism, the Women's program has come along way and Idalski has received some nice recruits over the last few years. Goaltending should be good next year, and more depth throughout the lines, the one question mark is again defense, in which I just don't understand. The formula for a winning a NC in women's hockey = a good goalie, a few studs on offenses and 1-2 studs on D, that's all you need. You really don't need a complete team. As women's hockey is comparable to boys high school hockey, most good high school hockey teams can get away with 2 solid lines and a mediocre 3rd line that plays regular shifts but get's less ice time and in addition the team rotates their 4 best studs on the blue line, even though 6 D dress. Okay, post over.

Right. Please list some teams.

Are you kidding, Maine and BC would handle the Gophers two losses, brortha'. Gophers are soft.

Hold on there, kid. Nortre Dame has sunk it's ship this year, losing a lot of big games this year. Standing at 19-16-3 the fact they're still somewhat rated in the pairwise just screams what is wrong with that metric and hockey East media BS. Calling them a decent team, is almost somewhat irrelevant now. Calling Northeastern a decent team, are you kidding me? Year and year out, the Sioux look to schedule the best teams out East if both teams can aligned with their pre-planned schedules for the year. The Gophers always and will continue to play a soft schedule. Have fun beating up on Penn State in the future, what a great "potential powerhouse team" ,right?

I like the final outcome with this list much better. Seems more accurate and no, I'm not being UND bias.

He's a work in progress. There's no question about the kids size and talent, he's skating and hockey ability is a little raw at the moment. Think of him as a football player on ice. He needs to polish up on his game over the summer and possibly at Red River next year, during his Senior year. There's potential there, but the kid needs a big development over the summer. Skating and other fundamentals and intangibles needs improvement. Good player though!