PCM

Now I'm adding fuel to the fire. When I said in another thread on this board that the 03-04 Sioux team was one of the best from UND to never win a national championship, I left out some important context. I should have said that in relation to the competion the Sioux faced in the NCAA tournament, they stood a very good chance of bringing home a national title. Here's why. GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against; GFA = Goals For Average; GAA = Goals Against Average; Margin = Average Margin of Victory Obviously, national titles are awarded based on who makes it to the Frozen Four and who wins it, not on stats. But the stats show that this past season's Sioux team was the best balanced teams offensively and defensively in the nation, despite playing one of the toughest schedules. For UND fans, that probably makes the way the season ended that much harder to take.

Statistics don't always tell the story, but I thought it would be interesting to compare selected Sioux teams from the past with recent Blais-coached teams. Don't take these stats as gospel because I didn't check them for 100 percent accuracy. They're probably not far off, however. GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against; GFA = Goals For Average; GAA = Goals Against Average; Margin = Average Margin of Victory Based on these stats, the most dominating Sioux teams ever were 79-80, 86-87 and 98-99. The 98-99 team might be the best UND team to never win a national championship. The 81-82 and 96-97 teams were the least dominant Sioux teams to win NCAA championships. The 00-01 team, which played for the national championship and lost to BC 3-2 in overtime, was one of the most overachieving Sioux teams. The 03-04 Sioux team of this past season compares very favorably to the 99-00 team that won the national championship. It had a better margin of victory than three UND teams that won national titles. Some might find it surprising that the 03-04 Sioux team tied with the 99-00 team for the best goals against average. Not bad for a team with "sub par" goaltending. Comments?

Time will tell, but I'm looking at the 2003-2004 Sioux team from the perspective of how many players from it are likely to have successful NHL careers. I also believe that there wasn't a single team in this year's Frozen Four that the Sioux couldn't have beaten.

Maybe it's just my aged, Swiss-cheese brain malfunctioning, but when I think of the '97 Sioux team, I think of them as a classic speed, finesse and skill team. Many of those players were too small to be considered pro prospects. They weren't dubbed "The Smurfs" for nothing. Yes, there were some gritty, physical players on the '97 team team. I'm surprised that nobody mentioned my favorite, Adam Calder. I think the 03-04 Sioux had just as many gritty, physical forwards as the '97 team. Among them I would count Murray, Bochenski, Parise, Porter, Hale, McMahon and Prpich. Stafford had his moments, too, and will get better with more muscle, experience and maturity.

The 2003-2004 Sioux team might be remembered as one of the best UND squads never to win a national championship.

Statistics shmatistics. I think you're basing too much on what you saw the last time you watched Brandt play the Gophers. Brandt played a major role in UND's winning pf the WCHA title by holding the red-hot Bulldogs to 2 goals during the series at Duluth. In the third period of the second game, he was simply amazing. Without that performance, the Sioux wouldn't have won the title outright. He also had a impressive wins at Denver, St. Cloud and Mankato. The Sioux couldn't have won the WCHA title with sub-par goaltending. What worked for the Sioux last season was that they didn't have to live or die with one goalie. With the exception of one weekend at Wisconsin, both Parise and Brandt played well throughout the season. Next season, few teams will have the depth at goalie that the Sioux possess. Brandt has improved every season and should be well motivated for his senior season. Parise was a pleasant surprise who should get better with a year of experience under his belt. According to Blais, Parise and Brandt, Nate Ziegelmann was playing well enough near the end of the season to be a starter. Adding Phil Lamoureaux to the roster assures that competition for the starting job will be fierce.

I wanted Jeff Panzer to win the Hobey in 2001 as much as anyone, but it's lame to use Ryan Miller's performance since winning the award to prove that Panzer was robbed. I still fume when I hear the "phantom assists in Grand Forks" lie repeated about Panzer's scoring title. But Miller had an incredible 18 shutouts in two seasons. Karl Goehring had 15 shutouts in four seasons. Miller broke the NCAA career shutout record in two seasons, a record that had stood for 70 years! In 2001, the year Miller won the Hobey, he had 31 wins, a 1.31 goals-against average, a .950 save percentage and 10 shutouts. He was a very worthy Hobey recipient. If not for Miller's amazing season, I'm sure Panzer would have won the award. Now, if Hockey East favorite Brian Gionta had won the Hobey in 2001, I would have agreed that Panzer was robbed. But considering the fact that Gionta has had a far more successful NHL career than either Miller or Panzer, perhaps Sioux fans would agree with BC fans that Gionta was robbed.

You know what they say: The goalie's always better on the other side of the red line.

Chris King got hot for a few games near the end of the season and that enabled UAA to go farther in the playoffs than anyone expected. But head-to-head against Jordan Parise, he lost. DU's excellent defensive corps got healthy near the end of the season and contributed greatly to the Pioneers' success in the playoffs. Before that, Berkhoel was all too human, as his WCHA regular season stats show. But heck, we all know that the only goalies who benefit from good defensemen play for UND. The weekend of Feb. 27-28 against the Sioux, Reichmuth gave up 6 goals to Brandt's 2. Would Sioux fans have traded Reichmuth for Brandt that weekend? Reichmuth played lousy against Minnesota at the WCHA Final Five, but played a great game against Minnesota to get UMD into the Frozen Four. Once there, he did a total meltdown against DU, a team hardly known for its offense. Reichmuth got the Bulldogs close to the WCHA championship, but he was part of the reason UMD didn't win it. He got them close to a national championship, but he was part of the reason UMD didn't win that, either. During the regular season, Brandt was better than Reichmuth, better than Berkhoel, better than King and better than Briggs. In the post-season, Jordan Parise played as well as any goalie in the country except Berkhoel. It wasn't his fault that the the Sioux didn't win a national championship.

But I will if I want to.

If you don't want to talk about how UND's goalies will compare to Minnesota's next season becase neither team won a national championship, that's fine with me.

Okay, no more arguing about whose players are better until next season. Only the team that won the national championship can claim to have the best players.

Don't Brandt and Parise deserve some credit for the Sioux winning the WCHA title and making the team a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament? Dean Blais certainly thought so.

Fans of opposing teams said the same thing about Karl Goehring.

You're half right. UND did win a title. It was the WCHA championship. And although neither Brandt nor Parise won a national championship, they didn't lose it, either.

So do I. He was 2-1 against the Gophers and a played key role in UND winning the WCHA.

If Jake Brandt plays well next season (not great, just well), he's likely to end up in UND's record book second only to Karl Goehring in many categories. Not too bad for a "hot and cold" goalie.

IMO = Incinerate Mangled Onions Actually, it stands for "in my opinion."

Honsetly, I don't see why. Do you really believe that the Sioux were capable of winning a best of three series against the Gophers that season?

If a Sioux player did the same thing, I'd probably think it was a funny moment to remember. However, for a player of Ballard's caliber, I'd think that Gopher fans could hang their nostalgia hats on a big play he made that didn't involve winning a playoff game by resorting to "unsportsmanlike conduct." And I'd be embarrassed if my homer TV sportscasters continually talked about that illegal play and used it as Sioux highlight reel material. But that's just me.

Your favorite memory of Ballard will be of him cheating to win?

I'm not upset about it because they gave me credit and acknowleged USCHO. And now that Diggler mentions it, I do recall discussing this article with someone on the REA staff. However, my understanding was that the REA would provide a link to the USCHO story rather than republishing it on their site. Under the circumstances, someone should have asked.

I knew I could count on you to provide a logical explanation.

I wonder when I gave the REA permission to use my WJC story and photos about Parise, Murray and Stafford? Not that I wouldn't have, but it would have been nice if someone had asked.

But he does have to worry about upsetting the Shattuck pipeline. I agree with Goon. I think JP will challenge for the No. 1 goalie spot.