PCM

Too messy.

Too femmy.

That's hard to say. The only time I've seen Ranfranz play was in the intra-squad scrimmage where he gave up three goals to the Sioux's top two lines and didn't look too sharp doing it. However, Blais said on the radio last week that Ranfranz has looked good in practice. Hakstol says he is usually the first guy on the ice at practice and the last one off. He also stayed in Grand Forks through the summer to skate and work out with the team. Ranfranz did have a very good high school career and put up some decent stats in the USHL and the AWHL. I'd certainly like to see him play in a game situation. Regarding Brandt's performance Saturday against UAA, both he and Blais agreed that the reason he played better was because he didn't try to do too much. Brandt said he was trying to simplify his game and stay focused on the puck when he had few shots to face.

Maybe Woog should talk to Brooks before he questions Foss' credibility. It's not exactly the type of quote you'd want to throw out there without knowing whether it's 100% accurate.

I know that I awaited each week's result with breathless anticipation.

No. 35, Marc Ranfranz, is from Rochester, MN. He's not new, but he is the only walk-on to make the roster this season. He tried out last year, but got cut just before the season started. He played in the USHL with the Rochester Mustangs and the AWHL with the Billings Bulls.

Okay, maybe we need to copyright our own phrase. How about "alarmingly excellent?"

Kevin Spiewak described UAA's defensive scheme as a neutral zone trap that gave some of the younger players problems. Defensively, particularly Saturday night, I thought UAA looked good. They blocked a lot of shots and clogged up the passing lanes well. When the Sioux got good opportunities, Reiter made big saves. The score sheets for the series show the Sioux hitting 6 pipes -- three each night. The God of Lucky Bounces was smiling on UAA this weekend. Even though the Sioux have scored just 11 goals in the last 4 games, Blais said he isn't worried about the offense. He thinks the forwards are generating plenty of good scoring opportunities. If he thought scoring was problem, they'd be playing a more defensive style, and they're not. The good news is that even though the Sioux in general and Parise in particular are scoring less, they're still winning because players like Spiewak, R. Hale and McMahon are chipping in goals.

According to the official score sheet, Parise indeed hit the pipe, which is what I saw.

Even though he didn't score a point, Jason Notermann was on fire tonight. Blais said after that game that for the past four games, Jason has been rated as UND's top forward, even above Parise. Brandt's performance in goal gives me hope that the Sioux will eventually find someone who's the go-to guy. If that happens, the Sioux wil be scary good. Addendum: My recap of the second game with UAA is posted on the USCHO Web site. Be sure to read John Hill's comments about Parise near the end.

Karl the Bouncing Molecule strikes again!

Are you still mad about my beagle peeing on the old Engelstad ice? She thought she was helping! According to my source, there was very little science involved in the application of the lucky ice.

There's lots of interesting news in Virg Foss's column in the Herald today. 1. Blais thinks that he might want to stay at UND longer than 10 years. 2. Herb Brooks says he had a lot to do with Zach Parise coming to UND. 3. Sidney Crosby, the Shattuck-St. Mary's player billed as the next Gretzky, will be "unofficially" visiting Grand Forks this weekend. 4. There might be a Sports Illustrated reporter here to do a story on Zach. Oh, there's also a story about the UAA series. Brad Berry was on the radio this morning talking about how terrible the ice was last season for the UAA series. He says that it's now "the be-all and end-all" of ice sheets. No more blaming it on the ice.

I still have my old Engelstad ice. An anonymous Sioux fan who just happens to moderate this board donated his to the cause. But I can assure you that if needed, my ice is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for the team.

Already been done. Why do you think the Sioux haven't lost at home this season?

forecheck, was that you who called and asked Blais about Adam talking to Greene at SCSU? If so, Blais was certainly impressed with your hockey knowledge. forecheck touched on this, but one thing that struck me about what Blais said tonight was that this team has great chemistry and "You can't recruit that." While saying that he didn't think this was a national championship team, he sort of hinted that perhaps he thinks it has something special going for it. Blais mentioned that he liked the way the guys reacted after losing to the Huskies last Friday and the way they stood up for Palmiscno after he got leveled. It sounded to me as if Tim Hennessy didn't totally buy Blais' comments about goaltending. He cited Brandt's and Siembida's save percentages and asked Blais if they didn't have to get better. Overall, Blais was very positive and joked around quite a bit with Tim and Swyg. He sounded very relaxed.

"Bouncing molecule." I like that.

A friend of mine who has a son in the Pee Wee League says that Sioux Falls is producing teams that give North Dakota teams a run for their money. Heck, there's even an indoor hockey rink in the Pierre-Ft. Pierre metro area, something I never thought I'd see. South Dakota's interest in hockey is much greater than it was when I attended SDSU back in the 70s.

I believe that is correct. Or maybe not.

I'd love it if SDSU added hockey. Then I could say that I played hockey at at DI school.

forecheck, Blais said on the Saturday night pre-game show that he put Spiewak on the line with Parise and Bochenski for two reasons. The first was that he thought some senior leadership was needed against SCSU's senior line (which seemed to work) and the second was that he though Quinn Fylling hadn't played well.

That appears to explain it. Thanks, jk.

During Saturday night's broadcast of the SCSU game, Tim Hennessy said Brandon Bochenski's shorthanded goal was the fifth for the Sioux this season. But according to collegehockeystats.com and US College Hockey Online's stats, the goal was Bochenski's second shortie this season, which would be the sixth in eight games for the Sioux. The USCHO box score of the Princeton game shows that Bochenski's fourth goal of the game was scored while the Sioux were playing 3-on-4. But the game recap doesn't say it was a shorthanded goal. To tell you the truth, I don't remember Bochenski's fourth goal against Princeton being scored while the Sioux were shorthanded. But I do know that there were lots of penalties in the game, so perhaps he scored during one of those odd situations where the Sioux were shorthanded for a few seconds and nobody but the official scorer realized it. Does anybody know what the scoop is? Who keeps the official stats for college hockey? I can find only last season's stats at the NCAA's Web site. It also makes me wonder whether the Sioux are on a pace to break any records for shorthanded goals. Six (or five) in eight games is certainly an impressive feat.

I thought this quote by James Massen on scoring the game-winning goal in OT was priceless. Here's the story on the game in the St. Cloud Times.

I wonder if the Sioux could have swept this series with Ryan Hale, Spiewak, McMahon and Fuher in the line-up both nights. Interesting to think about.