DAR

It is do or die this weekend. We need points in the worst way. The thought of an opposing team and especially the Goofers dressing in the Sioux locker room as the #1 seed is enough to make me puke. That should be motivation enough to get the JOB done this weekend.

Darn.....I was hoping for the worst

I agree with that. It is about impossible to be in the Thurs play in game and win the final five. Not good odds of that happening, especially with such a young team that are not yet physically mature. That makes the odds even greater.

I agree, I don not find that realistic at all based on current play. The boys need to come out with some urgency, there is no more waiting. CC has had the week off and are going to be ready to play. It will take a great effort to earn points.

After these two losses this team is really on the brink of playing themselves out of the regional. We have not had a whole lot of success in Colorado Springs as of late and that must change because if we get swept out there the fat lady will be singing and the Ralph will be empty for the regional, what a shame that would be.

I was at the game tonight and I thought Kaip played pretty well. He actually had a couple of decent chances to get his first career goal. You would think just by chance in all these games he would have scored a goal by now. It's gotta be king of like a gorilla on his back by now. After all the object of the game is to score and it just hasn't happened. Granted he is a defensive forward but so was Rory McMahon and he could put the puck in the net. I hope Kaip can get a goal here soon. Lucky for him there are really no alternatives to take his spot in the line-up on a regular basis.

Hopefully Erik Johnson will go #1 and Kessel will go number #2. That way maybe Johnson will jump right to the NHL and Kessel will leave after 1 year. Johnson will be a big time force if he plays college hockey, it would be great if both were gone after the draft. Toews definitely needs a lot more seasoning before he is ready for the big time. He has a lot of talent but is still pretty raw, which is to be expected from a 17 year old. It is amazing that he will play the whole season as a 17 year old.

You make a very valid point!! I just always want to see the Goofers lose, especially in the NCAA. That being said it was GREAT to end their season. Who knows maybe we will get the chance to end their season for the second year in a row.

Yeah that sure would have been great.........Oh well, go Big Red!!!!!!!!! Except the next time you play the Sioux

This is a very true statement!!! While it would be great to sweep MSU this weekend based on this teams play at home to this point of the season I would say getting 4 points out of the weekend may be a stretch. Do the Sioux have better players than the Mavs? Yes.....However Mankato has always played well at the Ralph and they will come to play this weekend. If the Sioux do not play with a sense of urgency they will get beat and i mean a sense of urgency for the whole game not just the last part of the third period.

If the options were that great, I could see sitting him but it's not like Marvin and Radke aren't going to make mistakes that potentially lead to goals. Those guys are at the bottom of the d chart for a reason.

I disagree with that. Finley needs to play and develop regardless of what sheet of ice the game is being played on. Unless the arm injury is still bothering him I think he needs to play. His development will be important to the succcess of this team.

Please, I don't think he stirred up anything. Any player who grows up in Canada and decides to play college hockey rather than major junior may always wonder if he made the right choice.

Problem is to this point he does not use his size to his advantage and does not play very physical. Hopefully that will change as he matures and develops.

Yeah, I would like to see the odds of that in Vegas. I would be happy with a split. We need to get some points out of this weekend. Now is the time to start building some momentum. I cannot even fathom having the West regional in GF and the Sioux not make the tornament. What a buzzkill that would be. That cannot be an option, and I would like to see this team play with more of a sense of urgency. Someone needs to light a fire under this team and get the ball rolling.

That would be unfortunate if true. I did not see anything about it while surfing the online edition of the Herald today. Could you state how you discovered this, just curious if there is something to this. As many times as Parise has been run into this year I am surprised he has not suffered a few concussions by now.

I really think this team lacked chemistry and that is the biggest reason for going home without the gold. It seemed to me like there were to many individual agendas and one on one play. This was more a team of all stars than a team assembled to win a gold medal. The 2004 team that won gold seemed to genuinely like and get along with each other and the result was gold. Everyone on that team seemed to know and play their role (example Stafford as a checker) and it worked to a tee. This team had the tools to win gold but to me it seemed like guys were more concerned with impressing the scouts in the stands rather than do what it takes to win. Oshie is the one guy who stood out to me as the total opposite of this, he did all the little things and if more guys played with the grit and determination that Oshie displayed this team would have won gold. Erik Johnson was the other guy who really stood out to me. I thought Lee and Chorney were a little out of their league against the Russians.

Unfortunately youth is going to be a common theme for years to come because as soon as the young guys develop they leave for the pros and are not here for their senior and in a growing number of cases even their junior years. I would agree that Hak has not once used youth as an excuse for this team and I praise him for that. The way we have played at home is totally inexcusable. At this rate it will be at a disadvantage to have the west regional at the Ralph if they make the tourney.

They just need to win enough games to make the regional so they have the opportunity to be dangerous. A sweep of Bemidji was a good start, now a sweep of Harvard is the next order of business. Both Harvard and Bemidji will probably be bubble teams so four wins would be a big boost. With a full roster I think we would sweep Harvard for sure, but missing 4, maybe 5 (Finley) key players is a big obstacle. Hopefully the guys are up to the challenge.

I don't think there is much chance that Parise will be on the Olympic squad based on his struggles in the NHL this year. I think Blake will be named to the team.

Great! I had just looked at the Friday schedule. I did not look for Sat. I was not aware that they were carrying regular season games. I know that channel has been added to my dish network package so this is good news!!

The only thing that is keeping him from being great is his age and lack of experience. I think you will see a big difference in him physically next year and if by chance we are fortunate to keep him for a junior season he would at that point be a dominant hobey type player.

I looked on the espn u website and their scheduling for today does not show any hockey games being broadcast. I have never known them to have regular season games on just the tourney last year.

Vande certainly is not exactly lighting it up in Lincoln if you look at his stats. I do think in time he should be a pretty decent player however. I too am concerned with what will be a serious lack of size and physical play from our d next year. Smaby will be gone. Lee and Chorney do not play physical at all especially Lee. Jones plays physical but does not have the size to intimidate the opposition. Radke is not physical and Marto is very light on the strength side of things. Finley is huge but I have yet to see hardly any physical play you would expect from a guy that size. He is very young and I think his physical play will pick up once he completely adjusts to the college game. In an ideal world you would have a balance between physical d-men and puck carrying/finesse d-men. Last year we did not have the finesse d-man to move the puck and run the PP. Now it seems as if we are moving toward an all finesse d-corps with the excetion of Finley for the next few years. I will put my faith in the coaches hopefully they have this all planned out.