brianvf

4-0

It's hard to win 26 games and win the conference title without being at least a bit good. We just sputtered out the last few months. Killed a season that showed so much promise.

That might be it 3-0 BC

There was the unlucky bounce against Michigan that UND never got. Went off both Mich dman skates.

Smith 2-0

Smith and Leonard are so dang skilled.

Looking at some numbers: 23/24 -- 151 goals, 243 assists -- 394 points 11 players departing for graduation, pros, or portal: - 67 goals, 103 assists -- 170 points 3 players incoming from portal (this year's numbers): + 20 goals, 35 assists -- 55 points 7-8 incoming freshmen -- numbers TBD, but expecting some to have substantial opportunities to contribute Judging portal pickup stats can be a crapshoot, but looking at this year's UND portal players...all except two had better stats this year compared to the previous year (Zmolek +1, Britt +2, Johannes -10, Pyke +6, Berg +13, Pehrson -3)...net improvement of +9 points compared to their old teams. = 104 goals (69%), 175 assists (72%) -- 279 points (71%) returning & incoming portal players

Dang already. 1-0 BC

We had way more skill than Michigan the Frattin year too in that semi-final game. Didn't matter unfortunately.

Yep. They're the least of the evils remaining.

Not the announcers, certainly.

Broz has really stepped up in the playoffs. His 2nd game winning goal this postseason. DU going for the title. BU didn't get a single PP all game, that's crazy. Some plays that def could have been called.

Could Devine slap his stick and call for the puck any more?

DU PP with one min left in regulation. Wow.

Celebrini post.

Monster save with the PP expiring.

Improvement!

Yeah, UND went 4-2 against these two teams this season. They certainly could have held their own...if they wouldn't have crapped the bed toward the end of the season.

DU ties it 1-1

Celebrini with like 3 golden chances in a row. Nothing gets thru though.

Agreed on the Littler/Klee situation...if you bring in both and those two + Croal end up sitting most nights, we're gonna see some portal entrants from that group this time next year. Which you hate to see from those players that might just need some extra time to get up to the NCAA speed level but could then turn into good college players. Props to the guys like Montgomery, Komzak, etc that stick with the team and earn playing time. Portal entrants are pretty few and far between now, that really slowed down. Not sure how many players we'll see enter the portal from the F4 teams once this weekend is over, but prob some. If we're gonna grab one more portal forward and then bring in just one of Klee/Littler, I could see Whitelaw or Copponi or Israels being a nice option. Really surprised that no one has picked up Dman Lovell from ASU yet. He's small, but 37pts is legit for a dman.

Agreed on giving him another year to develop. Talent-wise, he is better than the vast majority of NCAA players, so will probably be just fine at the next level. I'd be more worried about how easily he got knocked off the puck sometimes this year (especially noticeable early on in the last Michigan game). Physically...I agree with you that he certainly would have benefited from another year to prepare for the NHL grind. I don't think NIL amounts are available to the public, just rumors. Supposedly Eiserman was offered $100k+ to decommit from UMN and go to BU instead. I've seen similar numbers thrown around for all of the BC super freshmen.

I feel a lot better after hearing the news that Berg is returning. Losing Blake/Gaber/Berg would have been a really tough blow to lose all those goals. So at least retaining one is a huge help. And then adding Wilkie and ..(amazing player to be named later).. out of the portal.

Snuggerud was drafted in 2022 compared to Blake in 2021 though, so odds are that the Blues didn't put the full court press on Jimmy to sign compared to what Carolina more than likely did for Jackson. But the first announcement that Snuggy was coming back came from UMN's NIL collective group, so he obviously got something. So it would for sure be interesting to hear what he might have gotten...and if Blake was even offered anything from the new UND NIL collective to possibly stick around.

I'm thinking the main difference was that Carolina didn't have an AHL team this past year but their plan is to have one again for 24/25. So they needed to sign a bunch of players to fill up their farm system again.