brianvf

The defensive trio of Jones, Chorney, and Lee will be fun to watch in the Sioux green and white. But they will have to be relied on immediately with Jones, Fuher, Schneider, and probably Greene gone after this season. I have confidence that this team can have strong road series against SCSU and UAA, and then maybe surprise us at home against DU and Wisco. They may still finish 5th in the league, but they will be a dangerous team come playoff time if they make it into the NCAA's. They are currently 13th in the PWR, but if bonus weights are added, that moves them up to 9th. They are still close to being on the bubble though, so they will need some victories.

I have been reading that Hardwick has family ties to Duluth and may go there. Does anyone know if UND is recruiting him at all?

Wow. This series was really familiar to the Wisco series. The Sioux outplay the #1 team in the nation this weekend, but just can't put the puck in the net. I feel for the boys, sounded like they really took it to CC tonight. I also feel for Lammy, the guy has been nothing but spectacular for the Sioux this year, but they just won't score for him. Again, much like the Wisco series.

The Gophs have more goals against Mankato in 2 periods than the Sioux had against them in two games. That's pretty pathetic.

Part of the reason he may be struggling is because Green Bay is having such a horrible year. Not even Blake Wheeler is having that good of a year on the same team. Blake is 10-14-24 with a -5 +/- Brad is 8-8-16 with a -6 +/- He should be able to come in and do alright on the 4th line or maybe even the checking line.

It seems to me that the really young guys that we are getting are highly talented players that will probably be able to produce at this level right away. Some examples would be ZParise and Stafford, both came right from SSM and contributed right away. I would expect that some of them can do the same. But you are right, it is definitely going to be a really young class.

Yeah, Miller is a forward, and we should probably plan next year's lines without at least Greene, I think it would take a miracle for him to stay here. I like leaving the top line together of Murray/Zajac/Stafford, but I'm not sure Duncan would fit in too well on the checking line with Prpich being that he is 5'6". I would guess that of the 06 recruits, Oshie or VandeVelde, probably Oshie would come early if someone leaves early or if we just look short on forward.

It was a beauty of a goal too, saw it on the news. He will be an excellent addition to the Sioux in 06.

Where did you hear this? From everything that I have read or heard, they are only televising the Fri night game. I hope you are right though, it would be nice to see both games on tv.

Nice to see Kozek get a couple of goals and Duncan get the MVP. Also good to see Watkins win the fastest skater. We need more team speed next year!

Excellent news. I wasn't sure after reading that article earlier last week, but this is great to hear. Toews is an excellent pickup for the Sioux, I'm sure he will contribute to a young team right away. Welcome aboard the Sioux, Jonathan!!

And he has played in four more games than Toews because Jonathan was at the U17 tourney a few weeks ago. Looks like Gergen has a bit of a mean streak too, as he has 66 PIM compared to Toews' 26.

Ain't that the truth.

I'm not really trying to defend it, I just don't think that they are ready to make the jump so I just wondered where you heard that they were going pro. Parise and Bucks, you could tell that those two were ready. At times they would just dominate the game so that it looked like men vs boys. But none of the group of Murray, Zajac, and Stafford seem to do that. The only one of those three that I have heard rumors of possibly leaving is Stafford. I haven't heard anything on the other two. What would keep them from not leaving? Free education, another year of hockey to get better prepared for the pros, no NHL to go to, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the 3 left early, especially with the rash of good players jumping ship early, but most of those are expected, like in the case of Parise, Bucks, Vanek, Ballard. Those are players that dominate the game. While all 3 of those that you mentioned are highly talented players, I don't feel that any of them are ready to go pro, and they could use another year or two of preparing at the college level.

1/2 a season Hakstol has coached, and people are already calling for his head. At least give the guy a season to see what he can do. And I don't think that the blame for the lack of intensity and heart shown by this team can all be placed on Hakstol's shoulders. But feel free to keep using him as your scapegoat.

That's true as well. Either way, someone was standing around watching as Backes stood all alone in front of the net. Can't let that happen too many times against CC or the Sioux will be down 5-0 before the end of the 1st.

Where did you hear that Murray, Stafford, and Zajac would all turn pro after this season??

I too have heard that Brady has done well at the Kings training camps. But there is a big difference in doing well at camps and producing regularly in the NHL/AHL. Brady has a line of 6-7-13 in 16 games so far this year for the Sioux. I would think that his dad wouldn't think about pulling him from the Sioux unless he was truly ready to make the jump. I'm not saying that I don't think there is a possibility of him leaving early, because everyone knows that there's always a chance when dealing with highly talented players, but I'm just not convinced that he's ready to bolt to the pros quite yet.

Murray and Zajac will not leave after this season. I would bet that Brady is a solid 4-year player for the Sioux simply because of his size (think of Panzer). Zajac should stay for 2 or 3 years I would guess. Drew probably has the best chance of the three to bolt, but I think that even he would agree that he isn't exactly lighting up the WCHA right now, so he probably isn't quite ready for the next step yet.

UND won't lose its current trend of recruiting players from SSM if Hakstol plays Lammy more than JPar. Heck, we still have a few SSM recruits that are coming in next year with Chorney, Duncan (playing for Salmon Arm in the BCHL now, but played for SSM last year), and possibly Toews. I think that the Sioux will be getting good recruits out of SSM for years to come. Playing the better goalie right now over JPar won't affect this at all.

He may have had a better view, but it was from the bench. According to the game boxscore here, the players that were on the ice for Backes' gwg were Schneider, Greene, McMahon, Prpich, and Fuher. And, of course, Parise.

I agree that we should be able to finish in the top 5 in the league even if we just get 2 points from the remaining series. Duluth only getting one point against UAA at home really hurt their chances of a top 5 finish. I still hope that we can get 4th place, because UMD would be a tough first round playoff opponent if they finish 6th.

I sure hope Smaby, Radke, and Bina will be ready. Bina seems to be the most consistent of the three, but Radke seems to be getting better already. Smaby needs to cut down on the giveaways and then he should be fine. We will need the incoming frosh dmen Lee, Chorney, and Jones to perform well right away otherwise our forwards are going to have to score lots of goals if we want to win some games. My exceeded expectations group is the freshman class, McMahon, and Porter.

I think that Radke is just starting to put things together, and that is good to see. I saw that Hakstol had him on one of the PP units this weekend, and he seemed to be doing fine. Some players need more time than others to adjust to the speed of the WCHA, and it looks to me like Radke is starting to do alot better. I think he will be a solid dman for us in the next few years, and he will only improve as this season wraps up.

But you have to remember that we have played 2 more games than UMD and 4 more games than UAA. I still haven't given up on this Sioux team yet, but it is disappointing that they didn't win the Sat UAA game and the Sat MSUM game. They seem to have a problem putting two good efforts together in one weekend. They always seem to have trouble on Sat. This weekend should be interesting. I would be happy with a split, but that might even be hard to come by with how well CC played against the Gophers. Hopefully they will have an emotional letdown after their sweep and we can always hope that the curse of the #1 continues...