siouxweet

as for the title of this thread I'm going to say in the words of lee corso on this, not so fast my friend. we might as well start gothberg just to see what he is really made of cuz we're gonna give up 3-5 goals tonight no matter who starts tonight.

gothberg, st. clair and panzarella were the players who didn't suit up last night.

you can't bring everyone unless it is a non-conference series.

i don't think odonnell made the trip.

I know I am in the extreme minority on this, but I want nothing to do with them again this year we have a better chance of beating BC, NH or any other team college hockey except them(not to say we would though). I think it is telling that you supposedly play the number one team in the nation even and still lose 5-1. if und is one of the top programs int he country we shouldn't have to play a perfect game to beat them if we "match up" with them. either it is talent or coaching but there is a big gap between the two teams. for whatever reason x-mas killed all the momentum this team had going for it and is struggling mightly to find it again. like I said earlier I don't see more than one 2 plus point weekend left on the schedule.

I have a feeling it will reinforce that minnesota is better than us and that gap is widening. hard to beat a team when they are way better than you in all areas. sure "talent wise" und matches up with the gophers but that is where it ends. you make a mistake against minnesota and it ends up in the back of your net, teams make a mistake against us, we turn it over and head back to our d-zone.

unless this wilcox kid starts to give up 3 or 4 on a nightly basis the gophs aren't going to have a downward slide.

tonight is exactly what I was hoping wouldn't happen. we don't have enough horses(corban and kristo can't do it alone) to compete with them. I thought after the loss in the regional and looking forward to this year I really thought we would have them to compete with the big boys. I was wrong. we can't score on a consistent basis and have average goaltending at best. I'm sure we'll see gothberg tomorrow and with that comes zero chance of getting a win. look to be down 3-0 after one. hats off to the gophers as they are the better team and i hope after tomorrow we don't see the again this season, I'd rather face BC. Rocco looks lost, we are counting on a kid who hasn't played in over year to be a top line winger and this drake kid has hit the freshman wall and is with rocco in lost land. I hate to say it but there looks to be no second half surge this season. only one series left with hopes of getting more than two points and that is bemidji, best guess is .500 rest of the way baby. our cup aspirations went bye, bye with 5 seconds left in the second tonight.

und 4-2 tonight. we surivive the first period tied at 2, scoreless second, get a goal midway through the third to go up 3-2 and kristo gets an empty netter for the final.

they did the first year the ralph was open.

rowney

yep I think it is telling of who Bemidji and Duluth wanted to play as they opened up their new buildings a couple years back, it sure wasn't the "big brother" looking out for them in minneapolis.

maybe, just maybe it means we won't go on the annual surge until a little later in the year which will carry through the second saturday in april instead of hitting the high point in st. paul.

the gophers scored two there and denver did it to us last month. I can't remember the last time UND scored two on a 5 minute major, I think it was in feb 2008 aganist bemdji but I might be wrong, in fact I can't remember the last time we scored on a 5 min major period.

ask bjugstad, hasn't he drawn like three cfb's penalties this season. if I'm a UNDplayer I don't touch him if he is anywhere near a wall.

you really do ride the short bus.

that's his problem as he let's in one or two bad ones early and und needs to dig itself out of a an early hole. if he does that against a really good team we don't come back, i.e.notre dame. saunders has been in a funk his last few starts but I feel more comfortable with him this weekend than gothberg.

patterson barely played early in his career so I wouldn't put him on that list. but as far as wilcox goes,his numbers speak for themselves. I can see a "hot goaltender" excuse being used at least one this weekend and it would probably be a legit excuse as well. the goophs do have the advantage at goaltender heading into this weekend. the key is getting an early goal beacuse as the game goes onthis kid gets better and so does the rest of the team. UND has to survive the first 10 minutes on friday night to have a chance.

with as brutal as our 5 min pp was on fri night I am apt to just quit complaining about cfb penalties. and it just wasn't fri night either. it seems that if und does get a 5 min pp it is pissed away while you watch other teams use it to their full advantage.

those are just games with UND, I bet you would find similar stats with most other teams in the wcha as well when they visit minny.

yes and no. he orininally got hurt right before the season started in practice and was shut down after the that series in minny after playing just two weekends.

it might not be as bad as we think but there is a difference in penalties called and pp's at the mooch. over the last 10 years there have been 14 games played in minneapolis and in those UND has had 64 pp's and the goophs 92 for an average of plus 2 pp's for the goophs per game. however those stats are inflated by three games in which minny had 10, 11 and 12 powerplays. the biggest discrepancy was ironically in 2007 when we swept them down there and minny had 23 pp's to UND's 8 for the weekend.

the officiating will be what it is-poor and questionable. the real question this weekend will be can we score as the goophs aren't giving much up and we have let in a few too many softies of late. if these are low scoring games it plays into our hand, if it gets into a track meet I don't like our chances.

I am going to go out on a limb and say in at least one game we will lose a player to a bogus/questionable CFB penalty and on that pk we will have another questionable penalty call against us to go down 5 on 3. the gophs will have at least 12 pp's this weekend and we will have less than 5.

hey it would give us two weeks to prepare for st could(a series in we match up better with the opponent) and less chance of injury by mailing it in