rochsioux

Denver wins 5-2

CC wins 2-1 in OT. Denver scores 4-2 over UMD with 4 min left.

CC-UW heading to OT.

Duluth just scores 3-2 Denver 13 min left CC scores to tie it 1-1.

UW leads CC 1-0 after 2.

Mankato/Tech just ended 2-2.

Duncan is now listed. Just gave him vote #1.

INCH is basically saying that in a best of 7 series on nuetral ice they would lean towards taking Niagara over the Sioux. OK, sure. Idiots. If you had to bet $10,000 on one of the teams, who in their right mind would really select Niagara ? In a single game anything can happen (see Holy Cross) but there is no way in he!! Niagara would beat the Sioux in a best of 7. KRACH has the Sioux at 6 and Niagara at 20. RPI it is 9 and 15. Strength of schedule is 3 and 45 (according to KRACH). I would love to see INCH's rational for the rankings; by what objective measurement is Niagara better than UND ? I guess they have a better winning % (15-11-2 vs 17-8-3) so I guess they are better BTW, what happened to Colgate ? They had a #1 vote in the pre-season polls. Let's check...#34 in KRACH. Excellent pre-season poll.

The "experts" at INCH moved us all the way up to #15 from #17. I guess we would have dropped out of the rankings if we would have only split on the road to the #1 team. MN gets swept at home handily and drops from #1 to #3. The best system, IMO, is KRACH and the Sioux are at #6. Really doesn't matter anyway, the only thing that matters right now is the pairwise and making the NCAA tourney. Wonder if the NCAA committee will find a way to screw the hockey team like they did the football team if we are somewhere around #12 in the pairwise come selection time.

Good question. Depends on the score and the type of game that is going on. Also depends on how each player is performing that night. At this point I would prefer Finley on the ice if the Sioux are leading late in the game over Lee. I am not arguing that Finley is the best defensive player but I also do not think he is the worst or a liability. If the Sioux are trailing then I would prefer to see Chorney and Bina on the ice as we are going to need to score one or more goals.

If line matchups were a big factor in the +/- differences between Lee and Finley I would expect to see that show up to some degree in the home/away stats. At this point Lee is -1 in road games and 0 in home games, while Finley is a +3 at home and a +7 on the road. Since the home team has last change I would expect to see a worse number for Finley on the road. If we assume that Lee and Finley were playing equally as well (or bad) defensively, wouldn't you think that Lee would have a better +/- than Finley since he has better offensive skills ? You can belittle the +/- stats all you want, but Finley is at +10 while the next best defensemen is Genoway at +3 (not sure what it is if you take out the games he played forward).

Personally, right now I would much prefer to have Finley on the ice over Lee in a defensive situation. Lee may have more ability when you factor in the offensive side of it but he is not living up to at this time. Currently, Finley is at +10, the highest on the team, while Lee is at -1. Last year it was close (Finley +18, Lee +15) but not this year. When I look at Lee I see a guy who has a great amount of ability but seems to be stuggling in how to put it all together, hopefully the light bulb comes on soon. Defensively he seems to get beat rather easily at times and on offense he is too tentative. I would like to see Hakstol break up Lee and Chorney on the powerplay and drop Lee to the second unit, maybe it would take some pressure off. He basically looks like someone playing without any confidence, whereas a guy like Bina seems to be growing in confidence with each game, and is learning how and when to step up as an offensive threat. The number one powerplay defensive pair right now should be Chorney and Bina, the second unit would Lee and Genoway/Finley. I like Genoway for his stick handling and Finley seems to have a good hard shot from the point, something I would like to see a little more of.

Kudos to Lamoureux for his recent play. Since the holidays he has been very good. Without continued good goaltending the Sioux have no chance of getting this turned around and make the playoffs this year. The next stage of this turnaround has to involve an increase in offensive production. Without this there is little chance of going very far this year. Last year the team was 21-1 when scoring 4 or more goals, only loss was to BC. In the first 32 games they only scored 4 or more goals 11 times (11-0 record); they were 7-13-1 in the other 21 games. In their last 14 games they scored 4 or more goals 11 times (10-1 record), in the other 3 games they went 1-2. It's pretty hard to get a good streak going if you continually score 3 or fewer goals per game. This year they are 8-0 when scoring 4 or more goals and 4-11-2 when they don't. It is almost imperative that the Oshie, Duncan, Toews line get 1-2 goals per game. If they get shutout I don't see how they get 4 or more goals. Porter, Watkins, Miller line need to get on the board, along with either the 3rd or 4th lines chipping in. If VandeVelde, Zajac, Forney continue to put up zeros it will put added pressure on everyone else. This is the line that could make or break the season, they need to start scoring at least once a weekend. They seem to show flashes of what could be, but we are 25 games into the season and VandeVelde and Forney are still looking for their first goals. Tomorrow is as good a time as any to snap this and get their first.

Don't understand this comment. Finley has been the best +/- defenseman this year and overall the past two years: 2005-2006 2006-2007 Totals Finley +18 +9 +27 Lee +15 -1 +14 Chorney +21 -4 +17 Radke +14 -5 + 9 Jones +14 +1 +15 Bina NA 0 Genoway NA +3 Smaby +18 NA So this year Finley is +9, last year +18. So far this year Bina is 0. Seems to me the comment should be reversed; expect this out of Finley, not Bina.

Somehow I doubt "Myles" was the bully in school.

Same old stuff: 1. Poor goaltending. Second goal for Wisc was as bad as it gets. 2. Stupid, stupid penalties. Or penalties because we were out of position and had to take one. 3. Outmanned physically. Does anyone on this team (except for Oshie and maybe a couple others) want to hit someone. This is the least physical Sioux team I can remember for some time. When you have #1 you sure as heck can't have #2. Please bench Zach Jones for tomorrows game. He needs to learn to quit taking stupid penalties, maybe sitting down for a game or two will help. When the goalie gets run (almost every game it seems), quit dancing with the other team. Someone, anyone, needs to step up and make a statement...if that means an all-out brawl, so be it. Stand up for each other, show that you are a team and not a collection of players. Not sure what Hak does about the goaltending. There is really no excuse for the way Phil is playing, he is a junior and has seen plenty of time in goal. These weak goals are depressing to me as a fan, it must be worse for the players. If he can't do the job now as the #1 goalie I don't know that he ever will. Greico is just not ready for this level as far as I can see. He really needs another year of experience. While he didn't give up a goal in the 3rd tonight he looked shaky. Unless the goaltending issue is resolved nothing else matters, this team will end up with a .500 record. I really expected more from the defense this year. Last year we played with four freshman so I assumed they would be much better this year. Hard too see where they are any better this year as a group. Last year Parise saved their butts a lot, maybe we should have given even more credit to Jordan than we did. There was one shift tonight where Bina and Genoway were on defense and they were just manhandled by Wisconsin and couldn't get the puck out of the Sioux end. Seems like our defense has shifted more towards the "gopher" style of past years with less physical, more offensive defensemen. There certainly is no fear in the opposition of crashing the net or going into the corners. Sorry if this is too negative but I am pretty frustrated right now.

The only thing I have seen was on the wdaz webcast: Fire Victim Fund John Reichenberg Alerus Financial I think they said this was set up by his friends. I am not sure how many people were impacted by the fire but I think this fund is only for this one person.

These announcers are idiots.

How many stupid plays can GV make in this half ?? Hopefully at least one more.

Should have been pass interference, no question.

Now you have to onside kick, still need two scores.

Great return by Dressler.

Nice play by Manke.

How about 8.

Nice D play by #45