rochsioux

IMO, Campion is the best official in the WCHA (not sure that says too much). I rarely have any significant complaint with games he has done, unlike some other officials. Shepard is absolutely terrible, not sure he has ever done a game that I thought was good. I only remember Zelkin from the series with the Wisconsin diving team earlier this year. He was on par with Shepard, at least in that series. Adam used to be barely acceptable but after the Bina incident I never want to see him officiate any game again, he should be booted from the league. Mason and Schmidt are tolerable.

I would like to see a 10-2 (or better finish). Realistically, 7-1 at home would be fine with me and splitting on the road for a 9-3 finish. That would leave them at 24-13-1 going into the WCHA playoffs. This is best case IMO. In addition, I would like to see them show up and play three complete periods every night and play smarter hockey with respect to penalties. If they do that then they should have a very good chance of going 9-3 or better to finish the regular season and make some noise in the post-season. If they continue the current pattern of taking a night off they will probably miss the NCAA regional...won't even matter if they do make it cause they will be an easy out.

Against Harvard and Minnesota there was no fatigue for game 2 since they didn't play in game 1. Not sure about the effort against AA on Friday, they did put up 51 shots. In the last five series they are 5-5 (1-4 in game 1, 4-1 in game 2). The only game 1 win during this time was against Bemidji 2-1, a game they should have lost but won because of Phil. The Harvard loss was pathetic and the Minnesota loss this past Friday may be the worst game I have seen them play against a rival in a very long time.

Congrats to Matt Jones on his first point in the NHL. He assisted on the tieing goal in a 4-3 win over Toronto (and Ed Belfour).

Much better effort tonight. Still too many penalties in the first two periods...too often the penalties came away from the play. Got to play much smarter. If you had told me the Gophers would have 9 powerplays in the first two periods including a 5x3 and 5x4 five min major I wouldn't have given the Sioux much of a chance. I believe coming into this series the Sioux were allowing 1 goal per game even strength. This w/e, 8 goals allow, 6 on powerplays for an average of 1 even strength goal per game. You might think this stat would wake a few players up and STOP TAKING STUPID PENALTIES. Hopefully the play in the third period tonight will be a turning point for the team. No penalties, no goals allowed, scored the game winner against a good team on the road (hard to say those last words but the Gophers are a good team). The test will be the next few w/e's. They really need to sweep the next two series and show improvement in all phases of the game. They can't afford to lose any of these with road series left at CC and Denver. Haven't had much luck at CC recently and Denver has been tough on them since the regional in 2004. No excuse for any lack of effort the rest of the way. It should be clear to everyone on the team that if they put out the effort and play with some discipline they will be hard to beat. This should go in the category of "lesson learned".

Brutal play...Gophers looked good but the way the Sioux played it's hard to tell how good they are. Right now there is no team chemistry. Their passing is terrible, they don't move their feet, not physical enough, etc, etc, etc. It looks like the only thing they know how to do is dump and chase. The never seem to know where a teammate is on the ice. Right now this is an average, at best, hockey team. Split with Harvard, split with AA, get hammered by Minnesota. Unless they start turning this around quickly they will finish early and REA will be a very empty arena for the regional.

Phil was the only reason the Sioux beat Bemidji State on the road so I would give him a little more credit than this. On average I would prefer Jordan because he is more consistantly on his game than Phil, but Phil has had three excellent games in his last four starts (BSU 2-1 Win, Harvard 1-0 Loss, AA 5-3 Loss, AA 5-0 Win). Other than the 5-3 AA game he has given up a total of 2 goals in the other three starts (79 saves). Regardless of who is in goal the Sioux need to limit the Gophers to 30 shots or less. If they can do that I like their chances. We also need better goaltending then the first series, can't afford to let in any weak ones this time.

Anyone remember the last time the Sioux won after being down 3 or more after 2 ? Can't be too optimistic. They are going to play themselves right out of NC$$'s. Hard to tell how they are playing tonight, but they haven't looked that good the previous three series and five of those six games were at home.

That was probably the worst team effort I have seen in years. Five minutes into the third period and they have 13 shots on goal. We are over half way into the season now, there is no excuse for that type of effort. No point in worrying about making the NC$$ tourney, the way they are playing at home even if they make it it will not be an advantage. They need to clean up the defensive play and start putting forth 60 minutes of effort each game. Everything else will take care of itself.

While still pretty early, according to the PWR link the Sioux currently lose 4 comparisons, one of which is Harvard. Time to change that.

Good to hear, best of luck in Milwaukee.

Not sure I understand why it needs to be the same. Both teams on the ice get equal advantage of the replay, doesn't favor anyone. The fairness is getting the call correct. If there are multiple camera angles available then use them, otherwise use none of them. That is the only fair way. It is ridiculous to say we only can review the overhead shot if there are other angles available. Use everything that is available otherwise I would rather not use any of it. As tough as it is to live with a mistake that the ref makes it is easier when they can't review it. The Saturday goal would be difficult to call in real-time even for a good official, for Shepturd if he ever gets the correct call it was by accident. When it can be reviewed, and there are replays that show it went in, then it's impossible to accept a wrong call. If the fairness take is that only some arenas have multiple camera angles and therefore the home teams in these arenas have some kind of an advantage, then replay shouldn't have been done last year on a trial basis at Denver and CC because it gave them an advantage...hmmm, seems that they tied for the conference championship...that must be the reason.

Please...I shouldn't expect goofer fans to get it. It wasn't fair and square, that's why the complaints. There were plenty of calls that could have been made both ways that weren't. I'm not complaining about the missed hooks, holds, interference on the goofs that went uncalled. That's what you get with the WCHA refs and Shepturd in particular. My beef is the two goal reviews that were screwed up. Can't get it right live or with the help of replay. Add Shepturd to your XMAS card list, he was your best friend this w/e.

Well we agree Shepturd sucks. Your complaint is he called a few weak penalties on the goofs. My complaint is he gave the goofs two goals (+1 for goofs, -1 for Sioux). Not quite the same. Send your thank you cards to Shepturd, he earned them.

If you want to read some funny stuff go to gophersucklive site. They are complaining about Shepturd !! Shepturd awards them a goal Friday (which should have been waved off) and they win 4-3. On Saturday he waves off a Sioux goal that should have counted in a 4-3 win. So basically he gives the goofs two wins. They should show a little more appreciation or he might start doing an unbiased job. Not sure what else he could have done to help the poor goofs.

The evidence continues to build that Shepard (sucks!) is favoring the goofs against the Sioux. Case 1: Couple of years ago he waves off the a tying goal with 20 seconds left saying Zach P. played it with a high stick. Replays showed this was highly questionable, regardless of the kneejerk reaction of Woog and Macrapo. Sioux lose 2-1. Case 2: Last night, Parise interferred with on Gopher goal. Looks at the replay and allows the goal to stand. Case 3: Tonight Oshie scores, no goal called. Looks at replay and can't get the call right. Very obvious that the puck was in the net prior to the goal becoming dislodged. Is the point of replay to get the call right or just take a break and watch a little TV ? Get rid of instant replay...it is worthless. Even more, get rid of Shepard, even more worthless. If Shepturd has to ref in the WCHA he should never be allowed to ref Goofy games. With his daddy running the show and living in Minneapolis he should be disqualified from these contests, I don't think he is unbiased. Rumour has it that even other officials think he is a joke.

If I did the math right... Night W-L-T Shots_for Shots_Against Goals_for Goals_Against SavePct Friday 6-2-0 239 206 30 14 93.2 Saturday 4-3-1 228 297 26 26 91.2 Slight drop in offensive production from Friday to Saturday (3.75 Goals Fri, 3.25 Sat) Big defensive change on Sat. Give up 11-12 more shots per game and 1.5 more goals (1.75 Goals Fri, 3.25 Sat) On Fridays (or 1st game of series) they only have given up 30 or more shots once - the first game of the year. On Saturdays they have allowed 30 or more shots in six of the eight games, five games with 43 or more shots...very uncharacteristic of recent Sioux teams (their record is 3-1-1 in those games though). If they want to make the frozen four this year they need to be more consistent on Saturday nights. An almost 50% increase in shots allowed from Friday to Saturday says they are not working as hard or they are not adapting to changes the other team is making. Or they are just getting very conservative trying to protect leads. I don't know, but it makes me a bit nervous to be giving up that many shots consistently on Sat. nights. Will be hard to put together a winning steak in the playoffs if that were to continue. I fully expect the coaches to improve this, hopefully starting with this w/e.

Karl's played two games: 11/19 4-3 loss 44 shots, 40 saves 11/23 3-1 loss 50 shots, 47 saves Looks like it works out to a save percent of 92.5.

Would someone please explain to me why the Sioux offense refused to run time off the clock in the 4th Q with a big lead ? Numerous times they would break the huddle BEFORE the 25 second clock even started !!!!!!! They would snap the ball with 15-18 seconds left on the play clock !!! Did they learn clock management from a Denny Green / Mike Tice coaches clinic. Absolutely unbelieveable!!! Either the quarterback or the coach is an idiot.

Tough 'D'

Normally I disagree with INCH because they don't give UND enough credit. However, todays ranking gives them too much credit. INCH Power Rankings Having seen all four games there is no way they are #2 right now. Miami outplayed them, the MSU game was close, and UND pretty much controlled both games against a weak NU team. I see improvement from the team from game 1 thru game 4 and expect to see continued improvement throughout the year, but it is not realistic to rank them at #2 just yet. The next six games will give us a pretty good idea of where they stand early in the season, I hope they can at least go 3-3. If they can stay healthy and continue to improve I think this will be a very fun team to watch in Feb/March/April.

Halftime 20-7. Time to head to the Nutter Center to see some hockey !!!! Good Luck in the 2nd half.

Offense stopped. 30 yard FG attempt is good. 20-7.

Sioux recover fumble on Ferris 18 yard line. Looks like this game may get out-of-hand here.

Sioux score on 1 yard run by Brandon Brady, 17-7.