rochsioux

Possible pairwise comparisons that the Sioux could flip with a WIN tonight against CC. 1. CC - RPI is so close now that a win should do it. Comparison win 3-2. 2. Providence - if they lose to Vermont the TUC will flip to UND's favor. Last nights win pushed them ahead on RPI so they would win the comparison 2-1. 3. Alaska Fairbanks - if they lose to Miami the TUC will flip to UND so they win 2-1. The unknown factor is if some team drops in/out of TUC and how that effects everything. Don't see any other comparisons they are currently losing that they could flip tonight. My guess is we will see Jordan again tonight. Philippe is an excellent goalie but they have to go with Jordan in tonights game, this is a must win and they have had better success with Parise in the net (13-5-1 vs. 5-7-0 for Lamoureux).

Currently the Sioux are winning 14 comparisons and losing 16. Here are the 16 they are losing (each col. is opp/Sioux): TEAM RPI TUC COP H2H TOTAL Wisconsin .6005/.5413 10-5-2/6-9-1 9-5-1/8-9-0 2/0 5/0 Minnesota .5906/.5413 7-4-3/5-8-1 8-4-3/7-8-0 3/1 6/1 Miami .5873/.5413 15-3-4/5-11-1 0-0-0/0-0-0 0/1 2/1 BC .5578/.5413 8-5-1/6-11-1 3-1-1/4-1-1 0/0 2/1 BU .5501/.5413 8-5-2/6-11-1 2-1-1/5-2-1 0/0 2/1 CC .5493/.5413 8-8-1/6-11-1 10-8-1/10-11-1 0/0 3/0 Michigan .5469/.5413 10-9-3/6-11-1 1-5-3/4-6-0 0/0 2/1 Providence .5486/.5413 7-7-1/6-11-1 2-0-0/3-0-1 0/0 3/0 Ferris State .5417/.5413 6-9-6/6-11-1 3-4-1/5-2-1 0/0 2/1 Mich. State .5357/.5413 9-9-6/6-10-1 1-1-1/3-5-0 1/0 3/1 St.Cloud .5336/.5413 4-6-2/5-8-1 6-5-1/7-7-0 3/1 5/2 Harvard .5254/.5413 5-3-1/5-10-1 1-0-0/1-0-1 1/1 3/2 St. Lawrence .5449/.5413 5-8-1/6-11-1 1-3-1/3-3-1 0/0 2/1 Denver .5295/.5413 6-6-1/5-10-1 10-4-2/9-9-0 1/1 3/2 Northern Mich. .5170/.5413 10-11-0/6-11-1 4-5-0/4-6-0 0/0 2/1 Alaska-Fair. .5135/.5413 7-11-4/6-11-1 4-4-2/2-5-0 0/0 2/1 A given is that they can't lose any more comparisons. They will probably need to win at least 18-20 comparisons, so they need to flip 4-6 of these. I don't think they have any chance to flip Wisconsin, Minnesota, Miami, BC, and Harvard. TUC would have to drastically change to flip the Harvard one. Also, the Providence comparsion will be difficult to change. They will need to sweep CC to have a chance to flip this one. They will probably have to sweep Denver to flip that comparison. Obviously sweeping both would dramatically improve their chances. Even though we lost 3 of 4 to St. Cloud we can flip that comparison but have to improve both TUC and COP. Since all games left are in conference all games will count in the comparison with SCSU. Also, 1st round WCHA could see them matchup again. There are seven other teams we are losing to by one comparision point. A sweep of Mich Tech could flip the Northern Michigan comparison. They probably need Miami to sweep Mich.State to flip that one. They need to improve the RPI to flip Michigan, BU, Ferris St. They need to improve RPI or TUC to beat St. Lawrence. They need to improve TUC to beat Fairbanks. So, five of these seven comparisons are highly dependent on the CC and Denver games. While there are way too many permutations to be sure of anything, it looks to me that just splitting with CC and with Denver might not be enough. That would make at least nine comparisons that would probably be set against them. I suspect it will also make it difficult to win many of the remaining ones since the two home series left will not help RPI or TUC. They would then need to make up ground in the WCHA playoffs. Anything less then splitting the CC and Denver series would probably leave them out of the NCAA tourney unless they win the WCHA tourney. The playoff drive must start this weekend. If it were up to me I think I would play Jordan on Friday and hope to get a run started like last year.

I would like to believe this but I am very doubtful. The Sioux have two home series against Michigan Tech and Duluth, neither are TUC so I think we can only hurt ourselves by losing, not sure winning will help much. The two road series are against TUC so it is imperative to get wins. I am thinking they will need to win 3 of 4 to have a good shot at the tourney. If they only get two then they will almost have to sweep the first round WCHA games which should be against a TUC. To start winning more pairwise comparisons they need to improve their TUC record and RPI. Playing Tech and Duluth will not help these. Right now playing .500 against TUC might not be good enough to flip enough comparisons. Since the Sioux can only control what they do, they best win 3/4 road and all 4 home...based on current play this may not be realistic.

I believe they are looking at him.

It is entirely appropriate for people to stand during those times, just as it is not appropriate to stand for the entire game if it blocks others view. IMO, at all sporting events there is a time when standing is fundamental to the enjoyment and excitement of the game. The problem as I see it is that some want to stand all the time. So if the students sections are changed to allow this and it will be permitted, then just be sure to inform anyone purchasing unused student tickets so they know what to expect. If you purchase the ticket knowing that you might have to stand then you have no grounds to complain. If everyone would adhere to "standing when action warrants" then we wouldn't have this discussion and there wouldn't be any reason to discuss moving the student sections. I can understand why some would want to stand the entire game and I am all for it if it can be done without impacting others.

I have seats in 306A for some games. When the students stand it blocks my view from the far left (my left) faceoff dot to the boards. Can be worse depending on how many are standing. I personally have no problem with standing and in fact would prefer it sometimes. HOWEVER, if I stand to see then I start blocking other people from seeing even more of the ice surface. I suspect some in 306A have much worse views depending on their exact location. Do I deserve to not be able to see part of the game ? Should I just stand and then block others from seeing ? Some people just physically can't stand for long or at all, others such as smaller children still can't see even if they stand. This past w/e was not too bad after the first 10 minutes or so but some games have been bad enough that some people have complained to the ushers who then try to get the students to sit down. IMO, it comes down to forcing all people to stand or getting all students to sit down with the current seating arrangement. On Friday a lot of the students in 307 did try to sit down but since those in 308 were standing they couldn't see so they started standing up again. I try to be considerate of other people and their view of the game but I don't drive 400 miles each way to watch the game on the scoreboard. Right now the only solution I see is to have the students sit down. If the solution is to move the students so they don't block others then I hope they also take into consideration what happens when the students don't sell out all their seats. If they make them available to the general public they better be sure to indicate that standing is allowed so anyone who purchases these seats will know what they are getting. Otherwise you will still see complaining about people standing and blocking their view.

I basically follow three sports for past 35+ years. Hockey: Already DI and consistently one of the top programs in the country. Football: Consistently one of the top DII programs. I have no doubt they would be very successful at the DIAA level if they want to be. BB: Men's program in poor shape and has never consistently been considered a top program in DII. Schedule sucks and is hard to generate any interest playing Upper Iowa, Mary, Crookston, Valley City State, Mayville, Minot State, etc. Take a look at the schedule and name more than one or two home games that would get fans excited. Now, is this due to the fact the team is not a powerhouse or because of the schedule ? If they were a dominate DII team with this schedule would that excite the fans ? With the schedule they have they should rarely lose at home. A combination of poor schedule and poor results will destroy fan support. Frankly I don't see this getting any better. The Women's program is consistently one of the top DII programs. It is here that I have my biggest doubts about going DI. So for football I think UND would be competitive and would still be able to challege for an NCAA championship. Men's basketball will struggle but they already struggle in DII. At least in DI the talent level will be upgraded and the teams they play should be more appealing. Can't see fan enthusiasm being any worse. I think the women's bb program would be competitive but probably won't challenge for the NCAA title. As for other sports I don't follow them enough to know the impact. I do think the decision to go DI has to focus on the revenue generating sports and the impact to them. I don't see the DII landscape improving over time, only degrading further as more quality teams leave for DI and scholarships get cut. IMO, it is not a matter of if, only when UND will make the move. If not for pesky little things like conference and $$$ I think the decision would have already been made. I think if UND goes, St. Cloud and UNO will follow suit, then USD can't be far behind. Maybe then discussion will start up again about forming a DI NCC conference.

From what I saw I would agree with this as well. I didn't see anything Finley did that would result in a DQ. Could it be that Hakstol and Jutting got together and agreed to shift the DQ's to Finley and Cummings (I think) ? Hakstol would agree to this since Spirko's family is in town, also he might not want to split up the forward lines as they seem to be finally clicking. Jutting might prefer Cummings suspended rather then the initial Mankato player (I assume there was a different Mankato player ejected originally, can't find a box score that shows the Spirko DQ to verify). Then they both went to Shepard and asked that the DQ's be changed.

I think it did. Jones was sent back to San Antonio on Jan. 21.

I don't think Zelkin controlled the games at all. Friday night, in the 2nd period (I think) there was a skirmish among a number of players and then someone from Mankato took a run a Smaby and cross-checked him from behind. Out of all this there was only one 2-min penalty called on the Mankato player who hit Smaby. At a minimum that should have been a double minor or major penalty, extreme cheap shot. Jones then got a 10-min misconduct for going by the penalty box and slapping his stick on the glass. I think that set the tone for the rest of the series - go ahead and play cheap, not much cost penalty-wise. Hopefully that incident was filed away for future payback.

My understanding is that his folks were here for the Mankato games and were going to stay and see the St. Cloud series as well. I thought the disqualification was not warranted, but what do you expect with the refs we get in the WCHA. Radke should have and was disqualified, other than that the only other Sioux player I thought might get tossed was TJ. I think Zelkin and company did a poor job in sorting the penalties and generally had a pathetic w/e in controlling the games. Mankato is a cheap team and for that I blame Jutting. Also, I was not impressed with the goalie, seems like he never controlled the first shot.

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.