SiouxScore

Kiersted

Start of the 2nd half of the season with a pretty much fully healthy group and you know you have no room for error and this is the type of effort and performance they put on the ice. We just lost to freaking Canisius, let that sink in for a moment. Are you kidding me? Canisius wouldn't be a top 15 AA team in Minnesota High School hockey. This loss is not only tremendously embarrassing but does a ton of damage as well. The way this team showed up tonight is a huge indictment on this coaching staff as well. Playing at half speed for most of the game with no discipline at all and more coasting than you see at open skating at your local rink. No adjustments throughout the game either, guys keep dumping it in against a clearly inferior team that was giving you plenty of room to skate the puck in. This roster needs a huge overhaul and talent infusion. There should be a number of difficult conversations that take place after the season. I'm at the point were I have very little confidence in this staff and particularly with Brad Berry in charge to pull this program out of the spiral we are in. There is a guy out there who had a ton of success here with a number of different types of teams and in my mind it is time to give him a call. Bring Back Hak!

Awesome, Thanks a lot!

Gardner

Wish the black Nike Swifts were on there somewhere. That was a sweet looking jersey.

Didn't get the outcome tonight but thought overall it was a much better weekend of hockey from this team than what we have seen the majority of this year. Scheel made some big saves and was good again. He would've probably liked the 1st goal back but I'm more disappointed in the d-zone breakdown that leaves a guy open at the bottom of the circle especially that early in the game. This is the type of game where you need to come up with a powerplay goal and take advantage of your chances but the guys just couldn't convert on enough of them. Really thought Cole Smith played well tonight creating a lot of chances, hitting a post, and just really giving Denvers D a lot of trouble throughout the night. Get some guys healed up and play with some urgency right out of Christmas break.

Good win. 1st period might have been the best period this team has played all year and held on in the 2nd and 3rd. Scheel was rock solid and came up with the huge penalty shot stop. Jones looked to have good jump really thought he would end up putting one in the net with the way he was playing although he did miss a wide open one I guess. The Hain-Senden-Smith line was very good and really set the tone for the game. Defensively real solid job keeping Denver out of scoring areas for the most part. Guys play all 3 periods tomorrow like they did the 1st tonight and it will be a sweep.

Bernard-Docker

I'd guess EGF would be a solid number 2. They already played Red River and pretty well controlled the game. They won 4-0 and the shots were like 30-15.

Minnesota will likely have a couple and I could see both guys moving down to FCS. Johnathan Femi-Cole already walked on SR day and would be a grad transfer. He has 14 rushes for 65 yards in his career did have a heck of a spring game a year ago though. The other likely possibility would be Dominik London who will be a Sophomore next season. He hasn't announced he is transferring but Minnesota will have some after the bowl game and he hasn't played in his first couple of seasons and doesn't really have a path to getting on the field at Minnesota. I also see on his Twitter that he and Danny Freund and Malcolm Agnew have started following each other recently.

Heck of a bounce back effort tonight. Thought they did a much better job of taking away time and space but the biggest difference was they played a lot harder tonight. Guys made some of the tough plays and battled through contact to get to where they were supposed to be instead of giving up an opportunity because you didn't work through contact. They got a couple of skilled guys to finish on a couple of chances but still left a ton on the ice. The powerplay was terrible and I think with the way the roster is right now it would be best to go to a more simplified powerplay where you just try to get a couple guys like Gardner and Smith in front of the net and work for point shots for JBD and Poolman. Very frustrating to not be able to add another goal with all the opportunities but this roster isn't changing anytime soon which likely means the finishing ability isn't gonna change either. This team is going to have to find different ways to win. Like playing tough physical defensive hockey. I wasn't a huge fan of giving Thome the start last night and after tonight I hope Berry has figured out he needs to ride Scheel for a while. He is capable of stealing a game here or there.

Shaw

Hain

You do but skilled guys can be role players too and some guys that you have higher expectations for will inevitably fail to meet them and have to become role players. At the least we have Bowen, Yon, Smith, Hoff, Janatuinen, Keane, Senden, and Johnson are all role guys. That is 8 of our 15 forwards and is way too many.

I struggled to watch through the end of the 2nd period and I won't be paying much attention to the 3rd and I don't think that has really ever been the case for me with Sioux hockey. Duluth has basically bullied UND the last couple of seasons physically. The lack of talent on UND's roster is absolutely unacceptable and it has become pretty clear in the last year and a half that Berry isn't close to the level of coach Hakstol was when he was here. Hak would find a way no matter what the roster looked like to have his team competing for the conference championship. The last couple years we lose 1 top player to an injury for a while and can't recover. This team looks so undisciplined, unprepared, and unfocused it is an absolute joke.

Kawaguchi

Gardner

Shows more of a difference between playing healthy and battling through injury. Donovan was not healthy in his USHL stint and tried to play through injuries but wasn't real effective in doing so.

Yeah I don't like the way we have been recruiting Minnesota at all lately. Seems like we haven't had near the success there we have had in the past and maybe not as much focus there either which disappoints me. It definitely is different with Minnesota kids especially at good programs than anyone else in regards to wanting them to leave high school early and coaches need to understand that. A kid like Donovan is fine playing juniors before and after his high school season.

I don't know if I'd say they're reluctant it happens especially at the major level. Look at power 6 football recruiting and you see it all the time. If you go about it the right way it isn't gonna hurt recruiting at all. It might be a difficult conversation to have but that is why coaches make the money they do "Hey your performance isn't gonna get you on the field/ice/court here so you can stay and be happy with that or you could look for another option where you have a better chance to play." Heck most coaches now will even help the kid get in touch with other coaches and programs to transfer to.

Definitely wasn't always pretty or well played but bottom line the guys got the result they absolutely had to have this weekend 2 wins. A loss to Anchorage would have been a killer. Gonna have to be much better to get a win the next 2 weekends.

Cole Smith

I've seen enough of Donovan to know that he is more than capable of contributing at UND next year. He has some similarities to Tufte. I haven't seen enough games of Blaisdell, Pinto, and Rizzo to know their exact game but I saw both Caulfield and Donovan a number of times last winter and if I had to choose who was the better player now it wasn't close Donovan by a mile. He only played 4 USHL games and was playing through an injury. I don't put much stock at all into the AAPG lot of guys didn't look to be playing at full effort and it was definitely an exhibition type game. He is a very good skater, good skill, solid in d-zone, and can play a physical game as well. At the absolute worst he would settle in to a 3rd line role where he is checking the other teams top line most of the time. He is gonna have huge numbers in high school again this year and will probably be a 2nd round pick those are the types of guys you bring in right away.

No just speculation based on Schlossman's tweet.

Kiersted