KSSioux

It was glad to see North Dakota pull the anti-Michigan last night and win with a short roster. No excuses, next man up, and follow through on the commitment. Speaks greatly of the team and the coaching process. My three stars of the night would be: #1 Mark Poolman, #2 Defense + goaltender, and #3 Berry. Without Poolman the conditioning would not be there, and the recovery of some of the players would not happen as it needs to happen. I think he gets short-changed on his value to the program. If I were a parent of a potential recruit, that would be a great factor in the decision process. I will bet that one of Jakes reasons for staying had to do with that development of his game that he could get at North Dakota. He needed that to step into a first line D role, that he will quickly have in Ottawa. This is why I love to watch North Dakota hockey, although there may be ups and downs, it is weekends like this that are special to the program. Watching them give up their bodies to protect the shut out with a four- goal lead, and a depleted lineup, was awesome. No matter what the rest of the season brings, I appreciate the game and hope for great things for this team.

I agree with that. UMD gave up a two goal lead to SCSU and dropped a point in the shoot-out Tuesday night. Must have been the coaching. Oh, it was Sandy, so it was obviously the goalie's fault.

All you have to do is read the pages from a few games this year and you can figure out why. I used to come on here after a game to see if anyone had any comments or found clips of things like how Senden and Jammer got injured last night. All you get now is the same garbage from the same folks when they lose about "Fire Berry", "Too many Grindaz", "Not enough Blue Chippas", etc. Even when they win folks seem to not be satisfied about something. Seems to be for the most part that the hockey knowledge is inversely proportional to the number of quotes by an individual. I have been to over 30 Frozen Fours and watch a lot of college hockey, even outside of North Dakota. I have seen the landscape change, and I feel it is much for the better of the sport. Every team has great athletes and the diversity from the non-traditional hockey states is awesome. We see that even in the North Dakota roster for over ten years now. There is very little difference between most of the college hockey players, with some obvious exceptions. This is what it is, a message board. People can say almost what they want. I just hope that the players, coaches, or parents of said players do not take much credence to what is said on here.

Washington Football Team now the Washington Commanders. You cannot make this up. I am only attaching one of the links to this new name for the Washington football team, and people are already mocking it. People calling them the "Commies" already, and who thought this was a great idea for a team based in our nation's capital? There is only one "Commander" in DC and how if this going to play out based on what party is in office? Is there anyone doing real marketing, or have common sense in the time we now live in? Washington Football Team — after scrubbing 'offensive' Redskins name in 2020 — is now the Commanders. And mockers are already nicknaming team 'Commies.' - TheBlaze This is what happens when you try to conform to cancel culture. I was not a fan of the old Redskins name, nor Braves, Chiefs, Savages, etc. I think they are in a far different category than the Sioux, Utes, Seminoles, Quakers, Sooners, Pioneers, etc. Everyone has an opinion, but this is what "cancel culture" is now defining.

What is the likelihood that we see a couple of Michigan "Blue Chippa's" turn pro after the Olympics based on this story? Report: Michigan Hockey Program Being Investigated For Various Allegations : College Hockey News This should be the end of Mel Pearson in college hockey. Unfortunate, since I thought well of him at Tech. Must have let the Michigan blinders think nothing could touch him there. See how the corrupt NCAA handles this situation.

Any info on why Budy is out indefinitely. Could not remember anything happening to him in the U18 game.

I do not think the NCAA is going to do anything about this, but it should be a loss to Western Michigan as a forfeit. To make matters worse, the GLI used to be played at Joe Louis Arena, now it should be at Little Caeser's Arena. If you noticed, both games that Michigan would have played are at Yost. They did not even have to leave the city to play the game. The only justice will be for Tech to beat them badly tonight.

I never heard back either.

I PM'd you a little bit ago for the Hextall.

Ford

Ford

He had a bad preseason with Buffalo, and last night was his last chance to show he belonged. Did not do very well, and did not look comfortable. Buffalo does not have the greatest D in front of their goal tending, and Dell did not help his case. I am surprised that McIntyre did not get a look by an NHL team. He had a real good season in the AHL, but I guess his time has past to give him a shot. Scheel may get a shot in Dallas if his season with the Texas Stars goes well.

Calder

I would like to shift the discussion to the kids that we have in the fold now and possible line combos to start the season. I think this will be a big "chemistry finding" start to the season so I thought it would be fun to get some discussion going to get some folks thought on the starting groups. I think we have a good stable of centers with Ford entering the group, so here it goes: Calder - Weatherby - Caulfield Gaber - Ford - Budy Hain - Senden - Schmaltz Ness - Jamernik - Kunz Sanderson - Frisch Kleven - Moore Johnson - Jandric The goaltending is easy with Driscoll starting and Hellsten as the backup. I think they will alternate getting in Costantini into the lineup, and I think Budy was a difficult choice for me on the second line between he and Hain. I think Ness will get the initial nod with a couple of freshies or Albrecht getting a few games as well. The extra skater will be interesting with alternating between an extra D and F. I actually also thought about putting a Calder - Ford - Ford - Budy line together and call it the T-Line (Transfer line). Just some thoughts and I think we have some good pieces that can make a great looking puzzle for a run this year.

I wanted to put this here, as I think it effects college hockey in general. Has anyone watched the U18 World Championships this year? I watched a few games, and US losing to Sweden in the quarterfinals. I do not think people can complain about UND not having any recruits on the U18 team. This is about as bad of talent as we have had on that squad in a number of years. We have done very well in the U18's, due a lot to the NTDP being the main source for this team and other countries did not have that sort of program until recently. Just not very impressed with the talent at all. Pastujav (Michigan recruit) is the only one that really showed anything, and that was not too great overall. Not real skill or hockey sense from this team and it really showed. They are still young, and will obviously develop, but they did not show well at all.

I said Nashville area. Lynchburg, VA is within 500 miles of Nashville, and that is about the distance across NE. My problem without being clearer on that. My points still hold, and as I stated I would not mind seeing both get teams. My point was not about facilities, but kids in the area to have an opportunity.

Liberty University will be D1 before Tennessee St. I cannot see two universities in the Nashville area being D1 within a couple of years. Liberty is already FBS in football and really pushes their sports programs for a private christian school. They already have a great club program at Liberty. Would love seeing this as there is a great pool of talent for increasing college hockey programs that can justify additional schools. You can see this by the rosters of schools changing. The talent in hockey hotbeds of MN and MA has not decreased, but the talent level across the country has improved. This is the reason the parity in college hockey has been more evident in the last 5-10 years and will continue. You will see the new addition of Long Island University get competitive fast, and St. Thomas and Lindenwood not be far behind. New York and the St. Louis, MO areas are obviously increasing their hockey talent. The comments about SEC schools getting heavy into hockey I think is still a ways off, but it is great to see kids being able to have these opportunities, and I think is only better for college hockey.

You are correct, he picked against us in 2016 and picked Michigan that year as well. It is a tough challenge to win four in a row and you need a combination of talent and a little "puck luck" along the way.

Kierstad

Dell starting in goal for New Jersey in Travis Zajac's 1000th game. Obviously Oshie is in the lineup for Washington, so a good UND contingent in this matchup.

Based on the end of the game I would sit a couple of players for their safety on Friday in Omaha. Neither team has anything really to play for other than record. Omaha is pretty well cemented into the 4 spot. The slash on Jammer during the faceoff was a trigger and it was a cross check that he did, but the slash by the Omaha player was not even called. A couple of cross checks by Denver in the last home games were not even called while our players were on the ice, and they were worse. I would let Pinto rest and keep Mismash out to make sure he is OK for the home finale. I would start Thome and obviously Reiger for Bast since he will have a DQ. Let Moore be the extra skater. Could switch Moore and Reiger, but they could get pretty equal time. The NCHC needs to look at the slash as the instigation for the late game antics. They obviously will not. Berry did not send those players out to start something, just to give them awarded power play time since the game was in hand. I reference the Saturday in Denver where he did the same thing when the game was in hand. Playing the same team this many times in a row is the only problem I have seen with how the NCHC handled the season. Not much they could have done about it.

This is a huge message game for the boys. Needing 6 points in four games against Omaha, getting 3 points in the first game would take the air out of Omaha for the remaining games. The odds of them winning the next three would not be good, so I hope they come out firing on all cylinders for this game. I know Omaha will want to push the start, so I expect a pretty intense, high octane, first period. Let's get this going to keep the Penna Rosa!!

Austin Poganski playing for the Blues this afternoon. Has seen some good action in the first period. Hopefully he will find a good fit there.

They must have seen something in practice to swap Jammer away from Hain and Senden. That was a great line, and Weatherby has not been where I expected him to be so far this year. He is better on the dot than Jammer, so maybe they wanted to get that line zone time against the big line of Denver. Also, you know we are loaded on D when we sit the Defensemen of the week in the NCHC. I would have thought he would have been the extra skater tonight, but Keane is a great option as well. No worries, let's go boys!!

Cam Johnson penciled in as the backup for Columbus today. Doubt he will make it into the game, but he is dressed for the Blue Jackets.