yzerman19

I will once again state that MN is not a bad team. They certainly played us tough all year. They are well coached and solid defensively. They have no horses in the stable to win a run and gun, but they are playing their system well and are an excellent skating team. Playing MN at the X is always a challenge...20,000 M-I-N-N (you get the picture) fans show up and give them the home ice advantage. They are a pretty darn good team with some serious fan support. That being said, I think they have very little chance vs CC. Kangas will ahve to stand on his head. As fat boy even put it tonight, UND and CC separated themselves from the rest of the league. MN, SCSU, WI, MTU, UMD, MSU...they were all about equal. Denver with Trotter was with UND and CC, without Trotter, they are similar to the other 5 teams I just mentioned. Wooger comented that SCSU was feeling good about themselves for "outplaying UND for most of two weekends ago". All well and good. I wouldn't feel too proud of myself for being an NCAA tournament team who tied another NCAA tournament team while they were eithout Oshie, Genoway and Trupp. Anyway, I don't really care who we face, except for the fact that I want to beat CC head to head for PWR reasons. Right now, I am a huge Notre Dame and BC fan!

unfortunately for #7, I don't think the committee will look very highly on the elevator incident. TJ deserves to be considered among the top 10 players in the country for on and off the ice credentials. COngratulations to him for this honor. It was a great season, especially considering all the attention he warrated from opponents. JPL does have a shot at the Hobey. While Porter is the favorite, a strong showing in the F5 and in the NCAAs, say two shutouts and a frozen four bid, could earn the award for him. Best of luck to the Sioux nominees for representing the finest traditions of NCAA hockey and the Fighting Sioux program. These two young men are champions, no matter who wins the award.

I don't think that he uses his teammates poorly by any stretch of the imagination. I am just saying that with his abilities, if he could do it even better, he could be at the ELITE NHL level. I also agree that he is a very good playmaker, and these two statements are not mutually exclusive. He is solid in all elements of the game, and is a GREAT hockey player, as I stated in my earlier post. I am talking about trying to add horse power to a Ferrari.

TJ is certainly a special player and agree that his stick work alone is worth the price of admission. He is also a very good checker. His style of play made him a fan favorite at UND, and will make him a fan favorite at St Louis. He reminds me of a young Jeremy Roenick back in his Chicago days. To put on my NHL coach/GM hat, however, he is not as complete a player as JT was last year. TJ is not as good as JT was in the defensive zone, and my only criticism of his offensive game is that he needs to learn to use his teammates better. I recognize it is difficult when he is better than his teammates, but using one's teammates well, makes a special college player into a special NHL player. Before I get flamed. If you read what I am writing, I am trying to say that TJ is A GREAT hockey player. I could gush on what makes him great for hours. If he can learn to tone down his own desire to play physical, get a little better in the defensive zone, and learn to use his teammates to create space, rather than using his stick and individual puck skils to make space, he will be an elite NHLer. If he doesn't, he will still be a very good NHLer based on his natural ability alone. We have been gifted with great players at UND. TJ is in the class of ZPar, JT, and Troy Murray of being at the NHL skill level as a teenager (realize he is 21 now).

Don't forget Yzerman 19 and fiance in seats 9 and 10 for the DU game. Yzerman 19 and other die hard Sioux Fan for Friday night and all of Saturday! Yzerman 19's rodent friend and his guest for the play in (sorry!) I love speaking in the third person!

Well, I'd love to assist you with your liver destruction. I'm garnering a lot od SS.com beer debt (i already owe Sioux CIA and Sioux mama) but I'll put you on the list too. I've never met a SS.com poster in person. Hope to do it this weekend! section 119 and west 7th street and possibly Alery's.

Thanks Goon! Are you going to the F5?

We want to meet and beat CC in the F5 championship and for BC to beat NH. That alone will flip our PWR with NH, and put us in a tie for fourth. A pair of CC losses will flip that PWR for us too. Just beating CC will not flip that PWR

Just throwing everyone I could think of off-hand who has a ton of hockey coaching experience. I should've just said Dean Blais!

There has to be a reason why Hak is putting Miller on the top line, my belief is that with Trupper out we are looking for another scoring threat on the third line, and that's why we've been using Kozek there. Hak has to be thinking about how to put pressure on other teams latter defensive pairings. If I'm playing the Sioux, I am doing all that I can to match my best d-pair up on the Oshie line. That last line change ability is huge in the NCAAs. Gotta keep the legs fresh while still managing the matchup. CC has a nice advantage in being able to put the big Rau line out against a team's third d-pairing at Owens' discretion. This is also an advantage for SCSU vs MN, although it didn't benefit MSU-M this past weekend.

I am a bigger Sioux Fan than all of you combined Did I mention that I am also rich and exceptionally good looking, and my hockey knowledge and insight is that of Don Cherry, Badger Bob and Red Berenson combined. Silliness

Wow! That blown call Bucky vs DU IS HUGE now. Can you imagine how we'd be taking it on this board if we missed our own Regional because of a blown call! Now DU might've won it in OT anyway, but wowsa!

Meant OT thriller to go to the Frozen 4 in my last post...just have Final 5 on the brain right now

Where's the pairwise predictor?

I hate to predict it, but I am thinking that we lose an overtime thriller to CC for the championship. Much like last year, we then face CC in the Regional in Colorado Springs and beat them in an OT thriller to go to the final 5. Duncan's patented short side top-shelf goal with nothing to shoot at from "his old spot" in Friday's game makes me a little excited. If we can get him going from that spot, we are tough. Chorns stepped it up this past weekend which bodes well for us. If we can get TJ healthy, Duncs hitting from his spot, Chorney playing to his full potential, JPL playing the way he has played all year, then throw in Kaiper doing a Malcolm Parks impression and Vande crashing the net, we can beat anybody. Other good signs: Frattin stepped up, Lapoint played well, Bina stepped up, Genoway leading the rush through the neutral zone. Genoway has done it all year, and Chorns did it this past weekend, but I loved the fact that they skated the puck up when the outlet passes were taken away by the Tech D in transition. Finley, Lapoint and Jones still seem to try and force the outlet when it isn't there. I absolutely hate the "no outlet pass available so let's try the homerun to the deep winger". Short passes, one winger fly up the ice, the other two forwards need to stay low to give the d-men a target. People blast Lapoint (I've done it too as Redwing will comment), but having watched him more closely and watching him last night especially, he has the right idea on the outlet passes, the forwards just aren't helping more times than not. Speed through the neutral zone generated by short crisp passes gives us a chance to enter the zone with at least two, hopefully three forwards. A homerun pass only lets us bring one, which isn't much of a threat unless he has a chance to be free and clear. Number one rule from me to the Sioux: PATIENCE. This team tends to get frustrated. We need to take what they give us and play our game. No forcing the long pass if the short pass isn't available. Wingers come back and restart the breakout.

Sioux mama and Sioux CIA, I will be there with the fiance on Friday afternoon. I gave up my Thursday night tix to a die hard Gopher fan who also happens to be a good friend of mine, so see you guys on Friday afternoon! GO SIOUX!!!!!!!!

So, MN vs SCSU on Thursday night UND vs Denver on Friday afternoon CC vs MN/SCSU on Friday night The Minny rule does not apply to the FInal 5 championship, so if Minny wins on Thursday night and loses to CC on Friday night, Minny will play the afternoon game on Saturday night

I might add that this scenario makes the league very happy. MI vs MI state rivalry game potential in another Big 10 rink. 2 ECAC schools out in Albany, the ECAC hosted regional NH and BC in Massachusettes CC and Air Force in COlorado Springs

current Bracketology (per me) Madison: Michigan vs Niagara Michigan State vs St Cloud Albany: Miami vs Harvard/Princeton/Colgate/Cornell (flipped with Air Force for attendance) Clarkson vs Denver Worcester: New Hampshire vs Mankato (flipped with Air Force to avoid first round intraconference match-up) MN vs BC Colorado Springs: CC vs Air Force UND vs Notre Dame Tough bracket for the Sioux going out to CC at home, out of the frying pan into the fire. We need to keep winning and get our own #1 seed to avoid CC!!!

There were non-calls both ways, and that was clearly intentional. Let 'em decide it on the ice. In double OT in the playoffs it will be law of the jungle out there. I like a tightly called game on the obstruction, but not in double OT of the playoffs. Wooger kept commenting that Zacharias was goig down right away. It was a matter of time befor the Gophers won it. I've been saying for a long time that the Gophers are not a bad team. They took us to OT twice and beat us once on our rink and won 4 for sure and possibly 5 periods in that series up in GF. Lucia is an excellent hockey coach and MN players can always skate. Minny just didn't have the horses in the stable this year to contend for the league title. In a one and done, they can beat anyone and anyone can beat them, same can be said for almost every team still in the playoff picture.

You never want to see a player get hurt like that. Speedy Recovery wishes from this Sioux Fan. PWR just got interesting too. Now we'd have to go to Colorado Springs...ughhhh

Redwing, If we can finally agree after all this time, maybe there's hope for Washington DC and the middle east Let's not worry about next year yet. We've got a job to do. Well, twenty kids in Grand Forks have a job to do.

I didn't notice Lapoint either game (which is good when you're talking about a freshman d-man in the playoffs). I did notice Marto flying out there on the wing on Friday night, didn't notice him last night. At this point, I do think that the two are interchangable. I think Lapoint has more potential to become a top pair defenseman, and I see Marto becoming a real role player either at forward or D. His speed is exceptional. At this point in the season it is not about preparing for the future. It is if you're not fighting for a Final five spot and for a #1 seed, but we are. In Hak I will trust for the line-up he puts together. I do think that we see Radke, as it is his last chance to play at REA. We will not win or lose based on Marto or Lapoint or whomever. We will win if every player brings his best tonight.

It also needs to be said that this is probably the last home game ever for the Osh, Chorns and Big Joe. The guys with the NHL talent need to show it tonight. Even at less than 100% health(TJ is clearly hurting), they need to put in their best performances of the year. We aren't going to win many games when the third line is producing the offense. We will win all of our games if we get a performance like friday's from the top line, a performance like Saturday's from the third line, and the same performances out of lines 2 and 4 from both nights. The Osh had one powerplay chance last night that he scores on 99% of the time. If he scores there, the games over. FINISH!

Thanks Bob! Let's get a win tonight 6-0. Pure dominance. I want to see guys bent over on the bench sucking air after EVERY shift.