Johnny Five

That's going to be an interesting game to follow as is North and Red River. Curious how those turn out after North and WF trips west last weekend. Also curious to see what kind of run Mandan can give Minot out west. 9 games on the boys side on Tuesday, busy night. 5 games on the girls side that night as well.

Couple more good games out west today. Legacy over WF 4-3 in OT. Mattern is definitely explosive. North over Mandan 3-2. Went to both games, both were basically even on game play. Mandan showed they outshot North by a bit but I felt North had a slight edge in possession.

2 entertaining games at the VFW in Bismarck last night. WF over Century 7-5, North over Legacy 3-2. Fun night at the rink, people got their money's worth. There was a nice old school scrum at the end of the North/Legacy with 11 seconds left game too. Veteran move by the officials...took one guy from each side and called it a day.

On the girls side I think my "on paper" thoughts were off. I thought there would be more separation this year than there has been the past few seasons. And then they drop the puck and play some games...I think it's going to be another meatgrinder all the way to the final game again, and that makes for a really fun season.

Thies is a brick sh*thouse to bring down. Super impressive.

Seedings were done to a tee between the 3 teams. Head to head gets tossed out, the D2s were the obvious deciding factor. Like it or not we all knew that going into the season. That being said, I think SDSU will come out of that side of the bracket.

Games of interest coming up this weekend, before the chaos starts... Girls Friday: CHS at EGF - non con, Mandan at L/B, North at GF Knights. Saturday: L/B at EFG - non con Boys South travels to Mandan Friday and BHS on Saturday.

Avery Matt from CHS girls announces D1 commitment to Holy Cross. Matt joins Brenna Curl (CHS to Maine - 24 grad) and Kenleigh Fischer (North and committed to St. Thomas - 26 grad) as girls who stayed home. Hopefully that's another trend that continues for girls hockey as there is a lot of upcoming talent within the borders.

The ultimate connundrum. Send your kid away early and give up having them in the house as teenagers? I mean sometimes I'd love to kick my kids outta the f'ing house...but then you send them to college and you wish they were around more often. I think there's 3-4 families from Bismarck who sent their FR kids away before they even played a single HS game. To me, that's nuts. If a kid comes in and dominates HS hockey, now then you have something to consider for your SR season. We always hear about "playing up" and increasing the competition. But then rewind back to mites, peewees, squirts and we teach kids and families to play where you have the puck on your stick more often. Seems to be contradictory in itself. I'm glad Mattern made it. I think that sends a fantastic message. Play in ND, stay home with your friends and family, take advantage of off season programs and activites. You don't need to leave to make it. Trust me on that one, a good friend of mine from freaking Hallock has 2 boys playing for Augie that stayed start to finish...and their schedule isn't exactly murderer's row. From my personal experience, the kids that "make it" could've made it from home. Harper Bentz left Bismarck for Moorhead. You could tell in Mites that kid was different. Max Vig, you could tell from a young age he had something special. And there's plenty of others. Honestly, there's a right and a wrong for each family and we've seen it work and seen it not work. At the end of the day, everyone has to make a decision they feel is best for their family. It's unfortunate that in this day and age with video and off season opportunities, the label still exists.

He is on the Aviators line charts for games.

Bobcats

Morelli will be a magi. They did lose Haaland to Northstar but Minot will be capable of taking a Thursday night game at State.

Seeger went out east to some AAA program. Defenseman Schultz to the Shattuck 16U team.

2024 regular season starts tomorrow. Who you got in the east? West is Minot. They may run through the WDA undefeated. After them, a lot of question marks. Girls is Fargo North. They have the best player in the state, and until someone knocks them off, that's who it's going to be. I expect both Bismarck teams to be pretty tough - both graduated a couple but both will gain solid FR. Grand Forks probably has the best goalie in the state, however they did lose 2 of their better players to other opportunities. New coach in Mandan and they lost a pile of SRs so there's a lot of change there, DL replacing 2 absolute studs, Minot graduated Ackerman in the pipes, WF graduated Seeley, Jamestown graduated Sorlie....gonna be an interesting season.

As a Bison fan I feel this is the first report of the years that actually comes with some merit. That being said, I think the best part about college sports are regional rivalries. Some call that small minded, but it's just a fact....you beat a team you get to (hopefully with humor and respect lol) carry it into your co-workers face for a year, and it makes it more fun. College sports for many reason$$$ is in some wild times.

And they just beat the "best" team in the conference last week...any FCS fan wanting to get into that league is drunk. NDSU or any Dakota School wouldn't draw the UND or SDSU crowd (tailgate, atmosphere, etc) with any of those teams.

CUSA is so bad. The Dakota schools would walk in there and be at the top of the league and those weekday games would be absolute killers.

KOC definitely seems to struggle at in game adjustments. Fast out of the gate, then they constantly get outplayed. The defensive pressure was abysmal.

Grey Zabel was offered "life changing money" according to reports from the Fargo Forum. Izzo and Kolpack/McFeeley also talked about it on the podcast in the off-season. Decided to stay and play with his brother.

The ball came out of possession. At the end of the play a Jackrabbit player standing in the end zone picked the ball up because it rolled to his feet. ESPN did an awful job of rolling the review on that one. I had to rewind and watch myself, but also explains why the SDSU receiver didn't object. I don't think the officiating affected the outcome of that game whatsoever. Biggest question mark to me was the NDSU player on the punt catch by SDSU, but when the play rolled out live it looked like the NDSU player got shoved in the back into the punt receiver. Another situation where ESPN didn't do a great job of rolling the full replay. It was a defensive slugfest. Kind of old school, ugly football. Both are beatable teams on the right day, that's pretty clear.

Also Kenleigh Fischer from Fargo North committed to St. Thomas about a month ago. What I like to see is that a girl didn't feel the need to leave the state in order to accomplish what she wanted to accomplish.

Mattern from WF Packers commits to Arizone State. When is the last time a ND kid committed D1 right from HS with no Juniors experience?

Pretty cool tidbit regarding this game...brothers Hayden and Tyler Hennen from Hallock will be playing. The first a defenseman who spent time in Calgary Flames camp this past summer, the latter a forward who is a rookie. Their family, long time UND Hockey season ticket holders. There will be around 300 with Hallock ties there to watch the brothers, many of whom are also long time UND fans.

I have a feeling Motzko was told by Pitlick he was signing. Bob was on KFAN during the state fair and essentially said that. I don't have the exact quotes but it lead me to believe he was going pro.

I'm the most pessimistic SKOL fan of all time but holy balls is this impressive. The defense is fast and deep. And Sam freaking Darnold? Wow.