fightingsioux4life

Our Penalty Kill isn't what it used to be.

So much for that idea! :-( Game tied.

Time for the Penalty Killers to step up.

I think I should have said "Paraphrase" rather than "Quote". But I am glad we are on the same wavelength on this!

This is the first team we've had in several years that gets up and down the ice and creates scoring opportunities. This is the style that carried us to national success in the late 90's and early 2000's and it is good to see it again. As for not having "eye popping" talent like Oshie and Toews, that is not all bad. We have a lot of 2nd, 3rd and 4th round NHL draft picks who will likely stick around longer than high 1st rounders will. This will also force our team to work together and have everyone contribute to the success of our team instead of sitting around and waiting for the Oshie's and Parise's of the world to win games for us. Eidesness has potential in goal and the young defense will come around by about Christmas time and be more consistent. I think this team has potential (barring more injuries) and I will enjoy watching them mature and improve as the season progresses.

I am looking for two tickets to the Saturday, February 14th game vs. MSU-Mankato (7:07pm start time) or the Saturday, February 28th game vs. Colorado College (3:37pm start time). I do not need tickets for Friday, February 13th or Sunday, March 1st. If you have tickets you need to get rid of for one or both of these dates, please respond to this post or e-mail me at siouxhockeyrules@yahoo.com. Any reasonable offer will be acceptable. Thank you.

To quote Goon "Anything less than a sweep this weekend is unacceptable". We have to win games like this at home if we are going to contend for anything in March and April. Split on the road and sweep at home. That is what the best teams do and that is what we must do, "hot goaltender" or otherwise.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: This league is full of good goaltenders. Kangas, Bachman, Zacharaias, ect. Every year there is maybe one or two teams that have goaltending issues and that's about it. If you want to hoist the MacNaughton Cup in early March, if you want to hoist the Broadmoor Trophy in the Xcel Energy Center in mid-March and if you want to contend for the National Championship in April, you have to learn how to score goals on good goaltending. Overall, goaltending has gotten better and better across the board over the past 15-20 years. If we keep using the "hot goaltender" excuse over and over again, it will get in our player's heads and they'll have a mental block to overcome (which is a lot harder than anything else). The Rodents scored 5 goals on Connelly and Minnesota isn't as explosive as they historically have been. Denver also didn't have trouble scoring on the Badgers a couple of weeks back. We had a lot of nice, juicy rebounds last weekend that we didn't take advantage of. Hennessey tried to go into "hot goaltender" mode in his post-game with Hak on Saturday, and Hak wouldn't go there. I have been critical of Hakstol on some things, but I give him credit for not allowing this to become an excuse and a mental millstone around the necks of our players. I think this team has the potential to be something special, but it will take time. A split this weekend would be a solid outcome and I wouldn't be disappointed by it. Prediction: SPLIT Friday: CC 5, UND 2 Saturday: UND 4, CC 2 (ENG) GO SIOUX!!!

It's going to take several years to fix the defense. This is the worst defense we've had in probably 20 years.

Fighting Sioux defense gives up 415 yards of total offense. What a difference three years makes! Next week is going to be a tough one for this team to win.

We are going to run into a lot of "darn good football teams" in DI FCS. Is this what we can expect when we play "darn good fotoball teams"? Are we going to settle for beating below average to average teams? I know we are in our first season of FCS play, but how come I keep thinking that our teams from earlier in this decade would have done better than this? Someone please tell me why this loss shouldn't tick me off?

Final. UC-Davis 34 UND 21 Time to regroup and get ready for Lennon and Southern Illinois.

I would go along with that theory.....except that we struggled against Western Washington last week at home (a Division II team). There have been too many apathetic performances by the defense this season and the previous two seasons to write it off as "Well, we are still a Division II team so it isn't a big deal". This year's defense would have trouble stopping Omaha, Central Washington and who knows how many other ex-NCC teams.

I don't think that is a coincidence at all. Ever since we switched to this "Co-Defensive Coordinator" system, our defenses have been much less effective. I just don't think you can run a defense by committee like that. Also, I think the losses of coaches like Tibesar and Bubba Schweigert have hurt recruiting. Our players look a step slower then they did just three years ago. And I'm talking about both D-II and DI FCS opponents. Something needs to be done and soon.

Agreed. Dale Lennon knows this team better than anyone outside the current UND staff and he'll know how to exploit our weakeness, which are getting worse by the week.

Last year, we gave up over 40 points vs. Western Washington on the road. The defense has been gradually deteriorating since Digger Anderson and company graduated and moved on after the 2005 season. If it doesn't change, we are going to have a rough time of it in DI FCS.

We've stopped ourselves on two drives in this half that should have ended in points. The Aggie defense isn't horrible, but it hasn't been great this season, either. We just haven't cashed in on our opportunities tonight.

J.T. O'Sullivan was the UC-Davis QB in 2001 when the Aggies came to the Alerus Center for a D-II National Semifinal game. UND won the game 14-2 (giving up an intentional safety late in the game). The Sioux D had several goal line stands in that game.

UC-Davis has been giving up points in bunches this season. I don't think their defense is "good" or "solid" by any stretch.

Freund intercepted. Can this get any worse?

At least we can't blame this on the "hot goalie" syndrome!

TD UC-Davis. PAT is good. UC-Davis 31 UND 14 That could do it, ladies and gentlemen.

The Sioux defense is actually outplaying the offense at this point. Hope that can keep up.

Alex Nicholas drops a sure touchdown. Then Hellevang misses a field goal. It doesn't get much worse than this.

INTERCEPTION!!! Fighting Sioux football at the Davis 42. Let's make some hay out of this!