mattim

Mankato has been under rated all year! We don’t want to face Denver or Duluth in a regional, but I would be more afraid of Mankato than any of the other teams in college hockey! Not sure what their SOS is, but they just keep winning, maybe Bemidji can hang one on them before the final pairwise ranking.

Speaking of diving, Perunovich left the ice the Saturday game a couple of weeks ago agains Duluth and I thought they might have to amputate his whole arm the way he acted leaving the ice and going directly to the dressing room, and then he came back out and finished the game. Did I see that transpire that way or did I miss something? I’ve always liked Sandy, but if that is how he coaches, I’m losing that respect. If I coached I would be embarrassed to have my players act that way! 1a. Duluth 1b. Minnesota (they are less hated by me since Don left!)

I have Lawson Arena game on my bucket list. I have this respect for the fans hatred for the team from Western!

I’ve never been a goalie and I have a couple of friends who were, I’ve never been close with an elite goalie. All I know about them is that they can be in a world by themselves. UND is fortunate to not only have two really, really good goalies, but we also have arguably one of the be best goalie coaches in hockey, not only college hockey but hockey. Karl will be a head coach some day and could jump up a level in that position during his career. Saying he is that good may be my homer bias, but he is good. His knowledge and input will be and has been huge for this team. It will be important for the remainder of this season and next year that we keep both goalies at the top of their games. In my opinion they must both play in games from here on out, not saying every other game, but they must both play and not in a way where they wait for one to fail before they bring the other guy in. In my opinion Thome played his way into another start, whether it is tonight or next week that should be up to Karl and Berry!

I agree with your comment about Jake! I am biased, we’ve known Jake since his high school days. He is a genuine good guy, he speaks in the common mans vocabulary and he knows hockey. He grew up playing the game and you can tell by his enthusiasm that he loves the game. I feel that he and Alex make a good combination and we are spoiled by having such good color and play-by-play crew to listen to. They are homers, but not to such an extent that they become obnoxious like many other local radio and tv coverage crews. As much as I like Tim, I am not tempted to listen to him over Jake and Alex. We listen to TIm‘ s pregame, between periods and post game.

NCHC.tv tv

That was my reaction too! You wonder about the person who wrote this article, they certainly have no credibility. I don’t know much about the other schools who were mentioned, Lawson is a credible example but does anyone else know about some of the others?

I agree that Thome deserves some starts and would be good to see two goalies battle one another for ice time. If all defensemen stay healthy Johnny, Frisch and Bast may have to rotate or share some duties each weekend, they are each capable and bring something to the team.

For those of you who were there, what was the proportion of Sioux vs Dogs fans?

How did we avoid that usual broadcast crew from Duluth? Their usual play by play guy is the absolute worst homer I’ve ever heard!

Good!

It is a god problem for the coaching staff to have. No matter what they have to sit one or two excellent defensemen, Johnny may play tomorrow and Frisch may sit! They must have decided they need an extra forward more than an extra D and Casey can play heavy which might also be needed. It is a series where an injury or ejection could happen and it’s easier to play five D then to play short up front.

Hulu or TV Everywhere

D men seem to stay in college longer than forwards if they are high draft picks. Also, he is young, he is expediting HS classes so he can come next year. My uneducated guess, 3 or 4 years. With his youth, family support, the confidence his family has in the program and the type of training he will get in Grand Forks he will be ready to step right in with the team who drafts him after 4 years! His dad will convince him that four years at UND is better than leaving early, unless he is ready early to step right in to the big team!

Extra skater will be a D man

Wrong place but did not know where else to ask. Is game tonight vs USA 18’s on any tv or stream?

I think picking one over the other to be a difficult decision. Each contribute something to their team. Making all the other comparisons from last years to this years team, they improved in every other situation (Frisch for Shaw, Blaisdell for Hoff, Caufield for JJ, Pinto for Gardner) and stayed close to even after losing Jones with the Michaud pickup. Michaud said he chose UND because he wanted to help bring #9, he had the choice to go to any team in the country. I’m guessing he did his research and saw something special!

There were questions, after the last two seasons, about how good this years team would be. The preseason experts had us 5th in the NCHC and not in the top 16 nationally. When you compare the line up this year to last, it is easy to see that this years team is better, but the surprise is that the level of improvement is so great. I think we all would agree that last years team was a little better than it’s record indicates. UND was playing well at the end of last season and if it had made it in to the NCAA’s would have been THE team no one wanted to play. Defensively 7 of 8 returned and you would expect that each returning player would improve from one year to another. I feel that Frisch is a positive for the team as the only new defensemen who replaced Shaw. With a healthy Bast, or with 8 healthy defensemen, it will be interesting to see who will dress. Offensively again all returnees improved from last year as you would expect. But the replacements have been much better than the people they have replaced, in my opinion. Blaisdell better than JJ, Caufield better than Hoff, Michaud better than Jones (although Jones is the most missed offensive player from last year) and Pinto has helped the team more than Gardner ever did. Gardner was a great face off man, but he was not consistent doing anything else for the team. Getting a healthy Scheel back has obviously been positive. In my opinion, the team’s success is not as surprising as it would seem. Hope they continue to excel! Go Sioux! Does Thome get a game on the 28th? I hope so and also that Albrecht would see some time.

Since Denver is the HOST, they will be in Loveland no matter where they are seeded. If Both UND and Mankato are #1 seeds and Denver is not a #1 seed, the higher ranked of the other two will go to CO, I think!

Using “What If” calculator, if the Sioux only split/get 3 point each series their remaining conference games, I could not find a scenario where they would finish lower than 3rd in the conference. Assuming they do better than split, they will have home ice and be a #1 or #2 seed in March. Let’s just hope they stay healthy. As well as they are playing, they have excellent healthy scratches each series so they can handle a couple short term injuries, just none of those season ending ones. I’d like to see Thome on December 28. They’ll need to replace Pinto and JDB for that one too. Any chance Albrecht will see the ice this year?

Big ice works in their favor, they both play and practice on it, we don’t. They are young and not as physical so they have more room to run. We should win two, but I expect a split. I want the sweep, but this one will be difficult.

The obvious would be more experience and good new players. But it comes down to what Karl Goehring brings to the bench compared to who he replaced being the biggest difference!

Definitely! Karl will be a head coach somewhere before long. He is a very smart guy who knows the game! If Berry leaves for some reason, I vote Karl for head coach.

Smith is/was as unheralded as they come, not much expected of him when he arrived on campus. Senden, same thing. Bowen, some have questioned his place on this team, Reiger too. This current team is a culmination of some studs who were expected to produce and some who were not. The entire lineup on the ice both nights all contributed and made plays, many of which were unnoticed by the common fan. We can question the coaches all we want, but they’re looking quite intelligent today.

MIDCO carrying game tonight, does that mean that Eric Heinert and Jake will do the game?