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I don't think Voltin was slated to come in this year. I would think that if he wasn't going the college route, he would have gone to Canada right after he left the NTDP. LaDue and Stecher should be every night guys right away as freshman. They are both offensive defenseman with a lot of experience at the Junior level. Tambellini will probably be our highest drafted recruit coming in, a 6'4 goal scoring power forward. He could be a very good player here. Luke Johnson and Wade Murphy should contribute right away. Murphy has put up huge numbers in the BCHL for a few years now, and Johnson will contribute right away. I don't think any player will have a monster freshman season, but I think all 5 of those players just mentioned will be every night players from the get go, and who knows maybe one will jump out and surprise us.

I think Luke Johnson and Adam Tambellini should be immediate contributor's as well next year.

Absolutely agree. All three shoulvd've taken the next step up, Parks and Rowney, for sure, regressed this year.

Yale's goaltending was the least of our problems today. We played horribly, plain and simple, we honestly did not even deserve to be in this game. We are extremely fortunate to have a lead as long as we did.

-Probably not the top, but up there -I say yes, if not we are in trouble -Nope -Never -Hopefully not, maybe Forbort -The Sioux channel will be more blurry

50 bucks says he is right back out for the PP.

I agree with you that Mitch doesn't provide a whole lot. Maybe Chyzyk will be energized like Caggiula was after sitting for a while.

Chyzyk? WTF?

Yep, my video quality is 1 bar out of 5 right now, hasn't changed yet.

Dave Starman's analysis of UND from uscho.com: North Dakota • Depth, great bottom six, toughest team in the tournament • Elite first line and top defense pair • Well coached and high compete level • Achilles’ heel: Scoring can go dry at times Good analysis, except the first bullet. I really hope this isn't the toughest team in the tournament, this is is the least tough UND team in years. Our depth is solid, but our high end depth at forward is lacking this year.

Now that the Big 10 has a hockey conference, will a team like Ohio State be more serious about its program? They have always been a Big 10 school, so why would they allowed "member schools from a conference of nobody schools" to dominate them before? The Big 10 hockey conference will add something to each of their respective teams programs, no disputing that, but does having a Big 10 hockey conference add anything collectively to the school as a whole? Are they going to "care" more now that they are under the Big 10 label? I don't see how that makes sense, a Big 10 school should want to be superior to "nobody schools" no matter if they compete under the Big 10 label or not.

I just have a feeling Rocco is going to absolutely go off this weekend.

I think after the way he played the last two games, Caggiula needs Top-9 playing time for sure, and maybe even Top-6 time. Maybe play him with Kristo and Knight? That is one combination that hasn't been tried much this year.

I have no problem with that though. Hakstol has said himself, if a player is ready to leave early, he will tell him so.

We can only fully admit that several UND players (former and current) have had run-ins with the law while at school. These "kids" are growing up at college, just like every other student does. They go through some growing pains, hit a few bumps in the road, but you rarely hear about these guys screwing up once they get to the NHL. The same will probably happen to Kristo. When Jonny Toews got in trouble here for being in a bar as an underager, I'm sure some people were saying he had "character issues" too.

Seeing as no part of my post was written in anger? When do I state that I am mad? The whole post illustrates my thoughts on the selections and my predictions on how it will play out.

First of all, Haula got absolutely snubbed, he deserves to be there. I honestly think it will be very easy to predict the top 3. I think the goalies can be eliminated right off the bat, I would expect there numbers to go down in the NCAA tournament anyway. Czarnik has no really no chance. His team is good, but his numbers aren't there. I really don't think he deserves to be on this list. The St. Lawrence guys have good numbers, but not good enough to account for playing in the ECAC. Plus they won't make the NCAA tournament. Same thing for Walters, good numbers, but his team is out of the NCAA tournament so I would guess he is out as well. That leaves Knight, Kristo, LeBlanc, and Gaudreau. All four have a very good shot at this award. I honestly think the front runner is Kristo. Gaudreau has good numbers, but not substantially better than the other 3. He is also an underclassmen, and they rarely win this award. After this weekend, Kristo could have a better points-per-game average than Gaudreau. LeBlanc doesn't have many goals, but is without a doubt, the leader of the WCHA champs. I think this is the year that voters will vote for the storyline or background of the player, kind of like a few years ago when Geoffrion won it. He won it despite being the 4th leading scorer on his own team (4-year player, senior captain, goal scorer). LeBlanc coming back for his fifth year using a medical redshirt. Gaudreau being the star of the gold medal winning Team USA. Knight being such a good two way player, and character guy. Kristo, a legitimate pro prospect and star since he came to UND, stayed all four years when no one thought he would. This doesn't happen very often anymore, so hopefully he is rewarded for it this year.

Lets see if our two Hobey Finalists can lead us to victory tonight!!! Congrats to Danny and Corban!

Or Pattyn, but Hakstol seems to like what he brings as a 4th line center. After how Caggiula played on Sunday, I would expect he will be in the lineup the rest of the year.

Yes, technically the U of M represents the whole state of Minnesota. But being from Bemidji, I can say that the town associates with Bemidji State, not with the U. If asked, no one from there would ever say it was represented by the U of M, they would say BSU. Most major towns in Minnesota have a college or university, and I would guess that most of them have the same attitude towards its local institution as Bemidji does. However, I would agree with that the U represents the whole state of Minnesota, sans the communities with a local university or college (non-technical or community). I don't think anyone on this board would say that North Dakota is represented by just UND, its pretty obvious that it would be represented by NDSU as well. I know its not totally relevant to the other topic because UND and NDSU are schools of similar size and academic caliber and the U of M is far and away the state's largest and best institution of higher learning, but it is a good example nonetheless.

I was glancing at the USCHO board at a topic about attendance and ticket prices for the Hockey East tourney. They are mentioning that attendance is down because the $15 ticket price is scaring fans away. All of the WCHA posters, including myself, are absolutely flabbergasted at the price of their tickets.

Just by watching how hard the guys played in front of Maris shows how much they care about him. There was one instance with about 3 minutes left where a Tech player had the puck in the high slot, the forward was a bit out of position so Dillon Simpson comes flying out to block the shot. With a 6-0 lead he lays out and does everything he can in order to block the shot. The shot ended up being deflected, but what Simpson did doesn't happen with a 6-0 lead. They wanted to get the shutout for Saunders, as well as for Tate. It really impressed me.

No kidding, its basically him or Pattyn for worst skater on the team. Simpson is good, but best offensive defenseman since Hale? Did you miss Genoway's five years here? Which Hale? I hope its not David Hale, who had a career high of 9 points at UND.

Kristo is UND's nominee for WCHA POY, the Hobey vote is basically meaningless, both Knight and Kristo are up for the Hobey.

I really like the LaDue and Stecher tandem coming in next year. It will be two 20+ year old freshman with three years of junior experience. They will be battle tested, and ready to contribute right away. Each one is arguably the best defenseman in his respective league.