as15

Guarantee? What if the Big 10 Tourney isn't in St. Paul? Do you guarantee a sell out if the game is in Chicago or Detroit? Probably not.

The pairwise is so volatile right now, if you look at this weekend, if Denver-UM and Miami-UAH would've split instead of one team sweeping, UND would have been in the 12-9 range in the pairwise, instead we are sitting at 16. Its hard to say definitevely what needs to happen in each series for UND to move up. The Gophers winning would help us, but the results of two other games could total nullify that and take away all of the positive gained from the Gopher win. The best thing for UND is just keep winning.

He is talking about WCHA standings, not rankings. If the Gopher's would have swept Denver, and UND swept UMD, then UND would have surpassed Denver in the WCHA standings. Same for next week, BSU is only 3 points behind UND, so the Gopher's need to win to ensure that they stay behind us in the standings if we don't win.

I totally agree with you, Rau's hit isn't that bad. Just curious I can only remember one dirty hit by Frattin, the one on Wehrs, what was the other one? Not trying to stir anything up I just am drawing a blank on it.

What makes it great is that the commentators either know alot about college hockey, like Starman, or they put the effort into learning the traditions/histories as well as the background on the players for each individual program.

Every time FSN is in town broadcasting the Sioux-Gopher games, so at most for one series a year. Final Five games are in HD as well.

Its hard not to like the only ESPN anchor that cares about hockey.

Buccigross is doing the commentary for this game?

Anyone else having trouble getting the B2 feed to work?

He will be a very effective player in the NHL due to his size and speed even if he doesn't produce offensively, but he has the potential to possibly be a first line center.

The guy has a massive man crush on Danny Kristo as well. He will have his worst game of the year Friday but Starman will still say he is the best player on the ice.

Not that many but enough that are high-end NHL prospects. The problem is that the Mr. Hockey winner is essentially the highest rated NHL draft prospect in the state of Minnesota. A guy like T.J. Oshie was a finalist for the award but did not win it because he was not considered the top prospect.

Its weird how in the last 10 years or so, no forward that has won Mr. Hockey has gone on to play in the NHL, I'm with you on there is a risk factor with Bjugstad on how much impact he will have in the NHL, but of all the player's in NCAA hockey, I would say he is one of the surest bets to make the NHL fulltime in some capacity. I'm just not sure if it will be as a top-6 scorer or not.

He is, has only played in half of the games, listed as the 6th/7th dman.

I totally agree with this

Each conference that has at least 6 teams gets one automatic bid for the NCAA tournament, the rest of the field will be filled out with at-large bids. So the NCHC will have one automatic bid, just like that WCHA has one right now so it will be no different in that regard. Don't quote me on this but the NCAA can't suspend us from postseason play, we just can't wear Sioux jersey's or be able to host an NCAA sanctioned event, such as Women's Frozen Four, Men's regional etc., if we use the Sioux nickname. In terms of hockey, using the nickname is not a big deal because the NCAA has gone away from on campus regional sites to neutral sites (stupid in my opinion) so the chances UND would get a regional would have been slim anyway.

Just a heads up too, park on the street by the large cathedral which is up the hill from the X, parking is free and I have never had a problem getting a spot after looking for a few minutes.

Comfort Inn St. Paul is fairly close, less than a 10 min drive. Not the nicest, but is safe, has a bar/restaurant and a pool. Probably runs around $70 a night. I once stayed at the LivInn in Maplewood, pretty sketchy and gross but it is about 5 mins from the X and cost us around $30 a night, worst hotel I have ever stayed in but if you are feeling adventurous do it up.

Will Rocco be eligible for Rookie of the Year next year? If he applies for a medical redshirt, which I think he will even though he will never use all of his eligibility, he will be listed as a freshman eligibility wise? Does this make him eligible for that award even though he will be a second year player?

Thanks, I did not know that. Does anyone know if he plans on playing for them again after his HS season ends? Great player, just needs to get used to the more physical game in college hockey and a year in the USHL should do that for him.

I agree, even players with multiple years of Junior hockey play have a transition time. Take this year for example, Mark MacMillan and Seth Ambroz stepped into college hockey with multiple years Junior experience and, in my opinion, haven't produced as much as I thought they would. Imagine where they would be at if they had been playing in HS hockey last year instead of Junior?

It seems they are starting to move away from that philosophy, look at this year's freshman class, every single one of them played at a level higher than high school for at least one year with the exception of Rau, and he played in the playoff's for Sioux Falls and showed he didn't need a year of Junior. Same goes for next year as well, all the incoming recruits will have played at a level higher than High School with the exception of Kloos who, if I remember right, isn't a guarantee to come next year?

I don't think it really matters when you turn 18 your senior year of high school, the fact of the matter is that any player that can play their Senior year of high school (Toews, Finley, SImpson) is very impressive. It is very rare for a freshman to not play Juniors before playing college hockey let alone come in a year before he even graduates.

He is 17 right now, but iluvdebbies is right, that would make him 18 at the start of the 2012-2013 season. Most students turn 18 during their senior year of high school, he would be during his freshman year of college, which would be next year, so he did accelerate.

3 drafted, scholarship players out for the year. Bad karma?