Dustin

Finishing 10-2 would get us in the 4/5 seed range, I would say.

A one loss XDSU team (assuming the one loss is to UND) would still be enough to put them as a higher seed than us, I would think.

Ok, thanks. So 4 regular season games to preserve eligibility.

Did this change recently? In the past I thought the bison were holding out their star freshmen until the playoffs, then played them 4 games, thus preserving their eligibility.

I was thinking this may be setting up a future decoy.

Ok, now I gotcha.

Your definition of “barely beating” is different than mine. I would say they’ve thoroughly dismantled Portland State and Valparaiso.

I’ll be really curious to see how we do against South Dakota on the road. I think the road woes will be officially behind us if we win that one.

To I Ranger's point made right before this post, Berry had a title in '16, but by '17-18 and '18-19 his teams underperformed. Same thing happened after his great '20 team (which would have had a chance at a title), the '22-23 and '24-25 teams underperformed. Say he did win a title in 2020, but all the other seasons played out as they did, he would likely still be coaching here, but I think he would be on a hot seat under a magnifying glass this season. Between the NCAA one-and-dones coupled with missing the NCAA altogether, he would have had to make this season count.

U of M Hockey all-time player list. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/display_players.php?tmi=8634 From what I could tell, of the nearly 700 players, 42 of them have been Americans from outside of Minnesota, and 21 have been Canadians.

Not being from MN, I only have an outsiders perspective, but this was my take as well. And I think the fact that John Mariucci and Doug Woog committed to recruiting Minnesota players reinforced the Minnesota system of development from youth to HS. It's pretty noble, I think, but also leads to insufferable arrogance. Think of how proud UND fans are when there are a lot GF/EGF/ND/NWMinn players on the team. It's also good for local engagement in the program.

Other than one being Canadian and one being American, is there really any difference between the two now that both leagues are eligible to send players to the NCAA?

I suppose Berry could have been headhunted for an NHL job if he had gotten 2 natties in 5 seasons and we could have had Jackson 5 years ago.

Besides Minnesota, what other schools only recruit American players? Air Force and Army, I suppose. I mean, chances are there are going to be at least a few Canadians on whatever team wins the Natty. Not that geography has so much to do with recruiting anymore, but Minneapolis (and Madison) are a lot further from Canadian hockey hotbeds than Grand Forks. Plus, Minneapolis is at the epicenter of its own hockey hotbed, so I think they just got used to recruiting players from around Minnesota, and then it just kept feeding on itself. I respect what they try to do, but I think that model is too outdated in the current landscape of college athletics, especially now with the recent Major Junior decision.

So basically try to win a shootout?

I said a little longer leash, due to a lengthier grace period. The 2019-20 team was great, but Berry still let things get away from him.

Probably a longer leash, maybe one more season. But ultimately, what did happen would have happened. I don’t see how a title in 2020 would have changed anything.

Was going to make this same point about the 19-20 team especially, and to some extent the 20-21 team.

From August 2022: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/und-signs-expansive-television-rights-deal-with-midco-sports "For the first time, it will be covering UND's Missouri Valley Football Conference road games." "The MVFC does allow road teams to bring their broadcast partners unless it's the MVFC Game of the Week, which goes exclusively on an ESPN streaming platform. Every MVFC team is featured on the Game of the Week once per season." "The goal is to telecast as many UND football games as possible, both home and away," the contract reads. Was Northern Iowa game of the week? Is Southern Illinois?

I too thought it was in the contract starting circa 2022 that Midco would broadcast away football games. Maybe that changed when they announced their layoffs??

Exactly. Yes, there are going to be some picture perfect fall days when you lament the game is inside, but in reality you'd only get 1 or 2 games like that every year in Grand Forks.

I feel like there was a lot of people on SS, including myself, that thought KG would be HC at UND (which I guess he still could). Interesting to hear people say he’s not ready. He’s in his mid 40s. He just looks like he’s out of college.

Some natural light in the Alerus would be a huge step up. Nice facility, but lighting is an issue. The other gripe about the Alerus center is that the field is so ugly. It doesn't help that I dislike the hawk logo, but when you add all the other adverts it just looks like cluster-f. I will watch an SDSU football game just to admire their field. Wish we could do something like that, but I am guessing the Al wants the ad revenue.

even if you did, they put stuff on their streaming app that isn't on TV, which is a crying shame, because on TV during that time they are showing reruns of hockey and football games.

This is exactly why Wisconsin is important to college hockey.