jk

Agreed. Thanks very much.

This looks to be a series for the ages. There appears to be a difference of opinion about this, but I personally feel that MN is completely back to where they want to be. To allow one goal in six periods to CC on the road, then shut out MSUM, tells me their defense and goaltending have solidified. They're scoring goals again, and they've only lost one game in more than two months. Here is the key point of interest for me: Both of these teams have been clearly better than their opponents for quite some time now. The last opponent the Sioux played that could stay with them was BC. The last team MN played that was clearly better than them was UND. Even though they subsequently struggled with Wisco and BU, you could tell watching those games who the better team was. For both teams (think about MN's results since they got healthy), each weekend has been a matter of mopping up the weaker opponent. There have been struggles here and there with effort or hot opposing goaltenders, but for the most part, if they came to play, they won. So how will each team play when it faces an equal, an opponent who can pour on the pressure just as well as the team itself? That is the key for me. MN is very good now... just as good as UND, IMO. What a great, great weekend of hockey we have ahead of us. In re-reading this, it may appear that I didn't give enough respect to the Sioux. At this point, the strength of this team goes without saying, IMO. So I didn't bother saying it.

Was just going to post that Hennessy makes it sound like ZPar is playing an incredible series. (then he scored) I wonder how much his knee was bothering him in the first half. He sounds like he has much more of a presence now. A good sign.

I noticed that Lammy had a few rough outings after his return from the holiday tournaments, but it looks like he was in fine form last night. Lincoln beat Tri-City 1-0, with Lammy recording 45 saves on 45 shots. That's a goaltender stealing a game.

The list doesn't reflect which round a player will be taken in, because it only inlcudes North American skaters. If North American goalies and Europeans were included, these guys would be farther down the list. Even so, really nice showing for some of these guys (especially the Sioux ones).

SSM has updated their stats page. Ryan Duncan is the top scorer with 46-44-90 in 45 games. There are quite a few sophomores and juniors among the top scorers. http://www.s-sm.org/Athletics/Statistics.aspx?TeamId=18

Regarding mikejm's report on the ACT issue, if this is in fact well on the way to implementation, we need to seriously correspond with the administration about its detrimental effects on athletics. Having a strong university is about much more than athletics, and I'm not opposed to good academic standards in general, but poorly performing athletic teams garner less interest, and less money, which undermines the university's strength.

Thanks, taz. I agree with a lot of your post. The old REA had 30 years to build memories. I think the new REA will still be here in 50 years and will be a beautiful fixture on campus.

The Sioux travel to Houghton for a pair. If UND had swept UAA last week, I could accept less than four points out of this weekend. However, having given a point up to UAA, I think they need to go get that point back with a road sweep. Winning on the road is difficult, but to be #1 and win the WCHA, this is the kind of weekend the Sioux need to sweep. On the Fargo recap (thanks, btw), the fourth line is listed as Lundbohm, Massen and Prpich. This surprises me only in that I was expecting to see McMahon, Prpich and Fylling reunited to check Conner's line. So now who checks that line? I would guess McMahon, Canady and Fylling. If those are the "lower" lines ... well, talk about just rolling four lines. One other thing: the Sioux owe MTU for Saturday night at the REA last year, probably the team's worst effort of the season, and the start the late-season slide.

Bartholomay committed to Nebraska-Omaha last week.

This is now updated through 19 games. This is how UND's and its opponents' scoring breaks down this year (UND's scoring listed first): 5x3 3-0 (When UND has the 5x3 advantage, it has outscored its opponent 3-0.) 5x4 9-3 5x5 69-28 4x4 7-0 4x5 2-12 3x5 0-1 6x5 1-0 (extra attacker goal) 5x6 3-0 (empty net goal) Total 94-44 I'm going to go on record with my opinion that the PP is improving, even though the numbers don't yet show it much. At least it's not the train wreck to watch that it was earlier in the season.

UND 43 UMD 35 UMN 35 UW 32 SCSU 31 CC 26 Denver 25 AA 20 Mankato 18 MTech 15

Dan Brooks saw a screening of the movie. This is from the Pioneer Press: ------------------------------ "The movie is awesome. People were cheering in the theater. Kurt Russell is the movie; he is absolutely phenomenal. His portrayal of my dad is uncanny; he portrays my dad as a little softer and gentler than he really was. But he looks like him, has his mannerisms and all his sayings. He must have really researched him and watched a lot of tape. I know he spent a lot of time talking to my dad. It was very emotional watching." Herb Brooks died at age 66 last August in a one-car accident just north of the Twin Cities. Danny Brooks said he got chills watching the film. "People who knew my dad are going to eat this up," he said. "There will be absolute puddles from watching this movie."

Did there happen to be a lot of pretty college girls left in line when the boys asked to stay?

TC transplant, You seem to get away with a lot here; your one-liners fly under the radar. Poor WPOS takes all the flack.

CRR, FWIW: I was the one who jumped on you about Goren, and I think I was just having a bad day or something because, in retrospect, you were just calling it as you saw it, which is fine.

The people defending Zudnic (the USCHO poster) aren't arguing against Zach. My personal opinion is that his post, both in premise and wording, is not offensive or flaming. It's an honest question from a very good college hockey fan, who calls it as he sees it. As an observer, he's much less of a homer than about 80% of the internet fans out there, including those on this board. I've never met him, but I've read a lot of his stuff over the last few years, and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

http://www.adn.com/sports/story/4596125p-4565753c.html Article on Wes Dorey, which happened to be right below the one on Fournier's return.

amn5hol, Thanks for the heads-up, and for the regular contributions here on Lincoln matters.

Looks like Sauer is thinking along the same lines as Zach (from INCH): "It won't get the headlines that the 1980 gold medal Olympic victory in Lake Placid got, but the gold medal in Helsinki ranks up there with one of the great moments in U.S. hockey history."

UND had teams from 1997-2000 that were outstanding. This version has a chance to be of that calibre. MN's teams during that period were not nearly as good as this one; it's not even close. Those matchups heavily favored UND, but they couldn't sweep in Minneapolis. I'm not saying this MN team is dominant; they have been up-and-down, with a much wider range of performance than most teams display. Their "downs" have been putrid (Maine), but the "ups" (Michigan, putting 50 shots on UNH) have shown that they are right with the best teams when they are on their game. Yuck. I feel dirty from talking up MN. I will be cheering for a Sioux sweep. I just think we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Agreed. How does that go? counting chickens... Let's just enjoy the ride.

Thinking about the lines for this weekend. I think I would announce a first line of: Parise, Murray, Stafford ... and let the cheers rain down on them. Then I would go with: Genoway, Bochenski, Fylling McMahon, Prpich, Canady Lundbohm, Porter, Hale That would leave these guys out: Palmiscno, Massen, Marvin, Fabian ... which is hard to do. The controversial choices would seem to be Canady and Hale. It sounded to me like Canady definitely earned his spot with solid and improving play over the last two weekends. Plus, he seems a good stylistic fit with the McMahon-Prpich combo. Hale stepped up his play in the holiday tourney, but I can't say how he looked against SCSU. Maybe other observers could help there.

Most reviews had the Sioux pretty sharp last night, after waking up. I have just listened here and there tonight, but it sounds like the Sioux PP has been not dangerous, then the PP ends and the Sioux promptly move the puck into SC's zone and forecheck well.

Finland-Russia 1-1 in the first. I don't relish the thought of having to beat Russia twice in the same tournament, and playing Finland in front of thousands of enthusiastic Finns sounds tough also. However, this game looks to end about 16 hours before the winner will have to take the ice against a rested USA team. This is a real opportunity for the US to advance to the gold medal game.