jk

Speez, It's funny, at this point, there's not much reason to be very optimistic about next year, at least on paper. But for some reason I am. I think all of the upperclass forwards (Spiewak, Notermann, Hale and Lundbohm) will have the best years of their careers to-date. I think some of the big sophomore group will really step up, maybe even some guys people don't expect. And none of the new forwards are "new" in the ordinary sense. Hopefully Parise's talent puts him a step ahead of the average freshman, Genoway has already adjusted to school and has practiced for a year, and Fylling also knows the drill. So there will be no struggling freshmen next year up front. Expecting a solid defensive corps next year requires a bit of a leap of faith - faith that the returning guys will all continue to develop. The goaltenders may look a bit better with a better team in front of them. Most of all, though, my hope comes from how good the team looked when they played well. They just need to play well all the time now. Two very good upperclass forwards are gone from last year. Two decent to very good, depending on when you saw them, senior defensemen are gone from last year. One mediocre to very good, depending on the part of the season, senior goaltender is gone from last year. However, also gone from last year are: Adjustment to a brand new rink. Baptism by fire for a bunch of freshmen, especially at defense. I like the Sioux's chances next year.

Yeah, Goon, I think dagies and I are in that age group as well. Must be why we're all so darn reasonable.

Wow. Great game. The Gophers are a great team and are deserving champions, but I thought they got outplayed for a big part of that game (mainly the second and third periods). I was shocked to see that. They won't admit it or care because they won, but to get the PP when everything had been let go was a huge break. Then to not have a penalty called on Hauser on a much more blatant play was another huge break. The Maine fans are probably too classy to complain about it, but it really was a lousy way for a great game to end. Also Taffe only getting two for almost killing the guy along the boards. I'm happy for some fans, and some players (Leo, Pohl, some others), and really not happy for those hacks Hauser and Taffe.

And SSM beat the East Mass. Senators 5-2 in Saturday's morning quarterfinal. They advance to play Wisconsin in Saturday night's semifinal. No stats available yet (to me anyway).

Leo wins the Hobey. Of course I don't necessarily like it when good things happen for the Gophers. However, this is one that I have no complaint about. Actually, that's wrong - I can complain that he was even back with the team this year instead of moving on. But, in terms of seeming like a high-character guy, he reminds me of Jeff Panzer quite a lot. A very deserving winner. Congrats to Mr. Leopold.

Providence also. I thought UNH was supposed to be there, but I must have been mistaken.

Miscellaneous thoughts from Thursday: Strongest feeling from the day: The X is a dump. REA is truly the finest hockey arena in the world. I had not been to the X since last year; in the interim, I attended five Sioux games at REA. Now that I've returned to the X, knowing that it is considered in the top handful of NHL rinks, my feelings about REA are even warmer than before. I saw Blais in the concourse just before the Gopher game, but he was visiting with someone, so I didn't stop to say hello. He appeared to be in good spirits. Even though Maine poured it on in the third, I can't say I was impressed with either HE team. The Sioux that we saw go toe-to-toe with MN at the end of the year could have handled either team. The Rodents' puck possession game was very good; they look tough to beat. Still, Michigan did get their chances, and Hauser made some big stops (at least in the first 54 minutes). Leopold and Pohl both showed up and played great in this big game. I also thought Koalska looked very good and will be a real factor in the future. Sorry I missed meeting up with you Sioux fans. Maybe next time.

Selected SSM players stats: Game 2 Total Hirsch 0-1-1 3-3-6 Murray 1-1-2 2-4-6 Parise 0-2-2 0-7-7 Porter 0-2-2 1-3-4

SSM beat the Pittsburg Hornets 7-4 in its first game.

Bumped into this story from December on a USAHockey site. Very complimentary of UND's returning forward. ---------------------------------- Fylling toast of prospects event By Ken Welsch Special to USAHockey.com PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- For a good number of the scouts in the stands at the USA Hockey Top Prospects Tournament earlier this week, the top prospect on the ice was off-limits. Much to their dismay. College scouts from some of the nation's elite NCAA programs had to try and ignore the play of United States Hockey League forward Quinn Fylling, who already has a year of collegiate hockey play under his belt at the University of North Dakota. Fylling, who plays for the Sioux Falls Stampede, scored four goals and had three assists in 42 games with the Fighting Sioux last season, and gained NCAA championship game experience as UND finished runner-up. Having seen that level of action, it's little wonder that Fylling is tearing up the ice in the United States Hockey League, and he put his skills on exhibit during the Top Prospects Tournament at Compuware Arena in suburban Detroit Dec. 3 through 5. In the three-game tournament, Fylling scored four goals with seven assists to lead the USHL to a 3-0 record. He opened the tournament in grand style, scoring a hat trick in his team's 9-0 win over Team Top Prospects, and added an assist for good measure. Not bad, considering he entered the game unsure about his health. "I was telling my teammates before the game that I felt run-down," Fylling said. "I didn't feel good at all." The buzz around Compuware was that if anybody on the ice would one day be playing in the NHL, it's Fylling. And if that comes true, Fylling will again be taking his game outside of the Dakotas. A native of Minot, N.D., Fylling stayed home when he chose to play at UND. His USHL days have taken him a short drive to the south, but many believe that much further travel awaits his hockey future. Prior to college, the 5-foot, 10-inch, 180-pound forward took his game to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he honed his skills as a member of the U.S. National Development Team. The 19-year-old, (who'll turn 20 in January), returned home to UND after playing in Michigan, and his acceleration through hockey's ranks doesn't appear to be slowing. He's helping the Stampede to a title chase in the USHL West Division, where they currently hold third place, still in striking distance of leader Sioux City. Through 23 games, Fylling has nine goals and 15 assists for 24 points, ranking him among the team leaders in both categories.

A little note about Wes Dorey from the Colorado Springs paper: WCHL ALL-ROOKIE TEAM: Garrow and two Idaho Steelheads - goaltender Jason Cugnet and forward Wes Dorey - were unanimous selections to the WCHL all-rookie team. Cugnet, who played at Colorado College, has a 2.47 goals-against average and a 10-4-2 won-loss record in his first season. Cugnet's .909 save percentage is second best among WCHL goaltenders.

The national midget tournament runs from April 3-7 in Colorado Springs. SSM is the defending champion. Here is a pre-tournament story from the Colorado paper. http://www.gazette.com/stories/0402spts3-4.php?section=4 And the following is from the Faribault paper. The link would disappear tomorrow so I cut-and-pasted it. "The Sabre boys, meanwhile, skate into nationals as the defending champions, at full strength and regarded as the definite favorite. The Sabres outscored six teams 34-9 at nationals last year in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and similarly dominated the prestigious Mac's tournament in Calgary this past Christmas and New Year's. Junior forward Brady Murray said last week that his team is guarding against overconfidence. "Two years ago, when Zach Parise and I were playing, we went into nationals with a 40-game unbeaten streak and thought we couldn't be stopped," Murray said. The Sabres were stopped, in the semifinals by the Chicago Chill, a team they'd handled during the regular season. "We will be confident but we have to make sure we aren't not too cocky," said Murray. The Sabres' main firepower comes from the line of seniors Parise (69 goals, 93 assists) and Tyler Hirsch (55-72) plus Murray (53-76). Next-leading scorer is Chris Porter (27-25). Sharing the goaltending duties are Mike Mayhew of Owatonna, who has a 27-2-3 mark and .903 save percentage, and Kevin House, who's 23-2-3 with an .890 percentage. Asked about the national field, J.P. Parise, head of hockey operations at SSM, said they don't know much about it except that a Philadelphia team has beaten SSM once, early in the season, and Team Wisconsin, a pool-play foe, is a big and strong group whom the Sabres have beaten. He noted that the Chicago Chill, a fixture at nationals, are absent this year, having lost to Team Wisconsin. The Sabres, coached by Tom Ward, will be seeking their third title in four years. In pool play, they will meet the Pittsburgh Hornets on Wednesday, Team Wisconsin on Thursday and Alaska All-Stars on Friday." ------------------------------ Apologies for focusing on recruits so much, but with the Sioux absent from the FF, I need to follow something.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb....99.html dagies, Try this.

One other thing: I noticed on the website for Mr. Later's team that a few of its former players include Arnason, Westcott and Ritchie Larson, so Mr. Dahl may have some kind of connection there.

On an unrelated matter, I was glancing at Heisenberg's site and came across this defenseman.

From http://www.usacollegehockey.com/ Along with a new arena, Dean

Good idea, Scott. I think I'll be there for Thursday's games, but I don't know the "X" very well, so I couldn't suggest a meeting place. I'll follow this thread, though, and show up at a designated site, if possible.

A few years ago, this league had some titans in the nets in Goehring, Meyer and Melanson. Not titans in stature but in their play. Even though Dubie and a few others had fine seasons, I don't think the level of play at that position is back to where it was. Denver: If Dubie's back, best in the league. If not, Berkoel is still among the best. However, how he reacts to being "the man" remains to be seen. SCSU: The Weasel is gone. Moreland is back, and he will probably be fine. Helping him will be a big group of experienced defensemen. MN: Subtract one headcase. Return two talented sophomores, neither of whom stepped up to claim the job this year when it was available. Big question mark that may turn out fine. CC: Sanger is gone. McIlhenny returns. He was highly touted, but is still a question mark at this point. Wisconsin: Kabatoff and Bruckler both return. This tandem will be near the top of the league in quality, and the Badgers will need that. MSU: Return Pateman, Volp and Jensen, all of whom are at least decent. Not as big a question as most league teams have. UAA: Return Reiter and King. Whether that's a good thing remains to be seen. UMD and MTU: I'm too tired of typing to look into it. UND: Kollar leaves, which is too bad since he seems to have found his game. Both Siembida and Brandt showed flashes of fine play, but faded down the stretch, especially Siembida. The Siembida that started the season, so confident and solid, seemed gone by the end of the year. Even though MN looked awesome in Siembida's last game, he still was absent from the net on a few of those goals. I hope an offseason of work, practicing with the team from the start of the season, and a little better team in front of him will help him be the good goaltender I think he can be. Brandt looked pretty good to me in the second half of the year, but he must be doing something wrong because he can't seem to get into the lineup. I have seen differing reports on whether Sedevie is coming in 2002 or 2003. All in all, no other team in the league has a more uncertain goaltending situation than the Sioux. Someone may step up, and things would be fine. But it could turn into another tough year as well.

It's quiet and I'm frustrated watching *other* teams in the postseason, so I thought I'd start a thread to bring together some of the discussions about the defense scattered on other threads. Is it fair to consider Schneider and Fuher the most "offensive" of the top four defensemen? If so, then perhaps they are in different pairs: Hale, Schneider Jones, Fuher Leinweber, Greene Marvin Most everyone seems appropriately worried about a lack of offensive skill at the defense, but an even more important issue for me is how the defense handles the puck in its own zone. Moving the puck to the right man and out of the zone with control is crucial to success. On this point, I think we saw pretty good progress toward the end of the year. The own-zone puck movement that we saw in the last two periods of the last game of the year was excellent. If they can build on that, the team could really blossom this year. One thing that can be said about this group: there are a bunch of tough SOBs back there. None of them individually will be as physically dominant as Commie, but as a group, they will be more punishing than any I can remember in the Blais era. Hale and Schneider are both very tough. I hope they save their fighting DQs for a league game. I didn't expect to see the physical play the Sioux got from Jones, but I thought it was very impressive, especially for such a young guy. By reputation, both Greene and Marvin like to make their presence known to opposing forwards. The Sioux will miss the experience of Mazurak and Schneekloth, but their play seemed to slip a bit from their junior to senior years, I think mainly because of injuries. Even though the top two pairs will be junior, soph, soph, soph, at least they are all very experienced, having played basically every game last year.

Likewise, though, jumping from midgets to the WCHA is even harder. I can't see that Parise would have any easier adjustment to this level than Vanek. In fact, I hope people don't get on Parise's case if he performs like a freshman in his freshman year. It seems like our expectations for him are pretty high. I would settle for consistent effort and flashes of brilliance, and I think we'll get at least that.

One other thing. He's third on the team in PIMs with 113. Good. Getting tougher was a big part of this move, I would think.

This is hardly real data, but I thought I'd pass it on. There is a discussion on the SF Stampede board about their team awards for the year. For most valuable player for the year, the votes are as follows: M. Sertich 0.3 Corey 1.0 Pierzep... 2.3 Fylling 2.3 One fan who voted for someone else for MVP chose Fylling for most determined. I guess a player who played forty NCAA games the previous year should do well, but it's nice to see that his team's fans have developed affection for his game. Vanek was voted outstanding offensive player by everyone. I suspect we may find him very offensive as well.

I am far from an expert so someone is welcome to chime in with real facts, but it seems to me that Colby put up the numbers in bantams. At SSM, I know that Parise plays with the Midget AAA team. SSM also has teams that play Midget AA, Midget A, Bantam AA, and Bantam B. So I'm guessing Genoway didn't put those numbers up at a similar level of hockey. Not that I will object in any way to his being a fine player.

HKNTSMN - That's hilarious. I bet his mom thinks he's going to be good, too. Let's hope he's right. It must just kill these guys to have to sit out a year, after playing every day of every winter for as long as they can remember. The great part about it, though, is they have the year to adjust to college life and classwork. So when they finally do start playing, they are only adjusting to college hockey, not college life. And since they have been practicing for a year, even the adjustment to the speed of the game should be easier.