jk

I'm not at all confident UND will be hosting. Four home wins in the next eleven days would help, but anything short of that and hosting is in jeopardy.

Gotta say, Ness, Albrecht and Portz might have been the team's best line all weekend. A real positive sign for the next couple months.

Shot attempts 26-3.

I never like it, but have accepted it as part of the deal. Taking an entire year off for covid may have affected his development, and most likely affected the staff's ability to evaluate his readiness for college hockey. Hence the delays.

It's possible the WJC experience could sour some players on the Olympic opportunity. Like, I've already sat around while games are cancelled once, do I want to go through that again?

Power has better numbers than Sanderson, and is as high profile as it gets, as the first overall pick in the draft. On the other hand, his numbers are helped by playing on a stacked team, and I haven't seen him enough to know if he erases opposing offensive possessions as smoothly and consistently as Sanderson does. Leaman just called Sanderson the best player in college hockey, so that's one eastern voice.

I resist the urge repeatedly, but I can't help it. The love for the boosters is because they reduce the risk of serious illness and death. With no downside and at no cost.

Pretty nice job by Hellsten. Seems confident handling the puck and moving it, pretty quick recoveries, didn't seen to get wildly out of position, and was a battler. Hopefully rebound control will improve. Also, Jammer is becoming one of the team's best and most important players. Just relentless.

How is it possible they've already played 19 games? That's more than half the season. Not a powerhouse at all, but they'll start January pretty high in the pairwise. While the sweep of Denver looms large, the real accomplishment was salvaging splits out of four weekends against good to great teams that seemed too much for UND to handle after one night. The second half looks very tough, with Cornell on top of the NCHC grind that will include match-ups with an apparently very good WMU team that we haven't seen yet. All in all this team has been a pleasant surprise.

Not sure, but I think Power and Johnson may be at Canada's WJC camp.

I click on prospective recruits to read about prospective recruits. Keep the rest off the board.

It seems impressive for a small 16 year old. If I were a skeptic, I'd note that playing with Fantilli probably helps. But I've never seen him play. And it is good that he's doing it while being undersized, as opposed to dominating kids physically, which levels out later.

It's an interesting exercise because it shows how little we know. I remember anxiously awaiting the arrival of Blaisdell, Rizzo and Tychonich. Boy were we internet fans excited when the coaches got those commitments. And now none of them are here. Likewise Costantini seemed like an afterthought, penciled into the fourth or fifth line, and he passed the eye test on his first game. I will say the staff, going back to Hak, has been good at backfilling for guys who don't pan out, and the portal has given them another avenue to pursue. And some classes just take a while. Last year's seniors were overall a bit of a disappointment through year two, then Adams found another gear, they all matured and we got a couple years of dominance.

1. 7 goals on 22 shots. 2. It only counts as one loss.

Video is on p. 7 of the mn Saturday GDT thread.

If MN's leading scorer was out after a UND slash, would it be the crime of the century?

The flu is running through the MSUM team.

I thought the last two periods were pretty even from a possession and chances standpoint. Then hockey happened, with the strange Driscoll whiff and some bounces. I don't mind Kleven defending the goalie, just cross-check him a little lower so it's two, not five. Given who these teams lost, this is how this was supposed to go. UND has just been a pleasant surprise, and MN has disappointed so far. But maybe things are leveling out.

I highly doubt it was as simple as them thinking Johnson was more ready than Morrow. They evaluate talent professionally, and are obviously very good at it. The latter had an interesting journey through juniors, with a few programs left hanging. It could be they and he just thought UND wasn't a good cultural fit any longer. If that's it, I respect their desire to protect the culture.

Actually evened out in the second. MN got a weird goalie play and a bounce that period.

As for hockey, that team is still loaded, but they just haven't put it all together yet. They have three defensemen from last year's US WJC team and added a top freshman forward. Oddly enough the biggest weakness has been their returning stud goalie. UND should benefit from having just seen a quick, tight-checking team like Duluth. They'll need to play like they did last Saturday. Given each team's off-season losses and additions, this was supposed to be the year MN turned the tables on UND. We'll see this weekend if that is the case, or if UND's recent diet of NCHC opponents has them prepared to put up a fight.

Didn't Penn State split with mn this weekend?

I have a feeling we're gonna hate the James/Biondi combo for a while.

Pretty good couple periods for UND. Not perfect, a couple rough shifts, but pretty even overall. Jandric seems to be taking a step. It is understandable that it took a while as he did not play last year. Caulfield also seems close to breaking out.

You can definitely tell which team brought back a bunch of seniors and which has 14 new guys. Outmatched pretty bad at times.