jk

Ferris was dealing with the flu when they lost to Mankato. I thought they looked great for much of today's game, very creative and dangerous with the puck, and everyone had a motor running. It will be a tough game. Plus as someone mentioned, their goalie was outstanding.

I had parenting duties and had to follow the first two periods via chat and the board. I managed to get to a bar for the third, and I just can't express how well I thought they played in the third. The first ten minutes were pretty much domination, and not in the sense of limiting WI's chances, but in the sense of taking the game to them. Very quick turnarounds in the neutral zone to guys with speed. After WI got their strange tying goal (and what was with all those hail mary launches out of their zone), the guys faltered for about four minutes, and they could have easily lost the game there. They managed to keep it tied, and again turned the game back in their favor. Again, I only saw the third, but the better team in that period definitely won the game.

If they actually tried to get him to go midseason they are scumbags. Way to build a team, by encouraging guys to be bad teammates.

Zane stopped 28 of 29 to beat Niagara 2-1 in last year's first round. Then he got hurt and Saunders played very well in a loss to Yale.

The writeups are old. Schmaltz led the US in scoring with 8 points in 5 games at the Ivan Hlinka tournament; the next highest US player had 3 points. He was second overall in tourney scoring. He also led the entire tournament in scoring at the World Junior A Challenge with 12 points; his teammate Connor Hurley was next with 10. He's also predicted on that site to be drafted the highest of any of the Sioux recruits. He probably does have those flaws, but 18 year olds (not just hockey players) go to college to mature. He'll be in the right place to develop a team-first mentality, if it's not there yet.

I have read about the inflexibility of the coaching staff, wedded to their systems with no changes based on the makeup of the team. Funny, then, that this is a Sioux team that doesn't really resemble anything I've seen in years. They have a defensive corps that includes six guys that can move the puck and themselves, and they are a big part of the team's puck possession, rushes and offense. In the offensive zone, the offense seems to flow through the defensemen more than in the past. A shot from the point has always been a solid hockey play, ripe with opportunities for good results in the form of screens, deflections and rebounds. This team does it a lot. Look at Saturday. Gaarder deflection of a shot-pass. Gaarder rebound of point shot. Schmaltz walking in from the point. Grimaldi rebound. LaDue shot (granted it was in tighter because of the 5-on-3 PP). They're able to do it because they have the puck a lot and they are pretty good at getting it through. Other Sioux teams have had a guy who occasionally led or joined a rush, but there was usually only one or maybe two on a team who would do it. Most of this year's group does it, especially Mattson and Thompson, and double especially Schmaltz, who seems to have a gift for finding open ice as a trailer and has the skating ability to get there. It's a more risky approach to the game, but when you get to the end of the year solid defense is a given and having something special offensively wins games. This team has some good solid forwards with a good skill level, but they're not dominant. This team's edge is the skating, puck handling and hockey sense of the defense. The coaches have thankfully recognized that and adapted. In addition to the risk of getting caught up ice, the downside of this type of team is that there is no crease-clearing physical presence, which we are so used to seeing. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few years.

The picture of Caggiula shooting Saturday is pretty stunning. Flex, baby.

UND knows this Wisconsin team pretty well. They played one series last year, in the REA, with a 1-1 tie on 2/1/13 and a 4-1 UND win the next night. Missing from that UND team: Kristo Knight Rowney Gleason Forbort MacWilliam Jim Tate Added to UND: Johnson Bunch of Freshmen D Missing from the Wisco team: Lee Ramage Little Meuer Woods Added to Wisconsin: Besse Soleway Cavallini Wisconsin is heavy with seniors and will likely see early departures as well, so this is their Frattin 2011 team. They think they are on a mission. We know most of their lineup, and although they know one of our second lines, they don't know the other as well, and they don't know the kiddie corps on defense. They may be old and loaded (sounds like half this board), but anyone can beat anyone now.

You post this every year, and I agree every year. BC and Lowell shouldn't be in the same bracket; nor Union and QU. Mix it up, and let teams and fans see someone different. As for the Sioux, objectively I would consider them one of the easier draws in the tournament. I'd rather face a team that limped into the tournament than someone on a roll. That said, the college hockey postseason has truly turned into a bizarre event, as demonstrated numerous times in recent seasons and of course over the last two weekends. Yale winning an improbable Broadmoor of sorts on its way to a national title widens the world of the possible even further than before. UND, like 15 other teams, can win two games next weekend, and we shouldn't any longer be surprised at who does. Can UND do it without a first line, without a power play that can get the puck into the zone, and with a young defense? Yes, because anyone can. All you have to do is score more goals than the other guys, and there's no set formula to do it. If UND does it, I think their formula will have been: goaltend well and get some bounces.

A lot of the disputes on these related topics (strength of schedule, UND's pairwise predicament) are due to the NCHC's poor performance in non-conference play and qualitative opinions on whether those results reflect the real strength of the conference's teams. There's really no arguing the math, which is based on the results of all the games played. At this point, the only way to support an argument in favor of the NCHC's quality beyond its results would be for its one to three NCAA tournament participants to do well there. In any typical season in the last 15 years or so, the NCHC's teams would have done well enough that the top two or three would be NCAA locks, with others having a shot at qualifying. Whether this season is an abberation or a sign of things to come will need to wait for future results. The "eye test" tells me CC last weekend was about as good as the CC team that went on a run through the WCHA tournament last year, beating UND and MN (foreshadowing Yale) before falling to Wisconsin. Their record was abysmal, though, so bad that UND winning two of three drove its PWR down to the extinction zone. I suspect we will see a similarly impressive Miami team Friday.

He probably would be a big part of this team, had he stayed. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see him blossom in the second half. But what's done is done, and everyone has moved on.

It's tricky getting a read on guys when they play about two thirds of the game. They don't play the way you'd like them to, with a motor always running. Instead, there's a fair amount of coasting, and energy conservation. When Yon had the puck, he was off to the races, with good speed. His shot is very good already, with a super quick release; plus it was low and hard, which leads to rebounds. Away from the puck, not as impressive, but I can chalk that up to all the icetime, as I mentioned above. My only pre-Sioux exposure to Oshie was in the state tourney as well, and I thought he needed a year in the USHL to learn what it was like to play all-out for 45 seconds, instead of off and on for two plus minutes. I was pretty badly wrong on Oshie, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Also, I'm not comparing him to Oshie as a player, just as a guy playing two thirds of every game.

The most famous execution of this play for modern Sioux fans was Goren's pass off the goalie to Ulmer for the GWG in the national championship game.

Or, as Harold Ramis would have written it: Lighten up, Francis.

I disagree. Canada was hands down the most talented team there, and if they played well no one was going to touch them. Guess what, they played well. The U.S. played well in every pool game, and gave Canada a run, but couldn't get it done. It wasn't for lack of effort or heart. I can't judge anyone for their performance in a third place game when they came for first. Who on Team USA would even have made Team Canada? Maybe Quick or Suter. Kessel might have that kind of talent, but he's not a Team Canada kind of guy, not physical and not a good enough checker. Ditto for Kane. Canada could send a "B" team that might medal. Now the women, that's a different story. The better team lost that one.

A long time ago (probably when he was a committed recruit), I was doing some internet scouting and saw that Oshie had success at US roller hockey festivals. I don't really have the time to track it down again, but I believe he won one of the skills competitions a couple years in a row -- the shootout.

That game, John Hyduke. Must have been post-Rick (the rock) Kosti.

I listened to the comeback against UMD on the radio; the game was in Duluth. Hennessy was beside himself, as you can imagine. The 75 Years of Sioux Hockey book has a few tidbits. Behind a Brett Hull hat trick, UMD had a 6-1 lead after one period. The Sioux outshot UMD 34-7 in the third. That fits my recollection, that the Sioux dominated but couldn't get the puck across the line. They eventually did.

It sounds like a different game, but I can nail down the exact date for a similar event. I saw a great comeback against that great group from NMU. I don't recall it being from five down, but I do recall it being one of those stunning home events. The other reason I remember the day is that we went home after the game and turned on the World Series, and promptly saw Kirk Gibson's one-legged walk off, and Tommy Lasorda jumping without leaving the ground. The internet tells me it was Saturday, 10/15/88.

I don't see much difference in the talent level of the forwards between the two years. If you line up the guys, there are a few better on each side. I'll agree that the top end may have been a touch better two years ago, with the depth better this year. Rocco is growing as a player. The aspects people criticize are real, but they are diminishing. He has a motor and forechecking work ethic that reminds of Parise. I think I will like the defensemen on this team, at the end of the year, better than two years ago. Schmatlz is going to be really good, in a future NHL player way. Stecher is going to be really good eventually, in a college star way.

I don't really care, but just from a presentation standpoint, if I were arguing for him to be let go, I would bring out this table. To me it clearly shows waning performance. Almost all his best years were in the first half of his tenure, with almost all his poor years in the second half. The average performance has also gone on long enough now that it's not just an anomaly.

It's also unusual to have a year like the last one where no one is lost to injury for an extended time. Usually "too many players" resolves itself due to misfortune for one or two.

To each his own, but I'm taking Tony Hrkac.

We're pencilling guys in the top two lines that most of us have never seen play? I'll admit, I'm an internet scout from way back, but I try to actually see them before giving them the plum spots.

Schmaltz got worked in his own end, but physical maturity will help with that. On offense, I thought he was terrific, and far ahead of the usual freshman defensemen. He handled the puck at the blueline a lot, and rarely fumbled it or had it go the other way odd-man. I think he's going to grow into a very good college defenseman offensively, and I hope he's able to get there in his own zone.