jk

Good catch, but two came down the stairs, one of whom will be working closely with Jordan over the next few years.

I expect these guys to all be in the lineup if healthy: Knight, Kristo, Rowney, Rodwell, Parks, MacMillan, O'Donnell, Grimaldi. Grimaldi could well end up the most talented player on the team, and as a result he'll eventually be playing with the other best players; they'll make the positions work somehow. It's hard to say that (being fixtures in the lineup) about any of the freshmen without seeing them. Beating out Gaarder and Pattyn won't be easy as they appear to be Hak's type of guys, trustworthy on the ice, and they earned a lot of goodwill this year. They could easily become fixtures on the fourth line, even though fans may long for "more talented" freshmen to play instead. I'm also pretty interested to see what kind of player Jim could become. Say what you want about his pedigree and the comedic value of his skating mishaps, but with his size and reach it was tough to get the puck away from him when he got it in the corner. He had surprisingly good hands and a frequent inclination to take a cycled puck straight to the net.

A 21 year old freshman from Moose Jaw. I don't think some rival fans will be able to handle it.

TJ Oshie has not played one game in the minors. Since leaving Warroad, he's played for the Sioux Falls Stampede, the UND Fighting Sioux and the St. Louis Blues. He's also had at least one stint in a USA sweater. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=81042

I know he was in Minot in 1979-80 because he was my phy-ed teacher that year.

Dell could have gone after last season, when he had a great year. He was more up and down this most recent year, but was still very solid. He's probably my favorite Sioux goalie of the last long time, because he makes a lot of saves simply by being in position, and doesn't end up flopping after being forced to make an acrobatic save. I don't think he'll be playing in the ECHL. I think he's an AHL goalie, and I think he has a shot to one day play in the NHL. I thank him for his contributions and wish him well.

Losing Friday in the Final Five would have been fine for a couple reasons: resting Saturday, and avoiding the X the following week. The problem is that you can't try to do anything but win every game. If MN wants to lay down and not cover guys in the slot, you go there and try to score. It's just how players are programmed.

It's amazing that a myth like the CHL being better for elite talents is believed even here. The CHL churns out more NHLers because the CHL gets more elite prospects to start with. Look at a list of Everett products in the NHL (if you can find any) and compare it to UND's over the last 10 years. If I'm an elite talent (potential #1 overall) and I'm choosing between Everett and UND, hands down I'm in Grand Forks.

He wasn't "made" captain; he was voted captain. Yeah, I'll bet his teammates really cared about his last name. How people can congratulate the coaches for overcoming adversity and not recognize the role the captains played is beyond me. Especially the one who set the tone by playing much of the season when he had no business being on the ice due to injuries

FWIW, that shot went glove, post, then off. The replay was pretty clear. And it was a bad sign when it happened.

The story of UND hockey this season has been, without a doubt, the players not on the ice, beginning after the draft when a recruit chose the CHL route. Since then it's been one hit after another. The team seems to be trying to write another story, about the players in the lineup. It's important to remember that, just as there's more than one way to win a hockey game (credit Sagard), there's more than one type of team to win with. Here's what the Sioux have going for them: 1. Dell - Among the best I've seen at UND in the last 3 decades. For me, only Belfour and Goehring are in the discussion. I appreciate his size and positioning. The Sioux have had some brave little battlers, but I don't miss the flopping that seems to come with the athletic saves needed to be made by smaller goalies. 2. Two dominant shutdown defensemen in Blood and MacWiliam, who fit nicely in the line from Commodore to Greene, Jones and Smaby. 3. A top line that isn't surpassed by many, with probably at least two future NHL players and maybe three. The balance of the lineup has a mixture of talent and heart, but it is inexperienced and thin. On the plus side relative to the inexperience, while there are a lot of freshmen, none are true freshmen, so they are at least physically more mature than their class would indicate. It may not sound like much, but a few recent teams with similarly incomplete make-ups managed to accomplish quite a bit. The Sioux team that lost the title game to BC in overtime in 2001 was thin on elite talent, with five players leading the way: Goehring, Roche and the line of fire of Panzer, Lundbohm and Bayda. Behind that were quick gritty penalty killers Spiewak and Notermann and not much else. Yet they almost pulled it off. Likewise, the team that lost the 2005 title game to Denver despite outplaying them became dominant when it had little business doing so. They rode a red-hot Jordan Parise in goal and the most wicked group of physical defensemen the college game has likely seen, with Schneider added to the aforementioned Greene, Jones and Smaby. There was one dominant offensive line, with Spirko, Stafford and Zajac. The lineup shrank with key injuries down the stretch, but they kept winning anyway, aided by the tenacity of the grinder line of Canady, Massen and Fabian. I think this team can still similarly accomplish things this year. They still have as much talent as most teams, although they would certainly be the less talented team in several postseason matchups. Also, it's very possible they would need to win about 7 or 8 elimination games in a row to go far. Having seen them do it before seemingly with smoke and mirrors, I can still see it happening.

I only caught the third period, but the Sioux were great then. Definitely deserved to win, and it would have been a shame if they had lost.

Just to clarify, the surgery was going to be season-ending whenever it occurs; he would not have been back by now. His injury is a very unusual situation; it'll be easy afterward to see what the right course should have been, but there's no roadmap for something you basically haven't seen before. There seems to be an unfounded undercurrent of specualtion in some posts that the team has mishandled injuries. Let the professionals who actually have the information and experience do their jobs, and the team will have to go with the players it has. Also, in each of these cases, you can be sure the NHL teams which own the players' rights are involved.

No doubt he is the rock on which this team is built. For coming back for his senior year we owe a debt of gratitude.

To me, Gregoire and Hextall leaving was an ordinary event for UND. In fact, UND was lucky to have Gregoire for that year, and I think they're fortunate to have Kristo and Blood back this year. By contrast, Miller and St. Clair failing to arrive for the reasons they did is pretty unusual for UND.

Time Machine, baby. Go back and tell Cichy and Bruno that not all of those freshman forwards will make it onto the roster, and as a result they will be fixtures in the lineup all year long. The roster is a disaster this year, from a depth standpoint. Cichy, Bruno, Miller and St. Clair. A couple of them would have helped quite a bit. Add in the early injuries to Grimaldi and O'Donnell and you see where they are. I'm not sure the coaches could have done much. Thank goodness for Dell and Blood. Their presence in the lineup is crucial.

I think it's a stretch to call UND's top six forwards as good as anyone's. Two juniors, a sophomore with a ton of promise but who isn't there yet, and two freshmen who are question marks until they prove it. That's five, and we don't even know who the sixth might be. I'm excited to see it play out, but I'm not thinking one of the nation's top forward groups. (That was last year.)

Despite my starting this with discipline as a virtue, I admit I have considered whether being on the PK might have gotten the team going. Not necessarily with a shortie, but just changing the rhythym of the game away from the trapfest.

OR maybe he's working hard to catch up from his health-related absence and the internet rumors are baseless.

1. Culture: This is more strategic than tactical, but the coaches have built a culture that has encouraged players to stay in college longer than they may have at other schools. In almost all cases, staying an extra year is beneficial, but it's hard for players to resist the money and pressure to leave. Players will still leave, but there are numerous examples of Sioux players who stayed longer than we might have guessed, and also numerous examples where staying longer helped their careers. 2. Dell: When Eidsness struggled and they went to Dell, they didn't hesitate to ride him the rest of the way when he shined. It seems straightforward in hindsight, but putting a two-time all-conference goalie on the shelf could not have been easy. 3. Preparing the depth: With 8 capable defensemen, playing time was at a premium, but the coaches managed to get the two freshmen ample icetime throughout the year so they would be prepared when needed. Special thanks go to Marto and Gleason, as their flexibility allowed this happen. 4. Health and fatigue: The coaches did a masterful job managing the team's injuries down the stretch, so the team was rested and healthy for the postseason. Injuries are of course good or bad luck, but it's the way they managed the injuries that was key. When Genoway was out for 3-5 weeks, they kept him out 5, and when he returned he was extremely dynamic, with very fresh legs. Likewise keeping Gregoire, Rowney and Rodwell on the shelf for the Final Five allowed them to play in the regional with a ton of energy. Kristo's legs were also fresh. I'm guessing if an NCAA berth had been in question, these guys would all have played earlier. Special thanks here go to Marto and Gleason (again) as well as Dicken and Bruneteau, who filled in and kept the train rolling while guys rested and healed. 5. Discipline: Several of UND's NCAA exits could be tied at least partially to untimely penalties. This year, UND only had to kill 1 penalty against Michigan. How much of this is due to the coaches or players I don't know, but it was a welcome change.

Congrats to Sandelin, former Sioux standout player and assistant coach. It hasn't always been smooth in Duluth, but he's now a legend there. Also to the Dogs. Schmidt couldn't have seemed like a nicer guy in the interview on the ice right afterward. The celebration was tough to watch, though, and my budding recovery has been stunted.

Moron season on the message board has begun, and it's not going to be pretty.

Great effort by a great team, but hockey is cruel. This is Michigan's payback for 1997.

Agree. The only time they looked rough was on the PP. 5-on-5 very much in control. Gotta score pretty soon though.

You have to be good and lucky, and the four finalists all caught breaks to advance. UND was fortunate Denver was dragged to 2 OTs in the late game against WMU. They couldn't win a race or a battle in the third period. Michigan is thankful Howe played out of his mind against BC and Muse played without his in the same game. (Not really fair as Muse didn't play terribly.) What I saw from BC in that game was a team with a ridiculous amount of offensive ability. I'm still surprised they didn't come back and win in the third, because they created enough chances for it to happen. Michigan also arguably caught a break with the curious OT goal call against UNO, although I think it was probably both a goal and an incorrect call. Notre Dame was 1-2-2 against Miami this year, including a 6-2 loss a week before the Regional. Getting placed in Miami's bracket seemed unfortunate, until UNH took Miami out of the picture. UMD had to go through Union and Yale to get to the Frozen Four: the nicest regional placement ever for a #3 seed. In addition, Yale's best player was questionably booted from the game in the second, with the ensuing two PP goals burying the ... er, Bulldogs. So everyone caught breaks to get here, and to their credit they all jumped on them. Who will have the good fortune in 10 and 12 days, and will anyone be good enough to overcome the bad breaks?