jk

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?

I guessed first, then checked, and it's INCH's list of the top forward recruits for this year's group of seniors. #19 on the list is having a big senior year.

Drove straight through from GF to Detroit, via the UP. Good memories.

This worked for me, a Comcast Twin Cities customer. Outstanding, as I didn't know how I was going to watch otherwise.

UND should not act responsibly (considering the health of various programs in the WCHA and CCHA) to be "nice." They should do it selfishly, because keeping college hockey healthy is ultimately in UND's own best interest.

Looked up the top goal scorer each year in the last 10: 01 33 Gionta (next was 32, Lundbohm) 02 37 Hartigan (34, Taffe) - how did they not win an NCAA game? 03 36 Sejna (35, Kunitz, Bochenski) 04 32 Lessard (29) 05 34 Sterling (27) 06 38 Potulny (34,Collins) 07 32 Cook - Niagara (31, Duncan) 08 35 Gerbe (33) 09 33 Lamoureaux (26) 10 30 Atkinson (29) 11 35 Frattin (30 Atkinson (back-to-back 30-goal seasons; what a stud)) Only 3 players in the last 10 years have scored more than 35 goals. If they want to give a career award, Atkinson's 30/30 is pretty compelling. If Meile loses, Miami fans will think of it as Panzer-style robbery (nation's top scorer by a good margin).

Does UND have an obligation to do the right thing for college hockey? Just because the Big 10 schools don't care that they might be undermining several programs, should UND not care? UND should consider doing the "right thing" not because it might help those other programs, but because it will ultimately be beneficial to UND to have a healthy college hockey landscape. Conference power grabs don't offend me in the bigger sports, because football and basketball programs aren't going anywhere. College hockey is fragile, though. If UND pushes for and gets a superconference, several programs could struggle and fold. Also, a superconference that competes with the Big 10 would have the same strutural flaw the Big 10 risks: not enough weaker teams to balance out a schedule.