jk

Heck of a shift by Zajac there.

Rowney came off the wall just like that with a minute left in OT last Saturday, and got a great shot off. This time the puck dribbled to Zajac, who took the shot that left Mario's rebound. That's been arguably the team's best line for a little while now.

I didn't hear it, but is it possible it's not related at all to "the room," but instead to the actual locker room. Like, for instance, some physical attribute of a UAA locker room?

I agree. His slide over to cover the cross-crease play is outstanding, and has yielded some highlight saves, but the recovery is late, as you said.

I don't disagree with anything said about the potential logjam, but I will say that every year it appears there is a bulge in the pipeline and every year it gets resolved. I have a feeling it will again, and it's just a matter of sitting back and seeing what the roster looks like for the Manitoba series.

I don't think the Sioux have matched up particularly well with UAA the past few years - they're not the most skilled team, but they're big and fast, and they've worn out the Sioux D. Blood and MacWilliam both know how to use their size, but the rest can get pushed around. I wonder if we might see Fienhage play this weekend. UAA just lost to Robert Morris (still can't believe they let one guy beat them), so they are obviously not unstoppable, but I expect a tough weekend. For the last few years, it has seemed that if UAA could go from decent to good goaltending, they could contend for a top-half finish.

Good effort by MN tonight, and a good job by UND to match them. Sioux got a couple huge breaks when Fairchild missed and Hoeffel (?) missed right near the end of regulation. When Pointer blocked a shot in the third off his ankle, did it clank?

Very insightful post that highlights the various motivations. I agree that the occurence of actual discussions is a potential watershed event, changing this topic from internet speculation to a genuine issue.

Chambers has had to amend his T-shirt order. He sent back the 44-0 shirts and is getting 43-1 instead. That's still better than '93 Maine, which had a loss and a tie.

Fienhage is going to be a giveaway machine for a while, but the only solution to that is playing time. He has the tools, but everyone will need patience because it might not be pretty at first. I expect he'll come along as most of the other big Sioux D have. He is a nice skater for his size, so he'll win some races (might help cover some giveaways) and he'll definitely win some wrestling matches along the boards. Word around the league the last few years was the Sioux were soft on the blueline, but that won't be the case anymore as Blood, MacWilliam and Fienhage all know how to use their size.

Good news on welcoming Brock Nelson into the program. I've only seen him in the state tourney, but he seems to have unusually good hands for a big kid. With the combination of his frame, hands and bloodlines, I imagine he'll get quite a bit of attention from the pro scouts.

System-wise, I'm not smart enough to say. But I will say that I think Blais pushed conditioning to a new level when he arrived at UND, and it gave the team a competitive advantage for years. By the end of his UND stint, everyone else had caught up, and now it's the norm. (You can see his reputation is intact when his new players get messages from friends: Get ready to run. As I said, though, I don't think it'll be revolutionary as it was 15 years ago.) To get to the point, maybe Blais' UND teams were so up-tempo because they were best conditioned. One other thing: You carry it in if you can avoid turning it over at the blueline. Otherwise chip it in. That seems to be the way Hak's teams do it. Trying to carry it through a shelterbelt of sticks just gets the puck going the other way, with about the same momentum your guys have the other direction.

I haven't seen them play, so I have no idea who is more gifted or even what they look like on the ice. My impression from all of my internet scouting though is that Bruneteau is more of a smaller, offensive player, and his fighting career (barely survived and almost had to quit the sport) makes me question a comparison to Mario, who's not short of grit. Rowney, on the other hand, may have been able to finish last year, but he did so as a pretty old kid in the AJHL. That profile doesn't lead to a big college scorer very often. I expect him to be a complete player, with plenty of jam; maybe a Darcy Zajac type. But again I've never seen him play.

That's a pretty big deal, and a big blow to CC. The Forum indicates he's accelerating, which is very unusual for UND.

Watkins skates better than most, and that'll get him at least his shot at the AHL. Teams at every level need role players, and the better you skate, the better your chances. Watkins went down after a knee-on-knee check against UMD at the Final Five, and the Sioux didn't win again. He came back out in the third period to test it, couldn't go, sat out the next day against Wisconsin, and then was clearly not full strength against UNH. Every team's nicked up, so no excuses, but who knows how it goes if he's flying around out there.

We know he skated at Atlanta's prospect camp last week.

I thought Melrose was here before ending up at Harvard (and I think the 1989 title team), but he didn't show up on hockeydb as playing any games at UND. Harvard's not a bad fallback.

I have these ones.

I think they want 8 defensemen in case of injuries, and this has nothing to do with Forney or LaPoint. If Forney doesn't come, I wouldn't be surprised to see another forward in next year, for the same reason.

If by physical issue you mean injury or health, I don't think that's it. If you mean size and whether his frame projects to an NHL body, that might be it. I think he's getting ready for Omaha and needs to have the attitude Cichy had last year: what's wrong with my game and how can I fix it? It's a big year for him. I think his coach at Omaha will be Bliss Littler, who is respected. (Littler's high school coach will be joining him in Omaha, as he played hockey in Minot at about the time Blais was coaching there. I know because Blais was my ninth-grade phy-ed teacher at Minot High.)

Latest word was that Forney is still deciding. Regarding the draft and WCHA rivals, it would seem naive to assume everything is "fine" and our recruits are as good as anyone's, since, after all, the NHL scout's jobs are to identify the best hockey players. They are, however, trying to project who will have the skillset to eventually play in the NHL as men. I wonder if the key missing feature in some of UND's current and future players is a world-class level of athleticism. Unless you're a pitcher in baseball, you pretty much have to be blessed with remarkable athleticism (speed, strength, reflexes), to be a professional athlete at the highest level. No matter how special Duncan is in so many ways, he most likely just simply won't have the speed and strength to play in the NHL. The electric speed is what got Kristo drafted in the second round. If you looked at the recent USHL season, Cichy was miles better than Josh Birkholz at Fargo, but Birkholz, despite reportedly not being very coachable or a great teammate, also has the breathtaking speed and was picked high, while Cichy barely got picked in his second eligible year. What will it mean for UND in the future? When the Sioux were young and talented in the past, they often had trouble with older teams like Mankato and Tech. What would happen if you built a team like that, but used more talented building blocks? I think that's what we're going to see. It may be naivete, but I really like this year's team. Last year's top two lines at year-end (Vandy, Frattin, Malone and Duncan, Hextall, Gregoire), were hard to handle, and only Duncan is gone. Other forwards who showed some real ability are back (Zajac, Trupp, Mario), and the team adds three guys who should be power-play type players (Kristo, Cichy and Toews). As AZ has said, the depth should be great, maybe as good as we've seen since 1999. Four lines, which should balance out the icetime and hopefully keep everyone fresh and perhaps healthy. The entire freshman class played at least one extra year of junior hockey, so they will be physically mature and ready to step in. The key question for me (and it's a big one) is whether Blood, Finehage, LaPoint (health) and MacWilliam are all ready to play against good players.

I don't watch much pro hockey, but watching the Pens in their own zone in the third, there's still a place in hockey for the big defensive defenseman. Orpik was crashing and crushing guys all period. (Yes I know he played at BC.) You don't need great hands to play that role, but you do need good quick feet.

Garth was apparently sniffing around already this year, so that's a big risk. In addition, only because they've already watched him in one post NTDP season already, I wonder if Montreal could have some interest in Kristo before Sioux fans would like.

I'm a big fan of Blais, but 1998, 1999 and 2004.

Cichy (0-3-3 tonight) and Indiana beat Green Bay and advance to take on Blais and Fargo in the USHL finals.