jk

It's certainly not a heart or effort issue. The guys are going very hard. It's more execution; just not hitting the crisp passes in stride at high speed. Also this weekend at times (especially against UMD) they never got the bounce they needed to get going. It's also health. All teams are banged up now, and the Sioux are too. I'd work on special teams this week and try to get healthy.

How savvy was it for the Dog to haul down Stoa with 3 seconds left? Time ran out before the penalty could be called. Now that is a good penalty.

Roll four lines and stay out of the box.

Other bubble teams will be losing this weekend as well, so they can still bounce around a bit in both directions. Anybody see Stalock in the state tourney against Wheeler's Breck team? Stalock seriously played a hybrid goalie/defenseman position all game long. He was out of the net as much as he was in it. Super exciting though and he was the only reason his team was there.

Sounds to me like the game which shall not be named, when one team dominated and the other took a trip up the ice late in the third, got a bounce, and won 1-0.

Obviously in the playoffs you'd rather win than play great and lose. However, last year the Sioux faltered in the playoffs, beginning with MTU, and they really only played one good game the rest of the way, against CC in the third-place game. Seriously, Princeton skated circles around the Sioux. It was a sign of what was to come against BC. So while I of course hope the Sioux continue to win, I hope they look good doing it, because that will be a sign of what's coming.

Not to beat it to death, but Gwoz said in his post-game that DU/WI is the afternoon game.

UAA is now 27 and doesn't look like they'll be getting back to TUC-land. Mankato is 25, but UMass, RIT and Union lurk below them, all with games tomorrow and perhaps next week, so Mankato may fall as well.

Ask again please.

When Dunc got the puck in his usual area on this PP he had a few Huskies watching him closely.

That's not small news.

3.5 minutes. Replay looked like second goal went cleanly between VV legs; should stay Duncan.

OK, now I got curious and had to go look. Last year, the #1 seed had the night game, regardless of its opponent. It happened to be the Gophers, but it wasn't the Gopher rule in effect, since #1 was scheduled in the night game before the play-in game was played. This is an excerpt from a WCHA press release that week: "Then on Friday evening, the winner of Thursday night's game between St. Cloud State and Minnesota will do battle with top-seeded Colorado College (28-9-1) at 7:07 pm CT." http://www.wcha.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/031708aac.html The exact reasoning isn't spelled out (and of course this is the WCHA, so they could do anything they wanted and it wouldn't be surprising), but I recall something about them ending the Gopher rule.

Not sure at all, but I thought they moved the "1 vs. play-in winner" to the night game so the play-in winner wouldn't have to turn around so quickly. Looks like a lot of people have different ideas here.

Is TUC status still top 25 RPI? If so, the TUC cliff is perhaps a day or two from being defined for this year. 23 Alaska .5160 24 Minnesota State .5133 25 Alaska-Anchorage .5096 26 Massachusetts .5080 27 Northern Michigan .5069 28 RIT .5058 Obviously, with the Sioux being 3-1 against each of MSUM and UAA, and 0-1 against UMass, it's helpful for the WCHA teams to hold onto those last two spots. Duluth has a different perspective. They're 2-0 against MSUM, but 0-3-1 against UAA. They would love for UAA to get passed. MN is 1-2-1 against MSUM, and 1-0-1 against UAA, so they wouldn't be looking at a dramatic change either way.

Yep. My mistake. If the top 3 win, then it'd be DU/UW in the semis, giving DU a chance to send UW home for the year. Interesting, since UW ended Denver's season last year in the Madison regional.

Look out for Wisconsin. We saw how good they can look last Saturday, and now they put 66 shots on goal. 66. Wow. Lot of hockey left this weekend, but we could see a Big 10 cage match play-in game between MN and Wisconsin, with the loser maybe done for the year.

All due respect, MTU has not been sitting back waiting for a Sioux mistake; they played an aggressive forechecking period.

Considering his history in Warroad, I'm guessing Eades is aware of him. Probably just watching to see how quick his feet get as he develops. Big kid with good hands though.

From the very start of the year, even when the results weren't working out, I liked this team better than those of the last few years. Even though I'm sure they weren't, it just felt like guys were waiting for Oshie to save the day. Now they save it themselves. I guess it feels more like a team. That said, no one should be thinking this team is at all a favorite to go all the way. We're so proud of the 13-2-3 record in 2009. BU has lost 1 of its last 23. BU, Notre Dame and Michigan are heavy favorites right now, and the Sioux are in the next group of very good teams that have all the ingredients needed to win it all, if everything breaks their way. I'd love for UND to get a shot at one of those "favorites," because certainly no one is going to run them out of the building, but if they get that shot and lose, we shouldn't be surprised. (I'd personally prefer to avoid Michigan, because they are due against UND.) In their favor, UND does have a goalie who is great at making the huge save. He's not perfect, but he has made a ton of big, big saves this year.

First game of a 5-game league semifinal series: (This is just AAA midget hockey, so don't get too excited) Brandon Wheat Kings 6 at Winnipeg Wild 7 - Overtime In the high scoring game at St. Adolphe, the Wheat Kings came back from 3-0 first period deficit to send the game to overtime. It was a big game for Brendan O'Donnell, as he scored four times, incuding the OT winner and assisted on the tying goal with 38 seconds left in regulation time. The Wheat Kings scored six straight times to take a 6-3 lead with just over 5 minutes left in the game. O'Donnell scored two power play goals at the 5:04 and 4:12 mark and set up Michael St. Croix (G&3A)with under a minute left.

Considering where the Force started the year, you have to conclude that Dean Blais can coach hockey. I think Columbus made a mistake in not giving him a real shot in the NHL.

CHN reported that UAA's sweep of UMD was its first road sweep ever in the conference, which is shocking. I checked and it looks like they swept Wisconsin in 2000, but that's still an amazing amount of time between road sweeps.

Plus you could argue that Duluth might be a preferable opponent to Mankato right now.

That's a bunch of crap and typical of the worst stuff on this board.