jk

UAA's going to score here pretty soon if this keeps up. They've got the ice tilted a bit.

I'm not Vegas, but St. Croix has played in at least one MJ game already this year. He scored in his debut. I have a question for Vegas, though. What can we expect from O'Donnell if he continues to develop? Thanks.

Committed to Harvard according to Heisenberg. No uncertainty.

I think the point was that the emotional effort of pushing so hard left the tank empty, so that will be a risk again this year. There is a physical aspect to it though, and that should be better this year. Never shortening the bench keeps everyone fresh for the stretch run. This is the first year in about ten that the Sioux can truly roll four lines and never worry about who is on the ice. LaPoint's injury will begin to stress the top defensemen, but maybe Finley missing the first half of the year will be a blessing in disguise that way.

I think they moved Martens up to Hextall's forward spot on the PP, so they needed someone to fill Martens' PP point spot. Personally, I hope they move Martens back to the point and find another forward for Hextall's spot.

Good luck to Derrick. He has a few things going for him in the healing process. 1) He's young. 2) He's incredibly fit, with robust circulation. Blood is the healer, and his body will keep it flowing better than yours or mine would (well, mine anyway).

Not to be too big of a jerk, but if we were fans of the other team we'd be screaming about being homered. PP after PP after PP. I watched on webcast so I just couldn't tell if they were all legit calls. Still a good win, but the Mavs were shorthanded a lot. On the other hand, that's when they play their best hockey.

God that was awful. This is going to get extremely ugly, almost guaranteed. The D cannot fight, because now Jones and LaPoint are down. Mario, Malone?

The PWR has broken into pretty distinct groups this year. The top 10 are pretty solid, and someone's going to have to fade to fall out of it (as MN did, and someone else surely will). Then there's a pretty big gap to the next 7 teams, who are quite tightly bunched in RPI (and therefore, basically, PWR). UND is in this group. Because the teams are so close in RPI, one bad night moves you down to the lower end of the range (the 15-17 area), and one good night moves you closer to the top (11-13). You saw that tonight with MN and BC slipping, and UND rising. For any of those teams, your move on Friday can be undone with the opposite result the next night. Just win I guess.

Malone is turning into a nice hockey player. Big strong kid who can really skate, with better hands and instincts than you think. Hits a ton; not all big kids know how to use their size like he does.

Given: 1) They had pretty good jump this weekend. 2) They're coming into the soft part of their schedule. 3) Lucia has won two national titles there ... I think the whole sinking ship and poor coaching thing is somewhere between premature and off the mark.

Dell was named the MVP of the AJHL All-Star Game. He left after the first period, with a 2-0 lead, in a game his team eventually lost 14-13 in OT. Holy Angels lost 7-0 to SSM.

Saturday night shows how tough it is to get points in the league, with home favorites MN, Denver and Wisconsin all losing. The Sioux came home with 3 and 2 points on their last 2 road trips, which is fine if they can continue to take care of business at home.

Honestly didn't think they played that bad either, Goon. Didn't have the big jump, but didn't get outplayed at all. Huskies just had a couple make it into the net. That's hockey sometimes. 9 saves on 12 shots through 2 periods tells a bit of the story. The CFB hurt because it burned up 5 minutes when they had been pressing pretty good to start the third.

I don't think either team has really carried the play. SCSU has taken advantage of its chances, and BE maybe wishes he had the last 2. Offensively, the Sioux have tried to pound it on net, looking for deflections and rebounds, but nothing has bounced their way. At the end of the second, a puck finally bounced to Kozek's feet but he was looking the other way.

Mattson and Holy Angels host Shattuck tomorrow. There'll probably be a ton of scouts in attendance; should be interesting to see how Mattson holds up against the elite competition. Earlier this year, he was in on all of AHA's 5 goals in a 2-game set with Culver, a Shattuck clone. Edit: The game's at 2:30, so some of those scouts might well have Fighting Sioux jackets on.

The Sioux are accused of being involved in so many things, I thought this was worthy of discussion here. Here's Ciskie's summary of it: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2009/01/25/blatant...an-hockey-game/ Basically, the MSU players were POd about a legal hit, and brutally cheap-shotted the guy in retaliation. Compare this to the Zach Jones incident of a few weeks ago. There, the "classless" Jones was upset about a cheapshot on a teammate, so he wanted to fight the offender, in a straight-up fight, in retaliation. I hope Sioux fans don't apologize for what Jones did, because he did it right, regardless of what others might label it. I also hope the Sioux continue to recruit guys who respect the game and their opponents and play hard the right way.

I have had the same concerns about LaPoint, but I feel like he is a much better player now than two months ago. He seems more comfortable all the time. And last night was the most aggressive forecheck the Sioux have seen this year. When is the last time you saw a team carry the play that much against them? Probably BU is the only other time this year.

Vandy was close last night. Really the only one big enough and strong enough on the puck to play the way the game was being played/called. For men only. Zajac was also more present than usual.

He hasn't been the same since reality introduced itself in the WCHA third-place game last year.

It's a less comfortable position than in the past, where they had a couple big non-conference wins plus a very good non-conference record to fall back on, but not as terrible as you might think. All the other teams in that 10-16 PWR area are in the same situation, and they're not all going to go 8-2 down the stretch. If the Sioux keep winning most of their games, they'll pass enough of those teams, because the winning percent will keep pushing the RPI up. My concern is that I still respect and fear most of the teams in the league, and it's going to be hard for UND to keep up this winning pace. For starters, they appear to be catching SCSU at a bad time. But we'll see.

No disrespect to anyone, but I thought having Mario in for Kozek made it a "4th" line instead of one of 4 equal lines. I'm glad they shortened the bench because Denver was bringing it too hard for me to trust that line. Again, I'm really pleased with everyone on the team and think they're doing great, but the circumstances were unusual in that the opponent was really inspired. Just my opinion.

Denver did everything but put the puck in the net in the third and OT. They definitely wanted it more tonight, and when they're on their game they are darn good.

You beat me to it. BE gets this one.

A game like this is a good example of why I'm glad a lot of these new commitments are big kids. DU has pushed the Sioux around pretty good tonight. That's why VV has to get back out there.