jk

Considering that he stepped into the NHL six months later and was easily Ottawa's best defenseman his whole rookie year, I'd say he would have made a difference in his 30 minutes per night down the stretch for UND.

I'm not ready to say this team doesn't belong with those others. I'd say it's behind on team defense, but has an unusually high level of offensive creativity, with more guys than usual who can pick corners.

To be fair, I try to keep it in perspective, and it still sort of ruined my weekend, until later Sunday. I try not to blame anyone, but I was still grumpy.

Reminded me of a trip to Maine early in a Hak season when they just got annihilated both nights. The upside then was there was still most of a season to get better. This time around, I guess the next month will tell us whether this was an aberration or a sign of things to come. Very strange set of games. If UND rights the ship, I wonder if these two might meet again in SD.

Respectfully disagree. You take a shot at getting back in the game. Who cares if the final is 5-2 or 6-2? Blais would have done it and people would have loved him for it.

It's not like CC has been the better team tonight. For the first half of the third, yes. But not the first two periods. This is just one of those weekends when everything goes wrong. Better now than later.

CC's second goal was not even a good scoring chance, just throw it on goal like UND has a couple dozen times tonight. That's what we we've been hoping would happen, but the hockey gods appear displeased.

UND going for volume on offense tonight, getting the puck to the net often. Not great chances, but you hope for deflections or rebounds, which have not happened. It's the opposite of being too cute.

Except for the offense, defense and goaltending, I thought it was good. But the biggest no show was UND's goalposts - not one save, and they had plenty of opportunities. CC's posts had a heck of a game, bunch of saves.

I will now concede that a comeback is less likely.

Over? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Keep the faith baby. Hockey is bizarre and you never know what can happen.

The NCAA tourney field looks very tough this year. If a team is fortunate enough to make a regional final, they will probably have to beat a very good team. We've seen UND pass the eye test against some of those top teams, but we've also seen them lose some of those games. Basically the corner-pickers are going to have to be on target, and the goalie will need to be at his best.

Well, he played 77 of 82 games his rookie year and 47 of 48 this year, so I'm going with "most of the time." Are we supposed to hold it against him that his hand got stepped on in the crease?

I agree on Johannes. I realize there are different opinions on this, but I like him with Berg and Gaber, as he creates space. I also think the bottom lines haven't been as good as they were earlier, with the shuffling of 18 and 29 up the lineup. They're good and will probably be mainstays higher up next year, but for now they make the lower lines more dangerous and there's no one I want to pull out of the top six.

Pinto also led Ottawa forwards in ice time. Sanderson out hurt.

CC and Western would seem to have the most control over their chances, simply because they could sweep UND and pick up two of those games in one weekend.

Who had Kunz beats out an icing on their bingo card?

Talking about winning the league and going far in the national tournament this early feels jinxy to me, but ... I do appreciate the nice little spreadsheet.

I had noticed Kunz did not celebrate his goal either, which I liked, and was going to note at the time, but then Miami scored and the moment passed.

Agree they carried it good to start the third, but the ten minutes after the delay were the worst of the night. Could barely get it in the zone.

The worst and best of Blake ot. Got walked then sniped one. Also, his ot shot looked less in than the second period no goal.

The glass thing definitely stalled the momentum.

I'm glad we got #3 with 11 minutes left. There's time to just keep playing.

So maybe Blake's not making the best choice every time, but he's been on a mission in the third. All over the place.

Clock is running double time.