jk

What a great, great effort by Princeton. Hak said last week the team that plays better wins 90% of the time. How often have they lost 5-1? That said, would you rather they played like crap and won, or played great and had the season end? There are no style points now, only staying alive. I wonder if trying to stay out of the box took some of their aggressiveness away. That will probably return with a WCHA opponent tomorrow. Nice to see Duncan visit his office again. The Sioux never score empty-netters, so that was nice.

There is no justice.

Haven't read the thread, but the better team is losing right now. Sioux have to get the puck deep and force turnovers. If they sit back and play defense, they will eventually crumble. Eidsness is going to have a tough time filling those little tiny skates of Phil's.

Princeton's third liner Cam MacIntyre was, along with darcy Zajac, one of the leaders of the Salmon Arm team two years ago. A big tough kid. If he is on their third line as a sophomore, that tells me they are pretty deep.

"Both North Dakota and Princeton have NHL-sized home ice rinks that measure 200 by 85 inches. The Kohl Center, however, is closer to an Olympic-sized rink as its dimen sions are 200 by 97 inches." Talk about stickhandling in a phone booth!

Princeton won the ECAC title. Another member of that conference just dismantled a WCHA team that UND split with very recently. That should give everyone a sense of the quality of UND's Saturday opponent.

I'm not assigning much relevance to the MSUM/Princeton game, mainly because it was a long time ago, and teams change as the year goes on. The good ones get better, and go on a late run. Princeton has obviously done this. I also know the coaches and players will understand that they cannot take anyone lightly, but knowing it intellectually and believing it in your heart are two different things, and human nature is tough to fight. If they can get past that and skate really hard, things will fall into place.

It's hard not to be down on the Sioux and their chances after yesterday, when they seemed to be the worst of the four remaining teams. It's also hard to imagine the Sioux scoring more than a goal or so today, when you combine their recent troubles in that regard with the wall they'll be facing in Bachman, who really demonstrated his abilities last night. That said, things change. Teams look terrible one night, then look as though they switched jerseys the next. I'm not very optimistic about today, but I'm wrong all the time anyway. On another note, some poor unsuspecting 2 seed (and I hope it's not us) is going to draw the Gophers in the first round, and they're in for a big surprise. MN looks to be on a mission. It's like they finally realized two things: 1) Okposo and Stoa aren't coming back, this is our team and this is how we have to play, and 2) Have you seen Kangas?! We Sioux fans have seen struggling teams find themselves at the last possible instant, and that appears to be what MN has done. With Kangas back there, and still talent better than all but a handful or two, they can beat anyone.

Taking that one step further, maybe what is a surprise to us isn't a surprise to the coaches.

You think the Gophers might be tired?

UND with a ton of good pressure, plenty of odd-man situations, but need to get some in the net soon.

I recall a few bad games or moments for the Sioux, and they included these factors: Against UAA and MN (especially the first series), big opposing forwards were able to push around UND's relatively undersized defense. The Sioux are tough and gritty, but when the other guy has a bigger frame and knows how to use it, you're going to lose some battles for the puck. In that December seres against MN, there were long stretches where UND was just unable to get the puck because they couldn't win those battles. Ditto the Saturday UAA game. UND's opponents this year get to see an odd-man rush most every game off an aggressive offensive play by a UND defenseman. A team with high-end skill guys (like, for instance, all the rest of the elite teams in the country) that can convert those rushes could absolutely play a rope-a-dope strategy: pack it in and keep the GA down, and wait for a glorious chance the other way. Different year, but I'm thinking of the first period of the BC game two years ago, when the Sioux did a lot of things right, generating many good chances, but BC converted their rushes to the tune of a 3-0 lead.

This one wasn't meant to be. No Trupp, Genoway or Oshie, and they still carried a lot of the play. They were playing a nice shut-down game in the third, with just the one flurry by SC with 7 minutes left, followed by the Kaip paip. The late penalty was probably a penalty, but it burns a little after the no-call in Friday's OT, which was much more egregious. No bounces for the Sioux this weekend; have to hope they're saving them up for the playoff push.

Congrats to CC on a great year. They were a force all season long. I hope everyone takes care of business and we get a chance to see the Sioux and Tigers on Saturday night at the X.

Through two periods HM is putting on a clinic on how to neutralize Ness - hit him every chance you get. Lee in goal for Roseau stopped guys in all alone on three separate chances in the second, or it could be worse than 3-0. However, I suspect if Roseau gets one it could get interesting.

I missed the last 10 minutes of the second, and SCSU came on in stretches of the third, but for the most part UND has played well and will win most games it plays like this.

This is not correct.

Sioux not getting much help the last few weekends. All they can do is take care of themselves, but a little help would have been appreciated.

This is the year we didn't get to see when Zach left after two. In regards to JT, I think I'm not alone in thinking what I thought early in his Sioux career: that he would eventually be the best player to have worn the sweater. Silky smooth with the brain and heart to match. However, he simply did not dominate in college the way Oshie has this year, and it's not a knock on JT to think that. He was 18. Not able to physically dominate as a result. People worry about the Sioux adjusting their game for tighter officiating in the NCAAs. I say good luck stopping TJ without standard WCHA methods. I can't get over the Hrkac hurdle. No doubt TJ's physical play gives him an edge in versatility, but I've still never seen anyone dominate the college game like Hrkac. However, in 20 years, people will still be talking about Oshie the way we talk about Hrkac. I agree that the STL fans will absolutely love him. Thanks for starting the thread.

With the UMD loss, the Sioux officially clinched a top 3 finish in the WCHA.

Schwartz is a CC recruit.

This is from Brad's blog on Jan. 24.: "Red Line Report released college hockey recruiting rankings for the 2008-09 classes. I don't have a subscription to RLR, but the Wisconsin State Journal's Andy Baggot posted them here. They are: 1. Minnesota, 2. Ohio State, 3. Denver, 4. Michigan, 5. Wisconsin, 6. Boston College, 7. Boston University and 8. Notre Dame." The original source is here: http://www.madison.com/wsj/blogs/badger/baggot/268288 As for MN, brian, they also bring in Jordan Schroeder. In Ness and Schroeder MN adds two extremely dynamic players to a team desperately in need of them. On the frozen ocean they will be pretty exciting. This was all discussed before, but it's hard to explain UND's non-ranking (and Brad addresses it as well in his post). I think most of us ("internet experts") expect that UND has a top 3 class, and certainly one in the top 8. Considering that the list was developed by a presumably neutral source, are we all delusional (bells ringing all over the TC) or did Red Line whiff? Time will tell, but I'm guessing the coaching staff wouldn't trade their class for many others.

Listened to the Inch podcast, and they mentioned something that has been brought up in message board posts: UND has managed to kill off the penalties they've taken, so they feel like they can continue to take them. However, this may come back to hurt them in the postseason. I was curious, so I went back to the MSUM series that started the 2008 brawl season, a stretch that included the last four weekends. In those eight games against MSUM, UAA, MN and DU, the Sioux are 8-42 on the PP. Their opponents are an aggregate 4-32. That's right, the big bad Sioux have been in the penalty box 10 fewer times than their opponents over this stretch, when their wickedness was made evident to all. The Sioux may lead the nation in penalty minutes, but the most penalized team in the country this year may be UND's opponents. This supports my feeling that this year's Sioux team does not play the intimidation game that everyone seems to think, especially in comparison to the Greene, Jones, Schneider, Smaby group that was so brutal. The Sioux this year are not nearly that physical (in fact they're undersized on D) and they're not that chippy either, as evidenced by the lack of "regular" penalties. Their penalty numbers are outsized because of the four big dust-ups. Blame for those events is in the eye of the beholder, but I think this year's Sioux team just doesn't like to take crap.

I think it was notice that a commitment may be coming soon, not that one has occurred and may be leaked soon.

My guess is also Tyler L.