jk

As for the game, this has to be their best effort of the season. It was men against boys pretty much all night long. I was a little worried with five minutes left when DU started getting a little energy. It would have been a shame to have this game slip away after the tremendous effort they put into it. Lost in all the glory passed around this weekend was Kaip with a pipe each night. His move tonight might have been second only to Oshie's Friday wrap as the top play of the weekend.

It was in the second OT in the Class A state title game, against Totino Grace.

I had a chat with Mr. Eades in the Antique in the summer of1986. He said they had a goalie coming in the next year who should be really good. Seriously.

Sioux clinch home ice, and are 1 point away from clinching the coveted top 3 finish.

Oshie wins the faceoff forward, shovels it left and Aaron Marvin puts it in.

3 weeks ago the Sioux jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Saturday against UAA and proceeded to play the single worst period of hockey I've ever seen out of a UND team in the second. They need to not let it go to their heads and keep their feet moving.

Pretty rotten turn of events here. When you're winning, things just go your way. In this game, pucks have found DU sticks. Sioux shots have found pipes. Not that the Sioux have been perfect, but they haven't been 1-4 bad.

Despite the score, the Sioux are playing well. Kaip playing like a man possessed.

This isn't news to anyone, but MN's PP ineptitude is really stunning. They did manage to score against UND, going 2-5 on December 7 (a date which will live in infamy). Since then, excluding the series against Wayne State (which had already sold some of its equipment in its going out of business sale), in which they went 3 for 9, they are a combined 1 for 43 over 13 games. The "1" was on a 5 x 3 advantage against Wisconsin. I guess it's all the more shocking to me since it's MN we're talking about, and if there's one thing they've always been good at, it's scoring on the PP. It'll be interesting to see how much of an impact Ness and Schroeder have on the PP next year.

The highlight of the night for me was UND's response to the Gopher goal. Tensions were extremely high by the time MN scored; it seemed (from my couch) like the crowd really exploded, and the rouser was extra vigorous. That kind of atmosphere can sometimes empower the home team to pour on the pressure. Instead the Sioux got the forecheck going on the very next shift and kept the pressure on until the game was tied.

Marney, as a little girl, used to help my Mom get her classroom ready at an elementary school on Minot AFB. Be nice to her.

sagard calls 'em as he sees 'em, through clear lenses. I couldn't tell what Zajac was responding to, so I can't judge how necessary it was. I hope it was necessary, because I could have done without the post-game cross-check, as well as the handshake line dispute. It's one of the cool things about hockey, that teams can go through the line after an emotional battle and shake hands and be done with it. I don't understand concluding MN is horrible, when they took UND to OT both nights. Or soft, when they were physically with UND all four games this year. The good thing to take from this weekend is 3 points. The Sioux played hard for the last 5 periods and pretty well (not great). If there's one bad thing to take from it, it's that MN might have the goalie they've been dreaming of for years. Put a typical MN team in front of Kangas and you have a chance for good success. Offensively, MN so misses talented defensemen. I noticed a few times where the rushing forward pulled up, and I could feel the pass to the trailer coming, but it never did. That's a trademark MN play, but they don't have the defenseman to make it right now.

I thought I saw Watkins with Oshie and Kozek late in the period. I was wondering about keeping the Kaip line intact and maybe moving Oshie between Trupp and Frattin. Then cobble something together out of Kozek, Malone, and the fourth line. I thought the Sioux played pretty well until after they killed the last MN PP. Then the Wheeler line had a good 5-5 shift and the Sioux seemed to struggle a bit in the last 5 minutes.

Woog is quite fair. The only thing you accomplish by ripping him here is making yourself look bad. Both goalies were brilliant. Kangas may end up being the goalie MN has been waiting all these years for. Early, it looked again like MN would rule the boards. They are just big and the Sioux defense is undersized. We saw that against UAA and against MN earlier. Lucia really built a team for the small rink. I know departures happen, but it wouldn't be crazy to imagine Stoa, O'Brien, and Okposo out there. That team would have owned the boards.

Sorry to quote myself, but let's just say I wasn't surprised to see Trupp's OT goal tonight.

I agree a lot here. As flat as the Sioux were on Saturday, that was not the sole reason for the lopsided play. UAA played extremely well, and they were just too much for the undersized Sioux to handle down low. It was very reminiscent of the MN series. This group of UAA players is not far away from being a very good team. And it's not like they were big and slow either; they had guys blowing by Sioux defensemen all night long. When they kept getting around the outside, I was longing for the Greene/Jones/Smaby/Schneider group that would bury the wide-rusher into the glass. I saw every Sioux defenseman get beat. Even Finley got beat when someone walked right through him from the corner to the crease. I only mention Finley because he has been beaten so rarely this year. To show how badly the team got beat, even the Vandy line, the one I trust most on the ice because they're three big responsible guys, was pretty well physically dominated. Friday I thought Duncan played a great hockey game - just made the right play all game long. Saturday was the worst game I have seen him play. It seemed like every play he tried to make failed. He'd try to saucer a pass ahead on the breakout, and the Seawolf would knock it down and keep it in the zone. He'd try to hit the trailer, and it would get picked off by a back-checker. Again I'm only picking on Duncan because when he gets the puck, the right thing almost always happens; it was just uncanny how many ways things went wrong for him last night. This weekend was my first live viewing of the team this year, and I have to say Oshie looks better than he ever has. Whether because of injuries or something else, I thought he took a bit of a step back last year from the end of his freshman year, when I thought he was about the most dynamic thing in college hockey. Now, I cannot believe there is a better player in college hockey, and I can't imagine that it's even close. (He won't win the Hobey because he isn't being fed a steady diet of Western Michigan and LSSU.) He looks to me like he's playing better than any Sioux since Jeff Panzer's senior year, which includes some pretty outstanding seasons by some great players. And after watching the thicket of sticks he skated through all weekend long (I cannot believe Shyiak would say that), I predict that he will explode onto the professional hockey scene next year. Not just play a regular shift, but have people out of their seats and have highlights on ESPN's plays of the day/week. Having to carry only the puck and not extra players on his back will seem like childs' play to him. Trupp made a play Friday worth mentioning. He knocked a puck out of the air in the offensive corner, hit it again in the air before it hit the ice, then hit it a third time in the air toward the point, all without the puck ever reaching the ice and all while on the move. It admittedly gave the defenseman a tough bouncing puck to handle (although he did handle it, and I didn't catch who it was), but it was quite a display of hand-eye coordination. On the weekend, I saw Oshie's and Trupp's outstanding Friday goals, Vandevelde's patience on his Saturday goal, Watkins thankfully get rewarded for all his hard work with a goal, and the single worst period of Sioux hockey I can remember. I'd say that was a well-rounded weekend. Because of the four points, I can be cavalier about the Saturday display, but I'm sure it will give the coaches some ammunition for the upcoming practice week. I want no part of UAA later this year. I don't think we match up very well with them. When Vandy scored to make it 3-1, I thought: there is no justice. We had no business being in the game on the scoreboard, because we weren't in it on the ice. (But I don't want to give the two points back.) Also, thanks to the goalie for the sweep. They should have let him do the stick salute by himself.

Phil had some game-changing saves at the end of the second period. UAA didn't have a ton of shots, but they had some Grade AA chances (that's like going to 11, or giving 110%). I couldn't see his first and third period saves very well, but the second period was right in front of me, and he kept it from being a 3-2 deficit after 2. I'm sure his defensemen appreciated him, because he bailed them out big-time several times during the game.

Trupp on that line is an idea that keeps drifting through my mind as well. He seems to make things happen on most every shift, and most of all he wins the puck pretty often. The reason I don't like Miller there is he doesn't win the puck along the boards very often, then possession is lost, and the big line's shift is essentially over.

Thank you! I could never figure out why LaPoint was wearing a cape, or what that "S" was on his chest. I thought it stood for "Sioux," but now I know it stands for "Super-D." Note for supporters of a particular player: Try to support the player without tearing down his teammates, and try to keep the support rational. I personally am very pleased with both freshmen defensemen, but I disagree with all or part of each of the four sentences in your post. Best of luck to both LaPoint and Marto.

Sounds to me like the Sioux played better last night. What's been the difference? Tonight SC hits two pipes and had a goal disallowed. Last night the Sioux hit two pipes and missed a ton of great chances - Hak thought they had 14 or 15 Grade A chances. There have probably been four games this year where the Sioux have deserved a better fate: Wisconsin, Tech, UNH and SC. (I can think of only one where the opponent may have deserved better: MN.) What can you do but come back the next night and try to get those points? At least they've done that.

Lost in those terrible third period mistakes was a great effort through the first two periods. Actually the same was true in the previous game. I know you have to play 60 minutes, but the team is close to being there. Earlier we lamented when they came out flat, but that hasn't been the problem lately; they had a ton of jump and were around the net a lot. When they are playing that hard, I can't get on them about a result that they hate much more than we do.

As a Chicago fan wrote, all you need to know about the value of the two is this: When Chicago takes a bench minor, Kane serves it and Toews kills it. Whether that's true or not I don't know, but it sure reads well.

Their loss of composure was horrible and there's no arguing that. I also don't understand having Phil on the bench for the center ice faceoff; there was still 1+ minute left, plenty of time to pull him after you have good possession. However, this was not like the Saturday CC, UMD and Minny games, where they came out flat. UND was better than Friday, and better than UNH for 53 minutes. They really looked good for most of the game, and generated a bunch more good chances than they did the night before. That Twilight Zone episode at the end ruined a good step forward.

The Sioux were playing pretty well 5.5, then the PP's took their momentum away, as stupid as that sounds. My single biggest disappointment this year is the PP. I know JT is fantastic, but last year's great PP seemed to not have a weak link. With 4 of those 5 back, I thought they would be more effective.

All these PPs with no results makes for a bad game when the marbles switch over.