jk

Honestly I think Toews has come pretty close to catching him, at least based on last weekend. Both beat defensemen numerous times on the rush. Oshie's still more physical, and I think Toews may move the puck a little better (tough to say that though). Overall it's a nice problem to have.

Absolutely right. Plus he took a big step towards securing a future career option by permanently becoming a "non-import" player in the Swiss league. Had he not gone this season, he would have been unable to secure this designation. Now he can return to North America, give pro hockey a shot here, and head off to a nice Swiss career if it doesn't work out here. It's unfortunate for UND that it worked out that way, but he did the right thing. Adding Murray to the abundance of elite offensive players already on this team would have been something (unless, of course, it meant Oshie wasn't here). Don't think of the Murray who struggled through the end of last year skating with a knee brace and shoulder harness, but the healthy one from his freshman year.

Find out where they're staying and borrow one? It would even be game-worn.

I posted this after my first live viewing of Jones in a game: "Jones, in the major PK, was just roughing someone up all the way from dot to the corner. It was beautiful." But I posted it on 2/12/02 at 4:25 p.m., and it was after my first viewing of Matt. It was a deja vu moment for me last weekend seeing Zach beat someone up in the corner, just working him over, because it was just what Matt had done as a freshman. Zach was right on the edge of a cross-checking or roughing call, though, and with more girlish refs this weekend that kind of brutality will be called, I fear. Anyway, the younger Jones is going to be the foundation of the team by the time he's done, much as Matt was.

I was also thinking about the lineup. It'll take me a few steps to get there, but here's where I'm going. With Stafford out, Kozek took his spot on the second PP unit this weekend. Then, after the PP, Porter took Kozek's spot on the Watkins-Kaip line to give Kozek a rest. I know Kaip's first goal was scored with Porter on this line, and I think both might have been. On those occasions, Porter and Watkins seemed to work well together on the cycle. So, with Stafford back, you could put Watkins-Porter-Kaip together, and Prpich-Kozek-Someone. It's interesting, but maybe it's best to just stick with what has worked pretty well down the stretch and leave everyone together, just substituting Someone directly into Fabian's spot.

Now that's sandbagging! I can already see the posts on GPL about "SS calling the Gophers a sham," not realizing it's a Gopher fan doing the namecalling. Well done.

Since UND's awakening in Mariucci in January (a team tired from the WJCs and the Anchorage trip got annihilated on Friday and gutted out a big win on Saturday), UND is 10-5, and the details of their performance are encouraging. Here's a rundown: W 6-3 MSUM - Very solid win W 4-2 MSUM - Cruising to a solid win, and then a lapse in the closing minutes made it close at the end. L 1-2 SCSU - The Sioux didn't play real well, and lost a very close game. L 1-2 SCSU - UND played very well by most accounts, but lost in OT. W 4-2 CC - Another very solid win. A late CC goal made the score closer. L 2-3 CC - A tough loss considering UND's third-period lead, but still a very close game. W 4-0 UMD - A blowout W 5-1 UMD - Blowout W 6-2 DU - A dominating win from start to finish. L 3-7 DU - The only meltdown in this stretch. A third-period lead evaporated under a barrage of PP goals. W 4-0 MTU - See UMD W 6-0 MTU - Boom goes the dynamite L 2-3 MSUM - Similar to the Friday SCSU game, UND lacked intensity but still lost a very tight game in OT. W 4-1 MSUM - Solid win. W 3-0 MSUM - Solid win. In 9 of the 10 wins, UND went into the closing minutes with at least a two-goal lead. Basically, they dominated in their wins. In 4 of the 5 losses, UND lost by just a goal, with two of those in OT. Only the DU loss stands out, but even there UND had a third-period lead. Overall, I think their performance over the last two months should be considered encouraging.

The Beavers are the only team that has clinched. The WCHA's playoff champion can clinch a spot on Saturday night.

Maybe we can make up for it at least a little by getting Chay here. I know people aren't expecting a ton from him, but what if he is similarly talented, just smaller? He's getting here a year later than Colby did, so maybe he'll be able to step in and play at closer to his top potential earlier in his career.

So really, just more uninformed speculation. ... If the snow ends mid-day Thursday, it shouldn't be affecting traffic too much by Friday night. However, I agree that the time of day alone plus the residual weather effect will mean you'll have to chop a little early.

Sorry, but that's just disgusting, and I'm not kidding. I'm not offended by a line brawl, but the part about literally using the stick as a spear, and the three guys on one that happened several times - that's not old time hockey. I won't ever understand how the guys in white could stand around while their teammates got mugged.

Bummer to lose Kangas. Maybe we're OK in net with Genoway coming next year. This is from last night's Vernon playoff game: "The Spruce Kings just about got the break they were looking for, down 4-0 Jon Olthuis come way out to play the puck, as he was caught he tried to handle the puck and then coughed it up to a Prince George player, Chay Genoway come back, sliding back into the goal to make a street hockey like save to keep the puck out & keep Olthui's shutout still on the line."

Wins over conference opponents don't count as quality wins, even in nonconference games. The YATC results bear this out.

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but UND is not out of the woods yet. In looking at the 24 comparisons that UND currently wins, 13 are basically complete, 7 are at risk due to RPI (with 4 of those close, and the others less at risk), and 4 are at risk due to TUC. RPI: The worst-case is that UND goes 0-2, with a third-place loss to UMD. Depending on what happens with competing teams, UND could lose at least 4 comparisons. Next worse is if SCSU is the third-place opponent, and last if it's MN. TUC: Here's the basic story. If Dartmouth and Northern Michigan (especially NMU) do well, MSUM is no longer a TUC, and UND loses a 4-1 tally off its current TUC record.* That could lose UND four comparisons. Bottom line: I ran numerous YATC scenarios where NMU won the CCHA, and UND went 0-2, and in most of them UND is out of the NCAAs. I believe that UND is a lock if they win once this weekend. Likewise, I believe UND is a lock if NMU fails to win the CCHA. I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think you could view it as UND has a magic number of "one". Four chances for one good result: either a UND win or an NMU loss. * The reason NMU is so important is that they can catch UNO in RPI, displacing UNO to 16th, thereby rendering MSUM's wins over UNO to be non-quality. The lack of a bonus bump in MSUM's RPI leaves them shy of .5000, and shy of being a TUC.

I noticed that too but didn't want to mention that they both won something at the end of the year.

I did a little checking and found these: - BC in 2000-01. Kobasew (27) and Ben Eaves (13) combined for 40, with Voce adding 12. - MN in 2002-03. Vanek (31) and Guyer (13) had 44, with Hirsch adding 9. Of course Duncan has 11 for the Sioux as well. I checked Michigan, MN, BC and CC back to 1999-2000, since I knew they had some freshmen have big individual years (Senja, Vanek, etc.)

Glancing at UND's season stats after the first-round series, and a few things jumped out at me: 1. Oshie and Toews, two freshmen forwards, have scored a combined 40 goals this season. That is a pretty remarkable number. I haven't gone looking yet, but I'm guessing that's a pretty rare occurrence. 2. Lee and Chorney, two freshmen defensemen, have a combined 6-32-38 line. That is more than just solid for freshmen at that position. 3. Matt Smaby's scoring line after two years was 2-8-10 in 83 games. This year he has 3-13-16 in 41 games (so far). He's following the development curve perfectly: 1. Adjust to college, 2. control your own zone, 3. add offense, 4. dominate everywhere. 4. Seven players have played all 41 games this year: Smaby, Porter, Zajac, Duncan, Kozek, Watkins, Jones. Four freshmen and three others, reflecting the overall makeup of the team. Congrats to those guys.

Got one more for ya about this UMD game. MSUM's RPI is .4997. MSUM has two quality wins that boost its RPI over .500 and make it a TUC, adding a 4-1 record into UND's TUC record. BUT both of MSUM's quality wins are against UNO. UNO sits 14th in RPI, just ahead of Dartmouth and DU. If UNO slips to 16th in the RPI, MSUM is longer a TUC. Dartmouth is still alive and a real threat to pass UNO. If DU wins, they will also likely pass UNO. A UMD win would nearly ensure that UNO would remain in the RPI top 15, which is good for UND.

Maybe he could be your spelling eye dog.

Forney hurt his shoulder about five minutes into the second period and didn't return to the game. At the time, TRF had a 2-1 lead. They extended it to 3-1 before falling 4-3 on a goal with about 35 seconds left in the game. Personally, I'm disappointed because I was hoping to get a chance to see Forney play. It looked like he hadn't gotten into much of a groove at the time of the injury, but I expect that he would have gotten his chances as the game wore on. From the little I saw, you could see that the ingredients are all there, especially hands and size. He also seemed pretty raw right now, with plenty of things to work on. He did crush a kid with a charge early in the game, so it was nice to see a bit of an edge, even if it was a little illegal. (FWIW, I'm one of the expert scouts who thought Oshie still needed to work on things after watching the tournament the last few years.) The big thing here that is truly sad is what the injury meant to TRF's and Forney's state title hopes. To further his hockey career, Forney could played elsewhere this year, but he chose to come back and help his team play in the state tournament. Then he finally got there and only got to play one period. Forney made a really admirable decision, and didn't get the payoff he deserved. Although he did get part of it, as TRF did make it to the state tournament for the first time in 41 years, and he did get to play in it.

I can play if we need. I'm not much of a hockey player, but if we're short numbers I can help out. I played (using the term loosely) two years ago, and not since. I'll watch the thread to see if I'm needed.

This thread has gotten nasty, but thanks for this very clever post. Still laughing.

A close call: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Edmon...466299-sun.html "Greene, 22, was on his way home and talking with friends outside of a nightclub at about 12:30 a.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle and struck Greene, who saw the SUV coming at him and was able to brace for the impact. The six-foot-three, 223-pound native of Grand Ledge, Michigan, bounced off the hood and windshield of the SUV and hit the pavement. He was taken to University hospital with bumps and bruises and later released. "I was on the sidewalk talking to a friend," Greene said. "I heard some tires squealing, I turned back around and the car fishtailed right into me. It was an accident. "It was dead-centre in the grill and the hood ... I just kind of turned and took the hit." " --------------------------------- There are some pretty good punchlines for this story: "Greene collides with SUV; SUV totalled" but truthfully he is very lucky. The UND program and family could easily be in mourning over this one.

I believe right now they have one neutral win (Miami) and one home win (Harvard). The road win over UNH is not included because they are not in the top 15 in the RPI (UNH is 16th right now). Conference games do not qualify for "quality wins," and I think even a non-conference game against a conference opponent (if UND met CC in a holiday tournament, for example) fails to qualify as well.

Without getting into it too much, I like Prpich and think he plays his role on the team well. There's a whole element to hockey that doesn't involve a puck, pretty skating, and beautiful goals. That's the world Prpich operates in. I don't exactly see Prpich losing a fight to 3/4 of the league, either. No doubt he'd have trouble with a bigger guy like Paukovich, but I'd like his chances against anyone near his size.