jk

I assume the Sioux freshman answer is Kevin Maxwell, but don't know the details. Hrkac's frosh line is unforgettable for its symmetry: 18-36-54 in 36 games. A sparkling season that showed the promise that would explode two years later in his delayed sophomore year. My dad has a theory: Don't embarras them on Friday. Hopefully the Sioux can hang on tonight and handle a riled-up mankato team tomorrow.

Sounds like two goalies playing well tonight. Toews and Oshie have each just missed corners they were trying to pick. Got to get those on net. The second Sioux PP was a bit of a mess compared to the relatively composed first one. Now Oshie and Chorney make good plays to get Porter a rebound goal. Sounds like the Sioux have come to play and are in a good game.

Sioux kill off a few penalties, then get a chance of their own on the PP. Just before that Smaby stepped into the rush and took a shot. Nice to hear his game round out.

When I hear McKelvie's name, I fondly recall the game his freshman year when he decided to look for trouble all game long. Midway through the game he volunteered his face to David Hale for a proper introduction into the league.

If that's true, then I'm finally on the "fire Hak" bandwagon.

(deja vu on this one, because I had trouble finding details on last year's game as well.) The BCHL all-star game was played last night. Near the end of the game the score was 13-10, but I don't know if it was final. It may take a few days for the BCHL to post the boxscore on its site. Here's a message board review of the game, with some familiar names: "just wanted to say it was a fun game to be at last night a lot of nice goals it was great seeing the captains for both the coast and interior are current members of the silverbacks macintyre and zajac>>>both played well too also SImon leblanc was outstanding in net made probably TWO of the nicest saves ive ever seen in this league>>>both brathwaite and olthuis were pretty weak in net for the interior the reason it wasnt a blowout was the spectacular play of brad thiessen in net for the interior two out of the six goalies were amazing>> and the best player on the ice for the coast was colin greening with a great game including a hat trick and the two players of the game were darcy zajac for the interior and greening for the coast good to see the level of talent in this game was a fun time"

I agree that Oshie and Lee, among others, have demonstrated that playing the senior year in HS rather than juniors doesn't necessarily set you back too far as a player. This is especially true with the competitive schedules those teams play. It has to be tantalizing to be part of the group to finally bring the state title to Moorhead. Guys like Kraft, Blake, Cullen and the recent group with Lee couldn't do it. If you thought you had a good shot at it, it would be hard to walk away from your senior year.

Hope it doesn't turn into the US Pond Water Polo Tourney. I can't imagine a solid month in the 30s has done much for the ice.

Shove it in my face later, but realistically 10-2 seems like a fantasy to me. A "bad" finish would be 8-4 down the stretch? I'd take 8-4 in a heartbeat. The Sioux are not an elite team right now. I firmly believe that they have the ingredients to be able to make a run at the end of the year and compete with anyone (size, speed, skill, goaltending), but they are just a regular competitive middle-of-the-pack WCHA team right now. In a neutral situation, I don't think there's a strong argument that they are any better than MSUM or SCSU. They might have a slight edge on UMD and MTU, but it's not gigantic. I'm basing my opinion on results recently and throughout the year. If the Sioux step it up and prove me wrong, I'll be enjoying it every step of the way.

With two more teams being swept at home last weekend, I had to check to see if it's happening more often this year. I just checked a few of the top teams, because I imagine it's not unusual for the lower teams to get swept at home in any year. CC was just swept by Wisconsin. The Tigers were tigers last year, and weren't swept at home at all. UND has been swept at home twice this year, compared to once (DU) last year. MN has been swept at home once this year, compared to, surprisingly, two times last year (CC and MTU). UMD has been swept at home FOUR times this year, including once by BSU. They managed it just once last year. It looks like two factors have skewed the data this year. First, Wisconsin is a beast this year, accounting for three of the sweeps listed above (MN, UND and CC, plus the showcase for good measure). Second, UMD obviously is struggling mightily at home. Here's the conversation between Hakstol and Sandelin: "Let's play at your place." "That's OK, how bout your place?" "No, I insist" ...

Other potential names for the 2007/08 time would be: D. Toews - Colorado AAA- 2007 if he accelerates and fends off MJ Tessier - Colorado AAA - ditto K. Zajac - Winnipeg midget Colin Wilson - USNDP - as noted by Vegas on another thread Heisenberg currently has Lamoureaux, Marvin, Christian and Zajac listed as 2007 recruits, and Toews, Tessier and Wilson as 2008 recruits. Whether it would be the right class, I don't know, but it would be possible to assemble an all-legacy recruiting class of Lamoureaux, Marvin, Christian, Toews and Zajac.

http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/uw/index...d=68568&ntpid=2 "A large group of schools had been interested in Gagner, with Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan, Boston College, Boston University and Maine among them. Davies will join Lincoln Stars teammate Ben Grotting in coming to Wisconsin next season. Listed at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, Davies accepted a scholarship from the UW over North Dakota, Maine and New Hampshire, but said the Badgers were his favored target all along." UND still needs some bodies for the Fall of 2007. Porter, Fabian and Stafford will be gone for sure, and Zajac, Toews and Oshie could very well be gone as well. Counting Prpich, that's seven current forwards who may be gone by 2007. So far there are four forwards lined up to replace them: Vandevelde, Forney, Zajac and Trupp. Should be fun to watch it develop.

I believe I read that the newest Sioux recruit, Dazel, from the Ukraine, will not be eligible til next Fall. So he will not be playing. edit: Which is a bummer, because his father Lacka, Sr., was the last cut from the powerhouse Soviet team in 1980.

One angle that's been tossed about by Woog, the Strib and on this and other boards, is the idea that MN has gotten fat on their cupcakes and might have truoble adjusting to a good opponent. I think this concept is overdone. To start with, MN's opponents haven't been nearly as bad as people suggest. These "fringe" Division 1 teams are no longer a joke. They are real teams capable of giving anyone a good game. Yes, Union was overmatched. But Union followed up their pasting by MN by playign Harvard to a tie - the same Harvard that played UND to a standstill and looked pretty good doing it. Niagara's fun to laugh at, with the Purple Eagles and Niagara "falls" (haha), but they're a real team too. They've beaten Bemidji, who gave the Sioux a real run on Friday and probably were only prevented from winning by Phil L. They also beat UNH 6-2 just a week ago, and played Vermont and Cornell in four very close games. The fact that MN overwhelmed them says more about MN than it does about Union and Niagara. In fact, in the current era, no one dominates the lesser teams like MN does. Something about the speed and that crisp passing attack is too much for the lower teams. While we're talking about respecting opponents, I also don't think it's a disgrace that UND would lose to a team like UAA. UAA has beaten Duluth, SCSU and Denver so far this year, and they absolutely had MN on the ropes. I'm not happy about the loss, but when people talk about how tough the WCHA is, it's not just lip service. It really is difficult every weekend. This weekend will be difficult but not impossible. UND will need excellent goaltending to come home with any points. But I think UND will show up with the effort they are capable of, and I think they will get some points.

How do you think Brent Sutter would react to "fraternizing with the enemy?" Not well, I'm guessing. Toews was smart to mind his own business. Now that he and Oshie have been reunited as linemates, it's time to start working some Sioux magic.

Nice to get a little confidence going, and the Sioux are going to need it, because they have an extremely difficult task ahead of them next weekend. MN is playing very well right now, and the Sioux are going to need a tremendous effort to come home with any points. For the record, I think they will play very well and it will be a terrific show.

Here's a little WJC connection. We know Toews and Oshie connected for a goal tonight. Gerbe and Bertram also combined for a goal, and Schneider stopped 43 of 44 for the BC win.

I think it's spelled psycho.

The commotion was caused by a yeti sighting. Shortly afterward Berry was seen visiting with the yeti's parents.

Robust PK for the Sioux. Stafford and Watkins both with fine SH chances.

It's nice to finally score some goals, but we shouldn't forget the importance of Phil L. in this game. He faced a serious barrage just before Spirko's goal, and then more pressure before the back-to-back breakaways. If UAA puts one up in either of those cases, it might completely change the game.

Must be a generational thing. I hear it and think of Hoss and Little Joe and Hop Sing.

Last night wasn't a "ten minutes of effort" night. They were back on their heels for the first ten minutes of the game, with seven of those shorthanded. At the eleven minute mark of the first, they had no shots on goal. In the next 49 minutes, they had 51 shots. Shots don't matter, but they are at least an indication of whether the team bothered to show up, which they did. Besides the obvious disappointment of a loss (and of staying up until one o'clock to suffer the loss, which I've done too many times in the last week), the thing that bothers me is that UND lost a chance to rest the WJC guys, and got no points out of the deal. A real lose-lose situation last night. Along those lines, the coaches know so much more than me, but I don't understand sitting Radke when either Chorney or Lee could have gotten another rest day.

When the starter is hurt, the backup is the goalie. He'll be getting more than half the starts until Parise can return. Any word on that?

I know a loss (if they go on to lose) is bad for WCHA and NCAA purposes, but hockey's a screwy game sometimes. The Sioux have 45 or so shots to 25 or so, so it's not like they didn't show up. One goalie played real well, and one had a bad outing. The Sioux had a few pipes and UAA had one go in off a Sioux skate. And no I'm not happy about it, but it's the way the game goes sometimes.