jk

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.

UAA passing: Peter Cartright to Hoss to Little Joe

I listened when Hennessy called the comeback from down 7-3 with under four minutes left in Duluth. Part of me wishes I hadn't, because I now always believe it's possible. So of course I'm still here.

Shots now 32-18 UND. This bites.

So is Marvin playing in place of Radke? Any idea why?

Once the first period reached 5-on-5 play, and into the second, the Sioux owned the even-strength play. The middle of the second, though, has been spent in front of Lammy. Sioux need to turn it around here and get some pressure down in the other end.

Shots so far 22-14 UND.

Besides maybe some of his teammates and the coaches, you know who is really POd right now? Watkins. He gets all amped up for the game, he's maybe looking at an expanded role with Oshie and Toews having limited minutes, and he gets kicked out on his first shift.

With this feed I have to imagine half of what I'm hearing (thought I heard Hrkac to Romaniuk to Parise), but it didn't sound to me like the Sioux were getting schooled. They gave up the early PP goal, then had to kill the 5 minute PP. Then the Zajac line came out and had a solid shift, and all of a sudden it was 2-0. Was the second goal a softy? I couldn't tell. From then on the Sioux had plenty of chances, and the mythical creature opponents few. I agree with PCM that being down 2-0 to a team with a hot goalie is a dangerous place to be. It sounded like the first PP unit was Zajac, Spirko, Oshie, Lee and Chorney. The second sounded like Stafford, Toews, Duncan, Marvin?? and someone else (I must not have heard that one right). Keep the faith.

There's not really a good place for this, but this'll do. In reading the Boys of Winter about the 1980 US team, a couple things jumped out at me. One, and the reason I picked this thread, is that Mike Ramsey, in addition to being a star hockey player, also starred in high school tennis and football. Sound familiar to anyone? Also, and having nothing to do with this thread, when the Soviets failed to score on a few glorious first-period chances, they were completely unbothered by their failures. They had zero urgency, because they well knew that there would be other scoring chances, many of them, and if they missed on the first five then the next one would probably go in and the floodgates would open. It was a perfect description of that (forgive me) horrible 1-0 loss to Denver two years ago. Complete control, but a calm approach because the team knew eventually they would break loose. Then calmness switched to sheer terror, only too late to do anything about it. BTW, the hockey/tennis/football star is Forney.

There were times, especially in the Russia game, where I thought Lee was running around a bit, and generally he didn't control things like I hoped he would. The excuse that he's young, though it may seem tired, still has quite a bit of truth to it. Until three months ago, his highest level of hockey was MN high school. As for the disappearing stars in the bronze game, I think it's no accident that the US's best players in the last game were the ones who were underutilized earlier in the tournament. Kyle ground the top guys into the ice earlier, so I'm not surprised they were dead at the end. IMO this was the biggest issue for the US, as it turned what should have been the US's strength, depth, into a weakness. It's also why I would seriously consider limiting the ice time (even to 0) for some of the US's returning players in Anchorage the weekend. Lucia would be a great choice for next year. He might even get a chance to coach Erik Johnson then, if his NHL team releases him. Generally about the WJC: This tournament's structure is seriously flawed. The medal round should either be eight teams deep or four teams deep, or they should have a rest day between the quarterfinals and semifinals. When the US took the ice against Russia, it was their fourth game in five days. We watch the game and think they look outmatched or just aren't trying, but maybe sometimes the heart steps on the gas, but there's nothing left in the tank.

I haven't heard any mention of his status since the start of the period. All they said was that he wouldn't return for the remainder of the game. Remember the passion of that Parise/Stuart led team? Where did that go?

Mueller ejected for elbowing. Maybe not ejected, maybe 2 and 10. That'll help get the team back into the game. What a lousy tournament this turned into for the US. The big thing now is to hope Oshie's OK.

4-2 Finland with about 4 minutes to go. SOG are 47-38 Finland.

Oh well isn't that just lovely. Oshie won't return in this game, according to Rich. Just over a period left in the whole tournament and he gets hurt.

Porter, Oshie, Wheeler Mueller, Ryan, Schremp