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Between traveling to and from the X and managing other things, I haven't kept up with the board and hadn't seen this thread until now. WOW. Thanks for sharing the historical info, PCM. The "funny" thing is that the NCAA actually attempted to take a pretty big step in changing the way the game is officiated, and perhaps it was due in part to the experience of high-profile stars like Parise. We haven't seen it too much, since they apparently decided to phase in the implementation of the new emphasis: All the leagues except the WCHA were targeted for the first year, and the WCHA will follow nex ... er, sometime. I'd just like to state for the record that the Sioux are no angels in this regard either. If a team attempted to compete in the WCHA without obstructing the opponent, they'd get killed because it would be akin to unilateral disarmament.

You obviously haven't taken note of the tone around here. We just want to get out of town with our 9 forwards and 5 defensemen while we still have any left. A physically and emotionally exhausted club, very shorthanded, will be playing against a rested MN team, as they didn't expend much energy tonight. Has the potential to be not very pretty. I'll hope for the best.

A little good news. Trailing 5-4 in the waning moments of its USHL game with Indiana tonight, Sioux Falls pulled their goalie and added an extra attacker to the ice. The only assist on the tying goal, scored with 8 seconds left, was given to T.J. Oshie, his second assist of the game. (I think it's terrific that he was on the ice as they were trying to tie. Not bad for a Spring addition from high school.) He proceeded to pot the OT game-winner, capping his three-point night. Congrats, T.J.

I lied about being at a loss for words. If Fabian is OK to go, then I would do this to the lineup: 1. Keep the McMahon line intact. 2. Keep the Canady line intact. 3. Move Porter up to the Zajac line. 4. Add Foyt and Marvin to the lineup as Fylling's wings. 5. Add Radke as the sixth defenseman. I might play Lammy again and save Parise for next week.

I too am mostly at a loss (a first). To wrap it up, I'm proud of the performance today, especially stepping it up in the third and taking it to them. I'm proud they didn't let the game disintigrate into a hackfest after the Bina incident. It could have, and I was (wrongly) hoping for a little retribution. I can't believe they kept their composure. I also wish they didn't play tomorrow. Not a darn thing can be gained from it. They'll play with a short bench, and will be quite tired. Honestly, losing Prpich, Bina and Murray puts a huge dent in the team's NCAA tournament chances. After today's gutty performance, I have no doubt they will give it their all. But it will be tough.

To paraphrase Greene, about not retaliating: Hockey's a small world, and some of our guys are going to cross paths with their guys down the road. If two years from now Greene destroys Paukovich in a professional game, and the announcers and fans have no idea where it came from, NCAA fans will know.

What heart they have shown today. I don't care what the shots say, UND owned that period.

McMahon, Genoway, Spirko Zajac, Stafford ... Murray hurt Fylling, Porter ... Prpich hurt Canady, Massen ... Fabian hurt (toughing it out because he has to) Greene, Jones Schneider, Fuher Smaby ... Bina hurt Who knew winning the play-in game would be so costly. Hope Bina's OK.

Bitching about the refs is something I am basically opposed to, because all teams have to deal with the breaks of officiating. This is not a matter of UND not getting the five minute PP. I don't care about that. In this case, the SOB needs to be ejected from the game. Period. You could show that hit on an officiating tape as the definition of a dangerous hit.

That is one cool tool. I've been looking for scenarios where UND fails to make the NCAA tournament, and I haven't found any yet. Some are close though. The worst case for UND is losing to Wisconsin, which would swing the Wisconsin comparison permanently in Bucky's favor, and hurt UND's RPI and TUC record. Comparisons UND currently wins, which could flip: UNH - The TUC comparison is very close. A UNH win flips this. Colgate - Colgate winning the ECAC tournament would boost its RPI and flip this. OSU - The TUC and RPI components are in question. OSU can flip this if it wins the CCHA tourney. Oddly enough, I think UND will flip the Michigan comparison and win it if it loses the OSU comparison. Comparisons UND has won (Barring an odd effect of a peripheral event (always possible for PWR) I think UND has put these comparisons to bed. Even if the team in question won its tournament, it still wouldn't flip the comparison): Maine Dartmouth Vermont Michigan St. Lowell Northern Mich. I'm not a PWR expert, so any input from someone who is would be welcomed. I haven't looked at the upside to see which comparisons UND could flip in its favor, but I'm sure there are some possibilities. Not to get anyone's hopes up, but I think UND's in.

I like to see misfortune for MN as much as the next Sioux fan (except DaveK, who is obviously some sort of mutant (no offense, Dave)), but doesn't the whining about MN get a little fatiguing? I know reading the whining does. Vanelli, officials, the Final Five ... Let it go. Cheer for the Sioux.

Dang! The Sioux were 0 for 4 on the PP tonight. When are they ever going to get that going??? ... Good job. Go get 'em tomorrow.

I won't take shots at the players because they are, by all accounts, playing hard. I can't hold it against them that they did not become the players that some expected. Virg is another matter. That's the best he could do, the Three Horsemen?

I don't know if I have seen a neutral party pick the Sioux in this series. Every WCHA fan on USCHO seems to favor UMD, and I see that Woog just picked them as well. The rationale seems to be: the juggernaut has finally woken up, and behind their strong goaltending, UMD should be able to take a scrappy UND team down. I will admit to being able to see their point, and I'm apprehensive about the series. However, I have a hard time seeing that UMD has suddenly turned the corner, based on a few decent weekends of play. (The same could be said of UND.) It's also not certain that Duluth will receive goaltending any better than UND, and dagies' data suggests otherwise. I guess that if I were a neutral observer, I might expect, in a series with two essentially equal teams, the home team to win. One other fact I haven't seen mentioned is the teams' only meeting this year, when UND dominated UMD on Friday in Duluth, then lost a very tight game on a last second goal on Saturday.

Jared Boll, a big power forward from Lincoln who has been talked about here a little, committed to UMD. Sandy's squad is going to have a nasty disposition. ------------------------------ A player we haven't talked about here is Darcy Zajac at Salmon Arm this year. Here's how his season went: First 39 games, 3-12-15 Last 21 games, 9-9-18 He was a rookie in the BCHL this year, and I think will play there next year as well. With a September 1986 birthdate, he's already 18. While he apparently doesn't have the talent of his older brother, I wonder if he has begun to play his way onto the Sioux's radar screen.

Lincoln beat Omaha 6-5 in OT. Lee 0-1-1 +3 Hardwick 0-0-0 +1 Vandy 0-2-2 +1, took 6 shots Pretty nice first game, adjusting to a higher level of play. Although it's safe to say they won't see anyone much quicker than Barribal.

I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if their early arrival hinges on developments on three fronts: 1. Kaip's health 2. Miller's health 3. Stafford or any other forward's early departure for the pros.

I guess that is my point. Duncan was already committed for 2005, he had graduated from high school, and he was going to play a post-secondary year of junior hockey in the BCHL. I assume he was available to arrive in September 2004 if the coaches wanted him to. It is very possible that the coaches thought he was just not strong enough to make an impact in the WCHA, so he was better off maturing physically in a junior league. I don't mean to second guess the coaches on this one, it just fits the topic of the value of sending kids to juniors when they perhaps could help.

It's a terrific question, and Senja is a great example. Maybe the question in the case of someone like Oshie is how much ice time he would get. If the coaches think he might be on the bench for a lot of next year, then why not have him playing first line minutes and PP in the USHL? Right now UND has 13 forwards, with 5 exhausting their eligibility and 5 coming in, leaving them with a projected 13 for next year. That's a little thin, IMO. I wonder if Oshie might be the back-up plan next year in case either Kaip's concussion problems continue to keep him out (which is sad on another level entirely) or Stafford moves on to the AHL. Looking at the issue more currently, when both Bucks and Parise left, UND could have bolstered their roster by adding a 14th forward, Ryan Duncan. We'll see next year if he is able to score in college, but on a scoring-challenged team short of forwards, the BCHL's leading goal scorer might have helped this year.

Thought I would resurrect this thread. Here's what the link referenced in the first post had to say about UND's RPI heading into the regular season's last three weeks [edited just a touch for the table headings]: -------------------------- Assuming UND's three remaining opponents perfectly maintain their current rankings (minor deviations will have insignificant impacts on UND's RPI), UND's opponents' win percentage will fall from .5742 to .5635 and it's opponents' opponents' win percentage will fall from .5251 to .5224. UND's control over its destiny is its win percentage, which will be the primary driver of its RPI, as the following table elucidates (Additional Wins, Final Win%, Approximate Final RPI): 1 .4861 .5339 2 .5139 .5408 3 .5417 .5478 4 .5694 .5547 5 .5972 .5617 6 .6250 .5686 --------------------------- As predicted (simple math), UND's winning percentage after four wins (3-1-2 = 4 wins) is .5694. UND's RPI is currently .5535, compared to the prediction of .5547. Pretty darn close for something that is definitely not simple math. ================ I just know enough to ask questions, but it seems to me that most of the PWR comparisons above UND, the very top teams, are out of reach. It would seem that, with positive results on the ice, comparisons with the following are all flippable in UND's favor: Wisconsin OSU Harvard I think the highest UND could finish in the PWR is 7th, barring a real run through the Final Five that might challenge a few of the comparisons that seem far out of reach now. In the rearview mirror, nearby comparisons with the following seem pretty safe: Dartmouth Northern Michigan Maine Colgate Unfortunately, the list of PWR comparisons that could be in danger is long: UNH Lowell Vermont Michigan State UMD Few things about the PWR can be said with certainty, and I haven't crunched the numbers, but I get these impressions from looking at the PWR comparisons: 1. If UND advances past UMD this weekend, they will probably qualify for the NCAA tournament. 2. If UND loses to UMD this weekend, I do not think they are necessarily doomed to exclusion from the NCAAs. However, I think their spot would be very precarious, and they would be at the mercy of a bunch of other factors. It looks like the UNH, Vermont and UMD comparisons would probably flip with a series loss this weekend. 3. UMD is win or golf. It's so hard to tell with all the factors that go into play, but I think UND is where it was three weeks ago, still needing to win on the ice.

Just for fun, check out this picture of the high-stick no-goal. http://pix.procolor.com/jostens/gallery/87/0550_G

Beautiful job of counter-punching by AHA tonight. They jumped on turnovers and got odd-man rushes, and converted a lot of them. Moorhead had plenty of chances, but couldn't get them into the net. That waved-off goal will enter into the Moorhead folklore as one more bad break along the way to not winning a title. There's no question it was a terrible call, but you have to fight through bad breaks. I think Duluth East ultimately cost Moorhead the title, as their pathetic effort last night was probably responsible for Moorhead sleep-walking through the first half of this game. They must have thought they were a little greater than they are after dominating on Friday.

The big difference for Moorhead tonight, to me, is that I have to ask this question: Where are Lee and Ammerman? Very quiet tonight.

Green Bay got shellacked (sp) 9-1 last night. Miller didn't play because of this, from a GB paper: -------------------------- Forward Brad Miller is out for the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff. Miller is second on the team with 13 goals and was on the Gamblers

Yes, watched it here. Wonderful hockey. They make enough mistakes to generate good chances, which makes it great to watch. No controversial "no goals". The only controversy is perhaps calling a penalty in the second OT after letting everything go for a long time. These teams were very even, and would probably split if they played ten games. Oshie's hit in the defensive zone in the third was a beauty, and shouldn't have been called elbowing. He's a real athlete, strong, good hands, nice agility. I thought he tried to do too much at times, but I guess that is what you do when you are "the man" on a team. UND could perhaps use a forward on this year's team that tries to put the team on his shoulders.