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The Sioux's third goal was Murray from Foyt. Foyt's first Sioux point. Congrats.

I think US practices are open to the public. Has anyone attended? I'm curious about how the UND-connected kids look, especially how Lee is adapting to the quicker pace. jloos, you're a hockey junkie; have you been there?

Very unofficially, I think this gives Oshie a 13-20-33 line in 8 games. If BCHL points are "easy" to rack up, then MN HS Class A points should really be discounted. I'm sure most Division 1 forward recruits could clean up in MN HS competition. That said, Oshie's performance so far this year has been impressive, and makes his arrival in a year or two something to look forward to.

Hey, "Just Curious" actually composed a nice post, with a source and everything. We could use posters like that around here, so don't pick on him/her too badly. Just Curious, I think they all know Sid's not going to play college hockey.

Tough crowd here this weekend. The Sioux must have had their ugly masks on, because while I didn't see the games, I listened to some of them and it didn't sound as bad to me as it apparently looked. Missed opportunities stink, but comparing the result to my expectations going into the weekend, I think it was a good weekend. Great performance Friday, and a close loss on the road against a desperate team Saturday. I guess it depends on how good Duluth really is. If they are in fact a good team, then splitting at their rink isn't so bad. Here are the blemishes on this year's record: T 2 @ Minnesota State 2 ot L 0 Minnesota 6 L 3 @ Boston College (nc) 5 T 3 @ Northeastern (nc) 3 ot L 2 Colorado College 3 ot L 0 @ Wisconsin 1 L 2 @ Wisconsin 5 L 1 Alaska-Anchorage 2 L 3 @ Minnesota-Duluth 4 Since getting drilled by MN, they haven't lost by more than 1 goal (excluding empty-netters). I know they don't give style points, and there are no moral victories, but it's not like this team is far from being very good. Of the results above, the ones I would want back are: Northeastern - the game was basically in control and the score could have been much worse, and NE got a bounce on a PP and suddenly they were back in the game. CC Friday - I attended this game and still can't believe the Sioux lost. Shots mid-way through the third were 32-13, and suddenly CC was back in the game with a goal on the next rush up the ice. Wisconsin - My understanding without seeing the games was that play was generally even throughout the weekend. You would hope to come home with some points if that were the case. UAA Saturday - Outshoot 'em 2-to-1, you should win. ------------------------ I don't see them going on the run Stack thinks is necessary, but I don't see that as completely necessary to still do well by the end of the year. Positives for me are: - Development of a killer line, as Murray, Stafford and Zajac are starting to click. - With the exception of the last game, the team has begun to limit opposition shots. After being consistently outshot, UND is now regularly outshooting opponents. - Consistently good goaltending.

Not to bag on Sandy too much, but this has to be one of the worst sentences ever (answering question on last year vs. this year): "Well, I mean obviously, I think, like I said earlier, I mean, I think this team is going to, you know, is going to have its own identity and I think, you know, last year

Duncan went 3-1-4 in a 9-7 win for Salmon Arm last night. Lots of goals scored in the BCHL games; it's worth keeping that in mind when comparing scoring stats to other leagues.

SSM has updated its stats page. Chorney is 3-16-19 in 31 games. Doesn't really have a ton of meaning for a defenseman. The team's leading scorers are all on the top line: Toews, Gergen (UMD) and Okposo with 51, 50 and 43 points, respectively. Looks like no one is on a Parise/Crosby scoring pace this year.

So two Sioux (sort of) will be skating for Team USA. A nice run for the Sioux: 2002: Parise, Jones, Greene 2003: Parise, Murray, Stafford 2004: Stafford, Lee Congrats and good luck.

Wow. That he is even being mentioned for something like this, alongside some of the names listed, is amazing.

Haven't seen the official stats, but I read somewhere that Oshie went 3-4-7 in an 8-2 Warroad win over Orono, which may have been ranked #3 going into the weekend, and which also knocked Warroad out of the state tourney last year.

Boy are there ever familiar names for Sioux fans in that box score. Obviously Lee and Vandevelde, but also former Sioux names like Becker and Christian, and of course Loos.

Wow. It's a good reminder that the players we follow (and criticize) are young people and have the problems that young people have. We just see someone's on-ice performance dip and think they must not care, when in fact we don't know what issues they have with their health, their family's health, their relationships, substance problems, etc. Good luck to Jacques.

sagard, While I agree with your general sentiment, there is a baseline level of success required to be included in the post-McNaughton fun: You need to win enough along the way to be in the PWR top ten. UND seems to be getting on the right side of that equation. It will be one funky season if all six WCHA contenders can do that. The team most at risk there, IMO, is UMD, with their bad non-conference losses.

Excellent point. To follow what Goon has posted, I tracked down the schedule information for the WCHA contenders. For this purpose, I consider the six top WCHA teams (UND, UM, Denver, CC, UMD, Wisco) to be basically equal. UND has only two with MN, UMD, Denver, MTU ... so UND misses 3 top teams Denver has only two with MN, UND, AA, MSUM... so Denver misses 2 top teams CC has only two with UMD, Wisco, AA, SCSU... so CC misses 2 top teams UMD has only two with UND, CC, MN, MSUM... so UMD misses 3 top teams UW misses 1 top team UM misses 3 top teams Looks like UMD, UND and UM have the "easiest" schedules, and Wisconsin the toughest. Of course this stuff might not matter too much, as when you play your opponent (injuries, swoon, etc.) may be more important.

I agree that MN is playing great hockey. What they did to UND last month was about equal parts UND being terrible and MN being terrific, and I don't think MN has slowed down much since then. (Thankfully UND seems to be finding its game, but that's another topic.) Briggs has been great, they have the usual speed-and-skill-all-the-way-down-the-lineup, and the freshman defensemen have been a revelation. But the biggest factor in MN's success (IMO) has been the play of Irmen and Potulny, who might be the two best forwards in the country. The puck just finds Potulny, in space, with a sometimes half-open goal in front of him. If the goalie is in position, he picks the corner. He has been outstanding, and has to be considered the early frontrunner for the Hobey. (Calling them the best forwards begs for a comparison to Stafford and Murray in the same class. By the end of the year it might be a good argument, but right now, with Murray's injury and Stafford's slow start, it's not even a contest. Stafford is apparently coming around, and we'll see how Murray comes back.) With all that said, I think Denver is the best team I have seen this year, and if they get any kind of goaltending, they are a real threat to repeat. The idea seems ridiculous, because I think they really were about the tenth to fifteenth best team last year, which is where they finished in the PWR. They seem much better this year. If Denver is in the Mariucci regional, that would be a battle. Otherwise I don't see anyone beating MN on the big ice, with MN advancing to Columbus. In terms of chances of advancing to Columbus, I think UND's best chance is somewhere away from the big ice, even if it means Michigan in Michigan.

Just this to add for the Sioux tonight. With Murray and Stafford out, that means only Porter returns from last year's top two lines. Take out Parise, Bochenski, Lundbohm, Murray and Stafford and you don't have the powerhouse that dominated so many games last year. Graduation, early departures and injuries are part of the game for everyone, but this was a tough two points to get, and they got them. Congrats and get well.

I went to the first page of Friday's game thread, and that link worked very quickly tonight.

FWIW, Wheeler's line after 8 games was 6-4-10. In the last 10 games, he's 1-3-4. Really, the only conclusion one can reach right now is that Green Bay is really bad. I'm sure Gretzky got it close to right and Wheeler will be a stud. I'm also hopeful that Hakstol's description of Miller (great hands, deadly around the net) will prove true at the next level. This team could use a little dose of "deadly around the net."

There's not much to note in the USHL, as UND currently has just one recruit there (Miller) and he plays for a team (Green Bay) that has elected to not score this year. Green Bay took the momentum from its 3-1 victory a week ago Friday and ran off consecutive losses by scores of 6-0, 5-0 and 4-0. The trend is positive, though, as in just four more games they will have the opponent down to zero goals as well. I'm not sure what kind of judgement you can make on Miller based on his performance with this team, but this is at least encouraging: In his first 7 games, he was 0-0-0. In his next 7, he was 5-2-7. In the next 4 games (the 4 described above), he was again 0-0-0, but when the whole team only scored 3 goals in that span, it's hard to hold it against him.

Just checking in with the BCHL over the weekend, and it looks like the kids are alright. Kozek's team won 3-2; he was 1-0-1 with the GWG. They won 6-3 the next night, with Kozek at 1-3-4. Duncan was 1-1-2 in a 3-2 loss. Then, although he was scoreless in a 4-1 win, he must have been doing something right as he was named the game's #2 star. Watkins was 0-1-1 in a 3-3 tie, then scored Vernon's only goal in a 2-1 loss.

Reviving an old concept here. If you come across interesting statistics, feel free to put them here. ---------------------------------- Suddenly the "returning all the defense and goaltending" strength of the team is showing up. These are the goals allowed in the last five games (excluding the two empty-netters in the loss to Wisconsin): 1,1,3,1,1. In addition, UND has outshot its opponent (finally) in the last three games, with the shots allowed in those games being 27, 20 and 24. A big caveat would be that two of these games were against SCSU, and we don't know how decent they are yet. Even so, it's good to see some familiar patterns emerging. If the offense continues to improve, this team could be on to something. I wonder how much of the defensive improvement can be attributed to the seeming relaxing of the officiating emphasis.

IMO Heatley was dominant, and Vanek as well.

This seems like a good time to trot this one out. Here is a stretch of games from the past (I took out wins against a bad MTU, 5-0 and 11-1; otherwise these games are in order): T 1 Colorado College 1 ot W 4 Colorado College 0 L 2 @ Wisconsin 3 ot L 5 @ Wisconsin 6 ot W 1 Minnesota 0 L 2 Minnesota 5 L 0 @ St. Cloud State 3 T 1 @ St. Cloud State 1 ot W 2 Alaska-Anchorage 1 That's 18 goals scored in 9 games. The lowlight of this stretch of offensive ineptitude came in St. Cloud, when UND went 119 minutes without scoring before Lee Goren banged in a garbage goal with the extra-attacker on Saturday to sneak one point out of the weekend. About two months later, UND smoked SCSU 7-3 in the Final Five. So things do turn around. In the interest of a fair presentation of history, I need to note that UND did in fact outshoot the opponent in every game listed above, which is of course quite different than the current stretch.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the MN weekend supports your opinion somewhat. Friday, the Sioux were holding team meetings in the penalty box, but they somehow survived all the PK and won the game. Saturday, I think they only took three penalties, and didn't exactly get in the way of anyone wearing maroon, and were embarassed.