jk

While listening to the Nanaimo/Salmon Arm series, I kept hearing a Nanaimo player named "LaFabe" feature prominently in the play. It turns out that Blair Lefebvre has a 1/83 birthdate, which makes him nearly three years older than Drew Stafford. Lefebvre's linemate Mulock is also a 1/83. While all junior teams have older players, including Salmon Arm, it is notable that the two key players on Salmon Arm's top line have 5/85 (Zajac) and 3/86 (Chucko) birthdates. All is fair as long as it is within the rules, so congrats to Nanaimo on the BCHL championship. But it helps to explain to me why Salmon Arm had such trouble with Nanaimo. It also is a reminder of just how young Drew Stafford is. He will again be the youngest player on UND's roster next season. The next youngest players will be Zajac and Radke, who share the same birthdate - 5/13/85.

Kyle Radke is having one heck of a postseason with Grande Prairie. His team lost 4-3 in 2 OTs last night to Ft. McMurray, and now leads the series 3-1 in games. Radke had a 1-2-3 line last night, and has contributed regularly to the scoresheet. Also having a strong postseason is his teammate Scott McCullough, a CC recruit.

Thanks for those tidbits. I feel refreshed.

I'm suffering from withdrawal. These off-season discussions of the national anthem and dogs in suites are killing me. I guess I'll just have to live with it, but when you're used to checking in to the boards regularly, and there's nothing there, it takes a little while to adjust. It seems too early to talk about next year, especially since we don't know who will be back, so I guess we wait for some recruiting news to filter out. Maybe this is a good time to thank the folks behind SiouxSports for providing this great forum for us. And thank the Sioux hockey team for a fabulous year - because it was fabulous, with a lot of great moments.

I had not gone back to look at Denver's late-season results, but them getting thumped by CC was fresh in my mind. Taking that out, I can see their momentum to the title. I guess my thoughts are not strictly based on Denver this year, but more an accumulation of recent results. MN proved the last two years that a team can win with average goaltending. MN (2003), Michigan (1998) and UND (1997) proved a team can win while being led by younger players. Denver just proved a team can win when it is severely offensively-challenged. It just seems like there are no key "rules" or team characteristics that indicate a team's inability to win the title.

Whoooops. Salmon Arm's season just ended with a series loss to Nanaimo. And boy were the Nanaimo radio guys excited. (It brings new meaning to the word pathetic that I am listening to the radio broadcast of a game between the Salmon Arm Silverbacks and the Nanaimo Clippers.) So for Sioux recruits it is down to Tri-City in the USHL and Grande Prairie in the AJHL.

As much as I thought the first period was dreadful, I thought the game picked up in the second, with pretty good chances both ways. I don't even like Denver but I was jumping up and down at the end when they cleared the puck late in the 2-man. Way to go WCHA. This was no better than a middle-of-the-pack WCHA team and they skate away with the whole thing. To have to kill 90 seconds of 2-man to close the game is a pretty remarkable accomplishment. Also, Gwoz seemed quite calm and composed whenever they showed him on the bench. Congrats to him. More on this later, but this year tells me that winning the national title has nothing to do with anything. It still is the ultimate prize, IMO. But there is no key to winning it - get killed early, swoon late, have mediocre goaltending, have great goaltending, no offense, great offense, ditto for D - it just doesn't matter. If you qualify for the tournament, you can win four games and the whole thing.

It's disrespectful for me to say this, but this game is an embarrassment to college hockey. Compare this to the up-and-down WCHA Final Five championship game, played by two teams that like to play offense. Much credit to Denver and Maine for winning the games to get here, but I wish this game had more well-rounded teams in it. (Sour grapes.)

Congrats to Junior Lessard on the Hobey. The strangeness of this year's Hobey contest has now been matched by a bizarre national tournament. Of the Hobey's final three, I thought Junior and Parise were a pick-em for the winner. Either would have been a deserving winner. I expected they would give it to Parise because it would have been good exposure for college hockey for the next decade or so on ESPN. Had he indeed won, though, he would have been very deserving, as he simply was college hockey's best player from December on, when he was healthy. What I mean by this year's strange Hobey race is that it was the race that wasn't. Either Panzer or Ryan Miller would have been easy winners this year. Hartigan would have won easily this year, and Haydar, too. Most years, one, or two, or three, players step up and demand the award. Then the voters have a tough choice, as someone is going to get slighted. I think this year was supposed to be Ben Eaves' year, but he ended up missing half the season with injuries. With two months to go, it looked like Bochenski had a chance to lock it up, but an eleven-game stretch with one goal (or something like that) scuttled his runaway bid. So we were left with a lot of guys with solid years who deserved to be in the final ten, but none who seemed destined to win. BTW, Zach's early injury troubles probably cost him the award as much as Eaves' late ones did. Anyway, Zach did not have the kind of year that demanded the award, so IMO complaining about his loss of it seems petty. Congrats to Junior and UMD. As for Panzer and Miller, I thought at the time that they also both would have been deserving winners. With hindsight and some astounding numbers by goaltenders in the last few years, Miller's accomplishments may seem to have lost a little of their luster. At the time, though, they were astounding and called out for the award. Likewise, Panzer had a brilliant year and absolutely deserved to win. Unfortunately, the committee had to choose a winner and had to send someone home disappointed. I still can't find too much fault with their choice, then or this year. The travesty that year was that Gionta was co-runnerup with Panzer. He had no business being in the same building with Panzer that year. In January, I thought UND had a shot at back-to-back Hobeys, as Bochenski was in a very nice spot for this year, and Zach was lined up for next year. In the last few weeks, I thought we might see the reverse back-to-back, with Zach winning this year and Bochenski having a good shot next year. Obviously I was wrong. FWIW, I think Zach was just about a lock to get it next year, had he returned. He was, after all, the nation's best player since Christmas this year, and everything would have been in place for a very big year. But we'll have to move on to other big things.

Players who walk-on to a program are at risk of not returning the next year. A list of names such as that just provided should not include walk-ons like O'Leary and Ranfranz.

This is unfortunate for all involved. Sagard, you did an outstanding job of addressing a sensitive subject on a rival's board. I find that I don't disagree with much that you wrote. Most of all, I think that we don't know all of the facts, and it's hard to know exactly what to think of it in the absence of them. I acknowledge that on its face it doesn't look good, but it's tough to pass judgement without knowing the commitments made by each party. This is just one more example of why I don't like to point fingers when a player splits with a program. The reasons for a departure (or failure to arrive, in this case) vary from player to player and school to school (and include leaving to the pros because you don't like the coach, failing to qualify academically, not putting forth the developmental effort, being choked by the coach, burn out, family illness, not liking the demands of a big-time college program, being forced to be on a four-year academic timetable instead of the five-year plan you were recruited under, being lured to major juniors, getting a million dollar signing bonus, etc.), and those of us on the outside are almost never privy to the whole story. So in these cases I recommend trusting the good faith of the coaching staff, wishing the player well in their future hockey and non-hockey endeavors, and not casting stones as we all are in glass houses.

I am not here to defend Vanek, but if I were a Gopher fan (ack) I would fondly remember Vanek's tenure with MN. He hoisted that team onto his shoulders in 2002-03 and brought them a national title. IMO, he was the single most important reason that team won the title (honorable mention to Potulny, Weber and PMart). Let's see ... two years, one national title, one year where he seemed to play below his sky-high potential. I would take that on my team.

"I think the real key is if most of our guys here now are going to stay to make another run at it," Blais said. "Our freshmen will come in the play and contribute. A bigger key is who we can hold here in school and who can have a bigger year next year than this year." Excerpted from the article linked by the Sicatoka. To me, this is slightly less promising than the earlier comment by Coach Blais that he thought no on else would leave, with Greene being the next most likely. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

It was interesting to see how quiet Duncan and Toews were in the tourney. Grande Prairie won its series 4 games to 2, with Radke going 1-1-2 in the clinching 4-2 win last night. They move on to the AJHL finals, which normally would mean they would be playing for a chance to win the Royal Bank Cup, the national title for the Canadian Tier II leagues. However, since Grande Prairie hosts the national tournament this year, they draw an automatic berth in the final tournament. If Salmon Arm could get there from the BCHL, Zajac could be matched up against Radke. As for Salmon Arm, they won Sunday night, bringing their series even at one game each as the teams head back to Nanaimo.

SSM's run ended in the finals against the Jr. Bruins, where SSM lost 6-2. Down 3-0 after two, SSM pulled to within 4-2 in the third before giving up two empty-netters. Sounds like Coach Ward has been watching Coach Blais with the aggressive extra-attacker strategy. Anyway, congratulations to the SSM guys for a strong tournament.

I haven't done enough homework on this, but here are a few rough updates. Tri-City has beaten Des Moines again tonight and won the series 3 games to none. Spirko didn't find the scoresheet much in the first two games, but was 1-2-3 in a 6-1 win tonight. Grande Praire (Radke) lost the first two games of its series on the road, but has now won three in a row and leads the best of seven 3-2. The next game is Sunday night. Salmon Arm starts its series tonight, but the game is just underway. SSM has advanced to the national title game tomorrow afternoon against the Jr. Bruins, an Eastern all-star team loaded with Division 1 commitments (Matt Greene, BC, Bourque, BU, Yandle, UNH, and others). SSM trailed LA in the semifinal tonight 1-0 after two, but came back to win 4-1, with the back-breaking goal coming SH (Duncan from Toews) to put SSM up 3-1. Duncan has contributed to the scoring in the tournament, but it appears to be basically a team effort for SSM, with the scoring well-distributed.

Bertram was the second player chosen. Period. Bertram and Toews are both Parise-caliber recruits. ------------------------------------- http://www.chl.ca/WHLNews0102/0503.html Gilbert Brule selected 1st overall in 2002 WHL Bantam Draft The Western Hockey League conducted the 13th Annual Bantam Draft on Thursday, May 2nd, at the Pengrowth Saddledome in the Air Canada Club. For the first time in the history of the Bantam Draft, the first overall pick was traded. The Prince Albert Raiders traded the first overall pick to the Vancouver Giants in exchange for the third overall pick and a third round pick. The Giants then selected Gilbert Brule as the number one player taken in the 2002 WHL Bantam Draft. Brule is a centreman from North Vancouver, British Columbia. The Vancouver Giants with the second overall selection, picked up another centreman from Calgary, Alberta, Daniel Bertram. ... ROUND 1 PICK TEAM TRADED TO PLAYER POS D.O.B. HOMETOWN 1 Prince Albert Vancouver Gilbert Brule C 01/01/87 North Vancouver, BC 2 Vancouver Daniel Bertram C 01/14/87 Calgary, AB 3 Medicine Hat Van / PA Mike Gauthier D 03/26/87 Vancouver, BC 4 Seattle Chris Durand C 01/21/87 Saskatoon,Sk 5 Saskatoon Devin Setoguchi RW 01/01/87 Taber, Ab 6 Moose Jaw Kendall, McCardle LW 01/04/87 Burnaby, BC 7 Tri-Cities Carey Price G 08/16/87 Williams Lake, BC 8 Lethbridge Michael Kaye RW 02/14/87 Saskatoon,Sk 9 Calgary Riley Merkley C 04/25/87 Blackie, AB 10 Kelowna Kevin Reinholt D 01/07/87 Toefield, AB 11 Prince George Nick Drazenovic C 01/14/87 Prince George, BC 12 Spokane Adam Hobson C 01/09/87 Mission, BC 13 Portland Lethbridge Kenny Petkau RW 03/16/87 Surrey, BC 14 Kootenay Swift Current Ryan Sawka C 04/13/87 Emerald Park, SK 15 Kamloops Kelvin Sagert D 01/20/87 Abbotsford, BC 16 Regina Tanner Stockwell D 07/04/87 Strathmore, AB 17 Brandon Codey Burki C 11/17/87 Winnipeg, MB 18 Swift Current Billy Smith C 08/10/86 Sterling, AK 19 Red Deer Paul Kurceba D 02/19/87 Calgary, AB ROUND 2 PICK TEAM TRADED TO PLAYER POS D.O.B. HOMETOWN 20 Vancouver Shaun Vey RW 06/27/87 Wakaw, SK 21 Seattle Brenton Stamler D 03/10/87 Beaumont, AB 22 Prince Albert Julian Marcuzzi D 04/05/87 Vancouver, BC

Virg's article suggests Matt is staying at UND for now. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforkshe...rts/8335329.htm On Wednesday, UND sophomore defenseman Matt Greene walked into the office of Sioux coach Dean Blais and delivered the news. "I have no problem staying here," Greene said. "I am in no hurry to leave." ------------------------------ My opinion: It's nice to hear that Matt will be happy to stay at UND if the Oilers don't want him yet. If the Oilers decide at some point between now and September that they do want him, then I expect that he will do the right thing and take the next step.

Oshie - 2005 (maybe 06 depending on development) Lee - 2005 Beaverson - 2004 (maybe 05 depending on the roster?) Lamoreaux - 2004 Kaip - 2004 Spirko - 2004 (probably, with ZP gone; had been 05) Duncan - 2005 Chorney - 2005 Zajac - 2004 Radke - 2004

I guess it's fair enough to take a look at UND's recruits, now that the Sioux season is over. Here is how their teams are progressing in their respective league playoffs (in no particular order): Oshie - Warroad HS, season ended in the MN HS tournament. Lee - Moorhead HS, season ended in the MN HS tournament. Beaverson - Green Bay USHL, failed to qualify for playoffs. Lamoreaux - Lincoln USHL, failed to qualify for playoffs. Kaip - Notre Dame SJHL, lost in first round of playoffs, 4 games to 1. Spirko - Tri-City USHL, kicked off USHL playoffs with a 4-3 win last night. Follow them at http://www.ushl.com/ Duncan - SSM, kicked off national midget tourney with a 4-3 win yesterday. Follow at http://www.usahockey.com/2004nationals/main/tier1_17u/ Chorney - SSM Zajac - Salmon Arm BCHL, will play for BCHL title beginning April 3. Follow at http://bchl.bc.ca Radke - Grande Prairie AJHL, tied in games 2-2 in the league semifinals. Follow at http://www.ajhl.ca/

I've been holding off on this kind of speculation about next year because we don't know who else will leave ... but since you started it: I've been thinking the spot is Genoway's to lose. He had a good year, played with the top guys on the PP most of the year, and played with Bochenski some. If he works hard over the summer, I think he is the #1 center.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this is the kind of thing about an offseason after a season that ends short of a national championship that frosts me. He must have done one heck of a crappy job to coach a team to 30 wins, to the championship of a league that supplied five of the final eight teams in the NCAA tournament, and to the #1 spot in the PWR rankings at the end of the year. One-and-done is a b@@ch, and we all got to experience that again first-hand last weekend, but IMO it is silly to suggest that the coaches did a bad job. Plus what PCM said ... although that would be seen as just a "reason" for doing a bad job, and I don't think he did one.

I guess we will just have to wait and see. I understood that Bochenski was close to leaving last year, but that may have been uninformed speculation. When you add up all of the names that have been thrown out, it starts to look a little daunting. All we can ask is that the guys make the decision that is right for them (and hopefully staying at UND is what will be right for them). The Spirko commitment is looking like better news now, as I expect he will join the team this fall. Obviously I don't expect him to "replace" Parise, but it's nice to be bringing some skill to the roster.

You would have a pretty good argument that you have a good shot at both at UND.

Congrats to Zach. He gets to pursue his dream. Thanks for everything and good luck in the future.