HockeyisGr8

how about a big time kudos to zane gothberg. Put the 2nd period softy behind him and absolutely carried his team for 2½+ periods of hockey. Way to go ZG, you were the story tonight! Congrats to the Sioux, Coach Hakstol and his staff, hopefully they can win 2 more in Philly!

Yale = Tradition - maybe? Winning tradition - not so much. Really depends on what one means by tradition. I don't really view Yale as having tradition in hockey anywhere near like I do UCLA or Kentucky in basketball or Notre Dame or USC in football or Denver, Michigan, UND in hockey. Yale has been around a long time, won a lot of games in 121 years sure, but does that equal tradition - to some yes, to others not really.

ironically, there is very good chance we will play wisco in the 1st round

yes and had those butt heads won last night instead of phoning it in, we would already be in the dance b/c Mass/Lowell looks like a sure winner over NH.

I may have to cheer for them, but I still can't stand them.

This hits the nail on the head for me. The hockey has not been fun to watch and in fact very difficult to watch at times. Maybe the answer is simple - Hakstol should start recruiting the likes of Travis Zajac, Drew Stafford, TJ Oshie, Jonathan Toews, Matt Frattin,Danny Kristo, Ryan Duncan, Trupp, etc. again. Even if those guys lost, it was often crazy fun to watch them play. Entertaining and losing is way better than boring and losing I guess. .

Agree completely with you & hrkac. I will be the first to admit that I am not a hugh hakstol fan but this teams shortcomings are mainly talent related in my opinion and not coaching. Lets face it, nothing against Pattyn, but he is a fourth line player at best on a really good team and not second line/power play guy like he is at UND. Luke Johnson is nice player and may become a really good player but he is not ready for a 1st/2nd line role. TO me the real question is what happen to our top notch recruiting. So we lost a couple of players - so what, every elite program has. That goes with the territory. Losing an elite recruit here and there should not decimate you team of top level talent and in fact should factor in to one's recruiting plan. Miami has been hit hard by defections the last year or two yet they still have 3-4 top end offensive players on their team that we would kill for (to have just one) this year.

I think what many are talking about is that hakstol provides the structure and systems by which the team plays and don't like what he is having them do. However, you are absolutely correct in that the players must still perform and they have failed terribly on many occasions this season.

We'll it is late and I'm going to bed. I think my wife is still awake - even if UND can't score, maybe I still can. Wish me luck.

Tamba who!

If we can get in anything can happen. Remember Yale - that was one mediocre team and they are the defending national champs. But we will have to be way better tomorrow to even win our game and then will still need help.

I personally think schmaltz has regressed the last 4-5 weeks. He was absolutely dominant there for a while, but has been just average and not near as noticeable lately.

I don't think the issue is losing anyone because no one on this team is even AHL ready. The issue is can we add (or do we have) any high end offensive talent coming in. A lot to ask from incoming freshmen but we need scorers desperately!

15 won,t do it. With miami or Denver guaranteed a spot, will have to be at worst #14 and even that might not be enough if there are any upsets tomorrow.

Can you believe the two open nets parks and McMillan missed? Pure goal scorers (which we sorely need next year) never miss those kind of opportunities. I guess that is why many say this team is not very talented. Even starman commented on this teams surprising lack of high end talent. Why is that, I thought we were supposed to be a recruiting joggernaut.

That was hilarious to see him call a timeout with 16 seconds left and down by 3. That was a joke.

Extremely disappointing performance. Outplayed, outgoaltended, out coached, out special teamed,etc.. This team needs some serious offensive help next year. We made one of the worst defensive teams in the country look like one of the best. Disappointing!

I agree he has tremendous work ethic, skills, etc., and he hasn't been awful. I just can't figure out why he hasn't had more of a points impact. I don't know if its incompatible linemates, systems, bad luck or whatever, but, I did think his impact would have been more significant. Hope it starts this weekend.

First off, I really really hope your right, because we could sure some consistent production from that line; but, what in the last 2+ years truely gives us any real reason to believe that Grimaldi is capable of exploding. We have all been saying that since he arrived at UND and we are still waiting. It's beginning to look like either the huge expections have weighed negatively on him or we just seriously over evaluated his possible impact. What do you think?

If you are going to base you comments on pairwise rankings - yes 1 game can have a hugh difference. My recollection from watching the last MN/Mich game and listening to the annoucers was that a Michigan win kept them in the 9-11 range and a loss dropped them to like 14-17. So if pairwise is your only argument it literally can all come down to one game. Don't believe me - ask Yale. They were 1 game (needing a positive result) from not even getting in the NCAA's last year.

How can you be so high on Wisco? Didn't they win like 4 road games total all year? And, I'm pretty sure 3 of those were against Penn State and Ohio State. If they had that same level of road success in the NCHC they would have been middle of the pack based on road losses alone. I'm pretty confident that you already acknowledged that every team (excluding CC) in the NCHC was a better team than Penn State. So again what is so special about a Wisco team that can't win anywhere but the Kohl center?

I don't disagree with that. But my point remains the same - if UND can't win 2 games, playing at home, against a team with 6 wins all season, to continue its season, then they don't deserve to keep playing. Had they done more during the course of the season, this weekend may not have mattered, but they didn't, so it does. So let's hope they can close the deal tomorrow and see what happens next weekend. Agreed?

You said records don't mean anything, I just pointed out that Denver and W. Mich had better records - so maybe in Denver and W. Mich. case they did. You spin it your way, I spin it mine. End of story!!!!!!!!!!

And just FYI - b/4 this weekend Denver overall record was better than Neb-Omaha and W.Mich. overall record was better that Duluths - so you could argue that based on records favorites won both those series. Only upset was Miami and they were preseason #1 and Mafia picked them to win series so someone thought they would be pretty good.

agreed