UND-RedSox fan

As I was writing this up Duluth moved ahead of Miami in the Pairwise. Miami dropped from 17th to 21st after their game finished.

Update with 3 games to go there are a couple of close battles for playoff positioning. UND moves a game ahead of SCSU. Duluth and Miami move a game ahead of Omaha. 1) UND 16-4-1-1 50 points @Omaha and Home vs WMU 2) SCSU 15-5-1-1 47 points Home vs Duluth and @CC 3) Denver 14-5-2-0 44 points @WMU and vs Omaha T4) Miami 8-11-2-2 28 points vs CC and @Duluth T4) Duluth 8-10-3-1 28 points @SCSU and vs Miami 6) Omaha 8-12-1-0 25 points vs UND and @Denver 7) WMU 5-15-1-1 17 points vs Denver and @UND 8) CC 4-16-1-0 13 points @Miami and vs SCSU UND can finish with a maximum of 59 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Falling behind Denver is unlikely but possible. They have a slightly more difficult remaining schedule than SCSU but have a 1 game lead. Tonight was huge for us. SCSU can finish with a maximum of 56 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Now they are only a game ahead of Denver. Seemed unlikely to many coming into tonight but they could realistically drop to 3rd. It is very unlikely a situation will occur where UND and SCSU finished tied and SCSU doesn't win the tiebreaker for seeding. Bad loss for SCSU. Denver can finish with a maximum of 53 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Finishing 1st will be a long shot as making up two games on two teams with only 4 games remaining is very unlikely. Finishing 2nd has become more possible but I still think they most likely will finish 3rd. Miami can finish with a maximum of 37 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 6th. CC and WMU can no longer catch them. They have the most favorable remaining schedule of the 3 teams fighting for 4th. Miami has been playing their way up to the bubble. May be able to get to a possible auto-bid for the tournament. Duluth can finish with a maximum of 37 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 6th. CC and WMU can no longer catch them. They have the second most favorable remaining schedule of the 3 teams. They will need to win the conference to make the national tournament. Omaha can finish with a maximum of 34 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 7th. CC can no longer catch them. It is very unlikely that WMU will be able to catch them. They have the most difficult remaining schedule of the teams fighting for 4th. They are having a terrible 2nd half and are getting closer to being at risk of being on the bubble for the national tournament. WMU can finish with a maximum of 25 points and finish anywhere from 6th to 8th. Need to win out with Omaha losing out to finish in 6th. CC can finish with a maximum of 22 points and will finish in the bottom two. Again this is a very top heavy season for the conference. UND has already matched the highest point total in the 3 year history of the conference. It is still possible that Denver finishes 3rd and has the 3rd highest point total in the short history of the conference. It is possible that the last weekend of the year can be the same matches as the quarterfinals.

I know this is late, but when I wrestled in high school I think they started Friday and Saturday of State at 9:00 and we had weigh-ins at 8. It's not just hockey that has early start times for state.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Shayna, but we had some mutual friends. They stayed at my place in Bismarck immediately after it happened and the way they talked about her; you know she is an amazing person. Hoping she continues to recover well and your family has been in my prayers.

Overtime penalty shot in the Bemidji-UAH game for Huntsville. And Bemidji goalie makes the save

I have no idea what to think of Michigan. They put up 6 goals a night but yet I'm not sold on them. They haven't played a good team in a long time. Penn State only has a good record because they play most of their out of conference games against Atlantic Hockey. We all know what Minnesota is this year. Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin are three of the worst teams in the country. And that is all Michigan has been playing in the last 3 months.

And I don't think they should do it. Bracket integrity should be more important than attendance, especially for top seeds. If they finish ahead of us then they deserve to be in St. Paul and we don't in my opinion.

The conference playoffs are pretty much exactly the same as it was in the WCHA. Only differences are only 4 teams make the second weekend and it is in Minneapolis instead of St. Paul.

There is no doubt if we aren't the same seed as SCSU, they will put us both in St. Paul. If we are both the 1 seeds then the only way we end up in St. Paul is if we finish ahead of SCSU in the Pairwise. I don't believe a #1 seed has ever been relocated for attendance purposes and that would be the reason to put us in St. Paul over St. Cloud.

I don't disagree at all. That was only in response to saying that Grimaldi and Rau are too small for the NHL. They aren't too small. They just haven't been good enough yet and may never be good enough. Size is just one small factor (pun intended) out of many for why some guys like Grimaldi don't stick in the NHL. I don't know what those other factors are, but it is definitely much more than size in today's NHL.

It doesn't seem to be holding Johnny Gaudreau back

I know St. Cloud looked pretty good this weekend, whooping up on UNO, but they split with Miami the previous time out and lost to CC earlier this year. I don't think they are as hot as everyone else says.

I thought that was weird as well but currently UND and BC are separated by .0002 in RPI, and I think it was extremely close coming into the weekend, so we are pretty much tied with them. If we sweep UNO and BC sweeps UMass-Lowell next week, we will move back ahead of them according to the game modifier on College Hockey News.

With two weeks to go there are a couple of close battles for playoff positioning. UND and SCSU still tied for 1st and there is a 3 way tie for the last home playoff spot. T1) UND 15-4-1-1 47 points @Omaha and Home vs WMU T1) SCSU 15-4-1-1 47 points Home vs Duluth and @CC 3) Denver 13-5-2-0 41 points @WMU and vs Omaha T4) Miami 7-11-2-2 25 points vs CC and @Duluth T4) Duluth 7-10-3-1 25 points @SCSU and vs Miami T4) Omaha 8-11-1-0 25 points vs UND and @Denver 7) WMU 5-14-1-1 16 points vs Denver and @UND 8) CC 4-15-1-0 13 points @Miami and vs SCSU UND can finish with a maximum of 59 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Falling behind Denver is unlikely but possible. They have a slightly more difficult remaining schedule than SCSU in my opinion. SCSU can finish with a maximum of 59 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Again falling behind Denver is unlikely and they have a slightly more favorable schedule than UND. It is very unlikely a situation will occur where UND and SCSU finished tied and SCSU doesn't win the tiebreaker for seeding. They are probably the favorite to finish with the 1 seed at this point. Denver can finish with a maximum of 53 points and finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. Finishing 1st will be a long shot as making up two games on two teams with only 4 games remaining is very unlikely. Most likely will finish 3rd. Miami can finish with a maximum of 37 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 8th. CC would need to win out and they would need to lose out to finish in last. It is also very unlikely that WMU will be able to catch them. They have the most favorable remaining schedule of the 3 teams fighting for 4th. Duluth can finish with a maximum of 37 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 8th. CC would need to win out and they would need to lose out to finish in last. It is also very unlikely that WMU will be able to catch them. They have the second most favorable remaining schedule of the 3 teams. Omaha can finish with a maximum of 37 points and finish anywhere from 4th to 8th. CC would need to win out and they would need to lose out to finish in last. It is also very unlikely that WMU will be able to catch them. They have the most difficult remaining schedule of the teams fighting for 4th. WMU can finish with a maximum of 28 points and finish anywhere from 5th to 8th. They cannot finish 4th since Miami and Duluth play against each other and one of those teams will have to take 3 points. CC can finish with a maximum of 25 points and finish anywhere from 5th to 8th. Agains since Miami and Duluth play against each other, it will be impossible for them to finish in the top four. This is the most top heavy the NCHC has been in the first 3 years. Both UND and SCSU have already matched the point total of the conference champion two years ago and will match the highest point total in conference history with one win in their last 4 games. It is possible that Denver will finish 3rd in the conference and have the 3rd best NCHC record in the conference's short history. Last year it took 41 points to have a home playoff series and it took 37 two years ago. Last year SCSU finished 6th in the conference with 34 points. It is likely a team will finish in 4th this year with fewer than 34 points.

Gardner

Karl Goehring would have been taking the body and would have given up 0 goals all season

Friday: Drake Saturday: Boeser

For some reason I thought I remembered it being Farley. I remember thinking there was a bit of a flop on the Duluth's guy part but I was at the other end of the ice so I didn't get a good look.

I know I really disliked him. Does anyone remember who Pattyn punched last year and dropped like a sack of potatoes?

His injury was a lower body injury as well so that may have made it more difficult to maintain his conditioning. This was his first game action in almost a month. I'm sure we'll see him get right back into the same shape he was in prior to the injury.

It's amazing how many people need to hear the obvious though. We still control our own fate for winning/tying for the Penrose and getting a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. We are pretty much a lock for the NCAA tournament. We still have one of the best top lines in the country and despite what happened this weekend, one of the best groups of defensemen in the country. All of this and people are ready to jump off of the Demers bridge.

Because they didn't... They played better than we did this weekend. !@#$ happens. They are more or less the same team they were in December and we are the same team we were in December. If we played Denver 100 times each team would probably win 45 times with 10 ties. In those 100 games there would be games where UND looked far superior and games where Denver looked superior just like we've seen this season. There isn't some big underlying reason that this weekend's games ended the way they did. It was two teams that are both good and one team just so happened to win both games. It would be like flipping a coin 2 times in December and getting heads both times and then flipping the same coin again in February and getting two tails. What changed with coin flipping between December and February? Nothing!

Denver? Don't know and don't care. How many have legitimate shots at NHL futures? Gambrell, Heinen, Moore, Zajac, and Butcher all definitely will have a shot. Maybe more, but I don't know. Regardless it doesn't matter. If draft picks were all that mattered it would be UND, Minnesota, BC, and Michigan at every single frozen 4. My point is that recruiting the best players you can get to come to UND is not a recipe for disaster like you try to make it sound. It is quite the opposite.

Or, here's a possibility, Denver is a good team that played well in their home arena after getting embarrassed in Grand Forks earlier this year. Wait, that can't be it. Only UND's play decides the outcome of games. If UND could play an average game every game they would never lose again. There has to be some extenuating circumstance for why we were swept by a good team at their rink.

If we are a one seed and finish behind SCSU we will be in Cincinnati unless Miami is hosting and they win the NCHC tournament. In that case we would be shipped out East.