HeidiSioux62

As do I. They started taking me to UND hockey when I was 6 weeks old.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/hockey/usatmen.htm 2007 USA TODAY/USA Hockey men's poll Jan. 28, 2008 Rank School (first-place votes) Record Points Last week 1 Miami (Ohio) (34) 25-3-0 510 2 2 Michigan 22-3-1 442 1 3 North Dakota 16-8-1 420 4 4 Michigan State 17-5-5 410 5 5 Denver 18-6-0 392 6 6 Colorado College 18-7-1 341 3 7 New Hampshire 15-7-1 310 7 8 Notre Dame 20-9-1 261 9 9 Boston College 12-5-7 254 8 10 Clarkson 15-7-2 218 10 11 Wisconsin 11-10-5 149 NR 12 Minnesota-Duluth 10-8-6 122 NR 13 Providence 11-9-2 80 NR 14 Northeastern 11-8-3 71 11 15 Minnesota 12-11-5 18 12 Others receiving votes: University of Massachusetts, 17; Princeton University, 17; St. Cloud State University, 12; Quinnipiac University, 11; University of Massachusetts Lowell, 9; Niagara University, 8; Rochester Institute of Technology, 5; Union College, 2; Michigan Tech University, 1.

I am really nervous about this weekend. Overall we DID NOT play well against the Gophers in Dec at the Ralph and after the performance this last weekend where we again allowed ourselves to be man-handled I have real questions about the trip to the John. We are definately more than capable of winning and winning big, but it is very dependent on what team shows up, the one with the wall for defense or the one that played this weekend.

Oshie played incredibly hard on Saturday night. The one sequence I remember the most is when he and Duncan were in on a two on one, the shot missed and UAA had a breakout and TJ was the first one back breaking up the play - outskating the all the rest of the Sioux on the ice.

It seems to me that everytime anyone has contacted Bruce or Greg Shepard about the reffing over the last two or three years (the latest I'm aware of is Goon this year) the standard reply is "This is what the coaches want." I have a hard time buying this, (especially UND, UW, MN, DU and CC - see a trend here - traditionally top 5) but both Bruce and Greg strike me as incredibly stuborn and sometimes vindictive if challenged and as such the coaches may be reluctant to "rock the boat". I just don't see anything changing with these two in charge.

Boy, I would like to see that too, but we need Little Joe too much for him to go out.

There is an incredibly good chance that I have this all wrong (even after reading the pairwise stuff and the bracketology stuff on USCHO I'm not sure I really understand it) but with my limited knowledge it looks like the WCHA currently has 5 teams in the tourney. Pairwise as of 1-27-08 1 Miami 24 25-3-0 .8929 1 .6091* 1 2 Michigan 23 22-3-1 .8654 2 .6081* 2 3 Denver 22 18-6-0 .7500 3 .5959* 3 4 New Hampshire 21 15-7-1 .6739 7 .5696* 6 5 Colorado College 20 18-7-1 .7115 5 .5904 4 6 North Dakota 19 16-8-1 .6600 9 .5803 5 7 Michigan State 17 17-5-5 .7222 4 .5659 7 8t Notre Dame 16 20-9-1 .6833 6 .5645* 8 8t Clarkson 16 15-7-2 .6667 8 .5440 10 10 Boston College 15 12-5-7 .6458 10t .5543 9 11 Providence 14 11-9-2 .5455 19 .5283 15 12 Minnesota-Duluth 13 10-8-6 .5417 21 .5383 12 13t Northeastern 12 11-8-3 .5682 13 .5357 13 13t Wisconsin 12 11-10-5 .5192 26t .5399 11 15 Mass.-Lowell 10 11-8-4 .5652 14 .5288 14 16 Massachusetts 9 9-8-6 .5217 24 .5272 17 17 Minnesota 8 12-11-5 .5179 28 .5282 16 18 Michigan Tech 7 10-11-3 .4792 33t .5246 19 19 Quinnipiac 6 14-7-3 .6458 10t .5266 18 20 Minnesota State 5 11-10-4 .5200 25 .5244 20 21 St. Cloud State 4 11-12-3 .4808 31t .5225 21 22t Princeton 3 10-8-0 .5556 16 .5204 22 22t Cornell 3 9-7-3 .5526 17 .5108 24 24 Niagara 1 15-8-1 .6458 10t .5119 23 25 Bowling Green 0 12-12-0 .5000 29t .5045 25 Current conference leaders Atlantic - RIT CCHA - Miami CHA - Bemidji ECAC - Clarkson HE - UNH WCHA - CC So the only conference leaders not in the top 16 are RIT and Bemidji, so they would take Mass-Lowell and Massachusetts' places to round out the top 16. Am I anywhere close?

Well that was one UGLY hockey game. EVERYBODY got walked around tonight, and there was a steady stream to the penalty box in the second and third. The only thing that saved our bacon there was that UAA had a tendency to take a penalty at some point during our penalty. UAA played well, but the Sioux played worse. There is no way we come out with a win like that against anyone else left on the schedule. UMTC is very hungry for points, DU is playing for #1 seed and St. Cloud and Duluth are scrambling for home ice. Need a full effort from everyone to keep this train on the tracks. I'll take the win and the two points, but I really hope that the team can use this game as a real hard gut check and get back to playing the way we all know that they can play.

After listening to Tim's interview with the gentleman from the USHL and how they run their officaiating, I wouldn't mind seeing someone from that league step in. Absolutely nothing will happen though with McCloud running things. He's much to much of an "Old Boys Club" to ever institute any real meaningful changes.

Was a good win last night, and although they pretty much controlled most of the play, I really didn't feel like the Sioux were all that sharp. Just didn't seem to have the initial jump. They did eventually settle into the game, but it was not smooth by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of telegraphed passes that got picked off and a lot of attempted poke checks (even in the offensive zone) that for the most part didn't work and when they were able to poke check there was no control afterwards. Those were wierd to watch because I've never seem them rely on that so much. They are usually checking hard to the boards and digging pucks out that way. It may be that UAA just wasn't playing that type of hockey that allowed them to "fight it out" on the boards. It was also somewhat disconcerting that Bina and Chorney had such a hard time keeping the puck in the offensive zone. Not used to watching the puck jump over their sticks. Vandy's line was OK and he was great on face-offs (10-5), and they did get a few chances, but they didn't seem to dominate like they have and can. On a positive note, Genoway, Trupp and Frattin are coming into their own big time. The second power play unit looked great. Lots of control, hustle and shots towards the net. These guys are definately going to give other teams fits and maybe by demanding more attention from other teams it might loosen things up a little for Oshie and Duncan. There is so much hooking, holding, clutching grabbing etc. that goes on it's pathetic. It is so frustrating to watch and I am sure it is much more frustrating to try to play through it. I really wish they would officiate like the NHL. The way it's done now, it's no more than a big wrestling match. I know that the Sioux would have their own adjustments to make, but through my green colored homer glasses I just have to believe that with the consistant talent that we have, we would be able to move through that phase rather quickly and with our style of play and the recruits we tend to bring in we would excell very quickly. There were a few things last night that made me chuckle. The first was when Hennessey was interviewing Trupp before the game and Evan's dad had played for Fairbanks and Tim asked him if he had played for Lucia and in all inocence and sincerity Evan replied "I think so - He's at Minnesota now isn't he" The second one was in the third period after UAA had pulled their goalie and then had to put him back in for a face-off and he was looking toward the bench whether to come off again or not and these two guys in my section started yelling at him. One was yelling "GO" and the other was yelling "STAY" back and forth and it was almost like Christianson could hear them, because when the one would yell "GO" he would skate towards the bench and when the other would yell "STAY" he would back up a little. I'm sure he didn't hear them, but it was funny to watch because his movements matched what these guys were yelling so perfectly. The third chuckle came during TJ's interview after the game when he was describing his goal and he said "I was really surprised I didn't have to do more to get open." (This is actually a really sad statement and comment on the state of officiating.)

Oops you caught me.

It's just fine with me if everyone wants to bash UND. Let everyone underestimate us. We can just fly under the radar and slip in the back door. I have no problem with back doors as long as we get there (and we seem to be doing a good job of getting there right now).

Decisions, decisions. What to do. Will Oshie make it two in a row. Duncs is due. Genoway has been on a tear lately. After skating with Christianson in the summers, does Trupp know him well enough to bury another one. Will Kozak continue to benifit from being with Oshie and Duncs. Oh this is so hard I think I'll take Vandy - he's going to rebound from a so-so perfomance (other than face-offs) last night and slam one home.

Even St Clown - who is notoriously one and done?

During Matt Greene's rehab, he must have been practicing shots. He has now turned into an offensive defenseman. He had 3 shots on goal. (but then again, pretty much everyone had at least one shot on goal - even the guys that only played 4-5 minutes.)

I thought Campion had the Gopher/Sioux series all locked up. He's got his jersey already.

So someone explain to me why with only 3 WCHA teams in the regionals, why do they have 2 of them in the same regional other than attendence. Seems like a rip for the WCHA to me. (there's probably a good reason, but I'm a real homer)

Commodore and Stafford both had goals today.

That's a three game goal streak for Travis.

Anybody have any updates on CC or DU?

Moved up to tied for 5th with New Hampshire in the pairwise and 5th outright in the Krach. Going in the right direction.

It is rare when I admit I am wrong and even rarer when I am happy about it, but I am extremely THRILLED to be wrong in this case (I did get a little nervous when they scored the 3rd goal - flashes back to when they ended up tying the game with about 1:30 left)

I have absolutely no basis for this, but I have a really bad feeling about this.

Drew interview: http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app/?service=pa...16&iid=3426

Hak said in his post-game that the "last straw" before the fight was a slash on Trupp. Was it Bruess who slashed him, or was he just the "scapegoat" for the team?