SIOUX vs BULLDOGS - Saturday

[The Whistler]

Exactly.They usually even themselves out.

Suppose there are two bad calls. In the first team A scores a powerplay goal. in the second power play there's no score.

How did that even out?

Whether or not the bad calls were "equal" the officials still screwed up the game.

[tnt]

I just find it a little funny that the league makes a harsh rule to respond to a dirty play like Marvin's hit on Genoway where he 100% teed-off on his head with a full arm swing with a leading elbow ( and from behind no less). Then the very next year after they add the new rule we get two head contact suspensions in the first six games of the year where both were in a situation where a guy lowers his head at the last second putting his head in-between his body and the man about to check him.

The exact same stuff happened the year after the Bina hack by paukavich (sp). Bina was the recipient of a totally malicious hit there. Then the next year after the rule changed, we had a bunch of majors against us in situations where a player turned his back to the checker at the last second.

I watch just about all of the Sioux games and I can tell you that at least in our games we received many more majors for checking from behind than our opponents did that year. And it, IMO, cost us a trip to the final game in St. Louis.

Further, someone tell me why a player can't just start playing with his head in a low position when he is in danger of being checked. Somebody like Cepis is going to figure that out just as fast as guys like him did with the spinning your back to a checker.

So that is our future, a Bunch of back spinning and head lowering cheap players getting hat tricks against us. Robby Earl would be envious!

I think you make a good point. I think the maliciousness of Marvin's penalty was the issue. You can have a player skate with his head down, and it is impossible not to hit him in the head if you want to check him, unless the player doing the checking is 4'10". Look at the first period of the Sioux game on Saturday when Bruneteau clearly got hit in the head. You can look at Minnesota's Cepis getting an elbowing penalty against Wisconsin and that too was a hit to the head. I am seeing hits to the head in every game, however they are not being called. If Lamoureux's penalty would have been called a hit to the head instead of checking from behind, I think it would have been time for Hakstol to start taking the tact of other coaches and send in video to the league about the calls that have been missed that could very well have resulted in concussions and in Rowney's case, perhaps did.

[ticklethetwine]

Point taken.

As I said earlier, I have seen every game UMD played this year and Friday was not typical. But you kind of made my point for me. On Friday UND totally outplayed UMD, was going against a freshman goalie playing his 4th game, and UMD still was in a situation where they could tie with the goalie pulled. You said Saturday could have gone either way, I agree....but Friday could have as well.

Saturday is how they have played this for the majority of this season.

I do agree that the Sioux are better than 7th in the nation, but you can't lose the games they have been losing and expect to be ranked higher.

I agree with the last sentence. However when the dust settles I guarantee the Sioux will go farther then Duluth and are and will be better then Duluth this year. So Dogs fans will do what they need to justify there team is good. It's all just lip service. Look no further then last year. Talking about a falling star.

[tnt]

I think you will have a lot of hits that aren't intially hits to the head that end up becoming hits to the head because of momentum. The NFL didn't overreact to Brett Farve's chin shot because the guys helmet rode up the shoulder pads and it couldn't be avoided . I just don't see many games where you couldn't call a few hits to the head, unless you want to take away the checking completely.

[mikejm]

...However when the dust settles I guarantee the Sioux will go farther then Duluth...

Any team with a line like Connolly-Connolly-Fontaine is capable of going a long way in a one-and-done post-season playoff. Add in Brown-Oleksuk-Schmidt and that is a scary team.

Check out these stats:

Player		GP	G	A	PTS

Mike Connolly	10	7	9	16 

Justin Fontaine	10	6	8	14

Jack Connolly	10	3	10	13

Travis Oleksuk	10	6	6	12

J.T. Brown	10	5	7	12

Kyle Schmidt	10	4	5	9 

FYI the Sioux have two guys in double figures.