NORTH DAKOTA @ NOTRE DAME - Saturday

[brianvf]

Watch out, you'll have the duckie and bunny brigade on your butt for suggesting that national titles are important. They'll remind you that they are almost impossible to win anymore, despite evidence to the contrary. They'll even suggest that we are at a major recruiting disadvantage because we aren't on the East Coast.

Bring Back Gasparini!!

And I can't believe you think national titles are still important...those are so, like 2000, or something.

[Wilbur]

I'd put Rocco in the carrying his weight category. He has been an offensive threat even though he hasn't buried some of his chances. As far as other guys go Parks would definitely be in the not carrying his weight. I mean no goals. Come on.......

[Emerald joker]

Rocco just needs to quit hitting but pipes but I'm ok with that cuz every time I watch him he's working his ass off. I think he needs tp stop letting up once he gets in the offensive zone.

[yzerman19]

The frightening thing is that other teams are doing to us what we are famous for doing to other teams...bottling the puck up in the offensive zone through an aggressive forecheck, working it down low, creating turnovers, then capitalizing.

Maybe we could think about changing up the dpairings? I could see pairing Forbert and Mac as the shutdown tandem, then Simpson and Mattson as the uptempo tandem vs other teams' less physical forward lines or paired with our more physical forward lines, then Gleason and Schmaltz as the relief pairing.

For the first time in a long time, our defense (other than Mac) are really all offensive dmen.

[Dolphinswin]

I cant stand MacWilliam. In my opinion he doesn't deserve to wear the C. He is CONSTANTLY in the box for stupid penalties. Nothing more than a big hitter if you ask me, he sure isn't a great defense man in any right..

[Emerald joker]

Mayby he should put Sienkbiel out there instead of Panzy or Gleason.

[Dolphinswin]

Oh and the gleason coast to coast train has to stop. I think saunder should be playing both games. Yes its important gothberg gets going also but now isnt the time. He's a freshman, we have two years with what seems to be a good goalie, let him take the reigns and run for the season, see where that gets us.

[bigskyvikes]

Has anyone seen the ESPN sports center talking about the Sioux when playing Notre Dame?

Any links?

[Dave Berger]

I should apologize for being right...

From my weekend preview before the series;

I correctly predicted a three point weekend for North Dakota the last time around, but I don’t think it will go that well for UND in the rematch. Dave Hakstol’s best chance for points will come in Friday’s opener, with Notre Dame winning handily on Saturday night. UND 3-2, Notre Dame 4-1.

As we all know, last weekend went down like this: UND 2-1, Notre Dame 5-2.

And for good measure, my prediction from Notre Dame at North Dakota (November 2010):

This series feels like a split, but the last-second loss at Omaha last weekend is not sitting well with Hakstol’s crew, and the Fighting Irish will be happy to take a point. North Dakota 5-2, 2-2 tie.

The results of that series from two seasons ago: North Dakota 6-3, 2-2 tie.

I'll keep running my predictions up the flagpole each week and we'll see who salutes.

Dave

[willythekid]

I should apologize for being right...

From my weekend preview before the series;

I correctly predicted a three point weekend for North Dakota the last time around, but I don’t think it will go that well for UND in the rematch. Dave Hakstol’s best chance for points will come in Friday’s opener, with Notre Dame winning handily on Saturday night. UND 3-2, Notre Dame 4-1.

As we all know, last weekend went down like this: UND 2-1, Notre Dame 5-2.

And for good measure, my prediction from Notre Dame at North Dakota (November 2010):

This series feels like a split, but the last-second loss at Omaha last weekend is not sitting well with Hakstol’s crew, and the Fighting Irish will be happy to take a point. North Dakota 5-2, 2-2 tie.

The results of that series from two seasons ago: North Dakota 6-3, 2-2 tie.

I'll keep running my predictions up the flagpole each week and we'll see who salutes.

Dave

you predicted UND to win friday and lose saturday? I need you to send me some powerball numbers on wensday morning... thanks.

[Dave Berger]

you predicted UND to win friday and lose saturday? I need you to send me some powerball numbers on wensday morning... thanks.

Nice. As I mentioned the last time I wrote an article about my predictions, it's as much about the nature of the games played (tight and low scoring, blowout, predicting which team will come back late to earn the tie, etc.) as it is about following UND's Friday/Saturday split pattern. Picking UND to win a close one and lose by three is quite a bit different then saying "UND will win Friday and lose Saturday".

Like I said, not everyone will salute.

Dave

[BigGreyAnt41]

I cant stand MacWilliam. In my opinion he doesn't deserve to wear the C. He is CONSTANTLY in the box for stupid penalties. Nothing more than a big hitter if you ask me, he sure isn't a great defense man in any right..

Pretty much the same as last year's captain (except for the defense part).

[jodcon]

I cant stand MacWilliam. In my opinion he doesn't deserve to wear the C. He is CONSTANTLY in the box for stupid penalties. Nothing more than a big hitter if you ask me, he sure isn't a great defense man in any right..

I agree he has been committing some bad penalties, the stick-to-the-head yesterday was ridiculous and pretty much sealed the game, but I'd hate to see the makeup of the team without him. This UND team doesn't have the same physicality and attitude it has in past years, and I think to an extent we miss that. Sioux teams have always been known for tough physical (some would say too physical) play and barking at the other team, but we don't have guys like Blood and Malone and Hextall and Lammy this year that carry that attitude, and we need Mac to bring some of that enforcer attitude to the game for the younger guys to see and light a fire under.

[yzerman19]

Parks plays Sioux hockey. Pattyn plays Sioux hockey. Grimaldi plays Sioux hockey.

Kristo is the best player on the ice.

Something is up with Knight, because he is not playing like he is capable of playing.

MacMillan is very good offensively as well.

I have no complaints about Caggiula or St Clair- they are freshmen.

The biggest issue is we are getting pinned back in our own zone, we are not manning up well, and we are not transitioning well. Then we are dumping and chasing and failing to achieve the forecheck off dump and chase.

40 shots on goal is not SIoux hockey. Allowing that for a couple weeks straight is unacceptable. This is on the coaches right now.

[Emerald joker]

Why do we alaways have to have one or two of our top guys injured. Ok what is it our team wrong and every team we play does right cuz sense I've had my season tickets, last 6 years now theres always been a guy that has no problem skating up the ice into the d zone with the puck, now why cant we do that?

[sioux rube]

Parks plays Sioux hockey. Pattyn plays Sioux hockey. Grimaldi plays Sioux hockey.

Kristo is the best player on the ice.

Something is up with Knight, because he is not playing like he is capable of playing.

MacMillan is very good offensively as well.

I have no complaints about Caggiula or St Clair- they are freshmen.

The biggest issue is we are getting pinned back in our own zone, we are not manning up well, and we are not transitioning well. Then we are dumping and chasing and failing to achieve the forecheck off dump and chase.

40 shots on goal is not SIoux hockey. Allowing that for a couple weeks straight is unacceptable. This is on the coaches right now.

I agree about Knight. Something isn't right with him. Like I said earlier Schmaltz has done nothing for me yet. Was he always a finesse player before he became a Sioux? I can count on one hand how many hits he has delivered this season.

[Wilbur]

I should apologize for being right...

From my weekend preview before the series;

I correctly predicted a three point weekend for North Dakota the last time around, but I don’t think it will go that well for UND in the rematch. Dave Hakstol’s best chance for points will come in Friday’s opener, with Notre Dame winning handily on Saturday night. UND 3-2, Notre Dame 4-1.

As we all know, last weekend went down like this: UND 2-1, Notre Dame 5-2.

And for good measure, my prediction from Notre Dame at North Dakota (November 2010):

This series feels like a split, but the last-second loss at Omaha last weekend is not sitting well with Hakstol’s crew, and the Fighting Irish will be happy to take a point. North Dakota 5-2, 2-2 tie.

The results of that series from two seasons ago: North Dakota 6-3, 2-2 tie.

I'll keep running my predictions up the flagpole each week and we'll see who salutes.

Dave

I have noticed this as well dave. You have been just about spot on all season long. Even at the end of last season you were just throwing down black jacks even down to the last game.

I met you a couple of years ago at the Final Five and you correctly predicted Miele or whatever his name was from Miami would win the Hobey Baker in our conversation there.

Would you just predict the Sioux to win the national championship and truly believe it.

[Siouxman]

UND played better on Saturday night than Friday night, with the exception of goalie. Gothberg let in two shots from the left point on which there was no tip and no screen and he should have seen the shots all the way. Both of those should have been stopped. The fifth goal was an open net goal that would not have happened in a 2-2 game. Having said that, Gothberg needs to get some game time to become acclimated to Div. 1 hockey. There have been too many goalie injuries in the WCHA in the past few years to risk getting late into the season and suddenly get stuck having to play an untested and unconditioned goalie in critical games. Giving Gothberg time now hurts, but it is absolutely necessary.

I also believe that something is physically wrong with Knight. There is an issue of some type that seems to be affecting his play.

I am getting frustrated by defensemen skating in circles with the puck and blindly turning into an opposing player. It was very evident with UMD that with certain defensemen (especially Gleason) they would double team them with the second man coming from the blind side. While we don't have much for big bruising defensemen, the game has been changed by the rules and the officiating and UND can no longer play the type of hockey they did a number of years ago when the beat the crap out of BU and BC in the east regional. A high level of physicality gets penalized.

The reffing has been completely unacceptable, ignoring major penalties with injury potential and calling ticky tack meaningless penalties of no consequence.

Finally, we have to remember that they are consistently playing with basically five freshmen, several players who literally did not play last year (due to injury and ineligibility), and a number of players coming off season ending injuries. It just might take a little longer for some of these guys to get back up to speed.

One the plus side, they have a backstop goalie capable of stealing a game, the record is not all that bad considering the past few years, they are not having to skate defensemen at forward just to attempt to fill a lineup, and the team is consistently being referred to as the team formerly known as the Fighting Sioux. The next three weekends will be defining for this team.

[siouxforce19]

I agree about Knight. Something isn't right with him. Like I said earlier Schmaltz has done nothing for me yet. Was he always a finesse player before he became a Sioux? I can count on one hand how many hits he has delivered this season.

Yes.

The knock on him is his lack of physicality, and always has been.

[yzerman19]

Soft, offensive dman, first round pick- oh boy- here we go again

[Fetch]

what percentage of our winning teams came from where ? hey I'm just looking for theory I can look like I have knowledge or super powers or something

[Goon]

I cant stand MacWilliam. In my opinion he doesn't deserve to wear the C. He is CONSTANTLY in the box for stupid penalties. Nothing more than a big hitter if you ask me, he sure isn't a great defense man in any right..

you realize that Mac has 37 penalty minutes in 11 games, 15 of these were a 5 and 10 that he received for a hit on a BU player a few weeks back, a play that I thought was a legit shoulder to shoulder check.

So take that one game away and he taking basically what equates to a minor penalty a game. That averages out to 3.36 minutes per game. That really isn't that many PIMs especially for a physical shut down defenseman. MacWilliam is wearing the "C" because his fellow teammates and coaches respect Mac and what he brings to the table.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Goon

[Wilbur]

Soft, offensive dman, first round pick- oh boy- here we go again

I was thinking about this the other day. Brian Lee.....came in with all the expectations of greatness....and then we found out he didn't like to check people.

[Goon]

I should apologize for being right...

Dave

Yes you should...

[mikejm]

Moving to Florida seems to have changed Brian's outlook a bit:

I think this was his first game for the Lightning.