UND Fighting Hawks vs. UNO Mavericks - SATURDAY Gameday

[Cratter]

Separated shoulder was also my first thought.

[burd]

7 hours ago, yzerman19 said:

The check that ended Jewels' night was open-ice.  That makes me think not a collarbone (good thing)...usually you need the boards or the ice to break a clavicle.  I'm thinking its likely a shoulder separation (on my non-professional medical nor hockey wisdom) at worst.  If that's true, he will likely only miss CC

Yeah, separated shoulder not so bad for a hockey player as for Fball or Bball.   Cross your fingers; this guy counts. 

[burd]

5 hours ago, Goon said:

(Video highlights) 

Thanks, Goon.   It's really nice to wake up to these.

[Goon]

4 hours ago, burd said:

Thanks, Goon.   It's really nice to wake up to these.

I got home last night and I almost forgot... Then I realized that I had video.

[geaux_sioux]

I thought Gersich was pretty good last night. He had a good jump to his game.

[Emerald joker]

15 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

I thought Gersich was pretty good last night. He had a good jump to his game.

I think he just needs to be on the right line. I don't think he's a bottom 6 player

[Oxbow6]

13 hours ago, yzerman19 said:

The check that ended Jewels' night was open-ice.  That makes me think not a collarbone (good thing)...usually you need the boards or the ice to break a clavicle.  I'm thinking its likely a shoulder separation (on my non-professional medical nor hockey wisdom) at worst.  If that's true, he will likely only miss CC

Agree with all above.

[Oxbow6]

If that was the #3 team in Pairwise UND played this weekend I like our chances come NCAA tournament time.

[sprig]

6 hours ago, burd said:

Yeah, separated shoulder not so bad for a hockey player as for Fball or Bball.   Cross your fingers; this guy counts. 

He didn't go off the ice immediately holding his shoulder like it was broke,  but popped up and completed his shift. I don't think he would have done that with a break. 

[Cratter]

1 hour ago, Oxbow6 said:

If that was the #3 team in Pairwise UND played this weekend I like our chances come NCAA tournament time.

UNO lost its third leading scorer Saturday, Justin Parizek.

UNO started a different goalie Saturday than Friday, who was pulled and put Blankenburg back in. 

UND had more will to win trying not to get swept. 

These teams are pretty even as evidenced by the split on UNDs home ice. 

Its those dang eastern teams that seem to have UND's number come tourney time (and everyones).

With the split UND moved up to third in the pairwise, Omaha drops to 5. 

[fightingsioux4life]

1 minute ago, Cratter said:

UNO lost its third leading scorer Saturday, Justin Parizek.

UNO started a different goalie Saturday than Friday, who was pulled and put Blankenburg back in. 

UND had more will to win trying not to get swept. 

These teams are pretty even as evidenced by the split on UNDs home ice. 

Its those dang eastern teams that seem to have UND's number come tourney time. 

I think Blankenburg has earned himself a piece of the starting job.

[UND-RedSox fan]

19 hours ago, burd said:

Who was it that said UNO is the worst team we've played since Wisco?

A little out of control, but an entertaining period of hockey

That was me and I stand by it. Duluth, Denver, and St. Cloud are all definitely better than Omaha. Miami is at least as good as Omaha. I forgot about Michigan State when I made the comment. Outside of when Guentzel and Ortega were on the ice, I was never worried at any point about giving up a goal. The only goal Omaha scored this weekend that wasn't following a big blunder by UND was the powerplay goal last night. I would take CBS over Taco, Guentzel, and whomever. I would take a line of three guys that didn't dress last night for us over Omaha's 2nd line. Any pairing of our defensemen would be better than the best pairing of Omaha's defensemen. Unless the goalie that was injured this weekend is an absolute stud, there is nothing that worries me about Omaha. Omaha dominated a weak out of conference schedule just like we did, but the difference is Omaha has gone on to play under .500 in conference games and we are where we are. I would be more surprised if Omaha finished in the top 4 of our conference than if they finished 7th. 

And I thought Omaha played better last night than they did on Friday. They are a two player team. The only other skills they demonstrated this weekend were diving, hooking, and holding.

[UND-RedSox fan]

I am also more than willing to eat my words if Omaha goes on to do well. I'm not a hockey expert, but in my uneducated opinion we've played teams that are a lot better than Omaha.

[Oxbow6]

13 minutes ago, UND-RedSox fan said:

That was me and I stand by it. Duluth, Denver, and St. Cloud are all definitely better than Omaha. Miami is at least as good as Omaha. I forgot about Michigan State when I made the comment. Outside of when Guentzel and Ortega were on the ice, I was never worried at any point about giving up a goal. The only goal Omaha scored this weekend that wasn't following a big blunder by UND was the powerplay goal last night. I would take CBS over Taco, Guentzel, and whomever. I would take a line of three guys that didn't dress last night for us over Omaha's 2nd line. Any pairing of our defensemen would be better than the best pairing of Omaha's defensemen. Unless the goalie that was injured this weekend is an absolute stud, there is nothing that worries me about Omaha. Omaha dominated a weak out of conference schedule just like we did, but the difference is Omaha has gone on to play under .500 in conference games and we are where we are. I would be more surprised if Omaha finished in the top 4 of our conference than if they finished 7th. 

And I thought Omaha played better last night than they did on Friday. They are a two player team. The only other skills they demonstrated this weekend were diving, hooking, and holding.

I agree with a good majority of this. I was expecting more from UNO over the course of the weekend. Ortega is terrific. Guentzel has some skill but his constant chirping, desire to dive and stick work after the whistle shows he is nothing more than Gopher in a UNO sweater. The rest of the squad is well.......meh. UMD has way more skill and depth as does SCSU.  I would put them on par with DU and marginally better than Miami. 

 

That fact the Dino didn't play race horse hockey and exchange chance for chance as he loves to do speaks to his sense as to the skill of both teams. 

 

Last night is what I expected. Friday was a game UND lost moreso than UNO won.  

[UND-RedSox fan]

Agreed Oxbow. I do think Denver is better than Omaha though. Zajac alone is better than the entirety of Omaha's defensive group. Will Butcher is a very good player as well. Trevor Moore and Danton Heinen both have a level that they can take it to that they haven't yet this year. Shore hasn't been as good as I expected this year either and Gambrell is a pretty good freshman. 

Omaha might be better than Miami but personally I think it is a toss-up. I haven't seen WMU play this year but they did sweep Omaha. I'd have to see them play first but they are probably around that same level as Miami and Omaha as well.

Blais clearly thought UND was a better team than Omaha based on what he said this week leading up to the series and the style of games they played this weekend. 

Ortega and Guentzel are both obviously very good. The conference player of the year at this point would have to be between those two, Caggiula, Schmaltz, and Kossila or Murray. With some bias I would go with Caggiula. As much as I dislike Ortega, he is definitely the best opponent I've seen play this year.

[jk]

Just a reminder that Stecher committed at a young age to UNO, then reopened his recruitment and ended up at UND.  He would help them a ton, and his absence would hurt UND just as much.  IMO the heart and soul of this team.

[UND-RedSox fan]

I don't even want to think about Stecher not ever going to UND. I've really only followed Sioux hockey for 5 or 6 years, but him and Caggiula are easily my favorite players I've gotten to watch in person.

[scpa0305]

2 hours ago, UND-RedSox fan said:

That was me and I stand by it. Duluth, Denver, and St. Cloud are all definitely better than Omaha. Miami is at least as good as Omaha. I forgot about Michigan State when I made the comment. Outside of when Guentzel and Ortega were on the ice, I was never worried at any point about giving up a goal. The only goal Omaha scored this weekend that wasn't following a big blunder by UND was the powerplay goal last night. I would take CBS over Taco, Guentzel, and whomever. I would take a line of three guys that didn't dress last night for us over Omaha's 2nd line. Any pairing of our defensemen would be better than the best pairing of Omaha's defensemen. Unless the goalie that was injured this weekend is an absolute stud, there is nothing that worries me about Omaha. Omaha dominated a weak out of conference schedule just like we did, but the difference is Omaha has gone on to play under .500 in conference games and we are where we are. I would be more surprised if Omaha finished in the top 4 of our conference than if they finished 7th. 

And I thought Omaha played better last night than they did on Friday. They are a two player team. The only other skills they demonstrated this weekend were diving, hooking, and holding.

What??? Come on.  Jake Randolph, Tyler Vessel, Parizek, Snuggered, Ollafson.  Those are pretty good college players.  I have to be missing a couple too.  They may not be scary but they've been winning for quite a while now.

They are way better than both MSU and ALA H.

[Siouxman]

I lost a lot of respect for Omaha this weekend.  If they play like that with eastern refs they will be short handed all game.  Their plan against the CBS line was not to play physical, it was to play cheap.  There were many punches thrown, sticks to the head, tackling, and other tactics that should have been penalties but did not get called.

[UND-RedSox fan]

10 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

What??? Come on.  Jake Randolph, Tyler Vessel, Parizek, Sniggered, Ollafson.  Those are pretty good college players.  I have to be missing a couple too.  They may not be scary but they've been winning for quite a while now.

In my opinion Randolph is a guy that just benefits from getting to play with two of the best players in the conference. Parizek and Snuggerud were solid offensive zone players but were also pylons. How many times this weekend did Luke Johnson just skate right by them? Luke is probably the slowest skater we have and he beat the Omaha defense with speed multiple times. Sanderson was walking their defensemen. It almost looked boring for Stecher, Caggiula, Boeser, and Schmaltz with how easily they could walk around the defensemen. In the past years I thought Brady and Cooper were their best defensemen. Brady looked like he barely knew how to skate this weekend. Cooper was either in the penalty box or else he was getting away with holding and hooking all weekend. I honestly didn't notice Vessel or Ollafson a single time on the ice. I would take a line of Sanderson, St. Clair, and Wilkie over Omaha's 2nd line (chose them because they were guys that sat out this weekend). The only Omaha defenseman I would even consider over any of our top 7 is Parizek. If it wasn't Ortega and Guentzel out there, I wasn't worried. Look at St. Cloud's top end talent and depth and tell me they aren't better than Omaha. Do the same with Denver and Duluth. I just don't see it.

When we played St. Cloud and Duluth there were moments in the games where they were definitely outplaying us. They would carry the play of the game. That didn't happen once this weekend in my opinion. Either we made lazy turnovers or we stopped playing at the end of a period. 

Maybe Omaha is better than what they showed this weekend. Maybe Weninger is a stud and we didn't see him this weekend. Just looking at shot totals in Omaha's games, it looks like he carried them on his back in a lot of their wins. I would think they are better than what they showed this weekend considering they are 5th in the Pairwise. However, we absolutely should have swept the Omaha team I saw this weekend. I couldn't say the same thing when I watched us play Duluth or St. Cloud. We played our best games of the year against Denver. We played poorly this Friday and easily could have won. We played well but not great on Saturday and easily won. 

Ask bale31 or another Mankato fan what they thought of Omaha. Ask Biddco or another Duluth fan what they though of them. I'm sure both fan bases would say they think they are better than Omaha and have no idea how they didn't sweep them, let alone get swept.

Again I will admit that I'm not the smartest when it comes to hockey. Probably not even in the 50th percentile. Still the Omaha team I watched this weekend did not impress me at all. Ortega did and that's about it.

[dagies]

5 hours ago, sprig said:

He didn't go off the ice immediately holding his shoulder like it was broke,  but popped up and completed his shift. I don't think he would have done that with a break. 

That was the thought I had as well

[scpa0305]

7 minutes ago, UND-RedSox fan said:

In my opinion Randolph is a guy that just benefits from getting to play with two of the best players in the conference. Parizek and Snuggerud were solid offensive zone players but were also pylons. How many times this weekend did Luke Johnson just skate right by them? Luke is probably the slowest skater we have and he beat the Omaha defense with speed multiple times. Sanderson was walking their defensemen. It almost looked boring for Stecher, Caggiula, Boeser, and Schmaltz with how easily they could walk around the defensemen. In the past years I thought Brady and Cooper were their best defensemen. Brady looked like he barely knew how to skate this weekend. Cooper was either in the penalty box or else he was getting away with holding and hooking all weekend. I honestly didn't notice Vessel or Ollafson a single time on the ice. I would take a line of Sanderson, St. Clair, and Wilkie over Omaha's 2nd line (chose them because they were guys that sat out this weekend). The only Omaha defenseman I would even consider over any of our top 7 is Parizek. If it wasn't Ortega and Guentzel out there, I wasn't worried. Look at St. Cloud's top end talent and depth and tell me they aren't better than Omaha. Do the same with Denver and Duluth. I just don't see it.

When we played St. Cloud and Duluth there were moments in the games where they were definitely outplaying us. They would carry the play of the game. That didn't happen once this weekend in my opinion. Either we made lazy turnovers or we stopped playing at the end of a period. 

Maybe Omaha is better than what they showed this weekend. Maybe Weninger is a stud and we didn't see him this weekend. Just looking at shot totals in Omaha's games, it looks like he carried them on his back in a lot of their wins. I would think they are better than what they showed this weekend considering they are 5th in the Pairwise. However, we absolutely should have swept the Omaha team I saw this weekend. I couldn't say the same thing when I watched us play Duluth or St. Cloud. We played our best games of the year against Denver. We played poorly this Friday and easily could have won. We played well but not great on Saturday and easily won. 

Ask bale31 or another Mankato fan what they thought of Omaha. Ask Biddco or another Duluth fan what they though of them. I'm sure both fan bases would say they think they are better than Omaha and have no idea how they didn't sweep them, let alone get swept.

Again I will admit that I'm not the smartest when it comes to hockey. Probably not even in the 50th percentile. Still the Omaha team I watched this weekend did not impress me at all. Ortega did and that's about it.

well I respectfully disagree with everything you said and I will go back to the original point.....they are way better than msu and ALA- Huntsville

[tnt]

6 minutes ago, UND-RedSox fan said:

In my opinion Randolph is a guy that just benefits from getting to play with two of the best players in the conference. Parizek and Snuggerud were solid offensive zone players but were also pylons. How many times this weekend did Luke Johnson just skate right by them? Luke is probably the slowest skater we have and he beat the Omaha defense with speed multiple times. Sanderson was walking their defensemen. It almost looked boring for Stecher, Caggiula, Boeser, and Schmaltz with how easily they could walk around the defensemen. In the past years I thought Brady and Cooper were their best defensemen. Brady looked like he barely knew how to skate this weekend. Cooper was either in the penalty box or else he was getting away with holding and hooking all weekend. I honestly didn't notice Vessel or Ollafson a single time on the ice. I would take a line of Sanderson, St. Clair, and Wilkie over Omaha's 2nd line (chose them because they were guys that sat out this weekend). The only Omaha defenseman I would even consider over any of our top 7 is Parizek. If it wasn't Ortega and Guentzel out there, I wasn't worried. Look at St. Cloud's top end talent and depth and tell me they aren't better than Omaha. Do the same with Denver and Duluth. I just don't see it.

When we played St. Cloud and Duluth there were moments in the games where they were definitely outplaying us. They would carry the play of the game. That didn't happen once this weekend in my opinion. Either we made lazy turnovers or we stopped playing at the end of a period. 

Maybe Omaha is better than what they showed this weekend. Maybe Weninger is a stud and we didn't see him this weekend. Just looking at shot totals in Omaha's games, it looks like he carried them on his back in a lot of their wins. I would think they are better than what they showed this weekend considering they are 5th in the Pairwise. However, we absolutely should have swept the Omaha team I saw this weekend. I couldn't say the same thing when I watched us play Duluth or St. Cloud. We played our best games of the year against Denver. We played poorly this Friday and easily could have won. We played well but not great on Saturday and easily won. 

Ask bale31 or another Mankato fan what they thought of Omaha. Ask Biddco or another Duluth fan what they though of them. I'm sure both fan bases would say they think they are better than Omaha and have no idea how they didn't sweep them, let alone get swept.

Again I will admit that I'm not the smartest when it comes to hockey. Probably not even in the 50th percentile. Still the Omaha team I watched this weekend did not impress me at all. Ortega did and that's about it.

So if one player can singlehandedly beat UND, what does that say about us?  You might also want to ask Duluth what they think about us, as the only reason we beat them on Friday was a goaltending effort for the ages.  So does that make Duluth better than us?  Winning is the bottom line, and Omaha is going to be in the tournament, so at that point in a one game shot they can beat anybody.

[LuvHockey]

1 hour ago, UND-RedSox fan said:

I don't even want to think about Stecher not ever going to UND. I've really only followed Sioux hockey for 5 or 6 years, but him and Caggiula are easily my favorite players I've gotten to watch in person.

Agree totally.

I'll bet Boeser grows on you.....

[UND-RedSox fan]

50 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

well I respectfully disagree with everything you said and I will go back to the original point.....they are way better than msu and ALA- Huntsville

In my original post on Friday I excluded Huntsville and later admitted that I completely forgot about Michigan State when Burd pointed that out to me. Omaha is better than both of those teams but that is a low hurdle to jump. What I really meant was that I think SCSU, UMD, DU, and Miami are all better than Omaha. Miami is admittedly a stretch but not that big of one in my opinion. I don't think the other three are. I strongly think that Omaha will be playing on the road in the first round of the NCHC playoffs and that they are more likely to finish 7th than 4th. I wouldn't be surprised if they finished lower in the NCHC than they do in the Pairwise. I don't know how good WMU is. I didn't think Miami looked too bad when we played them. Duluth and SCSU looked like the best teams we'll play this year before the NCAA tournament.

Also I'm not saying Omaha is terrible. They have two of the best players in the conference. I'm guessing their goalie is a stud but I don't know because he was hurt this weekend. Overall they didn't impress me. Maybe they had an off weekend. They probably did considering how they looked.