North Dakota vs. Union (Thanksgiving Edition)

[fightingsioux4life]

Union College

NCAA Division I Overall Record: 7-6-0 (.538)

Conference Record, ECAC: 5-1-0, 10 points

Home: 3-2-0 / Away: 4-2-0 / Neutral: 0-2-0

 

North Dakota

NCAA Division I Overall Record: 8-3-3 (.679)

Conference Record, NCHC: 3-2-1, 11 points

Home: 4-1-1 / Away: 4-2-2 / Neutral: 0-0-0

Current USCHO Poll: No. 3

 

After a conference road split at Denver, UND returns to REA for a two-game, non-conference series verses Union College of the ECAC. We need two wins for the Pairwise rankings. Let's Go Hawks (Sioux)!!!

[cberkas]

The two times I saw Union play they didn't look good at all. This weekend should be a sweep.

[FGHTNSX Hawkey14]

4 minutes ago, cberkas said:

The two times I saw Union play they didn't look good at all. This weekend should be a sweep.

Yup, we're over due, and Union isn't great.

[FGHTNSX Hawkey14]

Also, does anyone else pronounce ECAC phonetically?

[AZSIOUX]

UND (8-3-3) split at Denver while union (7-6-0) had a week off.

- Union lost their first 5 games to mtech, BU, MN, Vermont and Umass. Union is 7-1 since the first 5

- UND has one more non conf series after this weekend vs Bemidji in January. UND is 5-1-2 in non conf so far. UND hosts WMU after Union, then at St Cloud to finish the first half of the season

[tnt]

4 hours ago, cberkas said:

The two times I saw Union play they didn't look good at all. This weekend should be a sweep.

When did you see them play? People could have watched UND against a few teams and said the same thing.  This series is huge for both teams, and if UND underestimates that this could either make or break Union, they could be in for a surprise. Their coach wasn't happy with how they weren't ready to play at UND's intensity level last year without Jost and Boeser, which really boosted our pairwise at the time.  I am certain they will want to return the favor. Need to make sure the young guys that have been instrumental in our season so far, continue to play at a high level in huge pairwise game's like this.

[GoalieMask]

The physical and mental toil that comes with facing a rival can lead to a hangover the following week.

It happened to UND last month at CC a week after the Gopher series.  Hopefully that won’t be the case this week with the Dutchmen in town.  

Time for some Pairwise padding, boys. 

[cberkas]

2 minutes ago, tnt said:

When did you see them play? People could have watched UND against a few teams and said the same thing.  This series is huge for both teams, and if UND underestimates that this could either make or break Union, they could be in for a surprise. Their coach wasn't happy with how they weren't ready to play at UND's intensity level last year without Jost and Boeser, which really boosted our pairwise at the time.  I am certain they will want to return the favor. Need to make sure the young guys that have been instrumental in our season so far, continue to play at a high level in huge pairwise game's like this.

Beginning of the year. The teams Union is beating aren’t top teams. Union has two very bad loses to BU and Michigan Tech, but I did think they were going to beat Minnesota. 

[Dave Berger]

20 hours ago, FGHTNSX Hawkey14 said:

Also, does anyone else pronounce ECAC phonetically?

Do you mean EE-kack? I certainly hope not.

Dave

[The Sicatoka]

I pronounce it letter-by-letter, but I may slide the first C a little bit so it ends up sounding like a Z.  

[siouxfan512]

So ... anything less than a sweep is unacceptable.

[Dave Berger]

3 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

I pronounce it letter-by-letter, but I may slide the first C a little bit so it ends up sounding like a Z.  

You should ask Minnesota how "EZ" Union was in the 2014 title game.

Dave

[runaroundsioux]

1 minute ago, Dave Berger said:

You should ask Minnesota how "EZ" Union was in the 2014 title game.

Dave

Visited with a Gopher fan after this years series with them. We discussed the 0.6 game and the Union championship game. He related the euphoria of beating us on Thu. vs the realization on Sat. night that "We don't even belong here." I concurred, saying that game took allot of the sting away from the .6 as we would not have beat Union either. That year, Union was really good at hockey.

[FGHTNSX Hawkey14]

41 minutes ago, Dave Berger said:

Do you mean EE-kack? I certainly hope not.

Dave

I don't usually say it that way aloud, but that's how I always read it.

[Dave Berger]

Union is averaging 2044 fans through their first five home games (Achilles Center holds 2225). Even though the students will be gone for Thanksgiving break, there will still be a decent number of fans in the seats. Over the past three Thanksgiving weekend series, North Dakota has averaged 10920 tickets sold per game. Crowds have generally looked more like 7k-8k, though.

One strange thing about Achilles Center: the dimensions are 86x201 (one foot wider and one foot longer than standard NHL ice).

If he makes the trip, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Union freshman forward Taylor Brierley (East Grand Forks, Minnesota). Brierley is 21 years old after spending three years combined between the NAHL (Minnesota Magicians) and USHL (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, Dubuque Fighting Saints) but has yet to appear in a game this season. It is unclear whether he will travel with the team.

Dave

[FGHTNSX Hawkey14]

32 minutes ago, Dave Berger said:

Union is averaging 2044 fans through their first five home games (Achilles Center holds 2225). Even though the students will be gone for Thanksgiving break, there will still be a decent number of fans in the seats. Over the past three Thanksgiving weekend series, North Dakota has averaged 10920 tickets sold per game. Crowds have generally looked more like 7k-8k, though.

One strange thing about Achilles Center: the dimensions are 86x201 (one foot wider and one foot longer than standard NHL ice).

If he makes the trip, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Union freshman forward Taylor Brierley (East Grand Forks, Minnesota). Brierley is 21 years old after spending three years combined between the NAHL (Minnesota Magicians) and USHL (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, Dubuque Fighting Saints) but has yet to appear in a game this season. It is unclear whether he will travel with the team.

Dave

I was just about to mention the larger ice. Did you read the Wikipedia article too? 

[Dave Berger]

3 minutes ago, FGHTNSX Hawkey14 said:

I was just about to mention the larget ice. Did you read the Wikipedia article too? 

I remember it from when North Dakota played there on New Year's Eve last year. Thought it was strange and it stuck with me. And yes, Wiki is my friend.

Dave

[AJS]

Important non-conference series (like they all are), need a sweep. Union looks to be Ok, but UND can't really afford any non-conference losses.

[jk]

7 hours ago, runaroundsioux said:

Visited with a Gopher fan after this years series with them. We discussed the 0.6 game and the Union championship game. He related the euphoria of beating us on Thu. vs the realization on Sat. night that "We don't even belong here." I concurred, saying that game took allot of the sting away from the .6 as we would not have beat Union either. That year, Union was really good at hockey.

I've never subscribed to the und would not have beaten union theory.  Play some defense in front of your net and who knows what happens.

[Dutchman]

We are rebuilding this year. We were picked to finish 10th by CHN, the bottom 4 by USCHO, 6th by the coaches and 6th by the media. The ECAC has 12 teams. We lost two of the top scorers in the country. We lost 52% of our offence, our two best blueliners and our goalie who was decent.  Unfortunately, a single great line will only take you so far.

Our PK and PP are both terrible.

Minnesota is 5-0 against the ECAC. Clarkson (2), Harvard (2) and Union. IMO that is not so much that Minnesota is good but rather the ECAC is very weak this year. We are playing a lot of freshmen who are exceeding expectations. While we have no superstars, we have the makings of the possibility of 4 scoring lines. Its a work in progress. Hopefully, we will keep things close and use it to step up our play going back into the ECAC.  Rebuilding is going well. I think next year we will be better able to compete. 

If you look at the strength of schedule, ECAC teams like Cornell are like 42? I am not sure why they are highly ranked. Going forward they have to have one of the weakest schedules in all of College Hockey. 

The inter-conference numbers show the west much better than the east. However, it is worse than that, if you just look at ECAC and HE vs NCHC and Big Ten. Not sure how many eastern teams are going to make the NCAA's this year.

ECAC is pronounced by just saying the letters. If you really want to piss us off, pronounce it EZ AC (Easy - AC). Hockey East teams used to use that in a cheer up about 2011. They don't anymore. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving !!!  Will always remember you folks cheering for us in 2014 in Philadelphia. 

 

[siouxforce19]

1 hour ago, jk said:

I've never subscribed to the und would not have beaten union theory.  Play some defense in front of your net and who knows what happens.

Same here. Many back then have said UND-Union matchup would have had a different vibe because they were more similar teams. Doesn’t matter now but interesting to think about. 

[Sodbuster]

4 minutes ago, Dutchman said:

We are rebuilding this year. We were picked to finish 10th by CHN, the bottom 4 by USCHO, 6th by the coaches and 6th by the media. The ECAC has 12 teams. We lost two of the top scorers in the country. We lost 52% of our offence, our two best blueliners and our goalie who was decent.  Unfortunately, a single great line will only take you so far.

Minnesota is 5-0 against the ECAC. Clarkson (2), Harvard (2) and Union. IMO that is not so much that Minnesota is good but rather the ECAC is very weak this year. We are playing a lot of freshmen who are exceeding expectations. While we have no superstars, we have the makings of the possibility of 4 scoring lines. Its a work in progress. Hopefully, we will keep things close and use it to step up our play going back into the ECAC.  Rebuilding is going well. I think next year we will be better able to compete. 

If you look at the strength of schedule, ECAC teams like Cornell are like 42? I am not sure why they are highly ranked. Going forward they have to have one of the weakest schedules in all of College Hockey. 

The inter-conference numbers show the west much better than the east. However, it is worse than that, if you just look at ECAC and HE vs NCHC and Big Ten. Not sure how many eastern teams are going to make the NCAA's this year.

ECAC is pronounced by just saying the letters. If you really want to piss us off, pronounce it EZ AC (Easy - AC). Hockey East teams used to use that in a cheer up about 2011. They don't anymore. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving !!!  Will always remember you folks cheering for us in 2014 in Philadelphia. 

 

Hey, thanks for the information from a Union point of view. I will always be thankful for Union beating the Gophers in that title game! You have a wonderful Thanksgiving, also (hopefully not at UND's expense)!

[burd]

13 hours ago, Dutchman said:

We are rebuilding this year. We were picked to finish 10th by CHN, the bottom 4 by USCHO, 6th by the coaches and 6th by the media. The ECAC has 12 teams. We lost two of the top scorers in the country. We lost 52% of our offence, our two best blueliners and our goalie who was decent.  Unfortunately, a single great line will only take you so far.

Our PK and PP are both terrible.

Minnesota is 5-0 against the ECAC. Clarkson (2), Harvard (2) and Union. IMO that is not so much that Minnesota is good but rather the ECAC is very weak this year. We are playing a lot of freshmen who are exceeding expectations. While we have no superstars, we have the makings of the possibility of 4 scoring lines. Its a work in progress. Hopefully, we will keep things close and use it to step up our play going back into the ECAC.  Rebuilding is going well. I think next year we will be better able to compete. 

If you look at the strength of schedule, ECAC teams like Cornell are like 42? I am not sure why they are highly ranked. Going forward they have to have one of the weakest schedules in all of College Hockey. 

The inter-conference numbers show the west much better than the east. However, it is worse than that, if you just look at ECAC and HE vs NCHC and Big Ten. Not sure how many eastern teams are going to make the NCAA's this year.

ECAC is pronounced by just saying the letters. If you really want to piss us off, pronounce it EZ AC (Easy - AC). Hockey East teams used to use that in a cheer up about 2011. They don't anymore. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving !!!  Will always remember you folks cheering for us in 2014 in Philadelphia. 

 

That Union team was REALLY good.  The title game was more of a beatdown than a game.   That it happened to UMinn made it pretty sweet for us NoDaks. 

[petey23]

22 hours ago, The Sicatoka said:

I pronounce it letter-by-letter, but I may slide the first C a little bit so it ends up sounding like a Z.  

E, soft C, A, hard C

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

13 hours ago, Dutchman said:

We are rebuilding this year. We were picked to finish 10th by CHN, the bottom 4 by USCHO, 6th by the coaches and 6th by the media. The ECAC has 12 teams. We lost two of the top scorers in the country. We lost 52% of our offence, our two best blueliners and our goalie who was decent.  Unfortunately, a single great line will only take you so far.

Our PK and PP are both terrible.

Minnesota is 5-0 against the ECAC. Clarkson (2), Harvard (2) and Union. IMO that is not so much that Minnesota is good but rather the ECAC is very weak this year. We are playing a lot of freshmen who are exceeding expectations. While we have no superstars, we have the makings of the possibility of 4 scoring lines. Its a work in progress. Hopefully, we will keep things close and use it to step up our play going back into the ECAC.  Rebuilding is going well. I think next year we will be better able to compete. 

If you look at the strength of schedule, ECAC teams like Cornell are like 42? I am not sure why they are highly ranked. Going forward they have to have one of the weakest schedules in all of College Hockey. 

The inter-conference numbers show the west much better than the east. However, it is worse than that, if you just look at ECAC and HE vs NCHC and Big Ten. Not sure how many eastern teams are going to make the NCAA's this year.

ECAC is pronounced by just saying the letters. If you really want to piss us off, pronounce it EZ AC (Easy - AC). Hockey East teams used to use that in a cheer up about 2011. They don't anymore. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving !!!  Will always remember you folks cheering for us in 2014 in Philadelphia. 

 

I've always said that if I meet a Union hockey fan I'll buy them a drink for beating Minnesota in 2014, hasn't happened yet but might change this weekend! Because of that game, I'll have a soft spot for Union.  Plus, they were a heck of a fun hockey team to watch, just relentless.

Have a great turkey day as well and thanks for your insight!