NORTH DAKOTA vs. St. Cloud - SATURDAY Gameday

[brianvf]

1 minute ago, willythekid said:

Would it be to much to ask for an 8 game winning streak right now?

8 game tie streak is more likely.

[808287]

1 minute ago, willythekid said:

Would it be to much to ask for an 8 game winning streak right now?

9 would be nice too    :-)

[siouxfan512]

28 minutes ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

So is 2 wins against UNO enough to get us in?!!

The thing is two wins against Omaha guarantees two more games. With a potential for two more losses. Need to get to St. Paul and win at least 1.

this team can do it if they play 3 full period each night and don’t continue to blow good leads.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

3 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

After the final game of the regular season...really?

Ya, we can move up during the playoffs and get into NCAA's in Sioux Country!

[UNDBIZ]

6 minutes ago, 808287 said:

9 would be nice too    :-)

8 wins gets us 9.

[MafiaMan]

5 minutes ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Ya, we can move up during the playoffs and get into NCAA's in Sioux Country!

This team needed to move up in the Pairwise weeks, if not months, ago...

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

2 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

This team needed to move up in the Pairwise weeks, if not months, ago...

That's history man, the Hawk's need to ratchet up in the next couple weeks, to get to Sioux Falls

[MafiaMan]

9 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

8 wins gets us 9.

So where would that put UND in the Pairwise?

[LeftyZL]

Positives

1. Finally get an overtime win.

2. Get rewarded for the effort with home ice in the playoffs.

3. We don’t have to worry about Joe Sullivan being at The Ralph next weekend refereeing.

[KoolGuy2K]

[jk]

When they've only won four games since December 2, it seems preposterous to think they could go on a little run.  But I think it's possible.  Since a very poor showing against Duluth, they went 2-4-4 to close the season.  The four losses included two in overtime and two trailing by one late in the third, until empty netters put them away.  The leads coughed up, and the inability to finish, have been real factors and I understand they can't be ignored.  But it's also true that they played very good teams Denver and St. Cloud to regulation draws in four out of four games.  They certainly deserved a better fate tonight, as did the aching goalposts.  What happens if they continue to play well, and actually catch a break?  Maybe a tight game falls the right way for once.  Or twice.

[Oxbow6]

Four guys took big steps forward with their play this weekend....... Wolanin, Jones, Gardner and Kawaguchi. Thought they all played extremely well two nights in a row. Cam was really good tonight. Bowen looks like he is skating close to normal. Best weekend of hockey for this team in a long time. 

[Oxbow6]

3 OT games out of 4 vs St Cloud shows they can compete against the best..............not sure what the other 10 OT games show though.

[SiouxScore]

Just never felt comfortable that we would win this game despite leading most of it and I think it was mostly because of how many chances we had to add to the lead and couldn't convert. 5 or 6 posts, a puck laying behind the goalie that could've been a tap in if not for a quick whistle, and a couple great chances with the goalie down and out. If I didn't watch the game I probably wouldn't believe we generated that many great chances. Played pretty well for most of the game, really just a terrible about 10 minutes in the 3rd period but that was enough to keep us from a win. Happy this team will get to host Omaha next weekend but definitely disappointed we were unable to get the win and that has been the feeling far too often this season hopefully that changes starting next weekend.

[LuvHockey]

The Team played way better than I expected. Consider they were 2 disallowed goals (1 each night)- both of which could be legitimate goals, not seen as such by refs- from a sweep of the 

#1 team in the nation.  I did not expect that.  

Even if they had swept Clowns, they would still be #4 in NCHC anyway too, so none of it matters as it turns out.

[tnt]

Just now, LuvHockey said:

The Team played way better than I expected. Consider they were 2 disallowed goals (1 each night)- both of which could be legitimate goals, not seen as such by refs- from a sweep of the 

#1 team in the nation.  I did not expect that.  

Even if they had swept Clowns, they would still be #4 in NCHC anyway too, so none of it matters as it turns out.

Would be interesting to see where a win last night or tonight would have put us in the pairwise.  

[GDPritch]

2 hours ago, mn_sioux said:

Yes... 2 very closely played games...

Against a team that really had nothing to play for and one with everything to play for.

[Wildfan]

25 minutes ago, tnt said:

Would be interesting to see where a win last night or tonight would have put us in the pairwise.  

It would've had us in 15th yet, alot closer to UNO tho. A win last night, and tie tonight may have been enough for 14th. Minnesota being swept through 4 games vs PSU didn,t help. UNO played PSU i believe, UND played UMN this year, so it hurt the quality Wins calculation. A win tonight, and a win at Miami last weekend would've had us 14th pulling away from UNO, and on the heels of UMN. 

 

I would think a sweep of UNO would be enough to get us in, if other top teams win their series, any opponent will be top 10 after that. A series win, and 1 win at the NCHC tourney should be solid to get in.

[stoneySIOUX]

1 hour ago, Oxbow6 said:

3 OT games out of 4 vs St Cloud shows they can compete against the best..............not sure what the other 10 OT games show though.

Hahaha this. Yup. I think we've all heard the cliche of "playing up/down to the competition", but man, this is crazy.

[stoneySIOUX]

2 hours ago, mn_sioux said:

Did you what game did you watch??

Nailed it.

[stoneySIOUX]

1 hour ago, Oxbow6 said:

Four guys took big steps forward with their play this weekend....... Wolanin, Jones, Gardner and Kawaguchi. Thought they all played extremely well two nights in a row. Cam was really good tonight. Bowen looks like he is skating close to normal. Best weekend of hockey for this team in a long time. 

Big thing I took out of this weekend is that the top 2 lines can generate high-level offense and we haven't had that kind of consistency all season. The rest of the way needs to see Line 1: 19-22-14 and Line 2: 16-8-29. Kawaguchi has been really, really good the past handful of games.

With Omaha being at 14, we get two wins (sweep obviously preferred) and get 1 win in St. Paul, that should get us in. 2-2 in the next two weeks should do it. 2-3 puts us on the bubble and needing help.

Atlantic is a 1-bid conference as no one left is in the Top 16 and the remaining 4 in the Big 10 are locks, so no stolen bids there.

We're now big fans of Northeastern and Providence in HE; Clarkson and Cornell in the ECAC; and Mankato in the WCHA. All of those hold, we just need to be 15, obviously.

[Fetch]

You could see early on this yr that Kawahguchi had scoring potential but he got snake bit for awhile - someone kill that Damn snake

[Cratter]

3 hours ago, UNDBIZ said:

No way we're sweeping anyone. 

and in an interesting twist....sweeping vs winning 2 of 3 vs Omaha could be the difference between making the national tournament come selection time...

Overlook Omaha this weekend and the team's season is guaranteed to be over.

[siouxfan512]

6 hours ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Big thing I took out of this weekend is that the top 2 lines can generate high-level offense and we haven't had that kind of consistency all season. The rest of the way needs to see Line 1: 19-22-14 and Line 2: 16-8-29. Kawaguchi has been really, really good the past handful of games.

With Omaha being at 14, we get two wins (sweep obviously preferred) and get 1 win in St. Paul, that should get us in. 2-2 in the next two weeks should do it. 2-3 puts us on the bubble and needing help.

Atlantic is a 1-bid conference as no one left is in the Top 16 and the remaining 4 in the Big 10 are locks, so no stolen bids there.

We're now big fans of Northeastern and Providence in HE; Clarkson and Cornell in the ECAC; and Mankato in the WCHA. All of those hold, we just need to be 15, obviously.

Thanks for posting, I was wondering this after the games. Where could we use help, other than just winning ourselves. 

[GoalieMask]

5 hours ago, Cratter said:

and in an interesting twist....sweeping vs winning 2 of 3 vs Omaha could be the difference between making the national tournament come selection time...

So, what can we expect here?  Is it that simple?  Omaha is higher than UND now in Pairwise - does a series win by UND leapfrog/eliminate them?  Or could Omaha still finish higher than UND if, say, UND loses a semifinal in St Paul?

Gophers really $#*% the bed this weekend.  They are on shaky ground  at 13 and Penn State, meanwhile, is rolling. 

Our current standing is even more perilous than 2014. 

BU is the team that scares me.  They will be one to watch for sure.