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Icebreaker @ REA - UND vs. Army, Bucky; BSU vs. Bucky, Army


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Posted

I'd be even more excited if Manitoba had put up more of a fight. They used to have decent teams, what happened?

That being said, this team looks way better than last year's ever looked. There will be some rough stretches early as the freshman and transfers get used to each other, but I think the ceiling on this team is very high.

I think we thump Army on Friday and beat Wisconsin on Saturday.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
7 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I'd be even more excited if Manitoba had put up more of a fight. They used to have decent teams, what happened?

That being said, this team looks way better than last year's ever looked. There will be some rough stretches early as the freshman and transfers get used to each other, but I think the ceiling on this team is very high.

I think we thump Army on Friday and beat Wisconsin on Saturday.

Totally agree. That was easily the worst Manitoba team I've seen. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, shep said:

That team didn’t look good, but we can attribute much of that to UND looking really good.

The ability to pin Manitoba in their zone and also to track back and take pucks was unreal. I don't think I've ever seen UND, top to bottom, come out that hard and play that well for the entirety of the exhibition. It was very impressive. Feels like a team, especially upfront, that has a lot of swagger, moxie, confidence. Bodes well.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
41 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

The ability to pin Manitoba in their zone and also to track back and take pucks was unreal. I don't think I've ever seen UND, top to bottom, come out that hard and play that well for the entirety of the exhibition. It was very impressive. Feels like a team, especially upfront, that has a lot of swagger, moxie, confidence. Bodes well.

That's what I was gonna say as well.  Manitoba didn't look good, but how much of that was attributed to UND relentlessly coming on the forecheck and forcing them to turn it over in their own end.  They came at them hard and attacked the puck carrier anytime Manitoba even got a sniff.

Army will be a better test, and then UW will be an even better test.

UW wasn't really tested against Augie, didn't allow a goal and outshot them handily.  We'll see how BSU fares against them on Friday. 
A win against UW will be a big help in the PWR, as you know the B10 will be strong again this year.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
1 hour ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Totally agree. That was easily the worst Manitoba team I've seen. 

Full marks to their goalie for that first period effort. 

Posted

If we put our top six forwards out there, then throw a dart to pick 6 more forwards and 6 defensemen, looks like that team would be very good.

Bizens was a difficult game to use as a measuring stick, but I didn’t see any of our players who wouldn’t have been the best player on Manitoba’s team times two! 

Army will be a step up, Wisconsin another step higher and then we find out what they’re made of. 

Posted

Like LaMoine said post game:

- speed
- "north"

There was no dallying; it was acquire puck and go. The D-to-D stuff was way down; it was move it up. 

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Posted
17 hours ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Army got beat 6-0 and outshot 46-19 by Union(ECAC Preseason #7 per GF Herald). They're a good game to start the season with as I highly doubt any of our players will be taking their first game in The Ralph lightly no matter the opponent. 

They way they came out and showed out in the from the drop of the puck in the exhibition, I would be incredibly disappointed if we didn't come out flying on Friday.

  • Upvote 2
Posted
30 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

They way they came out and showed out in the from the drop of the puck in the exhibition, I would be incredibly disappointed if we didn't come out flying on Friday.

I'm calling a goal in the first minute of the game, heard it here first :D

  • Like 1
Posted
21 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

Very glad we get Wisconsin early, before Hastings has a real chance to straighten things up in Badgerland. 

Last unranked opponents for a while ... 

It is important we win both games because of PWR implications.

  • Upvote 3
Posted
32 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

Very glad we get Wisconsin early, before Hastings has a real chance to straighten things up in Badgerland. 

Last unranked opponents for a while ... 

While I get your point, since the end of March, I feel like the the Mankato series got significantly less daunting and they will likely not be ranked by the time we play them. 

I think that Wisco will end up being a PWR plus for us, eventually. I definitely think we are getting them at a good time.

Minny and BU, no doubt.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
32 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

I'm thinking about our October opponents "glad we play them early", because MN-BU-WI and even MSU will be strong teams by end of season.

Of course, they are probably thinking "glad we play UND early" too. 

I think that anyone who watches that exhibition and watched us thoroughly dominate a team from start to finish while holding them to six total shots will not want to play us regardless of the time in the season! :D We'll see if it continues, but I would be surprised to see a dramatic change. I think the team, particularly the forward group, showed how they intend to play all season. 

Posted
30 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

We'll see if it continues, but I would be surprised to see a dramatic change. I think the team, particularly the forward group, showed how they intend to play all season. 

Man, I hope so...as that would make for a very fun & entertaining season to watch.

Posted
1 hour ago, jk said:

I've been excited for this season since the off-season began, but how the forwards intend to play and how they're able to play when there's another good team that wants the puck just as much may not be the same thing.  If we still think of UND as high flying after the BU weekend, then all the optimism will have been well-placed.

Agreed, I know it is one of my pet peeves when too much is made of a single game or series, either positively or negatively.   Manitoba has never been a good benchmark, and I suspect their level is down a bit this year, so it is hard to draw any firm conclusions.  I suspect not many Manitoba players would be on NCAA rosters if they were eligible.  

  • Upvote 1
Posted
3 hours ago, jk said:

I've been excited for this season since the off-season began, but how the forwards intend to play and how they're able to play when there's another good team that wants the puck just as much may not be the same thing.  If we still think of UND as high flying after the BU weekend, then all the optimism will have been well-placed.

Fair enough, but there was a clear difference in how that team functioned in the exhibition versus the one we saw all last year and it was glaring. It wasn't just the players executing, it was what they were doing. 

I'll make this clear... I'm not saying this team won't have bumps.... I'm saying that what I saw was very impressive and I'd be very surprise to see a significant drop from that level.

  • Upvote 1
Posted
17 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

... but there was a clear difference in how that team functioned in the exhibition versus the one we saw all last year and it was glaring. 

You mean ...

Quote

Like LaMoine said post game:

- speed
- "north"

There was no dallying; it was acquire puck and go. The D-to-D stuff was way down; it was move it up. 

 

Posted
29 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Fair enough, but there was a clear difference in how that team functioned in the exhibition versus the one we saw all last year and it was glaring. It wasn't just the players executing, it was what they were doing. 

I'll make this clear... I'm not saying this team won't have bumps.... I'm saying that what I saw was very impressive and I'd be very surprise to see a significant drop from that level.

I don’t have an in depth analysis on my reasoning why I thought the defense looked significantly better than last year. Because there wasn’t much d-zone play. But just watching them skate the puck out of zone so comfortably without a lot of panic just felt different than last year. Especially with the top 6 D. 

Last year I thought the weakness on D was that third pairing, no matter who was on it. The fact that we can pair Livanavage and Wiebe with experienced seniors in the top 4 D and then roll out a third pairing of Britt and Zmolek is something I really like. 

  • Upvote 1
Posted
8 hours ago, siouxforce19 said:

I don’t have an in depth analysis on my reasoning why I thought the defense looked significantly better than last year. Because there wasn’t much d-zone play. But just watching them skate the puck out of zone so comfortably without a lot of panic just felt different than last year. Especially with the top 6 D. 

Last year I thought the weakness on D was that third pairing, no matter who was on it. The fact that we can pair Livanavage and Wiebe with experienced seniors in the top 4 D and then roll out a third pairing of Britt and Zmolek is something I really like. 

With a couple of small exceptions, throughout the lineup on the backend I noticed two things... poise and correct and fast transitions up the ice to our forwards. Saw very little of those two things last season. With how quick and skilled our forwards are, these two things are so important and will bear fruit all season long.

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