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The Sioux Now vs. The Sioux on 3/5/06


petey23

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Currently

8-8-0 in wcha

15-10-1 overall

Mankato and St. Cloud at home

at Cc

Duluth at home

at DU

Tech at home

Good Finish(expected and attainable)

18-10 in wcha

25-12-1 overall

OK Finish

17-11 in WCHA

24-13-1 overall

Bad

16-12-0 in WCHA

23-14-1 overall

Ugly

Anything less.

We have 8 home games left and 4 road games left, win at home, split on the road. All home games have to be won(an OK finish would allow for 1 slip-up(UMD).

So with 36 points in conference, where do we finish?

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36 points puts a team right on the bubble for 3rd. The last three years it would have been good for 3rd, the three prior it would not have.

Asking an 8-8 team to go 10-2 down the stretch seems a little much, but if they do they will have earned it. I suspect the Sioux will easily finish with home ice, but I don't see them passing two of the UM/CC/DU group to gain third.

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I just did the "what-if" calculations for the rest of the year and I found that if the Sioux manage to get hot and finish 10-2 they have a shot at finishing tied for second with Minny but would be third due to the tiebreaker. This is of course calculations I put together really quick and has the Sioux sweeping at home the rest of the way and splitting at CC and Denver. Hopefully it happens starting with Mankato this weekend. One Game at a time.

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Where'd I see that 10-2 down the stretch notion earlier today ....

http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?s=...ndpost&p=136617

Look at who and where they play:

Teams above them in the standings today: DU and CC, both on the road.

Teams below them in the standings today: MSUM, SCSU, UMD, MTU, all at REA.

This team needs to win out at home and split (or better) on the road.

To me it's not about "home ice" for the WCHA; it's about winning percentage and RPI and PWR standings and getting into the NCAAs (to be at home).

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Shove it in my face later, but realistically 10-2 seems like a fantasy to me. A "bad" finish would be 8-4 down the stretch? I'd take 8-4 in a heartbeat. The Sioux are not an elite team right now. I firmly believe that they have the ingredients to be able to make a run at the end of the year and compete with anyone (size, speed, skill, goaltending), but they are just a regular competitive middle-of-the-pack WCHA team right now. In a neutral situation, I don't think there's a strong argument that they are any better than MSUM or SCSU. They might have a slight edge on UMD and MTU, but it's not gigantic. I'm basing my opinion on results recently and throughout the year. If the Sioux step it up and prove me wrong, I'll be enjoying it every step of the way.

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Shove it in my face later, but realistically 10-2 seems like a fantasy to me. A "bad" finish would be 8-4 down the stretch? I'd take 8-4 in a heartbeat. The Sioux are not an elite team right now. I firmly believe that they have the ingredients to be able to make a run at the end of the year and compete with anyone (size, speed, skill, goaltending), but they are just a regular competitive middle-of-the-pack WCHA team right now. In a neutral situation, I don't think there's a strong argument that they are any better than MSUM or SCSU. They might have a slight edge on UMD and MTU, but it's not gigantic. I'm basing my opinion on results recently and throughout the year. If the Sioux step it up and prove me wrong, I'll be enjoying it every step of the way.

I am just saying that 8 wins should be a given(home against mankato, scsu, umd, and tech). Splits on the road(where we have played pretty well) with DU and CC is what Hakstol needs to set as expectations for this team.

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Asking an 8-8 team to go 10-2 down the stretch seems a little much, but if they do they will have earned it. I suspect the Sioux will easily finish with home ice, but I don't see them passing two of the UM/CC/DU group to gain third.

I fully agree. While I would love it if the Sioux could finish 10-2, I just don't see it happening. Unless they found their 'motivation' with their performance in the Sat night Minnie game. :silly:

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Shove it in my face later, but realistically 10-2 seems like a fantasy to me. A "bad" finish would be 8-4 down the stretch? I'd take 8-4 in a heartbeat.

I agree here too.

If the Sioux manage to win 8 of their final 12 WCHA games after being .500 to this point, I would be very happy. And I think that 8 wins would definitely give them at least 5th place in the league.

But I really would love to see them go on a hot streak in the next few months here.... :silly:

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I am just saying that 8 wins should be a given(home against mankato, scsu, umd, and tech). Splits on the road(where we have played pretty well) with DU and CC is what Hakstol needs to set as expectations for this team.

Have you seen any home games this year? Nothing is a given.

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I would like to see a 10-2 (or better finish).

Realistically, 7-1 at home would be fine with me and splitting on the road for a 9-3 finish.

That would leave them at 24-13-1 going into the WCHA playoffs. This is best case IMO.

In addition, I would like to see them show up and play three complete periods every night and play smarter hockey with respect to penalties. If they do that then they should have a very good chance of going 9-3 or better to finish the regular season and make some noise in the post-season. If they continue the current pattern of taking a night off they will probably miss the NCAA regional...won't even matter if they do make it cause they will be an easy out.

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I've seen nothing out of this team to suggest that they can go 8-0 or 7-1 at home the rest of the year. They haven't played an inspired home game since the Friday night Denver game back in October. They've played 11 home games and I'd only classify 2 of them as "good" games. The rest of them have ranged from poor to downright abhorrent. UND has a lot of proving to do at home.

Whether they can create a culture of winning at home will be much more clear after this weekend. I truly think this is by far the most important series of those remaining. UND desparately needs these points. Will they play that way for once?

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Have you seen any home games this year? Nothing is a given.

NO KIDDING!

I saw the Harvard SHUTOUT!! Nothing is a given.

In fact, I haven't seen them win at home since the first game of the DU series.

YIKES!!! Maybe I shouldn't go this weekend.

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Have you seen any home games this year? Nothing is a given.

This is a very true statement!!! While it would be great to sweep MSU this weekend based on this teams play at home to this point of the season I would say getting 4 points out of the weekend may be a stretch. Do the Sioux have better players than the Mavs? Yes.....However Mankato has always played well at the Ralph and they will come to play this weekend. If the Sioux do not play with a sense of urgency they will get beat and i mean a sense of urgency for the whole game not just the last part of the third period.

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Ok, lets dumb it down for the others. What the heck does tis mean? :silly::D:D

Last year's team improved a lot after Christmas. (Sioux 4/7/05 - Sioux 1/15/05)

This year's team, filled with rookies in key roles, should improve even faster as they get up to speed in the game. With experience, talent will carry the day over more opponents.

In other words, get your tickets for ALL the playoffs, cause we are going to be IN.

Sorry to be obscure.

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