Sioux vs MSUM -- Sat night

[dallassiouxfan]

Zajac ices it with a empty netter

[Sioux_Hab-it]

I have waited awhile to type SSSSWWWWEEEEEEPPPP!

[siouxguyinstpaul]

LOL, read my post above yours

The Bulldogs are my favorite Minnesota team.

[Siouxdonyms]

TH: "Mavericks feel they got hosed in this one."

[kfah1]

Sweeeeeeeep!

Sweeeeeeeet!

[Runninwiththedogs]

The Bulldogs are my favorite Minnesota team.

I you.

[dallassiouxfan]

Lets see the salute!!!

[kfah1]

I have waited awhile to type SSSSWWWWEEEEEEPPPP!

Not since Northeastern. 'Bout time!!

[Siouxdonyms]

Great weekend for the Sioux!! Still undefeated at home in 2006! Move into 4th place. Have to keep it up next week with SCCC coming to town. Their playing really well right now, so the Sioux need to enjoy the win tonight, and begin focusing on them tomorrow. Nice sweep boys! Be good to hear Hak having some positive comments two nights in a row.

[kfah1]

Great weekend for the Sioux!! Still undefeated at home in 2006! Move into 4th place. Have to keep it up next week with SCCC coming to town. Their playing really well right now, so the Sioux need to enjoy the win tonight, and begin focusing on them tomorrow. Nice sweep boys! Be good to hear Hak having some positive comments two nights in a row.

4th place! Let's keep the momentum going!

[Smoggy]

perhaps it will get reviewed.

Don't count on it. They didn't review Harrington's when he didn't do anything. All we can hope for are the make-up calls next Friday.

[Sioux_Hab-it]

Apparently Hak didn't know that Sparky was given a DQ.

[Siouxdonyms]

Jordy doesn't remember getting hit? Not a good sign.

[Siouxdonyms]

i do know jake well but my he does not help me

75 years of sioux hockey history is a good source though..hint, hint...

I have that book and it never helps me out!!! Of course, I'm always racing against other people, so it's not like I'm sitting down for a leisure read!

[Siouxdonyms]

Thank you Stafford, that should just about do it. What won't get remembered is Toew's great outlet feed to Porter. 3-0

Almost put your foot in your mouth with that one!

[Sioux_Hab-it]

Almost put your foot in your mouth with that one!

I never imagined it would eventually be the game winner.

[redwing77]

My recap:

Oshie: What a nice game he had even though he didn't score a goal. I love his hustle.

Zajac: This guy was just amazing on the PK

Spirko: That was NOT a DQ'able offense. Both him and Rankin(?) should have been given 4 minute minors and 10 min. misconducts AT WORST. Otherwise, I don't think he was playing as well as he did even last night. Something was off with his stick handling.

Toews: Holy Parise what a PPG!

Sioux D: Jones needs to control his emotions. He's SUPERB defensively but he really allowed those Purple Panzies to get to him. Smaby and Finley played really well. Radke was doing a really good job. I don't think his DQ is as hard to swallow as Spirko's. Radke really was only standing up for a teammate. Props for standing up to a guy who is 5 inches taller than you are! (Radke's listed at 5'11" and Cummings is listed at 6'4"). Lee and Chorney played very well.

PP: We looked better tonight than last night until until the third period.

PK: AMAZINGLY WELL DONE. Lots of blocked shots.

Third Line: Kaip actually had a good game! Prpich couldn't stay out of the box (his two penalties weren't necessary).

Fourth Line: Pretty invisible except for Kozek's nice shot which set up a goal.

Officiating: A ton of missed calls tonight. And a good waveoff (although Mav fans will disagree). The Mav player hit Parise. I think that, even though he was in the crease, the goal would have counted had the Mav player not contacted Jordan. If anything, I really like how Zelkin kept players out of the crease.

Goaltending: Jordan played very well, even though he got hung out to dry on the second goal (Phil got hung out to dry short handed on Friday so... good company there). Tormey played better tonight as well. However, Jordan had to make some great saves.

Overall: I think we earned this sweep. The Mavs played well, even if Kaminki and Rankin were a bit dirty. But we HAVE to start controlling our emotion. Miller plays next week to replace Spirko and I guess Marvin for Radke.

BY THE WAY: AHEM: I think you all should stop doubting me. I threw down the gauntlet on Porter and you all scoffed! 2G 1A this weekend and he played VERY VERY well. I think PCM, CRR, and jk need to own up!

By the way, PCM, nice interview. Do us a favor and keep on writing though.

[SiouxTupa]

I think Toews was the POG for sure! He looked great on all of his shifts, and was noticeable every time.

The bottom line is that we got 4 points this weekend. However, Mankato said they'd come out tonight and play better for their goalie, and they did just that! If UND hadn't matched their intensity, or at least dampened it like they did, they would have rolled. They were hustling the whole way through, and as Jordan said: they never gave up. They earned the last goal of theirs, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it counted. Parise said he should write Zelkin a note thanking him for taking care of him. Parise did get run, and it was a good no goal call. However, MSU was playing with heart emotions and it showed.

SCSU is going to be a REALLY good series next week. They rocked the dogs, and their coach has them believing they are better than a bottom half team. The Sioux better be ready for sure!

[PCM]

I hope no one mentions any other games.

I heard that.

[PCM]

BY THE WAY: AHEM: I think you all should stop doubting me. I threw down the gauntlet on Porter and you all scoffed! 2G 1A this weekend and he played VERY VERY well. I think PCM, CRR, and jk need to own up!

Whatever you say, Dave.

By the way, PCM, nice interview. Do us a favor and keep on writing though.

I heard that, too.

[dagies]

Just in from Sensers. Maybe others will have a different impression but what a fun game to watch this was for the first 2 periods! Up and down hockey, played with speed and aggressiveness. Not a lot of hits, but good action. I felt the Sioux had the better of the play, but Mankato had some chances as well, but Parise was up to the task.

In those first 2 periods those watching were treated to some absolutely scintillating puck skills shown by Toews and Stafford. Toews absolutely blew Tormey away on his goal. Tormey was so burned he's applying aloe vera to his very private areas as we speak. Later, on a PP Toews did some dancing in small spaces that made me drop my jaw.

Stafford as well did some amazing stuff. Wow.

The Sioux played pretty well, though they had trouble getting the puck out of the zone up the left wall ALL night long. They never seemed to be able to get it out past the D. It cost the Sioux numerous opportunities against.

Zach Jones played a good game, but he also seemed to struggle with moving the puck out of the zone. But he wasn't the only one.

Spirko is SO much fun to watch. Wow.

Then the 3rd period. The Sioux didn't seem to be playing as well in the 3rd. They were a little ragged, and again lost chances to effectively move the puck out of the zone caused problems and gave up chances. I think it was in the 3rd period, on one PK that Prpich took advantage of some lackadaisical play by Mankato players behing the Mav goal. The puck was sitting there and while they decided who was going to rush it up the ice, Prpich came screaming in and started playing a little tag with the puck behind the goal. He must have eaten up a good 10 seconds before the Mavs got control and moved the puck down. Not to be shown up Zajac came on the ice, followed the puck down behind the Mav net and put on an EVEN MORE IMPRESSIVE display of "small area games", playing with the puck by himself for quite awhile before having it stripped from him. And actually, he lost control of it, it wasn't take away from him. Wow.

Then the bad stuff. As the ragged play continued, Rankin, Spirko and Zajac chased a dumped puck behind the Sioux goal line. Rankin, as someone else described, horse-collared Spirko about 4 feet from the boards. He bent his head backwards while his lower body flipped into the boards. He layed there for just a moment, long enough to cause RWTD's heart to skip a beat. He started to get up as the play stopped for some reason and everyone converged.

Radke gave Rankin a shove from behind, and somehow Rankin and Spirko got tied together. Zajac was trying to pull the bigger Rankin off of Sparky (this is all the best of my recollection) and another Mav player came in on Zajac. Radke started pulling on THAT guy.

Meanwhile Finley had grabbed the first guy to the pile with 1 hand and skated him well off to the side. It appeared he was giving him a stern talking-to, and finished with a face wash.

The camera then went back to Sparky and Rankin who were tied up in the dreaded double-death-head-lock on the ice. The refs were trying to pull them apart.

Camera to Radke, who appeared to have seperated Zajac and the Mav. Radke appeared to be wanting to prove a point, and in a bit of scuffling Radke's right glove fell off. It did look accidental, but the Mav was scared Radke was going to poke him with it, and kept trying to tie up that sleeve, and Radke kept pulling his hand free. With his other he was holding the Mav's jersey at the collar. With that hand he was taking a few jabs at the guy.

Camera to the bigger pile. Oshie and a Mav standing next to the Spirko pile. They are pretty much watching the other festivities, but the Mav doesn't like how Oshie's using his stick to block him off from the action. They begin to get interested in each other, trade some jabs with their stick, and maybe something was said because Oshie then snapped and frankly this looked like it was going to be the first REAL fight of the night. Both guys tied up and wrestled pretty good. It looked like both were trying to get the sweater up on the other. The ref jumped on top of them, which left Oshie on the bottom and in a tough spot, though it was humorous to see him still trying to stand up with both guys over the top of him. Strong guy....

Off to the box they go and the camera moves to Radke who apparently has been provoked or bored enough to where he decides to "go" and puts in 1-2 good rights into the Mav's face. He had the Mav's sweater up over his head and the Mav was locked up. The refs got them apart right away and the headless, bent-over Mav sweater skated over to the boards and lifted itself off and revealed a human with a cut lip.

Like someone said, looked like the Mavs wanted to start something they didn't want to finish.

I understand Radke's DQ. His glove was off and he threw a couple of punches. I've not seen a guy get a DQ (Spirko) before for wrestling. And really, it wasn't even wrestling. They were locked up and no one was doing much else.

Not sure why Finley had to leave the ice. Other than a face wash I didn't see much that he did either.

Someone mentioned whether these DQ's might be reviewed this week, but from what I read on GPL the week after Harrington's apparently bogus DQ, DQ cannot be reviewed. They are awarded at the discretion of the ref and the league cannot overturn them later. Bummer for Spirko.

Great to get a sweep. Too bad that 3rd period had to mar an otherwise strong 5 straight periods of hockey. Too bad we will be missing a couple of players next Friday. Especially Spirko, who might be our most valuable forward.

[BleedGrn]

By the way, PCM, nice interview. Do us a favor and keep on writing though.

I'm expecting someone to say something about a "face made for radio". Not that I'm insulting you, PCM, but RW77's statement brought that to mind.

[PCM]

I'm expecting someone to say something about a "face made for radio". Not that I'm insulting you, PCM, but RW77's statement brought that to mind.

Hey, I've already said on this board that I have a face made for radio and a voice made for print. Maybe Pat Sweeny should stop asking me to prove it.

[redwing77]

Then the bad stuff. As the ragged play continued, Rankin, Spirko and Zajac chased a dumped puck behind the Sioux goal line. Rankin, as someone else described, horse-collared Spirko about 4 feet from the boards. He bent his head backwards while his lower body flipped into the boards. He layed there for just a moment, long enough to cause RWTD's heart to skip a beat. He started to get up as the play stopped for some reason and everyone converged.

Radke gave Rankin a shove from behind, and somehow Rankin and Spirko got tied together. Zajac was trying to pull the bigger Rankin off of Sparky (this is all the best of my recollection) and another Mav player came in on Zajac. Radke started pulling on THAT guy.

Meanwhile Finley had grabbed the first guy to the pile with 1 hand and skated him well off to the side. It appeared he was giving him a stern talking-to, and finished with a face wash.

The camera then went back to Sparky and Rankin who were tied up in the dreaded double-death-head-lock on the ice. The refs were trying to pull them apart.

Camera to Radke, who appeared to have seperated Zajac and the Mav. Radke appeared to be wanting to prove a point, and in a bit of scuffling Radke's right glove fell off. It did look accidental, but the Mav was scared Radke was going to poke him with it, and kept trying to tie up that sleeve, and Radke kept pulling his hand free. With his other he was holding the Mav's jersey at the collar. With that hand he was taking a few jabs at the guy.

Camera to the bigger pile. Oshie and a Mav standing next to the Spirko pile. They are pretty much watching the other festivities, but the Mav doesn't like how Oshie's using his stick to block him off from the action. They begin to get interested in each other, trade some jabs with their stick, and maybe something was said because Oshie then snapped and frankly this looked like it was going to be the first REAL fight of the night. Both guys tied up and wrestled pretty good. It looked like both were trying to get the sweater up on the other. The ref jumped on top of them, which left Oshie on the bottom and in a tough spot, though it was humorous to see him still trying to stand up with both guys over the top of him. Strong guy....

Off to the box they go and the camera moves to Radke who apparently has been provoked or bored enough to where he decides to "go" and puts in 1-2 good rights into the Mav's face. He had the Mav's sweater up over his head and the Mav was locked up. The refs got them apart right away and the headless, bent-over Mav sweater skated over to the boards and lifted itself off and revealed a human with a cut lip.

Like someone said, looked like the Mavs wanted to start something they didn't want to finish.

I understand Radke's DQ. His glove was off and he threw a couple of punches. I've not seen a guy get a DQ (Spirko) before for wrestling. And really, it wasn't even wrestling. They were locked up and no one was doing much else.

Not sure why Finley had to leave the ice. Other than a face wash I didn't see much that he did either.

Someone mentioned whether these DQ's might be reviewed this week, but from what I read on GPL the week after Harrington's apparently bogus DQ, DQ cannot be reviewed. They are awarded at the discretion of the ref and the league cannot overturn them later. Bummer for Spirko.

Spirko got tangled up with Rankin. Both of them got DQs.

The guy Radke took on all over the ice was Cummings (sp?). I thought it was impressive because Cummings has 5 inches on Radke. And Radke didn't take off his glove. The Mav player pulled Radke's stick out of his hand, but Radke didn't let go enough so the stick took the glove with it. Nevertheless, what he did with that uncovered fist was still good enough to earn the DQ.

Oshie went after the Mav player because the Mav player tried to spear him. Ok, it wasn't really a spear, but it is the best way to describe it. The Mav hand one hand on Oshie's jersey and then poked Oshie with the tip of the blade of his stick. It wasn't very hard and I don't think it hit anything other than the bottom of Oshie's shoulder pads but it was enough to set him off.

Finley left the ice because he got a 10 minute misconduct and there was less than 10 minutes left in the game. It's not uncommon for players who get 10 minute misconducts with less than 10 minutes in the period to leave the playing area for the lockerrooms. I'm not sure who it is Finley tangled with.

The DQs won't be reviewed. Greg Shepherd wouldn't dare overturn a DQ. What he WOULD do is implement his "accountability" protocol with Zelkin. Let me outline what happens in a case like this: Greg Shepherd calls Zelkin into his office. They review the game tape preceding, during, and immediately after the penalty occurs. Greg asks Zelkin what was going through his mind at the time. Then Greg asks Zelkin to state what he would do differently now that he's seen the replay. Then Greg says "Zelkin, I appreciate what work you do for us here, but calls like this need to be thought out better in the future. Try to work on that for next time. Good work. Give my best to your family." That's Greg's accountability program. The old "don't do it again" routine. Thank goodness for all the external pressure or that's what would have happened with Don Adam in the Robbie Bina game.

However, even though Zelkin lost control during that sequence (I doubt any official could have maintained control anyways), I think he did a pretty good job overall compared to his first time vs. UW. I think he was night and day better than earlier this season. Even though I disagree with giving Spirko a DQ, I respect that he actually had the cohones to call it. There are officials in the WCHA who are deathly afraid of calling misconducts and DQs even when they are warranted.

[redwing77]

I thought this is worthy of a seperate post. I will note that the not all of the assists for tonight's game are reflected in this post because the box score isn't up yet at USCHO as of 11:52PM.

UND's scoring for the weekend:

Stafford: 3G 0A 3pts.

Porter: 2G 1A 3pts.

Oshie: 2G 1A 3pts.

Toews: 1G 1A 2pts.

Zajac: 1G 1A 2pts.

Chorney: 0G 2A 2pts.

Fabian: 1G 0A 1pt.

Duncan and Prpich: 0G 1A 1pt. each.

The only assist I have down for tonight's game is Porter's (because I paid close attention so I could rub in Porter's good weekend). I'm pretty sure Radke, Toews, Zajac, Kozek, and others will have assists added but I don't want to add any without being absolutely sure of the awarding.

I think Chorney, Toews, and Oshie had good weekends as far as WJC players are concerned. I know some of us were questioning Chorney's lack of playing time on Friday during the third period...