Sioux vs. Huskies

[sioux rube]

This team is far from being a national contender.I love the SIOUX but we are year or 2 away.Let's be realistic here.

[farce poobah]

Hockey is a S-T-U-P-I-D game. [rant off]

But seriously, St Cloud might play a month against us and not score a real goal. [rant off again]

Overall, it IS disappointing to lose at home, and to lose a game where the only thing the opponent gets is a goal I thought should have been waved off for goaltender interference (I think Hak said the same on the postgame show), and the other was dumb luck. In NO WAY was that Phil's fault. Nor was it Chorney's fault. It was just a dum-luck goal, and it counts for one just like Toews' work of art. For all intents and purposes, PL could have had a shutout, and a fairly easy shutout at that. But - not to be.

OTOH, if we are only going to score one goal, we aren't going to win. The offense MUST finish better, and must have some luck of their own. Tonight neither happened. Starting with a post in the first period, a deflected tip by Zajac that whistled a couple inches by on the 1st PP of the night, we had some chances (not a lot, but enough). We didn't finish.

Also, and nobody has mentioned this that I saw, unlike last weekend, SCSU doesn't suck. Mankato just plain sucks. SCSU is not offensively skilled, but they cover their zone, cover the front of the net, and make most chances easy for their goalie.

====================================

To individual performances,

1) I thought our defensive rotation was pretty darn good. Lot of Smaby-Marvin, Smaby-Alexander, Jones-Marvin. Liked those pairings a lot. Didn't like the Marvin-Alexander pairing, but I can understand why the coaches did it (we were down a goal and needed to gamble on getting more offense from the other matchups).

2) A handful of times in the middle period, and a couple in the first part of the 3rd, we sent out Marvin-Alexander with Prpich, Kaip and Fabian. Made me nervous as all heck. Some of the shifts were works of art, with the puck 200 feet from PL. Other shifts sucked, with SCSU getting most of their chances (and no glorious ones at that) during those plays.

3) Lee played a very good game, much better than last weekend. Chorney was good, showing some blazing foot speed on a couple sequences.

4) Toews is a Jedi with the puck. The goal was magnificent. Sitting right above the goal, I got to see him come in at the perfect angle and distance - too far away for Goepfert to poke check but close enough to take the shot when Goepfert started to follow him across the crease.

5) Duncan is a puck wizard. IIRC, he started the goal scoring play by stuffing two clearing attempts, then sending Stafford in ... Stafford drew the traffic away, leaving Toews with plenty of maneuvering room. Duncan made a number of other terrific plays, and even threw two body-checks on one shift in the 2nd period. I would have given Duncan consideration as POTG for consistent good play. He's getting more ice time and making something of it.

6) Oshie is noticeable EVERY shift. I said it before, but he reminds me of Jason Blake (not physically, obviously) - relentless in puck pursuit, determined to beat the other guy to the puck EVERY TIME, willing to take the hit, and loves to dish em out.

7) SCSU's 4th line stinks, and our Kozek-Watkins-Duncan line needs to start showing they are better than the other guys' 4th lines by doing some scoring. They have dominated 5x5 play at times, but have little to show for it.

8) Phil deserved a better fate.

9) I hope JPar goes Saturday. We'll NEED two goalies playing well down the stretch.

Tough loss, one that we may look back on at the end of the year and say it made a big difference in the seed we get. Hopefully, it won't be the difference between getting into the NCAA's and watching our rink get trashed by Gopher fans.

[PCM]

But I'm not Hakstol...

So you claim.

[jk]

Not a good night in many respects.

I missed the game, and got home in time to catch a bit of the postgame on the radio. I had a bad feeling when I saw the game thread was only six pages long. Usually every Sioux goal is worth quite a few posts itself. Anyway, TH's theme with Hakstol was that the team really didn't play all that bad, and Hakstol, who knows how important wins are now, wasn't in the mood for it. He grudgingly accepted that the Sioux didn't stink up the joint, but he said that when you leave it up to the bounce of a puck late in the game in your own building, and the bounce goes against you, it's your own fault. Hak noted that they shook up the PP units in the third because the ten guys who had been out there were accomplishing nothing. TH also noted the rush where Oshie should have shot at the end, and I'm sorry I don't recall Hak being definitive either way on that one.

The Sioux were in a position a few weeks ago to chase DU and MN down, with each having to travel to Madison, and the Sioux having a nice home stretch. Since then, UW is 0-3, providing no help whatsoever. Last night, MN was in a tight game in the third, and MN came away victorious. UND was in a tight game in the third, gave up a goal with around ten minutes left and lost. Later, DU was in a tight game in the third, scored with around ten minutes left, and won. Just downright unpleasant.

Surprisingly, last night DU scored a goal that Hobey Baker did not record a point on.

Thanks to Farce and Dagies for their game reports that are more than just expressions of angst.

[mksioux]

Everyone mentions how poorly the passing game was last night. I agree that it was very poor, but I don't think it's as simple as saying the guys didn't pass well. St Cloud was in every lane, deflecting every pass, blocking shots, and was playing great positional hockey, especially considering their mundane personnel. It seems like UND often gets beat in the position game. UND played a pretty good positional game in it's defensive zone, but despite considerable disparity in personnel, UND just couldn't seem to find a way to break through St. Cloud's positional play. It was hard not to watch that game last night without thinking that Motzko schooled our coaching staff.

With UND playing .500 hockey for quite some time now, it looks like the PWR is starting to catch up with them. It's easy to say they're a year away, but with annual early departures, one never knows what the next season will bring.

[farce poobah]

mundane personnel.

! the best concise description of SCSU's team I've heard.

Goepfert the sole exception, could play on most any college team.

[petey23]

If this has already been pointed out, sorry. Was just curious as to why icing was not called with 1.8 seconds ot go in the game when scsu cleared the puck after the faceoff? The penalty was over and it was a 6 on 5 situation and they iced the puck. Not saying it cost us the game or anything, just wondering why it was not called?

[choyt3]

If this has already been pointed out, sorry. Was just curious as to why icing was not called with 1.8 seconds ot go in the game when scsu cleared the puck after the faceoff? The penalty was over and it was a 6 on 5 situation and they iced the puck. Not saying it cost us the game or anything, just wondering why it was not called?

Wondered the same thing last night.

Seemed that the linesmen didn't have a very good game.

Many close off-sides called the wrong way, with very late whistles, on both teams. Icing calls waived off for no apparent reason. And then there was the "face-off" without any Sioux players anywhere near it at the start of the powerplay with 2:12 to go. I realize the rule was new last year, but Bergren was out there to get noticed. If the Sioux took too long to get set up that time, there must have been 20 other times during the game they could have done the same thing.

Plus, it took St. Cloud State skating with 6 men for about 15 seconds before they called the too many men penalty.

[redwing77]

Wondered the same thing last night.

Seemed that the linesmen didn't have a very good game.

Many close off-sides called the wrong way, with very late whistles, on both teams. Icing calls waived off for no apparent reason. And then there was the "face-off" without any Sioux players anywhere near it at the start of the powerplay with 2:12 to go. I realize the rule was new last year, but Bergren was out there to get noticed. If the Sioux took too long to get set up that time, there must have been 20 other times during the game they could have done the same thing.

Plus, it took St. Cloud State skating with 6 men for about 15 seconds before they called the too many men penalty.

It's going to be odd of me to say this, but this year, it's the AR's who lack quality. Last year it was the head officials. Does this mean the overall quality of head refs are improving? Or are the ARs regressing? I don't know, but I don't remember so many bad calls by ARs in the past as done this season.

Oh well... Maybe they are getting confused. I know a number of ARs are head refs in high school (Ludwig), women's hockey (Eslinger), and other places.

[farce poobah]

Re that face-off incident with 2:12 left in Friday's game. It was a crucial face off in the St Cloud zone, chance to get a full 200 of PP time.

Instead, our team stood by the bench for way WAY past the alloted time. I am not sure if they thought they had called time out - I know I thought that was the case. If they didn't call the T/O, or if there's no other explanation, it was one of the worst apparent mistakes in a key situation I've ever seen a Sioux team make. That said, I don't know the whole story. All I know, sitting in my seat, was that we hung by the bench for a full minute plus, and eventually the linesman was (again, apparently) forced to drop the puck.

Interested if anyone else has better knowledge of what really happened on the ice. I know I was puzzled, and frustrated.