A Good Loss?

[Upper Deck]

I know you hear some fans say that some losses are good. Maybe this is one of those, although I'd rather see the boys in green skating with the trophy.

Coming out of the Gopher game, what do you see the Sioux need to emphasize, watch film on or practice for the upcoming weekend, and hopefully the Frozen 4?

[mikeypat15]

By looking at the team standing their after the game, their mad, they wanted that and know they didn't come to play, along with knowing that was a fluke goal. That is enough for me, just remember how mad we were two years ago with the Bina incident

[yzerman19]

Unfotunately, I don't think playing mad is this team's strength. We play fast tempo, loose hockey the best. Run and gun! MN employed the defensive style to beat us last night.

That being said, what the Sioux didn't get last night was any performance out of the second and third lines. We will not lose if the likes of Porter, Watkins, Fabian and Kaip get on the score sheet. We had two beautiful power play goals sniped in by two of our top players. We need production out of the latter lines.

Also, our defense is still a weakness. I'd be almost tempted to move Lee up to forward and put Radke back on the point. Lee is not a physical player, and it hurts us tremendously.

[Siouxman]

I think MN did a good job of not giving up any room to operate. In past years the concern was how UND's team would do on olympic sized ice. This year's team is a team that does better on an olympic ice sheet than an NHL ice sheet. It is easier for the opposition to clog things up on the smaller ice. That may be one explanation why the team did better on the road than at home this season. With the speed and skating ability of this team, they may be more suited for the larger ice sheet. That being said, from here on out it is more likely that they will play on NHL sized ice.

[Siouxdonyms]

Unfotunately, I don't think playing mad is this team's strength. We play fast tempo, loose hockey the best. Run and gun! MN employed the defensive style to beat us last night.

That being said, what the Sioux didn't get last night was any performance out of the second and third lines. We will not lose if the likes of Porter, Watkins, Fabian and Kaip get on the score sheet. We had two beautiful power play goals sniped in by two of our top players. We need production out of the latter lines.

Also, our defense is still a weakness. I'd be almost tempted to move Lee up to forward and put Radke back on the point. Lee is not a physical player, and it hurts us tremendously.

Here we go with blaming Lee again. I thought the defense played fairly well all weekend. What happened? To be honest, I think the goofers outplayed us, winning all the little battle and even being more physical than we were. Wheeler had a heck of a weekend, and could have scored the last fluke goal against any defensemen; however, since it was Lee, the Lee bashers will resurface and say what a diservice he does to our team.

[Upper Deck]

I didn't want to create this post as a bash-fest. I'm just interested in what everyone thinks the Sioux may re-focus on in the next few days . . .

[luapsided]

Here we go with blaming Lee again. I thought the defense played fairly well all weekend. What happened? To be honest, I think the goofers outplayed us, winning all the little battle and even being more physical than we were. Wheeler had a heck of a weekend, and could have scored the last fluke goal against any defensemen; however, since it was Lee, the Lee bashers will resurface and say what a diservice he does to our team.

Is lee leaving the sioux early by any chance

You could see it in their faces after the game and I pray that we are in the same regional as the goofs, lets get it over with asap. Sioux will be playing that game with a massive chip on their shoulder and I expect domination.

[Sioux_Hab-it]

I didn't get to see it but the audio and thread consensus seemed to be that the Goofs got at least two weak goals. Take them away and the Sioux would have won 2-1. You can't have weak goals this time of year, period!

[SiouxFanatic]

Here we go with blaming Lee again. I thought the defense played fairly well all weekend. What happened? To be honest, I think the goofers outplayed us, winning all the little battle and even being more physical than we were. Wheeler had a heck of a weekend, and could have scored the last fluke goal against any defensemen; however, since it was Lee, the Lee bashers will resurface and say what a diservice he does to our team.

They still would blame Lee if it was a different defenseman

But really I believe this loss is a learning experience and shows that there are other teams that are playing at the same level as the Sioux. They played pretty much really stupid in the 1st period by committing those stupid penalties. And as Hakstol has always said "keep ourselves out of the box." They sure didn't. Since it seems like the Gophers and Sioux will be placed in the same regional if they do meet up in the 2nd round I think the Sioux will be able to amend for the loss and beat the Gophers.

[sappysieve]

Unfotunately, I don't think playing mad is this team's strength. We play fast tempo, loose hockey the best. Run and gun! MN employed the defensive style to beat us last night.

That being said, what the Sioux didn't get last night was any performance out of the second and third lines. We will not lose if the likes of Porter, Watkins, Fabian and Kaip get on the score sheet. We had two beautiful power play goals sniped in by two of our top players. WeYou ca need production out of the latter lines.

Also, our defense is still a weakness. I'd be almost tempted to move Lee up to forward and put Radke back on the point. Lee is not a physical player, and it hurts us tremendously.

I thought we played OK on defense, although Phil did get hung out to dry here and there last night. I'd like to comment on the game, and the Gophers seem to always get the big breaks by WCHA refs in the Final 5. C'mon! 8 penalties, look at the ice time Osh, Towes, Chorney, Lee, Ports all logged last night. If the DOT line could've spent as much time playing even strength as they did on the PK, who knows what would've happened. Heck, they even had Osh and Chorns in the box at the same time. I know we took a few bad ones, but the refs had the deck stacked against us last night it seems. Our guys are no angels, and I'm saying they're not. We spent a lot of time in the box, period.

Give the Gophs credit where credit is due. They played a good game and Wheeler stepped up his game all weekend. I've read a lot posts on here today and a lot of fans are saying it was a lucky goal, I say you make your own luck when you go the net hard and never give up on the puck.

Now, lets get em on neutral ice with non WCHA refs and see what happens!!

[Siouxdonyms]

I didn't get to see it but the audio and thread consensus seemed to be that the Goofs got at least two weak goals. Take them away and the Sioux would have won 2-1. You can't have weak goals this time of year, period!

There were two weak goals. Well, the last one was a fluke goal, still weak, but more fluke. I still can't believe Shepherd disallowed the Gopher goal. We've seen a lot worse interference than that get counted as goals throughout the year. I thought that should have been a goal, though I was thankful it was disallowed, however, if it happened to our team, I would have been extremely upset, as everyone else would have been. Yes, Lucia's stick did hit Lammy, but I didn't see it really interfering with him making the save, other than another body close to him to distract him.

[Siouxdonyms]

I thought we played OK on defense, although Phil did get hung out to dry here and there last night. I'd like to comment on the game, and the Gophers seem to always get the big breaks by WCHA refs in the Final 5. C'mon! 8 penalties, look at the ice time Osh, Towes, Chorney, Lee, Ports all logged last night. If the DOT line could've spent as much time playing even strength as they did on the PK, who knows what would've happened. Heck, they even had Osh and Chorns in the box at the same time. I know we took a few bad ones, but the refs had the deck stacked against us last night it seems. Our guys are no angels, and I'm saying they're not. We spent a lot of time in the box, period.

Give the Gophs credit where credit is due. They played a good game and Wheeler stepped up his game all weekend. I've read a lot posts on here today and a lot of fans are saying it was a lucky goal, I say you make your own luck when you go the net hard and never give up on the puck.

Now, lets get em on neutral ice with non WCHA refs and see what happens!!

If the penalties would have continued in the 2nd and 3rd, like they were being called in the 1st, I would have been mad as heck too. However, I thought it evened out after the 1st, and the Goofs outplayed us for the most part. We were lucky to be in it going into OT.

[kvinbe]

One of the gopher players said it best in an interview after the game. He said that the gophers "outworked" and "outplayed" the Sioux. That's what it came down to.

The Sioux need to put that on their bulletin board and make sure that they don't let it happen from here on out. They were fortunate to make it into overtime. They just didn't have the energy that the gophers did last night.

Hopefully, the Sioux are saving their best for last. There is still a lot left to prove.

[Mallard]

I know you hear some fans say that some losses are good. Maybe this is one of those, although I'd rather see the boys in green skating with the trophy.

Coming out of the Gopher game, what do you see the Sioux need to emphasize, watch film on or practice for the upcoming weekend, and hopefully the Frozen 4?

If the Sioux meet the Gophers in the West Regionals, that will be the 4th match-up this season. No one would expect either team to beat the other team four times this season. So, if we are going to have a loss to the Gophers this season, losing the Broadmoor last night is the one that does the least amount of damage. From that standpoint, it was a good loss. The Sioux will be ready!!!

[sprig]

I didn't get to see it but the audio and thread consensus seemed to be that the Goofs got at least two weak goals. Take them away and the Sioux would have won 2-1. You can't have weak goals this time of year, period!

True, but the third and fourth lines looked like they wanted to be the DOT line, they need to get back to dump, chase, and forecheck, like they had during the whole second half until last night. The Gophers seemed to dominate much of the game, but it actually was dominance against the last 2 Sioux lines that made it appear that way. The first two lines played well, except that Toews, Oshie, Duncan and Porter spent way too much time killing penalties.

[sappysieve]

One of the gopher players said it best in an interview after the game. He said that the gophers "outworked" and "outplayed" the Sioux. That's what it came down to.

The Sioux need to put that on their bulletin board and make sure that they don't let it happen from here on out. They were fortunate to make it into overtime. They just didn't have the energy that the gophers did last night.

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Hopefully, the Sioux are saving their best for last. There is still a lot left to prove.

I don't know, I thought our guys worked hard but the Gophers did play the hardest I've seen them play all year. I know we can't over look Mich, but it loks like it's gonna be another Sioux/Gopher matchup in Denver on Sat night.

[luapsided]

I don't know, I thought our guys worked hard but the Gophers did play the hardest I've seen them play all year. I know we can't over look Mich, but it loks like it's gonna be another Sioux/Gopher matchup in Denver on Sat night.

Im sure the goofs were overlooking holy cross last year and look what happened. Id maybe change that to we cant overlook mich and air force......

[redwing77]

Here we go with blaming Lee again. I thought the defense played fairly well all weekend. What happened? To be honest, I think the goofers outplayed us, winning all the little battle and even being more physical than we were. Wheeler had a heck of a weekend, and could have scored the last fluke goal against any defensemen; however, since it was Lee, the Lee bashers will resurface and say what a diservice he does to our team.

But it is SO DARN EASY! If we don't blame Lee we'd have to look at other reasons like earlier in the year we would have to blame players like Oshie and Toews for not scoring or last night with Chorney's drop pass. We can't blame Chorney! Lee and Finley are poster children for the haters. They see no evil in everyone else but are more than aware of Lee and Finley's faults. That's good because Greene and Smaby and Commodore were treated the same way. Of course those three were the worst defensemen ever to wear the Sioux jersey.

Anyways, Siouxdonyms, you're right. We need to focus on what makes us better as a team, not what we'd like to see kicked off of or benched on the team. Lee logs a tremendous amount of time on the ice and in every situation. Same as Chorney.

Maybe we need to do a better job of timing our defensive shifts early in the game to prevent fatigue late in the game?

Maybe we need to employ more of what we did against SCSU on teams like Michigan and Minnesota (shoot the puck and crash the net for rebounds). Maybe we need to use our speed more.

One thing we DO need to work on is our physical play. We'll be playing in front of non WCHA officials who call the rulebook like the NCAA intends it (which means they do call holding the stick and diving). This can help and hurt us. But it will take adjustment.

I don't know what Hakstol has as far as practice techniques, but we should really work on penalty killing, passing, working against the trap, transitioning in the neutral zone, and watching the SCSU games because we did all of those things well.

[yzerman19]

Wasn't trying to bash Lee, I just think his lack of physical play can hurt us down the stretch. I definitely do not blame him for the Game winner, which was just a miracle.

I said before the game that we needed to score first and score early. Neither happened.

The soft goal that Johnson scored was the one that really hurt us. I don't know how that snuck in the five hole.

The officiating did settle down after the first period, but the first period was attrocious. I still do not see how you can give the Gophers a power play after they ran Duncan. If they really felt the need to give Chorney the extra 2 for instigating, then the Gopher who ran Duncan should've gotten four minutes also tack on a rough to the interference call.

Good Loss? I don't think so. Minnesota has had confidence problems, and a victory by the Sioux would've really hurt their psyche. Now they think they can win it, which is dangerous.

[sappysieve]

Im sure the goofs were overlooking holy cross last year and look what happened. Id maybe change that to we cant overlook mich and air force......

Yes, we can't put the cart before the horse here, but it's hard not to!

[redwing77]

Wasn't trying to bash Lee, I just think his lack of physical play can hurt us down the stretch. I definitely do not blame him for the Game winner, which was just a miracle.

I said before the game that we needed to score first and score early. Neither happened.

The soft goal that Johnson scored was the one that really hurt us. I don't know how that snuck in the five hole.

The officiating did settle down after the first period, but the first period was attrocious. I still do not see how you can give the Gophers a power play after they ran Duncan. If they really felt the need to give Chorney the extra 2 for instigating, then the Gopher who ran Duncan should've gotten four minutes also tack on a rough to the interference call.

Good Loss? I don't think so. Minnesota has had confidence problems, and a victory by the Sioux would've really hurt their psyche. Now they think they can win it, which is dangerous.

His lack of physical play has improved as the season wore on. I just don't know how Lee could have been more physical on Wheeler without giving Shepherd the right to call for a penalty shot.

As for the soft goal, most of the soft goals I've seen on Lammy have been either odd bounces or 5 hole. I don't know exactly why Lammy is beatable five hole but it drives me crazy. I wish I could see replays of those goals as to where the puck is in relation to Lammy's stick blade at the time the puck enters the 5 hole area. I THOUGHT you should be able to use your stick to block the five hole long enough for those few seconds to close your legs. I am apparently wrong.

But we've given up at least one soft goal a game for quite some time. And Johnson's goal isn't why we lost. Chorney's goal was Chorney ripping the puck on net. We need to rip the puck on net and then crash the net like what happened vs. SCSU. I'd rather be wasteful in shots, shooting 100 SOG and scoring only 4 goals than shoot 25 times and only score 2 goals. And for the sake of me, ESPN doesn't care so why do you try for the highlight reel goals?

Vandevelde's goals this weekend were garbage goals. Utter junk goals off of huge rebounds. NOTHING pretty about them. BUT THEY WENT IN. That's the kind of stuff we need. The initial shot and score is great, but the initial shot and bang in the rebound counts just as much as if it goes in the first time.

[yzerman19]

I agree, with the shot barrage. I posted elsewhere that I thought we were definitely trying to be too pretty. Clearly Chorney, Duncan and Toews can pick corners with the best of them. Bottom line, Sioux need to have offensive production out of the 2-4 lines. We need goals from those guys or else we will lose.

[Trunk Monkey]

If you put the puck on the net good things will happen as we witnessed against SCSU. A good shot 6 inches or so off the ice often times leaves a nice rebound for our forwards that are crashing the net ala Porter, Fabian, Zajac, VV etc... It may not be pretty but it still counts the same.

[siouxnami]

I certainly am not going to hang my head after that. Minnesota played, a great game, got a little lucky, but deserved to win. Both teams did. Phil played well, but let in 3 goals he probably shouldn't have. One was weak, and the last 2 he got out of position. Oh well, he still had about 40 saves. If Oshie or Kaip could have hit an open net everybody would be happy, and there would be less trolls here. Hats off the the Gophers they played a great game. Hats of to the Sioux they played a great game. Minus the penalties, I think the Sioux could have buried them in the first period. I think it is too bad we are both in the West. I like our chances in a rematch when Minnesota won't have the same level of fan support.

Anyone blaming Lee for this loss should remove one's head from one's a$$.

Congrats Rodents, Go Sioux.

[redwing77]

I certainly am not going to hang my head after that. Minnesota played, a great game, got a little lucky, but deserved to win. Both teams did. Phil played well, but let in 3 goals he probably shouldn't have. One was weak, and the last 2 he got out of position. Oh well, he still had about 40 saves. If Oshie or Kaip could have hit an open net everybody would be happy, and there would be less trolls here. Hats off the the Gophers they played a great game. Hats of to the Sioux they played a great game. Minus the penalties, I think the Sioux could have buried them in the first period. I think it is too bad we are both in the West. I like our chances in a rematch when Minnesota won't have the same level of fan support.

Anyone blaming Lee for this loss should remove one's head from one's a$$.

Congrats Rodents, Go Sioux.

In truth, there are far fewer trolls here than I expected. I thought they'd be all over the place with Dubay, Woog, and all predicting UND to win and even Lucia sandbagging it. Only one gloater (who tried to pass off his/her poor behavior as "just sh$t talk") and one or two other benign articles of distaste. Count me impressed.

As for Lee... everything is his fault.