Whew.... UND punches ticket to St. Paul Sioux 2 MTU 1

When I was looking at the match ups for this weekends WCHA playoff series I thought great we get the Huskies again. As most Sioux fans will tell you the Huskies are never a give me or an easy win and have beaten the 4 Sioux times in the last two seasons. True to form this weekends game were not easy. This weekend's series was way too close for my comfort, and I would have rather the Sioux closed out the Huskies last night. Tonight after the Huskies scored I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack and the feeling continued until the end of the game. I think I am going to start calling the Fighting Sioux the cardiac kids. Tonight the Sioux and Tech played another close tight checking game and got (2) two huge goals from my pick for P.O.Y. in the WCHA T.J. Oshie. How huge was T.J. Oshie this weekend? T.J. Oshie although slowed by injury had another strong weekend chipping in 4 points in the weekend series (3g-1a), Oshie was held scoreless on Saturday night and that may have led to the Sioux failing seal the deal. Not to be over looked also; Ryan Duncan (1g-2a) and Chay Genoway (0g-3a) were solid and had strong weekends as well on the stats sheet.

It would not be an understatement to say that the win(s) against the ever tough Michigan Tech Huskies did not come easy. I have to take my hat off to the Huskies because this series was the stereotypical, hard nosed hockey series as the Sioux were in a dog fight all weekend long. I guess you have to love parity in this league and this is a perfect example of how close our league is any team can win on any day. Every game the players have to strap it on and buckle down to get the wins.

Scoring/Penalties

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1st Period (20:00)
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MTU-1 Peter Rouleau (2-Cross-Checking) NDK 0x1 5:01
NDK-1 Ryan Duncan (2-Hooking) MTU 0x1 5:33
MTU 1 - 0 6x6 Tyler Shelast (16) (Alex Gagne) 11:27
MTU (+): 23,18,5,12,14,G29 NDK (-): 2,5,7,14,16,G1
NDK 1 - 1 6x6 T.J. Oshie (16) (Ryan Duncan, Chay Genoway) 14:09
NDK (+): 7,16,14,2,5,G1 MTU (-): 14,12,8,19,16,G29
MTU-2 John Schwarz (2-Roughing) 19:45
NDK-2 Chris VandeVelde (2-Roughing) 19:45

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2nd Period (20:00)
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NDK 2 - 1 5x5 GW LL T.J. Oshie (17) (Robbie Bina, Taylor Chorney) 0:19
NDK (+): 7,28,4,16,G1 MTU (-): 14,18,12,5,G29
MTU-3 Jimmy Kerr (2-Slashing) NDK 0x2 1:56
MTU-4 Drew Dobson (2-Holding the Stick) 11:41
NDK-3 Ryan Duncan (2-Hooking) 11:41
NDK-4 Joe Finley (2-Interference) MTU 0x2 17:59

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3rd Period (20:00)
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MTU-5 Jimmy Kerr (10-Misconduct) 10:35
NDK-5 Chay Genoway (2-Holding) MTU 0x3 13:41
Timeout - Michigan Tech 19:33

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End of Game


Scores of note

AHA: Air Force 5, Mercyhurst 4 (F in OT)
CHA: Niagara 3, Bemidji State 2 (F)
CCHA: Northern Michigan 3, Michigan State 2 - OT
EZAC: Colgate 3, Clarkson 2 - 2OT Clarkson = Over-rated
WCHA: Gophers 3 - Mavericks 2 (F in 2xOT)

I suppose the league office is excited that their meal ticket made the final five this weekend in St. Paul.