Saturday, January 24, 2009

Eidsness saves UND: UND 2 DU 2

Tonight the Fighting Sioux escaped with a point and took three out of four points from the WCHA leading Denver Pioneers. Last night the Fighting Sioux ran the Pioneers out of the building. Tonight's game the tables were turned and the ice seem to be slanted in the Pioneers direction. The Fighting Sioux's young goaltender kept them in the game and allowed them to gain a point in the game.

After last night game you expected the Pioneers to have a better effort and the Pioneers were the better of the two teams. To say that the Sioux were flat tonight would be an understatement, Fighting Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness played his best game of the season and kept the Fighting Sioux in the game, this very well could have been a10-3 game. Brad Eidsness made many point blank saves throughout the game and got lucky as a few of his rebounds were of the juicy variety. The Sioux cannot win games against good teams like DU if they don’t move their feet. Tonight the Sioux didn’t move their feet, they were a step slow and beat to the puck all night. It was obvious that DU made the proper adjustments in tonight’s’ game. When this team moves it feet and plays an up-tempo game they can skate with anyone and out skate most teams in the country.

Observations

After watching this weekend's series Denver and UND are the two best skating teams in the WCHA in my opinion. I predict they will meet again.

With his play on the weekend Brad Eidsness improves to 15-7-3 GAA 2.5048 Sv% .910.

The dasher Troll George Gwozdecky was back tonight. Coach Gwozdecky should be suspended from the next two games for his unprofessional behavior in tonight's game. Walking across the ice was unacceptable. I mean we get it George the refs in the WCHA suck but coaches are expected to be professionals. After jumpinig up on the dasher and making a walk across the ice the Pioneers got the next 5 power plays in a row. The WCHA officials and their supervisor should be sanctioned/disciplined. This season the NCAA mandated that the officials focus on the obstruction and clean the game up. They league officials are in violation of that mandate and are back to calling game like they did in the past.

I think from reading the article in the Rocky Mountain News you can tell that Gwoz was not the only one that was upset with the officating of tonight's game. Here is coach Hakstol on the Denver Coach's antics.
UND coach Dave Hakstol wouldn’t comment about Gwozdecky’s ejection or the possibility of further punishment by the league.

But, he said, “My question is why he didn’t get another penalty (for going on the ice). A 5-on-3 would have been key for us.”

There was no scoring in the third period or five-minute overtime, although the Pioneers had the majority of the chances.

That was due in part to Denver having five power plays and UND none after Gwozdecky’s ejection.

“We have to take some responsibility for some of the penalties,” Hakstol said. “But five in a row?”


BOX SCORE
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1st Period (20:00)
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NDK 1 - 0 6x6 Matt Frattin (12) (Chris VandeVelde) 4:44
NDK (+): 21,29,14,6,19,G31 DEN (-): 6,8,28,22,17,G1
DEN-1 Dustin Jackson (2-Hooking) 6:34
NDK-1 Mario Lamoureux (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 6:34
DEN 1 - 1 6x6 Anthony Maiani (8) (Chris Nutini, Brandon Vossberg) 11:21
DEN (+): 6,27,24,14,16,G1 NDK (-): 5,11,20,14,8,G31
DEN-2 Brandon Vossberg (2-Hooking) NDK 0x1 16:18

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2nd Period (20:00)
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DEN-3 Dustin Jackson (2-Hooking) NDK 0x2 1:31
DEN-4 Joe Colborne (2-Roughing) 6:37
NDK-2 Chay Genoway (2-Roughing) 6:37
DEN-5 Tyler Ruegsegger (2-Hooking) NDK 0x3 7:03
DEN-6 BENCH (10-Game Misconduct) 9:30
DEN-7 BENCH (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) (Served by Matt Glasser) NDK 0x4 9:30
NDK-3 Brett Hextall (2-Cross-Checking) DEN 0x1 14:49
NDK 2 - 1 6x6 Evan Trupp (5) (Darcy Zajac) 16:52
NDK (+): 19,11,25,3,26,G31 DEN (-): 28,9,15,12,16,G1
NDK-4 Chay Genoway (2-Interference) DEN 1x2 18:27
DEN 2 - 2 6x5 PP GT Patrick Wiercioch (8) (Anthony Maiani, Rhett Rakhshani) 19:00
DEN: 28,16,9,12,15,G1 NDK: 25,20,11,3,G31

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3rd Period (20:00)
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NDK-5 Joe Finley (2-Interference) DEN 1x3 1:56
NDK-6 Matt Frattin (2-Roughing) DEN 1x4 5:58
NDK-7 Ryan Duncan (2-Tripping) DEN 1x5 8:51
Timeout - Denver 19:43

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Overtime (5:00)
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NO SCORING

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End of Game
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