Sioux 2 - Irish 2

Hockey is a game of inches and it’s about cashing in on your opportunities at the right time. In the closing seconds of the overtime period Matt Frattin just missed ending the game when he clanged a shot off of the crossbar. I also thought the game tying goal should have been disallowed because it appeared that the Dell was interfered with on the scramble in front of the net.

After watching a game full of high light goals on Friday night, last night’s game proved to be more of a tight checking game. The Sioux for the most part controlled the play but the Fighting Irish were better after taken to the wood shed the night before.

In only the third series of the season at the Ralph Engelstad Arena the Sioux miss getting another sweep and end up with a tie giving the Sioux a 3-2-1 at home after six games, that record isn’t going to win any championships. Honestly I will take 9-5-2 record before December. The Fighting Sioux ended the month of November with a 5-2-1 record, not too shabby considering who they played.

The Fighting Sioux seem to have trouble closing out opponents coming off a 6-3 win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday night, the Sioux played in a much closer, tight checking game on Saturday night. I wonder sometimes if UND wins with ease one night comes out the next night and isn’t prepared for a team that has obviously made adjustments defensively?

Turnovers prove costly

The Sioux continue to be plagued by untimely turnovers in all three zones of the ice. The Sioux are an aggressive team with the puck. The Fighting Sioux cycle the puck well and move it effectively through all three zones of the ice. The Sioux also are very good at activating the defense and jumping up in the rush when the opportunity allows it. That being said, the Sioux forwards and defense are also very sloppy at times with the puck and when the fail to get pucks deep this leads to a lot of odd man rushes and turnovers going to the other way.

I told a friend of mine last night that some of the reasons the goalies stats this season aren’t as good as they could be is because of bad turnovers that have proven to be costly. You can’t keep turning the game over and leaving the goalie exposed at key times in games.

I can think of a few of these bad turnovers that led to offensive opportunities right now off of the top of my head; the UMD game in overtime that led to a game winning goal on a break away, the DU game where Denver’s all WCHA defenseman Matt Donovan took a loose puck and skated past the entire UND team and scored without even being challenged and even the breakaway on Dell Friday night that fortunately ended with a awesome save. Last night, UND is attacking in the final seconds of the game and the puck get transitioned back up ice and the Fighting Sioux goalie Aaron Dell had to make a game saving save just to preserve the tie. You’re not going to win a national title if you can’t fix this problem.

If you play ranked teams on a weekly basis and you turn the puck over repeatedly the puck is going to get buried in the twine. Think about this, the Sioux have played sixteen games and thirteen of these games have been against teams ranked in the top twenty. They haven’t played the weak sisters of the poor. That is like playing in the NCAA tourney on a weekly basis, getting the nations best players nightly.

Links to the game

PCM - USCHO

South Bend Tribune

Grand Forks Herald

Sioux Beat Writer blog

Goon’s Three Stars of the Game

1.) Aaron Dell UND
2.) Matt Frattin UND
3.) Mike Johnson ND

[Official Box Score]
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1st Period (20:00)
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NDK-1 Brad Malone (2-Elbowing) NDM 0x1 1:32
NDM-1 Stephen Johns (2-Tripping) NDK 0x1 10:59
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2nd Period (20:00)
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NDM-2 Ben Ryan (2-Boarding) NDK 0x2 7:31
NDK 1 - 0 6x6 Derek Rodwell (4) (Derek Forbort, Mario Lamoureux) 10:42
NDK (+): 11,4,9,27,3,G32 NDM (-): 11,29,33,18,21,G32
NDM-3 Jeff Costello (2-Roughing) NDK 0x3 13:21
NDM 1 - 1 5x6 SH T. J. Tynan (8) (Riley Sheahan) 14:57
NDM (+): 18,4,24,29,G32 NDK (-): 10,8,17,5,25,G32
NDM-4 Anders Lee (2-Hooking) NDK 0x4 16:03
NDM-5 Stephen Johns (2-Roughing) NDK 1x5 20:00
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3rd Period (20:00)
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NDK 2 - 1 6x5 PP Matt Frattin (13) (Chay Genoway) 1:31
NDK: 21,5,22,7,19,G32 NDM: 29,33,18,4,G32
NDK-2 Chay Genoway (2-Interference) NDM 0x2 5:26
NDK-3 Brad Malone (2-High-Sticking) NDM 0x3 13:06
NDM 2 - 2 6x6 GT Sam Calabrese (1) (T. J. Tynan, Jeff Costello) 16:57
NDM (+): 8,18,11,21,24,G32 NDK (-): 5,2,21,22,19,G32
NDM-6 Joe Lavin (2-Holding) NDK 1x6 19:57
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Overtime (5:00)
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NDM-7 Sam Calabrese (2-Tripping) NDK 1x7 4:23
Timeout - North Dakota 4:23
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End of Game