What a difference a night makes, like I said last night, to my buddy that I watched the game with, if C.C. doesn’t clean up the turnover from the neutral zone in that the Sioux will bury them. You cannot turn over shots in the slot and not eventually get burned. A hot goalie (I am not talking about hot or not) can only hold on so long and compensate for their defense’s mistakes before the mistakes compound and bury that team. Adjustments to defensive schemes must be made or the mistakes will eventually catch up with them, that appears to have happened to the Sioux on the Friday game the last three weekends. Then the following game the coaching staff has made adjustments and come back to win in each series. With the Win tonight the Fighting Sioux are 9-4-1 on the road this season.
Tonight the Sioux were all over the Tigers from the drop of the puck to the final horn; the Sioux were aggressive on the fore check and hit the Tigers on every chance. The B2TV announcers commented on how the Sioux were hitting and that the Tigers didn’t want to retaliate and take a penalty. I think that mind set is the problem, last time I checked hockey allows checking and it’s a physical game. When the Sioux smartly fore check and hit legally and stay out of the box they are very hard to play against. Teams that play a finesse game like the Gophers or Huskies don't respond well to that type of hockey. Tonight was an example of what can happen when the Fighting Sioux play that type of a game, hit and hustle and be the first one to the puck, crash the net.
Danny Kristo heating up
Danny Kristo kind of reminds me of a former Gopher hockey player Phil Kessel, not saying it’s a bad thing but he does a lot of the same things Phil used to do. Kristo likes to move the puck up ice but at times has trouble with turnover and that leads to breakaways going the other way. Danny has started playing better cutting down on the turnovers and is starting to make plays and is getting rewarded in the points department. Kristo after starting slowly has picked it up and now sits at (5g-17a-22pts) in 29 games.
Night of streaks and stats
CC hasn't lost a hockey game by six goals since 2006.
Gleason had a 52 game goal-less drought snapped tonight, as he scored his first of his career.
Aaron Dell fourth Shutout of the season and now has five for his career.
The UND Fighting Sioux now have an impressive record of 25-1-2 in the black jerseys since the 2006-2007 season. The Sioux are an impressive 7-0 this season wearing the black jerseys.
The scoring tonight was spread out as six different Fighting Sioux hockey players scored in a 6-0 Fighting Sioux shellacking of C.C.
The UND Fighting Sioux are 13-0-1 when leading after two periods of hockey.
UND has 10 players with 10 or more points, 5 players with 25 or more points.
Goon’s Three Stars of the Game
1.) Aaron Dell 4th shutout of the season.
2.) Danny Kristo (0g-3a-3pts)
3.) Brock Nelson (1g-1a-2pts)
[Live Box Score]
C.C. Beat writer blog
FightingSioux.com
