Ground Hog Day, Sioux 5 Beavers 1 - Edited

What a weekend of hockey, first the North Dakota State Hockey Tourney, the two game series between the Fighting Sioux men and the Bemidji State University Beavers and finally the Sioux women playing against the Beavers in the WCHA first round of the WCHA tourney. As they say in baseball lets play two... Yesterday was an amazing day of hockey, first I was able to watch the Sioux and the Beavers play in the Ralph Engelstad Arena, the Fighting Sioux won the game 5-1 wrapping up their 15th MacNaughton Cup Championship. Then after the game I high tailed it to the Purpur Arena to catch the second game of a double header, between the Sioux women’s team and the Bemidji State University Beavers. Let’s just say I was not disappointed with my first look at the UND women’s team.

The Sioux start slow...

During this afternoon's game the Fighting Sioux started out slow getting behind 1-0 in the first period, the Beavers were limiting the Fighting Sioux time and space and getting their sticks in the passing lanes and they made it difficult for the Sioux to get going... The Fighting Sioux made adjustments after the first period and opened the game up scoring 4 goals in the second period to blow by the BSU Beavers. The Sioux scored again in the third period winning the game 5-1. It only would have been fitting if the Sioux goaltender Aaron Dell had let in one more goal to make the game 5-2. The first three games in the series were 5-2, 5-2, 5-2… With the win the Fighting Sioux clinched at least a tie for first place and a share of the MacNaughton Cup Championship and now get to play MTU in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Actually, the Sioux will get to play the Huskies four games in a row. The Sioux are going to need to stay focused and not get into any bad habits from one could develop from playing the worst team in the WCHA.


Hobey Frattin

During yesterday’s afternoon matinee Matt Frattin continued to play like a man possessed working on his final crescendo as he closes out his final games of his UND career, it definitely looks as if the Senior forward is going to end his career at a fast pace. As we sat and watched Matt Frattin pick apart the BSU defenders, I had commented to my buddy Sioux7 “that Frattin looks like he is a fowl mood this afternoon” that translates to good for the Sioux bad for the Beavers. Seriously, no kidding, if Matt Frattin isn't one of the best players in College hockey right now I would have to question your eye sight because Matt Frattin was like a men among boys this weekend. You can give me all of the candidates from Hockey East and the ECAC but Frattin is probably the best player in college hockey this season hands down.

Off to Purpur Arena

When the first game of the double header was over I hightailed it to the Purpur arena to watch the Sioux women and the BSU Beavers play game three of the WCHA home series, I had the pleasure of watching the game with a couple of friends of mine from Bemidji. I have to admit that this was my first time I had ever watched a UND women's game and I was impressed with what I saw, I think there are definitely some great days ahead for UND Women's hockey. Tonight's game turned out to be a barn burner but also a very tense game as the Sioux came close to losing the game in overtime themselves before Monique Lamoureux-Kolls took the puck on an end to end rush and put the puck in the Beaver net ending the game... For the Beavers goalie Zuzana Tomcikova was amazing as well made some awesome saves in net for the Beavers. Lastly, the Lamoureux twins are elite women’s hockey players and its’ worth the price of admission to see them play hockey. With the win the Sioux women make the WCHA Final Face-Off tournament where the Sioux will face the Wisconsin Badgers…

Domination by the Fighting Sioux

The Fighting Sioux have played the Beavers four times this season scoring 20 goals in four games and while the Fighting Sioux were never in any danger of losing any of these games to the Beavers, in games past the Sioux and the Beavers had been hard fought contested games between the two teams. This season the Fighting Sioux were the better team and played very well in all four games systematically taking apart the Beavers hockey team, the Sioux just seemed to have an extra gear and always seemed to kick it in at the right time scoring timely goals.

While the games might not have ended well for the Beavers against the Fighting Sioux, the future is bright for the BSU Beavers and Tom Serratore is a very good hockey coach that I have a lot of respect for, Serratore is a great hockey mind and he will get the most out of his hockey team and he will his team prepared and ready to play in the WCHA playoffs. Coming into this series the Beavers were riding a five game unbeaten streak.

This season the Fighting Sioux scored a total of 20 goals against the Beavers. Matt Frattin had a goal and an assist today for four points on the weekend (3g-1a-4pts) and should be the player of the week in the WCHA, if Frattin is not it will be a travesty. Frattin was unstoppable against the Beavers this season racking up (7g-2a-9pts) during the four game season series against the BSU Beavers. Tom Serratore had this to say about Matt Frattin, “He’s (Frattin) such a dangerous player and he showed why he’s probably going to be the WCHA player of the year.”

Sioux 5 Beavers 2

The Fighting Sioux have played the BSU Beavers three times this season and in each game the score has been an identical 5-2 verdict. One might say that each game has been like ground hog day, same score all over again. In each game Matt Frattin has been on a torrid pace as well, it's almost like it's personal, it's like he sees read against the Beavers.

After watching the game this afternoon, I would imagine that the Bemidji State University Beavers would be happy to never see Fighting Sioux senior forward Matt Frattin again, counting the two goals that Frattin scored this afternoon against the BSU Beavers, Frattin now has (6g-1a-7pts) on the season against the BSU Beavers. Matt Frattin with the two goals today has (26g-14a-40pts) on the season and is one point short of reaching the hundred point mark of his NCAA career (54g-45a-99pts).

Jason Gregoire has also been hot against the Beavers this season as the junior forward has scored an impressive(4g-0a-4pts) against the BSU Beavers in three games. Gregoire has also been hot recently for the Fighting Sioux since returning from his mid season injury as Gregoire has a nine game point streak where he has gone an impressive (9g-7a-16pts), with the two goals today Gregoire now has (48g-48a-96) for his career and is four points shy of the century mark as well...If the Fighting Sioux can continue getting consistent scoring from all four forward lines the Fighting Sioux will be hard to beat during the WCHA and NCAA playoffs.

Balanced scoring

With Mario Lamoureux recording an assist today the Fighting Sioux now have twelve players with 10 or more points, the Fighting Sioux also have 7 players with twenty or more points, four of which have thirty or more points… So the Sioux are getting balanced scoring through the forward lines. The UND Fighting Sioux lead the WCHA with Goals score with 90 and have a game in hand on the rest of the league.

Goon's Three Stars of the game

1.) Matt Frattin (2g-0a-2pts)
2.) Jason Gregoire (2g-0a-2pts)
3.) Brock Nelson (0g-2a-2pts)

College Hockey tonight breaks down the BSU and UND series...

Listen to Scott and Moose Richards talk about the upcoming series between UND and BSU. [Click to listen]

At about 10:00 minutes Scott Williams took issue with Tyler Buckentine wrote about the BSU Beavers in a USCHO blog post. After reading the article yesterday, I have to agree with Scott... I am pretty sure that BSU isn't trying to find themselves in their 12th season as a D-I Hockey team... In my opinion that statement is so far from the truth it’s not even funny... The BSU program, whether Tyler wants to admit it or not has been successful in every level of hockey they have competed in and the BSU Beavers will continue to strive in the WCHA as well… As was brought up by Scott, BSU has been to the Frozen Four a couple years ago and they made the NCAA tourney as an at large team so this article really misses the mark, while Tyler’s team the MSUM Mavericks have not…

USCHO.COM ----- The Beavers were coming off two straight NCAA tournament bids and built a flashy new arena. They started the season off with a five-game winless streak and were never able to recover. BSU couldn’t put together four straight games without a loss until its current five-game unbeaten streak.

BSU is two seasons removed from its only Division I Frozen Four appearance but has a rich tradition in other divisions, winning five national titles at the D-II level and one in D-III. The Beavers are still trying to find themselves in their 12th season at the D-I level, and the move to the WCHA can help BSU get noticed.

The key is to break out and establish itself as an accomplished program in the WCHA, something teams like Minnesota State and Alaska-Anchorage are still struggling with. MSU has been in the league since 1999 and UAA came into the league in 1993.

“You want to go out and make sure people know you’re not a bottom dweller,” Lowe said. “It was important to come in here and play these teams and make sure we weren’t a team that would just get rolled over.”