Saturday, February 12, 2011

Scores from 2/11/2011

Atlantic Hockey Association
Army 1 at Holy Cross 5
Bentley 3 at American Int'l 2
Canisius 0 at RIT 3
Connecticut 4 at Sacred Heart 2
Mercyhurst 2 at Robert Morris 3
Niagara 2 at Air Force 3

CCHA
Alaska 2 at Lake Superior 2 OT
Bowling Green 1 at Notre Dame 2
Ohio State 2 at Michigan 3
Western Michigan 3 at Miami 3 OT
Northern Michigan 4 at Michigan State 2

ECAC
Brown 1 at Clarkson 4
Colgate 2 at Rensselaer 1 OT
Cornell 0 at Union 4
Princeton 4 at Harvard 4 OT
Quinnipiac 1 at Dartmouth 3
Yale 2 at St. Lawrence 3

Hockey East
Boston College 3 at Providence 0
Merrimack 4 at New Hampshire 2
Northeastern 3 at UMass Lowell 2 OT
Vermont 7 at Maine 2
Boston University 4 at Massachusetts 3 OT

WCHA
Bemidji State 2 at Michigan Tech 2 OT
Denver 2 at Minnesota 1
Alaska Anchorage 1 at North Dakota 6
Minnesota State 5 at Colorado College 1
Wisconsin 1 at Nebraska-Omaha 4
St. Cloud State 8 at Minnesota Duluth 2

Non Conference
Alab-Huntsville 2 at Ferris State 5

Analysis – It was wild night of college hockey in the WCHA.

Bemidji State 2 - Michigan Tech 2 OT – The Michigan Tech Huskies are flirting with history and it’s not what I would classify as being positive. The hapless Huskies haven’t won a hockey game since October 15th and extended their winnless streak to 25 games. The Huskies have only won one game all season in WCHA play. With the tie last night the Beavers record is now 10-14-3 overall and 6-12-3 in the WCHA play. The hapless Michigan Tech Huskies sport an unimpressive 3-22-4 record overall and 1-18-2 record in WCHA play. [Up North Sports Report]

Denver 2 - Minnesota 1 – Jason Zucker scored the game-winning goal of the 4:01 mark of the third period to lead the Pioneers over the not so Golden Gophers 2-1. The Gophers with the loss are looking more like a team that is going to be on the road for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. If the playoffs started today the Gophers who are currently are sitting in 8th place would have to travel to Omaha to face the UNO Mavericks, a team that swept them earlier in the season. The moral victory of the night was that the Gopher out shot the Pioneers 37-30. With the loss the Gophers' record drops to 11-12-4 overall and 8-10-3 in WCHA play. Gopher fans are lining up with pitch forks and rakes and calling for the head of Gopher head coach Don Lucia. The not so Golden Gophers are now winless sporting a 0-3-1 record in their past four games. The Denver Pioneers with the win improved to 18-6-5 and lead the WCHA with a 14-4-3 record. [Goal Gophers], [Denver Post]

Alaska Anchorage 1 - North Dakota 6 – The Fighting Sioux used their speed and blew by the UAA Seawolves all night long like the Seawolves were a big slow lumbering team. It will be interesting to see if the Seawolves make adjustments to their game plan tonight after being beat soundly on Friday Night. With the loss the UAA Seawolves sit in 6th place of the WCHA standings tied with the C.C. Tigers. The Seawolves record is 10-14-3 overall and 9-12-2 in WCHA play. With the win the Fighting Sioux are 20-8-2 and 15-6-0 and sit in second place all alone. With the win head coach Dave Hakstol's teams have won 20 games seven consecutive seasons in a row. [Doyle Woody, ADN]

Minnesota State 5 at Colorado College 1 – The Colorado College Tigers have give up five or more goals in three of the last four games. With the loss the C.C. Tigers are sitting in 6th place of the WCHA. The4 Tigers are 16-14-1 overall and 10-11-0 in WCHA play. The Mavericks with the win improve to 13-12-6 and 7-12-4 and are tied for 9th place with the SCSU Huskies. According to the C.C. beat writer injured freshman Jaden Schwartz will probably join the Tigers in practice next week, that could be good news for the Tigers. [Puckato], [Eye of the Tigers]

Wisconsin 1 - Nebraska-Omaha 4 – The Mavericks beat the Wisconsin Badgers and now sit in fourth place of the WCHA standings with a 13-6-2 record in WCHA play and a 17-10-2 record overall. The Omaha newspaper head line says that the Mavs upset No. 7 Badgers, 4-1, which is misleading because with the loss tonight the Badgers have a 1-8-2 record against ranked teams. The two teams played in front of a record crowd 15,137 at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The two team play game two tonight. With the loss the Badgers fall to 19-9-3 overall and have a 11-8-2 record in WCHA play and sit in 5th place. [Madison.com], [Omaha.com]

St. Cloud State 8 - Minnesota Duluth 2 – In the battle of the dogs the SCSU Huskies spanked the UMD Bulldogs 8-2 in front of a stunned home crowd at Amsoil Arena and showed that the SCSU Huskies aren’t ready to roll over and give up the fight just yet. The Bulldogs ~~sieves~~ goaltenders Kenny Reiter (9 saves, 3 goals); Aaron Crandall (11 saves, 5 goals) had a rough night as both goalies combined to give up 8 goals on 28 shots. Huskies ~~sieve~~ goaltender Mike Lee got the win in net for the SCSU Huskies. According to Kevin Pates the beat writer for the UMD Bulldogs; this was the first time UMD had allowed eight goals since the Bulldogs were spanked 8-3 by the UND Fighting Sioux in November of 2007. With the loss the Bulldogs are now in 3rd place in the WCHA standings with a record of 13-5-3 and sport a 18-6-4 record overall. The Huskies with the win sit in 9th place tied with the MSU-M Mavericks with 8-11-2 record in WCHA play and 12-14-3 overall. [Rink and Run], [SC Times]

Sioux skate past the Seawolves 6-1

The UAA Seawolves are big tough team that focuses on defense first and are very difficult to play against, the Seawolves also have a tendency to play a very boring brand of hockey. I say this because one might have witnessed this when the UAA Seawolves played the Minnesota Golden Gophers two weeks ago in Minneapolis as the Seawovles beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 1-0 in defensive battle. The game was about as fun as watching paint dry and was a tad bit of a snorer.

Earlier in the week I had said that the Fighting Sioux needed to get the lead early on the Seawolves and open the game up, because I didn’t feel that the Seawolves are as deep up front as the Fighting Sioux and they would have a hard time keeping up with the Sioux’s speed. This is exactly what happened tonight and the Seawolves were a step behind all night and didn’t have an answer for the Fighting Sioux’s speed through the neutral zone.

The Sioux blew by the Seawolves all night long through the neutral zone and proved the best way to beat the trap is to use their speed and just skate by the defenders going up along the wall. That pretty much what the Fighting Sioux did all night long.

The Fighting Sioux got going in the first period and scored two goals 17 seconds apart before the game was seven minutes old and Sioux raced past the Seawolves for a 6-1 win. Mario Lamoureux scored his second goal of the season and continued his streak of when Marios scores a goal for the Fighting Sioux they are undefeated, they have not lost a game when he scores a goal.

It was fun watching the Sioux stretch the Seawolves defense with crisp smart passes, it look like the tortoise chasing a rabbit all night long... The Sioux also keep the turnovers to a minimum, hence, not giving the Seawolves a lot of opportunities to score goals. The one turnover the Sioux had in the offensive zone ended up trickling over the goal line off of the stick of UAA's Matt Bailey.

With the win tonight UND Fighting Sioux hockey coach Dave Hakstol reached the 20 win plateau for a the seventh season in a row. UND is all alone in 2nd place in the WCHA standings with a 15-6-0 and is 20-8-2 overall.

Goon's three stars of the game

1.) Matt Frattin, UND 1g-2a-3pts
2.) Derek Forbort, UND 0g-2a-2pts
3.) Aaron Dell, UND 1 goal against

Links

[Box Score]

FightingSioux.com

USCHO

Delusions of Grandeur

UND hockey Blog

Friday, February 11, 2011

Penguins and Islanders line brawl...

This might end up being a suspension for the islander player Matt Martin's as he attempts to sucker punch Maxime Talbot. I am not sure if he Martin caught him or not. This in my opinion is a violation of the hockey code. I also wouldn't class Maxime Talbot a dirty player or worthy of a response like this.

UAA and UND Lines - Taylor Dickin to start tonight

Brad Schlossman has posted the lines for tonight's game and Freshman Taylor Dickin will be making his first start in a Sioux jersey and he will wear number 14. Dickin was an All Star in the MJHL so he does come with some impressive junior hockey numbers.

UND’s lines

19 Evan Trupp–22 Brad Malone–21 Matt Frattin
17 Jason Gregoire–10 Corban Knight–26 Brett Hextall
14 Taylor Dickin–29 Brock Nelson–27 Carter Rowney
15 Brent Davidson–9 Mario Lamoureux–11 Derek Rodwell

2 Andrew MacWilliam–25 Jake Marto
4 Derek Forbort–24 Ben Blood
3 Derrick LaPoint–20 Joe Gleason

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness

[UND Stats]

UAA Seadog's Lines

16 Tommy Grant–20 Alex Gellert–27 Sean Wiles
19 Nick Haddad–21 Matt Bailey–12 Mitch Bruijsten
5 Justin Kirchhevel–40 Daniel Naslund–7 Brett Cameron
36 Jade Portwood–14 Craig Parkinson–18 Chris Crowell

8 Scott Warner–23 Luka Vidmar
3 Wes McLeod–15 Brad Gorham
11 Curtis Leinweber–26 Tyler Currier

35 Chris Kamal
33 Rob Gunderson

[UAA Stats]

Check out the Goon on KNOX 1310 @3:30 PM - Blais on the BTHC

First off I will be on KNOX 1310 A.M. at 3:30 PM - 4:30 this afternoon talking about hockey with R.J. Richards you can listen to the show on this link if you don't live in Grand Forks, ND. [KNOX 1310 Click to listen]

Breaking News

Dean Blais just fired a missile across the bow of the Big Ten Hockey Conference. This author has been on record of being against a BTHC because I think it’s going to do a lot of damage to the CCHA and possibly to college hockey as a whole, there are schools barely hanging on by a thread. The BTHC is being driven by the Big Ten athletic directors that want make more money for their schools by showing more hockey games on their Big Ten television network, I would really like to know what is stopping them. By all means show more college hockey on the BTN. I would really like to know what is stopping you from showing more hockey hockey now. I don't by this argument that you need to have a BTHC conference to make more money off of the BTN.

I want to applaud Coach Blais, is saying what a lot of other have been saying about the Big Ten Hockey Conference. Since Blais is saying it, this become more credible because Blais is a college hockey coaching legend and a future hall of fame hockey coach. Check out this article by Tom Shatel of the World Herald newspaper.

WORLD-HERALD ---- UNO coach Dean Blais — a Minnesota alum — is staunchly on the side that says this would be a bad deal and could “ruin’’ college hockey.

“It’s a TV issue,’’ Blais said. “There’s money. The big schools have money and they want a lot more. Is it good for college hockey? We’ll see.’’

Blais’ point: The cost of starting this mega made-for-TV league would come at the expense of the “little guys,’’ especially in the WCHA and CCHA.

There are 58 schools that play Division I men’s hockey. College hockey is not cheap. Many Mid-American Conference-level schools depend on the revenue from home games with Michigan or Wisconsin or Michigan State. If those teams don’t come around anymore, and hockey became too expensive, how many of those schools would drop the sport?

“It wouldn’t hurt Omaha, we’re going to be fine,’’ Blais said. “But this division could hurt certain teams. It would give an administration an excuse to drop hockey.’’

To ease that pain, the Big Ten apparently is working on a plan in which the Big Ten schools from the WCHA and CCHA would continue to schedule some teams in those leagues as nonconference games. But they couldn’t play everyone in their former leagues.

And, let’s face it, if Wisconsin has to play Murderer’s Row in the Big Ten, it’s not going to play North Dakota, Denver and UNO on the side.

“What pod are we in? Who are we going to play?’’ Blais said. “You have to think about the good of college hockey. Do the fans of Minnesota want to see North Dakota come in there and Omaha and Duluth? Absolutely. Do they care about Michigan and Ohio State? No.

“For Wisconsin to lose North Dakota, that’s their No. 1 rival. That would be terrible. And now that Miami is up there, people in Ann Arbor would rather see Miami now than Wisconsin or Minnesota.’’

Blais also makes this point: Most of the schools in a Big Ten hockey league are used to making the NCAA tournament, but that league would get only one or two bids as the teams beat up on each other.

“College hockey right now is pretty solid,’’ Blais said. “We’re third, I think, in the NCAA in revenue-producing. Are we going to jeopardize that, as a body? Minnesota and Wisconsin probably make $4 million to $5 million a year in hockey because of their buildings. If you give them $7 million, does that matter? They already have so much money. Is it worth the extra money to ruin college hockey?’’

There is some blogger from PSU that believes I am a hater when it comes to everything Penn State University. It’s not about that at all, college hockey is bigger than the Big Ten Hockey Conference and it’s bigger than some school that doesn’t even have a division one hockey program yet. Some people are missing the point in a very big way. College hockey is about the small schools beating the big schools on the ice; David versus Goliath. In college hockey there are many schools that are Division II or Division III in all their other sports. These schools also use these games against the Big Ten schools to pad their bottom line and put butts in their stands and make money.

College Hockey is one of the few sports were a team from Sault Sainte Marie can beat a team from Ann Harbor, Madison, East Lansing or South Bend. College hockey has to be very careful to no upset the delicate balance that has been created. Six Big Ten Schools could irreparable damage to the rest of college hockey for the sole purpose of greed and making more money. Maybe we all need to take a deep breath and work this out like adults.

Over on Goal Gophers, Chris Miller and Roman Augustoviz make their predictions for this weekend's series between the Seapuppies and the Fighting Sioux.

Alaska Anchorage at North Dakota

Chris: As long as I’m pumping up sportswriters, I got to say Doyle Woody of the Anchorage Daily News used to have quite the gig back when the ADN traveled with the Seapuppies, as far as frequent flyer miles go. As I recall, Doyle also missed a lot of flights thanks to his enjoyment of the WCHA night life, often returning to his hotel room long after the 4 a.m. wakeup call, but I would never say that publicly in case Doyle has a good lawyer.

In Duluth, we used to convene at the “smoke-free” Pioneer Bar and, in true journalistic style, Doyle met the future Mrs. Woody there one night when she was working for the News-Trombone. They are now happily married and, quite honestly, Doyle still has a ton of frequent flyer miles so after the season he’s always jetting off to Bora-Bora or some tropical locale. Enough insight about Anchorage, though.

North Dakota had last weekend off to watch Christina Aguilera screw up a song that most of us learned in kindergarten, so they’ll be rested and ready to sweep. If not, Dave Hakstol should be fired and replaced by Dean Blais. ... Sioux sweep

Roman: UAA has won three in a row, beating the Gophers 1-0 at Mariucci and Michigan Tech 4-1 and 4-2 in the Sully. The Seawolves' neutral zone trap or four-man picket fence at its blue line can hamper opponents. Tech was held to under 20 shots in both losses. But the Sioux smell another title. They are only one point back of UMD and Denver, tied for first place in the WCHA so ... A Sioux win and a tie

Thursday, February 10, 2011

UND and UAA match up courtesy of CHN

Tale of the Tape

Alaska-Anchorage vs. North Dakota / February 12, 2011

Alaska-Anchorage

North Dakota

Record

10-13-3

19-8-2

Head-to-Head

0-0-1

Goals

62 / 2.38

106 / 3.66

Goals Against

77 / 2.96

72 / 2.48

Power Play

15.9%

20.3%

Penalty Kill

81.0%

84.2%

Avg. Height / Weight

6' 0.25" / 188.64 lbs.

6' 0.58" / 194.85 lbs.

Avg. Age

22y 3m

21y 8m

Coach

Dave Shyiak

Dave Hakstol

Is there a Colin Campbell conspiracy?

www.montrealgazette.com/sports

Apparently the Montreal media was less than amused with watching the Montreal Canadians get their asses handed to them last night in Boston. If you don’t want to get into a fight, do not lock up with a tough guy that has a reputation of pummeling guys who makes his living with his fists. This article is highly entertaining and worth a look. The author also suggests that there is a conspiracy by Colin Campbell to look the other when his son commits a questionable and egregious act on the ice. My first follow up question would be who determines what is considered egregious and questionable?

Montreal Gazette ---- There was no supplemental discipline coming from the NHL Thursday, hardly surprising given the fact the league probably couldn’t organize a haircut at a skinhead convention.

Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin wasn’t willing to discuss the provocative final-minute use by Bruins counterpart Claude Julien of his roster’s foil fists with the game’s result by then well decided.

That resulted in the pummelling by Boston’s Johnny Boychuk of pacifist Habs defenceman Jaroslav Spacek, the chasing around by Shawn Thornton of rearguard Roman Hamrlik, and the bloodying of Montreal forward Tom Pyatt by Gregory Campbell, the ankles-sharpened son of NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell.

Photos of the Pyatt-Campbell scrap show the latter clearly having nearly lost his left elbow pad, which is hanging from his arm and essentially being used as a tethered weapon.

In hand-to-hand combat, Pyatt was badly over matched by a player who has 10.7 penalty minutes for each of his NHL goals. But in this case, he was cannon fodder.

Leaving Thursday’s morning skate, a box lunch in hand and a baseball cap tugged low on his head, Pyatt wore a blue-black shiner beneath his right eye and had seven small stitches zippered high into his right cheekbone.

This article also suggests the same Colin Campbell conspiracy theory as well. Same Montreal newspaper of course. Maybe it's just a Montreal Gazette thing? Of course they aren’t going to be amused because their team was taken to the wood shed last night and exposed for being a bunch of pansies. Last night Hab's Punk P.K. Subban was yapping at the Bruins all night long while hiding behind the refs.

While the game featured the silliest fight of the year between goaltenders Carey Price and Tim Thomas, there were others that fell into the gratuitous violence category. There was Johnny Boychuk who kept beating on Jaroslav Spacek even after the Canadiens defenceman had stopped fighting, and Gregory Campbell who used his elbow pads as weapons against Tom Pyatt. It’s the sort of action that the NHL should be compelled to look into but, then again, the guy who handles discipline for the NHL is Colin Campbell, who is Gregory’s proud dad.

While we’re on the subject of the way the NHL views fighting, it’s ironic that it has taken a hard line on shots to the head, but doesn’t have any problem when Brent Johnson rearranges Rick DiPietro’s face with a left hook. That incident was on Thomas’s mind as he faced Price, but the Canadiens goalie had the grace not to press the advantage when he landed on top of Thomas after a graceless - and punchless - waltz. [Read the whole article here]

Me personally, I don't think there is a Colin Campbell conspiracy but I am a Boston Bruins fans so I might not be seeing it from a Hab's fan perspective, I have seen a lot more egregious thuggery and other questionable stuff go unpunished by Colin Campbell. Puck Daddy seemed to be hinting at this conspiracy as well . I do think the Hab's were exposed last night as being a bit soft. I do think we will see other teams playing Canadians in a physical manner.

Thursday afternoon pontifications

In looking at this video posted above, it's like watching two games with in a game. This is the video from the Kendall Hockey Classic, tournament the Sioux played in back in October, while it was at the beginning of the season, it should serve as a reminder for the Fighting Sioux. The UND Fighting Sioux raced to a 5-1 lead and then ended up hanging on for a 5-5 tie, the Sioux almost lost that game in the overtime period. I hope that the Fighting Sioux do not take this Seawolves team lightly, they are big, physical team and they will come at you and they will play the body. This team is not a bunch of pansies that are afraid to hit, beware of Jade Portwood.

If the Seawolves get a lead on the Fighting Sioux they will back into the defensive zone and play a collapsing defense. The Seawolves are one of the biggest teams in division 1 hockey so they will be a hard team to get inside the dots on. The Sioux are going to have to cash in on their opportunities… The Fighting Sioux are a deeper team offensively and they are going to have to use their speed to capitalize on the Seawolves mistakes and burry the turnovers. The Fighting Sioux are going to have to get a lead and to cause the Seawolves to have to open up their game.

Listen to Gopher Puck Lives' Ryan Cardinal and P.A. on KFAN on [click to listen]

Delusions of Grandeur has a preview to the Sioux and Sea Dogs series. It was amazing that he was able to write a blog post free of profanity.

The Fighting Sioux Hockey team had five of their players recognized for their academic achievements. This was the fourth year in a row that Chay Genoway has made the list.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Senior defenseman Chay Genoway was named a four-time recipient of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Scholar-Athlete Award today, highlighting North Dakota's five recipients of the league's highest academic honor.

UND's other honorees include Tded two-time recipients Brad Eidsness (Jr., Chestermere, Alberta) and Derrick LaPoint (Sr., Eau Claire, Wis.) and first-time recipients Brett Bruneteau (So., Omaha, Neb.) Tate Maris (So., Denver, Colo.).

Weekend Match-Ups (by Sioux 7)

The playoff picture is starting to take shape with only four more weekends to go in the regular season. We have all 12 teams in league games this weekend again. The top 5 teams are separated by only 5 points. Also 6th place thru 11th place is only separated by 6 points. It looks like the last home ice playoff spot will come down to the last weekend of play, the way things are going. MTU is the first team to be eliminated from home ice contention. The most points Tech can end with is 19, and that would require them to win their last 8 games. The Sioux look to have the “easiest” schedule down the stretch, they do not playing any of the current top teams in the WCHA. (UND schedule has series with UAA, @ SCSU, BSU, and @ MTU to finish out the regular season.)

We at Goon’s World are still hoping Kristo will make a full recovery from his frostbite, keep going Danny.

WCHA standings

TEAM……………..…....W-L-T...Pts
1. Denver………….....……13-4-3…29
1. Minnesota-Duluth.....13-4-3…29
3. North Dakota…….….14-6-0…28
4. Nebraska-Omaha…..12-6-2…26
5. Wisconsin……...….…11-7-2…24
6. Colorado College…10-10-0…20
6. Alaska-Anchorage….9-11-2…20
8. Minnesota……….……8-9-3…19
9. Minnesota State……6-12-4…16
9. St. Cloud State….....7-11-2…16
11. Bemidji State……….6-12-2…14
12. Michigan Tech………1-18-1…3

WCHA

#7 Wisconsin @ #16 Nebraska-Omaha
Last weekend the Badgers enjoyed a free weekend and the Mavericks swept with the SCSU Huskies in Omaha.

This should be the marquee matchup this week in the WCHA. These teams are separated by only 2 points in the standings. This will be a battle to take possession of 4th place and keep pace on the league leaders. The Badgers and the Mavericks have played 5 times before this weekend, with Bucky winning all 5 times. The Badgers are leading the league in defense, giving up a league low 41 goals. The Mavericks are 3rd in the league with goals scored at 67 (trailing DU and UND with 70 each). Buck also have done well this year away from the Kohl Center posting an overall road record of 5-3-2, and the Mavericks have a 10-3-1 overall record at the Qwest Center in Omaha. The Badgers are red hot going 12-1-0 in their last 13 games, but they can’t look past UNO and to the Gophers next weekend. We’ll see what the Mavericks are made of the next month, after UW, they go to UAA, host DU, and finish up at UMD. With a schedule like that, they could easily end up in a fight for a home ice spot. SPLIT

#4 Denver @ Minnesota
Last weekend the Pioneers split with the CC Tigers and the Golden Gophers got a point against the Bulldogs in Duluth.

The Pioneers are owners of a 5-4-3 overall road record this season and the Gophers sport a 6-7-1 overall home record. The Gophers are in need of points, if they don’t want to travel the second weekend in March. DU has gone 6-3-1 in their last ten games, while the Gophers 3-4-3 in their last ten games. I watched both Gopher games last weekend, and they showed some resolve in their games against UMD. They also showed some defensive lapses too. This year’s Gopher’s season is shaping up to be like their last 3 seasons, where home ice is decided that last weekend. Like they say, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” I think that desperation will get them some points this weekend. SPLIT

Bemidji State @ Michigan Tech
Last weekend the Beavers split with the MSUM Mavericks in Mankato and the Huskies were swept by the Seawolves in Anchorage.

The Beavers can seal the Huskies fate this weekend. If BSU can sweep the hapless Huskies, MTU will be locked into the bottom spot. The Beavers have played better since the Christmas break, they are 5-4-1 overall over that span. BSU has seen overtime in 4 of their last 6 games. The Huskies are still winless since October 15th, this weekend is looking the best for MTU to get another win this season. After the Beavers, the Tech-sters play, DU, UM, and UND. This could be Tech’s weekend, the Beavers have scored only 44 goals in league play (2.20/game) and Tech has 36 goals (1.8/game) in the WCHA. With what could theoretically be a couple of 2-1 games, the Huskies have hopes of winning. SPLIT

Alaska-Anchorage @ #5 North Dakota
Last weekend the Seawolves swept the MTU Huskies in Anchorage and the Sioux were on a bye weekend.

The Seawolves keep their dream of hosting a first round playoff series alive with a sweep of MTU. But this weekend, they have a much taller order, the 5th ranked Sioux, in Grand Forks. These teams met once this season back in October, in Anchorage at the Kendall Classic, where the teams skated to a tie. The Sioux will be missing a couple of key players this weekend, forward Danny Kristo (frostbite) and their captain, d-man Chay Genoway. Fortunately for the Sioux have great depth this and should be able to manage this weekend. All the Sioux players had last week to rest up and get healthy, and now should be ready to start the stretch run. If UND isn’t rusty on Friday from the break and come to play they should be able to take care of business. SIOUX SWEEP

Minnesota State @ #19 Colorado College
Last weekend the Mavericks split with the BSU Beavers in Mankato and the Tigers split with the Pioneers in a home-and-home series.

These teams met back in October with the teams splitting that series, MSUM 5-4, and CC 1-0 in the rematch. The Mavericks will be down to four league games, after this series, so they direly need points if they want to climb into the 6-spot and host a playoff series. The Tigers are currently tied for the last home ice spot, with UAA, but have two games in hand on the Seawolves (and MSUM). The Tigers could assure the Mavericks a bottom half finish, if they can sweep them at World Arena. CC played their arch-rivals tough last weekend, so they proved they can play with the big boys, but they have also lost to lesser teams. SPLIT

St. Cloud St. @ #3 Minnesota-Duluth
Last weekend the Huskies were swept by the UNO Mavericks in Omaha and the Bulldogs got 3-points against the Gophers in Duluth.

The Bulldogs are slowly breaking in their new Amsoil Arena, they are 2-2-1 in their new home and are 9-3-1 overall at home this season. The Huskies are 4-6-0 overall away from the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud (3-1-0 at neutral sites). The Huskies need help if they want to host a first round playoff game, which is a long shot when looking at the schedule they face. SCSU had high hopes to start the season, and most coaches and the media thought that SCSU would be a MacNaughton Cup contender this season. Now they can play spoiler role. By getting some points over the last month they can try and avoid a bottom 3 finish and avoid playing the “big boys” in the first round. The Bulldogs will get home, barring some type of historic meltdown. UMD is a puck possession team, so if SCSU wants to win, they need to play keep-away with the Bulldogs. UMD’s weakness appears to be their defensive zone coverage, followed by their net minders. The Huskies need to exploit these aspects if they want some points. SPLIT.

Coach Hakstol unhappy with the distraction

Check out coach Hakstol’s response when asked about Danny Kristo’s frostbite. If you watch coach Hakstol’s body language you can tell that he is not very happy to have to be dealing with this situation in the playoff stretch drive. Coach Hakstol said that he is unhappy with the distraction that has been created for our team at this time of year.

Bruins and Habs brawl

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Bruins beat up the Habs and beat them 8-6 on the score board

If you didn't see this game tonight, watch this video by NESN, it was amazing, oh my!!! What a game tonight. There was a lot of goals tonight 14 and a there were a lot of fights as well, there were ~~187~~ 192 minutes in penalties minutes. Wow! This is the way the Boston Bruins need to play to be successful, they need to show the opposition that they will not be pushed around and that they will push back, last week they beat the hell out of Dallas Stars and the Bruins won the battles tonight as well. The big bad Bruins are back. This blurb by NESN.COM really explains it pretty good.

"We're on opposing team but we spent some time together at a hockey camp a few summers ago and we were just at the All-Star Game together," Thomas said. "We're on friendly terms. It was business, but once business is done, it's done."

It wasn't done for the rest of the players though. Another melee saw David Krejci and Benoit Pouliot break away from the pack and square off, only to have Krejci dropped with a big punch. Andrew Ference and Travis Moen later exchanged blows in a spirited scrap, and while that was being broken up three other fights broke out simultaneously.

The Bruins had the decided edge in each of those bouts, with Shawn Thornton fighting through the refs to pound on Roman Hamrlik after a shot from Hamrlik ignited that powder keg. Johnny Boychuk worked over Jaraslav Spacek and Greg Campbell won a one-sided decision over Tom Pyatt during the same line brawl.

Between the punchups, the goals came fast and furious, with Boston matching a season-high output with eight goals to make it a truly enjoyable evening for the Bruins faithful.

Goalie Fight - Carey Price vs Tim Thomas

Redwing77's favorite Habs goalie Carey Price got into an alleged fight tonight with all world Bruins goalie Timmy Thomas. While they called it a fight in the box score this looked more like a dance among friends if you ask me. Here is the penalties from the scrum [Box Score]
12:36 MTL Brian Gionta : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 MTL Brian Gionta : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 MTL James Wisniewski : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 MTL Max Pacioretty : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 MTL Carey Price served by Roman Hamrlik : Goalie leave crease - 2 min
12:36 MTL Carey Price served by Roman Hamrlik : Fighting (maj) - 5 min
12:36 BOS Mark Recchi : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 BOS Brad Marchand served by Shawn Thornton : Charging - 2 min
12:36 BOS Brad Marchand : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 BOS Zdeno Chara : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 BOS Steven Kampfer : Roughing - 2 min
12:36 BOS Tim Thomas served by Patrice Bergeron : Goalie leave crease - 2 min
12:36 BOS Tim Thomas served by Patrice Bergeron : Fighting (maj) - 5 min

Hump Day thoughts - 3201 and a few other things

I know a lot of my fellow Sioux fans don’t like Kevin Gorg but he did have a lot of nice things to say about the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team at about 7:00 Minutes in on the P.A. show on KFAN. Personally, while Kevin Gorg is a homer (He is from Minnesota) I think he is a great college and NHL Hockey Mind. [Click to listen]

Wisconsin Badgers defenseman Jake Gardiner rights were traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Anaheim Ducks before he ever laced up the skates. [TSN.COM] Check out the comments from the Canadian fans about American players as well.

Brad Schlossman had this on his blog today. This would be very good news if this happens to come to fruition. I would love to see the Sioux play the Eagles and or Michigan in our house.

I’ve tried for over a month now to get official confirmation on this, but have been unable to. That’s probably because no contracts have been signed, so nobody wants to talk. But I’ve gotten extremely strong indications from several people that UND is going to be hosting the Ice Breaker to open next season with a big-time lineup of Boston College, Michigan and Air Force coming to town.

The Ice Breaker, which is awarded by the American Hockey Commissioners Association, usually puts together stellar lineups like this year’s in St. Louis, which featured Wisconsin, Boston University, Notre Dame and Holy Cross. The Sioux last played in it two years ago at Boston University along with Michigan State and UMass.

Penguins’ hack gets flimsy four game suspension

I know we have covered this subject a lot here but I really think that Matt Cooke needs to be suspended more than four games, his latest suspension is a friggen joke and a travesty. This was an opportunity for the NHL to throw the book at this P.O.S. and make a statement that they will no longer tolerate this kind of crap anymore, they let him off the hook with a flimsy four game suspension.

Hey I don't have a problem with players being a pest and it’s one thing to be a antagonize but Cooke goes way beyond the what should be considered ethical behavior on the ice. In looking around the internet today there is a common theme among the fans and bloggers, Matt Cooke needs to sit and there needs to be some teeth to his suspension, maybe a lengthy 15-20 game suspension. Cooke’s four game suspensions is a joke and is basically the league condoning his behavior. Cooke tried to take Ovenchkin’s knee out earlier this week, now this. The next time Cooke commits another dirty hit or bush league the league needs to make it hurt.

NHL.COM --- Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins was suspended four games by the NHL on Wednesday for hitting Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin from behind Tuesday night, according to Nick Kypreos of Rogers Sportsnet.

I have to agree with Don Cherry that Matt Cooke is a back stabbing piece of _________. We don’t need to put it down here because you know I mean. If you think I am over blowing this go back and watch this video, this is the kind of player Matt Cooke is, in my opinion Cooke is a text book definition of thuggery and goonery. [Click to watch]<<<--Watch this video it's a great historical breakdown of Cooke's antics.

Today on XM-204 Jeremy Roenick called Matt Cooke a chicken shit. [Click to listen]

Drew Stafford's big night.

Former Fighting Sioux forward and Buffalo Sabre Drew Stafford has three hat tricks this season (two against the Boston Bruins) and has been on a terror scoring 17 goals in the last 22 games. Stafford as scored 5 goals in the last two games, that's an amazing pace. [Watch all three of Staffords goals]

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Matt Cooke's bush league hit on Fedor Tyutin

Matt Cooke is up to no good again. It's becoming a nightly thing, every game he plays in, Matt Cooke doing something questionable. The other night he was kneeing Ovechkin. Eventually the league has to throw the book at this gutless puke. Where is Evander Kane when you need him? Some will argue that Fedor Tyutin had this coming because he turned his back to Matt Cooke at the last moment and put himself in a vulnerable position. Fortunately, the P.O.S Cooke was tossed from the game for this hit. Props to Tyutin's team mate Derick Brassard for challenging Matt Cooke to a fight for his hit on Tyutin.

Milan Mikhalek hit on Keith Ballard

Check out this hit by the Senators Milan Mikhalek on former Gopher and current Vancouver Canucks forward Keith Ballard, the hit caused an injury to Ballard's leg and he will probably be out of action for 2-4 weeks. From looking at the video it would appear to be a slew foot. What do you think?

Tuesday Linkorama – shuffling through the B.S.

There is a lot of news in college hockey this week. It’s the dog days of winter, no pun intended since three of our teams in the WCHA are named after dogs, Huskies (X2) and Bulldogs. The Huskies (X2) aren’t having very good seasons but the Bulldogs are coming off a three point weekend against the not so Golden Gophers. Mike Connolly had a magical night in Duluth as he lit the lamp 5 times. s/t Ciskie blog

Contrary to what Delusions of Grandeur says the story that he has linked on his blog was an A.P story that was posted on the Herald site and was not what was printed in the Grand Forks Herald. Hell, let’s not let facts get in the way of a good blog post. His latest dissertation is really a piece of work as well. If the state of North Dakota is so bad, why do I see a humongous boat parade every fall from Minnesota?

delusions of grandeur - a delusion (common in paranoia) that you are much greater and more powerful and influential than you really are delusion, psychotic belief - (psychology) an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary megalomania - a psychological state characterized by delusions of grandeur

Chuck Schwartz from 60 Minutes, No Alibis, No Regrets has his latest addition of Bracketology up and he has the Sioux in St Louis playing the BU Terriers followed by the winner of the DU and Notre Dame game. That would be a region of death in my opinion.

Without a Peer has the Fighting Sioux out east playing in Manchester as a number two seed against Michigan with the winner getting WMU and or ~~University of no hardware~~ UNH. Personally unless UND stumbles down the stretch I see UND finishing as a one seed and not a two seed playing out east. Just my humble opinion, but you never know with the NCAA.

According to Mike Chambers DU's freshman hockey class is as good as advertised, I would have to agree. I hope the Wild sign Zucker after the Pioneers lose in the first round of the NCAA tourney. [Denver Post]

The Bemidji State University Beavers ended a seven-game losing streak to the ~~Purple Cows~~ Mavericks dating back to the 2006-07 season. The Mavericks won the first night on a goal by Bemidji boy Channing Boe in overtime. The Mavericks won game one 2-1.

Kessel: ‘I love Toronto, I want to be here’ Edit Video added

Aaron Lynett/National Post

This story has really taken off and created a fire storm around the blogsphere, if you haven’t seen it, the story is worth a read. It seems like wherever Kessel goes he is either misunderstood or maybe he really is part of the problem. Kessel is an amazing offensive talent but you won’t see him going over the boards to kill a penalty very often.

TORONTO — Nobody in the audience seemed to be listening as intently as Tyler Bozak. He nodded at some answers, grimaced at others and shook his head in bemusement at the tenor of the questions facing the man one stall over, inside the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room.

Phil Kessel, his friend and teammate, was the reluctant star, holding an unwanted media conference after Monday’s pre-game skate to clarify his comments from a day earlier and dispel any notion that he was demanding a trade. It got a little awkward, and Bozak smiled.

“I kind of just give it to him a bit, bug him about his interviews,” he said with a smile not long after the lights dimmed. “I love it when he gets interviewed, because I like watching him after, cracking jokes to him about it.”

Kessel does not do interviews very often, and he generally does not do them very well. It is a source of humour for some of his teammates, but it became a source of alarm Sunday afternoon, when he hinted at friction with his head coach and stumbled in explaining how he felt when Ron Wilson demoted him to the third line.

The 23-year-old said, flatly, that “me and Ron don’t really talk.”
[Read the Whole Article]

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