New Commits

UAA picked up a commitment from BCHL forward Chris Crowell.

AJHL forward Carter Rowney committed to North Dakota after visiting during North Dakota's series against Minnesota.

New Commits

The next stop on the Mike Dorr WCHA Tour will be Minnesota State.

Jacob Cepis decided on Minnesota after also taking a visit to Boston University.

North Dakota picked up commitments from AJHL forward Corbin Knight and Winnipeg Midget forward Brendan O'Donnell.

Bad Call 2: Electric Siouxgaloo

Or...Dude, where's Zach Jones' suspension?

Eleven months ago, some North Dakota player dropped his gloves and got into a fight with a guy from Denver. Referee Marco Hunt gave said North Dakota player a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

Later that week, WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod decided Hunt "under-called" the fight and gave suspensions to the players.

That brings us to Saturday night. Same team. Same official. Zach Jones clearly drops his gloves and takes off his helmet with the intention of fighting Tony Lucia. The referee's intervene before Jones can reach his target(something the referees were reprimanded for not doing last year in another, different North Dakota fight, BTW), but it's pretty clear that Jones wasn't trying to shake Lucia's hand.

And for that, Jones received a two-minute minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct. Incidentally, that marked the fourth time in Jones' career that he got two minutes for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct rather than getting tossed for fighting. But the question is: why? If you're going to give a guy a penalty for whatever he intends to do after he drops his gloves and takes off his helmet--and then wrestles with the officials to break away, but that's a different discussion--how can you give him anything other than a fighting major?

Last time, that mistake got corrected. This one probably should be too.

GLI Day

So my family and I showed up about ten minutes before puck drop for the first game of yesterday's Great Lakes Invitational, along with about 1000 other people, and we spent a good 20-30 minutes waiting in the ticket line. By the time we got I our tickets, I predicted Michigan would already be up 2-0 and the game would be, for all intents and purposes, over. Check and check.

The second game wasn't much prettier. Michigan State played pretty well by their own low standards, but had they not squandered so many quality chances, they could have easily scored 5 goals. Seeing them in person, it's just amazing the lack of depth they have considering how well-known their school is. That said, Corey Tropp was one very talented player that I thought underperformed, at least statistically in the first half of the year, and if he continues to create offensive--he assisted both MSU goals--they'll be better offensively.

It wasn't a great effort by North Dakota defensively. They've got some nice offensive defensemen, but yesterday, they were more prone to giving up 2-on-1 ones than creating odd-man situations for their team. Offensively, North Dakota moved the puck pretty well, but turned down too many decent shots in favor of a 90 mph backdoor pass that never connected.

White to Sioux

Des Moines forward Matt White committed to North Dakota. The big power forward is an interesting prospect. He's got great size and skills, and looks to have all the tools of a excellent player, but it hasn't translated onto the scoresheet yet in the USHL. He's a young '91 birthdate, so he won't join the Sioux until at least 2010, and his draft year isn't until next year, so there's definitely time for him to put it all together.

North Dakota Preview

Here is your preview for North Dakota.

New Commits

I'm way behind on these...

Duluth East defenseman Derek Forbort committed to North Dakota.

Matt Paape committed to Wisconsin.

Cody Murphy committed to Miami.

Jacob Fallon committed to Michigan

Clarke Goes to Q

It was a bad sign when North Dakota recruit Garrett Clarke opted to attend the QMJHL Draft, as opposed to attending the Fargo Force Tryout Camp this weekend.

Today, according to Force head coach Dean Blais, Clarke will be signing with the Lewiston Maineiacs, who took him 6th overall in the draft yesterday.

Blais told the Grand Forks Herald:

“It’s disappointing for both us and UND. He committed to both of us. He went back up there (to Canada) and got caught up with all his buddies and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft. Sometimes these guys get caught up in the draft and they forget the most important thing is an education. He basically backed out on his word.”

I'm not sure if I agree with the first half. Regardless of which route he chooses, he's talented enough that he has the opportunity to make it in hockey either way. But I completely agree about backing out on his word. It's incredibly disappointing to see a kid who basically spent the last 6 months lying to anyone that would listen.

Chorney Agrees to Deal

North Dakota defenseman Taylor Chorney has agreed in principle to a contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

Similar to teammate T.J. Oshie, Chorney returned to college for one final season last year with big expectations, and while he had a very good year, it probably fell a little short of those expectations. He'll likely have a long and successful pro career ahead of him though.

Duncan Staying

North Dakota forward and former Hobey Baker winner Ryan Duncan will be staying at North Dakota for his senior season.

It's hard to criticize someone for choosing to stay in school, but this still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I felt that Duncan would have been best served by leaving school last summer when his stock was at its highest, and with Jonathan Toews leaving for the NHL. Instead, he had nowhere to go but down last year, and even though he put up good numbers, his Hobey Baker-winning season the year prior ended up looking like the product of Jonathan Toews, and he probably cost himself a little bit of money in the process. The same could happen next year as well when he's no longer playing with T.J. Oshie.

Oshie Signs

Andy Strickland of the website Hockey Buzz is reporting that North Dakota forward T.J. Oshie will be signing with the Blues tomorrow.

It's been expected that Oshie would sign with St. Louis ever since UND's season ended, and now that his school year is over, it looks like the deal will be made official.

Fargo News

Construction of the new arena for the Fargo Force, the USHL's newest expansion franchise, was delayed when vandals did quite a bit of damage. I realize that there isn't much to do in Fargo, but that's still uncalled for.

Meanwhile, Fargo head coach Dean Blais hired Jason Herter as an assistant coach, making an all-former Sioux coaching staff. Herter's hire is particularly interesting because one of Blais' biggest coups so far, has been drawing defenseman Garrett Clarke, who played for Herter with the Russell Stover Midget Major team last season. Clarke will be highly sought-after by the QMJHL this summer, and Herter may help keep Clarke on track to play for North Dakota in 2010.

Fargo may be an expansion franchise, but they won't be your typical expansion team. Blais has already worked to assemble a pretty talented crew for the Force's first season. In addition to Clarke, Minnesota recruit Nate Condon, and St. Cloud recruit Bryce Ravndalen will also be playing in Fargo next year, and there have been rumors of Roseau goalie Mike Lee foregoing his senior year to play with the Force.

Frozen Four Semis

Apologies to all the Sioux fans who apparently came here looking for fawning praise of their team's performance today. They got absolutely blown out by Boston College, and there's not a lot of positives to point out.

I will say that the Sioux looked nothing like the North Dakota team that played much of the second half of the regular season. They just happened to hit a rough patch at the wrong time in the season. They were able to get away with it in the regional tournament since they had a pretty easy draw. They ended up beating a team that needed an automatic bid to qualify for the tournament, and squeaked out a win against a team that didn't belong in the tournament. Today, against an opponent of equal ability, they got hammered.

A lot of the problems North Dakota had against Princeton, specifically some defensive breakdowns, happened again today. The difference was that Jean-Philippe Lamoureux wasn't playing well at all today, as opposed to his stellar play in the regional final. North Dakota's powerplay also look completely out of sync this afternoon, which was something they really relied upon against Princeton.

Also, for as anti-Gerbe as I've been all year, he did have a great game today. For what it's worth, I have absolutely no problem with him being on any All-American team, because he's definitely one of the best players in the country. But the fact remains that he's also one of the very few players in the country to draw a non-fighting suspension from his league, which should probably eliminate him from an award where one of the main criteria is on-ice character.

The second game of the day between Notre Dame and Michigan was a great one. It was like a great heavyweight fight where one team would get knocked, then pick themselves up off the mat and deliver a heavy punch of their own. Any game with about 4 huge momentum swings like that is a great one.

Billy Sauer was almost painful to watch for Michigan. It really seemed like he had turned a corner with a solid season, and great play in the regional final. Then he let in three goals, all shots he should have stopped, with each goal getting progressively softer. It was a pretty gutsy move by Red Berenson to switch goalies after the first period, but probably a move that had to be made because of the way Sauer struggled.

You have to give Notre Dame a lot of credit for not panicking after Michigan tied the game in the third period. It's probably a concern that Michigan was able to crawl back into the game after Notre Dame built a big lead, though I thought 3 of Michigan's 4 goals came off lucky bounces for Michigan.

Ryan Thang and Kevin Deeth really played outstanding games for Notre Dame. Notre Dame has some great senior leaders in guys like VanGuilder and Sheahan, but I really think their sophomore class brings a lot of talent and energy to the table, and is a big reason why they've been so good the past two years. On a similar note, Michigan's freshmen line of Matt Rust, Carl Hagelin, and Aaron Palushaj played a great game for Michigan. They bring a lot of effort and intensity every night, and are a big reason why Michigan was, and will be, so successful.

It sets up an interesting final match-up between Notre Dame and Boston College. Notre Dame has beaten BC the last three times these teams have met, including a 7-1 win in Boston last year. Boston College is playing exceptional hockey right now, while Notre Dame just seems to have fate on their side. Hopefully it should be another fast-paced, high-scoring game.

BC Puts Blogging Policy to the Test

So after one period, Boston College leads North Dakota 4-0 in the first NCAA semifinal.

The interesting thing is that if any journalists were live-blogging from Denver, they wouldn't have been allowed to post about all of the goals until the period was over. Everyone with a media pass is required to sign a piece of paper agreeing to the NCAA's live-blogging policy, which says that any live-blog is only allowed 3 posts per period, and one post between periods.

North Dakota News

Grand Forks Herald writer Brad Schlossman has done a pretty good job keeping track of most of the coverage North Dakota has been receiving this past week.

Also according to Schlossman, the Sioux will have many alums in attendance.

The Midwest Regional

And the Midwest Regional

Game 1 #2 Denver vs. #3 Wisconsin

In honor of Wisconsin's historic bid to the tournament, perhaps instead of playing Denver head-to-head, Wisconsin should play Merrimack twice and Colgate once while Denver plays Merrimack once and Colgate four times. Whoever ends up with the best winning percentage should move on in the tournament.

Wisconsin isn't that great. Their sub-.500 record was no fluke. But they'll probably still give Denver a good game. Wisconsin gets the advantage of playing on their home rink, but some of the advantage of playing in Madison will be neutralized with no student section. And it's not like Wisconsin has been that great at home this year anyway.

Denver, on the other hand, is rolling at the right time. Peter Mannino looks like he's back in the groove he was in at the start of the season, and Tyler Ruegsegger is back from injury.

The Pioneers should win their 9th straight tournament game. The Badgers will probably keep it close for a while, but I think Denver will win by at least two goals. Shane Connelly has been decent this year, but I don't know that he's capable of stealing a game for the Badgers, which is what they'd need to win.

Game 2 #1 North Dakota vs. #4 Princeton

Princeton made the tournament because they allegedly won the ECAC tournament last weekend in Albany, but I haven't been able to track down any of the four people there to confirm. North Dakota comes into the tournament after playing probably the best second half of the season in the entire country.

I don't have much hope for the Tigers in this one. They played one game on Olympic-sized ice this season; a 6-1 loss to Minnesota State. As Clarkson has shown in their last two trips out west, playing on wider ice can be difficult for some eastern teams. Princeton's goalie Zane Kalemba is playing out of his mind right now, but even that shouldn't be enough to hold off the onslaught North Dakota will send at him.

The Sioux should be better than Princeton in every aspect of the game, and I'd be surprised if this game even stayed close.

Game 3 #1 North Dakota vs. #2 Denver

This is a rematch of the Final Five semifinal last weekend. Obviously Denver came out on top last weekend, but I think the result will be different this time around. It's tough to pick against Peter Mannino, but I think the Sioux just have more weapons than the Pioneers. North Dakota always seems to make the Frozen Four because they've always got a lot of talent, and are always playing their best at the right time of the year. This should be a close game, one that might not end after 60 minutes, but I expect the Sioux to win.

Addtional Suspensions forTestwuide, Radke

After further review, WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod has suspended Denver's J.P Testwuide for one game, and added another game to the suspension of North Dakota's Kyle Radke for their fight on Saturday night. McLeod said his pretty darn good official, Marco Hunt, "under-called" the incident by not giving each player a game disqualification.

The suspension should be no big deal for North Dakota. Radke will now miss both games of their series against Bemidji State, and really, a harsher penalty might have been forcing them to play Radke.

Testwuide's suspension is a little more serious for Denver. Denver is already down a couple forwards with Brock Trotter leaving for the pros, and Tyler Ruegsegger out with an injury. Without Testwuide and Vossberg, they may struggle to fill four lines on Friday night against Anchorage.

Color Me More Surprised

This is always my favorite weekly segment.

I'm pretty sure Denver is totally at fault here, because North Dakota has been involved in three other fights this year that have resulted in game DQs, and the other team was totally responsible for starting it in every instance. The poor Sioux have to be the unluckiest team in the world.

Most of the blame falls on referee Marco Hunt for allowing Kyle Radke to stay in the game. Radke caught DU's J.P. Testwuide with a nice spear about midway through the second. Testwuide retaliated with a slash, and the two fought. Now common sense would dictate that if two players drop their gloves, take off their helmets, and throw punches, it would be considered a fight. Apparently not though, and that wise decision paid off at the end of the period when Radke came out of the box and picked a fight with Brandon Vossberg to turn some post-period pushing and shoving into another embarrassing fight for the WCHA.

Hakstol Suspended

North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol was suspended for two games by North Dakota today, meaning he won't be behind the bench when North Dakota takes on Denver in two weeks.

The Grand Forks Herald's Brad Schlossman has transcript of Hakstol's press conference today, where he discusses the suspension.

Color Me Surprised

For the first 64:57 of the game between Minnesota and North Dakota tonight, there was a three way tie for most predictable part of the game, between Minnesota not scoring, Don Adam not being able to control a game, and Jean-Philippe Lamoureux taking dives. By the end of the game, they were all battling for second place.

I'm not even sure why I'm reporting this since it barely qualifies as news anymore, but North Dakota was involved in another fight. Back on November 12th, I wrote this: "If somebody had come up to me on Friday afternoon and said, "Hey, there's going to be two huge fights this weekend. Who do you think will start them?" I would have quickly responded with "North Dakota and the Russians"(FWIW, that's also the answer to "Which two teams are run by the Mafia?")."

In retrospect, I was probably a little harsh on the Russians, since it turns out the better answer to that question is North Dakota and North Dakota.

Here is the video.

In the world of college hockey, it's pretty rare for the Gophers to be the lesser of two evils, but somehow, North Dakota has found a way to make it so. It was actually pretty nice to see Tony Lucia give Darcy Zajac a free lesson on how to hit someone face-to-face.

And then North Dakota managed to take it to the next level by starting a fight during the handshake line. I'm hoping the WCHA will review the incident and come back with a suspension for Joe Finley. First off, it's absolutely unacceptable for someone to be starting things during a handshake line. It's just one of those sacred things in hockey. Second, Finley shouldn't receive much leniency from the WCHA, since it is the second time this season Finley will have been involved in an incident.

And finally, North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol made news for making his views on Don Adam public. He's since apologized. I'm a bit more sympathetic towards Hakstol since just about every WCHA has felt that way about Don Adam. Still, Hakstol is probably better off using his words to express that feeling instead of public gestures.