In reply to: . . . UND finally comes through at UAA by winning on Saturday.  Were any other Sioux fans as dissapointed by this series as much as me? . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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        I watched this game and this is my intrepretation of ND's game (this was the fourth of five consecutive hockey games that we had beginning last Wednesday - so I'm sort of hockeyed out). Mainly, I felt ND played relatively poor defense (rated 20 something). Maybe it's because they focus on offense, but they give up lots of defense. UAA plays essentially a three person defensive game and it's tough to get a clean shot on goal (excepting empty netters and 1 game -- all of our losses have been by one goal). Thus, it's easy for the opposing team to carry the puck past the red line, but thereafter it gets much tougher. Although, much of the game was played in the UAA zone, those beautiful, high speed rushes that ND can readily mount typically turned into mush when they hit the UAA defensive zone. As I remember, at least two of ND's goals resulted from UAA defensive errors (versus a nice clean 'rush' type of play), plus another PP error which gave ND a short-handed goal. UAA doesn't!
 have the offensive skill to compete with most WCHA teams and will never (at least this year) have many shots on goal - so, I think that statistics are relatively meaningless in this kind of a game. Actually, the game results should've been vice versa - i.e. ND winning on Friday and UAA winning on Saturday. In the first period Saturday, UAA scored twice, hit the pipes twice, before ND even seemed to realize they were in a game. Frankly, I think that the scoring ease in that first period lulled UAA into a state of complicity, because they shouldn't get beaten with a 2 goal lead (also if they're behind they will almost always get beaten).
        You were sort of disgusted that ND didn't win both games, but (at least in the past) that hasn't really been very achievable by any team. CC has never swept a series here and, commonly, we haven't had much problem with winning at least one game against ranked teams (like Minn. or Wisconsin). With our new style, etc. I'm not sure what will happen this year, but it has been very tough to sweep here during the previous four years. We do have our nemesis (UMD) like you had in winning up here. Besides the normal home site advantage, that may relate to the international sized ice. I did feel that ND's game (passing and style of rushes) was particularly well suited to a smaller rink, but that's just an impression.
        Overall, I was very impressed with ND's offensive skill and capability. They showed flashes somewhat similar to the Canadian National Team (outstanding passing) and should have a pretty good season. I'm also pleased that we didn't try to "equalize" the game by using the penalty route of disrupting the other teams game. That's very nice and it really makes for a nice, fast, quality hockey game, and few injuries.
        Wishing you the best for the rest of the year, Lowell King
 
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