February 12, 2011

A Convincing Win

Lately, the Sioux have struggled in the Friday night games of their series, dropping the last 3 Friday games and only earning splits in their series.

That changed last night in convincing fashion.

Jumping out to an early 3-0 lead, the Sioux cruised to a 6-1 victory behind 21 saves from Aaron Dell and scoring spread out amongst the team, with 6 different players finding the back of the net. The boys were able to put the distraction of Danny Kristo's frostbite behind them and Chay's unfortunate injury. As Hak said, "We've had guys out of the lineup all year. We're not shorthanded." That's what I thought as guys who you hope would step up in this situation did.

Take Derek Forbort. He was a 15th overall pick in the NHL draft; a big kid who I expected to find enormous success in the WCHA. He hasn't had a bad season, but it's not like he's shattering teams out there. Last night, he was the key setup guy on two goals. His shot from the point was deflected in by Mario Lamoureux for the third goal of the game, and he centered the puck to Gregoire who tapped in the 4th goal. He made plays when necessary last night, stepping up in a big way.

Aaron Dell, who in my opinion has fallen back to earth in recent weeks, looked as sharp as ever, making some big saves and not allowing UAA back into the game. A game like that can give a goalie ridiculous confidence and show his team that if they can't sustain great offense, he can keep them in the game. Aaron Dell, unlike Eidsness, has proven time and again he can shut out an opposing team. And I think his confidence will be highly restored after last night.

As for UAA, they remain tied for 6th in the WCHA, so they can still make up some points tonight. They will come out feisty tonight, and it's important for the Sioux to capitalize again.

One interesting stat pointed out by Schloss is that the Sioux have scored 6 goals in their past two games, and in both games, no player had a multi-goal game. It just shows you the diversity of scoring this team can have.

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