Some observations from yesterday's game (yes, I did see it).
1) For most of the game, I thought Gothberg played really well. Maybe some big saves and allowed North Dakota to stay in the game. It looked like he let up a little in the latter stages of the game, but overall I thought he played really well.
2) IMO, MacMillan is one of the team's most consistent players. Even if he isn't posting any points, he's working his tail off and his hard work has paid off. If he isn't putting up points, MacMillan is at least making things happen.
3) I like the fact that Kristo has finally picked up his game. And Dakota I'm not sure if you're noticing it too, but it seems to give the team a bit more of a lift when he's playing at the top of his game.
4) While I thought the defense played well, they also made some mistakes that, in one instance, burned them. One glaring mistake I noticed was an errant pass by Simpson (I believe it was). Instead of just shooting the puck to the boards, he decided to try and make a pass in the middle of ice and the Notre Dame player (I believe it was Jeff Costello) read it perfectly and intercepted it. That just can't happen on a regular basis. Teams like Minnesota will just eat North Dakota alive if they do.
This weekend's series was a very good test for North Dakota. Going up against a defensively methodical team like Notre Dame will make them better going forward and hopefully will enable the team to correct their mistakes and learn from them. I don't think CC will be quite as big of a test, but I also won't count out the Tigers either, especially in the Springs. The big thing for UND will be in trying to slow down CC and limit their scoring chances. If they do that, they can certainly get at least a split out of the series.