Coach Dave Hakstol said the flu bug has bitten the Sioux again this week, but the staff hopes everyone (other than Brad Malone) will be available come Friday night.

Everyone was at practice Wednesday. That includes Malone, who resumed skating this week with the team. He participated in a few drills at the start of practice Tuesday and skated with the yellow no-hit jersey on Wednesday, too.

"He’s had some good progress, I’ll say that," Hakstol said. "It’s been a good week for him. He’s still a few weeks away, though."

There has been a slight modification on the blog comment section. Now, you have to type two words that appear before submitting comments. It’s an effort to try to get rid of the spam that has started to cross this site. Hopefully it works and it’s not too much of a pain.

Here are a few stories from other sources to check out…

ESPN’s John Buccigross hosts a Q&A with Jonathan Toews here. Apparently Toews is past the slow starts because he has a point in every NHL game he’s played in so far.

Feature on Zach Parise here.

Story on Brandon Bochenski here. Is it his time to find a spot in the Boston lineup?

Story on Mike Prpich’s adventure to get overseas here.

Story on recruit Brett Bruneteau here.

Q&A with recruit Danny Kristo here.

And in other news, two all-star teams have been picked from the Elite Hockey League and will compete in a tournament in New Hope against some of the top midget programs in the country. Sioux recruits Joe Gleason and Danny Mattson will be playing in the tournament for one of the Elite all-star teams.

Other notable players on the Elite all-star team include Red River’s Ryan LaDouceur and Eric Meland, Roseau’s Aaron Ness and Warroad’s Bryce Ravndalen.

Since Shattuck-St. Mary’s also is in the tournament, Sioux recruit David Toews will be playing as well.

A few college hockey reporters discussed how a matchup between Miami and UND would turn out.

The Redhawks and Sioux seem to be two of the top teams in the nation. They are ranked 1-2 in one national poll and 1-3 in the other.

The last time Miami and UND played it was the opening of the 2005-06 season in Dayton, Ohio. Miami outplayed UND, but Jordan Parise stole the game for the Sioux, who won 3-0 with an empty-netter.

Certainly, a rematch would be a great game.

Read the CSTV Writers’ Roundtable discussion here.

For the first time this season, a UND player has earned a weekly honor. T.J. Oshie is the WCHA offensive player of the week, the league announced today.

Oshie had a hat trick in Saturday’s 6-0 win and reached the century mark in career points. On Friday night, Oshie had seven shots on goal, despite not registering any points.

Oshie has two game-winning goals this season now and 13 for his career. That puts him third all-time alongside Lee Goren and Cary Eades. Oshie trails only Brandon Bochenski (15) and Mark Taylor (18).

UND players in weekly honors:
Oct. 30 — T.J. Oshie, WCHA offensive player of the week

Last week was an emotional one for coach Jamie Russell and the Michigan Tech Huskies.

Russell missed practice all week prior to facing the Sioux because his nine-year-old son fell ill and had to be med-evacted to Milwaukee. Russell was in Milwaukee throughout week and returned to Houghton on Friday after his son showed some improvement.

In an e-mail to alumns and friends of the program, Russell said he hoped the Huskies would win Friday night’s game for his son (who was going to try to listen to it) and after they did, captain Jimmy Kerr gave the game puck to Russell to deliver to his son.

It sounds like Russell is back in Milwaukee – he said he hopes to be back in Houghton later this week or else he will meet the team in Madison for their two-game series with Wisconsin.

The play mirrored itself both nights but the scores were drastically different. UND lost 3-1 to Michigan Tech on Friday night and earned the split with a 6-0 win Saturday. As expected, Miami took over the No. 1 ranking today. Looking back at the weekend:

Offense: B. The results weren’t good enough Friday night. They were plenty good enough Saturday.

Defense: A. The Sioux allowed almost nothing five-on-five. It got to the point where Tech fans were getting loud when the Huskies came in the zone two-on-two. Tech isn’t exactly known for lighting up the scoreboard, though.

Goaltending: A. Jean-Philippe finally allowed a goal, but he played well enough for UND to get a couple of wins. He had a few standout saves both games, especially when the Sioux were shorthanded. His four shutouts lead the country.

Penalty killing: A+. UND was shorthanded quite a bit this weekend and did a good job killing penalties. Tech had seven power plays Saturday, including a lengthy five-on-three. The Huskies barely even generated a scoring chance off of those power plays. After the game, a couple of players said that Dane Jackson held a meeting before the game to go over some things Tech was trying to do on the power play. The players said it was greatly beneficial.

Atmosphere: A. There weren’t 3,000 in the building either night, but those who were there provided a lot of noise. And it didn’t matter what the score was to the fans. Down six goals in the third period Saturday, they were still into the game like it was tied. I’ve never seen that before. They are probably the loudest group of 2,500 outside of Bemidji.

Cab rides: B. No accidents this time. No going 20 miles in the wrong direction. No running out of gas. The cabs are pretty cheap, too. Well, that’s if they come. On Friday night, despite a couple of reminder calls, the cab never came to take me to the game. Good thing Al Pearson and his crew were staying at my hotel and were nice enough to give me a lift on the bus.

UND dropped to No. 2 in the USCHO.com poll and No. 3 in the USA Today poll, which both were released today. The Sioux are still receiving first-place votes in both polls.

The WCHA takes up half of the top 10 in both polls.

USCHO:

1. Miami (39)
2. UND (4)
3. Michigan
4. New Hampshire (3)
5. Boston College
6. Michigan State
7. Denver
8. Minnesota
9. Colorado College
10. Wisconsin
11. Clarkson
12. Maine
13. Michigan Tech
14. Notre Dame
15. Minnesota-Duluth
16. St. Lawrence
17. RPI
18. Niagara
19. St. Cloud State
20. Massachusetts

USA Today:

1. Miami (30)
2. Michigan
3. UND (2)
4. New Hampshire (2)
5. Boston College
6. Michigan State
7. Denver
8. Minnesota
9. Wisconsin
10. Colorado College
11. Clarkson
12. Maine
13. Notre Dame
14. Michigan Tech
15. Minnesota-Duluth

For those who weren’t in Houghton or couldn’t catch the webcast, maybe the shot charts will help tell some more of the story to the games this weekend. It certainly illustrates the pressure UND put on during the third period Friday night.

Friday night’s shot charts:

First period

Second period

Third period

Saturday night’s shot charts:

First period

Second period

Third period

First period

UND 1, Michigan Tech 0 – T.J. Oshie (Robbie Bina, Taylor Chorney) 5:42 (pp). The defensemen moved it around to Oshie, who was stationed near the goal line, below the left circle. Oshie held the puck for a second and didn’t appear to get all of it, but he snuck it by Nolan anyway. It’s a five-on-three power-play goal.

UND 2, Michigan Tech 0 — Chris VandeVelde (Ryan Duncan) 10:28. Duncan creates a turnover and gives the puck to VandeVelde high in the slot. As VandeVelde is being hauled down, he launches a shot that beats Nolan glove side. Not even sure VandeVelde saw it go in.

Notes: Forney comes close to scoring his first-career goal midway through the period. He had a chance from the low slot, batted the puck out of the air, but it went just wide. . . .UND spends the last part of the period killing penalties. Tech was scheduled to have a 5-on-3 for more than two minutes because of a roughing penalty by Lamoureux, but Shelast took an interference penalty to nullify most of it.

Second period

UND 3, Michigan Tech 0 — T.J. Oshie (Ryan Duncan, Chris VandeVelde) 6:08. After a strong shift, Duncan makes a brilliant feed from the left circle to the other side of the crease, where Oshie directs it in for a picture-perfect goal. The goal gives Oshie his 100th career point.

UND 4, Michigan Tech 0 — T.J. Oshie (Robbie Bina, Ryan Duncan) 13:54 (pp). Robbie’s shot from the point took a long rebound off the back boards. Oshie one-timed it past Nolan on the short side for the hat trick.

UND 5, Michigan Tech 0 — Matt Frattin (Matt Watkins) 16:17. Watkins made a nice pass to send Frattin with speed down the right wing. Frattin unleashes his wrist shot just inside the top right corner of the net.

UND 6, Michigan Tech 0 — Andrew Kozek (Chay Genoway) 19:41 (pp). Genoway skated the puck from coast to coast and left a drop pass for Kozek in the high slot. Kozek beat Nolan low to the stick side for yet another goal against the Huskies (7 of his 16 career goals are against Tech).

Third period

No scoring.

UND’s lines (in black)

16 Ryan Duncan–29 Chris VandeVelde–7 T.J. Oshie
20 Matt Watkins–17 Rylan Kaip–21 Matt Frattin
10 Andrew Kozek–11 Darcy Zajac–14 Brad Miller
19 Evan Trupp–8 Ryan Martens–18 Michael Forney

2 Joe Finley–28 Robbie Bina
4 Taylor Chorney–5 Chay Genoway
6 Zach Jones–3 Derrick LaPoint

1 Phil Lamoureux
30 Aaron Walski

Michigan Tech’s lines

22 Jordan Baker–14 Peter Rouleau–23 Tyler Shelast
11 Jordan Foote–15 Eric Kattelus–19 Jimmy Kerr
27 Justin St. Louis–13 Ryan Angelow–21 Ryan Bunger
16 Bennett Royer–18 Alex Gagne–9 Malcolm Gwilliam

10 John Schwarz–12 Geoff Kinrade
4 Mark Malekoff–5 Drew Dobson
20 Eli Vlaisavljevich–8 Mike VanWagner

37 Rob Nolan
29 Michael-Lee Teslak

So there is a new shutout leader on campus.

Jean-Philippe Lamoureux’s shutout string ended today at a pretty amazing 188:50 — the second-longest mark in school history. Only now Lamoureux is getting one-upped.

Sioux women’s goaltender Brittany Kirkham posted her third straight shutout, a 0-0 tie with Ohio State tonight. Kirkham had to make 36 saves tonight. Her shutout streak is now at 196:02.