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With respect to Brad Berry's letter to the Herald, he went out the same way that he conducted himself throughout his time at UND: with class in every respect. He is a class act and a credit to UND in every respect.

Lol I don’t remember talking to you?

You guys remember when we held our own against Iowa St, beat #4 Montana, and scored 52 points against Idaho St.? Those were the good ole days. I get there is always things to be working on and be critical of, but man....sit back and appreciate what this team has done so far this season.

I am happy to report to @Wilbur and everyone else that my post-surgical stent comes out tomorrow and I should be back in my seat in REA this weekend. Thank you all for the well-wishes over the past several weeks.

Cyclone fan here. For anyone coming to the game, I'd recommend staying in Ames and ubering to the stadium area on gameday. Just grab a 12 pack, and wander around to various tailgates. People will invite you in and feed you and give you more booze. Almost guarantee it. One thing that's unusual about Ames is that it has two entertainment districts - Campustown and Downtown. Campustown is the mainly student neighborhood that's about 1/2 mile west of the stadium, and just across from the campus to the south. Downtown is the more traditional downtown part of Ames. When ISU started, there were a couple of miles of open prairie between the town of Ames and the college, so Campustown developed as a community that more immediately served the college, and eventually Ames grew enough to swallow the university. So I'll give recs based on the area. CAMPUSTOWN: As you might imagine, these places are far more student friendly. You're going to feel old. You'll also probably have plenty of fun. My two favorite places in this neighborhood are Es Tas and Welch Ave Station (often referred to simply as WAS). Es Tas is a sports bar that has a good beer selection, a bunch of wacky shots, and really good tacos. Rest of the menu (American bar food) is solid too. Welch Ave Station is probably my favorite place in Ames. It has awesome mixed drinks (great Bloody Mary), excellent selection of Iowa beers on tap, and their Inferno Wings (all the food comes from the adjacent Pizza Pit) are my ultimate comfort food. Cafe Beaudelaire has won Iowa's Best Burger in recent years, and has great mixed drinks. Brazilian themed place. Mickey's, Paddy's, etc are super standard college bars. Outlaws is the place for country cover bands and small town girls going nuts. Mother's and Thumb's (a couple of blocks west) are excellent watering holes. Mothers has good live music, and Thumb's is just a classic dive. There are a bunch of food trucks and carts along Welch that sell delicious drunk food. Jeff's Pizza is also a top tier drunk munchy spot. DOWNTOWN: A little classier than Campustown, and you won't feel out of place if you're over 25. Still a lot of fun. For starters, DO NOT go to Hickory Park for BBQ. It's mediocre cue at best. It's a fun place and an Ames staple, but it's more of a place to get a good burger and some ice cream, IMO. If you want BBQ, hit up Cornbred in the old railroad depot downtown. It's some of the best I've had in my life. Sweet Caroline's is a very nice bar/restaurant that has kind of a Southern theme to the food, and plenty of beer on tap. Good place to catch the Friday night games and have a quality meal. Whiskey River and Sportsmen's are classic college town dive bars. Della Viti is a wine bar that my wife loves. Torrent Brewing has some awesome beers, and a fun atmosphere. The Tip Top Lounge is on the edge of downtown, and it's a total dive. You NEED to go there on game day. Great Plains Sauce & Dough is an Ames institution, but I've never been that into it as pizza goes. The Grove Cafe is an excellent breakfast spot. OUTLYING AMES: Alluvial Brewing is way out on the north edge of town, and will make an excellent first stop/welcome to Ames. It's situated on a 20 acre patch of restored tallgrass prairie, and is legitimately one of Iowa's top breweries. They double as an art gallery. It's a truly unique place, and absolutely one you need to check out, especially since many of you are coming from that direction anyhow. Hickory Park is near the south edge of the town on HIghway 69. It's not my thing, but a lot of people feel that it's a must stop. Look up the menus, decide for yourself. GAMEDAY: No matter where you're staying, I'd suggest heading towards downtown by 7AM at the latest. The game kicks at 2:30PM and the Tip Top is going to be open at 6AM selling chili, beer, and Prairie Fires (tequila/tabasco shots). Every time I go to Ames, I Tip Top for at least an hour before heading out tailgating. If you're good with the chili for breakfast, I'd go that route. If you want something more substantial, The Grove Cafe is about 3 blocks from Tip Top. When you leave Tip Top, I'd find beer and then uber down towards Jack Trice. See if you can get dropped off around the intersection of 4th St and University Blvd. It's kind of dead center of tailgate mania. The paved donor lots are right there to your north (between Jack Trice and Hilton) and the public parking (AKA student tailgates) are south of Jack Trice. Like I said earlier, just wander around and have fun. People will invite you in, feed you, give you beer. Midwest hospitality at it's best. Lastly, I'd suggest if you get to town on Friday to take some time to walk around our campus. It's absolutely gorgeous and has won numerous landscape architecture awards. The area around the Memorial Union/Lake Laverne and central Campus around the campanile is iconic. I hope y'all have an incredible time before and after the game.

Not sure whether Dan is more cringe than the local fans that spit thier vile on a donations. Sometimes being a part of this community is embarrassing. Curious if you pathetic wankers would act so rude if you were not anonymous. My apologies to the Mikkelsen family if they are made aware of some of these comments. I appreciate your gift to the University and wish you well.

I have a friend who used to work with Brad at the Herald. I’ve met Brad a couple times but we are not friends. I can tell you that his professionalism as a journalist is of the highest standard. College hockey as a whole is fortunate to have a guy like Brad working as a beat writer.

We need some posters to enter the portal lol

How is everyone doing here? I just thought I would come check to see if it was as bad as our little community on GPL. BTW... Cannot wait to be at The Ralph this fall. We had a great time last time we visited. The staff is always so accommodating and most if the fans are great too. Makes me really look forward to another trip.

Most of us on this board couldn't be bigger fans/supporters of UND athletes. That said, I unfortunately agree with you. I could write a pretty nice check annually (like many on the board), but I just don't see that happening. It feels like ponying up to try to maintain the status quo, with no personal return on investment or societal benefit. This is supposed to be fun and entertaining to take my mind off actual life for a while. My donations will continue to go to local causes that hopefully better the community, not some highly skilled 18-year-old mercenary who doesn't care about UND and is just looking for the highest # as a stopping point along the way to greener pastures. I don't know if I'm in the minority on this, but from my perspective it's sad.

No, he should not. It serves no purpose. When you are privileged to be allowed “inside”, you have an obligation to keep certain things “in the family”. That includes guys like Schlossman, Hennessy, Poolman, team medical staff, locker room staff etc.

Let em walk, they haven’t won !@#$.

Please give me the name of a better college hockey beat writer. I want to follow them on social media like schloss. Go ahead i will wait ....

After today I feel strongly that the program is in good hands.

The Mikkelsons are far from stupid people. Respectfully, you can spend your millions how you like.

It took very little effort to view a replay of Brock’s interview where he explained the cause of his blood clot. He was struck on his calf by a puck which initially caused a superficial clot and subsequently a deep venous thrombosis. What made you think you had the faintest idea what caused his DVT? To post a photo of a different athlete with band aids on his shoulder after a vaccination, is a deliberate attempt to mislead others. Billy Price (former NFL lineman) issued a statement relating his saddle pulmonary embolus was “spontaneous with no medical cause”. Reading something on the side of a bottle like you claim you did is not a substitute for years of training, years of experience, a thorough review of the medical literature and an honest evaluation and discussion regarding risks and benefits of a vaccine . That is why people should make an informed decision after discussing medical recommendations with their physicians. It would be the same as claiming everyone who rides a bike will develop diminished cognitive skills because of one known case where a guy morphed into a pathetic, ignorant moron from riding a bike with his head so far up his ass he has to brush his teeth every time he takes a dump.

Admin, Alumni staff and athletic staff personnel at gatherings in DL Wed, Thur, and tonight. Bubba, FB staff guys, Chaves, Martinson, NIL guys, and Champions club staff did a great presentation at annual FB alumni gathering Sunday/Monday. Lots of excitement about the campus and athletic facility changes. Bubba has been going back and forth between his FB camps and DL this week. Yesterday he said they got 5 commitments out of the 6 guys they offered and the 6th was still considering. I don’t know names etc. but I suspect that will be coming out over next few days. Campus and facility changes are making a difference. These folks are hustling to get the word out. Armacost will be at tonight’s Alumni gathering at Poolman’s on Pelican. They believe UND will have record numbers for incoming freshmen and also record enrollment of over 15,000.

Glad to see all you long timers are still going strong. I think you guys are over thinking it all. Get amazing goaltending and you have a chance. Anything less and you don't. That is what makes the Gophers last two losses in the finals and this year so painful. Goalies had been great right up until they weren't. Every team is going to be put in a bad spot during their tourney run and their goalie has to buy time for the rest of the team to recover. Doesn't matter if it's not fair, do the job. DU should have been bounced by UMass. But they weren't and look at them now. Denver does the best job in the country in the respect that when they have a great team they seem to win it all at a much higher frequency then say when the Gophers have a great team. UMD similar. UND Similar before Hak. Then you guys just became great every year. This is my second 20 year drought between Gophers titles, so it's pretty comical to hear you all complain about 2016. Any least you all didn't lose to QU.

Anyone else sick of this crap? College hockey isn't even college hockey anymore, it's a completely different sport when you aren't recruiting a kid to develop them into the best player/person they can be. You're recruiting your commits, your recruiting other teams' players, your recruiting your own players so they don't leave. It's wild. All of it points to a GM position like Schloss brought up with Chyzyk, a head coach can't possibly keep up with all of it and still find the time to develop a strategy to break UMD's forecheck the following week.

With the current disappointing state of our program, I thought it might do all of us a little good to go back to a great weekend for our program. It was 28 years ago today (January 31, 1997). North Dakota was hosting Minnesota in a key WCHA series at the Old Ralph Engelstad Arena. Both teams were fighting for first place. A buzz built up on campus during the week leading up to the game. People started standing in-line outside the student entrance on the north side of the arena around 1:00pm. People who had cell phones (a new thing back then) had pizzas delivered to them in-line. People would bring firewood with them to put into the trash cans and set them on fire to keep warm (this was the infamous 1996-97 winter preceding the 1997 flood). Gopher fans who were UND students got snowballs thrown at them and were serenaded with "Gophers suck" chants. The fervor built to a fever pitch as we got closer to arena opening time. Inside, the tension and passion was thick enough to cut with a knife. The student section was as rabid as it had been in a long time. Our program was in the process of being resurrected after struggling for several years. Gopher fans considered us nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan who would go back to the bottom of the league sooner rather than later. Twin Cities media personality Dark Star gave a commentary ripping UND's program and history. Our fan base, obviously, took exception to those things. The rivalry was about to be put into overdrive. The games did not disappoint. UND won 6-4 on Friday night and completed the sweep on Saturday night 6-2 behind Jason Blake's hat trick. Blake's third goal sent the arena into total bedlam. The chippiness was evident throughout the weekend with plenty of pushing and shoving after the whistle. It was an extremely satisfying and emotionally exhilarating weekend after all the struggles of previous years. Especially against one of the most arrogant and self-absorbed programs in collegiate sports. Everyone knows what happened next. UND beat the Goofs in OT in the Final Five title game in St. Paul, then went on to win the program's sixth national title in Milwaukee. The rivalry with the Goofs was also raised to a white-hot temperature, where it would stay for years to come. May we go back to those days sooner rather than later. Let's Go Sioux!!!!!

The pick for goalie for the rest of the season is a no brainer. TJ has no skin in UND hockey. Don't think his heart's in it now either. He's bounced around D1 hockey like an unfrozen puck. Hobie wants a starting spot on the team next year. He needs to be the guy.

There is a fire Bubba thread for this conversation and to complain about QB play/reps/etc. This thread is about the transfer portal. It sounds like we are actively looking for a portal QB which is what everyone wanted. Please don’t ruin another thread repeating your complaints about a former coach…again.

I am guessing Bubba is well aware of the fact that nearly the entire fan base is calling for him to be done. Even the football 360 crew, which used to include his brother, has run out of good things to say and are calling for change. His quote is an emotional reaction, albeit not a very smart one, to the pressure he obviously knows is there - and is warranted. There are a lot of things to say about his coaching (which has been said over and over in this blog and which I think is generally accurate) but to say he doesn’t care about his players is not right. The players will tell you that. The problem is he does not recognize his own shortcomings in coaching at this level and changing to a more modern brand of football. At his core, Bubba would still prefer the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust 1970s football he advertised when he first came - and a defensive scheme to stop that which nobody runs anymore. Couple that with an inability to recruit players with body types to play that scheme and here we are. I would love to see Bubba do some soul searching and decide for the sake of his players and the University that he should resign and go to the alumni office. Retire on his own terms rather than have his own personal legacy being canned after a 4 or 5 win season next year. In spite of all of the negativity surrounding Bubba, some of which has been consistently by me, he did help bring us out of the Mussman years. There was improvement in the program and the culture. Unfortunately that improvement had and continues to have a very low ceiling. It is time to move on and I would love to be able to thank Bubba for his contributions to the program as he makes a decision best for himself AND the program and resigns on his own terms. For all his coaching flaws, I continue to believe Bubba is a good guy - just not the right guy for this program. That may be a pipe dream but I am still holding out hope for now…

Stop bringing up former UND people as candidates !!! The inbreeding has to end

I know he was not favored by many on this Forum, but just look at how happy the rest of the team is for him. It appears he's earned their respect if not the posters here.

Didn’t get to watch live but we mauled them to start. That was a glimpse of us having a legit defense for the first time in a long long time. Once that mobile qb got in there it was a nightmare though I do feel we did improve a bit later in the second half. Offensively I think the OC was trying to prove a point on film that will pay dividends in the future. We needed to show that stacking the box isn’t necessarily a good option against us and we did a decent, not great, job at that. Lots of improvement to be had on both sides but I see potential with a very inexperienced team. We will improve a ton over the course of the year. Romfro had some bad moments for sure but he got the job done. Jerry should’ve had 2 full series at the end at least. Bubba does a terrible job getting his backup qbs playing time. Even with romfro needing reps I can’t justify not getting the young guy some very valuable experience. Total joke. We left a lot of meat on the bone today and I hope the team is pissed off about that. We did not look good in the middle of this game and I hope Bubba and company are harping on that all week. It was a partially dominant win but we need to get to that next step mentally where we finish the job and grind them to dust down the stretch. Also, is there a mute button so I don’t have to sift through the keyboard diarrhea on this site?

Hey guys, I've been a lurker on your message board for a number of years now. I finally registered so I can fill out a bracket. I'm a Western Michigan alum. You guys have great college hockey conversations every weekend that I really enjoy following along with during the season. It's been a fun journey to see the respect for my Broncos grow over the years by the North Dakota fanbase. You guys have said a lot of good things about Bump & Fersch this year. Much appreciated. When the Big Ten caused the CCHA/WCHA explosion, I wasn't sure how that would effect my hockey fandom. There were actually Western hockey fans who thought we should've joined the WCHA (now CCHA) instead of the NCHC. I don't think there is any college hockey program that has benefited more by the creation of the NCHC and an invitation than Western. We instantly became the only Michigan school in this elite conference. We no longer had to be little brother to Michigan & Michigan St. I've truly enjoyed becoming a conference rival to all of these new teams...and seeing us leave Miami in the dust. Between our success, Fersch as the HC, and a new arena on the horizon, it's a really fun time to be a fan of Western Michigan hockey. Anyways, just wanted to say hi. I'm sure this will jinx us on Thursday. GO BRONCOS.

Thank you for posting that. I decided to finally put my $ where my mouth is and sign up my business for The Flagship Membership. Just doing my part to try to keep Boisvert/Perron/Emery/James in town for another season.

My thoughts: - I said this week that teams like SDSU and NDSU would not be contemplating if we should win this game, but that it should be a blow out. If we want to be in that conversation, that is what we need to achieve. Mission accomplished (this week, at least)! Still need to keep it rolling, but this is exactly how you should win against Idaho St, after upsetting the #4 team in the country. - No! Romfo is not the most amazing QB to ever play the game. Some of those throws were absolutely horrific. That being said, he still won a blowout game, and his numbers were better than we are used to seeing at UND. ISU was going to shut down the run, which they did for quite a while forcing UND to throw, and it worked. Again, Romfo is not going to be Arch Manning but he did what was needed and certainly improved over the past two weeks; more improvement still needed! @SIOUXFAN97 I get your frustration with wanting a gunslinger and hoping that is Jerry, but your efforts to point out every one of Simon's shortcomings completely ignore many of the positives that have happened. Great at running, has improved week over week. 2-1 with a loss to Iowa St. Upset the Grizz. Dominated Idaho St. ..... I'm not saying he is the answer, but what are you going to say when Jerry gets in and rifles three INTs? Not saying that is going to happen, and I'm pulling for Jerry as much as the next guy. I will say, I thought it was ridiculous to not get Jerry in for the full fourth quarter to get some meaningful reps. I understand that if you think Simon is your guy, you need to get him reps as well, as he is still new to leading the college offense, but the opportunity was there to build depth through experience, and as we have seen over the years, UND coaches did not take it. Should be some opportunities over the next two week, so hopefully there is some consideration of this. - We have a embarrassment of riches at RB right now. Z, Smith, Seidel all look great. Throw Hunt into the mix, as he has certainly made the most of his opportunities both last year and this year. I think you have to find a way to get him on the field as well. Excited to see what Brunell can bring to the group. - Bo is Bo! - Love the defensive pressure! Happy to see Hembry get that INT. - Rucker is a machine and is only going to get better. - I was a little frustrated that we went pass heavy, especially in the second half, but as UNDFootball360 pointed out, they were stacking the box and making it tough to go up the middle. That being said, I thought some of the situational calls were questionable. You can still run up the middle on 3rd and 4 on their half of the field. Get 2 or 3 ... you always have Q to help convert, and we know that is reliable. - Interesting comments questioning why Q isn't our running QB. He is big and slow. Great for a short yardage conversion but isn't going to be a Romfo or Cam Miller type player. He knows his roll, owns it, and does what is asked of him. If there are questions around how we are using him, I'd ask why we don't throw it to him a bit more. - Amazed by some of the complaints on here after we followed up a huge upset, with a dominant win. A win where we left no doubt, but still showed room for improvement. This team has plenty to cleanup, meaning even with the upset and the blowout this week, we aren't even close to our ceiling. - I'm not even close to crowning these guys champions, but they definitely show potential and are intriguing. Is our ranking warranted ... maybe? Too soon to tell. Let's take care of business the next two weeks and head into Fargo with momentum. Defend last year's win and take advantage of a team that, to be honest, got pretty lucky late today. That would have been a huge upset against the Bison, and something they are not used to seeing. Fun season! LFG!

We might have more annoying fans than NDSU

This story just broke today.

I would love to see BU buy their team this year and then either miss the tourney or lose in their first round game.

Chavez has been nothing short of incompetent but having your home grown talent basically give the WBB program and the athletic department the middle finger is inexcusable. The optics of this is the worst thing under Chavez leadership to date

I think this is the most relevant place with hockey being our most significant sport. Prior to Chaves arrival hockey had won a natty in 2016. Volleyball and both basketballs were winning and competing for championships. Football was on the rise. What changed? Enter Bill Chaves. UND athletics is now a laughing stock. There are calls for new head coaches for almost every sport on this forum. Let's start with changing the person who is responsible for the overall decline in sports at UND. Bring in an associate athletic director from a Big Ten program or from a winning culture like SDSU to get us back on track. Long past time for Chaves to be fired.

Chavez really taking the easy way out

Schloss breaks news not just for UND but for college hockey as a whole. As Warren Buffett once said, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation but only a moment to ruin it. Don't expect him to do the latter for gossip.

I’ve never understood how UND (and U of Mn) missed on these 2 guys. If these guys were at UND, I believe we would have easily been in the tournament and Berry would be safe at least for another year. H Slukynsky can carry a team and can win games when the rest of the team isn’t playing well. G Slukynsky is obviously a very good forward who was an outstanding HS player and continues to improve each year. The recruiting decisions need to be made with a vision for the future of the program. Taking an older brother, who you see as maybe a 4th line guy, to improve the chance, if not guarantee, you will get the younger brother makes sense. Maintaining a strong Warroad to UND relationship is another reason to take the older brother, especially when the older brother has demonstrated leadership skills and comes from a winning culture.

Won six straight Stanley Cups in NHL24 and I didn’t even get an interview.

4 articles in the Fargo Forum sports section on NCAA hockey. Not one about UND playing in the regional at Scheels today. That's why a new HC will be named soon.

Years ago, I attended the CC hockey team awards dinner after their season had ended. Sitting at a table with a bunch of the players, I asked them for their quick takes on the other WCHA teams and when I asked about Minnesota, they universally said things like, arrogant, prima donnas, chirpers. When I asked for their take on North Dakota, they all said things like, tough, physical, etc and one guy went so far as to say something to the effect of, UND doesn’t talk much, they just go out there and hit you in the mouth. I loved that! It gave me a sense of pride for UND hockey hearing a bunch of players from another program talk about Sioux hockey that way. I hope we can get back to having that kind of identity.

Hand up, I am officially nervous. I always expected Jax to be interested and for him to be listed as a finalist when the new coach is announced. I still cannot fathom him getting the job logically, but who else is being named? I just keep telling myself, you don't fire Berry with one year left, pay him $500K just to hire his Assistant who you could have just hired a year from now. Need some other rumors though for my sanity.

I am surprised by all the ripping on Schloss he is the best writer in all of college hockey. I am surprised he doesn't go to the athletic and work as a national college reporter. Ì think those on this forum also need to take a deep breath and let schloss process this just like everyone else has to. Can't wait to see who the new coach is , and i personally hope whoever we hire becomes a key contact of Schloss's on day one

Shireen, quit posting.

Kelly is a good friend of mine. I guarantee you that he is a strong UND supporter. No Governor of this state is going to fail to support one of its two largest universities is playing for a national championship. He would have to be an idiot not to do that from a political standpoint. WHEN we get to the point of making it that far, I would not be surprised if Kelly makes the pilgrimage to attend. Kelly has been at our tailgating trailer for UND football many times and I expect will do so in the future - just not during pheasant season…. He goes to Sioux hockey games as well.

Update on my kidney stone situation: I had the post-surgical stent removed yesterday. I am starting to feel normal again after 3+ weeks. Thank you again for all the well-wishes. I may not agree with all of you on things, but the vast majority of you are great people who love UND as much as I do. I am looking forward to the games this weekend.

I've also heard from a very reliable source that Berg is coming back. The very reliable source was him.

I think we have to give a little credit to whomever is putting together all of the F'n hawks football content these days. All of the little clips they are piecing together are really nice Still love the day by day and look forward to it every week I like the Week x threads I like all the locker room clips for halftime adjustments I like the game wrapup video with Jack Michaels Really liked that Donnell Kirkwood 309 rushing yards clips How about that Hunter Pinke fire-up.. still have some goose bumps. IF you dont like that one you dont have a pulse. Im sure Im missing something.. but I love the effort on the content this year.