sprig

Does anyone know how tiebreakers are handled, if there is more than a two way tie. Assume two way is head to head.

Sure hope the last game (Saturday) has implications for both teams, since we'll be there with a kids hockey team. Would like to see both teams playing hard. Big win last night but big loss Friday night. Can't believe UAA swept CC.

Once again the Sioux lost the special teams battle, resulting in a loss. Sounded like two fairly evenly matched teams. Got to find the net on the PP tonight.

Have to agree. Sixth a definite goal if 5 can't be reached. Very small chance of 7 through 10 reaching the Final Five, although it would be nice to knock out the Gophs.

Brandt was apparently in net for two periods. Blais said he made the change to shake up the team, apparently they did not have a real good second period (don't know, only heard part of the third). Might have been good to go into the third tied, rather than with a one or two goal lead based on what has happened to other third period leads this year. Nice to get a sweep at home at any rate. Duluth will not be an easy weekend, but need to sweep to have any chance of moving up in the standings. Things went about as well as one could hope with teams above the Sioux losing this weekend. Fifth is not out of the question but the next two weekends are tough ones.

Just got back from the Grand Cities. What a nasty dirt storm on Monday. Brought back bad memories from the 70's. Guess the RRV farmers will never leave any cover on that soil. Think I sprouted a sugar beet from each nostril today. Wish I could have stuck around for the weekend since tickets will no doubt be available. Didn't try but can one get into the REA to look around on a week day??? Will be back the weekend Denver is there (for kids hockey). Think there is any chance there will be left over student tickets for those games?

I agree, Fylling was one of the best forwards on the ice. And Sedivie was solid.

Last night was the toughest to take, especially since it was the Goofs. In all games starting with the GLI in which the Sioux looked good until the third, this was the game they looked the best. Super forechecking, great transition, short, crisp passes breaking out; could have been any one of the last four Sioux teams, every bit as good as any of them. Don't agree with Goph fans saying they (the goofs) played like crap until the third; the Sioux caused the bad play, goofs were trying as hard as they did in the third but just couldn't get anywhere against the solid checking all over the ice. All of which makes another third period cave in harder to take. Don't remember how many of those third periods there have been now but it started in the GLI (although both games were won in OT), or was it before that? Hope last night was the last. Think the goofs would prefer not to play us in the post season, although I don't expect the Sioux to be in the final five no matter who they play. Hope I'm wrong.

Have no idea why the Sioux turn soft with leads in the third, but hope they figure it out by next year. As for back-checking, when you don't leave your own end, not even when the puck does, there is no one outside your own end to back check. Goph end through neutral ice looked like a practice session since no opponent was there, only Gopher players.

Sioux played great when whey were aggressive and checking gophs all over the ice. Once again, the third period prevent kills them. Gophers totally uncontested from their own end to the Sioux blue line for the last 10 minutes, resulting in three goals. Sioux still can't play third period with a lead, their biggest downfall in games where they've played hard and got the lead. Maybe by next year. The icing should have been waived well before the linesemen had to make a decision whether it was touched by the goph D before it crossed the goal line. The d man definitely slowed up to try and let it get to the goal line, which should have been an instant waveoff. Riddle's dragging down the Sioux dman (don't know who it was) from behind to free up the puck then led to the GWG. Game was lost long before that, however, when the Sioux decided to play the prevent in their own end.

My favorites right now are CC and Denver from the WCHA; UNH and Maine from the HE. 20/1 on Maine are nice odds. Minnie doesn't play well enough in their own end to be rated that high. Not likely that they'll get every game with lots of PP's, which makes them a long shot at best.

Nice to see the UMD win; too bad they couldn't sweep. Just can't get into a PP game with the gophs. If you can keep it 5 on 5 any team's chances are good. They live and die with the PP. FWS insists on squeezing 40 hours of training into 4 and a half days. Just not 40 hours worth of light in AZ for that amount of time.

Having spent the last week in AZ, was nice to come home to a sweep. Maybe I should leave again next weekend

WDAZ gave Brandt the "player of the game" award on Saturday, so he must have looked sharp. Saw periods 2 (part of) and 3 on the tube, but couldn't really tell what was going on from that "distant" camera, "wide angle" shot CC gave us. Extremely slow, unskilled looking game on the huge ice surface. Camera work was terrible though, and contributed to the bad looking game. Glad the games in the REA are played on an NHL sized rink.

Well, the Maine game is back for what, one would hope, is its final appearence before the new site kicks in tomorrow. Might be hard to root this file out of the archives, however. Expect those strange "characters" that are in the Maine box score and appear frequently in other links will be there for a long time to come.

Listened to the game up to CC's second goal. Sioux took it to em after the first goal (period 1) and the second goal (period 2). CC's second goal was reported as a softie.

The Herald will launch their newly designed web site on Sunday, the 20th.

Coach the Gophs. You've got to be kidding.

Big building, but not big ice. Just the standard NHL size rink, like the old REA. Speed may not be what it was, but speed is relative; accurate short passes (and a few bombs) through the neutral zone make things appear much faster. Not quite there yet with this Sioux team. (Edited by sprig at 10:15 am on Jan. 12, 2002)

Blais unhappy with the forechecking effort. Couldn't execute passes. Blais unhappy with fans booing the team also. Not a happy camper. Blais said practices were awful this week leading to an awful game. Good effort by UAA; made the trap work. Bet dagies isn't too happy about traveling all the way to see that effort. (Edited by sprig at 10:06 pm on Jan. 11, 2002)