Dakota Dave

Maybe "Parking" isn't the best place to put this, but folks coming in from out of town and looking for shortcuts or side-routes should know that a lot of roads are closed for one reason or another right now. A wrong turn can add an hour to your drive in no time. For those driving into downtown beyond the X (ie., staying at Hilton Garden Inn, etc.), Cedar, 4th and some others are closed because of light rail construction. And same thing goes for University or Washington Avenues (for those staying at UM or Mpls hotels). Not good options http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/ccorridor/centralcorridor.asp Plus, a favorite detour of folks coming up from Bloomington/35E: Shepard Road, is closed at Eagle...maybe further south by now....due to flooding.

Might be able to stop in for a time before semifinal #1. Does anyone know for sure if this includes adult beverages?

Usually $3-4 to get started, then about $2/mile. To echo what some others said, a good bet would be $25 + tip from Mpls and $30 + tip from Blmtn.

Really? Don't we already have a 4-page self-flagellation going on about how bad other fans are and how persecuted we feel? Have I mistakenly logged into GPL reading about how great the Gopher fans think they are because everyone hates them so much. We don't need to stoop to that level; at least not in two separate threads; and at least not 4 days before the big show. There is this game...its on Thursday...its against Michigan. Anyone hear about it?

The latest forecast is now showing 1 to 2 feet of snow, with freezing rain starting in the Mankato area as early as 5pm tonight. Change your plans and get there early if you can; its going to be a mess. http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2010/12/10/weekend-weather-foot-of-snow-below-zero-temps/

If they are brothers, having two non-twin siblings born within the same year used to be called (before the term was banned by the NCAA as being hostile and abusive?), as having Irish Twins.

I'm travelling from Minneapolis to Bismarck tonight and just saw the update that I-94 has a few inches of water on it at Oriska. We ran into the same problem last Spring and the traffic jam was pretty severe, so I made my own (eastbound) daylight detour south and east, coming back up at Cassleton. It was pretty slick, but unfortunatley, this time I'll be Westbound with a toddler after nightfall , so I'm not feeling like the same risk taker. Maybe we'll just suffer through the slow-down of traffic at Oriska or take whatever detour ND-DOT puts up. But does anyone have any brilliant thoughts on other options, or what it might look like if a guy heads south at Cassleton and back up to I94 at Valley?

Thanks! I'll be trying to pick up as many of those stations as I can; maybe push our leave time to be a little earlier so I can be a ways to the north by game time. As my 20-month old girl says, "Yets Go See-You!"

I'm in the unfortunate situation of driving FROM Minneapolis TO Bismarck on Thursday night. Its a family event I can't miss, but the timing sure bites! Wrongway Feldman, anyone? The toddler's bedtime dictates that we leave Mpls at around the same time the puck drops. I'm hoping to catch the end of the game on KFGO as we approach Fargo (which could be a treat in itelf as we hopefully don't encounter too many flooding detours), but does anyone know or have ideas of St. Cloud or Alex stations that might be broadcasting the play-in game? Or points of contact at UND Athletics or WCHA that might have a list of broadcasters? I'm searching the internets and not having too much luck as of yet. Maybe I'll try UMD athletics too.

Good luck to you in that mess! My lil bro and I will cover your left on Saturday...from a section or two away...so don't expect much more than a distant 'Hey...leave that guy alone' from us! We've been lucky enough to be at the Hoochie for Trupp's goal and to have been 20 rows over Frazee's right shoulder to watch Bina's goal come from all the way down the ice. It would be great to see Frattin put one in...maybe even to give us another memorable knock-out punch like those other two!

I had to draw the line after too many years of the same old. Whenever someone makes a comment in any way supportive about fighting, remember that DaveK disagrees with it, and you'll be just fine. I don't think its disrespectful to him ... he made his point ... I just don't want to read it 16 times per thread. Now I'm going to stop posting because I'm getting sucked into the abyss.

Dont' even joke. I finally broke down and figured out/applied the Ignore command and was worried I was going to have to expand it beyond one user if Goon hadn't pulled back from the brink of insanity a moment ago.

I haven't posted for almost a year--but that one's enough to bring me back! Thanks. Now excuse me while I wash the coffee and spit off my screen.

Victory Tanked? Maybe so, but Carl's crying all the way to his bank. Sure it would've worked out better for him if they would've come to a deal--and he did spend around 10 million to start up/run Victory--but it was a win-win. He got FSN to double the amount it was paying for Twins from 6 mill to 12 mill per season for 8 seasons. Who's to say what they would've paid absent Victory's existence, but love him or hate him, you can see how Carl made his millions--he just increased his profit margin by a cool, gross of $ 48 million---BY FAILING.

I stayed up and watched the finish. Hatcher was coming across the Flames blueline with his head down. Whistle blows the play offside about a half second before Commie finishes a check on Hatcher. Not a huge hit, but solid...puts Hatcher down to the ice immediately. The crowd roars and if I'm not mistaken, begins chanting 'Com-mo-dore, Com-mo-dore' for about 30 seconds! I think the winning goal came about 2 minutes later.

Making sure I get my full 60 cents worth...the Telegram/Gazette recap was complimentary of the Sioux, Parise, Bochenski, and Murray, as well as HC's defensive plan and Quesada. "With about five minutes left in the second period we were thinking if we can get to the third period within a goal, but that's where Hobey Baker players take over the game," Pearl said. "Bochenski had a beautiful one-timer and that put us a little further back than we might have had the ability to get back on a team like that." But even a more intereting article followed: Cats fish for playoffs with Pohl. Johnny Pohl assisted on both goals in the 2-1 win, but then nearly blew the game for the IceCats in OT. From the sounds of it, his assist with a few minutes to go on goal #2, coming from behind the net and fed to the goal mouth might've gotten the opposing coaches attention. While Pohl was the game's No. 1 star and did play very strongly, he wound up being called for a crucial penalty in overtime. The IceCats had just gone on a power play and Wolf Pack goalie Jason LaBarbera made a great save on Mike Glumac at 4:07. The Hartford bench asked for a measurement on Pohl's stick and it flunked. End of power play. The teams finished the night skating 3 on 3 and nobody scored. "We got that point (last night)," Worcester coach Don Granato said, "because John Pohl made a great play on the tying goal. Then, he made a mistake, and it's a mistake he will hopefully learn from, and his teammates will learn from." DOH!

I was trying to get to that Panzer article yesterday, but thought I'd wait for more articles to be published today before paying my $ .60. The articles are interesting but nothing too special. Here is a brief description/exerpts: Panzer article: Classy guy as always...talked about how the teams are hard to compare b/c they lack common opponents (reporter notes that UND beat Concordia 7-1, while HC beat Concordia 3-2 in a tourney shoot-out), but HC is certainly an underdog. Talks about Sioux being seasoned in tourney play so should be relaxed and focused rather than overlooking teams/HC. Panzer said six goals sounds like a reasonable margin, and added that if his alma mater dominates as much as expected, it won't try and roll up the score. . . . . "You never know what will happen in a one-game series," Panzer, a native of North Dakota, said, "but Holy Cross is the underdog by far. You'd have to look at them and say they're overmatched. Sioux Article: Storyline includes: a discussion about UND's history and current season; mention of Ryan Hale/David Hale/Devils connection; Blais and Bo not overlooking HC; HC perspective about having no pressure on themselves vs. Sioux feeling pressure as #1 and after early exit last year; comments about HC having some experience on big ice. "This becomes the most important game I've ever played in," said junior forward Brandon Bochenski, one of UND's two Hobey Baker Award finalists. "We want to win this game and go from there." UND coach Dean Blais said he hasn't watched any tape of Holy Cross in preparation for tonight's game. "We know nothing about them," said Blais, in his 10th year at North Dakota. "At this time of year, it doesn't matter. We know that we have to play well. We have to execute no matter who we play. We plan on playing the game that got us here. Our goal is to get to Boston (site of Frozen Four). Two wins, and we're there."