Wilbur

He has been tremendous the entire postseason.....hell, he's been tremendous the entire season. There were a couple of instances today where Denver could have taken the lead early in the second period and he was fantastic. He also made two great saves to keep the game 3-1 early in the third when Frattin messed around too much with the puck. Just a calm steady presence in the net. Giving a good team consistently great goaltending. A lot is said about Frattin, Genoway, Kristo, Gregoire, etc. But Dell is the team MVP in my book.

Come on Deano! Get the boys fired up to take down the big blue (lead by Red) I whined to my wife for a good hour and a half about Duluth's road to the F4. Talk about an easy trip......Yale will not impress me until they end up at the frozen four. Until then they got lucky that the NCAA and the pairwise rankings thought they were the best team in the country after playing no quality teams.

That video with the Western Michigan players put a tear in my eye. Makes you step back and realize that when push comes to shove its just a game. And the sun will come up if the Sioux win or lose. It may be a little cloudy on Monday though if they don't get to St. Paul....

The area where BC has killed UND in the past has been special teams play. That and that d@mn Gerbe..... I'll call a spade a spade, the Sioux have a tough road to the frozen four. They'll have to play extremely well to get back to St. Paul.

With what has happened the past two years in the postseason it is unacceptable for UND to look past RPI. You look at the seniors on this team, the guys who have been through the battles, etc....I just can't see the Sioux not putting 100% focus into beating RPI. Its tough to believe we are counting down the days for the careers of Trupp, Genoway, Frattin, Malone, Davidson.....Those guys come in as highly regarded Freshman, and before you know it they're gone....

That East Regional is unacceptable. And hopefully does not happen. Send any of those teams to any other regional and they wouldn't win a game (yes, including Yale). It still makes no sense to me as to why Yale is the number one team in the pairwise.

A good point. I think someone said it here a couple of posts ago, but people around the Minnesota program HATE John Hill. I guess I'll plead ignorance as to why so many people dislike the guy. He did have some success at Anchorage, but I can't believe the fall of the program gets associated with him a lot of the time. Potulny is basically the players coach in the equation. The former player that a lot of the current guys can relate to and in turn he can relate back to. I just can't believe that some sort of a change isn't coming. A lot of boosters give a lot of money to the U of M, and you'd think if they were able to axe Brewer, they'd be able to get Lucia out the door as well. Gopher fans will always beat their chests about back to back, but at the same time they've started a 3-peat that needs to be addressed.

Here's a thought. Gino Gasparini was a great coach for the Sioux that won his national championships and was the most important man in Grand Forks while recruiting and coaching great hockey teams. Years later the Sioux are down in the dumps, getting swept at home often during the season, and get some talent that doesn't mesh well and doesn't get the job done. Out goes Gino, in comes Blais with some energy, and two years later, champs. Are we seeing the same thing happening with the gopher program with Lucia that we saw with the Sioux with Gino? The guy has won his national titles, but now has he lost his edge and his desire to win? I mean every coach has a bad season, but I see the Gino and Lucia living kind of the same story. This is just a thought, and opinion. I know they are two completely different coaches. But I thought about this for a while last night....

I'm just glad I won't have to see that stupid gopher.....thank God...... And the bars won't be horribly filled with Vanek jerseys......and back to back sweaters. I was kind of looking forward to Minnesota being in the Final Five and meeting the sioux on Friday night. Either way, the Sioux play Friday night! YES!!!!!!!

Noticed that too. I'm betting that Rodwell is dinged up. Surprised though we don't see Cichy in that spot....

No way, Bison fans on a Sioux board trying to rain on a bit of a victory parade....

SIOUX YEAH YEAH! Let the bickering begin from the people that say there are bigger issues out there than the Sioux name.

Who do they play next?

Whats disappointing to me is the fact that some of the players that the media voted for as first team guys didn't even make the 3rd team. Like one of the guys had Sam Brittain as the first team all WCHA goalie..... Pretty fair selections though, I agree with 90% of the picks.

That gopher can do whatever he or she wants. A couple of years ago I saw the squirrel shove a Duluth fan from behind at the final five (while Minnesota fans gave the squirrel a round of applause). It happened right by security personnel, but nothing happened, as per the usual.

This story is noted. The next time that stupid squirrel is around me and bugs me I'll expect to have him removed from the facility.

I like listening to Ciskie on the radio, and his blog is pretty interesting, but absolutely agree. Thats 100% picking with your heart. Then again, the Denver guy put Drew Shore as a first team forward. The only one to have him even close to there.

Completely agree. For a defenseman an important stat is plus-minus. Blood leads the league for defensemen in plus minus and gets no recognition. He won't kill you with his offensive skills, but who would you rather have killing a penalty? Blood or Schultz? I agree you would rather have a guy like Schultz on the powerplay, but its supposed to be a defensive award. I would love to see Tim Hennessy's ballot. I hope he wouldn't have three UND forwards, and two UND defensemen with Dell in the net.

I just read some of the ALL WCHA teams that some of the media members around the league published and Brad posted on his blog...... All I have to say for some of them is....wtf.....How does Frattin not end up as a first team forward on some of their teams? How does Blood not even make some third teams? I do appreciate those guys publishing their votes though. Even though you can tell there is some biased voting involved.

I agree with you sir. Beating Anchorage twice shouldn't guarantee that you make the NCAA tournament. No way. I see the Thursday night game between Duluth and Minnesota as being must win for Minnesota. If they beat Duluth, and then North Dakota, I think the ticket may be punched.

I hope you are right. I hope you also have a couple good games this weekend, no way that Tech can skate with you.

I agree with what someone posted earlier here. One of these games will likely be a close hockey game. Look back to the last three times we played Tech in the playoffs on a Saturday night. ~The Parise group ends up going to OT on Saturday (actually trailed 3-1 in the game before they came back in the third period). ~Phil Lamoureax and company end up losing a 2-0 lead, getting scored on late to tie the game, and lose in OT. Then the Sunday game went down to the very end. ~2009, the Sioux win big in game number one, but hold on for dear life in the third period on Saturday, and escape with a 4-3 win. I say it as a coach all the time. Its tough to end a team's season. Especially a team that has absolutely nothing to lose, and is supposed to have their season ended.

All WCHA First Team: F-Frattin F-Zucker F-Jack Connolly D-Ben Blood D-Justin Schultz G-Dell POY-Frattin ROY-Zucker Coach of the Year: ~Dean Blais

I had to laugh last night when a BSU player came over and tried to hit him after Cepis slashed Bakala. As soon as the BSU player put his arms up Cepis went down like he got shot from behind, and jumped right up when the gophers got the power play. I wondered who the next Robbie Earl would be. Guess we found him!

The Sioux stay alive. BC beats Northeastern 3-1. Its all up to the committee now as the pairwise remains Dartmouth 8 and UND 9.