Wilbur

GREAT NEWS! Lets hope the senate has the same amount of backbone as the house! One of the 28 no votes is a rep from my district. Congrats on never getting my vote ever again....

Can you buy tickets now for just the championship game if you want to? Or do those go on sale after the regionals?

Thanks for the heads up everyone, greatly appreciated! I don't think Minnesota will be playing in the F4, but would obviously love to see the XCEL energy center in a green out situation with the Sioux playing against someone like Yale (revenge). Or, if the Sioux don't make it I'll show up and just watch some hockey.

Yeah, no bounces at all on this one. Looked to me like he had a rough time picking up the puck. Funny how this play leads to Denver getting the two goal lead and winning the hockey game, instead of Tech possibly tying the game on the power play. This play basically decided the game.

Might be a stupid question....but...to those who have been to the F4 before is it possible to scalp tickets before the championship game, or I should say are there a good number of scalpers selling tickets? I'm a teacher and I'm using up all of my personal days for the final five (do every year). No chance for me to be there for the Thursday hockey games, but at the same time it'd be nice to go the championship regardless of who is playing in the game as I only live about 2 and a half hours away from St. Paul. Thanks for any info!

Agreed 100%. It is very likely that the Tech Huskies will be coming to Grand Forks unless we see a major meltdown. I think its nice that they could be playing them four times in a row in different locations. The last time they had them four times in a row at the Ralph you could tell that the Saturday letdown was coming. Luckily they were able to get over that in the third period and win the hockey game in OT.

State Tournament Pairings: (#1 West) Bismarck Century vs. (#4 East) Grand Forks Central (#2 East) Grafton Park River vs. (#3 West) Bismarck High School (#1 East) Grand Forks Red River vs. (#4 West) Jamestown (#2 West) Minot vs. (#3 East) West Fargo

Huge three points for the sioux! Half way through the final 8 game stretch of the year with a 3-0-1 record. The ball is 100% in their court to win the WCHA league championship. Get a sweep against the Beavs next weekend, and then close it out in Houghton.

Now 3-0 Grafton in the third period. Tomorrow's matchups in the EDC: Davies vs. Devils Lake North vs. South (what a great loser out game this will be) Red River vs. Central (what a great win and in game) West Fargo vs. Grafton (another great hockey game) Tomorrow's matchups in the WDA: Dickinson vs. Jamestown Bottineau vs. Hazen Bismarck High vs. Bismarck Century Mandan vs. Minot

Last I heard Grafton was up 1-0 on North in the third.

Another EDC Score: West Fargo 6 Fargo South/Shanley 3 Another WDA Score: Minot 10 Hazen 1

West Region: Century 12 Dickinson 2 Bismarck High 9 Jamestown 2

I was more pissed about being called "North Dakota State", and having other hockey fans at the WCHA Final Five tell me that it wasn't that big of a deal..... I don't care what the tickets look like, as long as I have them. PS: If Minnesota and Wisconsin leave that means that it would probably go back to being the old final five system with a third place game. I like the new system. Lose and you go home!

Prayers definitely go out to his wife and children. As a fellow high school coach in the state of North Dakota he was always kind and very easy to talk to. I knew that his health wasn't the best, and its extremely unfortunate that he went so young.

At least he's gotten away from blatant cheap shots to the heads of players........Marvin is a thug. But the WCHA will only give him a game suspension or warning, and move on from there.

I'm really not sure if Eidsness will get in the net again this season, unless (knock on wood) Dell gets hurt. Six league games remaining with every one of them extremely important for the Sioux if they want to win the league. Hakstol rolled Eids from January through the end of the year last season, I don't see him taking Dell out any time soon.

Something a bit overlooked was the fact that Aaron Dell won his 20th hockey game with the victory over Anchorage on Saturday. Dell has just been a reliable consistently good goaltender this eason, and has been amazing on the road. I expect the same from him this weekend, and another solid couple of starts.

I never post on this thread because certain people always feel the need to feel high and mighty in the world of high school hockey in North Dakota. But anyways, here are the regional tournament seeds and opening round games. EDC #1 Red River vs. #8 Davies or Wahpeton (pending play in game) #4 Grand Forks Central vs. #5 Devils Lake #2 West Fargo vs. #7 Fargo South/Shanley #3 Grafton PR vs. #6 Fargo North WDA #1 Century vs. #8 Williston or Dickinson (pending play in game) #4 Bismarck High vs. #5 Jamestown #2 Minot vs. #7 Hazen/Beulah #3 Bottineau vs. #6 Mandan

I'll agree with others and call a split in the making for this weekend. I would love to see the black sweaters come out at some point in time this weekend as well. Heck, wear them Friday night and if you win, why not Saturday? For whatever reason the Sioux have success against Mike Lee. Lets hope that sticks around for a weekend, and possibly even back to back games if he starts both. Denver has a layup this weekend with Tech in their building, split and you're one point from the top, sweep and you're almost to the point where you can separate yourself from the pack with the final four conference games. I love College Hockey time come late February and March!

We preach that faceoffs are won and lost as a team. Everyone on the ice has a responsibility if the draw is won or lost, and how the opposing team lines up in our own end will determine how we line up defensively. Some basic things we coach: ~Centers take at least 200 practice draws in a week. Winning the puck straight back is huge offensively if you are running a play, and huge defensively to break the puck out or ice it on a penalty kill. ~Cheat the draw. If the officials allow it, do it. By this I mean if you are the weakside wing responsible for the weakside defenseman (in a defensive zone draw) and the reff is giving you some as we call it "gray area" keep taking more and more of it before they stop you. If you are the strongside wing responsibly for the defenseman lined up on the boards or the forward lined up on the top of the circle (many teams decide to put a forward back there for a quick win back and shot) you need to push it as much as possible and not let the wing tie you up so you can get out there. (Thus again, cheat as much as possible). ~Don't be overly predictable in the offensive end. Switch it up. Try to walk the other center, tie him up, push him back, push it forward to the wall to set up a cycle. Don't do the same thing every time, and lineup in ways that make the other team think a little bit. Faceoff plays work maybe 10% of the time, but when run right they create some tremendous scoring opportunities. (If you watched Sweden play the Czech Republic at the world jrs. they killed the Czech's with draw plays). ~Try to get the #1 center on the line kicked out. We'll have a wing go in and do his best to get kicked out with the other center. If this works we have our #1 going against a #2 on the other line. If the wing can't get the other center kicked out, he needs to get kicked out so we can get out #1 center into the circle. ~Most importantly......TIE UP!!!! HAVE YOUR GUY!!!! Don't get scored on off of a faceoff! Great thread. Love to hear other coaches and fans ideas/opinions.

I'm not rooting for Goldy to win, I'm rooting for Denver to drop a couple of games here and there.... Wouldn't be surprised to see Cichy play for Nelson maybe. You can't sit Davidson, he's done too much when he's been in the lineup.

Important for the Sioux to get off to a great start and bury Anchorage in the first period. I think the first five shifts of the game will tell the tale. Will it be a sluggish game that Anchorage has the opportunity to win at the end, or will the Sioux use their speed and dominate like they did last night. I agree with an earlier post. Denver has a guaranteed four points next weekend (lets try and say this as much as possible for Karma purposes ) . Crucial for the Sioux to win tonight.

Loving the talk about the forechecks and the neutral zone play for the sioux....

This is my goal. My wife tells me that we'll let the kid choose whether he'll watch cartoons or sioux hockey, but I'm thinking when she isn't around we'll be putting hockey on every chance we get. Or we'll make it into a positive reinforcement activity. When sioux hockey is on, treats galore.....cartoons.... pickle juice..... When I was a young kid I would cry when the TV was turned away from hockey. My dad always called me his favorite kid because of that!

My wife is due to have a baby boy the end of June. Those are words I never hope to hear.... Although I was told that my hockey watching would become more limited once the baby comes.....hah!