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1 Denver 2 CC 3 Minnesota 4 St Cloud 4 UND 6 Wisconsin 6 UMD 6 UAA 9 MTU 10 Mankato

Dagies - CG was mentioned specifically (but the phone was ringing off the hook at work and I missed most of the talk on CG). I think, listening with one ear, Tim commented that from 1 day of watching CG practice would it be out of line to think CG will be 2nd line center - Coach Hakstol was non-commital - but it sounded like CG has been impressive. My biggest fear when posting is that I'll be called a "troll" or likened to everyone's favorite "dwarf from the east", a dufus probably isn't too bad because at the end of the day, to slightly misquote Sally Field - I just want everyone to like me, really like me!!!

jk - no problem, it's the least I can do. The contributors to this board are very informative in your/their speculations. If I was to add my speculations I'd come across as a complete dufus..... so I feel that if I can pass along news tidbits I'm doing a little to "pay my way" on this forum.

Tim & Swyg (1440 am) just completed an interview with Dave Hakstol. Just some notes: Watching the team yesterday, Tim said that the thing he noticed most was the lack of a veteran goal tender. There are 4 goal tenders currently at practice, which is a good situation for purely "practice" reasons, as it can be like a shooting gallery out on the ice. The coaching staff expects "ups and downs", but the bar will be set where it's always been, high expectations. Doesn't matter what "others" think the team is capable of, sneaking up on others is just fine. (I'm paraphrasing and these aren't direct quotes -- so please don't quote me on other hockey boards.) As far as high expections, talk turned to Colby Genoway and Zach Parise. As to ZP, Coach Hakstol stated that fans should remember that he, ZP, is an 18 year old freshman who'll be adapting to the WCHA, he's very good but there will be an adjustment. He also stated that once you have one conversation with ZP you'll realize what type of person he is and that he is a mature young man, he'll handle the situation just fine. A description of the d-men: solid, physical, puck holding, take care of your own end, hard nosed. Opponets will want to keep their head up - Matt Greene 1/2 hit someone yesterday and it was brutal, full-on contact....ouch. Tim stated that "punching is in his repertoire" in regards to MG and that "if someone deserves to be punched" Prpich is the guy to deliver that message. About Brian Canady, it was mentioned that he was injured, was likened to a Burggraf (tough and a fan favorite), they are anxious to have him at full strength. Tim mentioned that the team will probably have to work on their pentalty kill. A little talk about who'd replace Ryan Bayda and Tim Skarperud. They're confident players will step forward, using TS as an example from last year as someone who elevated his play. Some lighthearted joking about JN and goal posts. I didn't catch if any coach, besides FB coach Lennon, will be on the Coaches' Show tonight (6:30pm). I'm assuming that there will be some hockey talk.

Thanks, in addition to the info., for sending your boys up here. Depending on playoff ice, the last home game on March 2nd will be a sad day - can't tell you how much fun it has been to watch the development and play of your sons (speez & HKNTSMN - 'cause I'm fairly certain I know who your "kin" are). This should be an exciting year. Let's go Sioux.

Today's Herald has a blurb on Chad Dahlen, he'll sit out this year as he has transferred from Ferris State, he will have 2 years to play. If you go to this link http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...rts/4005283.htm scroll to the very end (last part of Fee Throws). There is a quote of Coach Blais, and I'll leave it at that.

Thank you Sioux Fan! I just got off the phone with "John/Jon" at the Alerus Center. For anyone who may be wondering: If it is an afternoon game the lot opens at 8am, night games 4pm or there about. Tailgating ends when game time begins. After the game you're allowed reasonable time to gather/polish off the left-overs. The only lot for tailgating is the west lot (south end of building - closest to the interstate). There are parking attendants who can answer questions if you have any. No GLASS containers or bottles. No KEGS. 2 warnings then probably a visit from the "men in uniform", and an escort off the property (can't go to the game either). Both propane and charcoal grills are acceptable. They will be handing out the guidelines prior to tonight's game. This is the general procedure for all the games, including Homecoming, however the lot can fill up fast so get there early.

I need some help/direction regarding tailgating at the Alerus. Is there a website or a contact person for reserving a spot at the Alerus? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks......

I'm assuming the boys were at the REA to make sure that all the concert goers treated the REA with respect..... http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/3952054.htm From the "University of the Northern Plains" by Louis G. Geiger copyright 1958 pages 414-415: "Waning student enthusiasm for the old favorites (football & basketball) of a half centruy was, of course, also a product of the spectacular success of intercollegiate hockey, which appeared for the first time after the war. ..... That year (1946-47) the University more than held its own with a 6-4 record against such powers as the University of Minnesota, U of Michigan, Michigan Technical College, and Colorado College. Although the unheated and drafty Winter SPorts Building could be exceedingly uncomfortable for spectators, the enthusiasm saroused was far beyond the expectations of even the promoters. ..... Most of the varsity players were recruited from Canada, the pattern throughout the league, ( talking about Western Intercollegiate Hockey League, members were U of Michigan, Mischigan State U, Michigan Technical C., U of MN, Colorado College, U of Denver and UND - this league broke up in 1958), but the rank and file of the student body took up the game in the form of overshoe hockey played at odd hours on the coulee or the flooded front yards of fraternity houses. .... The university schedule of 1957-1958 included 29 games, a number of them extra-league contests with Harvard, the US National team, and several independent teams from Winnipeg. Long before the season opened the U confidently looked forward to attracting 40,000-50,000 spectators to its home contests; early in the season 1,800 turned out to witness an intersquad scrimmage. The discovery of a sport in which ND could hold its own in the big time was a morale factor not to be lightly discounted, and the hockey teams were in their way symbolic of the rising optimism and self-confidence that characterized the University as a whole after 1946." (The editorial in the Herald today quoted passages from Geiger's book, and since I happened to have a copy of said book I pulled it off the shelve to see what it said about hockey.) It was interesting to see what the home attendence figures were predicted to be back in 1957/8. Does anyone recall what the attendence figures for last season were?

Mike was in GF and interviewed by 1440 this morning around 9. The coaching change in NJ is good, however, he believes he'll still have better opportunities with the Ducks. With the Devils this past season he played in 37 games, 15 with Albany and spent the last part of the season in the stands. Tim asked if Mike asked why they kept him in the stands, why not at least send him to Albany where he'd at least get playing time. Mike said that he had those thoughts, and did ask at the end of the season why, the answer was something to the effect that if they needed him they wanted him right there; he was their insurance plan, but during the end of season run/playoff run they wanted to utilize the older players. Mike stated that in the games with Albany he was logging around 30 minutes per game and time on the power play. He's been taking boxing lessons; he had lessons prior to attending UND, but had quit for awhile. Tim mentioned Alex Brooks being with the Devils now - not too much said but there was some laughter. Some of the best players he has played against: in a game at Pittsburgh during the first period he was paired with Scott Stevens, he almost had a goal (it resulted in him getting an assist) when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were on the ice. He said that he started to think that "this wasn't so tough" then he said the 2nd and 3rd periods "happened" and he was brought back to reality. Tim asked if he was "ever beaten like a rented mule"? Mike said that in one game Sergei Fedorov just went right by him, Fedorov didn't have to make any special moves, one second he was there and the next second he walked right around him and was "gone". Regarding arenas: Minnesota Wild - nice facility with good fans (loud and into the game), also the Dallas arena is good. The NJ arena is lacking. The REA is impressive, with 5000+ more seats it'd give the pro arenas a run for their money. He'll be attending a skating school hosted by in Fargo and then drive on to CA (he hasn't been to SD so he's taking this trip to do it, and probably make a stop in NV). Nice interview by Tim and Swyg.

Thanks dagies for the breakdown/analysis - also props to Sica and Goon - all of you do a good job defending the program on this site and other sites (poi/uscho). Like you've all said what this program is based on is effort. If you give effort you stay - if you dog it, your days as a Ftg.Sx., whether it be playing time or time on the roster, are numbered. Hockey isn't exclusive to this mind frame at UND - after a dissappointing end to this past women's basketball season it comes as no surprise to have heard that there are 4 openings on that team. Because UND has had such success MOST of the U's fans are realistic enough to realize that success is cyclical - yes this past hockey season could be frustrating but it was only truly "tough" to watch when there was no effort! (how many games do we have against Mankato next year?)

Greyeagle, Unfortunately the only regular season match up is in Mpls in early January 2003. Yep, you'll just have to come up for another series.

Goon, you're right - it is hard to believe that John Boy gets as much print as he does. My theory is that the papers/tv news try to put in as much as they can regarding: controversy, crime and kooks! To psycho-analyze (is that even a word?) someone LIKE a John it would appear that outside of news clips/bites not much substantive content comes out of such a person; and that the only sense of self worth (validation) comes from public exposure - don't think it matters if it is positive or negative, just that the community knows his/her name. (I don't think I had enough sleep last night - so I'm crabby and for some reason just the thought of John Boy's rants has put me in a worse mood - but I'm sure John Boy would be pleased that I spent all this time talking about him! His world domination tour continues!!)

Actually PHE, Hillsboro used to be hated for basketball back in the 80's (darn that 1981 team, if only....). Now Hillsboro is known as the munchie stop between Fargo and GF - they have a Burger King!!! The region two team which replaced Hillsboro as most "disliked" is Mayville-Portland-Clifford-Galesburg (drat that 2002 team, if only....). Interesting note: the coach of Hillsboro during the championship years was Eddie Beyer; the current coach at MPCG is his son-in-law and his grandson hit the winning shot/freethrow in the regional finals to send MPCG to state this year! (yes I'm bitter)

Every class has one or two of 'em.

In today's (Wed. 4/10/02) issue of the GF Herald there is a letter to the mailbag from a number of law school students (67 or thereabout). I tried to find a link but am unable. Many of the points reiterate a previous gf article. Some points: "As the Forum (Fargo newspaper) stated in its article, there are about 200 students at UND s of law. However, those 200 did not necessarily support the resolution. The student body and staff at the school purposely were left out of the resolution vote. ... To state that the UND law school supports that change because seven tenured and tenure-track professors felt this way is unarguably inaccurate." (those professors are: Candace Zierdt, Barbara Vogelwede, Jim Grijalva, Kathrine Rand, Alan Romero, Thomas Lockney and Dean W. Jeremy Davis) ...."To put it simply, Jeanotte (Leigh), as well as many of the faculty, seem to support the notion that if you believe the name is not offensive, it must be because you are ignorant. The student representatives to the Faculty Committee intentionally requested that the tenured and tenure-track faculty not portray the resolution as a school backed initiative. It seems, however, that the Forum's article, along with the tenured and tenure-tracked faculty members, have succeeded to do just that."

Denver coach George G. was on the radio this morning with Tim and Swyg. He hopes - although it pains him to say - that the gophers advance to the final - and that on their way to the final game that they administer a kicking . He expected Denver to advance to the final - like every coach expects their team to advance - he thought both teams, Denver and Michigan, played well but at this point in the season all teams are good so luck plays a part in who advances, he mentioned the 2 posts they hit in the 3rd period. The road for Denver was pretty difficult, one week playing CC and then UM in Mpls, then flying out to play Michigan at Yost the next week, BUT you can't have it perfect, "we had to control our destiny" and we lost. - my own commentary: for a number 1 seed that is a pretty ugly road to travel! The goaltender Dub..... has had much attention directed his way but it's hard to say at this point if there'll be an offer worth leaving for - probably middle of summer before it's known if he's staying or leaving. Denver, CC, Minn and UND all have strong recruiting classes to replace the seniors and others who are gone after this season. Arguably the WCHA is the top league in the country which made the bracketing very disappointing. There are a lot of questions to be answered - the loss of Bill Wilkinsen (sp?) probably played more of a role in the bracketing than 9/11 concerns. There may or may not have been an agenda when bracketing was drawn up - Tim and Swyg commented on this after George had hung up - Tim said "I'm not saying there was a conspiracy, but...." The coach Ron Mason hired at MSU is an outstanding coach with an excellent track record. It will be a huge benefit to college hockey for Ron Mason to be in his new position. He's at a high profile school, he has excellent knowledge of the college hockey system and if Jeff Sauer is active in giving input to the NCAA college hockey could really reap some benefits. Speaking of Wisc. Mike Eaves is a smart guy with a lot of work ahead of him. With Wisc. being a big 10 school it's important that Eaves has someone on his staff that is very familiar with the inner workings of the Wisc administration and the NCAA administration. This led into the discussion of the importance of having strong programs at Wisconsin and Minnesota - because they are Big 10 schools the NCAA looks to them as the marquee teams from the league - of course on the ice the other members of the WCHA have other ideas as to who is/are the marquee teams - the same is true in the CCHA - they need strong Michigan and MSU teams - when things need to get done - on the NCAA level - both leagues need the weight of the big 10 schools pushing. REA: "barn" is not the proper word to describe it - descriptions don't do it justice - the history and the words on the walls are important to both UND and the WCHA, shows the stength and continued success of both the school and the league. The pressure nationally is to win a championship, gives a program more luster, but probably the most difficult thing to accomplish is to win the WCHA regular season, you have to be consistant all year, and the WCHA tourney championship (this year alone 4 of the 5 teams were in the top 10 of the pairwise). If you read all this you deserve a gold star!

I don't think I dare pick a team, because out of the regional games I only had 2 games go the way I wanted them to go. There were some big hits doled out by the Wolverines - I'm actually anxious for DeMarchi to get a chance to use his strength (just PLEASE use some common sense!). When the games are regular season WCHA games I have to admit to the philosophy of "abtg", but as the wcha's only rep. I know that come game time I'll be sucked into cheering for them - especially against Michigan - I just don't like the Wolverines! I guess if they win it all I'll justify it by saying that they had to stoop to using a 21 (?) year old soph from Grand Forks ND to go all the way!

I believe that the amount is just over 1.5 mil - also the Herald states that Chad Mazurak signed with the Roanoke Express of the East Coast Hockey League.

sioux hockey, I believe these are the games scheduled to be shown on FSN (Greyeagle please feel free to change any mistakes as I plagerized this from the gopher board) Friday 3'30 pm - CC vs. MSU 7 pm - SCSU vs. Mich Saturday (only one game to be shown on FSN) 3 pm - CC/MSU vs. Minn (the SCSU/Mich vs. Denver game looks to be on tape delay at 2am Sunday morning) If you're interested in the east regional coverage it looks like Sundays games will be shown on FSN as follows: 11 am - Maine/Harvard vs. BU 2'30 pm - Cornell/Quinn vs. UNH go wcha!

Yep, that's what I thought I heard this morning. I thought maybe I was hallucinating - this stinks, but good luck to Ryan.

dagies, I'm fairly certain that Ballard's antics weren't shown on the Saturday of the Sioux/gopher OT game. It was played twice this past Saturday during the Denver/MN championship game. Is it true that next season (excluding post season play) that UND plays MN only twice? Between Westrum-in-training (Ballard, say what you want, he might be a pest, but he has been able to back up his actions/attitude with his play/ability) and "slap shot" Canady, the rivalry between the two schools should be entertaining for the next couple years regardless of how few regular season games there are.

Please correct/embellish on what I type (I believe Goon is a regular listener)

Did anyone listen to Tim and Swyg this morning (Tuesday)?

To add on to Goon's comment about calling Tim H. - I caught the tailend of Tim H. and Coach Blais this morning on the radio - it sounded like Coach Blais will be on sports talk on Wednesday night (season final) - maybe that will be discussed.