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http://www.theahl.com/AHLNews0310/20a.html

I had seen a prediction on USCHO this summer that the Gophers would be the first undefeated team since Cornell in 1970 on their way to their third national championship in a row. I think it's hilarious that they then go out and lose the first game of the season. Yeah I know it's October and it only matters that you're playing well at the end of the season just like the Gophers have the last two years but it has to be a big disappointment to come out an lay such a big egg on the opener. Oh well. I'm sure they will be playing much better on Nov. 7-8 when they play the Sioux.

I sit on one end of the ice and have had to avoid 5-6 pucks every season and have stupidly reached up and tried to catch a puck every now and then in a reaction type mode. I do not have any problem with them putting up nets on the ends. Before attending the Frozen Four in Buffalo I was dead set against the nets on the ends thinking it would be like watching a baseball game from behind the net. It's not the same. I had no problem following the puck in Buffalo and to be honest after the first period of the first game never really noticed the netting. So my vote is put it up, protect the fans, and let's get going.

My favorite Farce story is when a number of the Farce decided to go to Duluth one weekend for a hockey series. On Saturday afternoon they had been to a number of bars and were heading to a different one downtown. Like usual most of them were wearing their yellow hard hats with the light and siren. As they were walking down the street they saw a large crowd gathered in front of a building across the street. They stopped to chant "We've got spirit yes we do, we've got spirit how bout you?' at the crowd. Almost immediately they were surrounded by a number of men in suits who proceeded to escort them away from the crowd. They then discovered that these gentlemen were Secret Service agents and that President Reagan was in the building they had been chanting at. A couple guys thought they should go back to see if they could see President Reagan. They were shortly talked out of going back since there was some serious drinking to do before game time. There are many other ones from when I went to the games but this one is my favorite.

Here are some stats for this past season for the freshman coming in: Forwards: Brady Murray 5'11" 172 59 games 42 - 59 - 101 Drew Stafford 6'2" 200 45 games 35 - 53 - 88 Eric Fabian 6'2" 195 54 games 19 - 18- 37 Chris Porter 6' 1" 210 59 games 13 - 22 - 35 D: Smaby 6'4" 205 46 games 3 - 19 - 22 83PIM Goal: Sedevie: 5'9" 173 35 games 2.62 GAA .896 Save % Ziegelmann 5'9" 180 28 games 2.58 GAA .908 save % Where is Lamoureux going? His stats: 34 games 2.17GAA .917 save % One last note with all the talk about Sidney Crosby at SSM this year, Murray scored 150 points last year when he was there; Crosby has 135 points right now with a possible 5 games left.

Top ten finalist: Sure! He not only can score but he's probably the best defensive forward on the team. There are a lot of guys that deserve to be finalists like Joseph, Stevenson, Clarke, and even Vanek. Parise deserves to be a top 10 finalists. As I mentionedi in a USCO thread I think people should be questioning whether players like Higgins, Umberger, and Tallari should be finalist before they do Parise. Parise deserves to be there but is not the best player in college right now. That's Sejna. Ps. The talk about a freshman doesn't deserve to win it is crap. If a freshman is the best player in college hockey he deserves the Hobey. Just ask Paul Kariya.

The Star Tribune today says Fox Sports Net is joining the game in progress at 5:00PM http://www.startribune.com/stories/512/3784727.html At the same time the Fighting Sioux Club says it's not being broadcast: http://www.undalumni.org/view.htm Oh who to believe?

Everyone knows that Seyna will win this award but that shouldn't stop you for showing your support for UND hockey by voting for Parise in the fan balloting. You only get to vote once anyway so it's tough to stuff the ballot. But go and vote for Parise.

I called Midco just to check for sure at 1:00PM Wednesday afternoon. I spoke to Ann the operator who satted that they will not be braodcasting the game. Fox Sports Net will be doing the Minnesota game Friday night but is not doing the Friday afternoon game. She stated that she had a memo given to them last night stating they wouldn't broadcast the game. So it looks like we have different answers from Midco about the game being broadcast. Does anyone know?

As bad as the 8, 9, and 10 place teams have played I just don't see any upsets against CC, Minnesota or Mankato. I don't have a clue who will win with SCSU and Duluth. Heck SCSU looks good one night (last Saturday's game against Minnesota) and gets beat and tied against Wisconsin the week before. Duluth looks good against the Sioux and then lose to Tech at home. Who the heck knows here. The Sioux Denver series should be a great series. I think people forget that Denver was picked to win the league this year and still have two of the top goalies in the league. Here's hoping the Sioux have got their puck luck back and can put a few by Berkhoel and Dubie. We also need the special temas to play well to get the wins. I'd say: CC over UAA big in two Minnesota over Tech big in two (Minnesota has just been hot lately) Mankato over Wisconsin in two (gees I can't remember the last time I cheered for the Badgers) Duluth over SCSU in three (Duluth goalies stand on their heads again and are the difference) North Dakota over Denver in three ( Lundbohm has a great series)

Beersong, Did you ever feel threatened at our arena because you were yelling for your team? I know I was one of those UND fans that was hoping you guys would shut up but hey you can yell all you want for your team. The reason that I'm asking is that I've been to a number of arenas cheering for the Sioux. I've had some people from various towns tell me to shut up even an old lady in Duluth but I want to make sure that you did not feel like someone was going to kick your butt just because you were yelling for your team. I guess I'd like to hear more on your thoughts on the arena realizing that it was dead most of the time Sunday plus your reaction to how you were treated in Grand Forks.

We need a sweep this weekend against Duluth. If we sweep, Mankato and CC splits, and Denver splits with Minnesota we have a 3 point lead on Denver and 4 on St. Cloud. That may guarantee us home ice for the playoffs. Then the best case scenario after that would be for us to sweep Wisconsin and Minnesota and St. Cloud split. Hey we're in 3rd place. Right now though I just want a win this Saturday afternoon. We need this team to get off the shnide. They need a win over a good Duluth team to remind them what they can do. We all knew that this stretch of the season was thr toughest and we knew that we could lose the games we did. But it's been the worst case possible for the last 3 weeks. If we can win 3 of the last 4 games we get home ice for the playoffs. That's our first goal. Then we win two more games and reach the Final Five. Most likely we'll end up playing the Thursday play-in game. If we win the play-in game we still make the NCAAs. That's all we want to happen. Then we have a chance. So here's the stretch run and I'll be there cheering for my team. How about you?

Since the first of the year we played CC four times, Minnesota twice, Alaska twice and Tech twice. So we finally played the top other two teams in the league and also got to play two of the lowest teams in the league. During that stretch we are 4-4-2. We all knew things were going to get tougher with the majority of the games on the road in the second half. To tell you the truth I'd be very happy if we were still .500 after the next two weekends at Denver and Mankato. If we are then I think we've shown we deserve to be at the top of this league and are not only a contender but have a shot at the national title. If we play anything like we did Saturday the next two weeks and get swept by Denver and Mankato we will have to really scramble to make sure we get home ice. So I'm hoping for a split this weekend and a split next weekend. Anything more than that I will be ecstatic. Then we can take our chances against Duluth and Wisconsin.

I just voted for Hobey and checked the standings: http://voteforhobey.com/vfh/standings_phase2.php Can anyone tell me why Spiewak has more first place votes than Parise? Talk about fans distributing the votes so no one from your team has a chance to win the fan balloting. I can see a UND fan voting for Bochenski over Parise with his stats etc. But to have Kevin Spiewak getting more first place votes than Parise is nuts. I like Spiewak as much as the next guy but Hobey Baker Spiewak?

Gees it's only two games. We all hoped for at least a split be we also knew that we could get swept. So the worse thing that could happen to us did. Let's move on. I want this team to take second so we don't have to play Duluth in the playoffs. So what we need is a sweep of Tech, splits at Denver and Mankato, sweep of Duluth, and at least a split in Wisconsin. We do that and we take second. I've given up on First and will be rooting for CC to kick the Gophers this weekend so we have a better shot at second. PS. I thought our goaltenders played well this weekend. Neither of these games was lost because of their play. When you only score one goal in the last 5 periods of play, you lose.

After voting for Hobey today I see where CC fans have voted Seyna first and Preissing second. I think us Sioux fans need to pick a guy and make sure we consistently vote for that player for first. Right now people have almost voted for Spiewak in first as many times as they have voted for Parise. I like Spiewak too but he's not going to win the Hobey Baker. I would recommend that us Sioux Fans pick Parise as our Number 1 guy. After that we can vote for Bochenski or Spiewak or anyone else you think deserves it. That way we aren't muddying the water with us all splitting votes amongst those 3 guys. Thoughts?

After watching both of these games this weekend, I'd have to say that the Gophers are probably the most disappointing team so far this year. Not to say they can't turn it around but they haven't shown they can consistently beat the upper level teams. They have split with UND at home, taken 1 out of 4 points against CC at home, split with SCSU, etc. Unless the infusion of Potulny has a major effect on this team they are simply a dangerous team with a lot of talent that hasn't show they can consistently win against top competition. Based upon the season so far I'd have to say the Gophers are lucky they don't have to go to Grand Forks this year.

OK. I've been getting the Sioux games on Mid-Continent cable. I see in this thread that the games are on WDAZ. I need to know if the games are on Mid-continent or on WDAY or any other options rather than WDAZ. If they are only on WDAZ I'll be taking a trip to the Buxton bar since that's the closest place that handles WDAZ. So let me know about both games. Thanks.

1. Minnesota: I base this on my reaction when Minnesota plays Wisconsin. For some inexplicable reason I root for the Badgers or anyone else that plays the Gophers. 2. Wisconsin: I love their fans when I don't have to be in their arena. They are Stepford fans. They can be talking to you very nicely, the band strikes up, and they turn like zombies and begin chanting stuff. Scary. That's it. There are no other teams I would consider our rivals. Sure it's nice to beat St. Cloud, Mankato, CC etc. but they aren't really rivals. They are simply WCHA opponents. The non-confreence team I love to beat is Boston College. Their fans are arrogant and act like they deserve to win even if the Sioux put forth a better effort and are the better team. Gees they remind me of the Gopher fans.

I put in what I thought were very conservative results for UND: 1. Getting swept at Minnesota 2. Sweeping AA 3. Getting Swept at CC 4. And then splitting all of the rest of their series. That put UND at 35 points and in third place. So if they are able to win a game in Minnesota and one in CC I think they finish at least second depending on how well CC finishes. I'm still opimistic but I'm leery about this weekend and the one at CC.

Thanks Greyeagle. I'm just hoping that us lowly Sioux can make the two games close this weekend against the mighty Gophers.

Greyeagle, I'm stuck in Bloomington that night probably at an Outback steakhouse. When you say over the air do you mean that a place like Outback probably gets it or is it the old (You need a UHF antenna to get it)? Thanks

I'm going to be in the cities on Friday night but cannot make the game. I was hoping to watch the game in some local bar. I know that FSN is not broadcasting the Gopher game live but is doing it tape delayed at 3:00AM Saturday morning. Is there anyone broadcasting the game live and if so who? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm still not sure if Ranfranz is one of "the men" but based upon what I've seen with Siembida this year and what I've read about Sedivie and Lamoureux they are not the answer. I'm fed up with the goalie situation. After tonight's game I heard people say " Pull Siembida's scholarship, tell Sedevie and Lamoureux No Thanks, and get a goalie from someplace". I'm sure that every team needs a goalie but how does a team like Maine get two like Howard and Doyle. We need a goalie like these guys. We either need a good goalie or we need a good goalie coach. Any suggestions?