Poncho & Lefty

There is no doubt in my mind Greene will make a good pro. I haven't seen him play much except for occasional trips to GF or games my June mails me. His only downfall that I've heard is penalties and as he matures as a young adult and player he will lose that problem I believe. He won't be the next Bobby Orr but he'll be a good third defensman throughout his career. I'm also a little more optimistic that he'll be wearing the green again next year. If the CBA doesn't get solved who knows what will happen.

to avoid further confusion that was the only UND game i've attended this year, bad night to go i guess haha.

I only have one problem with Drew Stafford, granted I haven't seen him play many college games this year I did see the guys in green play Anchorage the Saturday night in GF. He didn't move his feet and I let him know it. I was sitting way up in the upper bowl and I couldn't refrain from yelling. He didn't move unless a puck was close. However watching him in the World Jrs. I noticed he played much harder. I only watched 4 of the patriots games but he played with a passion and i liked it. I just wish he didnt turn the switch off and on he should just keep it on full blast all year.

Hey quick question for those of you who watched the game on the fighting sioux sports network. Is it true that newsman Pat Sweeney gave a head to my buddy Sal from Cando. I got a call from my June who said she heard them say his name in the early 3rd period. Far-fetched question but just curious.

Fantastic news on landing this gifted young man. I've watched him play a lot of hockey and he's the coolest thing since the coin-operated washing machine! All he needs now is a cool name tag. I belive he's a canuck so why not the nifty northmen. All our Canadian players should have nicknames, how's zippin' Zajac sound i kinda like it. You all must think I've been doing some serious opium but I'm just taking pain killers for the hip. This is one of those posts I'll probably apologize for later, but this is big news for me.

Being a season ticket holder to the games played by the maize and gold, I find no offense to the chant and neither do many of my cronies i attend the game with. The only people offended by this are those cooky ridch born agains who are there to socialize. I love a racous student section it gives it a good atmosphere. I've always liked the Yost, it represents a good tradition of hockey, I also find it surprising that many of you are complaining about regionals being hosted there. The luxiourious Ralph will get its regionals but before the Ralph and the new World Arena when i thought of midwestern arenas I thought of the two schools with the M on the jersey, but what do I know I've had 22 years of college hockey experience.

I realize that I'm just an old guy to all of you but I remember when Motley Crue was in there hayday. I hated them then and I still do but I think they'll do very well in this tour if they stick to their old stuff, its sad to see when people do reunions and play their new stuff. Frankie Valli and the 4 seasons is the closest example i can think of. Back in 78 they played the Pavillion in Saugus, Mass., and i wanted my money back and all i got was a kick in the pants by a security guard. Funny how that works isnt it.

couldn't agree with you more, I don't see how this will help D1-AA maintain teams, it will basically become a feeder system for D1-A. The last thing D1-A needs is more schools worthy of only the Sun Belt Conference. It'll be interesting to see how this all works out.

I'll never brag about our team until they get ranked above the toothpaste from out east in either pole.

Bottom line - Radke hasn't come close to meeting preseason expectations, but he is most definitely not the reason this year's team is underachieving. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

couple thoughts on how this would play out now, first off I can't like UND being placed in the same bracket as UNH, Cornell, and Minnesota. Those are all quality teams. Another notice is the strong East Coast bias in this system. 4 ECAC's thast just proposterous if you ask me. There are at least 3 WCHA teams that would win that conference. I guess on the road of hockey there are just passangers and whiners, i believe i might be the latter.

Yea thats not good at all, hate to see that happen to a nice young kid like that. I remember back in 91-94 when I lived in Colorado Springs watching him play youth hockey and trick or treat in goofy outfits. He always brightenend my Halloween, he tried telling me there was a singer named MC Hammer, i just laughed, he sure had some imagination.

Huge series to say the least. CC is coming into this rolling after sweeping the Morons in Maroon. UND is coming off a split with goofy Mankato. I believe the teams split in GF but I'm not sure on that. UND really needs to bring their A game in my view to struggle a split out. Too much going well for the Tigers right now, but what do I know I'm just a hockey fanatic.

I guess I'm back guys, haha. I think Hakstol's first year as head coach at UND cannot be considered anything but a disappointment. Losses at home against Mankato and Anchorage in the same year are just unacceptable in my point of view. I still believe he is a strong recruiter, but if we don't start winning the games we should win and some of the ones we shouldn't that pool of talent we get could've just got peed in. In a completely unrelated topic I've received many messages wondering about my whereabouts. During the world junior tournament after the US-Switzerland game, apparantly I'd had a couple more than I should have. All I remember is some fruitcake in a Suisse jersey and a cowboy hat yelling at me and my Betsy in my buddy's suite. Then apparantly outside of the arena I slipped on some ice and suffered a concussion and broke my left hip. I'm still on crutches now but I have returned to my home in Ann Arbor and a good recovery is expected to be made. I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to those who worried while i was gone.

couldn't agree more very well said, GO PATRIOTS!

Day 2 From the Ponch: Belarus- This team needs to hop back onto the plane to spare themselves from any more embarrassment then they've already suffered. I remember this country gaining a lot of respect from me during the 2002 Olympics where i believe they made the bronze medal game. All that was gained that evening might have been lost tonight in an embarrassing 5 goal loss and shut out to a Switzerland team. In my view they looked extremely unmotivated and not ready to play in a tournament of this calibar. Hopefully the teams like the US and Czech take it easy on these boys or we'll see double digits on the scoreboard. Switzerland-Played a bad Belarussian team, scored 5 goals which is more than i thought they'd score this tournament, still in my view the 4th best team in their pool behind russia, czech, and the patriots. Stancesu was the player that impressed me on this team. I believe he notched two points, and he's the only player on this team that i see having an NHL career, however i am not sure that he's been drafted. Crowd- Not full at the Ralph today which is expected, but I was still to see the numbers that showed to watch maybe the two worst teams in the tournament play. Keep it up GF and this tournament should stay fun to watch. The Recap- Switzerland- 5 Belarus-0, Sweden-6 Germany-0 Tomorrow's Games- Canada-Sweden 3:30 (GF), Czech Republic-Russia 4:00 (TRF), Finland-Slovakia 7:30 (TRF), Switzerland-Patriots 8:00 (GF) Poncho's Picks Switzerland over Belarus 3-1, actual score Switzerland over Belarus 5-0 Sweden over Germany 4-1, actual score Sweden over Germany 6-0 Canada over Sweden 4-2 Russia over Czech Republic 3-1 Finland over Slovakia 5-3 The Patriots over Switzerland 6-1 100% after two games, not to shabby eh fellaz.

Just thought I would come on here and clarify a few things for you. I am gonna try as much as I can to not make a fool of myself on here anymore, when i refer to My Betsy that is towards my lovely wife of 43 years. My June is my beautiful 36 year old daughter who lives in the Grand Forks area whose computer im typing this at right now. About the Kenyan sprinter that was just a random poke at a laugh, i remember hearing that Kenya was a good country for running and tried the analogy, obviously I failed with it. I just thought I'd clarify everything that has been going on and hopefully i can try over with all you fine fine people.

Merry Christmas and God's speed fellow Sioux fans, im sorry if I have offended you in any of my ramblings especially YaneA, im just beginning to realize how out of line my comments were and #1Siouxfan. I just get a little riled up when i dont take my medication and thats how it comes out. None of you deserve to listen to anything that will cause you to feel offended in the slightest of ways. Once again Merry Christmas and hopefully the next year will treat you just as well or better than this one from The Poolmans.

Reflections from the Ponch on Day 1: Canada- outstanding, Bergeron and Crosby lit up the scoreboard more than a jamaican at a Bob Marley concert. I couldn't seem to find any weaknesses with this Canadian team. Slovakia- a lot of improvements need to be made there, granted they were playing the eventual champion canadians but seemed out of sorts. Nothing went well for them, when the puck was in the Canucks zone (emphasis on when) no forecheck seemed to work. My buddy Sal noticed in the 1st they went with a polish polveriser 2 below the line and 1 at the face off circle strong side, then i saw in the 2nd they changed to a left wing lock, and finally in the 3rd they tried to trap and each forecheck led to the same result. At least they got Canada out of their way early. Russia-Arrogant, cocky, ruthless, bull-headed coaching, extremely skilled. Those words summed up this Russian team and pretty much every team before them. Shirokov's antics after his goal on the penalty shot were out of line and juvenile. Another embarrasment for the russians is getting a player tossed from an international competition on american television. They're having enough trouble gaining respect back and this is just another setback. Ovechkin and Malkin were everything expected both played nice games, only bad thing to say about Ovechkin is the star wars shield and the missed one timer in the dwindling seconds. Another bad coaching move, the russians contained possession in the American end for about 20 seconds with about a minute left, yet the goalie stayed in the net, when will these Russians swallow there pride and realize the extra guy will help. This team played us very tough in my view and will be in the medal round seeking revenge on our warriors in white. The Patriots- a very nice win for the boys to start the tournament, amazing job by the top line (stafford, borque, o' sullivan) they were buzzing all night and i believe put 2 goals in. Good game as expected from Fritsche notching to goals for our boys, Robbie Schremp i believed tallied the other one. It seemed strange to me that Sandelin didnt play Schremp much more than on the powerplay, in my own opinion he has the most raw talent and skill out of everyone on the ice. Kessel made his first appearance at this level, and where he didn't drop any jaws or shock any collars still played a nice game for his debut. Didn't see too much of Sioux recruit Brian Lee tonight, which is disappointing but in the magnitude of the game understandable. I see him getting his time vs. teams like Switzerland and Belarus. The Goalies- very unimpressed with the goalies i watched today at the gorgeous Ralph in Grand Forks, including my own teams goalie Al Montoya. In both games I watched nearly half the goals were weak, i understand the penalty shot goals, but i believe Al could have made saves on the first goal of the game where he saw the puck the whole way and also Ovechkins goal. He seemed to heat up and play good when he needed to in the third and make some big saves. Khubodin from Russia also had a couple he'd like to have back. I dont even want to go into the Canada-Slovakia game, because none of us have the time. The Recap-U.S.A.-5 Russia-4, Canada-7 Slovakia-3, Finland-4 Germany-1, Czech Republic-7 Belarus-2. Tomorrow's games-Switzerland vs. Belarus (GF) 6:00, Sweden vs. Germany (TRF) 6:00 Poncho's Picks for Tomorrow (sorry bobby) Switzerland over Belarus 3-1 Sweden over Germany 4-1 sorry for the length, but get used to it i love this tournament, GO PATRIOTS!

i realize she started the thread jloos, i just believe that there is a feature on this site for ticket exchanges, i may have seemed a little harsh with my regards to YaneA and i apologize for that i just like reading about hockey not about section 114 row j on the near blue line.

Hey scalper, too cold for you to scam people outside the rink, those are the cheesiest lines since a cocaine-macaroni & cheese binge. People like you make me sick trying to scam other people on the internet. This is for hockey posting, not for pocket filling! Get a life!!

This is an awful story in my opinion. When something like this happens it really makes you sit back and ask yourself how can this happen. Hopefully the kids in this area realize that it isnt there fault and to keep playing hockey. Its bad enough there isnt a pro league for them to aspire to right now, we dont need potentional implosions scaring kids off as well.

PCM didn't know any other way to tell you this, this is completely unrelated to the topic just thought i'd say i really enjoy reading your columns my june sends the ones out of the herald and also all your work on uscho.com. Your a good writer hopefully you get the chance to keep on moving up in your profession.

This sure is great, my June lives in Grand Forks and its a great town. It's nice to see that the NHL locked out so that this could happen. Couldn't have happened to better people, i love the Red River Valley and miss it everyday. Ann Arbor is nice and all but if it werent for my Betsy i'd still be a farm boy growing up in Manvel.