sagard

Winning the WCHA regular season means alot, much more than the WCHA tourney unless your team needed the auto-bid for NCAA entrance. Sadly it also means you probably will not win the NCAA title. As for winning the conference in the same season as you win the NCAA being the ultimate, I bet every member of the '97-'98 Sioux would have traded their share of the '97 McNaughton for simply a shot at the '98 Frozen Four. Similarly no-one on the '01 Sioux Runners up would have traded that for beating UW for the '00 McNaughton. It is an incredible feat and maybe the ultimate accomplishment for team in a single season, but in multi-year analysis it will lose out.

Nope. The Sioux do to their obviously superior "regular" season play get the #1 in the Springs. Michigan is a #1 and the Gophers claim the last #1 out east. Gophers beat Michigan in the semis, BC in the Final for the threepeat. Amazingly, the Gophers are declared honorary Hockey East Champions as well for knocking off Maine, UNH and BC in consecutive seasons.

Didn't you say this type of thing last year? Actually, I think UND and the Gophers will be best in the WCHA next year. However UMD or DU may surprise. The Gophers did not dominate WCHA play either of the last two years, so I really don't see walking away with the league as many of my fellow Gophs fans assume. It's pretty sad, but the key to either the Gophs or UND winning the title will be avoiding Michigan in the MW regional. Other keys are if all players currently expected to return actually do, Martin, Ballard, Vanek, Bochenski, Parise, etc... You don't need great goalies to win, but you will need your goalie to play great.

I really like this. If any recruit is reading this, just ask Dean and Don what the scoop for years two, three and four is. And don't listen to a damn thing Coach Eaves has to say.

I tend to think Lucia and Blais are a lot more similar than many of us Gophers fans would like to think. The primary difference is that Lucia is a lot more camera/press friendly than Blais appears to be. Lucia has cut players in the past (Cugnet at CC, check USCHO). I think there may be some Big Ten rules that will prevent many/any departures from the Gophers that aren't agreed upon by both parties, but I'm just guessing there. If I am a parent negotiating with a college coach over a sholarship for my son, you can bet that I will be expecting the coach to commit to a certain % over four years. If it is a 75% commitment, then three of the four years will be paid by the school. That could mean the second year is on my dime, but the remaining years would be on the school.

I had never seen or heard of Potulny before the Gophers recruited him, but Grant's last season of USHL line is 25G 30A in 56 games. Most guys who score nearly a point a game in the USHL get recruited. Grant may have exceeded expections from a points perspective, but from a size, age, grit, determination point of view, I believe Lucia and Hill knew exactly what they were getting. The Petersen case is similar, but Toby was going to CC that same year. No questions on whether he would be the same player at 18 as he was at 15. I like the friends angle better, Sertich/Guyer, Irmen/Potulny. I maintain that Lucia recruited players needed to try to win the '02 title in St. Paul. To say Grant was recruited in '00 to land an '03 recruit is highly questionable, the Gopher coaches had plans for the years in between. Here is a quote for what it's worth. Although convincing you is probably like convincing me! "He struggled the first couple of days of the tournament, and that's when UND saw him," Johnson said. "He played very well at the end of the tournament, and that's when Minnesota saw him. "UND was interested in him, but I think it just ends up being a numbers thing, where you can take only so many guys," Johnson said.

I'm sure Lucia recruited Grant so he could get Ryan. It could not have because the Gophers have consistantly lacked large, physical players with grit and determination. Getting Ryan is a nice plus, but Lucia was very focused on bringing a championship team to St. Paul in '02.

Honestly, after Zachs four years don't you think he should give professional hockey a try?

Just to expand this a little. Here are the league champion differentials since the 28 game schedule started: 1997-98 North Dakota 127-80 +47 1998-99 North Dakota 142-76 !! +66 1999-00 Wisconsin 112-70 +32 2000-01 North Dakota 115-80 +35 2001-02 Denver 108-63 +45 2002-03 Colorado Co 125-70 +55 Last year UND was a +21, to compete for league honors they will probably need to improve at least another +15. Improved goalie play would help, but Brandt's stats weren't that bad. The departing players (assuming nobody esle leaves) had around 50 points. The Freshmen can be counted on for some, but the real growth will need to be with the returning players. I think the offense will need to improve more than the defense. I'm guessing we will see a surprise winner in the WCHA next year with the Gophers second. DU, UMD, or UND. Gophs hopefully get the three-peat.

Boy I don't know how much more you all could expect from Parise. As a center, he doesn't have as much freedom to make the all out offensive effort Vanek was allowed to. The guy scored a ton of points. Just a guess that Stafford will have a freshmen year more similar to Tyler Hirsch than to Parise. That is still quite a compliment. For the Sioux to be elite next year, their juniors will have to step up.

I shouldn't imply that I'm too worried about the Gophers defense for next year. If Ballard/Martin leave two of the following will need to step into the top pairs. I'm guessing J. Martin and Stevens will remain a solid third pairing. Choices are: Vanelli Taylor Kennedy Atherton MacKinnon I don't doubt in the least that the Gophers will develop strong defense by the end of the year, and win another title! However, if they are replacing two defensemen the Gophers will not go 29-3-2 and have 50 pts in the WCHA like the 1999 regular season for the Sioux. Personally, I'd like to see the Gophers win the regular season title, but that has proven to be an anchor since '97 so maybe not.

I don't think Vanek will turn down the money if it is offerred. Even if Vanek leaves, I think he would be easier to replace than the combination of Demarchi/Martin or Demarchi/Ballard. With or without Vanek, the Gophers will still have one of the best offensive teams next year. Whether or not players will be able to step up and score the crucial playoff/OT type goals remains to be seen. Losing two of the top four Gophers defense will be hard to replace. Especially since the Gophers goalies aren't really successful when they face alot of rubber.

For any Gopher fan to worry about next year is stupid. At this point, it will be VERY diffacult for next years team to do as well as this years team. They may have a better record, but it is very hard to win the WCHA tourney and become an NCAA finalist. It is fine for Sioux fans to project results as they are done and they know what they have returning due to Hale signing early. The Gophers could be decimated by early departures. It doesn't matter what the players are saying now, Vanek, Ballard, P. Martin and maybe Talackson could leave. It only matters if they enroll in the fall. If one of the underclassmen defense leave early, the Gophers would have to replace two of the top four D. That would lead to many early season shootouts. I'd agree that the talent levels for the Sioux and Gophers are similar, as were their WCHA individual statistics. But this year, the Gophers lines 2-4 really turned up the pressure as the season progressed. I didn't see the Sioux much, so I don't really know why they fared so poorly in the close of the season. The thing that clearly separated the Sioux and the Gophers this year was the return of Potulny and the corresponding effort put out by the entire Gopher team. As a Gopher fan it has been incredible to watch.

To win the NCAA hockey title you need the following: 1. Have a great team. 2. Get a good draw. ie: Avoid Michigan in Michigan. 3. Get the bounces/calls. The Gophers satisfy #1 and they earned the good draw this year. They may not have technically deserved Mercyhurst, but the Gophers were Frozen Four bound as soon as CC got sent to Michigan. Last year they got very lucky on #2, any other year and MSU would have gone east and the Gophers would have had the Michigan draw. Last year they clearly got the breaks and they seized the oppurtunities. It was only one year before when P. Martin was whistled for phantom hook allowing Maine to tie the game on the PP. Last years Gopher run was very similar to the '97 ND run. The way the brackets fell, the Gophers in my opinion were a clear favorite in each game played. The Gophers avoided argueably the best two other teams in DU and UNH. In '97 the Sioux avoided the Gophers and Michigan. If the brackets would have followed the PWR, the Gophers and Sioux would have met in the Quarters. This years Gopher run is hopefully like the '00 Sioux. Cruise to the Frozen Four, then face two brutal opponents. UNH had "great luck" against Cornell with a disallowed goal and a save off the mask in the closing seconds. Hopefully UNH's luck has run out and the Gophers can tap it one more time.

"Nope, not gonna cheer for the Gophers." Thats cool. I feel I cursed the Sioux in '01. After cheering against them in '97 and '00, I finally got on board and whammo, Sioux lose. So as a favor to the sane Sioux fans, I'll politely root against them if they get to another NCAA final. I'd hate to see any Sioux fan disappointed if the Gophs lose.

It is funny that two Gopher fans could have two opposite opinions. In October, I thought both teams played wide open hockey. All season, I thought UNH was the best team the Gophers played. Now Michigan may be that team, they really seemed to be in control of the game.

It looked like Ryznar and Montoya both thought Vanek would try to carry behind the net. Both realized the error in their ways too late.

What strikes me as funny is that when the building was being built, all the talk was how it would preserve the atmosphere and the third period heroics wouldn't miss a beat. Gopher fans warned you all not to expect it, as we have been going to games for around 10 years now in Mariucci. Here is another thing you will have to get used to. Your ticket prices will increase a buck or two bucks a ticket most years. Not sure what you are paying now, but Gophers tickets are $27 a seat. I'm sure UND will feel they can charge as much as the lowly Gophers. Times are changing, the hockey is still intense, it just costs alot more. The atmosphere will be fine when the Sioux has a great team, on other years, you still have the best arena!

The 1996 CC matchup for Vermont was a national semi-final. CC then lost to Michigan.

Lever hockey insited many brawls with me against my brother. Typically over whether the puck bounced out of the net or was never in. Great memories of trying to "one time" the puck with the centerman... The other great thing was applying the stickers to the plastic players.

Methinks you should take your own advice reguarding spouting off. Parise, Vanek, Guyer, Sertich and Hirsch all graduated high school in '02. They are all "true" freshmen in the sense that they did not postpone college for further hockey development. Parise and Vanek will obviously both be drafted this June. Parise IS the youngest of the bunch I listed and is very young for his class, but it is not like he accelerated high school like Toby Peterson did at CC or Montoya of Michigan. I like your comparison of Vanek and Bochenski and I would agree that Bochenski is a more polished scorer at this point. However as a "true" freshmen Vanek has scored considerably more than Bochenski did his first year. As for leaving early, I'd guess we will see Vanek and Bochenski one more year and Parise two more. Despite what Vanek and Lucia have said, I would not be shocked in the least to see him move after this year.

No way could he kick Potulny's butt and take the rings! He needs at least one more year of maturity and strength.

Who and why? Bochenski is 5th in scoring, 9pts behind the 4th scorer. Hale would have been an obvious candidate, but he unfortunately didn't get to play the entire season. Hopefully he will get healthy and play again soon.