Siouxman

There are two of them 5-6 blocks from the Hilton. The Dubliner is at 1205 Harney and O'Connor's is at 1217 Howard. We were at one of them as well but I can't remember for sure which one. I am thinking it was the Dubliner.

Sioux gathering is at the Old Mattress Factory. After the game, just about any of the sports bars around the arena are full of Sioux fans. The bars and hotels love Sioux weekend. It is their best weekend of the winter. There shouldn't be a problem with getting tickets late, although your alternatives will be fewer. Bought ours a week and a half ago and we are at center ice.

This weekend could be it for the Gophers. If they don't win these two games, their only hope is to win the B1G tournament. UMD and MSU are the only teams in the top 16 pairwise that MN plays the rest of the year. And if OSU, MSU, Penn St., and WI struggle it will only get worse for MN from here on out. Michigan is literally in the same boat. They are ahead of MN in the PWR (tied for 16, but placed 17 with the tie-breaker) and they have no games remaining with teams ranked above them in the PWR. Obviously much remains of the season and teams can move up and down, but both of these teams have a tough road ahead. They literally cannot afford to stumble.

Yes, but it is understandable. MN is having difficulty scoring enough goals to win without numerous power plays.

Plus the two he should have received for embellished diving.

When I was perusing GPL this morning someone indicated that the supposed video evidence was not hat clear. The picture only showed 5 on the ice and that the WI player hitting the ice was replacing someone else who had already come off and was not for the D-man headed for the bench. Stand by for further developments.

Last night came out just about as good as it could be for UND. UMD tied WMU and lost the shoot out. CC beat UNO. UND put a licking on a team it should beat handily. Oh, and the Gophers tied and lost a shootout to one of the weakest teams in the NCAA.

Every game is a big game this time of year. MN dropped from 14th to 20th in pairwise by losing to a bottom team. Yes, I know it was a tie, but don't say that on GPL. Teams should not be going through struggles against weak teams in mid-January.

Correct on that one. I remember the game.

MN now 13th in pairwise, tied with Merrimack.

Yup, and they will be tired for weeks because they had to walk/swim home, although Toronto and Montreal are much closer to MN than Europe.

I don't have the luxury of watching replay, but it looked to me like his elbow made head contact. I could be wrong but that is what it looked like when they showed the replay.

Clearly a 5 minute major, but no one saw it

DU ties Dartmouth and loses a shootout.

I don't think anyone is a lock at this point. On the question of where they should be ranked, Mankato has played the third toughest schedule, Minnesota the 8th, and Michigan Tech the 13th. UND has played the 16th toughest. Each of them has a pretty good record at this point. I don't have a problem with them being ranked where they currently are for RPI. MSU and MTU both appear to be quality teams so far this year. Unless MN absolutely dominates the B1G, which they should, they could get hurt by the end of the year because those teams aren't doing well. There is no perfect system because of theoretical questions about what should be rewarded: complete season body of work; best record in last 8, 10, 12, pick a number of games. I wouldn't be happy seeing a team in the NCAA's that went undefeated their last 12 games of the regular season, but has a record of 12-22. MafiaMan pointed out a case where two teams got hot and cold at the wrong time of year, but those things will happen. If it is only occasionally, that is not too bad in the big picture except for the team that got left home. If a team has a great year but loses their last six games of the year because of season ending or serious injuries, how do you decide if they go to the NCAA's or stay home. Who gets to decide that? You can argue whether RPI or KRACH rankings should be used, but the current system works for both types of teams: good body of season work and getting hot late in the year. You can make the NCAA's based on the entire season body of work or by getting hot at the end and winning your conference tournament for the autobid. I am happy to see MTU and MSU up where they are, Penn St. too (once I get past my anti-B1G attitude).

Tickets are gone.

Have two tickets available in Section 302 for Friday, January 9th, against UMD at The Ralph. This is the end on which the Fighting Sioux shoot in the first and third periods. The seats are about even with the dot in the faceoff circle in the zone. $60 for the pair. Shoot me a PM or an email to bkjcjr@yahoo.com.

So Rocco goes out and scores 1G and 4A tonight, His 10 points in 22 games jumps to 15 points in 23 games in one day.

Canada is playing very physical. If Finland's Lintuniemi takes runs at the Canadian players like he did at Eichel all day today, I think he will be taken behind the wood shed quite severely, maybe even multiple times.

Is it too late to claim illness and tell the NCAA this weekend was no contest?

Unbelievable. Back to back nights with this kind of unperformance.

The game atmosphere was terrible. The crowd just sat on their hands and did not get into the game at all. Even Beer Grandma was no where to be found. Disappointing.

What are viewing options for tonight? I hear that NCHC.tv was mostly blank during last nights game.

Hoping team is better prepared tonight. I can't recall seeing a single pass being completed last night.

That one is clearly not a dive, but if you watched the UNO series at UND there were plenty of examples of diving. In one incident after the whistle a UNO player skated into a group of three UND players and threw a half hearted fist/punch to the face of the UND player. Then, without being touched, his head snapped back and he went over backwards like he had been shot. Luckily the refs didn't buy it. I believe that they had at least one embellishment penalty that weekend.