Siouxman

I second that. They have put themselves in great position. Here's hoping that come January 4th everyone is healthy and raring to go.

Hmmm. Is it possible the power in the new WCHA next year could be the Purple Cows? They beat UNO 6-3 in Omaha tonight.

Friday - Grimaldi Saturday - Caggiula

Grimaldi from Caggiula

If he signs that deal playing for a U.S. college is out of his future.

While I was disappointed with the tie, I was very pleased to see how well the Sioux played. It was a slow start, but overall the play in their own end was much improved. The breakouts were improved. Flat out Okinoura stole this tie for Denver. He played outstanding. This is three games in a row where the Sioux have outplayed the opponent and it is maybe time to think that this team is getting it together. Kudos to the fourth line. They played very well and carried the charge a number of times. Senkbeil (Jim!) was a beast out there and he may be tough for someone to move out of the lineup if he keeps that up. Really looking forward to tonights game. Hopefully the Sioux will be ready and Denver will still look tired.

We have been going for many years and have been sitting in the front row of the upper level at center ice. It is a great view and you can really see the plays develop. It has been a better view than some lower level seats. But, we will not be sitting there this year. We managed to get upgraded to the front row of club level close to center ice. Really looking forward to it, other than the fact that it is the last year of the Final Five as we know it.

I believe that we won't see that again in college hockey. Just about any hard hit these days draws a penalty of some kind (they will just make it up as they go). T.J. Oshie would be in the box the whole game with the current rules applications. That level of intimidation will no longer be allowed, I'm afraid.

Tonight in the grocery store in Fergus Falls they had UND green and white tortilla chips from www.teamsnacks.com, They were very impressive in the UND colors. However, the sale sign on the shelf identified them as NDSU "Sioux" tortilla chips. I brought a bag to the checkout and informed them that it was NDSU Bison and UND Sioux (I didn't even get into the fact that they are no longer officially Sioux). They even rang up on the cash register as NDSU Sioux. After I had the name thing cleared up, the woman commented "well at least they were on the shelf next to the Minnesota Gopher chips." I told that she wasn't helping things.

Got our tickets in Section 121 above the benches today. It appears the tickets are going fast although there are quite a few still available. It is cheaper to go through the MAVS site than ticket master.

UND wants to protect the copyright of the logo. Suppose UND does send them a letter, requesting that the school send an official request to UND to use the logo. UND can grant permission within proper guidelines, thus protecting the copyright, I assume. But what might the NCAA do then?

UND played better on Saturday night than Friday night, with the exception of goalie. Gothberg let in two shots from the left point on which there was no tip and no screen and he should have seen the shots all the way. Both of those should have been stopped. The fifth goal was an open net goal that would not have happened in a 2-2 game. Having said that, Gothberg needs to get some game time to become acclimated to Div. 1 hockey. There have been too many goalie injuries in the WCHA in the past few years to risk getting late into the season and suddenly get stuck having to play an untested and unconditioned goalie in critical games. Giving Gothberg time now hurts, but it is absolutely necessary. I also believe that something is physically wrong with Knight. There is an issue of some type that seems to be affecting his play. I am getting frustrated by defensemen skating in circles with the puck and blindly turning into an opposing player. It was very evident with UMD that with certain defensemen (especially Gleason) they would double team them with the second man coming from the blind side. While we don't have much for big bruising defensemen, the game has been changed by the rules and the officiating and UND can no longer play the type of hockey they did a number of years ago when the beat the crap out of BU and BC in the east regional. A high level of physicality gets penalized. The reffing has been completely unacceptable, ignoring major penalties with injury potential and calling ticky tack meaningless penalties of no consequence. Finally, we have to remember that they are consistently playing with basically five freshmen, several players who literally did not play last year (due to injury and ineligibility), and a number of players coming off season ending injuries. It just might take a little longer for some of these guys to get back up to speed. One the plus side, they have a backstop goalie capable of stealing a game, the record is not all that bad considering the past few years, they are not having to skate defensemen at forward just to attempt to fill a lineup, and the team is consistently being referred to as the team formerly known as the Fighting Sioux. The next three weekends will be defining for this team.

http://www.und.com/sports/m-hockey/nd-m-hockey-body.html Free webcast available.

Shots are about 6-1 Notre Dame, but no score.

Great chance by O'Donnell. Both teams are skating fast.

Scanners are not in universal use at all arenas. Last year at St. Cloud, the people behind us got into the game on Saturday night with Friday night tickets. The person they bought them from sent them the wrong ones, but they got in anyway. No one knew it until someone else showed up with tickets for those seats. The tickets were manually checked at the door, not scanned.

Been going to the Final Five for years and it is always a great time. Other than it being the last real WCHA Final Five with UND is the fact that St. Patrick's Day won't fall during the Final Five. The years that it does adds another element to the event. In 2012 it was on Saturday, the day of the Final Five Championship. Thousands of people were wearing green, 7th was blocked off from traffic by the XCEL Energy Center, and the party went well into the night. What a great time. The other thing to keep in mind is that for a number of years we have had a SiouxSports.com brunch on Saturday morning at Hoggsbreath, arranged by MafiaMan. The stories alone are worth attending this event.

They are booked for every home series weekend. The "Power of the Sioux."

I think that there is a pretty good possibility with the change in coaching staff from last year that there are some defensive system philosophy and responsibility changes. From my perspective there seems to be a lot more blindly dumping of the puck to areas where no Sioux player is present. It may be that some players are missing assignments on where they should be positioned at those points it time. The result is that there appears to be many more turnovers taking place than there should be. This is likely leading to some reduction in time of puck possession and time in the offensive zone. On the flip side, the team this year seems to be generating more grade A scoring oppotunities than they typically do this time of year. They just aren't finishing them off. I am optimistic that this team is going to hit its strice, and when it does it will be something to watch.

Friday - kristo Saturday - Grimaldi

In MN, if you have Charter Communications, try channel 87 - CHXMN

I have Charter Communications in MN and Channel 87 (CHXMN) usually shows SCSU home hockey games. There is a hockey game on the schedule at 7pm tonight, but it doesn't show which teams are playing. I believe there is a good chance it is UND-SCSU. We were at the game last night so I don't know if that game was telecast last night.

Dave, I would take two tickets for the Friday night game if you still have them. I can either meet you in St. Cloud or at Fergus Falls as you pass by on your way to St. Cloud.

Although I have been there a few times, I really don't like going to the National House of Concrete. I can't say suck often enough to carry on a conversation with an SCSU fan.

Mike Lee is no longer goalie at SCSU, so there is no guaranteed win.