Siouxman

I remember when both Porter and Stafford came in as freshmen. Stafford had more hype to him, but Porter had more of an immediate impact. He fit in right from the start. Looking at it now, I am a little disappointed that he isn't more of a scorer than he is based on what I saw in him as a freshman. Meanwhile Stafford has really progressed. However, Dagies has a good point that it may have been his role on the checking line that has held his numbers down somewhat. Hard to say. I am still glad that he chose to be a Fighting Sioux player.

He played during the Western regionals & the Frozen four--if he wasn't fully healed, I don't think the UND coaching staff, let alone Buffalo, would've allowed him to play. Buffalo's AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, didn't make the playoffs, hence for that reason he wouldn't be needed to play on that level, like Zajac.

Let me count the reasons. 1. SiouxSports.com 1995-2005 - 10 Years of independent coverage of FIGHTING SIOUX SPORTS 2. Hockey Forum - Talk about the 7-Time NCAA Champion UND Men's Hockey Team These are strong hints that this forum is about the Fighting Sioux. Potulny discussions take place on one of them other pseudo-forum boards.

Hey -- He calls them as he sees them.

Two great reminders of what we, Fighting Sioux fans, got to enjoy this past season. Thanks.

Oh good. I was almost beginning to think that it was my fault. Silly me.

Won't work for me either. I hit the play button and only get a black screen.

If I may, a little history here from the Fighting Sioux hockey team. In 1978, after years of poor Fighting Sioux hockey teams, coach Rube Bjorkman finally left. UND interviewed a number of candidates for the job, including Ned Harkness. Harkness was the winningest active college hockey coach at the time, having won national championships. In the end, UND chose Gino Gasparini, one of Rube's assistants. Great gnashing of teeth, public outcry, and bedlam ensued. Rob Leer, local sportscaster, even tore up his Sioux press pass on the air (it cost him his job). What happened? With basically the same team, Gino took the Sioux to the Final Four, losing the championship game to Minnesota in 1979. In 1980, the Sioux won it all, and again in 1982, and 1987. Sometimes the great candidate is the one already there, who isn't allowed to shine until the head coach is gone. I am not even going to begin to suggest who should get the position, should it open up. Just a suggestion that the best candidate is sometimes already in place. Whaterever happens, "GO SIOUX."

Since the word "greed" has come up, let's put it on the other foot. We as fans are "greedy." We want the good players to stick around for another year, because we know they will be even better. It increases the odds of winning the McNaughton Cup, the Broadmoor, and yes, even the Frozen Four. Why? Some just because they want to see better hockey. Most of us, well--let's admit it-- so we can say 8>5, 9>5, we are better than the Gophers, Badgers, Wolverines, Denver, etc. It makes us feel good when we think the Sioux are better than the others. We get disappointed, sad, upset when players go pro early because we feel that we have lost something. We, the fans of the Sioux, have been entertained, spoiled rotten, and treated to the best of college hockey. And we want more. Sounds like greed to me.

It's a tough issue. College hockey for many years worked to get hockey players to play college hockey instead of going to play major juniors in Canada. Now, we have many more players coming to college and the NHL is looking more and more toward colleges for players. If anything is done to restrict the ability of college players to go pro, then they will go back to playing major juniors so that they will still have the option of going pro early. It is a lousy situation for the fans with players leaving early, but if any restrictions are made we won't see some of them at all. That would be worse for the fans. Not a great situation, but until some solution at the NHL level is developed, we are stuck with what we have. If an NHL solution was found, we would still have competition from the European leagues.

From the UND hockey dictionary for beginners: Mike Prpich (mike purr pick) <Canadian> n. (1) to constantly have a smile on one's face, no matter the situation, (2) a long drink from an opponent's water bottle, (3) an itchy rash felt under opponent's skin during competition, (4) a Gwoz balancing precariously on the dasher, (5) to always participate with heart and/or desire, (6) dedicated to maximum effort with class. What more can be said about an individual that we will miss from UND Hockey. Welcome to the UND Hockey Character Hall of Fame. Best wishes in the future.

Not to get repetitive, but I will. There is no I, he, him, or any other singular person attribute in "team." As a team, the Sioux did not function as we have become accustomed to since late in the season. The team lost this game, not Parise, not Smaby, not Hakstol, etc. The team did not live up to our expectations and they most certainly did not live up to their own expectations. The team lost the game. Move on. It is now time to agonize over what we are all going to do over the next 5 1/2 months without Sioux hockey.

Sorry about that post. One of my children did that when the computer was under my name. I have since deleted the post.

I will say now that I believe BC will win tonight if they use the same speed they did against the Sioux. Think back to when MN beat WI. Those losses weren't so much about goaltending as it was that WI had a tendency to break down against speed pressure. I did not think that Elliot looked good against Maine. When Maine got the puck down deep, they scored on him. He also mishandled the puck a couple of times. If BC can get past the initial backchecking, I think they will cause stress in the WI defense and get their opportunities. In our group of three, we are split 1-1-1 on who will win after being at both games. It could be anywhere from either team winning a close one to a blowout.

I think you are kind of loose there with "final" , PCM, don't you think? I doubt whatever gets decided on April 27th will be final. The exception might be if the NCAA decides mea culpa (in latin that means BOY WERE WE STUPID ). Otherwise it is just one more step in the process.

I haven't seen anyone comment about this yet, but seeing Stafford skate on Thursday raised some doubts in my mind about the current health of his knee. There were several times when it appeared to tried to get his body to respond in a particular way, and it didn't go well. Just appeared that things weren't working as he would expect them to. That might play into whether or not he signs, depending upon the true status of the knee. He obviously made some great moves during the game, but there were other times that just did not appear to be right. Just wait and see.

We are wondering the same thing. It has been removed from the alumni website. Starting time was 3 or 3:30 pm. We will likely be there. We were at the Buckhead Saloon last night for almost 5 hours. It is evidently the place to be as it was rocking. Talked with a couple of employees when we got there. They said that they got goosebumps when the UND band came in playing on Thursday. That was a lot of fun, and the place was packed. I know that a number of Sioux fans have gone home, but we are still here and plan to go to the Saloon this afternoon. As for tonight's game, I think BC will provide WI some challenges that they haven't seen before. But I also expect that WI will challenge BC. UND and Maine showed that if you can get the puck down low on WI, Elliot isn't all that great of a goaltender. The BC transition game will stress the WI defense. If they crack like the Sioux defense did, it will be a long night for WI. IMHO, obviously. Also, I have had several people ask me about my Sioux jacket and if we are hassled by the NCAA. After discussing it, they felt that NCAA is way out of line.

I had a dream on Saturday. 5-2 Sioux with Oshie getting the first goal!

Expect to be there both days, although I haven't consulted Southpaw and Morley yet. They may lead me astray someplace else.

Wow - Hockey is probably a topic that is banned from most family get-togethers. Obviously you didn't know your wife was the offspring of a Gopher fan before she caught you.

Naw, somebody from that far east wudda known better. Maybe he fell and hit his head on the ice or something.

Splice in the WCHC 10-minute highlight piece every so often. A great mood setting piece. And by the way, I dream Sioux hockey. Last dream was Sioux 5-2 over BC.

For those that haven't listened to the full game tape of the Holy Cross-Minnesota game, the student announcers had a very interesting observation that I think tells half the story of the game. According to them, during the Thursday Holy Cross skate around, a Gopher hockey player was asking the Holy Cross people who their best players were, who is their starting goalie, etc. Now I am not a coach, but it sure seems to me that the day before a game in the regional your team should sure as hell know who the key players are, who the primary goalie is and his strengths and weaknesses. This certainly leads to a conclusion that Minnesota did not scout the team or review game tapes of Holy Cross. They were focused on Saturday. The other half of the story is a quote from a Gopher player after the game: "We deserve better than this!" One need not say more. Minnesota, from coaches on down, clearly overlooked Holy Cross and thought that this game would be a cake walk handed to them. Combine that with the poor showing in the games that didn't count, and the Gophers were ripe to be had.

It gives more time to make arrangements, line up tickets, etc. Besides, if it was the same weekend as the basketball final four, they would be terribly disappointed in the turnout for that event.