farce poobah

In other amazing news, Minnesota 24, Penn State 10, 9 minutes left in Mpls.

Blackhaws bring the Stanley Cup to Walter Reed. http://blackhawks.nh...s.htm?id=689984 I'm happy the relationship with the USA Wounded Warriors continues to grow. "A lot of teamwork goes into winning the Stanley Cup," Toews said, "but it's absolutely nothing compared to what you guys do."

Gino Gasparini "If the puck could talk, tonight it would have cried."

Let's consider the source here .... Bowling Green being in a separate conference from Miami and Western Michigan IS a weak spot in the current alignment (maybe the weakest spot). Not surprising that persons related to BGSU would want to stir the pot, because they are stuck with the "lesser" teams. (Lesser in quotes because in mens ice hockey, BGSU has been looking up at everyone in the standings ever since Jerry York left.) BUT you gotta believe Blasi (Miami) and Murray (Western) are thrilled with the current alignment. Can't believe Miami and Western would come in in 2013-2014 and leave anytime soon. Best likelihood is that NCHC adds BGSU - once BGSU gets their act together. Which I would not mind ... having more friends in the MAC can only be good for UND longer-term.

My daughters aren't pregnant.

I suggest the NDSU Dance Team start a petition and get the NDSUAAS football team to gather signatures for them.

Note for all you kids out there: Toews' goals combined totaled about 2 feet. GO TO THE NET.

Agree .... and its why Penn State will become competitive in the coming years. Fan support means money so you can afford good coaches and draw top recruits.

Saturday, in a bit of good news for North Dakota fans: Vermont beats Penn State. Season's largest attendence of 17,600 for the game, played in Philly at the Wells Fargo Center.

That was well designed and well executed. Nice to see the guys get rewarded for it.

Not to start a flamefest, but FU is on ESPN3.com. In the second quarter, its 42-10.

Doesn't bother me. Shootouts with nothing at stake bother me, though.

Agree. And I would note that we got a little puck luck on Friday night, which is easy to forget. To geaux_sioux's point, Miami had fewer rookies in their lineup and so they know their systems better. UND had a rookie on all the lines except one (the most-productive, coincidence?) and it shows in our play. Guy zigs, guy with puck expects him to zag. I do think that someone else should be considered on the top line with Jimaldi and Cadula. (sorry couldn't resist) Tambellini has incredible upside but for right now I'd give someone else a look. Reminds me a bit of the Greg Johnson years, where it was really tough to find two other guys that could play at his level. Oh, and Gage Ausmus reminds me a bit of James Patrick. Really strong fluid skater, anticipates well, reads plays and reacts quickly. There's no reason that UND can't contend for a title this year.

Denver's fall from the elite is likely to be another story this year. They had a "bad loss" to Alaska (Fairbanks) last night; a UA(F) team picked in the middle of the WCHA. Can you imagine how good they would have been had Gwozdecky stayed? .... all the departures. I hope their AD is happy about all this. Meanwhile, George and the Tampa Bay Lightning are looking very strong out east. Thinking of putting a couple bucks on their longshot Stanley Cup odds.

I would give $100 if ... Tim Hennessy called a period of hockey by referring to the players by their "inside" nicknames instead of their given names. Maybe we should take up a collection...

I smell an opportunity for some enterprising business to sponsor the shuttle ... for a modest (and advertised in the arena) donation that pays for driver and gas. During January, your business could generate a lot of goodwill. (Think insurance agent, bank, health care provider, Columbia Mall ...) That translates into tangible customers down the road. For games in October, this is not a huge deal. (And if someone in the party can't walk the 6 blocks, drop them in front of the arena and then someone can go park the car.) But when its 10 below and wind is howling ... you can make a lot of friends quite quickly by sponsoring a shuttle bus.

I am impressed that 1,357 fans turned out for the game. Nice.

Besides the ouches ... Montana State up 30-19 on SMU in the 3rd.

Hi Coach Bohl. Were you there? Tell us how you can read a short newspaper article and pass judgement that's better than the Ward County Attorney. Or is it simply clear that "these young men have suffered enough". Good grief indeed.

Well done, NDSU.

I like it .... how about a little Monty Python: Oh I'm a BisonHack and I'm okay I fight all night after stealing all day I fake petitions, I cut class I tell the judge to kiss my a$$ ....

I was hoping Doug Smail, Dave Christian, Kevin Maxwell, Howard Walker, Mickey Volcan, and Bob Iwabuchi would have stayed around for the 1980-1981 season ... so that we could have redshirted Troy Murray and not had to bring in James Patrick, Rick Zombo, Gord Sherven, and Dave Tippett early the next year.

Especially if the Redwings or Blackhawks are in town.

Interesting hypothetical, but one that creates as many problems as it solves. A lot of issues with the scenario. First and foremost, Douple, as SiouxVolley notes. Second, the NCHC broke off because they wanted to be with schools that share a "hockey-excellence" mindset. Going back into Summit means risking becoming a backseat sport. Third, the rest of the Summit knows that Douple screwed over UND, or tried to, and that bad blood exists there. Asking UND to join the Summit is a slap in the face to UND. Now if Douple were to step down as a condition ... that might fly... Fourth, UMD faces political opposition from UM-TC if they want to go D-1 across the board, not to mention the money side of it, and the number of sports sponsored, and the loss of long time Northern Sun rivalries. Fifth, the MNSCU politics of letting two members move up (SCSU and MSU-Mankato) and thereby gain a disproportionate share of resources would result in a hit to Moorhead State, Bemidji State, Winona State, and the rest of the MNSCU. This one seems really REALLY unlikely to happen, except in the unlikely event that SCSU could come up with the money themselves, that Mankato could too, and that all seems highly unlikely. Certainly, Denver is in a tough spot. It would seem their Athletic Director and/or administration have badly misread the tea leaves here (not to mention messing up a great hockey program by canning Gwozdecky). That said, hockey and lacrosse, their two highest-profile sports are in a solid position. Interesting to hypothesize about, but the solution creates more problems than it solves... I'm expecting to hear that the Summit gives some remote desperate school a sweetheart deal to get the conference back to AQ status. Its worth a lot of money to them...

Boston's style of play changed tonight. Most nights, they've been physical. Tonight they were headhunting. Tonight, they changed into Mankato. Looks like they are starting to think the only way they can compete is to injure enough of Chicago's roster. I have a lot of respect for Boston, but tonight was not it.