farce poobah

Wow, letting Rocco wheel with the puck is the closest thing I've seen to a guaranteed zone entry on the powerplay.

That's just sad ... when a clean body check becomes not just a penalty but a major. Of course, I have to remember its Adam and Anderson.

When the rats start jumping off the ship, there must be a da#^ good reason.

And when he was gone from there, his friends they were drinking all his beer.

Just pointing out that the attendance from this weekend's series (around 40000 plus or minus) will bump Nebraska Omaha's per-game average by about 2200 fans. This would rank them above 19 D-1 men's teams, if that were the only attendance they had all season. Massive.

That. Plus, I was wondering who taught the current Badgers that squirt bottles can be used to start a brawl.

The "General" Tire line. They run over you. They love bumps. They are good under pressure. And they never come out flat.

At the biggest golf party of them all - the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale. Of course there's a guy with a Sioux jersey. (At 1:19 or so...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO-qAZ6zP90

One of the reasons this team "looks different" is that we have been making a lot of poor decisions with the puck. Too many passes to nobody, too many unforced errors, too many just plain hand it back to the opponent. As a result, the puck spends too much time in our end, we keep getting outshot, and we don't get the cycle game going. Sometimes the opponent will force a pass that results in a turnover, and Wisconsin is really good at that. But we made it easy for them last night.

I don't recall diving being a problem in the late 1970's or early 1980's. Reason being - if you dived, the other team pounded you later on. The system used to be self-policing. Not today.

Great push back by UND. Nice to see a chip on our shoulder.

Maybe for the next season the Gophers will have a cakewalk, but Penn State is on track to become a power in college hockey. They drew 19000 for a game in Philadelphia, they filled the Consol arena in Pittsburgh, and tremendous alumni loyalty means fan support which means money. Which in college sports, follow the Benjamins and you'll find the winners. The new "state of hockey" is about to be Pennsylvania.

UND with good jump to start. A good sign. Gophers too. High energy.

At first, I was disappointed that the NCHC and Notre Dame were unable to come to terms. But the more I think about it, I'm okay with it. Case in point, well articulated by Melinda Henneberger, "At Notre Dame, a fake tragedy gets more tears than a real one". http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/01/17/a-fake-tragedy-gets-more-tears-than-a-real-one/ Shame, shame, for old Notre Dame.

Well, since the WCHA Final Five moved into the (new) Xcel, Wisconsin has won all of 1 game in the championship portion of the bracket. (They won the 3rd place game several times.) http://wcha.com/men/...ney/history.php

If its not in the UND record books, I would suggest asking Jayson Hajdu of UND.

I agree. There's really no other reason to expect Bemidji to skate circles around them (and that was the case both nights, even during Bemidji's 2 major PKs). No disrespect to Bemidji intended. My best guess is a combination of things. Start with illness (flu). combine it with potentially less than perfect conditioning. AND something with the chemistry or locker room presence of the top guys. Other teams have gotten by with fewer forwards (say, 9) and won key games. But they were a tight group that really pulled together. Says something about how rare last years' UND accomplishments are.

Bemidji ups their lead on DU to 3-0. Early 2nd.

Great game through 2 periods. Hope this one is decided by a good goal.

Knight draws a penalty. Pretty weenie call, given that they could have called DU for half-dozen hooks earlier. Of course, hooking is legal in the WCHA unless someone falls down. EDIT: And the even-up call comes a minute later, when Caggiula doesn't draw the tripping call.

Notre Dame hosting Michigan State on the Notre Dame Network NBC Sports Network. A guy in the Notre Dame student section wearing a Blackhawks #19 with the "C". Something about that seems wrong. Maybe I'll wear a Las Vegas Wranglers Geoff Paukovich jersey to the Ralph and see what happens.

Some important games last night for PWR purposes down the line. WCHA goes 1-0-1 vs Hockey East (CC ties NH, MN beats VT) ... given the strength of HEA, that's nice. WCHA goes 1-0 vs CCHA (UND vs Notre Dame) ... gven that Notre Dame will be a TUC, that's nice also. UNO beats Huntsville (a loss would have hurt, not that a win helps a lot) but Denver losing to Yale will hurt.

Ridiculous home cooking tonight from CCHA referees. Geez. If that's interference, they should have called it the first 1000 times it happened tonight.

Agree. It seems that they really miss the elite players and finishers they've had the last couple years - no Connelly, no JT Brown, no Kenny Reiter.

Worst LINES officiating I have ever seen at a WCHA game. Least consistency EVER. Missed icings, phantom icings, phantom offsides, offsides when the defending team knocked the puck in, failure to enforce standard protocols like bench-clearing after end of period. Please PLEASE can we get a couple linesmen who can do the job. Otherwise give the whistle to their seeing eye dogs. Worst penalty calling ever also, but other people have already ragged on that.