farce poobah

Re the Star Tribune article, it tells the story that we're all familiar with. Its well written, and has a couple quotes from Frattin's dad that I hadn't seen before. Overall, it was a favorable article, and fair if not tilted toward painting a positive portrait of Matt. The writer did not go on about the past, but focused on the change in Matt, and on the kind of person he's become. It doesn't get any fairer than that.

Oh gosh, where to start. This will be my 19th Frozen Four. I guess I should start at the beginning (a very good place to start). For me, that would be Detroit in 1979. Both Sioux and Gophers beat eastern opponents in the semifinals. Sioux vs. Gophers in the championship game. I was there with about 25 Farce members and a few hundred more-normal Sioux fans. Minnesota had several hundred fans, there may have been a couple other thousand, so the old Olympia arena was echoing pretty good that night. It seated maybe 15,000. Our seats were right next to the visitor penalty box, of course. In those days, the side glass was short enought that one could stand on seats in the front row and heckle converse with the players and referees. So during warmups, we were basically reading the public criticisms of Herb Brooks back to his team ... "you bunch of pathetic cakeeaters", "born with the silver spoon in your huge cakehole", and so on. They fired a few pucks at us but it was all pretty civil. Nobody wanted to get kicked out after driving for 24 hours. Just as a Minnesota penalty was expiring, a couple Farce members knocked on the plexiglass next to the Gopher. He looked over, six flashbulbs went off, and then he stumbled heading out onto the ice. It was pretty hilarious. Any advantage we could give Another advantage was when the Sioux could check a Gopher into the boards right in front of us. In those cases, the boards checked back. If you know what I mean. Anyway, we all know how it ended, on a fluky goal that looked like Wheeler's 2007 goal at the final five. They still play it a lot on TV here in the twin cities. After the game, most of the Gophers came over to do a little taunting. Our reaction, universally, was to offer a handshake. Definitely the only time I can remember the winning team shaking hands with the losing team's fans. Most of the Sioux came over too. After the game, we came out to get our cars/vans and were happy to see the barbed wire fence hadn't been clipped, and that our hubcaps were all there still. It was a long drive back, but a great college experience: The Great American Road Trip.

I'm rooting for Scott Sandelin. He's a character guy who devoted 10 years to building Fighting Sioux hockey (4 playing, 6 coaching), and I hope he beats Notre Dame.

To your immediate question, I don't know. I'm guessing $25-30, but that's a wild guess. There may be better choices than light rail to taxi to Xcel. First, If you are comfortable with public transportation, the 94 Express bus (from Downtown Minneapolis to downtown St Paul) is a good choice. http://www.metrotransit.org/Schedules/WebSchedules.aspx?route=94&service=1 If you take the bus, I cannot stress too strongly the importance of the express. (There is a local route that takes over an hour from dntn Mpls to dntn St Paul. Second, if you are comfortable taking public transportation, I would suggest just taking the Route 54 from MOA to Downtown St Paul. http://www.metrotransit.org/Schedules/WebSchedules.aspx?route=54&service=1 Third, if you are taking a taxi, it only saves about 2 miles to go from Downtown Mpls instead of just going from Bloomington. (Plus the light rail savings.) http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl Hope this is helpful. I live on the north side of town, so have not taken those south-side transportation routes personally. ALLOW EXTRA TIME is the general rule.

I second that emotion. Far too young, far too much promise. Simply tragic.

"...they had to sew my ear back on." Let's talk toughness. Let's talk gritty. Let's talk Ryan Johnson. "He [Bertuzzi] came walking right in here and said 'Sorry' as soon as it happened," Johnson said. "I haven't seen it on tape. Now with the new standard, you have to come back and go through the standard tests with the doc(tor) quickly and do some things, and they had to sew my

Realistically, there will be a number of empty seats on Thursday during game 2. Some of the game 1 fans will leave. I've been to 18 frozen fours and there's always open seats Thursday. Saturday is a different story.

I think Davidson will play at the next level. His speed and agility have really improved .... Maybe a career AHL, or a shot at the big time if he keeps improving.

Yup. Section 122 Row 13.

Hostile and Abusive? Only if you're wearing Corn.

THIS would be the year the NCAA could sell 50,000 tickets. * given an arena with unlimited capacity, how many Sioux fans would show this weekend? (Of course, as a ticket holder, I'd prefer to be in the 19,000 seat Xcel.)

Just a quick note to observe that the Sioux penalty kill was -17% during the midwest regional. 12 opportunities, 0 goals allowed, 2 short handers scored ... -2 / 12 = -17%. Michigan should decline the powerplay and just take the yardage instead.

In 1997, we had a player that was drafted by the NHL ... The MOP of the 1997 Frozen Four was a guy named Matt. .....

Double shot of WCHA vs CCHA.

Yup. It was surreal. 17,000 dressed in green and white. 15,000 in stunned silence at getting drubbed. 2,000 going crazy at the awe-inspiring performance by the Hrkac Circus.

Anyone wishing to pass the time can watch the replay of UND - RPI at 1130 CDT on ESPNU. Otherwise, I keep telling myself we have three players in the lineup that we didn't last Saturday (Gregoire, Rodwell, Rowney). I also expect a subtle change in our breakouts, where DU was coming hard after the puck last Saturday and really jumping on that first pass. I don't see DU bottling us up like they did during parts of Saturday's game.

try espn3.com or the radio on fightingsioux.com (or maybe kfgo)

I can excuse ANY emotions Jesse Martin has about North Dakota hockey or players. There is no excuse for Mike Chambers. He's an embarrassment to sportswriters and a disgrace to his profession.

I'm sure the Red Wings will also become Sioux fans, now that they know this.

Lot of upsets in the making. This looks to be a wild and crazy tournament. The ones I think have the highest probability of upsets: * UNO over Michigan * UMD over Yale * UNH over Merrimack * CC over BC

For Saturday: 1) Short shifts, forwards and defensemen. 2) More-equal playing time among the D. 3) Emphasis on "no-stickwork". Particularly since RPI is fast. 4) Move the feet. Goes hand in hand with stickwork. 5) Lay off the big hits, but finish checks. For Sunday: 1) Breakouts: be less predictable on the first pass. Denver's second forward was cheating on Saturday, anticipating what our first pass was going to be. 2) Riding time: be more patient and work to wear down the short DU bench. 3) Puck support in neutral ice. Second guy near the puck carrier, and get it in deep if the rush is stopped. For both games: 1) Enjoy the moment. You were meant to be here. 2) This is YOUR TIME.

Just a quick note that as a Comcast HD internet subscriber, I get ESPN3.com ... all their stuff. I rarely take them up on the Cricket broadcasts, or 2 Euro football clubs. But it shows ALL the NCAA games this weekend. I will definitely take them up on that. (Unless of course I head off to Green Bay.)

Notre Dame has to be thinking about expanding its ties with other Catholic universities. (BC, Merrimack, Providence, to name just three.) I agree they will leave the CCHA, but I see them going to Hockey East. That's the closest thing to their other Big East ties. (Especially if the campaign to add schools brings in Syracuse or Pitt, and if UConn moves up from AHA to Hockey East, etc etc.) I wouldn't be surprised if there's a split of Hockey East and Big East in the coming years; some of those hockey-only alliances are as unlikely as those that exist out west. Of course, we (North Dakota) would love to have Notre Dame in WCHA. But from Notre Dame's perspective - football is king - I'm not sure they would be interested in coming back to the WCHA after leaving 30 years ago. I agree with the comments about the MAC schools sticking together; the hard part for them is what coalition can they build ... I think a hockey scheduling arrangement with Big 10 schools and the MAC schools is VERY likely.

Only 2000 votes so far ...

We also won't see the upside effect on attendance until fans of other schools who start making it frequently start buying tickets...