farce poobah

... and when Gino won titles, his assistants were the likes of Rick Wilson (still in the NHL after all these years), Dean Blais, Jim Nelson ....

Most of the 4000 diehards were at Mariucci last night .... but seriously, what a horrendous atmosphere for a proud program. They badly need to reseat Mariucci, and start by creating a real student section (and a larger one). That's what creates the college atmosphere that old folks like me love. Don't expect it to happen .... but when Mariucci gets full, it can get loud and intimidating. Of course, that was 10 years ago.

Blackhawks, on a day off, visit Walter Reed Hospital. Says something about that franchise that they are apparently the first to bring the Stanley Cup there. "You know, we think we make sacrifices," said captain Jonathan Toews. "And then you come here and learn what real sacrifices are. These are such young people whose bodies have been changed forever. Yet their spirit is terrific. They don't feel sorry for themselves. They just move on. I've learned a lot here today. It's been amazing. I've never spent a day quite like this and I'm not going to forget it. I hope none of us will." Amen. Full story: http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=555690

we got outshot in the second period. that is unexceptable.

This might be the shortest game thread in years. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sioux women take a 3-2 lead on the Gophers. 2900 at the Ralph tonight.

BC lost to Northeastern 2-1. Surprising Merrimack wins again, 2-1 over UMass.

Mankato draws first blood. Ole! oleoleole! Ole! oleoleole! Ole! oleoleole!

Definitely going. My final view of this season will be of Captain Genoway, wearing his Fighting Sioux jersey, raising the Trophy.

Good memory there, Blackheart. Let's take that "Never Say Die" attitude a bit further. In the first of those 4 regular season games, in November in Minneapolis, the Gophers had a 10-3 lead. The Sioux scored three goals in the last 2 minutes to make the final 10-6. Without those three "meaningless" goals, the Sioux lose the tiebreaker. A great object lesson for the kids ... Never give up, don't ever give up.

Methinks Marvin is secretly hoping to get suspended. That way he doesn't have to man up for a Showdown with Mario.

Add to this, that we have a coach who understands that he's the custodian of a great Fighting Sioux tradition, and a team filled with seniors, I expect the weekend to be a truly memorable performance. Buy now. You'll be glad you did.

Some interesting omissions, including Lynah (Cornell). Most of them are easy to agree with, although I would have ditched Yale for Cornell. If UNO keeps drawing 15,000 like they did for the Badger games this weekend, they will get onto people's radar.

I have questions about faceoffs: * How do you teach them (just repetition?) * How do you coach them ... seems like an awful lot of faceoff wins depend on linemates not just the centerman. Year after year, I see UND winning well over half ... and I'm wondering how that comes to be.

One of the great stories out East is Merrimack, who's now up to #5 or #6 depending on which website you look at. With an OT sweep tonight against UNH, and the fact tonights game was played without their leading scorer da Costa, they are on a roll. Not out of the question that they sneak into a #1 if the WCHA teams lose any momentum. Over on USCHO, Redwing8831 has an interesting scenario which sends Wisconsin out East ... http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?92167-Too-early-for-the-PWR-Princeton-and-Brown-say-no!&p=5030843&viewfull=1#post5030843 Oh - and one other interesting observation is just 3 CCHA teams would make it in ... Miami, Notre Dame and Michigan. This maybe speeds the desire of some to flee the CCHA in favor of a Big Ten Hockey conference. Still, I'm singing "Meet Me In St Louis" for the NCAA Regionals. Not just because I like the idea of playing on neutral ice (not road ice which would be the case at the other 3 regionals), but because its a manageable trip / drive from the Twin Cities.

LOL - I'm just here to help.

I prefer to think of it as Denver losing 0-3 after 1 period.

Minor point of order: Grand Forks is closer to St Louis than Denver. (721 vs 768 miles, by air, airport to airport) Besides that, Green Bay will sell out with the Badgers in town, regardless of who else goes there. But St Louis really NEEDS fans who travel, and that's why I think UND gets sent to St Louis - as long as we are a #1 or a #2 seed.

Excuse me, I just spilled beer on my Union jersey.

Whole lotta methane produced in that place.

Unsung hero of the week, and maybe season - Jake Marto. After playing forward for much of the season, he steps onto D for the weekend, and comes out +1 Friday and +3 Saturday. I have no idea how a guy can switch back and forth - between weeks, between games, and sometimes its been between shifts - and succeed like he does. I salute.

UND is dramatically underfunded and under-resourced to really make FBS work right now. Give it 10 years, especially if UND can gain a strong following in the western half of the state (ie, incremental revenue to athletics)... get facilities upgraded, strengthen ties. build up the endowments, etc. It's not out of the question that a set of core Big Sky members might eventually make the jump, and we should put ourselves in position to move along with them.

Truth. I think the reason this is coming up now is that Douple is doing a favor for his buddy Gene Taylor. Taylor sees a chance to smear UND, and he's taking it. (An alternative is that Douple is doing the bidding of his AD's, by trying to ding UND he thinks he's helping the Summit defend against Big Sky encroachment.) Kolpack, the puppet, is just trying to sell newspapers.

These brackets make sense, as far as where the WCHA teams are likely to go. I think the committee will look at the remaining seedings and make some swaps ... because St Louis is an attendance nightmare. Look for Michigan or Notre Dame to get sent to St Louis along with UND. They will keep the seeding bands, but as we saw last year, the best #2 seed doesn't always get the lowest #3. In the above brackets, that could be achieved by swapping BC and Notre Dame. Or by placing Michigan in St Louis and moving Notre Dame to Manchester. (Michigan fanbase travels better than Notre Dame.) I also think the committee would look for a way to place UNO in St Louis. But I don't see them matching them with another WCHA #1 seed in the first round. That taboo seems almost sacred. But if UNO climbs to a #3, look for them to be in St Louis. Barring UND falling to a #3 seed, I think we're going to St Louis. (Don't worry about rushing out to buy tickets, however.)

Let's see, the last 7 penalties of the game went to UNO.