farce poobah

No, watched on TV. Agree with your comments. Just gotta hope for better play tomorrow.

That was awful. The hardest part to watch is that we are not yet playing as a team. We make individual plays, but we're not yet seeing everyone on the ice. Top it all off, the lines were awful, the reffing was awful, and my popcorn was soggy. The only positive is we did compete in the 3rd. Tomorrow will be better. Hopefully.

Oh, kinda like Bill Murray in Stripes?

I still can't believe: ... that UND hired Gino Gasparini, what with Ned Harkness available and all. ... that "one if by land and two if by sea" actually worked. ... that the Persians fell for that Trojan horse thing. ... that people still wonder about Hakstol's ability to coach a winning team.

Norway > Niagara

I hope Toews wins gold; he's the kind of player that makes me proud to be a fan of UND hockey. And ON the ice, Canada has been classy. Go Canada Go.

Team USA plus-minus for defensemen, going into the Bronze Medal Game: Chorney +2 Lee +2 E Johnson +2 Niskanen 0 Mitera 0 J Johnson -2 (Butler, who rung it up against the cupcakes, was +4)

http://www.iihf.com/Hydra/Tournaments_06/o...226_74_1_0.html Russia's second goal was a PPG, and the final goal occurred because JJ lost track of his guy. I thought Chorney and Lee played outstanding D against the best forward lineup top to bottom in the tournament. JJ, on the other hand was brutal. 11-20-21 Porter-Gerbe-Skille for the USA were also -2 each on the night. Bad own-zone coverage. Oshie was terrific, just terrific. ================================ I don't care about Canada's fans. I want Toews to come back to GF with a Gold Medal. GO Give Em He-double-hockey-sticks Jonathan!

Last week, Russia 7, Czech 2. They cleaned 'em out, USA struggled to win. This is going to be difficult, even for the anointed pre-tournament favorites. At this point, rational says Russia, emotion says ....

nearing the halfway mark of the 3rd, 2-2

We may be treated to the spectacle of a team pulling their goalie in a tie game. USA needs the win, but Canada will be 'happy' with a tie.

2-2 "on the road" after 2 is a decent outcome, especially after starting 0-2. I have this gut feeling that one of the Sioux guys will be a hero tonight.

Funny to hear all the Vancouverites heckling their future goalie.

Friday 12/30: 4 wins for the WCHA, all important to NCAA possibilities: Most importantly for UND, a win over Harvard ... might ultimately become a "quality win" if H. finishes in the top 15. WI beats a CCHA team, Western Michigan, CC beats a CCHA team, Mich. State MN beats UM_Lowell of Hockey East Three losses: One bad, bad loss - the worst of the weekend - DU loses to Princeton. One expected loss - Tech nearly beats Michigan but loses in the end. And UAA loses to UAF. Also, Bemidji ties Clarkson, solidifying their status as a TUC. (And UND's 2-0 record vs. Bemidji becomes valuable as long as Bemidji stays RPI>.500.) All in all a decent night for the WCHA, 4-3, but not enough to really move the dial. Going to the RPI calculator here at siouxsports.com, http://siouxsports.com/hockey/rankings/rpi.php a few things stand out immediately: * 9 CCHA teams are TUCs right now, 1 Miami, 3 Michigan, 6 Ohio State, 10 LSSU, 11 UNO, 16 Ferris State, 18 UAF, 20 Michigan State, 28 Northern Michigan. And Bowling Green is just below .500. If this persists, it means generally that CCHA teams will have better PWR than their RPI's... helping all their comparisons. * Meanwhile, the WCHA has only 5 TUC's. 4 of the top 8, but only DU is also a TUC. HOWEVER, UMD is at .4995, and if they become a TUC, it really helps the Sioux (and hurts Minnesota!) due to the results so far. And St Cloud is close at .4963. * If the NCAA field were drawn today, based on PWR from siouxsports.com, http://siouxsports.com/hockey/rankings/pwr.php it would be: 5 CCHA - including 3 of the 4 #1 seeds - Miami, Michigan, and Ohio State 4 WCHA (WI, MN, CC, UND) 3 ECACHL (Harvard! Cornell and St Lawrence, with Colgate close at hand) 2 Hockey East (Vermont and BC - but no UNH, no Maine, no BU - Providence is close) 1 Atlantic 1 CHA Will be nice to see the "official" rankings come out soon. Expect all the polls to pick up on the power shift toward the CCHA soon...

i would say i saw that coming too but im listening on the internet (radio)

urg. 3-2

Ends in a tie ... Gotta beat Canada to get the coveted bye into the semifinals....

Maybe the Sioux fans at the Ralph should start cheering for the opponent and heckling the home team.

Sauer: "Marc Chorney with a great pass" (!) Time warp here ...

i think that would qualify as hostile and abusive

Toews #3 star of last night's Canada-Norway game: http://edmontonsun.com/Sports/Hockey/2005/...373077-sun.html

Hope you're right. If someone told me right now that UND would get the last seed in, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

Thursday 12/29: On the good side (for WCHA rankings), CC beat Michigan 6-1. MN beat Union. On the bad side, Sioux lost to Harvard (the top of the ECACHL) Mankato only manages a tie against Yale, the bottom of the ECACHL. Tech loses to Michigan State (as expected) Net net, not a good night for the WCHA. Being #5 in the WCHA might not be good enough to make it into the NCAA this year...

suddenly, playing cupcakes over New Years (instead of a team the quality of Harvard) is sounding pretty good.

Is it too late to pretend its a road game?