farce poobah

I was not aware that New Hampshire's rink was filled with Gopher fans.

have also heard.... Fabian-Prpich-Kaip Oshie-Porter-Toews

or this: http://www.wntk.com/

Northeastern is just plain awful. Slow, weak, and undisciplined. The reason they got so many penalties is they were getting beat to the puck, to the slot, to anything, by UND. In this case, the weak opponent made it tough for this casual fan to assess how good the Sioux will be. A few things stood out on the weekend... 1) The #1 powerplay unit. (Saturday: Toews, Zajac, Stafford, Chorney, Lee.) Crisp passes, tape to tape. Nice rotations, nice plays, excellent puck possession. As they get more time together, and assuming they play together, I think they have the potential to become the best powerplay unit in the WCHA since Wisconsin in the '70's. 1b) Four first-round draft choices skating at the same time. (Toews, Zajac, Stafford, Lee) It took me a while to put 2+2 together, but then I realized that I was watching 4 first-round draft choices ... (assuming Toews goes as expected next year) gotta love it. Certainly a first in UND history, most likely a first in NCAA history. (Gotta get Oshie out with those 4 ...) 2) The Grinder Line, The Red Pepper Line, The Cruiser Bruiser Line. (Kaip, Prpich, Fabian) They simply outmuscled NE all weekend, and kept the puck 200 feet from our goal while creating a fair number of chances themselves. This is a keeper combination. They came out after most powerplays, a critical time in many games. 3) Brian Lee. Has a subtle and brilliant way of making things look easy. So easy, in fact, that I can see why some weren't impressed at the WJC. Magically in the right position a lot ... and making the occasional rookie mistake. 4) Taylor Chorney. Flashier but very effective too. Chased down a potential SH breakaway late Saturday with pure speed. Did some nice dangling on the point. Very VERY agile. Like his dad, who was a Farce favorite, has all-american written all over him. 5) Four rookie forwards - impressed with speed and hands - Duncan, Oshie, Watkins and Kozek... again, hard to say how they will fare against tougher competition. Oshie's style reminded me a bit of Jason Blake, always going full speed, trying to turn the corner on the D at every opportunity, eager to beat the defender to the puck while forechecking and willing to take the hits. Overall, I think this may be the best collection of raw talent I've seen wear the green and white. I do think that pre-New Years will be a struggle, but if we can win enough games to stay in the NCAA top 13 and just get into the tournament, anything can happen. Come March, UND will be a force to reckon with.

Sign me up as one who loves October. To many, October is winter laughing in the distance, its spiteful frostbitten breath only a day away on the north wind. To me, October is Fresh, October is New, October is Grand. Because October brings another season of hockey. Summer has come and passed The innocent can never last Wake me up when September ends You can have your stupid hot summer. You can have your baseball and golf, for even though I like both, my true love is hockey. Like my father's come to pass Twenty years has gone so fast Wake me up when September ends October is a time to remember the greats who

Jeez, imagine the carnage if we give Denver 11 powerplays edit: I don't mean to be negative, a win is a win, and I have a lot of confidence this young talent will learn fast ...

now we can say SHUTOUT SHUTOUT SHUTOUT!!!!

end of 2 Alberta 2, St Cloud 1 looks like Alberta will win more games than SCSU this year personally, I think its great, I wouldn't mind if SCSU lost every da$# game

Seems like a lot of Sioux penalties taken as a result of being out of position. That's not a good sign, as I expect the speed/strength of attackers will be tougher when we hit WCHA land in 3 weeks ...

Bochenski! gets on the scoresheet with his first NHL assist tonight... Parise! with an assist Dang, I miss those guys.

Especially considering they had a fair number of crowds in the 2600 range last year, in a rink listed at 2200 capacity ... leaves a lot of revenue on the table, it would seem

I think UMD will be A LOT better this year than last. They had a bunch of guys who were just showin' up and playin out the string last year. With all that dead wood gone, locker room chemistry has to be better. Still, it seems that getting into the top half of the WCHA makes a team a lock for NCAA, where anything can happen. UND at #5 seems like the safe prediction... I just have a hunch about this team in March. Toughest part will be surviving thru Christmas, and staying in the hunt for PWR #13 or better ....I would not be surprised if the Sioux get a lot of wins after Christmas....

ryan johnson - st louis

And The Great Crosby is still scoreless! Parise > Crosby

obligatory link to opponent broadcast http://www.stcloudstate.edu/athletics/listen.asp

First chance!!! and hopefully not last chance to watch NCAA tournament hockey at the Ralph.

Sounds like Dr. Kupchella is stepping forward as a strong advocate of the school's tradition. Win or lose, I have to feel like Sioux nickname supporters were well represented in this *&^$# process. I for one won't be setting foot in a tribal casino. Ever. As to programs at UND for Native Americans, it would be extremely shortsighted to dump over this trivial matter. [come on, its just sports] Getting opportunities, a chance to get off the reservation for those who want it, getting a chance for education is far more important, and I'm still proud to be an alum of a school with a strong record of supporting advancement for Native Americans.

Most schools would give their right nut to get a first round draft choice on defense, drafted #27 overall. Yet Joe Finley doesn't rate a mention. Yet another point of evidence that this is the broadest, deepest, best bunch of incoming that I've seen in 30 years of UND fandom.

Thanks for the updates ... not able to get any audio to work today.

Heck, I'm gonna scalp the St Cloud - Robert Morris tickets. I plan to say there's a big protest scheduled for the game against Robert Morris [insert bogus Native American nickname here] team but its inside.

I don't see attendance given anywhere ... anyone at the game care to estimate the crowd?

In Boston 2004, we got the same reaction from Maine fans while wearing our UND jerseys. Their fan base is loyal and has long memories, and the steps Blais and UND took to help Walsh will linger a long time. Beyond that, there are a lot of similarities (they rail about the built-in advantages that BC and BU and the related snobbery just like we rail about MN's snobbery) that make for common ground.

Terrific articulation of a strong persuasive argument. Alumni, students and friends can ask no more of a President than that. Well done, President Kupchella.

I am mad as hell, with the same reasons that PCM and others have passionately and clearly stated. I am pondering two more questions this morning: 1) Is there a snowball's chance in he$$ of winning this particular battle? The answer to this seems clear. The NC$$ has an agenda, and they WILL impose it on everyone. They will arm-twist the Ice Hockey committee, the D2 football and basketball committees, and everyone they can think of. What this means is that an NC$$ playoff game WILL NOT be played with UND as host, until we change the nickname. That's a significant competitive disadvantage, especially for a school with ongoing annual national title hopes. (Of course if UND moved to D-1 then it would only hurt a couple sports.) It's at least conceivable to change the nickname for everything BUT hockey. ... keep the Fighting Sioux nickname for hockey, but change everything else to Rough Riders or whatever. That way, basketball, football, swimming, baseball, could host (maybe?). It's at least conceivable that they carve out an exception for schools with strong American Indian programs and who provide sufficient public education programs (how about an exhibit on Lakota and Chippewa culture in the Betty during next spring's ice hockey regionals? ... other than scoring political points, it would indeed be cool to see UND step up and use the nickname as a platform for educating the white people in the area about Native American culture ...) But ultimately, it seems unlikely the NC$$ will listen to any kind of reason, rationale, or apply any fairness whatsoever. They've got an agenda, and anyone who disagrees can just go to he!!. 2) What will the NC$$ do NEXT YEAR to further impose their agenda? Why stop at a ban on hosting? This seems pretty clearly an intermediate step, a big shot across the bow. But the big punishment is yet to come, in my opinion. Clearly, their next step will be to ban teams with American Indian nicknames from ANY postseason participation. Past that, instead of or in addition to, it will be to bar conferences with a member school using an American Indian nickname from getting autobids. The NC$$ doesn't have to flat out ban nicknames to get what they want. If they are bound and determined to force change, they'll get it. ========================= Don't get me wrong, I would rather keep the Fighting Sioux nickname than change. But UND Athletics is now at a competitive disadvantage, and I dislike that worse...