farce poobah

Because he had to beat JPar to do it, and the league is starting to realize how hard that is ...

OK, I have a question: Yale lost Friday on an overtime goal at 18:42 Yale lost Saturday on an overtime goal at 5:14 For the purposes of PWR, how do these games go in Yale's books? Two ties, since the overtime goals were scored after 5 minutes? Two losses? I should know this but I forget...

WBB Final - 80-71 Sioux. So, Sioux win the last football game, the last men's hoops game, and perhaps the last women's hoops game. Good thing we're kicking those inferior landcows off the schedule.

68-58 Sioux lead

Sioux lead Bison 30-21.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? Well too bad. This was no miracle. These guys are just plain the best.

WAY TO GO SIOUX!!!! YEEEE-HAAA!!!!

Zip it.

FINAL FROM MADISON: 2-2 tie. One more domino falls. One more to go. GO SIOUX!!!!!

Dear Zach, I have sinned. I have cheered for the Dogs when I should have cheered for the Badgers. I just could not get past the old saying "Better Dead Than Red".

I know that the Sioux win the cup if UMD loses, but it sucks to have UMD get tied up on a 5x3 with 3.5 minutes left...

Like heck it is. I'll take final night of the WCHA.

I thought the American Institute for the Blind sent all their alumni to become WCHA refs...

NO! NO! NO! Putting human error back into the mix would be royally stupid. Because it puts politics, money, backstabbing, etc in over merit. Leave it a formula. Improve the formula and tell everyone beforehand, but leave it a formula. Some of us remember UND getting screwed in 1983 and don't want to ever go back to a political system. UND, WCHA runnerup left out of the field, while 4th place UMD, whose AD just happened to be the chair of the selection committee, got in over us and CCHA champ Bowling Green.) Just say no. Please.

heh heh, and you guys just about pulled it off. As for this year, just be taking care of business and it looks like you'll get the afternoon semifinal....

I think next year we should send the Rodents gift certificates to a hair salon before we play them.

If UMD had scored on the 5x3, I would have said we should not take needless penalties ... both were Real Penalties, but neither came in a situation where we needed to take the penalty to stop a scoring chance. I'll stand by my statement, "...for the most part, the players decided the outcome..." Think of it this way - the Sioux played as well as we have all year, and so did Shepherd.

A few more random thoughts, partly inspired by NDH's good post. 1. "No laps for you" Our seats were on the walkway level, so before the game the Cops came by and warned us that students take laps after UMD goals. They also said if any UMD students gave us trouble, they would remove them from the arena, which was nice. Anyway, my reply to the Cops was "no laps tonight". 2. "Faster than fast" I've said a number of times how impressed I am with Duluth's speed, especially on neutral zone transitions. But the Sioux tempo in the first period Friday was incredible. We were faster than fast. 3. "Cleaner than clean" In a series played with tremendous emotion, with a raucous house two nights, the players played under control very very well. Only a couple times was there after-whistle rough stuff, and that was all minor. No cheap shots away from the play, no spears when the AR's were looking the other way. This is a tribute to both teams and their coaching staffs. 4. "UMD student section - just plain loud" I don't know if they get letters on their seats, but I do know they were loud, consistently enthusiastic, and not (very) profane. I heard one "B.S" chant, but it was deserved and spontaneous. Oh, and I didn't see any brooms. 5. "The invisible Shepherd" Yes, the crew made a couple mystifying calls, including an icing on UND that appeared to go between the skates of a UMD defender at center ice. But for the most part, the players decided the game, not the officials. I'm happy when Shepherd is as invisible as he was this weekend. 6. "Lord of the Rink - The return of the Schneider" I thought Andy Schneider was outstanding this weekend. He's playing better all the time, and right now he's playing like the end of next month. 7. "Stopping gets us started Saturday" I thought the timeout 7 minutes into the second period Saturday was a brilliant move. Preceding it, we had made some bad passes with the puck, and we had stopped skating. Most coaches seem to wait until after giving up a couple goals, but Blais and Co often stop the action and take the TO before. I like that, and it sure worked last night. 8. "Zach and Bucks" As much as I like splitting them on the road, I thought the line juggling that the Sioux coaches did after the TO Saturday messed up the 'Dogs just a bit. Long enough for Zach and Bucks to team up for the critical first goal. When we really needed to make some plays, those guys stepped up and got it done. After a short stint on the same line, they went back to the original combo's. 9. "Why is Duluth using Alaska's powerplay?" Our play 3x5 in the 3rd was just spectacular. Starting with Parise and Bochenski - does any other coach in the nation take a Defenseman off the ice when down 2 men? - we cleared the zone 7 or 8 times during that PK, which was a result of terrific jump. McMahon won a couple key d-zone draws. At the end of the powerplay, my 10-year old daughter asked why Duluth was using Alaska's powerplay ... I don't know where she hears that stuff. 10. "Our Density, I mean our Destiny" When this Sioux team shows up, when the whole roster is ready to go, I think we're the best team in the nation. Destined for greatness, am we.

Tapping the keg is just fine by me. Tapping the Caig is another matter entirely.

How did I get tickets? I bought 'em in October, because I thought the title wold come down to this weekend..... Can't speak for the other 400-600 Sioux fans there tho. The atmosphere at the DECC was great for the first 40 minutes. The last 20, it was if you are a Sioux fan. Got quiet after Lundbohm scored the 4th Sioux goal. Nice to see the DECC full again, like it should be.

Friday postgame thoughts, from an in-person viewer. First and foremost, I haven't seen the Sioux pursue the puck that hard since the Panzer-Blake days. With the puck, we had excellent puck support. Without the puck, we pressured Duluth so hard they couldn't take 2 steps without being forced. We hit the body on open ice as well as I've seen all year, against a team with terrific speed, we hit them before they could start moving. Especially in the 3rd period, it was a Thing of Beauty to watch. I'm not a coach or anything, but I wonder if the aggressiveness of the Sioux forecheck caught Sandy and the Dog coaches by surprise. They may not be used to having teams come into their rink and come after them that hard. (I bet most visiting coaches emphasize keeping numbers behind the puck.) At times, the Sioux forecheck had four guys in deep (above the faceoff dots), and I haven't seen our D pinch that much in 3 years. Frankly, I expect the Dogs to make some adjustments tonight. Second, and nearly as important, the Entire Roster played hard and played with poise. The difference in performance between the first line and fourth line, first D pair and third D pair was almost imperceptible. Special kudos to Stafford-Hale-Fabian, who hit at least one post maybe two (couldn't tell for sure), and kept the puck 190 feet from Brandt for long stretches of time. Also, Smaby looked like a World Junior candidate last night. As long as he keeps the game simple, he's very effective. Get in the right position, hit/force, move the puck fast. We played the tiny neutral zone very well. I can recall only 1 or 2 center ice turnovers that resulted in Dog odd man rushes, which is as close to mistake-free as can be expected against a team of Duluth's caliber. Oddly enough, I thought a couple of the goals we got were a wee bit soft. Clearly, Reichmuth could have stopped Genoway's first goal. And the second goal, while a terrific screen by Bucks in front messed up Reichmuth, was basically a long soft shot. BUT, we could have easily had 4-5 more goals ... Zach and Brady had their chances, Fuher had 2-3 great chances for a hat, etc etc. Brandt was strong early when he needed to be. He made a very nice save on a shorthanded chance (Stauffacher?) early in the second period. While the game was close, he was strong. And late in the game, he could just as well have sat in the rocking chair because the Sioux did a tremendous job of keeping the Dogs outside, or better yet, 190 feet from the goal. The only thing I can think of to improve on is faceoffs, where we lost a few too many. But that's a nitpick on a sterling performance. Last, I thought D. Shepherd called a good game. Interestingly enough the UMD radio postgame said the same thing. ===================== At the beginning of the season, I had picked Duluth to win the league title, based on the premise they had the best goaltender, strong senior leadership and good chemistry, plus they are the fastest team in the conference, IMO. Until last night, I was worried I might be right, and I may still be right on that prediction. HOWEVER, when our entire roster shows up, I think we're better. ========================= For tonight: Anybody think Blais will leave the lines intact? The Dogs will pay more attention to moving the puck faster before the Sioux pressure gets there, they will bring their centers deeper into the zone, and they will try to create transition opportunities at center ice. For the Sioux, it would be nice to give UMD a couple fewer powerplays ... and your guess at the goaltender is as good as mine. I'd like to see Brandt get the shot. GO SIOUX!!

Noticing that we are #3 in USCHO's current PWR (11 pm on Sunday 11/22), while UMD is #4. A question - USCHO defines a quality win as a nonconference win against a top 15 team in the RPI. But they show UND with just one, when I think we have two. Let's assume they got the BC game correct. The other should be, I think, the HOF game on October 4 vs. UMD. Am I missing something? or is USCHO?

Blais gave Fabian very high praise in the USCHO recap, saying "he puts in more time than anyone else". Guys like that tend to find their way onto Dean's roster. Still, I gotta go with Brady Murray. His strong play all season has allowed Blais to split Zach and Bo, helping build the scoring depth we'll need down the stretch.

Yup - we got our work cut out for us. (Sioux just split with CC, they swept CC. Sioux split with Rodents; Dogs swept Rodents....) I like our odds.