farce poobah

Reactions from another in-person fan: First, I thought the ice was horrible. Did anyone hear any comments? or was that my imagination ... good heavens, we missed a lot of passes that would normally get taken. Second, I thought about 6-7 guys had good strong games. About 10-11 were invisible or just plain bad. Decent games (as if I'm an expert): Parise, Notermann. Schneider was generally good ... Lee Marvin made some good hustling plays. Brandt was fine in relief of Ranfranz, with a couple very good stops and nothing soft that went in. Spiewak did some good PK work, with Jason. Weak: Somebody put novocaine inside Bochenski's gloves ... his good hands were MIA tonight... maybe the ice is an excuse, maybe not. He fumbled a bunch... Ryan Hale looked out of place at times, but he gets cut some slack playing a new position. McMahon, except for a few good bodychecks in the 3rd. Ranfranz. Genoway. What to do different? First and foremost, keep moving your feet. When the Sioux drew 3 DU penalties in the second period, it was because they were fighting thru the maze of sticks ... and forcing the calls. Stop skating, like we did at times, and it becomes all too easy for DU. Second, improve the ice. At a minimum, drop the temp. inside the REA to like 65 or maybe even 60 degrees. [maybe freeze the pucks harder too]. Third, start Brandt in goal. Fourth, use at least one defenseman on the PP ... the forwards continue having a devil of a time starting behind our own net ... Fifth, ignore everything I say and listen to what the coaches say. ============================================= Like the earlier writer, I am depressed. As a fan, I can accept losing, especially when the other team plays a solid game. But I have a hard time when we don't show heart, when we're not ready, and that's how I would assess tonight. It's been a rare feeling these past 8 years of the Dean Blais era, but we really REALLY deserved to lose tonight. And if we don't play with some heart tomorrow, I'd rather have the season end. If there's any good news in this? its that pairwise still has UND #11. But DU is up to #13.... and probably passes us if they win the series. Come on Sioux. Let's PLAY HOCKEY.

PCM, we're gonna need you to go to church Saturday, please. Sunday may be too late.

It took Prpich all of 2 shifts to take a stupid penalty - he lined up a DU guy behind the net, hammered him hard, but came in with elbow up - which led to the early goal which led to a loss of energy .... [damn]. So much for stay out of the box. Its a good theory.

Get out to a fast start, get all over them ... don't necessarily need to score right away, just keep the puck ... DU could be really REALLY dangerous with a lead, after all they were the preseason favorite ...

I predict Mike Prpich will: * Play all the rest of this years' games * Be captain someday * Score 2 goals in this years Frozen Four. * Get a full ride next year. LET'S GO SIOUX!! LET'S GO SIOUX!! LET'S GO SIOUX!! © [To coin a phrase ...]

Call ME nuts, but if methinks the Sioux RPI and PWR will be helped by playing Denver, whose RPI is still way up there - #15. For all intents and purposes, this is an NCAA playin series. Loser is probably out. Winner is most likely in. ==================== Predictions: CC, MN and UND in 2. MSU-M and UMD in 3. P.S. Final WCHA stats show Jake Brandt with the #2 GA in the conference. Hmmm...

I don't know HOW you get tickets ... check the REA website, call the REA, or i bet ticketmaster will have. Playoffs are part of the season ticket package, so the Sioux start with a mostly-sold house, but with students on break I bet there will indeed be tickets available. Denver .... REVENGE!!!!

Now that things are finally set, and it went to the last game before 6 teams knew who they were playing: #10 UAA at #1 CC #9 MI Tech at #2 MN (gophers win tie-break with Mavericks) #8 WI at #3 MSU-Mankato #7 Denver at #4 UND #6 St Cloud at #5 UMD ======================= Predictions? ======================= GO SIOUX!!!!

RANFRANZ !!! second shutout !!! gotta help confidence shots 39-17 FINAL 5-0 JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED!!!

PCM, again, THANK YOU for the great weekly updates. U R terrific. Conspiracy theory indeed. ... Hey these are cool smilies. As to the situation with David Hale, its good to hear Blais talk first about the person, second about the player. I think its easy to underestimate how much a toll that takes on teammates, brothers, friends. If you've ever had a friend go thru cancer treatment, or a serious illness of any kind ... you'll know what I mean. And competing at this level of competition, the razor-fine edge between winning and losing has never been so obvious. I just hope they can find it before the season runs out. Interesting comments on Ziggy. No doubt some bozo will imagine an ncaa violation somewhere in there. (REMEMBER THESE ARE NOT QUOTES! ITS JUST HEARSAY FROM PCM.) But I mean that in a good way. Its, like, really GOOD hearsay.

There are ALWAYS alternatives: 1) Split the tix with a friend or two .... 2) Buy the tix and sell enough of the ones you don't want to Canadians to pay for the other games .... 3) Gamble on scalping at the game (there's ALWAYS tickets available). 4) Marry someone with last name Parise, Crosby, or Murray.

This just in ... "In a related story, Badger Coach Eaves announced a verbal commitment from one more new recruit today."

Indeed, a Shrine where The Good Seats are mostly empty.

Taz, your points are well taken. It was someone else who used the phrase goaltending nightmare, and I think we agree that goal #1 was stoppable, and #4 was just plain soft. If we differ, its in defining better ... I would not have said Mantanko played better, but they got results and we didn't. They made very few mistakes, and I agree totally with that... we had a few odd man rushes but they had a lot more, especially in the second. You've obviously seen a lot of hockey, and I think you raise good points. As to the detail, thanks. It helped to have the big scoreboard at the Wireless replay the goals. har. But really, I watched a tape (mavs home games are on local cable); skimmed thru the boring stuff and got to the goals. Two weeks ...

I wouldn't characterize 3rd as a longshot possibility.... we just have to win games that we should win, namely UMD and WI. In fact, if this team has shown anything this year, it is a very good ability to beat teams that we should beat. (Saturday MTU the lone exception.) After that, * CC sweeping Mankato is the most likely outcome ... * or Mav's getting a point or more BUT UM-TC getting less than 5 points from DU and SCSU. Of couse, i'm perenially optimistic.

Saw Saturday in person ... Gotta love the Midwest Wireless Center, where the SRO tickets at center ice, perfect elevation, are better than most of the real seats. Thanks, ticketba$#%d for giving us SRO. How would I summarize Saturday's game? "The Sioux gave a tremendous effort, a near-perfect effort, interspersed with some colossal mistakes, some by rookies, some by players that should know better. Mankato got a few scoring chances, and they were great ones, but only a few, and buried them. The Sioux got a lot of chances and didn't." Frankly, I left with a very different impression of the game than taz boy did. Starting at the top: Mankato's first goal, a blast from center point by Metcalf, came off a one-timer from a pass near the faceoff dot to Ranfranz's left. It hit the far post and dinged in, barely eluding Ranfranz's slide. It was the 1 that goes in of the 100 that get taken. I can't see there's any real "blame" to the goaltender or the defensive coverage. Mankato's second goal followed several mistakes, by almost everyone on the ice except Ranfranz. Sioux had possession on the right boards, clearing pass bounced off Mav forechecker, then Marvin flings the puck around to nobody, then Schneider interferes/hooks a Mav behind the net so he doesn't get to the loose puck first, but is forced to drop his stick to avoid getting a minor called, and then he heads prematurely to the bench (to get a stick, I think not to change). Meantime, we did clear the zone, but nobody covers the vacant D spot, and when Mav's intercept another poor pass at center ice, that leaves Stevenson cruising in on a clean break, and he buries a wrister high in the corner. A beautiful sniper shot. But set up by a series of mental and physical mistakes by the Sioux. Mav's third goal came on the powerplay. Scramble, Able buries the rebound. This was one that I don't think gets scored with D Hale in the lineup. While Lee Marvin has shown good improvement since the start of the season, PK is a place where he can be outmuscled and D Hale won't be. Mav's fourth goal was the softest of the night, long soft wrister from center point, through a crowd near the blue line and just off the back of a Mav and Sioux who skated across in front of Ranfranz ... presumably he got distracted by the guys in front and picked up the wrister late. A real "oh sh$t" kind of goal. Mav's fifth goal came 4x3, and immediately followed a tremendous SH rush by Spiewak and Noterman, both of whom had chances ... [oh, the bounces]. Anyway Noterman and Spiewak catch up to the rush, and don't give up an oddman rush the other way, but Noterman overruns the play and gets caught in the corner when Stevenson comes crashing down the slot. Frankly, he was only a step or two too deep, but that was enough to let Stevenson have time to bury another snap shot. The guy is a truly great goalscorer, and we gave him two chances that he buried. No blame to Ranfranz on this one either. So, I wouldn't call it a "goaltending nightmare". People I talked with after the second coulnd't believe the scorers had credited the Mavs for just 17 shots. If the Sioux had 30, then Mavs had 30 too. Third period, Mavs went into the prevent defense, and they aren't very good at it. ... They gave up at least a dozen bona-fide scoring chances. Coulda shoulda, As to the Sioux players: Parise played with great intensity, and realistically he caused Marvin's goal by crashing the net, okay letting a Mav defenseman check him into their goalie, who was way out of position when Marvin's snap shot hit the net. At times, he looked a bit leg weary, not the same jump seen at times, but he showed the great hands. Also drew a critical Mav penalty 3x5 with an outstanding pick at center ice and a rush where the D was forced to bring him down ... Bochenski ... whereas early in the season everything hit the back of the net, now it hits the tender. Not the obvious show of intense emotion and drive that others display ... Noterman and Spiewak, played with obvious passion and energy. Some terrific PK work, I like using them on 3x4 and 3x5 PK situations instead of 2 D ... McMahon - Prpich - Hale: solid game, mostly. Stevenson-Joseph didn't get anything even strength. Prpich will be on the MSU season highlight film when Jensen robbed him late in the 2nd period on a flashy dive-across-the-net save. Lundbohm and Massen seemed to be mostly invisible, except for a couple strong shifts each. Connelly and Palmo played with good energy. Telling that they got some PP time during the major, and got our only goal. I agree with other comments about Palmiscno's passing skills ... he must see the ice terrifically well, reads the play ... just hope he stays healthy long enough to show us what he can do. Connelly is way way due. Lot of buzzing, but nothing to show for it yet. As to the defense, I thought Schneider, Fuher, Jones and Greene were generally decent. Schneider was fortunate not to have been called for a major on the uppercut slash on Bassett late in the second ... looked like he wanted to lift the stick, missed, and got him on or near the face ... replay looks really bad, as in "suspension" kinda bad. But we are most vulnerable when Leinweber or Marvin are on the ice. Of the two, however, Marvin is getting better ... and shows signs of listening to coaches. Leinweber, on the other hand, repeats mistakes that he made last year and the year before. (Don't come across from left D at center ice to take a guy into the far boards who's about to go off on a line change ... and about 3 more like plays that I noticed.) I realize we're asking a lot of these two guys have been thrown into the fire with D Hale out, but there is a huge difference in the play ... =================== Bottom line, it was a game we should have won. But we didn't. As to the Mav fans, I thought the 4300 or so that were there showed a decent level of enthusiasm (grade em a C+). The 800+ Sioux fans, however, were the reason for the record crowd. Call me pollyanna, with green-colored glasses, but I think we will sweep Duluth, and I give us a fair chance of sweeping Wisconsin. Sign me up for a 3rd place finish, and bring in Tech for the rematch in the first round ... With 6 points, home ice would be a virtual lock ... and SCSU or Denver or Duluth are a considerably tougher opponent. And, I hope that if D Hale's kidney situation is as serious as it sounds, that he spends his time on getting healthy and not on hockey ... its just a game, its just not worth risking long-term health consequences for ... Get well soon, and Godspeed. What we need is a show of support ... maybe a giant Get Well Card in the lobby of the REA next weekend for people to sign ...

Ya can't stop him, ya can only hope to contain him. Nice, gutsy, precious, valuable point ... I haven't been this excited for a tie in a long time.

SCORES AGAIN! with 1:55 left in the third, to earn his club a valuable, precious point - and some momentum for Saturday. Talk about heart ... three sizes too big. Gotta love it.

One of my favorite 9-year olds calls him Speedwhack "because he's speedy and he whacks the other team". And #26 is "Motorman", "because he motors by the defense". Together, perhaps the best pair of penalty killing forwards in the country.

With the first-round byes going out the window, there becomes a huge difference between finishing #1 or #2 in the pairwise, and presumably facing the MAAC or CHA winner ... and finishing #3 or #4 .... In the inch ratings, CC draws Huntsville .... and UND gets Michigan State. Only a little difference.

I have always feared getting a rotary subfluxation. Of course now that I know what it is, I fear it even more. Layne - Best wishes for a speedy and smooth recovery.

Owens, CC. His team has lost just one game ... and they weren't a consensus #1 ... and I don't think he's ever won the award.

One of the great things about Dean Blais as coach is that he's never going to admit a win was perfect, even 8-0. That relentless pursuit of "better" has been a trait of the Sioux during his tenure. Gotta love it.