farce poobah

It’s okay. He’s on a mission from God.

St Cloud is approaching Red Army powerplay conversions at 34% so far this year, and killing them at 84%. But 5x5, i think we will be just fine.

An excellent read on one of my favorite players, Troy Murray. Here's wishing you a strong and fast recovery, Troy. Troy Murray, Blackhawk Through and Through He joined UND in the fall of 1980, a season with 13 new players after the Sioux won the 1980 title and went on to lead the Sioux in scoring as an 18 year old freshman. But like so many great Sioux players, he was maybe even better at defense than offense. Certainly worked as hard at it. Troy went on to win the Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward in the NHL in 1985-1986. In that season, he put up 99 points. (Let that sink in for a moment.) Yes, the legs feed the wolf. But great defense feeds offense too. Had the fun of meeting him, back in the day, on campus and a couple off campus "events". A young man with his head on straight.

Betting Lake State also with some illness issues. That plus MSU defense really got on it tonight, in their 3-0 win: 5 saves for Dryden McKay and of course another shutout. This despite Lake State getting 13+ minutes of powerplays. Ouch.

Gopher first line is really good. But the rest of team is getting worked over by the Sioux tonight.

Senden! great for the guys to get a reward after an excellent stretch of play.

Challenging contact to Driscolls head I guess.

5x5 we looked okay. But we can’t give them power plays.

Note to UND administration: please do NOT schedule this series on Thanksgiving weekend or any other time the students aren’t in session. That is short sighted. Thank you.

Actually Gopher math sucks as bad as they do. Friday is the 290th game between the two teams. https://fightinghawks.com/news/2021/11/24/mens-hockey-notes-old-friend-comes-to-town-for-thanksgiving-showdown.aspx They like to count various games in the 1920’s and 1930’s, before UND sponsored a bins fide University team. PS just another cue to the rivalry … can’t even agree on how many games played.

Okay, its official. I'm fired up. Ten Years After the Timeout Game Another excellent writeup from Schlossman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq6nLtGYaz4

Radio Shack. Sold as “Bicycle Safety Helmets”

I am one with the Farce, and the Farce is with me. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can imagine. Literally, perhaps not, but the spirit lives on.

I have only vague recollections of that incident, but Paul Butters, from Rochester, was a goalie for them in the 79-82 timeframe. One of our Farce members was a young woman from Rochester. With the low plexiglass in those days, she could stand in the front row and speak directly without any barrier in between them. Anyway, she described things some guys had done with his sister (naming names), which got him pretty steamed. But what got him over the top? When she continued on with well-founded rumors of things other guys had done with his mom (again, naming names and also locations). One of the best examples of living rent-free in an opponents head I heard. She was amazing. PS he earned a new nickname for Saturday’s game “whiplash Butters”. He hated that too.

Pre-staged is a great word to describe…. Duct taping stuff under seats. Or having the band smuggle in a 3-foot styrofoam puck. In an instrument case. “ Try to Stop this, sieve.”

Gopher Week is also a good time to talk about "Never Give Up. Don't Ever Give Up." Fall 1996, UND at Minnesota on Saturday night, trailing 10-3. They didn't give up, and scored 3 late goals to make it a 10-6 final. Eventually those 3 goals, combined with a split of the season series (after a legendary sweep in GF), gave the Sioux the tiebreaker (total goals) for seeding at the WCHA Final Five. Which meant the Sioux got top seed, an "easier" Friday afternoon game, last change vs Minnesota in the Championship Game, and meant Dean Blais could pick and choose matchups, which he did to great effect. That win gave us an easy route to the Frozen Four in Milwaukee - just one regional game in those days of a 12-team tournament. Minnesota had to win two games, and didn't, and UND of course did win. At the Frozen Four, well anything could happen, and it did. "Never Give Up. Don't Ever Give Up."

Land Rush indeed. Fortunately, the front of the line was usually the same people, and wanted to capture the same seats each night. (At least in the late 70's and early 80's.) I remember only a couple nights where some of the smart people in the Farce asked people not to drink in line, or before getting in line. Those were the exceptionally cold - 35 with 35 mph winds - and it would have been dangerous. But most nights, people wanted either see the snow snakes, or seek protection from the snow snakes. Memory is somehow hazy on that point. (For Gopher Week: stick the dead gopher in the glove you took off, to hold your ID when getting searched upon entrance. )

In order to destroy what used to be (arguably) the best college hockey franchise, in terms of money making, recruiting, and consistent on ice winning (if fewer titles than their rivals ) it took a lot of really stupid, stupid, decisions. Start with bad decisions on the design of Mariucci Arena, made by Doug Woog in the late 1980s. They made one enormous bowl instead of a middle-basin concourse, and made it steep. Hard for fans to get up and down "quickly", especially those "older than average". They failed to make it big enough when ticket demand was there - after filling 8000 consistently in the old Williams barn, they only added 1000 capacity originally (and have been scrambling to squeeze in additional seats ever since). Frankly Doug Woog failed to think big enough, and his colleagues and leaders didn't challenge. Last, the rink itself. They built a trendy Olympic size arena which hampers their players development as their top players seek to move up to NHL. Another example of obsolete thinking (very few guys made it to NHL when Wooger played; now all the top-end guys want a shot). Then came B1G. Minnesota added seat licenses and forced the entire season ticket holder base to pay up or get moved to cheaper seats. At the same time, they forced buyers of student season tickets for hockey to buy football season tickets - with predictable results of a plunge in hockey season ticket from students. And all this was the first years of Big Ten Hockey. In the midst of all that, Lucia tells all his disgruntled fans to get over it. Just wow. (Gopherpucklive.com has a decent history in their archives, and CityPages in Mpls also wrote about the plunge in 2019. ) Then came the decision not to include Big Ten playoff tickets in with season tickets, which led to those catastrophic scenes in spring 2019. Almost Empty at Puck Drop Add to that the constant shuffling of game times and game dates. ================================================================================= As of today, UND now has the premier college hockey franchise, in terms of money making, recruiting, and consistent on ice winning. And the story above is a great lesson in what not to do. I hope our leadership is paying attention.

Two months ago, if you told me UND would be sitting #2 in Pairwise and Minnesota at #20, I'd have asked for a shot of whatever you're drinking. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/pairwise/ Key this weekend will be keeping our heads. If we play them 5x5 for 60 minutes, and don't take extra penalties or lose a key D or F, I like our chances.

Which hints, for all the world to see, how to beat St Cloud. congrats!

Dryden McKay with 9 saves for the shutout. Easiest job in town.

Tonight’s win is the kind of win that can build team chemistry. Important since we are still gelling. Excellent example of next man up. And a little momentum going into Gophers . edit: up to the moment, UND up to 3 in Pairwise. And I think our best hockey is yet to come.

UMass with the game tying goal at 19:59, EAG. Worth .45 win in Pairwise, since UNH won in OT.

Spot on. Should be required viewing for referees who get UMD that week.