farce poobah

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.

Duluth plays like they have been together for 100 games. We still need to get there.

Did someone say Dive? Geez

Jandric back out to start PP

Ends at 189 minutes

Great execution of 2x1!

Thanks for forwarding. The Badger rivalry has always been one to strap your pads on tight, and usually play right on the edge ( or way over like a pregame brawl or one just after opening face off). And then after the game, go out to the same bar as the Badger fans and learn each other’s songs. (I might still know most of the words to their Varsity song.) Wish i had video of Carl Miller and Crazy Legs Hirsch singing and ribbing each other. But during the Barry Alvarez era, it’s almost like he doesn’t want hockey to distract from FB and BB. Poor oversight of coaching staffs and lack of guts to make tough changes.

I saw Tate Maris had been on the coaching staff. Hope he is okay.

Agree. And If I am leading the University, or with any prominent voice, I want a better hiring process. Something is not right there.

Yeah the Penn State game might eventually be classified as a "bad loss". (Thankfully the NCAA Selection Committee for hockey doesn't go for such nonsense. But the math is still there.) But the split at Quinnipiac may eventually be very helpful to our PWR - UND still the only team to beat them. in any scenario, UND's strength of schedule is shaping up to be really strong. 27 of 35 games vs the top-third of the nation, using this morning's KRACH ratings from CHN: UND sits at #5. 4 games each vs #2 UMD, #4 St Cloud and #6 Western Michigan 2 games each vs #7 Quinnipiac, #8 Minnesota, #10 Bemidji, and #12 Denver 4 games vs #17 Omaha, 2 games vs #20 Cornell 1 vs #21 Penn State Versus the bottom two-thirds of the KRACH rankings, just 8 games (2 vs #38 Miami and #47 Niagara, and 4 vs #40 CC).

Keys to the weekend, IMHO: 1. Play as much 5x5 as possible. Especially don't give PP's in the second period, with the long change. Sticks stay on the ice, please. 2. Be aggressive in pressuring the UMD breakout, and force bad passes especially in the neutral zone. Get transition opportunities. 3. Get some good minutes early for the 3rd D pair and 4th line, because a high intensity game can create fatigue at the end. 4. Use last change to create mismatches. I expect Duluth to: * Goad us into penalties, driven by emotion. We've crossed over that edge a couple times this season, and our top guys especially can't get baited into taking majors. * Try to get scoring lines out against UND's weakest plus-minus guys (yeah the stat can be misleading but patterns can be observed already). * Traffic in front of Driscoll. Prediction: The stretches of solid team play will get longer and come more often; the disconnected play continues to shrink. UND 4-3. UMD 3-2 ot.

HEA is 11-3-1 vs Atlantic Hockey. HEA is 9-17-2 vs everyone else.

Calder reminds me of Perry Berezan. Power forward with enough strength and speed to turn the corner on a D. Good shot. Plays 200 foot game. or more recently, Chris Porter.

And the StCloud announcers booing at the call. Seriously. Then clapping at a zone clearance. Holy unprofessional Batman.

Two guys were plus-5 on the weekend. Costantini and Calder.

Gophers send 1200 fans into the evening relieved . 2-0 over tOSU.

I still get chills, literally, thinking about metal bleachers at Memorial Stadium, on a cold day. Great incentive to stand!

Meanwhile, over on the Illinois State fan forum… ”Fire everyone!”