dagies

I'm not a coach so I don't know but if your PP lines are made up of guys from different lines throughout your lineup, how much trouble do you have putting a line on the ice after the PP, when your PP guys are gassed?

Hextall is coming in and he can take care of Bruneteau's business.

All things factored in, it's my favorite hockey weekend of the year. Can't wait!

I'm already documented as a Woog fan, but thought I'd add in here. Sure, he's a homer but it's a Gopher broadcast so that comes with the territory. He does call it like he sees it, for either team, and he's plenty hard on the Gophers. I also appreciate his knowledge as he describes something that just happened. Besides all that, he's plain entertaining.

If they announce something like this at Mariucci we should either a. ignore it or b. stand up and cheer for it. Don't let them know it gets to you.

That's a better example, anyway. It sure would make me want to win the game more.

I wasn't there but I give a lot of credit to anyone who puts such a big effort into something like this, to help with the fan experience. I will offer this FWIW. I have a green road jersey. It's what I like to wear to Sioux hockey games. I don't even own white anything, much less white UND stuff. If it were me, I'd prefer to see green be the dominant color. I think it's better to pick a color and stick with the same color all the time. I don't want to have to buy a white jersey so I have one to wear on the "other" night, and I wouldn't want to wear my green jersey on one night and a non-descript T-shirt on the other. Of course, the same problem will come up with someone with white but not green apparel. I just seems that Green is the color you think of when you think of what UND's colors are.

I think it was last year for the Duluth series. That was after the 50 penalties on the Sioux on the trip to Mariucci. Anyway, she had a Gopher jersey with "Campion" sewn on the back. I forget exactly what she said to go along with it, but it busted up the crowd!

The only reason I mentioned it came from GPL is because that's where I was aware of the bit. Sorry if I put you in a tough spot. You're a gopher fan, so you have plenty of your own problems. (It's kinda hard to type that after this weekend, I admit)

I am still who I am if you change my name, but don't expect me to be happy about it. Obviously, a university nickname isn't the same as my name, but there is still identity attached to that nickname. When I went to school there, the nickname was (and still is!) "The Fighting Sioux". Personally, I loved identifying with the plains warrior. I thought that was a great nickname for a sports team. Over time, I think, the nickname becomes part of your psyche. "This is who we are". Let's make no mistake. Other than those who have the true physical bloodlines, I, nor anyone else, really thinks we are Sioux warriors. But we ARE "Fighting Sioux" in the context of the University of North Dakota, likened after the great plains warrior. I'll repeat again, imitation is the fairest form of flattery. For this reason, I don't see it as a simple thing to just say "oh, ok. You don't like it? I guess I can be the 'Blizzards', the 'Sun Dogs' or the 'Fighting Nokotas'". Because it's not the same. It's not the same "symbol" that identified with my past experience. Will it mean I won't cheer for my favorite team anymore? No. Will it be the same? No. People from other schools love to mock this idea. "It's just a name, why don't they give it up and pick something else?". I wonder how they would feel if someone told them they couldn't be the Badgers, or the Gophers, or the Bulldogs, and they had to be something totally different from what they identified. It's easy to say "no big deal". But I submit it would matter. It would matter more than they think when they can't talk about the sacred M, or Bucky the Badger. It wouldn't be the same. And if you don't agree with why you have to give up the name, it makes it hard to accept.

Right, I wasn't trying to say you were complaining about it. The point I wanted to make is announcing the Holy Cross score doesn't strike me as much different than putting that up on the screen. Personally, I think that stuff's funny too.

On GPL someone posted that they put a photo of a woman in a Gopher jersey sitting in the penalty box on the screen when a Gopher player took a penalty this weekend. I don't see that as any different than giving the Holy Cross update.

Isn't there certain songs played at times if an opponent goes to the box, for instance? If we do that, can't we announced the Holy Cross score?

Yes, Oshie was playing injured. I wasn't meaning to be critical, only to point out that he was very limited. I've watched it now several times both live action and various replay angles and I think it was probably knocked in by the Sioux player. That said, even if the Gopher player did touch it after the Sioux player, therefore bringing it into the zone, it's such a close call I can accept that the linesman missed it because it was so close. I can't complain. Everytime I've been to one of those booster lunches the opposing coach speaks. I don't ever recall the opposing school song being played, however. Maybe they were just being polite. You know, the small town Norwegian thing.

Oshie didn't seem to want to hit anyone last night either. Just watched the replay several times of the Wheeler goal (MN's #2 goal on the night). The puck hits Barriball who then skates into the zone offside. The puck bounces out in neutral zone where a Sioux player does play it back toward his own zone. The key is that there is a Gopher player right there as well, and right before/at the blue line may have carried the puck into the zone. Since Barriball was already over the line, IF the Gopher player touched that puck and took it into the zone it would be offsides. However, it was tough to tell in the angle I watched. I only watched the live version, so didn't watch any of the replays which might have helped to tell for sure. However, in real life this actually became a very very close call, and one where you I don't think you can blame the ref for calling it either way, because it was just that close.

After the first period I began to feel like this could be a blowout. Pretty discouraging considering the effort we had hoped to see tonite. Could tell it wasn't our night with Frattin cooked Kangas but couldn't get his stick back on the puck to direct it in the open net. If you need further proof there's TJ missing the open net in the 3rd. Had to have those chances... Don't understand the horrible passing/catching tonite. A couple times in the 3rd Sioux players were doing just short 10-15 foot passes to each other and the lead guy was having to bat the puck out of the air (these were situations that didn't require a saucer pass). Overall, if the pass was caught it was behind the guy and broke his momentum. If the pass was good it wasn't caught. Unreal ugliness. Someone else asked about Duncan and I agree, but he wasn't the only one who looked bad. Most of the forwards and some defensemen share in that. Don't know who if anyone is nicked up but if they can't play let's at least put healthy bodies on the ice. Nice flurry at the end to give the team a little something to remind them over the break of how you have to play to win games in this league. Hopefully they'll figure it out because these were 2 very important points to give up. It's easier to accept a split but when you realize that the Sioux only played about 1 good period this weekend it's a very concerning.

Without knowing the rulebook, I'm not going to say Oshie's goal should or should not have counted. It sure would have counted last year. He only turned his skate, so that was probably innocent enough. Sioux seem to have only a marginally better effort tonite than last night at this time, but MN has generated slightly better chances, and Phil doesn't appear quite as dominant. Need to quit with the long neutral zone passes. I'd like to see some skating urgency out there. The Sioux appear to be coasting through this one, and after last night I just didn't think that would happen. Why aren't we hitting anyone??

I actually thought there were 2 Hobey Baker calls last night. That balances out the Kaip and Finley calls.

Some good and some bad last night: Bad - MN played the best game of their season so far Good - Phil was just good enough to keep the team in the game Bad - Gopher massively outshot the Sioux in the first 2 periods Good - Sioux had more scoring opportunities in that time Bad - Gophers played very physical Good - So did the Sioux Bad - Sioux couldn't get any offensive flow going in the first 2 periods Good - after Genoway's goal, they looked like a different team, tipping passes away from MN to generate chances, etc. Bad - Sioux took 2? too-many-men penalties in the first 2 periods Good - Their best penalty killer was up to the task Bad - Officiating was inconsistent (this is for all the GPL'ers ) Good - went both ways and didn't affect the outcome Bad - Okposo makes an innocent centering pass the deflects in off Bina's skate Good - Watkins gets the even-up bounce on his goal. I still don't know how that got in, because it seems to have a delay in mid-flight somewhere. Bad - Special Teams Good - The Sioux looked great in 4x4 play, and managed to score plenty at even strength Bad - Big guns for the Sioux were mostly silent Good - Sioux won the game with scoring from lower lines Bad - Gophers looked like they were on the power play WAY too much in the first 40 minutes Good - Sioux recovered Bad - Pipes weren't good to the Sioux last night Good - Fortunately they got by without them. Bad - Throwing stuff on the ice Good - mentioning Holy Cross around Gopher fans. If Gopher fans wonder why Sioux fans can't drop the HC stuff, all you gotta do is read GPL. Think we complain about officiating too much? How but whining about what Sioux fans do with their money. What's it to ya? Bad - heart rate was running too high for too long last night Good - still young enough to survive it. At least for another day. I invite you to add to the list.

Thank you, Phil.

We can listen to Woog and we can read the stats but I think tonite we'll find out why they actually play the games because I bet we will see two teams that are fairly evenly matched and it will be a tough game. I am not making any predictions but I do have hopes!

I think it was Hakstol who has talked about how Genoway's skills with the puck are very valuable in that he can skate the puck out of trouble in the defensive zone. Against a team with dangerous offensive forwards like MN, if the coaches put Genoway back at D it might be because they want to make sure they do the best possible job of taking care of the puck in the defensive zone, and getting it out of the zone as quickly and safely as possible. Since MN's defense isn't as strong as in the past, getting the puck out of our zone seems to me the best way to win this game. Keep the pressure on the gopher D instead. Don't make bad mistakes and turnovers in your own zone and to use baseball terminology, don't give the Gophers 4 outs. Eventually they will make you pay. Limit the mistakes and turnovers and get the puck out of the zone. Depend on your own offense to pressure the gopher D and hopefully that is the recipe for success. As for which D sits so Genoway can play, my guess is the one who make the poorest decisions, or most prone to turnovers in his own end will be the one to sit. I don't know who that is. Unless his dependability is not as good, I'm guessing Jones physical presence will be welcome on the ice as I wonder if the Sioux will try and beat the Gophers physically, and not get into a run and gun game.

Just caught Woog on KFAN. This is MY INTERPRETATION of what he said: Said the Sioux don't give up too many goals and the Gophs don't score. He thinks it will be tough for them to score more than 2-3 each night. He also said our top 4 D are probably stronger than MN's first one. By "strong" it wasn't clear if he was talking physical strength or just skill/ability. Anderson and Wehrs (3rd D pair) will struggle in a small rink. If they have to kill a lot of penalties it could be tough for MN's depth on D. Woog suggested that Schack might be put on the ice to even up the physicality, and seemed to imply that if the Sioux are having their way with the Gophers Shack might have to go out and try to even things up, and if they lose his availability for later in the game he will still have done his job. UND's played the best goalies in the WCHA. That's one reason for the low scoring offense. MN is not a team blessed with a lot of depth. PP horrible. Goaltending average, Offense only ok. Fairchild isn't the brightest player but great physically. Thinks Don might be accepting that this may not be their year. Thinks Okposo will get better in the 2nd half when Carman takes over center. Not too many guys finish checks throughout the game. Maybe for a period or 2 but not 20 of them for a whole game. Not great on the forecheck.

Very good, Pat. Thanks for the work on the behalf of the nickname.

I thought I heard him comment during the Edina/Rochester Century game that he had coached at Burnsville at one point. Don't quote me on that, but that's what I thought I heard.