dagies

Just heard Ed doing an ad for his talk radio show down here in the cities. Noticed he had a book at Border's a few weeks ago too. Sounds like Ed's going NATIONWIDE. Is he any good?

I like that Hak said it's time to win games, and put the load on the upperclassmen to start coming through. He also put some pressure on Porter in today's Herald to start scoring, AND start getting some assists. I'm concerned for poor Rylan Kaip. This has been dragging on for a long time now. Seems very strange., I'm excited for some hockey this weekend.

All we need is Sagard to call a sweep for the Gophers this weekend!

Everyone is looking for vulnerabilities in high profile people/programs. UND has a high profile in D1 hockey and garners a lot of attention. It doesn't matter the seriousness of MG's offense, the negative attention will usually be disproporionate to the offense. (that isn't to make light of driving and drinking. Only to say when you do something bad, you're going to get way more negative attention than the average joe, and that will reflect just as negatively on the program as well as individually.) When the discussion about leadership comes about between Hak and MG, he needs to understand how much negative attention is focused on the UND program when something like this happens. As a captain on the team, he should be a steward of the image of the program, as well as a leader in performance.

My man Speedwak

Parise was not tagged for underage drinking. It was for minor on premises I believe.

I for one very much appreciate that PCM posts a link to a new article he's written for USCHO here. If PCM writes the articles, I know they have interest to a Sioux fan. I don't check in on USCHO on a regular basis and often when I do it is to read the message boards, not the front page. I wouldn't know about the articles if he didn't mention them here.

Gotta love MN's bracket. Don't like ours.

I'll bet you were being entertained by this snippet from jk's post all weekend.

I suppose I should go back and read all the posts but I have a couple of perceptions: 1. the numbers of people shrugging this off and suggesting Greene shouldn't pay his debt to society seems rather small to me. I think most think he should be held responsible for whatever he did. 2. I think a member of the gopher team got into some trouble with the law up in GF in the last couple of years and rather than spread the word via the internet, it came out quite a long time later that knowledgeable individuals who post on this site sat on the knowledge.

Five-Hole, I think that's Sal from Cando you are referring to. Sal and Lefty are probably a couple of posters who you shouldn't take too seriously.

What do you mean "starting to".

I don't have a problem with that article. It seemed pretty factual to me. I'd rather have it written this way by "one of our own", than written by someone somewhere else who might want to add their own bent to it. I also think it's best that the facts, those known to this point, come out before lots of people on a message board start speculating on things they heard from their cousin's girlfriend's brother who is a cop in Baudette who heard something on the radio. We know how those types of rumors usually blow up and in the long run could be very damaging on their own, though not factual. It's unfortunate, but if Matt is guilty of this violation he deserves the penalty that comes with it and the attention one in his position commands. I would like to add that about 1/2 of my immediate family was nearly wiped out by a drunk driver many years ago. I have no love for drunk driving and am ashamed to say the experience didn't stop me from driving drunk when I should have known better. Matt should know better. But at the same time we shouldn't overreact to what he did. Many people have done what Matt allegedly has done and have not been caught. Probably 90% of the players on every team in the WCHA have done the same things, but maybe haven't been caught. Hopefully commentators will keep their perspective. I agree with jk.

Yes, he's moved himself into 12 position overall in scoring in the BCHL. He's on a good run. A post on the BCHL message board said he had used his speed well to work the opponent's defense giving himself 2 breakaway situations. Unfortunately he didn't pot the puck on either chance, but nice to see that he has speed to burn and can use it.

Wow. There is actually a chance for 3rd place. Not even relying on "anything's possible until you are mathematically eliminated" there is a chance. I will grant it is unlikely. It would take UND finishing with 12 points of a possible 16, MN getting 10 of 20, and Denver getting only 9 of 24. O wait, maybe this IS relying on the mathematical elimination thing.... Sioux Denver At AA WI At SCSU MN UMD At WI AA H/H SCSU At Tech Denver AA at UND WI UMD at Mankato H/H CC Can the Sioux get through the schedule at 6-2? I think yes, if they start to score goals, and if they play like they did at CC. Can MN only finish with 10 of a possible 20 points? Well, normally I'd say no. But this past weekend makes one wonder. There are some IF's. IF Minnesota's freshmen do not begin to pick up the scoring slack. IF Potulny does NOT return to 1st half form. IF MN goaltending returns to average from where it was in the first half. IF MN's freshmen defensemen tire a bit down the stretch. There are a lot of IF's here, and I don't think they all have to come about but most do. Basically, are we going to see the first half team again? Or are we going to see the same team without Briggs and Potulny saving the day? Would I say the chances are even 50-50%? No. But even at 25-75%, that's not a bad roll of the dice. Now, Denver might be the hardest sell of my proposition. If they just split out, they get 12 points. I'm saying, WHAT IF they split out, except the SIOUX take some of their points FROM Denver? They take the home sweep. Now Denver needs to give up just one more point (or the Sioux need to find an additional). I think the wild cards are which Duluth team will show up out in Denver? Mankato can steal games at times. Still, it's unlikely that Denver will suffer this finish. In the end, maybe this is just hoping too much. It's in the Sioux's hands. They need to win games down the stretch (cliche of the day). I would say there's at least a reason to fight for 4th. And I'd rather play Mankato or AA that first round, than Duluth.

Very good!

First half of the season the gophers were relatively healthy. Potulny was absolutely deadly shooting the puck. Briggs was excellent. Freshmen defensemen playing better than expected. However, it appeared if Potulny quieted down, there wasn't a lot of scoring support behind him. Potulny has quieted down. A couple of MN's defensemen have been hurt/missing on a rotational basis, and Briggs has hit a short slump. There are few of MN's freshmen, other than defensemen having an impact. Chucko appears to be coming on, and Kaufmann looked great out there tonite. But guys like Howe aren't yet being heard from much. If Briggs doesn't recover his groove, and teams can continue finding a way to stifle Potulny, it might be a tough row for MN down the stretch. Johnson HAS strung together 2 solid outings, so he may help buy time for Briggs to find his game. In the first 19 games of the season Potulny had 19 goals and 7 assists. In 8 games since the first of the year he's got 1 goal and 4 assists. In those first 19 games they were 15W and 4L. Since the first of the year they have 3W and 5L. Briggs imploded against Mankato but fortunately the Maverick's goaltender went supernova. The resulting black hole sucked everything into his net. Otherwise, it could have been worse.

I penciled in a sweep against Tech in my latest What-If calculation. Might have to get the eraser ready. We need to sweep them. But I think Tech is a different team this second half. They did a good job getting in front of gopher players tonite, and they were opportunistic. Maybe most important Ellsworth is on the pinnacle of his game right now. One thing that impressed me is, with a road sweep of the gophers looming with the clock winding down, Tech didn't appear to panic. They kept playing hard and stuck to their game. They gave the gophers few chances. The gophers really had a spark there for a while, and Tech weathered the storm.

Go Tech! Surprising to see Lucia's choir boys getting into scrums and almost fights. I thought that behavior just didn't belong.... Love Scott holding Hirsh and another gopher at arm's length. Pretty funny.

This is the kind of smartasz comment I would give someone if I felt they deserved it. It's probably out of context. Doesn't make him a better ref though.

We don't have games this weekend.

Wow, NDH. Good call. They've got 2 of the 3 so far.........

Blackheart, that was my time too. Fun times. Wild crowd, gophers on the ice, finally feeling good on a Saturday night after being hung over all day long.... Stopping after class to watch practice. Running out between periods to that little white housing complex just to the north for a beer. Almost being crushed as the crowd surged forward when the doors opened to get into a gopher game. Tony Hrkac