dagies

The gophers are a hell of a team. After the Final Five I was shaking my head at how they can sleep walk through the regular season and then just turn it up during the postseason. They have great talent, great character and a great coach. Always hurts to leave the season early. I think this year, however, the Gophs didn't quite have their "edge". They could show flashes of having the mentality of champions but couldn't sustain it. Just when they finally convinced me they were back on that edge at the Final Five, they stumble today. Congratulations to a Gopher senior class had outstanding achievements. I guess it is a decent enough honor to hear your adversary say "I'm not sorry to see you go". For Greyeagle, Sagard, WPoS, LVS and a few others, my sympathies.

Congratulations to Sandelin and the Dogs. The Dogs have worked their way into 2nd place in my heart the last couple of years because of Sandelin's connection to UND and because they have a good, hardworking team. That, and well, Duluth's just a cool town.

The gophers just scored 1 goal against a team they put up 7? on last week.

I don't consider this to be a game that was choked away. I think what it points out to fans like me is just how difficult and special it IS to win a national championship. Not only to have a great year, but to overcome the one game trip up that keeps you from even being able to compete for the big trophy.

Thanks Farce Poobah for some perspective. How can anyone blame JPar? I thought he played great. Even Tim H said the only goal was one he didn't even see...

From what I saw on TV I don't think the Sioux were looking past Denver. Seemed to me they were playing pretty well, and getting stronger as the game went on. Berkhoel (sp?) played very well, and unfortunately a few of our guys just couldn't bury the biscuit when they had an opportunity. Prpich is going to have nightmares on that shot he put over the net...... This was just one of those games.....

I hate being the favorites.

Too bad for the other conferences SCSU didn't make the big tourney this year.

I think we might have seen a different effort had this been in front of a crowd in GF or something like that. In this case I think we were playing just well enough not to lose. My friend and I said it may take a HC tying goal to really rev the team up into another gear, but they never needed it. I think they will show differently tonite against a better opponent and with more "atmosphere". What concerns me most is whether our team is suffering an epidemic or if we are getting better today.......................

I don't have a problem with them saying Parise is not a "flashy" player. I think of Lundbohm when I think of a flashy player, a guy who can dangle in a phone booth. I don't think of Zach when I think of these kinds of skills. However, you DO notice Zach on the ice though, because you see a guy who is SO good at getting body position, and coming up with the puck and quickly getting a pass off to an open teammate. I've never thought Parise was a flashy player, just awfully damn good.

In GF JPar did a great job, and saved our bacon on Saturday night. He has nights where he's better and worse, but considering how he played against AA in the FF and against HC yesterday my friend and I thought it might be tough not to play him again tonite.

That would be me

I didn't not read your post because you are a gopher fan, I didn't read it because it didn't have any paragraphs and my attention span isn't that long!

I could see if Blais has looked at them but I doubt he would show the team. Woog recounted a story on the radio the other day how they went into a regional years ago with a dominant MN team and lost to a pansy. The pansy (LSSU??) played on Friday night and Woog took the team there to watch. He said it was a colossal coaching mistake. That game was the worst game he'd ever seen between 2 bad teams. His team sat in the stands and figured if they showed up on the ice the game was over. MN got beat by several goals. Woog said he should have kept the team in the hotel, and came later that night telling them this was the best team he'd seen all season. I think Blais wants the guys to be thinking about how this is the first game of the NCAA tournament, and not that this is going to be a game against a team of junior level players.

Yikes, that goalie is playing well as of late. Hopefully we can give him a barrage like he's not seen before. You can tell he won't be scared of the challenge. We better be ready to go tonite.

huh? you woke me up.........

How sad. I'm sorry.

2004 BCHL Interior Division MVP: Travis Zajac 2004 AJHL Outstanding Defenseman: Kyle Radke

I'm one who loved the "speed kills" Sioux teams and died a little bit when they got beat in the regionals. Blais decided he needed bigger more physical teams to compete and made me a believer. This Final Five was an example of that to me. Watching the skilled, but smaller UMD get beat by MN proved how important a larger, yet skilled team can be. The next night UND played much more physically against MN and basically played them even. That said, I'm glad to find a few smaller, great skating, skilled forwards ala Murray, etc. As long as we can balance them out with some big physical players like Stafford, Zajac and others we should have a good mix.

You never know what will happen. Theoretically I can see HC winning this game but I can't actually see that happen. But that's why we play the game. In the INCH article it mentions that HC gives up 30 shots a game. They play in the AHA? conference? Talk about Who's He He Sucks. I think we could easily double those shots on goal if we are really flying as jloos pointed out. However, I don't believe HC will be too nervous. In fact I believe they'll be right ready to go. They know they're not expected to win. They're happy to be there. They'll come out with one thing in mind, let's see how long we can make this a game. With that attitude they won't get too tight if they get down by a goal or 2, and will keep playing hard. I also predict their goalie plays well. I hope so too, because I don't want our guys to get too many easy goals. Sioux win 5-2. Shots 55 - 14. Score after 1: 1-0 Sioux.

naturally!

And it is true. A few years ago there were more insufferable Sioux fans.

Please don't take my comments to be criticism of how this board is run because that was unintended. I think you have addressed my largest concerns and maybe I was even making too big of an issue of it. I did wonder if some of the fan experiences at this point were getting into "one-upmanship" but who am I to judge. I had my own post in there early on. I just didn't want people to go spewing a bunch of crap on someone else's board just because they thought we were getting it here. It just would make things worse here in the end, I feared. As for new users, I have no issue with how that is being handled. I think it is great we've not had an influx of brand new flamers.

WCHA better win. We're getting a lot of love there. The Sioux are unanimous pick to win their region. Otherwise only one expert chose someone other than Maine, MN and BC to win their regions.