dagies

You see this in baseball at times. They are free agents this summer. What's the chance they might be back?

Dangit. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1330/4647709.html

Tommmiejo, it's part of your personality on this board. With others we might be critical. With you, it's character.

No, Lucia didn't name name but really, who was he talking about. Blais said something like Jake found a way to botch it. Lucia says his goalies exploded. Not much difference in my opinion. The only reason I brought this up was because some people were ripping on Blais for singling out Jake, but I don't see a lot of difference in how Lucia laid the losses on his goalies. He didn't put any of the blame on the rest of the team. Maybe they could have played a bit better defensively and not hung their tenders out to dry.....

Minnesota coach Don Lucia after his Gophers were swept at Denver University last weekend: "I have no issues with the way we played. Goaltending was an issue all weekend. It exploded on us." This is from Milewski's USCHO weekly WCHA column. I guess he's no different than Blais after all.

Then you should see us at the games.

I demand everyone do this.

Other than one or two idiots the gopher fans have been relatively quiet about our schedule this season. Still, that shouldn't stop us from ripping on them for it.

I agree with playing JPar for a game this weekend in case he is needed down the stretch. It would even be tempting to play Ziggy on Saturday if we win Friday and Duluth loses. Ziggy should get a game if possible.

Hey! "The Expert" is back! Good to hear from you Tommiejo!

Do not assume Ziggy made a mistake unless he himself tells you he did. He may be happy with this decision, even if he's not seeing tons of ice time. No way for us to know what it is that draws a player.

Al Gore won't even be able to fix it!

Granted your team didn't miss him last year but they could use someone like him this year.

104 row 11

Sign suggestion: See you in a week! Bring your clubs.

WPOS, it's the type of thing that if the Goofs win the NCAA's becomes cool to talk about but I have to say when they tank the very next series it sure makes good fodder for the opposing fans. Risky, I would say.

Lots of good Sioux fans come from South Dakota. Or at least a couple of us. Welcome aboard!

Good point. In the 3rd we noticed that the Sioux were stopping half-way into the zone and sending one forward in deep. While I can see in theory that can work so far in the weekend they had success on the forecheck and keep the puck deep in the zone. I thought they could have put more pressure on the Dogs by staying with the aggressive forecheck. I'm no expert so maybe I was wrong with this impression but that's how it seemed to us.

Zajac was busy setting up Chucko's goals. I thought I read somewhere Greentree was going to Alaska Fairbanks but don't quote me on that. AF landed several top BCHL'ers but the discussion (on USCHO?) was that they may not be the best skaters which is why they weren't picked up by more prominent D1 schools. Take that for what it is worth because at the very best I'm repeating from memory information I read posted on a message board by people like most of us. So maybe I shouldn't even have typed it here........

I would expect the fans to yell and scream and support their team.

I think the Final Five will be very interesting. From a fan standpoint I think the best environment would be if the current top 5 teams would make it as they are the closest teams with the best travelling fan bases. I guess that leaves Mankato out but too bad. However, I believe Denver and CC both have the ability to knock off their first round playoff opponent on the road (assuming the conference finishes with SCSU and MN in 4th and 5th place). I think the top 3 leaders are relatively safe however you have to play the games. That said, I think UND, UMD, WI, MN and either Denver or CC will be at the Final Five. And I think if Denver plays SCSU and CC plays MN it is possible that MN could get knocked off as I see CC as the more dangerous of the two Colorado teams right now. I think MN might take Denver at home.

I would expect the same.

As I said before we were on the opposite side of the rink but I was watching because I saw Smaby's big wind-up. The stick broke and it looked like it might have caught Jake. Jake dropped down as if he had been hit, and we thought he'd been hurt. But then he got up and played as if nothing had happened so we couldn't tell for sure. What was Mattso angry about? Looked like that was just one of those goals. It appeared to be a bouncing puck through a ton of traffic. Bad luck.

Michigan Tech can be a pesky opponent and nothing is given to the team yet. Hopefully they will not take Tech for granted. No one wants to share the Cup with Duluth, so hopefully the team will be flying again this weekend. I think the Duluth series shows the team has learned how to play at a high level again, and has regained their confidence. Let's keep it rolling!

Hey, it's not the prettiest arena but it's great to watch a game in I think. The fans are so close to the ice you have good views all over. We sat in one corner (still on a side) but because we were so close to the ice we could still see most of what was happening down the near boards on the far end. I like it there. Since they put up nets on each end, the dangerous end seats are no longer dangerous. Those people are RIGHT on the action.