dagies

Perry and Hennessey saying that Shepard wants to be the game tonite. Sioux on the PK AGAIN. End of 1st period.

PK doing pretty good, Brandt seems to be strong tonite. Good job, Jake. Let's see if Denver gets loads of penalties now...

Denver goal waved off on the PP. Puck doesn't cross the line. Sioux maybe getting some puck luck. Guys, let's get it down to the other end while the iron is hot.

Hennessey makes this game sound pretty exciting. I get the impression the guys are playing better than last night. Now the fever has hit me and I might need to head down to Senser's and watch it. Sitting here is too hard to do.

I agree. I have been ignoring him from the get go

OETKB, I have thought the same thing. Every time the past couple years he says they are playing well it seems like we are up for a big disappointment.

Here we were talking up Prpich this week then he goes out and loses his head. We really could use him on the ice tonite and he'll be in street clothes. Hope he learns a lesson from this. Hope the guys can dig down and find one in them for tonite. I think it is a given Brandt will start tonite. Let's see if we can get out of the first period without giving up a goal for once. Maybe if our guys weren't continually playing from behind their psyche's wouldn't be all messed up. Gotta fight through the crap and the ice and be better than the other team. We can beat Denver. Let's show it.

The fans are filing into the arena. The Fan is already sitting in her seat, soaking in the eerily calming, dimly lit bowl that shall fill with rabid college hockey fans in an hour. The pregame movie quietly plays at center ice while students file in, first in a rush, then a steady stream, busy like ants grabbing the last acceptable pieces of turf and holding on for dear life against interlopers. The Fan watches as a few of the boys on the team file out from the locker room, chat around the benches, tape sticks, file in and out. The astute Fan is sitting quietly, ignoring the buzz of activity around him, loving the quiet anticipation of a new game, and taking in the ambience. It feels almost like floating in a calm pool of water. There is noise, but it is swallowed in the cavern. It is relaxing. Life is good and little matters to the Fan, other than the Now. Nothing else is reality within the arena. As the student sections now fill close to capacity, the rest of the arena is almost strangely absent. This is a religious experience, frankly not unlike visiting a sleeping church during midweek. The Fan looks over the ice. It looks soft, belying the strenght it contains and will support for almost 3 hours. The Fan begins to daydream, the movie no longer holding her attention. Crushing hip checks, flying wingers, astounding saves mesh together in his imagination. The Fan can feel the coolness waft off the ice, breath upon her neck, and wing along to the person behind. The Fan begins to think about the gear, how they would like to strap it on, take a shift against the hated foe. The Fan imagines himself working the corner, holding the stick of the opponents best forward, hiding the obstruction between his body and the boards. She streaks down the ice, breaking open on the wing and taking a long breakout pass, sees the terror in the goalies frozen eyes and deftly moves the puck forehand to backhand and between the pads of the helpless stopper. "Excuse me, is that seat taken". The dream is shattered. A body pushes against the Fan's legs. Another fan is let by down the isle. It is 6PM. This is The Fan's life. And I am just leaving work in Mpls.

If we were in St. Cloud we'd blow up his picture and make a big cardboard cut-out of it. Then we would bring that and parade it around at the hockey game, and we'd chuckle to ourselves about how cool and clever we are. I never got that......

I agree on the Bayda comparison. Prpich may have us confused in a year or 2 but for freshman accomplishments Ryan has outshown Mike offensively. Both guys play a physical game. Both have decent size and can skate pretty well. Bayda is awesome on the boards and I have been impressed with Prpich there as well. But Bayda scored a whole lot more. I think Prpich has that ability, and maybe consistently playing on a more scoring centered line would help that out. Bayda was on a top line his whole freshman year. Jeez he was good. I remember the crushing hit behind the Badger bench on Friday afternoon at the Final Five in 2000 his freshman year. About the first minute of the game, I think. The Badgers were done already that day. But I digress. Prpich is an instigator, I think. In an interview I saw with him (very articulate kid, BTW), he mentioned that he likes to jaw a bit on the ice, but tries to be smart about it.

My belief is that Sedevie has been known to be coming for a long time. So that is not news. When people ask about what might be new about our goaltenders next year, Ziggy is the news. That's my take. Ziggy had solid numbers in the USHL this year. Solid. We shouldn't put the pressure on him to be the "savior" in nets next year. My guess is we can expect to get from Ziggy what we are getting currently from our goaltenders. I bet they would put up similar numbers in the USHL if they were there now. Just my guess, I'm not an expert... But if he can at least play consistently, that will be a good start.

Interesting news about R Hale staying on D. I don' think that's a bad move. R has had trouble scoring at UND, and though that doesn't necessarily define a forward, it sure helps. If he can provide a stable, physical, offensively capable defenseman, I think that could make our team stronger. We have some forwards who sit each week who can use the ice time. Why not.... Great news for D Hale. Let's hope things progress along this tack for his sake. I'm excited for this weekend. I wish I could see the games.

about 500 people are registered on this site. I think

A second man's opinion: I second that! I love Prpich. Possibly my favorite freshman. I love his attitude. He works hard, and he's a bit feisty. I was one who questioned all his penalty minutes in juniors but he has shown he can play smart up in D1. He's got skills and I believe he will continue to score. Great find. I'll bet he's captain material too...

I was just notified I received tickets through the waiting list for the Frozen Four. Can't make the trip this year even should the Sioux make it. If anyone here wants these tickets I would sell to a Sioux fan first, but the window of oppty is just a day or so. I have 4 seats at $125/seat. I will sell at face value. Email me at the link below.

What's Spie doing in that picture, marking his territory?

I was trying to think of something along the same lines but couldn't come up with anything very witty.

Heard Commodore was traded to the Calgary Flames today.

The Spiewak picture is awesome.

I've been down to Senser's in Bloomington a couple of times this year to watch Sioux games and that has been very accomodating. The games are on several of the TV's around the place, so you can usually get a spot to watch. Since these games are at home, I imagine they will be on there. Other home games have been.

I agree Goon. There is no way AA or WI wins. I think the only team in the bottom 3 who even would have a chance is Tech and I don't believe that will happen either. Not in a 3 game series agains the goofs.

Yes, they can. I don't know that they will, though. Too much stuff has happened late this year to be too confident of that. It was great to see the sweep of WI this weekend, and very encouraging that these weren't 2-1 games or anything like that. But let's be honest, we're talking WI here, not Duluth or even SCSU. This was expected and the only reason we (I) were holding our breath was because of how the last 1.5 months have gone. Sorry, WI, but at this point I'm just not giving you much respect. Therefore, I think the only thing the Sioux have proven is that they are still playing decent hockey. That is a good thing.

Goon, I don't think that is terribly far fetched. Before you think I have gone crazy, though, I want to be clear that I expect a gopher sweep. That said, of the bottom 3 teams, Tech has proven to be the one team that repeatedly seems to have taken a top team to task this year at some point. I think they are capable of winning one. But I'm not sure it's going to happen.

Top five teams all win. ND and UMD go 3 games. I think we need to win in 2 games though. Gotta keep the legs as fresh as possible.