dagies

I think I agree with Kiork. If they are conferences in the NCAA they should be treated similarly to others, regardless of the talent in their conference.

Yeah, did this show on the Fox tv cast of the game. I watched the game live and watched the OT on tape and did not notice this..

Two things my buddies and I were talking about the Final Five. Things we'd like to see: 1. Call holding the stick. A lot. 2. Call guys for holding on the boards. A lot. I can understand finishing a check, and I know that when 2 guys go into the boards you often have your stick in front of the guy and you have your arm around his other side as you fight for position, etc. However, I don't like seeing guys go into the corner, and then just hold the guy there for 15 seconds while the puck is nowhere near. The other thing I don't like is seeing a guy go into the corner and immediately put the guy in a headlock and hang on.

Ok, here I am doing my Chris! impression. Here are the players I at least know about for next year and whether they are L or R shooters. The middle column is who have been listed as a center on heisenberg's site, or on the UND site, or that I am aware played the position this year. I have paired the lines together that I think one might expect to see by Christmas.: Left Shooting Wing Center Right Shooting Wing Bayda Parise ® Lundbohm Notermann Spiewak (L) McMahon R Hale ® Fournier (L) Bochenski R. Connelly Genoway ® Canady Fighting for time: Palmiscno (L), Massen ®, Faul ®, Fylling ® First line: Bayda is tough on the boards, can control the puck, is smart, and can score. Needs a playmaker and if he has a good one can really put up points in my opinion. Parise is my center for that first line if he can live up to the hype and expectations. He might provide that sort of playmaking ability. I put Lundbohm on this line because he also has good puck handling skills. This line should be able to control the puck and keep the other team on the defensive. If Massen improves he could replace Lundbohm on this line because it wouldn't hurt to have a strong scorer, ala Bochenski. 2nd Line: Too be honest, this might really be my 3rd line. Why? Because I see this as the "checker" line. I'm not sure if these guys are going to score a ton, but no one can knock their value on this team in checking the other teams top guns. Also, maybe they can't score because they are always "checking". However, I keep them in this role. I put McMahon on this line because his style of play complements Notermann and Speedwack. Hi energy, hi tempo. I thought about Canady on this line because he adds some size, but I like McMahon's offensive abilities and maybe adding him gives this line a chance to score a bit more. Plus I like Connelly and Canady together. 3rd line: Another potential scoring line. Maybe a true 2nd line. I put R Hale on this line for a couple reasons. He is not on his natural right side (for his shooting hand) but ya gotta put Bochenski on the right side. I like seeing Bochenski and Fournier together as they seem to have chemistry, in my opinion. Bo can score, Fournier can playmake, and Hale is another Bayda with the puck in MY OPINION. Fournier and Bochenski can benefit from a guy who is strong in controlling the puck and can work the boards effectively. 4th Line: It's hard for me not to put Connelly and Canady on the same line together. I'm guessing (hoping?) that Genoway will be good enough to get regular ice by mid season. He's listed as a center on heisenberg's site. So this is where I put him. Connelly is a hard working speed guy. If Genoway isn't good enough this gives one of the other guys a chance to get on the ice. Fighting for time line: Faul - I thought he really contributed at the end of the year. This guy wins faceoffs. Might have to get him on the ice next year. Maybe Genoway has to beat him out. Palmiscno - I underestimated Tim Skarperud and maybe I will be guilty of underestimating Tyler as well. But at this point he is not going to beat out some of the other guys. Fylling - Good hard worker with some speed. Could replace one of the guys I have on the lines but who? I guess we'll see how he performs early in the year. Could take ice time from R Connelly maybe. Massen - Don't like leaving him on the bench either. Here's another guy who might take time away from someone like Canady, or Genoway. However, Massen didn't really seem to come on at the end of this year. A summer can make a difference however, and next year I could see him play his way onto the lineup regularly. I hope he can. This team seems overstocked with right handed shooters but I suppose that is normal. However, it appears we have quality depth at forward positions. Will we have enough playmaking ability at the center position???? On defense: Left Shooters Right Shooters D Hale Greene Leinweber (shoots?) Jones Schneider Fuher Marvin None of these guys is the real offensive defensemen we are used to seeing. Will one of them develop over time?? Hard to say though USHL numbers don't indicate they will. Only Greene shoots right unless Leinweber does and I don't think so but couldn't confirm it. This is only 7 defensemen. Seems like we are one short or so??? How many do you usually carry? Maybe this indicates there is space for one more recruit?? Or maybe furthering the speculation of one forward moving back into the D corps. The more likely candidate I would think is Faul or maybe even a Canady? Does that seem preposterous? Just wondering what people think. Anyway, this roster of mine shows 23 forwards and defensemen. Add 3-4 goalies and you have 26-27 guys on the roster. Oh, I forgot about B. Connelly who I doubt will play much with the crew we have. Blais carried 27 on the roster this past year.

Oh, can will Woog please learn to say: LUND'-bome and not: LUND'-blom ?

Regarding Ballard, let me first say that I would love to have him on the Sioux. He is an outstanding offensive defenseman. That said, Ballard takes many many dives, and holds the stick alot. I think as his years go on he will not draw nearly so many penalties as he has this year. The officials will catch on to that. He's probably one of those guys you love to have on your team but hate if he's on the other team.

Greyeagle. I definitely enjoyed your explanation of the beer incident

I agree Dick. I like listening to Woog. Yeah, they are homers but they (Woog especially) isn't afraid to be critical of the UM or of poor officiating that goes in favor of the gophers. And Woog is animated and I like that. Yeah, sometimes they get the names wrong, and there are other things that aren't smooth, but overall I enjoy listening to them.

Greyeagle were you there on Thurs night? That women was excellent as well. So in a way, that is progress, as past tournies I suffered every game. I wonder if she (SCSU gal) ever grasped that people were tired of hearing her sing on Friday night.

I would like to thank Angie? Harmeson for her excellent rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung at the Championship game on Sat at the Final Five. For anyone who has attended a hockey game with me the SSB is a huge gripe of mine. You have the crowd getting all hyped up from watching warm-ups, the anticipation of the game, the introductions, and then you have the SSB. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too many times we have people wanting to do the "contemporary" version of the SSB, or what I call the Whitney Houston version. This degradation just sucks the life out of everbody in the arena and by the time the Banner is over you have lost your built up enthusiasm for the start of the game. I like people who sing this baby up tempo like it is something to be proud off, something to get excited about. I don't like it prettified. This is not a pop song, this is our ANTHEM. Now, I'm not saying that by singing the anthem this way they are disrespecting the anthem. I'm just saying that I think there is a better way to sing it, especially at a sporting event. Let's keep this thing up tempo and straight forward. In contrast are a couple from this weekend. On Friday night before the MN-SCSU game they had a gal sing it. It was one of the worst renditions I have ever heard. Before she was 3/4 of the way through people were starting to yell out all around the arena because no one could pay attention any longer and couldn't wait for her to be done. At the end of it all you could do is slump in your chair. There was no way to sing along if you wished. On Sat night Angie Harmeson sung. Great job!!! Straight forward, up-tempo. Sing along if you like. And when it was over you still had the enthusiasm for the game that you had before the anthem. Great job, Angie! I was proud she was from GF.

A few thoughts on the tourney this weekend: Was there for 4 of the 5 games, missed the 3rd place game. Didn't miss anything..... 4 of the 5 games were pretty boring. Not much flow and not much scoring for the most part. Again, I didn't see the 3rd place game in person but from the little I saw on the tube and talking to people at the game, it wasn't much to see. CC really worked hard this weekend and managed to win 2 of 3 games. Hopefully they will be the 4th WCHA team in the tourney. SCSU: Can you say "swoonskies"? I was thinking the Dahl had figured out how to win but the last couple of years and the last half of this year have me wondering. Did he overachieve early this year? Or can't he keep his team going at the end of the year? Is it time for him to move on?? MN: Scary offensive team. Yow. They are so dangerous with the puck. Hauser imploded tonite though. Not that he let in soft shots, but with the game on the line with 4-5 minutes left he takes 2 stupid penalties. Not smart.........I have been a Hauser supporter when many goofer faithful rode him like a dog but tonite I think he really cost his team. Nice meeting you Kiork. Missed seeing the Sioux at the tourney. Didn't miss seeing ALL the Sioux fans proudly wearing their colors at the event. Definitely a lot of loyal Sioux fans were at the games. Very impressive showing of green jerseys, hats, etc at the games. Denver is a very very good team too. What can you say about Dubiewicz? Wow, is he quick, and well positioned. Gwodzdecky is the most fun coach to watch. We were directly across the rink from him and often we could hear him yelling instructions at the players on the ice, or giving an earful to the refs. Goddard really seemed to want to give the gophs every chance on the PP tonite against Denver. Great crowds at most of the games, even Thurs during the storm. Set a new attendance record. Already can't wait to see the Sioux back at the Five next year. Where's my ticket order application??!!!

I think someone is referencing that Lucia did not vote for Panzer for the Hobey last year. I think I read someone post that once, though I can't speak for the veracity of that info myself.

You gotta remember the Mpls market for Don is much bigger than in GF so there are many more opportunities AND demand for Lucia to make appearances. And right now you can't be too critical of the gophers play. Tonite they took apart SCSU. These guys are for real.

Good for Brandon. I hope someone gets in his head and convinces him of areas for improvement. I see him as a very one dimensional player and hope this doesn't reinforce that that is good enough.

Just talking 8th title. Not tied to any timeframe or player.

DLW4, understanding your point but I think you are more accurate to say that MN's "offense" will be better with Ballard and Martin. Awesome offensive players but I think our ability to play defense is probably as good, if not a bit better due to not having our D men pinching up so much. From the D corp, we are behind in the area of getting the puck into transition. I agree in that respect.

Yep, that direction, anyway

Let's hire this guy at the GF Herald.

I see the number 8

mind link.

jk I like what you say but I think the Sioux team is one year behind the gophers. I think the goofs have enough returning talent that with Taffe and Vanek they will be downright scary and without them they might still be one of the top contenders. Of course, we need to see how they finish the postseason play, but right now they look as good as anyone could. I still think the Sioux will be competitive with the gophers next year, but I'm not sure about equal. I know I have been wrong many times before and hope I am again.

On the gopher board they said Charlie Walters is reporting in the Pioneer Press the Final Five will be at the X for the next 5 years. That is outstanding news since I am in Section 104 Row 11 right now!!!!! YEAH BABY!

He probably said "hey, there could be worse things that happen to you"!

Someone on another thread mentioned that Charlie Walters reported that Chris Porter of SSM had committed to the Sioux.

Doc, I was wondering!