burd

Few things are as sweet as a child's smile, and knowing your efforts put it there, well . . . .

Good work, MM.

I have lived in Wisconsin for over 30 years and completely agree And I discovered after moving here that most UW fans feel the same way about us. Just a great hockey rivalry where a "fun" kind of hate is shared. And Wisco fans do love fun.

This team will make the playoffs, so what they want to do is peak at the right time. I hope they have two very tough games this weekend, and it might be the worst thing to lose one, as long as it's not due to shaky goaltending. Time to forge the iron. Add some chip on their collective shoulder.

I would list UMinn farther down the list just to pizz off rodent fans who lurk here. It would be worth it to get even one of those slope-headed droolers, I hate the gophs so much. See, Doctor, it all started with Bill Butters . . . .

That is true everywhere and is so annoying.

UMD is peaking, and they know what it takes. Plenty to be concerned about. Which I know you know.

Ehh . . . Elks Club?

Since we are going down memory land in this CC game thread, mention ought to be made of trivia bowl night at the Ho. Not the same hockey ambience, but part of the times . . . .

I know there is a better way to link to this than copying, but here you go--from the Herald: Adieu, Frenchy: Frenchy Lacrosse, 83, provided hangout, support to GF fans and athletes Ralph Engelstad and hockey brought Hubert Jean "Frenchy" Lacrosse to Grand Forks in 1952. He was playing hockey for the San Bernardino (Calif.) Shamrocks, meeting ex-UND hockey players including Engelstad, who convinced him to come to UND to play... Written By: Steve Lee | Dec 12th 2013 - 8pm. AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to Facebook Share to TwitterShare to RedditShare to EmailShare to Copy Link Ralph Engelstad and hockey brought Hubert Jean "Frenchy" Lacrosse to Grand Forks in 1952. He was playing hockey for the San Bernardino (Calif.) Shamrocks, meeting ex-UND hockey players including Engelstad, who convinced him to come to UND to play hockey. Lacrosse moved here but couldn't afford college, he said. But he stayed. Engelstad famously left Grand Forks not long after to become a wealthy Las Vegas casino owner who donated more than $110 million for two hockey arenas in Grand Forks. Lacrosse ended up providing an education, of sorts, to many UND students, as well as off-campus support, from the 1960s until 1994 through two well-loved sports bars that sponsored amateur teams for men and women and inexpensive brew and lifetime friendship with Frenchy. Lacrosse died Dec. 5 in his home in Hemet, Calif. He was 83. His family had moved from Montreal -- where he was born in 1929 of Belgian, not French, extraction, he told the Herald -- to California when he was 15. But Lacrosse spent more than half his life in Grand Forks where his bar and restaurant, Frenchy's, on Stanford Road just north of UND's campus, was the first real sports bar in the area and long a favorite of students, many who had their personalized beer mug hanging from the ceiling. "He had one of the first satellites, back when they were the size of a volcano crater, up on his roof, before there was any cable or DirectTV, and he would find stuff, from experimenting, and pull in games from the East Coast and from the West Coast you couldn't get on normal TV," said longtime friend and customer Kent Keyes, who began frequenting Frenchy's in the early 1970s. "It was unique in its time." Lacrosse repaired televisions in the 1950s and 1960s, became a partner in Matt's Tavern near downtown and refereed hockey games across the region, at the high school and college level, including UND. Popular hangouts Lacrosse built Frenchy's in 1968, opening on Feb. 26, 1969. "The reason I built the place was that the downtown bars said they didn't want the college students because they were too rowdy," Frenchy told the Herald in 1999 when his former bar at 1302 Stanford Rd. was demolished by the new owner, Hansen Ford. "Well, the purpose of our place was to be loud and have fun. But I don't remember a single fight in my place." It was called Frenchy's Tavern, and Frenchy's Food & Fun Emporium, and even Frenchy's Cabaret for a time, according to Herald records. But mostly it was just "Frenchy's." Lacrosse was famous for sponsoring amateur basketball and softball teams. Keyes played on the city league basketball team sponsored by Frenchy for a decade. "He was the best sponsor I ever had. He would buy uniforms, always treat you to food and beverage after a game," said Keyes, longtime director of the Red River Valley Community Action agency. "When you came in, he never asked if you won the game. He asked did you have fun and did everyone get to play?" Lacrosse figured he sold about 16,000 of the 20-ounce ceramic mugs emblazoned with a customer's name indelibly marked on it. About 1,600 hung from the ceiling by the early 1990s. Frenchy was ordered to get out of the bar business by his doctor because of his emphysema and put it up for sale in 1990, finally shutting its doors in 1994 when he sold it to Hansen Ford next door. Keyes retrieved his mug from Frenchy in the last days of the bar. But he said many former customers didn't know about the closing and many mugs ended up at a second-hand store in East Grand Forks. "They had boxes and boxes of them," Keyes said. Hometown booster Former UND hockey coach Gino Gasparini met Lacrosse as a UND player in the 1960s. "He was bartending at Matt's Tavern, where we all hung out," Gasparini said Thursday from his lake home. Matt's was the main UND and sports hangout in the 1950s and 1960s, just a block off North Washington and University Avenue at 206 N. 12th St., said longtime teacher and civic leader Gary Malm, who wasn't unknown at Matt's back in the day. "He was refereeing in those days and he was quite a guy, had quite a reputation as an official," Gasparini said of Lacrosse in the 1960s. "He was a character but he was well-liked by everybody. Of course, the visiting teams always called him a homer. His response was, 'Well, that's where I'm from'" Lacrosse became a partner at Matt's and took the beer license with him when he started Frenchy's, Gasparini said. Frenchy also took the sports-soaked theme: Matt's was known for sponsoring one of the best fast-pitch softball teams in the Upper Midwest. His reputation as a biased ref remains on the minds of the players who felt victimized. About five years ago, Keyes ran into hockey great Tony Esposito at an establishment in Wisconsin and traded stories of WCHA hockey with the Chicago Blackhawk goalie legend who played for Michigan Tech in the mid-1960s. "He said 'That G-d d---ed bar owner up there always hosed us when we came to Grand Forks, so we couldn't beat you guys,' so I told him that was my friend Frenchy Lacrosse," Keyes said, laughing. Lacrosse moved to Phoenix for a few years in the early 1990s, moving back to find a "warmer" community. Several years ago he moved to Ashley, N.D. He and his wife, Viola, moved to California in 2011, according to his obituary. He is survived by his wife, and 11 children and stepchildren, 34 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. An endowment fund in his memory, benefiting UND, has been set up at the UND Foundation. A funeral mass will be held 9 a.m., Dec. 17, in Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, Hemet, Calif. Lacrosse still came back to UND for football and hockey games in recent years, said Keyes, who last saw him in September when the ailing Frenchy came back to visit friends and family. "He was a fixture in this community for a long time. He deserves to be remembered."

What did they do with all the cups?

Probably from the Highway Host. Sounds like what we would do out there after bar time at Frenchys. God I was immature.

One thing I remember at the Barn was the cymbals player would crash the cymbals in the face of opponents who came up against the chicken wire at the band end, which I think was the West end. And the fog that would develop over the ice.

This is so important. It stood out against CC.

Good information, Sic. Nothing like facts to move a discussion. But more shots from higher percentage areas may, itself, be due to factors that need to be discussed. Just because the D man are taking a lower percentage of the shots and more are being taken from high percentage areas may be due to more than strategy.

I can see it. Badgers were always fun, but a good gopher toss that went for a long, preferably bloody, slide toward the goalie was always sweet. Never witnessed a goose. That's inspired. Hope it was a snow.

I'm sure there a lot of factors, some of them random, but I'll throw two out there for thought. 1) Pinto. Not much needs to be said about him. Toewsish (not JT level but similar) in his presence on the ice. 2) Kawaguchi. I've commented off and on over the last two years that he is a guy who seems to need some time for the game to slow down. He's always had skill and work ethic. He's figured it out, IMO, and the result is more goals for not only himself but for everyone around him. Those are two. There are probably plenty of others, including an overall increase in skill level, which affects everything, including the PP.

Gophers, BC, UMD starting to hit stride. Big difference between October and March. All you gotta do is get in the dance.

They just need to end this. Go straight time.

They also seem to play better when they are up by 5.

This team can pass

OH. (icon for embarrassed)

As far as conference standings are concerned, UMD has only played 15 games, while DU has 18. We've played 17. Go DU.

Tim's the best radio college hockey play by play I've heard, but Olson is hurting his broadcast.

What we need is a goalie who plays a full 60. Both of them stand around at least half the time.