jimdahl

If I may defend Slap Shot (who I assume you're referring to with "slappy"), he's not absent at all.

Post #11

I changed the title of this thread so people would more easily spot it as the place to get info about the Al Pearson Frozen Four bus trip. I hope no one minds... complain if you do (particularly if you created the thread).

Last year seemed especially easy to me because it was in Columbus and there were no local teams. Ticket packages were going for well below face value online before the games. This one could be different -- it's an hour drive away from UW, the best traveling team in the country. Having lived in Madison for a while and followed the Badgers to Milwaukee and other events, I don't expect tickets to be readily available or cheap on the streets. I'm certainly not trying to discourage anyone, rather suggesting that I'd begin working tickets sooner rather than later.

Al Pearson puts together bus trips, including last year's Frozen Four to Columbus. If he does it this year, notice will undoubtedly appear in this forum soon. If you're just looking for individual tickets, it could get tight if Wisconsin wins. In addition to obvious eBay type places, other online message boards to watch and check: USCHO tickets forums SiouxSports.com tickets forums REA ticket exchange Team that have been eliminated, particularly Minnesota (so close to Milwaukee) could also be good leads: Gopher Puck Live tickets forum

HC's goal was Werry's first of the season

Michigan's winged helmets

Unless my local sports bars seriously let me down, I have no intention of being anywhere near a computer at about 9:30 ET... (since we're all looking past this weekend's hockey games, I will of course be out watching the Florida-Georgetown basketball game )

26 / 456 people picked UNO to win. (I promise not to do this all weekend, give me a few hours and giddiness of the tournament beginning will die down, then a couple hours after that and some dead seriousness will be setting in).

About a half hour before the first puck drops, picks are closed! The most interesting stat so far is that SiouxSports.com visitors picked 12 different teams from the field of 16 to win the tournament. No one picked #4 Holy Cross or #4 Bemidji State University to win it all. More surprisingly, no one picked #2 Harvard or #2 Miami, though #4 UNH and #4 UNO were picked! Further, note that 17% and 14% expected #2 Miami and #2 Harvard to reach the Frozen Four, respectively. Though the #4 seed received the fewest picks to escape its regional in each region, only Holy Cross received no picks to win its region. Despite the breadth of picks, there was not similar depth. Sioux fans are hopeful, with 70% of the 456 participants guessing UND to win it all (this is historically a modestly hopeful percentage, in contrast to about 50% last year or closer to 85% in 2003-04). Consensus picks Leaderboard / laugh at your friend's picks

UND release

I'll try to restate -- I'm really not challenging the truthfulness of the news. You should trust it as much as you trust Chuck. I personally believe it. It's just the second time I've read that it must be true because it's on a blog. It appearing elsewhere would be validation if the other source acquired it independently (e.g. if they spoke with LaPoint, or a coach, etc...). A message board post repeating a blog post, or a blog post repeating a message board post isn't validation, it's just repetition. Chris (the blogger) might have acquired the rumor elsewhere, which would be significant validation, but he didn't say so, so we don't know. Nonetheless, welcome Derrick!

Ok, I'll bite. Blog posts make things official? How is an unattributed blog post more credible than a message board post? Heck, how do you know the blogger didn't pick up the news from the message board since it appeared here hours before on the blog? I do believe the news is likely to be true, but because it originated with Chuck Shwartz on this message board, who has established credibility on knowing what is going on with LaPoint.

Woah there... If this thread has gotten so ugly that people are comparing Bud Light favorably to Miller Lite, it has lost all touch with reality and is nearing a lockdown

If it doesn't make siouxsports.com, I don't see it Seriously, though, the UND press releases are very good and often filled with great, interesting factoids. I sometimes get caught up on the media coverage and forget to read them, but Dan and his crew do a great job. Go read it.

I'd say there's no question Minnesota's football team is more popular than it's hockey. I didn't have much to say about the recent basketball vs hockey debate because both have similarly sized fan bases in Minnesota, but football blows both out of the water. Big Ten football is the biggest sport at every Big Ten school, nothing else comes close. Even the traditionally subpar Gophers draw about 50,000 a game. That a bad football team can so outdraw good hockey and basketball teams is further evidence of how football is in an entirely different league, IMHO.

The Forum always has very good original coverage of the Sioux hockey team. My favorite stat of the article was this one: I had to look it up to believe it (the most wins & losses part, not the since 1975 part) Edit -- though I don't like the pressure of this one at all:

Senior key to Icers' tourney performance Michigan Daily article focusing a lot on the goaltending situation & Ruden. (Reminder -- there's always a pretty comprehensive collection of current media coverage on the hockey page. This is the time of year it has the most info, but is also most hidden because it's beneath the bracket).

I agree that every team tries to "show up" for every playoff game; I just wonder if there isn't some other subtlety to being able to sneak up on teams. Michigan Daily: No one really "overlooks" an opponent in the sense that every team shows up to win every single-elimination tournament game. However, there can be a subtle differences in how you handle on-the-ice situations dependent on you and your opponent's expectations of each of you winning. I will say, if Michigan's game plan is to hope that UND is overlooking them, they will leave disappointed.

Back to the original topic, my vote is with mksioux. I prefer when the Sioux are coming in under the radar ready to prove people wrong. You'd think this year would be like that, with UND finishing 4th in its conference and in the middle of the tournament field, but the prognosticators seem to have found Sioux religion after last year's run. I'm even somewhat conflicted on whether I would prefer the games to be somewhere other than REA (though that conflict would quickly evaporate if the games being at REA meant I were able to attend, as it does for many here )

I don't think anyone thought it was a one-way street and I haven't seen a single Bison fan claim the mistake was some sort of sign of recognition or positive for NDSU. It unfortunately happens all the time in both directions. To most of the country, naming the right Dakota is a major victory. Sadly, even a 15-seed basketball tournament appearance or two wouldn't change that.

Hyping your long-forgotten anti-N.D. diatribe to try to stir the pot? I don't think so...

From the above link: A long time ago (8 years or so now?) I gave away some prizes for the pick-the-WCHA contest, but haven't been organized enough since to plan in advance.

He's just saying they're used to playing in front of big crowds and in big arenas (in contrast to programs like Holy Cross that may be intimidated playing in REA). Red also said: I thought he was very complimentary.

Prizes!