jimdahl

The big score of tonight is definitely the Badgers losing to Tech after a very lackluster win yesterday. That puts the Sioux within 1 point of the WCHA lead, despite having played 4 fewers games than #1 and #3. I was hoping UW's slump would begin a few weeks from now, but it will be interesting to see what follows this.

On posts that you've made, there should be an "edit" button. Since new stuff happened pretty quickly and no one posted after me, I just tacked my new comments onto the end. Also useful for fixing typos. Anyway, the Sioux really are trying to win this one. They're putting on a lot of offensive pressure and trying to wear down the Seawolves. They're just finishing off another power play.

Fylling scores! 2-2. about 8:00 left.

Sioux putting on a lot of offensive pressure. UAA defensemen Segal injured. Seawolves getting in the Sioux faces a lot, finally called for a hold. Sioux PP begins. ... Sioux PP ends. Worst... powerplay... ever. 8:25 remaining in the game.

Sioux score even strength! McMahon? 1-1

I think they gave it to Bochenski, though changes afterward are not unprecedented. I didn't see it, myself, but I thought I heard that they decided Porter didn't tip it.

2nd intermission Phoenix 1 Minnesota 0 Boucher is 3:46 from one hell of a record. So far in his streak he has stopped 119 consecutive shots. Unfortunately, I'm on my way out the door in about 10 mins

PP goal for AA with about 10 secs left on the PP. UAA 1 UND 1

Just peeking at the game between a workout and a shower. Looks like AA is going into their 2nd power play. Apparently they didn't do much on the 1st. UND cross-checks early in the power play bringing on a 3-5 for about 1:20.

I don't know if you all saw this: Sioux welcome mat is out for Fornier

The Coyotes' backup netminder, Boucher, is riding 4 consecutive shutouts (tying the NHL record from 50 years ago), over four and a half hours, 265:46, of shutout. The last three games have been on the road. Friday he travels to Minnesota, 43:46 shy of the all-time shutout record set in 1949. Meanwhile, the offensively slumping Wild broke out for a franchise best 7 goals last game. Will the Wild score on Boucher within 43:46 at Xcel?

Regarding the potential for a "swoon": I'd be surprised to see the Sioux make it through the second half of the season with 1 loss and 1 tie. Any worse would constitute a decline in performance, so I guess I have to admit that I expect Spring to be slightly worse than Fall. However, I certainly don't expect to see 6-8-4 like the Sioux posted in the Spring of last season. The offensive slowdown last year did come on all of a sudden, but did seem related to other external factors, so I'm not particularly concerned. If anything, our offense seems to be gaining momentum. Besides, I have my Boston tickets, so we have to do well.

Pride On Ice. In general, SiouxSports.com NCAA D-I hockey links is a pretty comprehensive resource. And Discussion of handy-dandy tools

I would find a theater curious for a few reasons: It's not pictured in their own concept drawing I personally think of theatres as primarily targeted toward locals rather than tourists; whereas the hotel, convention center, and water park are targeted towards visitors. I don't see much cross-benefit. Maybe people do go to movies while visiting other towns, though. The G.F. movie scene is controlled by one company with relatively low prices, so other companies would probably be hesitant to compete (or is demand high enough that Carmike would find it worth opening more screens? Are the Carmike 10 stadium seating? If not, they could be attacked on that front). I have absolutely zero inside information on this, it's just my personal gut reaction to the idea.

From what I understand, that's pretty consistent with the Canad Inn's development philosophy -- they like to have attractions rather than just depend on the normal hotel crowd. The way I see it, they wanted a waterpark because it's somewhat unique in the area so could convince guests to stay at their hotel instead of another in the area (I don't think it was ever meant to be a Wisconsin Dells-like attraction that would draw people from afar for the sole purpose of water-parking). Recognizing G.F.'s need for water entertainment for it's own citizens, they gave G.F. an opportunity to buy in, develop a bigger park, and offer volume pricing to the citizens of G.F. Since the voters weren't interested, I would guess that this waterpark will be aimed at out-of-town guests rather than locals, including higher prices and bundling with hotel rooms. Not a waterpark for G.F. citizens anymore, but still good for economic development.

Soon. Almost certainly this week.

When I first saw this story break a couple days ago, the big thought that came to my mind was: "I thought it was supposed to be transferred to UND at some point". The Herald article, REA has new owner, provides a few additional details. The ND corporation, UND Sports Facilities Inc., owns the arena; but the Nevada corporation, UND Arena Services Inc., still has management authority. Call my cynical, but this has nothing to do with "limiting UND's liability", rather, this is keeping complete control of the arena out of UND's hands. Frankly, I think the independent ownership is a good idea; but let's just call a spade a spade and say that direct control of the arena was not and never will be transferred to UND to isolate the arena from the fickle political machinations of the University.

FYI-- Just popped in to monitor how the new message board server is holding up under the weight of an actual game-time discussion. Looks like you vultures are overloading it a little bit so response times might not have been perfect tonight and intermittent timeouts were possible. Sorry about that. The main problem seems to be that its low on memory when it spawns dozens of web server processes to respond to the additional simultaneous requests. I'll continue to monitor the situation during peak times like this and try to come up with remedies. I'll start looking into what it would take to bump up the memory a little bit. Please do give me feedback (PM is fine) as to your own personal experiences with the performance.

I'd be quite fine with UND getting the reputation as the place for great coaches to go to prove themselves so they can get noticed by D-IA schools. I hope Lennon sticks around for a long time, but when he chooses to leave, bring them on

That's not dissimilar to our arrangement with Crookston. We played them for a few years to try to help get their program established (they've been playing D-II ball in the NSIC since '99). As long as it doesn't hurt our playoff chances, it doesn't bother me that much as long as it's only one game and we can find quality opponents for the others.

I don't know, I can name a big team in D-II: UND Fighting Sioux. They're who this message board is about! If you're really no longer interested in UND football or other D-II football, then you're probably in the wrong place. Back on topic -- Not next year, as frogger said, but in the future I'd love to see a home/away with GVSU, they were a blast to watch at the national championship game, and provide a different defensive style of play from most NCC teams, they'd definitely get us into shape. Plus, being in our region next year, the NCAA encourages us to play them. Also from this year's playoff opponents, I wouldn't mind seeing Winona a bit more. They're definitely scrappy, in-region, and play an offense reminiscent of some of the old NDSU offenses, which I think is also good to face during the season.

Might as well stick with what works: Grand Valley State Names Chuck Martin Head Football Coach

m-w.com: dictionary.com: The dictionary says usually disparaging; though my guess is that no harm was intended, rather it was just meant to be a slang identification of race. I agree that it's not so obviously disparaging and likely of ill-intent as "nigger", for example; but to avoid the possible interpretation of a racial slur, it would probably be wise to avoid it. Posts that are obviously and intentionally racially disparaging are not permitted and will be removed.

Brian Kelly expected to be named CMU's head coach Great for Kelly. I had a lot of interesting talks with GVSU fans in Alabama about the history of their team (about which I knew nearly nothing). They really built the football program from nothing in the 90s, with Kelly at the helm. 2001 was the GLIAC's first visit ever to the national championship game, and Kelly brought his team back there and to the championship for the next two years, despite some huge personnel changes. Though GVSU will miss Kelly, I'm sure they give him the same best wishes we do. Given what they've done the past few years, I wouldn't expect GVSU to disappear with someone else at the helm. Hopefully, with the new regional alignment and emphasis on in-region play, we'll get to see more of GVSU in coming years.

OK, the message board is running on the new server. The URL with the IP address is only temporary. If performance works out well, I'll move the SiouxSports.com domain name over; otherwise, I'll move the board back and go back to the drawing board.