forecheck

Yes. Why take any chances?

The playing without the helmet violation was dumb. His helmet came off, so Greene picked it up like he was going to put it back on. He tried but couldn't seem to do that and keep an eye on play, so instead he decided not to put the team, who was ahead 6 or 7-0 in an exhibition game, at risk and threw the helmet down and continued to play. Mason was watching the whole time. Stupid. Then he acted like he didn't know he was going to get a penalty. He puts his team on a penalty kill and Concordia scores almost right away The too many men on the ice thing I'm not so sure about. The play was on my right side, and I heard someone's stick hitting the ice in front of the Sioux bench. When I look over Greene was on the ice like he fell, and he was scrambling back to the bench. Hakstol didn't look happy. Not too sure what happened there.

My 2 cents. After Jones whiffed on the puck and a UMD player did pretty much the same thing in that end a few minutes later in the first period, I was wondering if the puck was freezing to the ice a bit. First game of the season, the ice may not be perfect yet. I saw the fight in person and later watched the replay on tv. I think it was a little more evenly contested than most Sioux fans are willing to admit. Prpich ended up taking his man down to the ice at the end and he may have had a slight advantage, but you could tell they were both dog tired at the end of the fight. It was only a matter of time before one of them fell. Doesn't mean it wasn't awsome to watch though! I've always considered the Sioux to be a decently fast team, but they looked absolutely slow out there at times compared to Duluth. I guess when Spiewak and Notermann left, they took a lot of the speed with them. Goaltending and team speed are definitely Duluth's strong points. J. Parise came up with some pretty great saves himself, though. After he made a nice looking toe save on the 2-0, I was thinking there goes Brandt's starting position. Great game to start out the season!

From the preview of UND article on USCHO. "Josh Siembida, who managed a 12-4 record despite a 85.3 save percentage, parted with the team in the offseason and is playing with Wichita Falls of the North American Hockey League."

I also wish Ziegleman and Parise would have been tested more in goal. I wonder if they were put against the white team on purpose? Brandt was obviously upset that he let in 3 of 4 goals, because after the scrimmage he went straight to the locker room and slammed his stick against the ground while the rest of the team shook hands and did a center ice stick salute. It was just a scrimmage. That made me think that if Brandt continues getting so emotional during games, we might be seeing more of the freshmen goaltenders as the season goes on. Just my opinion. It also seemed to me like the intensity was running pretty high for a scrimmage. I don't remember seeing that many hits at last year's Meet the Sioux. My friend and I figured they were still playing for their spots in the lineup this weekend, seeing as how there will be a few guys sitting out every game. Smaby definitely wasn't afraid to stand guys up and push them around.

The guy I talked to was no peach either. He was a complete jerk.

Screwed by Ticketbastard?? That actually happens?! I found out last night that my 5 tickets I bought online for the Sioux/Gopher game were cancelled and resold, and now the family that I bought them for is SOL and will have to cancel their trip up here. Of course there are standing room only tickets available, but their kids wouldn't be able to use them since it's in the bar, and they're not exactly the same as 5 seats in a row. The customer service rep that I talked to can rot in hell.

Farce, It's not just Sioux fans who are gouging ticket prices. I was looking for 2 Saturday tickets to the Sioux/Gopher game in Minneapolis last year, and one scalper that I talked to outside the arena laughed in my face when I said I would pay $70 for 2 tickets. Sorry, I'm a poor college student. He never did tell me how much he would take for them. Another guy said it would be $90/ticket.

FYI, the tickets are sold.

If anyone is still looking for tickets to the Sioux/Gopher games in Grand Forks, I ended up with 2 extra single tickets just for the Friday night game. Both are in Section 311, but one seat is in Row F Seat 4, the other in Row E Seat 25. Let me know if you're interested!

LOL, I had been drinking for probably at least 6 hours when someone pointed them out to me. I think I was talking to Parise at the time. Sorry, I didn't ask who they were.

A couple of the walk-ons were at REA this weekend, so they must still have a chance.

Exactly. I could care less if other people go to their classes or not, and I doubt the students in student government care either. I'm not paying for their education. Besides, there is no way to enforce it. If people think camping out for hockey tickets is more important than going to class, it's their personal decision. If you can't afford to skip your classes, then either have your friends set up camp or you're SOL. Plenty of people waited until Friday or Saturday to camp out and they all got tickets in the lower bowl. It's the people who waited until Sunday morning who may have not had as much luck.

UND does not enforce attending class, so this really isn't relevant. My only class on Friday was cancelled, so I didn't skip any classes to camp out.

For a small fee this year. With a 30% tuition increase between the ND Board of Education and the med school, you gotta scrape money together any way you can.

Sleeping. I am so hungover today...... Camping out for 3 days was actually kind of fun. The worst part was after being the 25th person in line and picking my seat right away, waiting in line for an HOUR to pay for the damn things. Now you would think that I was used to waiting in line, but when I decided to take a *nap* at 5:30am and was woken up at 7am when they started handing out numbers in line, I was ready to go home and crash. So worth it, though. I was actually impressed with how everything was handled. Everything was organized, almost to the point of being anal. They let 10 people in at a time, but if you had more than 10 people in a group they would just let the group in, assuming they were together in line. I just thought it was funny that they made us get in single file line to be escorted to the student section after signing our contracts. We were all friends and planned on sitting together, so it's not like we were going to kill each other for the seats. Plus, REA officials told the police department that since it was private property, they had no right to be telling the students that they would do random searches for alcohol Thursday night and hand out $101 fines for public intoxication. It was like they WANTED us to party. And party we did. And every morning REA security would come outside with garbage bags and brooms, and hand out free security patches to the select few of us who cleaned up. It's going on my jersey.

Redwing, I sent you a message back. Check it before you go to the arena.

Sure am. I took a First Aid class at UND that expires this Christmas. I believe the warmest it will get this weekend is in the 40's. Damn, the video cameras better stay away from me. I'm going for warmth, not looks....

I'm speechless. I am now one of the crazy students camping out Thursday night. Well, not as we speak anymore. I went to Fargo Thursday afternoon to do a little shopping, and on my way back at 9:00 or so, one of my buddies that I sit with called my cell phone and asked if I would stop by the arena and bring them some hot chocolate. Needless to say I was suprised since we weren't planning on going until Saturday. He told me there were 100-200 people already waiting in line (a bit of an exaggeration) so they decided to head out early. So I got home and put on some more clothes, got some hot chocolate, and made a little trip to the liquor store and hung out with them from 11-4am. (I have a paper due Friday, and after 5 hours of typing on a laptop I was still only 2 1/2 pages in.) Let me just say it was f'ing freezing. I have to work on a group project for a bit tomorrow, then I'll be back in the afternoon for the home stretch until Sunday. I'm just glad to know I'll have my seats, being the 4th tent from the front and all. As for how they're handing out tickets....apparently they are letting in 10 students at a time so no one gets killed, and when I got there tonight there were a few cops there regulating. It was actually all very organized, which was a pleasant surprise, with people bringing out couches, tvs, game cubes, stereos, you name it. Nothing like driving up the electricity bill at the Ralph! The cops left, but they drive by every once in awhile to ensure peace, which is a good thing considering there were already some intoxicated guys hanging around who were a little irate that there was already a line. I think it's crazy too, but at least I'll have my seats! Good luck to anyone waiting till Sunday morning! I don't think your chances are very good. (Redwing, if none of your friends can take your ID to get you tickets, and you don't want to risk waiting until Sunday morning, email me before 4pm tomorrow and I'll get another friend's ID and get an extra set of tickets by us for you if you want me to. Any later and I'll be out front of REA, frozen solid no doubt.)

I know I'll be packing heat.

Overall the team averages out to be about 5'.9"-6'.0 and 195 lbs. The defensemen (including Marvin) average to be about 6'.1" and 203 lbs, and that's factoring in a 5'8" 180lb Bina. Our defense is going to be big again. I'll do anything to avoid homework....

I was thinking the same thing. Parise and Bochenski saw a fair amount of penalty time last year, and they both ended up with a few SHG's by the end of the season.

Not to be the party pooper for all you early birds, but all the guys I usually sit with and I plan on camping out Saturday night and drinking some beverages all night long. I've heard of other people having the same idea. I don't think it's going to exactly hurt your chances of getting lower bowl seats if you wait until early morning to get in line though. We're just doing it for the hell of it. It's much easier for some of us to just not go to bed at all rather than get up at 6am.

Not to mention that Hale is one of the few players left who has experienced a national championship game, and is the only one who has actually won a NC. Last year, Spiewak, Notermann, Leinweber, and Hale undoubtedly referred to that experience when leading the team to a tournament appearance after a disappointing 2002 season. He knows what it takes, and that the end result more than makes up for all the hard work.

I don't know Worthless, it would have to be a lot of beers.....I know this from experience.