MafiaMan

I'm picking up your sarcasm. Did Phil Housley run over your dog and drive off without stopping to see if it was ok or something? You sure have an aversion to a person who has represented the USA many times in his playing and coaching career...and done an outstanding job of being a fine representative for USA hockey.

So after one season of being an assistant coach at Minnesota and four years of being the head coach at Minot High School, was Dean Blais qualified enough to become an assistant coach for the University of North Dakota? We could debate qualifications all day long.

LOL...yep, the true measure of coaching genius is how your team plays in the preliminary rounds. And certainly, one-goal losses to Russia and Canada call for Housley and staff to be publicly flogged as punishment. Sheesh...tough crowd. Win or lose tomorrow, this tournament was a success for Team USA.

Good stuff! Maybe this Phil Housley character isn't such a bad coach after all.

Frankly, son, I'm at a loss for words here...

It's not the CCHA that's not good this year...it's specifically Michigan State and Michigan.

That might be a stretch...but I would LOVE to see that storied program get back on its feet again.

Then I'll get you up to speed this morning...Kim Kardashian is pregnant and Lebron James had Cheerios for breakfast. Oh, and Piers Morgan still hates gun owners.

I watched the two Gopher/Tech games on TV a few weeks ago and was impressed with the Huskie performance in the split. Both games were very close. Tech will be a tough out for someone in the WCHA playoffs this season.

I bet Phil's tactics work just fine and Rocco gets the message in the next game and plays quite well.

Oh please. If that's a Gopher player, you're calling for Phil to ship him back to Minneapolis for being a team cancer.

I expected much more out of Slovakia in this game based on their performance in this tournament up to this point. Good win for Team USA...maybe there is hope for a medal after all!

Wilbur, in 2011 Boston College was smoked in the opening round of the NCAA's by Colorado College...and it wasnt in Worcester!

On the off-chance that Lake State can ever turn around its program and became a high-seed, a trip to Sault Ste Marie would be possible under this proposed format.

Wow, that's an educated post. Those schools doing well would be beneficial for ALL of college hockey. If you want to start weeding out the Bemidjis, Mankatos, Lake States, etc., college hockey will become an even smaller niche market than it already is.

Sad but true. In a few years, most everyone in the crowd at REA will be sporting new jerseys...and Sioux jerseys will pop up as often as a North Stars jersey at a Wild game.

Yea, Michigan Tech had every chance to go back to the CCHA when Northern Michigan left and they chose to stick with the WCHA. It would be a shame for the new-look WCHA to struggle attendance-wise and revenue-wise - even worse if some schools decided to 86 hockey altogether.

The difference now is that fans can speculate as to where their team will be placed (like UND fans figuring they were coming to the X two weekends in a row)...once you open up remote locations, it will get trickier. A February-March trip to Marquette or Sault Ste Marie is a white-knuckler!

That's a lot of absolute last-second planning...and won't ever happen. Imagine pairings coming out on Sunday afternoon and having to make travel arrangements to go from Boston to Kalamazoo or Grand Forks to Sault Ste Marie on 3-4 days notice...that's pretty tough logistically-speaking. I believe a three-game series is a better option that still rewards a team for having a successful regular season.

Can you blame Michigan Tech for being upset with what has transpired over the past few months? I really can't.

Replicas are fine when you're a 10 year old kid and will outgrow your jersey in a season or two...for me as an adult, it's authentic or no jersey at all. I also think the reason that the new jerseys aren't available in authentic versions yet is that people know in 4-5 years, UND will have new jerseys - likely with some sort of logo on it. Why buy now when it'll all change in a few years anyways?

I've been arguing for this change for a long time...it would be nice to finally see something done about it. It would also be nice to eliminate teams playing each other in consecutive weekends in conference tournaments and then regional tournaments (which has obviously happened to North Dakota and Minnesota several times over the past few years in addition to Denver as well). Can you imagine the outcry if North Carolina played Duke in the ACC basketball tournament final and was promptly stuck in the same regional for the NCAA tournament a week later? Exactly...#1 seed or not, there's a huge disadvantage to being seeded in someone else's backyard (also see: 1998 North Dakota vs Michigan @ Yost Arena).

I own a print from circa 1980's that shows the championship banners (old ones, obviously), Hobey Baker winner Tony Hrkac, previous coaches and All-American and Olympic players...who has information regarding that particular print?

What print was that?

LOL fightingsioux4life...are you referring to the 3-game smackdown that the Sioux put on the Gophers in 2010? The one that saw the Sioux win game 3 by a score of 4-1 after getting a PPG and an ENG in the 3rd period? The one where not a single Gopher fan even thought their team had a chance to win that series and very nearly pulled off a huge upset? Obviously I have never gotten into it with Gopher fans? Come see me at this year's FInal Five and I will share some stories with you - starting with Gopher fans presumably being responsible for keying my truck to the tune of $3000 worth of damage a few years ago. I have had PLENTY of run-ins with their kind - usually the ones with personalities of European soccer hooligans after their team loses a big game.