MafiaMan

I meant to define the conference as a whole with an impressive resume. Value City Arena typically draws 2,500 to 4,000 fans for hockey, except when Michigan comes to town. That's when 13,000 to 14,000 fair-weather fans come out just to yell "Michigan sucks." Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin are indeed the flagship programs of the WCHA. Take away any two of those three, and the third one will be wishing they were with the other two. When are we gonna play some darts again, NDH?

At best? Ever heard of Ohio State? Last time I checked, it's a pretty big school in Columbus. That's six schools with a pretty impressive hockey resume. Should those six schools join together, I guarantee you'd see Denver, Colorado College, Northern Michigan, North Dakota, and about a dozen other schools pining to get into what would quickly be the biggest and best college hockey conference. Mildly threatened? The Big 10 Network would LOVE it! I'm not anti-Bemidji State, as one poster suggested, I'm more worried about the potential pitfalls of letting them into the WCHA over the objection of two flagship programs, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ask a North Dakota sports fan who their biggest rivals are and you'll no doubt hear "Minnesota and Wisconsin." Would Minnesota and Wisconsin prefer playing North Dakota and small schools several times a year or would they prefer to bolt and play in East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Columbus, etc...? You'd have to ask them...and I think their answer might surprise you.

Gee, ya think? I figured that British Columbia would prefer to play in Hockey East and fly from Vancouver to Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine several times a year. And for the love of Christmas, could someone please spell Niagara correctly? Someone pointed out ONE GAME from the 2000 season (which, by my count, was eight years ago now), as an example of the quality of play of Niagara. I sought to point out the most-recent example of CHA vs WCHA play and it was the thrashing UW delivered to Robert Morris this season. But, what the hell, since one game makes a program, when is the WCHA bid going to be extended to Holy Cross?

I'll agree with you on that point, AZSIOUX. If the potential of winning an NCAA championship is the ONLY criteria by which teams should be competing in college hockey, let's just whittle things down to 10 teams and dismantle all other programs. Maybe they could do the same thing in basketball, too. After all, we already known Kentucky, UConn, and UCLA would destroy George Mason, right? I'm not against Bemidji State being a D-1 hockey program. I'm against them joining the WCHA because it continues the trend of making the WCHA a small-town conference.

Wisconsin defeated Robert Morris 7-2 and 8-2 in a series earlier this season. Niagara owns wins this season over national powerhouses Western Michigan, Merrimack, and Bowling Green.

I never said it made those two schools good programs, I said they've been good enough to make a trip to the Final Five. Folks here on the board seem to want to look at two things to determine kicking out schools and accepting new schools to the WCHA: #1) Bemidji almost beat Denver in the NCAA tournament, so therefore they are good. #2) Mankato and Alaska-Anchorage suck, therefore they must leave. I'm not drinkin' that Kool-Aid.

And yet, stunningly enough, Mankato made a recent trip to the Final Five and Alaska-Anchorage managed to get there a while back too. It's a good thing you guys have short memories or else you'd have kicked Colorado College out of the WCHA during the era before Don Lucia.

Boise State managed to beat Oklahoma in last year's Fiesta Bowl, too, but I don't hear teams from the big XII saying that they should be invited to join the conference. What are you basing this "they are better than teams like Mankato and UAA" on?

It'll be 'AZSIOUX Throwback Jersey Night' at the Cowchip Palace Saturday night!

I have a few connections there and will see if maybe Star, Rainbow, Cosmos, or Destiny can find it and get it returned to you ASAP.

Foxnews.com is reporting a PCM sighting at The Platinum Fox in Columbus, Ohio. Details at 11.

They did? I guess I will have to check out ESPN Classic and see who won the extra overtime session from that 1999 game six. I hope Buffalo can pull it out and extend the series to seven games!

Wow, while we're at it, can we get together these teams from the past and replay their games and subsequent games? Colorado and Nebraska, the 5 downs game. USA vs Soviet Union, Olympic men's basketball. Dallas Stars vs Buffalo Sabres, NHL Stanley Cup Finals. That's just off the top of my head... I'm not making apologies for WCHA officiating, but far more egregious errors in sporting events have taken place in the past than what happened Friday night in Denver.

I don't know what morons you run into, Happy, but if the MacNaughton Cup isn't important, they should start stripping WCHA championship banners from Mariucci and Engelstad IMMEDIATELY! It seems to me the WCHA Final Five playoff champion enjoys that title as well. UND and MTU have a storied history against each other in the WCHA. Exactly who are these 'traditional rivals' that you speak of that UND fans would gladly trade games against Tech for? Maybe we could get Moscow Dynamo to come back as a 'traditional rival'?

You speak as if Michigan Tech has no history of championships and playoff appearances. Every time I hear people talk about the Huskies leaving the WCHA, it's because they feel "Tech sucks anways" and really don't know about MTU's heyday, particularly the mid-1970's. You folks dreaming of Bemidji State and other schools joining the WCHA so you can wave good-bye to Minnesota and Wisconsin had better hope and pray UND gets a Big 10 Conference invitation. Recruits come to UND to play big-time hockey, not play Robert Morris, Alabama Huntsville, Bemidji State, and Minnesota State. I mean no disrespect to those schools, they're just not big-time.

Yea, let's tell WCHA flagship team Mitchigan Tech to take a hike...and take their silly little MacNaughton Cup with them! For those of you who need a history lesson, here's a bit of reading regarding MTU and the MacNaughton Cup: History of the MacNaughton Cup

The moment you open the door for small schools like Bemidji State and others to join the WCHA is the day Wisconsin and Minnesota start revisiting the idea of a Big 10 hockey conference. Don't laugh. With the emergence of Notre Dame as a more-than-respectable team and Michigan State's resurgence as a national power, think of the snowball effect this could have if the idea caught steam: Michigan State Michigan Ohio State Notre Dame Wisconsin Minnesota Obbiously throw out Ohio State and Notre Dame from this next thought, but count the national championships from the rest of the schools and you have one heckofa powerhouse conference with the Northern Michigans, St Clouds, Lake Superior States, North Dakotas, and Western Michigans of the world pulling out all the stops to get into what would be the rest of the Big 10 Conference. If North Dakota were to be denied admission (based on the logical distance factor), you're WCHA could suddenly look like this: Alaska (they're no longer Alaska-Fairbanks) Alaska-Anchorage Denver Colorado College St Cloud State North Dakota Minnesota-Duluth Minnesota State Bemidji State Michigan Tech With all due respect, I prefer the idea of playing Minnesota and Wisconsin 6-8 times a year as opposed to the "new" WCHA. You folks screaming that the WCHA admit Bemidji State ASAP should be careful what you wish for. Don't kid yourself into thinking Minnesota would prefer playing another small-time Minnesota school as opposed to the Spartans and Wolverines a few more times a year.

I can't make the trip up to GF due to timing of mites hockey events on Saturday and Sunday morning. Drop me a line if you're interested!

It still bothers me that people blame Brian Lee for his positioning on the Blake Wheeler goal at the Final Five last year. That's kind of like blaming Everson Walls for being where he was when Dwight Clark made "the catch." Brian got a bum wrap for that play. It was simply an outstanding effort on the part of Wheeler. I, for one, am happy to see that Brian Lee is playing well and enjoying the AHL.

It's funny how Garth Snow was ridiculed as loony for signing DiPietro to a lengthy contract, yet Ovechkin signs a similar deal and Washington is hailed for locking the guy up for the long-term. Philly recently made a similar contract with one of their players. The NHL is the new NBA. Five or six years from now, deals like this will cripple the team financially unless the owner wants to spend money, and, much like the Timberkittens, they will have ONE big star on the team and a bunch of scrubs no one else wants.

Sheesh, first you want Trapper's Kettle, now you want the DQ. This'll be a tough sell, but perhaps if I tell Mr. Means that we'll take scuzzy South Heart off his hands, he'll accept the deal.

I'll start negotiating with Mr. Means as soon as I can.

Uh...given the high taxes across the state line, I'm guessing New Jersey has a lot more 'bosses' than just 3. Happy New Year, Sioux fans!

I'm sure he's had multiple opportunities. Taking the job at Montana State would be like taking the job at Michigan State. Everyone knows you'll always be second fiddle to the "other" school in the state. Lennon was waiting for something better to open up.