MafiaMan

I'll keep that comment in mind when I'm walking to the X next weekend and a Gopher fan calls me a Nazi.

OK, since I've been asked, I thought I would throw this out there and see if there was any interest in people meeting for brunch late Saturday morning (March 22nd) before the 2:00 pm WCHA 3rd place game. I know the first round of the playoffs hasn't been played yet, but figured I'd see if there was any interest... Without the added festivities of St Patrick's Day being held on Friday, perhaps a few more people would be interested in coming out on Saturday... Even if you're a Gopher fan, cmon out and meet some of the monikers from the board in person. It's a fun time and now the Hoggsbreath is smoke-free!

Shouldn't you be running along to your appointment with your hairdresser, Gopherguy33?

Point #1). Plenty of Gopher fans wouldn't drive 4.5 hours to see a tournament that their team wasn't it. Your point makes no sense. Point #2). I was at that regional at Mariucci and capacity at the John is just over 10,000. Those games weren't even close to a full-house. By the way, nice of Gopher fans to stay a bit late for some free hockey and the OSU/Cornell game. I think about 800 people saw that one. Point #3). Minnesota has never voted against the "Gopher rule." They have abstained from voting at all.

According to a report on www.gopherpucklive.com, the Gopher hockey team will be displaying a show of unity this coming weekend that will put to shame last year's perm jobs. Oh I can't wait to see this. Anyone else want to drive down to Mankato and wear your Sioux jerseys while cheering for the purple cows?

Good point, but there is also no reason to cater to one team year after year to supposedly "boost attendance."

I live in the Twin Cities, stickboy1956, and I know plenty of Gopher fans who would mumble and grumble about having to leave work for an afternoon game when their team is the, ahem, 'home team.' There are conversations in our Final Five section all the time regarding the "Gopher Rule" and as soon as other fans mention how unfair it is, every Minnesota fan in our area explains that because St Paul hosts the tournament, "local fans" shouldn't have to take time off of work to go see Minnesota play. Of course, when I classify myself as a local fan because I live in Bloomington, I'm quickly dismissed because I'm not a Minnesota fan, but that's another story... Go look at the attendance during Easter weekend a few years ago for the Western Regional. The Gopher/Maine game drew 9,583 and the Gopher/Cornell game drew 9,054. Hell, if you think Gopher fans are so supportive of their team, I go check out the attendance from some recent third-place tournament games. Again, I personally know a half-dozen Gopher fans right off the top of my head who had tickets for those games and skipped them because "it doesn't matter." The Gopher train is a fickle one...plenty of people have gotten off of it this season... I'm tellin' ya, if you think a Friday afternoon Gopher/CC match-up would gather more than 16,000 fans, I'd take that bet.

To my knowledge, this is not the case.

So the attendance at last year's Friday afternoon game was thanks in large part to the number of Gopher fans watching the Sioux and Huskies?

A Friday afternoon Gopher game wouldn't generate a total crowd of more than 16,000. And that would include about 5,000 Sioux fans who were there waiting to see UND play Friday night. Packed as usual? It should be. But with the sense of entitlement most Gopher fans have, even the ones in attendance would be whining about why their fans should have to take a half-day off of work to see their beloved Price on Ice play hockey.

Since I've been to the Final Five back since its days at the Target Center and the St Paul Civic Center before then, thanks for the history lesson. This agreement has nothing to do with FSN.

I want to see the link for that please. If the Gophers don't make the Final Five, you'll watch FSN scramble to try and find a reason not to broadcast the tournament at all.

GAME ON!

Put your money where your mouth is, Siouxmama. I smell free Final Five tickets for me.

Let Vanek walk to Edmonton and sign Briere. Aaahhh...hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

Yea, I remember the waitress...ok, I'll put a post up. Dart boards? I'm in...I hear NorthDakotaHockey has been practicing.

Hoggsbreath is a daytime bar/restaurant so anyone younger than 21 can be in the place until 9:00 pm. Was everyone OK with the Hogger last year or not-so-much?

Really? I was actually thinking about putting up a post and seeing if people were interested. I'd be game.

Cmon, if the WCHA was that concerned about revenue, they would move those CC/DU championship games to Saturday afternoon and those meaningless 3rd place games at 7:00 pm prime-time!

I knew it was a lot so I thought I would research it: 1999 2 games to 1 over Mankato (loss was Friday night) 2000 2 games to 1 over Denver (loss was Saturday night) 2001 2 games to 1 over UMD (loss was Friday night) 2003 2 games to 1 over Denver (loss was Friday night) 2006 2 games to 1 over Mankato (loss was Friday night) This is the 9th time in the past 10 years the Sioux have hosted a first-round series. In 5 of the previous 8 times, they needed 3 games to advance to the Final Five. Something tells me Dave Hakstol will mention those numbers to the team before they take the ice on Friday night.

You'll still get the die-hard hockey fans (Gopher fans included) there but the casual bandwagon fan with tickets from Imation won't be going. Let's just say that the top seeds all advance: Mankato vs St Cloud play-in game Friday semi-final #1: UND vs DU Friday semi-final #2: CC vs Mankato/St Cloud winner I doubt that a CC/DU or CC/UND title game tilt could top the 16,507 who watched CC/DU play back in 2005. That tournament at least had UND and Minnesota playing the 3rd place game, which obviously was a draw for Gopher fans. Of course, this is all attendance speculation. My guess is that there will be an upset or two that will change everything...

Now I had to go look it up... 1998 WCHA Final Five title game...UND was up 2-1 after 1 period and 3-1 with about 14:00 left in the 2nd when the wheels fell off. It was 3-3 going into the 3rd and Denver won 4-3. attendance? 8,445. Yikes.

I do know what you mean about Gopher fans though. I won't lose any sleep if they lose at Mankato this weekend and are eliminated from the tournament.

I was there too and agree totally. The place was a morgue. If memory serves me right, UND was up like 4-1 or 4-2 late in the third and Denver went nuts and scored 3-4 goals and won the game. Then I got punched in the gut a week later when I flew to Ann Arbor to watch the game with Michigan at Yost.

I've never had a problem with UMD Bulldog fans.