MafiaMan

I agree about the unfinished business, Sicatoka. And for that reason, I'm disappointed that both Bochenski and Parise decided to leave school. In a perfect world, they both would have come back and cemented their legacy in Sioux lore by winning an NCAA title. Alas, that won't happen, so it's time for this new group to carry the torch. Maybe someone on this year's squad is destined to be the next Matt Henderson. Maybe not. That's why we play the games.

I hope they forget all about it, Sicatoka. They lost to Denver, the team who went on a more improbable title run than the 1997 Sioux. Good for Denver...and good for the WCHA. It's a new season and we will all have new memories of it when all is said and done. Hopefully it results in a national championship, but I'm getting sick and tired of people writing off an entire season because the Sioux don't win the national title. It's happened 7 times in 50+ years, folks. The odds say that it won't happen. I take sports as seriously as the next guy, but what do some of you want? Players to commit suicide over losing a 1-0 hockey game to the eventual national champs?

Marty...were you expecting a letter of apology from Dean and co. for letting you down last season? Gimme a break and look forward to the upcoming season. Funny how some people let their lives be ruled by how a bunch of college kids perform on skates. UND has survived the loss of Thorndycraft, Casey, Murray, Belfour, Hrkac, Greg and Steve Johnson, Gino Gasparini, Panzer, and Goehring. It will survive without Bochenski, Parise, and Blais. Now, unless you want to get rid of your season tickets so you can jump out of your 5th floor office building, I suggest you relax and enjoy what should be a very entertaining season.

Dance team girls are good. DA!

Holy Snikees! After seeing some of the GVSU hotties, it's obvious that those fans aren't from St Cloud! Thanks for the pics! Funny story...two years ago, Minnesota played St Cloud at the WCHA Final Five. A group of fans surrounding were all related to each other....some Minny fans and some St Cloud fans. One of the more non-sober Minny fans turns around and yells to his buddy as the St Cloud cheerleaders hit the ice..."Hey, Brad, at least your cheerleaders live up the team nickname....HUSKY!" I have never laughed harder in my life.

Sicatoka, I know there's no women's D1-AA basketball tournament. I did edit my post. I should be working, so perhaps that explains my poor clarity. SMS did make a nice run a few years ago...I'm sure Amy Ruley is dreaming of Geno Auremia trekking UConn to Fargo, but it's not gonna happen... Wow...are those Grand Valley State Laker football fans or St Cloud State hockey fans? Oh wait, nevermind. They must be GVSU football fans because there are no signs protesting the racist Sioux nickname! Duh!

Supertrex, Despite being a Sioux fan, your logic is flawed. I can only assume NDSU thinks it can compete for an NCAA title almost every year in D-II. I don't think they jumped to DI-AA with the thought of winning a national title in their very first year there. Their thought process must have been "well, even if UND wins a D-II national title in 2004 and some grumbling ensues about why we jumped up, it's still small-time football." NDSU's goals were more long-term. That being said, let's review this in, say, 3-5 years and see what happens. My guess is the more successful UND is in women's basketball and men's football, the more whining you'll hear from Fargo about why the jump was made in the first place. Of course, if NDSU pounds out a D1-AA national football title and maybe a women's national championship in D-1 basketball, they will thumb their noses at UND and say "we're Division I, ha ha!". It'll be interesting, to say the least, to see what pans out.

In a related news story, I was at Valley Fair in Shakopee, MN this past Saturday and happened to walk by a college-aged female sporting a green t-shirt. At the bottom of the shirt in fairly small yellow lettering were the words "North Dakota State Bison." At the top of the shirt in gigantic bold yellow letters were the words "DIVISION I FOOTBALL." Get over yourselves, NDSU! I'd hardly confuse Cal-Poly Pamona or Valparaiso with Michigan or Florida. He**, I wouldn't even confuse those schools with Boise State or Duke in terms of football. As I walked by her, I couldn't help but smirk and say "they forgot the "AA on your shirt." She looked at me like I had no idea what I was talking about, but I knew some people on here would chuckle. If being Division I-AA is such a big deal, tell me why Sportscenter spent so much time on Saturday night poking fun at Mississippi State! If you weren't paying attention, the Bulldogs lost to DI-AA Maine. Let's face it, Division I schools treat DI-AA schools like they were the Little Sisters of the Poor. NDSU is a legend in its own mind. Bring on that game with Minnesota that you're dreaming about. I'm sure the players involved in that 75-0 pasting will look back at it with fond memories.

I was lucky enough to purchase a green #9 Sioux CCM jersey back in 1992 when I knew the old logo was going to disappear. Back then, the away teams didn't even put the player names on the backs of the jerseys. I've worn it many times since then, but it's been in the closet for 3-4 years now thanks to it just plain wearing out....a couple of small holes in it, etc. Nice piece of history.

Even thought it's a blatant rip-off of the Brandon Wheat Kings, I must admit, the Dakota Sugar Kings does have a nice ring to it.

By the way...the powers-that-be removed my "lady" avatar. It was fun while it lasted though, huh?

Or maybe we can watch some quality And-1 "Streetball." GUH. And people wonder why we could only muster bronze at the Olympics.

Nope. ESPN will most likely just show more poker on TV. Yea...that's a sport.

Jerseychaser, If you were going with Snowstorms, I might suggest using Snowstorm without the "s" at the end. Continuing my trend of joining up two separate words, I think something like the Dakota IceDucks wouldn't be bad.

Alas, I am not a beer drinker, so I can honestly say I was stone-faced sober at the game. The Russian girls, however, I am not-so-sure about. Truly disappointing was the fact that they did not appear at the quarterfinal game a few days after that picture.

By the way...an interesting site explaining the name and also 1986's ESPN's top nicknames. Personally, I think the Belfield Bantams should be on there, but that's just my opinion. Ishpeming Hematites is a good one, too. A town's sports teams named after a rock. What is a Nimrod and ESPN Top Ten List

That's pretty funny. The Nimrod Nimrods? I like it! Looks like Watersmeet, MI, is a straight shot east of GF on US Highway 2. Watersmeet, MI

bigmrg74, Sorry, but there might be a copyright on the Watersmeet Nimrods. That's not just an imaginary ESPN commercial...the town and name are located in Michigan's upper peninsula. North Dakota Arctic Blast? North Dakota Pioneers (uh oh...politically incorrect...survey says...XXX)? North Dakota Wind Chill? The trend in minor league sports is to combine names like the already-mentioned IceHoggs, IceDogs, IceHounds, etc. IceNorskies? I like it!

Good World Cup? I attended the games, sprig, and can honestly tell you that I'm so disappointed with the lack of knowledge about hockey in general. The World Cup was so well-known around St Paul that as I was walking to a game last week, not one, but two different people asked me who the Wild were playing that night. The Twins are 10 1/2 games up in the division and every single TV at Tom Reid's was on that game instead of the hockey game. I guess it's just time to realize that expansion was a failure and hockey is truly Canada's game. 20,000 fans came out to watch the Lightning Stanley Cup parade. 50,000 turned out in Calgary to welcome the Flames home. Enuff said.

For the five minutes that those girls spent with us, I was a legend in the eyes of everyone in our section, CFM...and in my own eyes. Maine might be just a bit too far this year, plus it coincides with our fall state softball tournament. I've always wanted to see that venue, though. Maybe next season...

33 views in 15 minutes of being up and not ONE comment? C'mon!

As promised in an earlier post, attached is a link to my pic from the Russia/USA hockey game held at Xcel Energy Center a few weeks ago. Mid-way thru the game, several college-age Russian cuties made their way over to our section and asked to have their picture taken with my buddy (USA jersey) and me (CCCP jersey). None of them spoke a lot of English, but I did understand the words "hockey," "Americanski," and "peecture". Oh to be in college again...and oh those accents... Да здравствует российские малыши! (translation: Long live Russian hockey babes!) Just to keep this a topic relevant to Sioux hockey and so I won't potentially be bashed, what's looking like the funnest road series to make a trip for this season? @ Maine? @ UMD? Wisconsin? Michigan Tech? I'm leaning towards Michigan Tech as I have never been to Houghton before, unlike most other WCHA venues. Anyone else a road trekkie? MafiaMan p.s. Sorry about the avatar being removed by the administrator. It was fun while it lasted though, huh? Russian Girls & MafiaMan

No trip to Grand Forks is complete without a drink at Whitey's Wonderbar in East Grand Forks, MN and I'd also suggest breakfast Sunday morning at The Big Sioux (I-29 Cafe).

Given the current state of expansion nicknames of the past few years (Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, etc.), I can only imagine the possibilities: North Dakota Freeze North Dakota Blizzard North Dakota Chill North Dakota Polar Bears North Dakota IceMen My broomball team is the IceHoggs...how about the IceCows?

Wow...did the poster who said she'd still be alive if she'd paid attention know where she was sitting? If memory serves me right, the puck deflected off of someone's stick and shot into the upper deck. I'm not usually one to use the term "insensitive," but that's ridiculous. Had the doctor actually discovered what had truly happened when that poor girl snapped her neck back as the puck hit her, she also might be alive today. What if's don't fix anything, though. The tragedy happened and it would be a shame if it ever happened again. That being said, I don't ever hear anyone whining that they can't see the game because the plexi-glass is just too high. The net is here to stay, folks, get used to it.