MafiaMan

No offense, Poncho, but there's a greater risk driving your car every day to work than there is playing a recreational broomball game. It's a horrible accident, but let's not ban broomball because of it.

01 grad, Why don't trucker hats stay in the 1980's along with "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Smurfs," and the mullet? Honestly, I see kids wearing these hats all the time now. WHY?

Good grief, 01 grad. I knw Chris Bonvino, former UND student and future Minnesota Gopher football player (he transferred mid-career - still a Sioux through and through). All you had to do was ask...I am the jersey-meister, remember? Gemini made a 1997 replica for me and as close-to-authentic as you can get pre-Nike jersey with the new logo. Awesome, awesome jerseys. I'd be tempted to sell my #97 1997 jersey though...it's a tad too big (XL) if anyone would be interested. All you'd have to do is change the nameplate....

My co-rec C league starts on Tuesday in St Paul and men's D+ starts Wednesday in St Paul. Bring out the zamboni!

Diggler, There really isn't a whole lot of difference between the Lutch jerseys and the Kait jerseys. The Lutch ones are more "meshy" and have pinholes on the fabric while the Kait jerseys do not have the small pinholes. Both are awesome colorful jerseys though. The fabric starts off with one color (typically white) and instead of screenprinting, dye is injected into the fabric, also knows as dye sublimation. Check out a Nike Czech jersey and you'll see similarities with the word "CZECH" on the back of the jersey. It's not sewn-on material. The only difference with the Kait or Lutch replicas is that the name on the back is on the actual fabric like the logos. On the authentic, there is a strip of dye-sublimated material with the player name stitched on a nameplate and sewn on the jersey. I usually wear my Russian jerseys to the WCHA Final Five unless the Sioux are playing. I'd gladly pay $50 for a Lutch jersey as opposed to $100 for a cheap CCM replica of an NHL player.

I beg to differ, cfm. Those look pretty authentic to me.

Dogz, How stable is he? I paid $80 for several of the jerseys on www.russianjerseys.com before switching to him. I've purchased a half-dozen jerseys from him and have no trouble recommending him. Tell you what...I'm so confident you'd like your jersey (stock jerseys with names like Fedorov or Bure are cheaper, but you can get your own name...it just takes longer) that I would pay for it myself and you could pay me back once you see it. I bought a Soviet Wings jersey from him and they messed it up and did #91 instead of #19. Without even telling me, he had Lutch make another jersey (at no extra cost to me) with #19 and sent them BOTH to me for the cost of one jersey. Now how cool is that? I'm in Bloomington...if you'd like to see a jersey in person, let me know and we could work something out.

UMDDOGZ, Russian words are based more on sounds rather than letters. Consequently, a name in English with 8 letters (such as mine) might have fewer letters in Russian. My name (THOMPSON) spelled in Russian looks something like this: TOM(PI SIGN HERE)COH.

Speaking of jerseys, I'm a big collector of them. I have about 25-30 including Czech Republic, USA 1980, USA 2000, Canada 1998, several UND jerseys, Michigan, and about 8-10 Russian-made Kait or Lutch jerseys. You can find these on the interet at www.russianjerseys.com. They're about $80 if you purchase them from that site, but I have a friend in Detroit who contracts with Lutch (Russian Nike if you will) and can get them for around $50. They are super high quality jerseys and I get comments on them whenever I wear them. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, let me know and I will hook you up. I currently have a Kait yellow Sweden #21 Forsberg for sale for $40. This was sent to me in error (I had ordered yellow #4 Lidstrom) but the vendor offered to let me keep it since I had made a $1000 purchase for my broomball team from his company. I can get others...CCCP is a popular one, 1997 Soviet Red Army, and Soviet Wings. They would make a nice (albeit a little late) Christmas present and you can even get them with your name on back in Russian (as they wear in European play) or English (when teams play Canada or USA).

I could possibly be tempted into getting another jersey. I'd love to wear a Blackhawk style one around and it's simpler without the nameplate on the back (and cheaper). I concur....12 names would probably save some $$$. MafiaMan

Upper Deck, Section 314A...two tickets for Friday and Saturday UND/Mankato games coming up. $20 single game one ticket, $40 for a pair for a night, $80 for the weekend. Christmas shopping getting expensive...gotta cancel the trip to Grand Forks so shortly after the holidays.

Dakid and Commodore, I have some pics of my Sioux jersey...large jpegs for quality images and "best for web" smaller jpeg versions. Shoot me your e-mail address and I will gladly e-mail them to you. I'm at siouxfan19@yahoo.com. MafiaMan

dakid, Give me a couple of days and I'll have something for you, ok? If you want some samples, go to my photo page at photos.yahoo.com/siouxfan19. I have some pics up there with my son at his first Sioux game. I'm wearing the 1992 jersey in some of the pics there. I'll leave a comment here when I have some pics for you and can either e-mail them or put them on that site. Glad I could help.

Commodore and Dakid, I purchased a green CCM jersey from the old Engelstad Arena back in February or March of 1992 after I had heard whispers about the Blackhawk logo being ditched the next season. If you would like, I can take some pictures with my digital camera and get some close-ups of the logo, jersey design itself (sleeve striping, waist striping, and the "S" tomahawks) and send them to you. Let me know. MafiaMan

Hey bigmrg74, interesting you should point that out. One fan I talked to said he can't stand GVSU. I didn't know that was such a big boiling rivalry. What's up? And where are the Laker hotties? You promised!

Enjoyed the weekend in Houghton. Only too bad that the holiday weekend led to a pretty sparse crowd. Nice fans around us...ran into several in the concourse who said they hoped the football team beat GVSU earlier Saturday afternoon. Sat right behind the Sioux bench both nights and just wanted to say "thanks" to Jordan Parise for giving my three year old an authentic game puck. Well, his birthday was Sunday, but it was a nice gesture Friday night. He was teasing my son thru the plexi-glass and making him laugh and when a puck flew into the bench area, he promptly found it and tossed it to me. The funny part was that my son started crying and wanted me to throw it back! Kids, I tell ya. Thanks again, Jordan, much appreciated. Funny moment from Saturday's game that I could not resist...late in the third period of Saturday's game, a Clay Wilson from MTU practically tackled a Sioux player as he (Sioux) was winding up for a slap shot. A few seconds later, a whistle stopped play and I couldn't resist breaking the silence in the arena. I yelled out "Hey Wilson...the football game was LAST Saturday!". I heard many giggles throughout the arena, including one guy who was constantly harping on the referee both nights. My advice to road-trippers? Put Houghton on the map of places to visit. My own personal WCHA tour continues...Alaska-Anchorage, Denver, Colorado College, and Wisconsin all remain on the "to-do" list.

Unless things have changed at REA, WPoS, that's the only way to get them at UND, too. My pucks were obtained thanks to some inside help.

I just double-checked my 7-title puck (authentic game). It is the Sioux logo with seven green stars beneath it and the WCHA logo on the back. I think the six title puck was the one with the interlocking ND logo and six stars.

The game-authentic pucks from the past few years that I have have the new Sioux head logo with six stars underneath and the interlocked ND logo with seven stars underneath. Not sure about the ones marked with the years... Did catch an authentic game puck from Houghton this past weekend. Curiously enough, Michigan Tech's pucks do indicate the 2004-2005 season.

I hear you there, OETKB. I'm hoping this weekend helps me out, too.

I attended the Saturday game in Mankato, shep. About 20 seconds into the game, Greene body slams a guy into the boards and earns himself a 2:00 minor. Later in the game with the team already short-handed, he hauls down a Maverick player to put the team down two men. With about 2:30 left in a one-goal game and Mankato on the power play, Greene cross-checks a Mankato player putting the team down two men. On his way to the box, I yelled out "Hey Greene, don't forget to pack your brain on the next road trip." You're right about that contract, though. I wonder if Greene is hoping that Edmonton takes notice that he's going to be the team 4th line enforcer. I honestly don't have a clue what's in that guy's head.

shep, Welcome to the club. I wondered this last season, yet everyone RAVED about Matt Greene and ohmygosh, how horrible it would be if he signed with Edmonton. Where are those folks now?

I wonder how Edmonton scouts are grading Matt Greene's performance these days. It's hard to tell how he's progressing since he's never on the ice!

Over-achiever: Matt Henderson. The guy went from almost being 86'd off the team to being 1997 Frozen Four MVP. It doesn't get any better than that. I'll never forget him picking off a center-ice pass and heading the other way for a huge goal against BU.

Dakotaboy, I believe Goldy was against the war from the get-go, but during the last week of the campaign, decided that even more troops are needed now. Apparently, he's still upset and plans are in the works for a full out invasion of Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. Commence "Operation Golden Choker".