The Commodore

I was at the game on Saturday... sitting just behind the benches. BU may be ranked 23rd in the PWR (or wherever) but they played UM hard. UM outshot BU 40-24 and the momentum shifted back and forth throughout. UM was the more talented team. BU did not give them the game, it was the other way around if anything. That 5 on 3 killed BU as well. UM has improved a lot from what we all saw at the REA this year as far as conditioning and depth is concerned. But they've got to get a win or two (or five ) in the WCHA before I'll concede that they're at the same level as UND. Ballard played outstanding in the game, outracing the smaller BU forwards numerous times to loose pucks and scoring a key goal seconds after being the victim of a cheap boarding call. At times, BU looked "really really bad" but they got their heads in the game at other points and looked really good. There was a stretch of 4 minutes where BU kept the puck in the offensive zone at even strength and even made a couple of line changes while maintaining puck control in the offensive zone. They clear their defensive zone well and have a few guys with a lot of speed who can take a fair amount of punishment. Despite the ties, UM should have won on Saturday. BU didn't give them the game, it was clear that UM was more talented and clear that BU wasn't as bad as their record indicates. It's going to be one hell of a series on January 23-24, but I don't think UND would have a problem beating the team that tied BU on Saturday. Incidentally, I like UM's gold jerseys (the ones with the "M" rather than the script "Minnesota." They beat their regular jerseys which are reminiscent of mid-80s aesthetics. I also get a kick out of the degree to which the gold uniforms look like something my dog threw up.

7-3? How's that work?

Man, I just figured that people quit posting score updates. Turns out no one has scored. What a battle!

Anyone have a score/time update?

The film looks good, but I don't know if Kurt Russell could have laid the Minnesota accent on much thicker. "Wee can BEET deez gys!" I half-expected to see a shot of a CCCP skater and then a cut to Russell as he says "Uffda."

Any possibility of fixing the "Sioux Schedule" wallpaper so the dates are in white instead of black? It's hard to read. They all look awesome, though. Thanks!

I agree. I'm going to delete my posts.

This comment, however, is hilarious. When the Sioux and the Gophers face off in January, mark my words: The Gophers will be in eighth place in the WCHA, ahead only of Tech and AA, and unranked; UND will be sitting comfortably in first with a top-three poll ranking; and UM WILL lose BOTH games. I can't wait to go to the final five tournament here in Saint Paul and pass by the scores of Gopher fans trying to sell their tickets up and down W. 7th St. because Duluth eliminated them in the first round at the DECC. There are guys in my office who still talk about the possibility of a three-peat.... as though it's of foremost concern: "yeah, if we're going to three-peat, Donnie will have to right the ship pretty soon." No, bozos. Donnie will have to right the ship pretty soon if you're going to avoid an 8th place finish and a fast exit in round one.

Woo-hoo! Just caught up reading all the postings, usually I can't read them until late at night after the game is over. GO SIOUX! Time check anyone?

The bells song is "Hells Bells."

When I wrote "who do you wish would come back to UND" I was just putting something in as a descriptor, I guess. It didn't occur to me that either could come back as a coach. I put the vote up there just because I think Karl should have been a choice in the "best ever' poll. I've posted a "great memories of Goehring" message before, so I'm not going to reiterate my reasons for choosing him over Eddie. Obviously Eddie has had a great pro career and it's very unlikely that Karl will put up the same caliber of NHL numbers. But man, Karl was fun to watch, fun to root for, and inspired the players and the fans for four solid years... or was it three? He wasn't the starter his freshman year, right? Either way, as far as UND hockey is concerned, I don't think Karl should have to languish in Eddie's shadow.

I don't think it's fair to leave Karl off of the "best ever" poll. I've been a devoted Sioux fan since the early '80s, so I'm not offfering any disrespect to the '87 squad (if we were choosing best Sioux TEAM ever, they'd easily get my vote), but Karl deserves a voice in this conversation. As far as I'm concerned, NCAA hockey and NHL hockey are two different games. There are some less-than-exciting NCAA student athletes who turn out to be decent/good NHL players, and as we've seen there are many cases where great college players fizzle. This is a college hockey board, let's focus on college hockey. Eddie was great. Karl, in my opinion, was better because he had more heart and took a key leadership role on the team.

How's that work? There weren't individual seats, just benches and rows of individual backs. You tore out an entire bench?

Anyone going to Sensers in Roseville? I just called them up and they'll have the game on as well.

The Metrodome also never hosts hockey, so you're comparing two totally different fan mentalities. Baseball is a slow-moving sport with lots of downtime. During a hockey game, there are multiple things to cheer for or yell about simultaneously. All else being equal, a hockey fan will be more vocal than a baseball fan just by the nature of the game. What you should be comparing is relative noise in a place like the Xcel center or Mariucci Arena. My point here is not to slam you personally or Sioux hockey or the REA necessarily, but one thing I noticed once the new arena opened is that the crowd is much quieter and less of a factor in the game than it was in the old place. Part of that is due to the acoustics of the arena (more space and sound-absorbing materials), part is probably due to the mindset of the average fan in the new place compared to the old. And now we're off the subject of the thread, but to reinforce my point-- go to a game in the REA one night and a game in the National Hockey Center the next. St. Cloud is much, much louder... and they have less fans in the stands. If the purpose of your comments is to incite people to fill the seats in the REA, you're preaching to the choir. I don't think there's many people who read this board who wouldn't jump at the opportunity to see Sioux hockey live every chance we get. It's a testament to the program that the fan base stretches to so many places and it's a testament to the fan base that people want to be able to see the games to the point where they'd pay a fair amount of dough to do so.

By "station" I just meant that I checked out that satellite equipment on the website posted earlier, and it had some links to see what "free" stations you'd pick up with the given equipment. None of the names of the stations looked like they were the one with the Sioux games, but I was looking at some other satellite, Lingsat or something. You're probably right as far as the scrambling is concerned. I really don't know much as far as satellite TV is concerned. Hopefully someone on here would be able to enlighten us more than just with guesses.

As pertains to point one: It's a lot easier to drive up to Grand Forks every weekend when you're in college and have more free time. I go to games as often as I can but there's no way I'd be able to make it up there every weekend. I don't know if your point is to criticize us for not being "true fans" for not trucking up there or what... I've been to many games in GF. I just don't have as much free time as you do, apparently. As pertains to point two: The Ralph, at its loudest, is not louder than the Metrodome at its loudest. Not even close. Fan for fan, you may have a point, but in that respect, the Xcel during playoffs last year had the REA beat. I've been at all three places numerous times when it was really loud (and don't get me wrong, I'd much rather be at the REA watching hockey than the dome watching baseball or football), and the Ralph is not what one would call a "loud" arena. You'd have to show me decibel readings to prove otherwise. The REA absorbs sound... must be all the leather seats. The OLD Ralph was loud. Concrete and aluminum. LOUD.

That's a different barrel of fish. I'm just trying to get whatever is broadcast for local Sioux fans here in the Twin Cities. I think there's more involved with NCAA regulations to obtain feeds from other games, but you'd think that they could make some sort of a deal with whomever broadcasts games for other WCHA teams at at least.

I'm sick of watching the Gophers play Michigan Tech solely so that I can hear Frank and Doug update the Sioux score, which they do maybe twice a game. I don't want to spend weekend evenings camped out in front of my computer watching a 5 inch, fuzzy, choppy video feed. I say we start a petition and see how many signatures we can get. In fact, I just started an online petition. Click on this link to sign and TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW in the potential viewing area to sign the petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/UND_hockey/

I checked out this link and am also very interested in finding out whether a package like this will pick up Sioux hockey broadcasts. It doesn't pull in scrambled channels and if the Ralph hasn't scrambled them yet, I'm guessing they will soon... but maybe not, who knows. I don't know what station holds the broadcasts though none on the lists look too promising. If it works and I could get a statement saying that they don't plan on scrambling the channel, I'd plunk down 180 bucks for even 4 or 5 seasons of Sioux hockey broadcasts. With technology the way it is today, there's got to be a way that Sioux fans outside of the GF area can watch Sioux hockey on our own televisions. This webcast crapola is not going to cut it, because no matter how good the video feed quality eventually becomes, there's no changing the fact that you feel somewhat pathetic putting on your jersey, cracking a beer, and settling down in front of a computer for the evening to watch the game. Maybe we could get some sort of formal petition together. How many signatures would we need to show to the TV/cable/satellite providers and to the UND broadcast team to convince them to extend their service to at least the Twin Cities metro area?

With CC being such a hockey school (they only have 1500 students and I'd guess that their hockey program is about the only one which makes money), and with all of that money invested in their new hockey arena, I wonder why they don't just cancel the rest of their sports (or bring them down to club level) and keep D-I hockey? Maybe that's not allowed, and what defines a D-III school has to do with more than just athletics. It seems odd that CC would allow such a storied program to go into mothballs just for the sake of their other sports. Either way, this sucks. Why couldn't this have happened to some team like Kato or AA? (rhetorical question, obviously.) CC is probably one of my favorite teams to watch the Sioux play.

I would put cold cash on UAA taking last place yet again. It would be almost impossible for them to have the same luck again, yes, meaning they'll win more than (ahem) ONE game, but Tech had a few solid wins last year against SCSU, a Duluth team with a late-season surge and (double ahem) er... us. They're returning their top seven scorers and losing only a couple of non-productive seniors. I liked Sertich at the helm in Tech but I think a team like that with so many losing seasons might look at a head coaching change as a fresh start. UAA on the other hand loses 7 seniors, comes of one of the worst (if not THE worst) seasons in college hockey history, and any team they play against will feel that anything less than a convincing win is a complete humiliation. They're destined for the cellar. Again. I'm looking for some hard-fought games between the perennial contenders-- UM, SCSU, UND, CC, and also Duluth. We've got six games with UMD this year and I think by the end both teams will be near or in the top 3 in the WCHA, which should produce a strong rivalry, especially with what happened last year at the Final Five. So, my completely premature predictions follow. I've arranged them in tiers, giving more room for error. Tier One: UND | UM | CC Tier Two: UMD | Mankato | SCSU | Denver Tier Three: Tech | Wisconsin | AA

I had posted this in a different thread but it clearly is better said here: I'd have to say that the most exciting player that I've ever seen put on the green and white (and there's been a lot, this isn't easy) would have to be Karl Goehring. The first time I saw him during warmups I couldn't believe how *small* he was. As stated above, Hrkac was a man among boys; Blake, Johnson, and Panzer were all incredible players, Commodore commanded respect... but I chose Karl because during his four years with the Sioux he played with more heart and determination than any athlete I've ever seen. It seemed at times like he'd will a win for us. Watching him dive around the crease on a 2-man breakaway and block four shots before freezing the puck, that lightning-fast glove, and that feeling of calm when the opposition would get a breakaway because we knew that Karl would make the save are things that I really miss. Also watching his creative ways to see around 6' 4" screens (looking through their legs, etc.). Hopefully one of the goalies gets his s___ together this season.

That's right. Anyone who's paid any attention to the NY Rangers in the last decade knows that money and "bling bling" does not result in a good hockey team.

One more: Beating Michigan State, Ryan Miller, and the odds in a 2-0 shutout win in 2001 in the NCAA's.