JMB

If by 5 you are counting the goalie, then you're right. They did have 5 skaters on the ice for the last face-off (with 0.6 seconds left). Frankly, it didn't matter - no one is scoring with 0.6 seconds left, even with no one on the ice and no goalie. As a Minnesota fan, I thought UND outplayed Minnesota for large stretches of the game. Wilcox and Gothberg were unbelievable. Someone said earlier an ugly goal was going to win it - guess they were right. UND should be proud of their team and their effort from tonight. They deserved better, but in a one and done tournament, anything can happen.

I agree that the UND/MN game was officiated quite well (and since my team lost, I have a unique perspective). As far as the Frozen Four, I just hope it is a CCHA official and not someone from the ECAC. If it's an ECAC official, EVERY call will be made. That's a tough adjustment for a WCHA team to make, given how much hooking/slashing/holding/interference our refs allow. It could be a long night for the Sioux (though, it could be a long night for BC as well).

I think the big reason for the difference in selection process is the number of potential players to consider. Canada clearly has more players to look at in the selection process, so they start with a camp two weeks prior to the WJC. Since Team USA has very few players to look at (and they have them in camp during August) they don't need to have another selection camp in December. Plus, I think the Team USA realizes that many of their players are going to be playing college hockey during the season, and they don't want to pull them away from their teams any longer than they need to. The last thing Team USA wants to do is sour the relationship they have with NCAA coaches.

Free webcast is available for the game (both nights) at UW Badgers.com. The game is also on FSN (DirecTV channel 642) both nights.

In the same vein, you can ask "Who has UND played so far?" Home Quinnipiac Maine St. Cloud State Colorado College Away Wisconsin Minnesota State Alaska Anchorage Quinnipiac and Maine for UND are slightly better than Wayne State and Maine for UMN (primarily because Quinnipiac is better than Wayne State and UND played Maine twice). Both have played Colorado College and St. Cloud State at home (UMN had a home and away). Both played Minnesota State on the road. Both played Wisconsin (UND on the road, UMN at home). UND played at Alaska Anchorage while UMN played at Duluth. UMN also played Michigan State and Michigan at home. According to the SiouxSports RPI, UMN opponents have a Winning % of .5387 and UND opponents are at .5691, which is a difference of about 3%. So, while UMN hasn't "played anybody" yet, UND opponents are about 3% better. And yes, they do have a nice record, and we will see how it will hold up for the rest of the year. Are they going to continue winning at an 85% clip? Not a chance. But with a similar schedule to UND, they've won 85% of their games, while UND has won 54% of their games. What does this all mean? NOTHING! It's still just December. I still think UND, UMN, SCSU and CC are the top teams in the conference this year. I think that the four of them will be fighting for the coveted "top three" spot in the WCHA towards the end of the season.

Come on, have you seen the Badger Hockey message board? And class? They take their lead from Mike "I'm complaining about every penalty call, and staring down the ref, even when I get a call in my favor" Eaves.

Then, let me say the one thing that UND and Minnesota fans can agree on right now... Go Maine!

Yes, that'd be great...cause what everyone is really hoping for is a bunch of NCAA violations. Seriously, next time think...then post.

I'm pretty sure that this "rule" was changed for this year. In fact, if you go to the official rules, it states on page 10 (HR-9) it states that . . . "As nearly as possible, the dimensions of the rink shall be 200 feet long and 85 feet wide." Ice Hockey - 2006 Rules and Interpretations

I hear if you can't afford the tickets, you can get Bochenski to print up some fake bills for you.

The biggest reason is money. The WCHA makes ALL of their money from the Final 5. Since they get the best deal from the Xcel Energy Center (ie, most money), it has been in St. Paul, and likely will be for the foreseeable future. In addition, while St. Paul is close to the Minnesota campus, the other sites you indicated are all home arenas for the various teams. I don't think that the league will have the conference tournament on the home ice of one of their members. Yes, Minnesota gets a built in advantage, but only because they are centrally located within the league. Additionally, look at how many teams in the league are near the Twin Cities. Minnesota, St. Cloud, Mankato, Duluth, Wisconsin, and North Dakota are all within 4-5 hours of the Twin Cities. You are practically guaranteed good attendance at games involving those teams. If you had the tournament in Milwaukee (not realistic to have it in Madison, see on campus arena), then the host team is 90 minutes away, and the next closest team is 6 hours away. From a location perspective, North Dakota is a possibility, but I highly doubt that the league would EVER have the tournament at the home ice of one of its members.

That's always going to be a "problem" for the top hockey programs. You have to balance seeing a great player for one or two years, versus a good player for four years. The teams that consistently win championships, are the teams that have the right blend of great players (1-2 years) and good players (4 years).

When someone says this . . . I wouldn't interpret that as the ON ICE performance of certain players. I'd guess that he was looking to the upcoming NHL draft to support his stated point of view. And his point of view was that Oshie would be drafted higher than Kessel (as would Toews). And I was simply pointing out that this was flat out wrong. Oshie has already been drafted, and obviously can't go higher than Kessel this year.

I guess that also means that Jack Skille (#7, 2005) > Brian Lee (#9, 2005) > TJ Oshie (#24, 2005). I guess it also means that Blake Wheeler (#5, 2004) > Drew Stafford (#13, 2005) > Travis Zajac (#20, 2005).

Not a chance. If UND wins out, they win the WCHA Playoff Championship (Final 5) and they get the autobid. Though, I'm guessing you meant just the regular season. Not sure about that, but I doubt that would be the case.

Or he could be referring to the fact that every MN recruit is lazy, doesn't play defense, isn't a team player, blah, blah blah...while every UND recruit is solid offensively and defensively, grinds in the corners, is a great team player, saves baby dolphins in his spare time, etc. Both teams recruit good players - and each team has there share of scores, and muckers/grinders. Can't we all just get along?

No - an LOI wouldn't prevent them from going to MJ or the NHL. It does prevent them from going to another LOI school. The LOI is not administered by the NCAA - it's administered by the Collegiate Commissioners Association. And yes, you are correct - a player can go through an appeals process and receive a "Qualified Release Agreement" from the AD at the school. This is all up to the school - if they don't want to give a release, then the student-athlete is basically screwed. Basically, it's the same as the NCAA making a boatload of dough off of college athletes and not compensating them. Sure, they get a free education - but the NCAA makes $6 billion off the NCAA Basketball Tourney. Then, the students get a scholarship - that has to be renewed every year. So, if they have a bad year, a coach could (in theory) decline to renew the scholarship, and effectively screw the player over. But, if a player wants to leave, then they have to sit out an entire year. In the end, I'm guessing that Beaverson didn't sign an LOI, otherwise UND would be obligated to have him on campus for at least one season (see question #1 on the LOI FAQ). 1. When I sign a National Letter of Intent what do I agree to do? When you sign the National Letter of Intent you agree to attend for one academic year the institution listed on the Letter in exchange for that institution awarding athletics financial aid for one academic year.

Actually, player's can't back out of a Letter of Intent. The school can (I think) release them, but a player cannot back out. National Letter of Intent - FAQ The relevant sections appear to be under "Transferring." Specifically, question #3 (What happens if I change my mind and do not want to attend the institution with which I sign and want to attend another National Letter of Intent Institution) and question #4 (Can the Basic Penalty, which calls for the loss of two years of eligibility and requires that I serve two years in residence at the next National Letter of Intent Institution, be reduced?).

I can't ever imagine a scenario where the games would be played in Grand Forks. Besides being the HOME arena for one of the leagues teams (which the Xcel is most definitely not) I can't imagine that Grand Forks has enough hotel rooms to support the tournament. Just in case anyone cares, the majority of hotel rooms in St. Paul are sold for this weekend. I highly doubt that Grand Forks has nearly as many hotel room as St. Paul. Besides - the "Minnesota Rule" hasn't really helped Minnesota all that much. If Minnesota were to win the Final 5 every year, then I think the WCHA would re-visit the idea. But, as it is, Minnesota does not win it every year...nor will they win it every year.

Because, while the die-hard fans will come out and watch the team even if they were playing at 4 in the morning, the "walk-up" crowd won't take time off from work and/or other day time obligations to come to a hockey game. Blame whomever you want. FSN, the WCHA, the NCAA - who cares? With the tournament at the Xcel for the foreseeable future, Minnesota will always have the "advantage" of playing in the night game. If you have a problem with it - get more of your fans to drive to the games. If the afternoon games consistently sold out and had good atmosphere, the WCHA would probably look at taking away the "advantage" for Minnesota in playing the night game. Look at the NCAA - after Michigan won game after game in the tournament by hosting the regional, they took that away - didn't they? The real issue here is that not enough UND, UW, UMD and every other team does not bring enough fans to fill the arena. Even if UND and UMD played on Friday afternoon, the arena wouldn't be full. No chance - if it would, then it would already be sold out with the Final 5 ticket packages. The other issue is that the Minnesota fans who purchase the ticket package, may be less inclined to go to the Friday afternoon game. For the rest of the fans, who have nothing else better to do, they probably go to all the games, regardless of who is playing - and if the tournament were in Milwaukee or Grand Forks, the Minnesota fans would do the same. But with the tournament being local, people (even if they have tickets from the package) who live locally are less likely to take time off from work or school to go to a game involving teams they could care less about. And the money the league gets from the Final 5 goes to their operating fund - I believe it is the only way the league makes money each year (and it is enough to cover all of their expenses).

Yes, but the more important question is this: What else is there to do in Grand Forks County BESIDES watching the Sioux play? Especially on a cold night in January. While I don't know the answer myself, I can bet that there is significantly more things to do in Madison as opposed to Grand Forks. And the mention of 2 million in Milwaukee is irrelevant. It's still a significant distance from Madison to Milwaukee. Plus, not to nitpick, but it's not "Madison" county - it's Dane County (as in the former Dane County Memorial Coliseum).

No one was picking the Wild to get past Colorado, not even the Twin Cities sportswriters (they each had the Wild winning one game at the Xcel, and losing the series in 5). So, what does everyone think that they will do against Vancouver (the team that everyone was hoping they'd get in the first round)? I think that Vancouver is a little deeper than Colorado, and that will make them tougher. Colorado, IMO, really only had Sakic, Forsberg, Hejduk and Tanguay (and maybe Hinote) on forward lines as legitimate goal scores, so Lemaire could match up his best defensive line against them as much as possible. Vancouver, on the other hand, has Bertuzzi, Naslund, Morrison, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, et. al. They aren't as top heavy as Colorado is, but they have better depth throughout their lines - meaning Lemaire can't put Walz and co. against the top line. Having said that, I think that the series will go 6 or 7 games, and the team that gets the best goaltending wins. Cloutier does nothing for me, so I'll take the Wild in 7.

What would happen if a chartered team plane did crash? Let's just say in the next round of the playoffs, in between games and team charter does crash? What would happen? It's just unfathomable to imagine the idea of a team just perishing and suddenly having NO talent at the pro level. Do you bring up your minor league AHL team to play an NHL game? I wouldn't think so, since it'd probably destroy most (if not all) of the talent on your AHL team (assuming they are not NHL ready).

Headed off the deep end? How? Any player that doesn't have the courtesy to take his helmet off during the playing of ANY national anthem loses my respect. Same goes for idiots at games that don't take their hats off. Regardless of reason, any player that doesn't respect the national anthem by taking their helmet off, loses a little respect in my mind. I hardly see that as going off the deep end - going off the deep end is wishing the Colorado team bus off a cliff, as some have done in this forum. As much as I want the Wild to win, I don't want to see a team bus crash or anything as the reason why the won. Speaking of which, isn't it just a matter of time before a chartered team plane crashes? Hate to sound morbid, but just with the four major professional sports and all the chartered flights that occur on a daily basis, don't the odds just have to catch up with them at sometime, and have an entire team obliterated in a plane crash. Again, not saying I want this to happen or think it'd be cool if it did (it's a tragedy when ANY plane crashes), but don't you think it's going to happen at some point?