SJHovey

As someone who has made quite a few trips to Las Vegas, I'll add these comments. First, Hash House A Go Go (the one on the strip) is actually in The Linq, not Harrahs. I'm just embarrassed that on a North Dakota hockey board, of all places, posters didn't realize that the restaurant is located in the house that Ralph built in Las Vegas. Second, people are right regarding Las Vegas distances. A block in Las Vegas is huge. Plus you will waste a lot of time and walk a lot further if you don't know how to get around. Pay attention to where the overpasses are. Never run across the strip. They kill hundreds of pedestrians a year in Las Vegas. As you are walking towards intersections, pay attention to the flow of foot traffic. Frequently the overpasses are blocked off for construction, so you end up having to back track and take another one. As you walk towards overpasses, look to see if people are crossing them. There is a free shuttle that runs between the Orleans and the Strip. I think it goes about every 30-45 minutes. On the strip it drops you off at the High Roller, which is the big ferris wheel mentioned by others, and is about a block from the strip. There is a free tram that runs between Bellagio and Aria. It has a stop at the Crystal Shops in between. The monorail is on the second level. To access it in the Bellagio you need to walk down the hallway past the Conservatory and take the escalators upstairs. Follow the signs. It drops you off on the south end of Aria, near the hallway to the ParkMGM (old Monte Carlo). The walk on the streets between Bellagio and Aria is a huge pain so if you are trying to get down to the area by T-Mobile Arena from somewhere around Bellagio or Caesar's Palace, that's a real nice shortcut. There is a similar free tram that runs from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay, with a stop at Luxor. There is a new park area around ParkMGM, New York New York and T-Mobile Arena. Some decent beer locations around that park, and a fun place to hang out during a Knights game. There is a monorail that runs from MGM all the way down to the Westgate. It has a number of stops along the casinos on the east side of the strip, including one not far from the aforementioned Hash House A Go Go. The monorail requires a ticket, but they're not terribly expensive. If you have more than one in your group a taxi or Uber may be a cheaper alternative, but for just one or two people it's a good option. If you can, don't miss a chance to hang out for awhile in a big Las Vegas sports book during an NFL Sunday. If you want a chair, get there early. NFL games start at 10 a.m. Vegas time, and in many places you may need to be down there by 7 a.m. or so. If you are sports betting, you can get free drink tickets depending upon your bets. Most places will give you one free drink ticket for each $100 bet, so if you are betting less than $100 per bet, try to wait and place all of your bets at the same time. A tip of $5/10 to the sports window guy will occasionally get you a few more drink tickets for your bets. Never pay for alcohol in Las Vegas if you can avoid it. If you're playing table games you'll drink for free. Order a drink right before you are about to leave. You can carry alcohol with you everywhere in Las Vegas. If you need a beer, pull up a seat at bar in Las Vegas with video poker in the bar itself. Slide a $20 into the machine, then play the minimum (25 cents) slowly as you wait for your beer. Cash out at any time. If you're lucky, you might even end up if your first hand or two are winners. Worst case scenario you maybe paid 50 cents. Be sure to tip the bartender. They know what you are doing, but they don't care. They only care that the follow casino rules, and whether you tip them. Get a players card from the casino(s) where you are staying or spending the most time. It comes in handy in strange ways. For instance, if you go to the food court or the convenience store to get a snack, a bottle of soda or something else, just showing the card will get you a decent discount on items that are grossly overpriced.

I think there will be quite a few tickets that come up for sale. Champions club members have been given the chance to buy additional tickets, and we picked up six more to go with the six we had. If I were the people on StubHub, I'd be looking to score about $200/ticket for mine, and be happy I got it.

I tried to get my wife to wear that mask in the car as we were driving home last night. Alas, no luck.

So, an update on my auction purhase I referenced in a post a few days ago. I stopped by the Bradley Center yesterday to collect my "Auction Lot," which included the UND jersey. With respect to the jersey, it is one definitely signed by the 1996-97 team. Aaron Schweitzer, Dane Litke and Mark Pivetz all signed, and that was the only year they played together at UND. I did not see any coaches signatures. All of the signatures are on the front of the jersey, which will make it nice for framing. There are 22 player signatures, so I assume it was just signed by the players who were listed as eligible to play in that Frozen Four, although that's just a guess on my part. It's a size 52 Gemini home jersey. It has the number 9 on it, but no name. It was also packaged with a souvenir program and souvenir puck from that Frozen Four, which further supports my assumption about the jersey. I was hoping someone there could shed some light on the background of the jersey, but no. After I took a look at the jersey, puck and program, I started digging through the large boxes of stuff that I bought without having any idea what was in there. As my wife and I started pulling things out of the boxes, we couldn't stop from laughing at the crazy assortment. A brief list of the items I received for my $180 (other than the hockey jersey and Frozen Four stuff) includes: An authentic Bucks basketball jersey with Taylor Swift's name on the back and autographed by her on the front. An authentic Bucks basketball jersey with Bon Jovi on the back. I've yet to find any autograph. Five Milwaukee Wave soccer jerseys, one signed by what appears to be the entire team. I'll confess that before yesterday I literally had no idea who the Milwaukee Wave were. One pair of Nike soccer goalkeeper gloves. Two brand new canvas Milwaukee Buck carry bags (which came in handy for hauling all my stuff to the car). Two autographed "Raw is War" t-shirts from the August 16, 1999, Monday Night Raw event. Each t-shirt probably has twenty autographs on it. Not a huge wrestling fan, so I'm going to have to do some digging to figure out who signed those shirts. I can only assume most of those people are dead, being wrestlers. A crapload of signed glossy pictures, and one signed t-shirt from a bunch of professional figure skaters. A handful of brand new NCAA basketball t-shirts and sweatshirts (tags all still attached) from the 1999 March Madness first round games played there. I'll actually be wearing those shirts. A heavy duty rubber Gene Simmons KISS mask, that candidly, is spectacular. Honestly, it was hilarious pulling that stuff out of the boxes.

The names and numbers that I seemed able to confirm from the photos and the rosters that I have include: Jeff Ulmer 19, Mark Pivetz 3, Toby Kvalevog 35, Jason Ulmer 9, Curtis Murphy 2, Joe Blake 28 and Ian Kallay 10. Obviously the numbers are easy to see, and all of them on there were in fact being used in 1996-97, so that gave me a little confidence.

So I did something that I don't typically do, which is to buy something without actually having a chance to inspect it. I got wind of an auction being held at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI, in which the Bradley Center is disposing of a lot of memorabilia collected there over the years, before they demolish the building. One of the items listed in the auction was a UND hockey jersey with a bunch of autographs on it. It seemed pretty apparent to me the auction company didn't really investigate to discover what they have, and honestly I'm not 100% certain about what they have (and that I bought). But with the limited photos available, and knowing that in 1997 we won the championship at the Bradley Center, it appears that it might be a jersey autographed by that team. Here is a link to the auction photos. I should know more tomorrow when I pick it up, but I'm curious to see what it looks like. Might be $180 down the drain. https://bid.greatlakesauction.net/view-auctions/catalog/id/18474/lot/2602900?url=%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F18474%3Fpage%3D8

I'm not "angsty" at all, either about the state of the program or how this season played out. I think the program is in great shape. As I watched the first half of the season unfold, it never really looked to me like this team was going to be a contender for a title, either in league play or on a national level. They could be hard to play against, but I certainly didn't consider them to be an elite college hockey team. But even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the season and another great conference tournament weekend. I just find the comments of a few posters on this board to be a bit

I’ll go wherever I please. I find it amusing that the posters complaining most about missing the tourney are the same ones who 3-4 years ago would post in the “Fire Hak” threads that they’d gladly suffer missing the tourney if it only meant that we’d win a title. Seems to me you got your wish.

I bet SCSU’s Olympic rink vs non-Olympic rink splits might be interesting. A good team in space.

So, it’s “fightingsioux4life, or until they don’t make the tourney?”

Didn’t Wodon also report that ASU to the NCHC was signed and sealed, and got all butthurt when western reporters said they weren’t hearing that?

Wait, Allentown, PA, 81 miles by road from the Atlantic Ocean isn't in the midwest?

What Wodon is really worried about is his beloved Cornell getting sent to Sioux Falls with us waiting for them.

I think we should probably also be rooting for Duluth in that game if we lose Friday afternoon. First, there are scenarios out there where Duluth gets bounced from the tournament with two losses, so they will be aware of that. Second, Denver and Montgomery have shown a willingness to basically sandbag the consolation game to rest their top players.

Yeesh, probably worse than expected. According to Jim, even with one win we only have a 25% chance of getting in. https://collegehockeyranked.com/forecast/pwrtournament/ Edit: I might be misinterpreting it. I wonder if we really have a 39% chance (the 14% if we have zero wins and the 25% if we have one win.) This is why I'm not good at math.

I was watching that game on NCHC.tv. While I was hoping it would be disallowed, I wasn't surprised that they counted it. If you see the play from above the net, you clearly see Terry kick at the puck. But you also see the CC defender poke at the puck with his stick, and it appears (at least to my eye) from above the net that the defender's stick hit the puck which then was directed into Terry's skate. I bet if you asked the officials that is exactly what they'd tell you they saw. From a replay that was shot from the corner you could also see that Terry's immediate reaction was to look at the referee and point at the CC player whose stick was between his skate and the puck. You could also see that when the official gave the explanation to the CC bench, their reaction wasn't anger, but more like, "ohh."

I can get them up to 8th. Your Picks Atlantic Hockey Semifinal #2: Canisius defeats Air Force Semifinal #1: Mercyhurst defeats Robert Morris Championship game: Mercyhurst defeats Canisius Big Ten Championship game: Notre Dame defeats Ohio State ECAC Semifinal #2: Harvard defeats Clarkson Semifinal #1: Cornell defeats Princeton Championship game: Harvard defeats Cornell Hockey East Semifinal #2: Northeastern defeats Providence Semifinal #1: Boston College defeats Boston University Championship game: Boston College defeats Northeastern NCHC Semifinal #2: Denver defeats Minnesota Duluth Semifinal #1: North Dakota defeats St. Cloud State Consolation game: Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State tie. Championship game: North Dakota defeats Denver WCHA Championship game: Northern Michigan defeats Michigan Tech

If Mankato loses tonight, then I hope SCSU and DU also lose. A Mankato loss will require a 14 or better spot at a minimum, and maybe a 12-13. In other words, we’ll need to win two next weekend. I’d rather go through CC, UMD and Miami than DU, SCSU and UMD if we need two.

I posted that back a page or two. About 7 in the pairwise.

Too many teams ahead of us are done, and probably too far ahead to catch with one win. Need Mankato, NE, Providence, Clarkson and Cornell to be good to us.

We really need Mankato and Clarkson to win tomorrow. I don’t see us climbing above 14, even with a win in St Paul. I wouldn’t bet against BC or BU in Hockey east, so we need the WCHA and ECAC to go chalk.

If you really want to play "what might have been," go play with CHN's customizer feature for the pairwise. If UND had won those games in which they had a two goal or more lead this year, they'd be number 7 in the pairwise. If they had won those games in which they led going into the 3rd period, they would be number 7 in the pairwise. If they had won those games in which they either had a two goal lead or lead going into the third period, they'd be number 5.

I agree. I think Jake has improved a lot since he first started. I found myself a couple of times this season thinking that he made some really, really good observations about the game.

Could always just have the band play the school song.

Since no one else will bite, I will. “Whether or not” should just be “whether.”