fightingsioux4life

Here is my predicted order of finish: 1. North Dakota 2. Denver 3. UM-Duluth 4. Nebraska-Omaha 5. Minnesota 6. Wisconsin 7. Colorado College 8. Alaska-Anchorage 9. St. Cloud State 10. MSU-Mankato 11. Bemidji State 12. Michigan Tech First Round Match-Ups: #12 Michigan Tech at #1 North Dakota: UND wins 2-0. #11 Bemidji State at #2 Denver: Denver wins 2-0. #10 MSU-Mankato at #3 UM-Duluth: Duluth wins 2-0. #9 St. Cloud State at #4 Neb-Omaha: Omaha wins 2-1. #8 Alaska-Anchorage at #5 Minnesota: Minnesota wins 2-1. #7 Colorado College at #6 Wisconsin: CC wins 2-1 (Upset Special!). WCHA Final Five: Thursday, March 17th: Quarterfinals #3 UM-Duluth over #6 Colorado College #4 Neb-Omaha over #5 Minnesota (So long, Rodents!) Friday, March 18th: Semifinals #4 Neb-Omaha over #1 North Dakota (prove me wrong boys!) #2 Denver over #3 UM-Duluth Saturday, March 19th: Championship #4 Neb-Omaha over #2 Denver (Blaiser is back, watch out for Omaha in the NCAA tourament!). Thoughts?

Yes, very true.

This would clinch at least a share of the Cup with Denver (I think Duluth and Omaha would be out of the running). But I don't want to have the Cup presented to us before we've cliniched it outright; it will encourage the boys to take the foot off of the gas pedal and I don't want that. In 1997, we clinched a share of the title with back-to-back shutout wins at home vs. Anchorage and McLeod presented the Cup to us on Saturday night. We then proceeded to get swept at Denver and had to share the Cup with the dirty Rodents. I think the odds of getting swept at Tech are very slim, but I've seen stranger things happen. Let's get it done first and celebrate second.

Looking at the final two weekends, if we sweep Bemidji at home and Tech on the road, we win the league no matter what anybody else does. Just get it done boys and we'll be celebrating with the Cup at home on Saturday, March 12th after sweeping our first round series against Michigan Tech. Then it's on to St. Paul to defend our Broadmoor Trophy and then onto the NCAAs to reclaim what we haven't had for 11 years. I love this time of year! GO SIOUX!!!

To go back even further and put even more detail into this, in October 1996, the Rodents swept our Fighting Sioux in Minneapolis. The first game was a 3-2 final, the second game was a 10-6 blowout. On Saturday night (which was the same night of the now-defunct Sioux-Bison football tilt in the Fargodome), the Gophers held a 10-2 lead going into the third. The Sioux outscored the Gophers 4-0 in that period. At the time, it didn't look like much of anything, but it ended up giving us the #1 seed in the WCHA tournament. That helped us beat the Gophers in OT in the title game in the old St. Paul Civic Center and helped us get one of those first round byes in the West Regional, which helped us get to Milwaukee and the Frozen Four, where we won our 6th NCAA title. It's amazing how small, unforgotten details can have huge, unforseen impacts later on.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before with the goalie in the net". Proof that these Denver suck ups ignore the rest of the league; they must have been hibernating in 2007.

Good points Jim, thanks. I guess I am just really concerned about our programs and their continued future success. All this legalistic PC crap is giving me perpetual heartburn.

I don't see the NCAA sticking with that "neutral site" rule; they will find it almost impossible to draw enough fans to make any money on the regionals and we all know that is one of the top two priorities for them; the other being political correctness. Division I basketball is at big regional sites, so that is definitely out the window. I can't answer the football question, that is something the athletic department would have to tell you. All I really want is for our hockey programs to have every edge they can get; winning in the playoffs is hard enough as it is without any extra hurdles. As long as REA and UND work together for what is best for our programs, I won't have any problem with either of them.

I looked up the cute little phrase you put at the end of your message ("Such is life") and this outcome is completely and totally unacceptable for our hockey programs (men and women). The hockey-only crowd is a funny group: on one hand, all they care about is hockey and that's it. But on the other hand, they genuflect to the all-powerful and all-important suits at REA management on anything and everything. Even on an outcome such as this that would permanently harm our hockey programs forever. That's consistency for you. The whole, entire purpose of Ralph Engelstad using a large chunk of his fortune to build a $104 million hockey palace was to benefit the hockey program, the UND campus as a whole and the City of Grand Forks. If the suits that currently run REA decide that flexing their muscles as a "private organization" is more important than giving our teams every chance in the world to host regionals and national tournament games, then they are part of the problem and are not fulfilling the original mission of the arena. I know it's almost a sin on this forum to criticize REA for anything, but I don't really care. Not giving our teams a home ice advantage whenever possible tells all of us what is really important to them and it's not UND athletics. Period. Flame away all you want. Not hosting these events will also hurt REA's bottom line (I believe the 2006 West Regional sold out all three games). And there is something REA should keep in mind as this process moves forward at a glacial pace; they need UND as much as UND needs them. Sioux hockey is the unquestioned main tenant of the arena. What would they do without our teams; bring in a Major Junior franchise from Canada? That would never work in a college hockey town like Grand Forks; I wouldn't give the time of day to something like that and most of our fans wouldn't either. I think the solution is for UND and REA to sit down like the adults that they are and work out an agreement that is fair to both sides and that is good for UND athletics without being burdensome to REA's financial situation. But I suppose in this world, that might be asking too much.

I guess I don't care how ugly it is (two 1-0 wins will work just fine), but we need the 4 points. Even if we don't win the league, we have to finish in the top two to earn a bye into the semifinals at the Final Five and avoid having to win three games in three days in St. Paul (we all saw how well that worked for us last year). There are three teams vying for two spots and every point will be crucial.

I hear you, but I think this might be somewhat of an advantage. Purpur Arena is a more intimate setting for a game and if we can get a couple of thousand people in there, it will be loud and disruptive for our opponents. The problem with REA right now is that women's attendance is still very small and it's hard to get any atmosphere for the games. As for the future, it sounds like the NDHSAA is working on giving the State High School Hockey Tournament to Imperial Cass (Fargo) and the "impressive" Scheels (formerly Urban Plains Center) Arena, so that might not be a problem in a couple of years. But we'll leave that to the future. GO SIOUX!

This weekend MUST be a 4 point home sweep and the all too rare stick salute. We are one point behind Denver and Duluth and absolutely have to take care of business at home this weekend and in two weeks at home vs. Bemidji State. I think a 7-1 record over our last 8 regular season games is very possible and it starts this weekend.

Me and my old college buddy from Fargo are going to all five tournament games, the Wild vs. Blue Jackets game on Saturday afternoon and the Wild vs. Canadiens game Sunday evening. That's seven hockey games in four days!

He was talking about St. Cloud State (a.k.a. Jan Brady State University or JBSU). The Huskies have since won an NCAA tournament game, but it's still a valid description.

Great, now I have to hold my nose and cheer for Goldy. Oh well, anything for the boys! GO TIGERS!!! GO (cough, cough) GOPHERS!!!

That is the one bad thing about finishing first; we would have to play Tech two straight weekends. I am always concerned when that happens, but Tech is soooo bad this year I don't think we'll have too much trouble winning the playoff series 2-0. And even if we don't win the league, I want us to finish at least 2nd because this year at the Final Five the top two seeds get byes into the semifinals on Friday. So we would have to win two games in two days instead of three in three. But in order to accomplish either of those goals, we will have to start taking care of business at home (Hint: Sweep), which we haven't been doing since Christmas. If we can do that, we'll be in great shape for March and beyond.

What a joke, this guy doesn't know what the heck he is talking about. All he has to do is come on down to Grand Forks and get a ticket to one of the annual UND-Manitoba exhibition games we open every season with and he'll see there is a big, big difference between Canadian college hockey and American college hockey. Either he is ignorant about the subject (likely) or is one of those Major Junior sycophants who has a life-sized poster of Don Cherry hanging in his bedroom (possible). In any event, I think this game will be well-attended for the simple fact that Canadians love their hockey and will go just to watch a game, even if it features two teams they know nothing about. I definitely plan on going to this and I hope we can fill the stands with our loyal, rabid followers. GO SIOUX!!!

I am with you on that one. YMCA has been beaten to death at games over the years, so has Rock and Roll Part II. I would prefer a mix of rock tunes (from 1980's onward); that always fits in nicely at hockey games.

Both Neil Diamond and Jane's Addiction should be banned from the list of music used at games; otherwise I am okay with what is used.

Every Legislative session there are bad bills introduced and every session they are shot down as they should be. This one is no exception. This bill has exactly a .00001 percent chance of passing and not a decimal point more. I would be surprised if it gets more than 5 votes total (including the sponsors).

I think the duo of Dell and Eidsness are good enough for this team to win consistently and I think if Gothberg needs more developmental time that we should just let him do that. I am not one of those fans that blames our goaltenders every time we lose and I think we are better than average in this area right now. Nothing to worry about unless someone gets hurt or leaves early.

I see your point that scheduling D-II schools does nothing to get us in the playoffs. I guess I am open to it if we get into a scheduling pinch (if someone cancels on us and we can't find another FCS team to fill the date), but you are right that we should have a pure FCS schedule with one FBS money game whenever possible. My message to the athletic department is simple: Start running our Division I programs like Division I programs or else just go non-scholarship in everything except Men's and Women's hockey. Anything in-between is a waste of our time.

If it's not "feasible" to run this program like a DI FCS program, then we shouldn't have moved up in the first place. If balancing the budget is all that matters, then Tom Buning should have gotten a lifetime contract extension. Yes, it's expensive to get FCS teams to come to Grand Forks. Everyone knew that when we moved up and now some people around here think we should keep running this program like a D-2 school to help keep costs down. Well, that's just unacceptable for the flagship of the NDUS. If we want our athletics at the Division I level, then we have to start running the whole athletic department like a Division I program, not a D-2 program with a D-I label. One D-2 game each year and one FBS money game a year would be acceptable. But once we join the BSC in 2012, all of these NAIA programs had better get taken off the schedule for good.

That is a very dangerous intersection; especially during the winter. It used to be even worse before they put stoplights in.

That was a big goal. Just play solid D and close it out.