GFG

This is correct. And it's not even close. The drop off in popularity from football/basketball to hockey is huge in the Big Ten. Even at Minnesota, hockey isn't even close to competing with basketball and football for popularity.

HEY! We're getting rid of those names. Possibly gone by June. Lol

I can't deny that. This year UND has been very good at avoiding those shenanigans that they're usually known for. I've been vocal in supporting UND in that aspect on GPL too. I think officials have taken notice as well. There's a reason UND's penalty minutes are down to 9th in the league this year. Although the call this past weekend was terrible.

I know. But none of us were on the ice when these things were said to UND players either, so you can't prove they're real. That's the point I'm trying to make. I don't know if the ref was drunk and said the "psycho" thing or what, but it never should have been said if it actually is true. But to have people saying it didn't happen and then come right back and say the Finley and Blood things are true is very hypocritical since it can't be proved. I have also heard of WCHA officials dreading having to officiate UND games because of the shenanigans that tend to happen in a large percentage of their games. Do I expect you to believe me? No I don't, because I can't prove it to you. But that still doesn't mean it isn't true.

You can say this for anything. Same with the Finley story. Prove to me Blake Wheeler said that. Prove to me what Rau said to Blood. Saying that just makes every argument on a message board a complete loss

He has Notre Dame on the schedule for 4 years. The 4 years that his son will be playing for them. He's also a Notre Dame alumnus like squirtcoach said. I'm not backing Lucia for this reason, but if it were me I'd much rather schedule Notre Dame (A respectable opponent) for one series a year for four years so that I can see my son play 2 games a year while in college than scheduling North Dakota (Also a respectable opponent). That's just trying to put myself in Lucia's shoes, though. It's pretty easy to see why he wanted Notre Dame on the schedule the next four years. He obviously can't and won't admit that's why he put them on the schedule but I'd be more than willing to bet money that's a very strong reason for it.

Awesome work! This is just going by your picture on that post, but you look similar to the founder of Dogfish Head beer, Sam Calagione.

I think Clarke has been shaky at times, but I agree with you Goon. He's been far better than Gothberg has. Not even close. Saunders had a couple shaky games and I have a feeling Hakstol wanted to send him a statement that he needs to be ready to play at the top of his game when they get to Minneapolis

Helgeson almost did last night. UAA player dropped his gloves NHL style and started punching him and Helgeson was about to but after the game Budish said the team reminded each other not to do anything stupid because they had UND coming in next weekend

I was fine with it being a 2 or 5. From the view the official had that called the penalty it's very easy to see why he called a 5. From his angle (watching the check from straight across the rink) it would have looked like a very malicious check from behind, hence why he got the UAA player off the ice so fast. I'm seriously awe struck at the amount of people freaking out over this call. It's WCHA officials for cripes sake. I, as well as all of you, have definitely seen weaker calls given a major in the WCHA and I've also seen far more dangerous hits given nothing in the WCHA. It just goes to show how inconsistent the officials in this conference are.

I feel some sort of fan get-together should be set up for Saturday night this year to commemmorate the ending of the Final Five as we know it.

Don't make me call your phone continuously until you answer so I can scold you for this libelous allegation!

I'll be completely honest, the years both are in town I'll probably get a hotel in downtown Minneapolis just due to how much fun the bars will be down there with all the hockey fans. Tailgate by the X all day with B1G fans (Gopher fans, since it's a possibility no other team will have fans there), and meet everyone downtown Minneapolis at night to have a blast. Plus there's a Marriot downtown MPLS and I can get a room at any Marriott in the US for 15-40 dollars a night since I know people

This is completely correct. I've grown up here as have many people on this site, and if you hosted that tournament in Grand Forks it would be a disaster. The community here isn't interested enough in hockey to attend this without UND participating. Most people here are die hard Sioux fans, not die hard college hockey fans. IMO, the WCHA is better off having the tournament in MSP. You have a much better chance of picking up neutral fans, a MUCH better destination and more centrally located than Grand Forks.

Good point. It helps that most of my friends are UND fans since I grew up here, so I'll be with them haha. I wish the arenas were closer together, it would be a blast to have all the fan bases interacting at the bars and stuff when B1G and NCHC are both there.

Why wouldn't people go is the way I look at it. There's no way I can afford to go to Detroit, so why wouldn't I go enjoy some good hockey in downtown Minneapolis? The bar scene alone by the Target Center makes it all worthwhile

I'll be attending the NCHC tournament in years the B1G is in Detroit. If i'm going to watch hockey live I want to make sure there's some good teams playing with passionate fan bases. The WCHA tournament is going to be an epic failure at the X

I like this prediction Goon

Regarding the Minnesota/UND scheduling, I believe it was just last week Lucia commented on it and said that they'll have 2 or 3 years off and then they'll be playing every year again. I can't remember where he said it though.

I was serious about him "contacting" NDSU. Didn't say that's where he was going

I've been told that Mathieu has already contacted NDSU about playing there this season. I really don't know if Bohl will want him, though. Yes he's an elite player, but Bohl HATES players with off-field issues and he's not a big fan of FBS transfer players. Then again, think of the publicity the school would get if he went there. I wish UND was more established in FCS. That would be a sweet pick up

Beat me to it, oh well haha

The big problem at Mariucci, from what I've heard, is that there's tons of seats reserved every game for sponsors and stuff that never actually use the tickets. All arenas count attendance now on tickets sold, not actual attendance. Yes this does include UND, although UND has a VERY high ticket use rate. IIRC it's somewhere around 96%, but that's what happens when there's nothing else to compete for ticket sales in the city. Minnesota has to compete with the Gophers football team for almost 2 months, the Gophers basketball team (Higher attendance than UND hockey, over 13,000 a game: http://www.mndaily.com/2011/11/08/minnesota-men%E2%80%99s-basketball-ranks-16th-revenue), the Wild, the T-Wolves and the Vikings for the first couple months of the season. Every one of those teams is more "popular" and a bigger ticket in the Twin Cities than Gopher hockey is.