Fifth Line

Might be more realistic, especially with Blaiser having even more ties to the region. However, I spoke with Dean after he had coached the USA team and it was his opinion at that time that he wanted nothing to do with the baggage and attidude that the professional players have towards the game. He mentioned that at that level everyone is out for themselves and very difficult to coordinate a team mentality.

I agree! Easier to sweep at home than on the road. Get the points now and take the splits on the road.

2 million dollar economic impact and teams from all over the country? I thought Bison fans claim Fargo is not a hockey town?

THey should. It would dull your pain from losing

I think Danny Irmen helped too!!

Of those injuries, 3 have come since the Sioux series plus a starting freshmen that went to play juniors in Canada.

JBSU is dropping player like sacks of dirt. They have a lot of players that started the season out of the line up. Conboy is hooked on phonics so he is once again eligable academically, but that is about it. It is quite odd that this team could not provide offense at the beginning of the season, but defensively were strong. Complete turnaround after Christmas. The road is not getting any easier for them. Mid-season prediction. JBSU travels to AA for first round of the WCHA playoffs.

If you read the post I said that I did not even include Moorhead. This is exactly what I mean by being the Jan Brady of North Dakota hockey. Bison fan feels the need to come to this site and talk about how Fargo is not a hockey town so Bison hockey would never work. How do you know. You won't, because you all have this dream squashing mentality that it won't. Fargo didn't have a have a team in the '30's, '40's...... so it won't work today? Note to Bison fans, last time I checked the game is being played in a lot of non-hockey towns. If the Sioux relied on alumni driving 3 hours or more to fill the arena, there would be a lot of empty seats. That's the point! Attract some new fans which may in turn be fans that join yourcollege in the future. Is that not the reason that you are going D1AA? Or is it that women's softball and wrastlin' will be the only things that you will ever be competitive in again.

If the people of Fargo were to rely on you driving back to make it a hockey town you would be right, but they don't have to. Walter Running '61-64 James "Bob" South '46-47 Lets not leave out the future Brian Williams and Minnesota Draft pick Danny Irmen. That is just Fargo. I don't think that you could realistically leave out Moorhead. Do you think that people from Moorhead don't support RCCU?

Hate to say it, but it was a legal goal and ZP touched it well above four feet. You know how I know because you can count on FOX to show it seven ways to Sunday when it goes in the Goofers favor. Anytime that there is a questionable call for the Minnesota you got to see the replay at least 3 times. Where was the replay on the Schneider penelty (just one to name several). Make know doubt about it the Sioux stopped playing after the first period and the Goofs earned a win, but if I were them I wouldn't be feeling great about a one goal margin win at home in a game that they had to win with one of our men in the box for most of the game. Sure they held us to only to the fewest shots all year, we were short handed most of the time.

The Potunily's are from North Dakota and it took non-Minnesotans to win 4 and 5. The title still has to run through Grand Forks. Enough said!!

I just couldn't get off this thread without puting in my two cents (four if you live in Fargo). Many will say that St Cloud is the Jan Brady U, but at least they have D1 Hockey so I guess that NDSU is moving into this new role. They are joining the Jan Brady Division of D1AA. Note to NDSU: win at D2 before you move up to D1. I always find it interesting that the NDSU people that post here say that Fargo is not a hockey town. I say don't speak of that which you do not know. Look at the youth numbers, look at the fan base for the Sioux in Fargo, look at the national youth tourneys that come to the area,...... We at UND are sorry if the game is to complex for those of you attending RCCU (Rodeo Clown College University), but I feel confident if the hockey hotbed that you mentioned in Omaha can figure it out then you goat ropers can catch on as well. I think that it has been more of an avoidance by RCCU because they don't need another sport to have the Sioux hand them their asses to. If you built it they would have come. Fargo was not exactly a baseball hot bed (not bad, but not like other sports). Yet, they built a great minor league baseball facility that in some regards was bigger than the event itself and low and behold they came. What is the worst thing that would have happened if you had constructed a hockey stadium. You could have sold the refrigeration unit, covered it with dirt and had one hell of a bull riding stadium and on non-event nights you could have stole some business from the Arthur Barn Dance to help you finance it.

I agree there were bad calls on both sides, but I would say that more went our way. What I would like to see the league office review is that on the non-spear call from the camera angle on FOX, you can see the official on the lower left part of the screens arm come up right after spearing incident, that is what drew Brandt off the ice. Then when the Gophers controlled the puck and play was not blown Briggs made his way towards the bench. The tape will show that the call was coming on the spearing, but somehow got lost in translation.

What was the skill level like for last years games?

I was watching the game on FOX last night and I would like to know if anyone was as confused as me as to the penelties called against the Sioux especially in the third. Even the Ass Clown broadcasting team noticed the same thing when Bochenski got speared. Same thing with about three minutes to go. .

Especially on the road!!!

I only made my comment because I feel that it is tough to sweep anyone in the WCHA. Best of three I know we would take just about anyone that we play.

I don't think that you can say that the even with a sweep of this weekend by the Gophers that they would in turn be the supreme team of the WCHA or the nation. It will go a long way in moving them up in the rankings. Make know doubt about it that it was great to see the Gophers (or any WCHA team) beat up on teams from the other conferences, but all that really tells us is that our conference just may be stronger. So in this case our fifth place team is better than there conferences 1st place team. Frankly, it wouldn't disappoint me (over the long run) to see the Gophers return the favor to the Sioux this weekend. Winning the conference is great, but these days means little if you have already solidified a spot in the NCAA tourney, which I feel confident these two teams have already done. If the Goofs were to beat the Sioux this weekend it may put a little more gas on the fire for a matchup TBD at the Final Five and/or Reagional. If I have had one complaint about Sioux teams in the past couple of seasons, it is their inability to get themselves up for games that they have felt confident about. We all do amazing things with a little fear in our blood. Prediction for the weekend. Goofs come out charged and to recover dignity from their ass kicking at the Ralph and get Chia Pet his 400th win, 6-4 Goofs. Sioux will rebound Saturday night and catch the Goof flat on their heels and get out to an early lead and hold on to a tight 3-2 win.

I think we are saying the same thing daggies. Your point couldn't be any more precise on the lack of defensive scoring.

I have to say that I can honestly say that it is not a case of being a homer about the officiating in the WCHA. I rarely get a chance to watch the beloved Sioux get mauled by the opposition, but I do get to go or watch a lot of JBSU and Goofs games. Since I am not a fan of either, but enjoy the entertainment qualities of introducing my kids to the game, I see quite a few WCHA games with a very objective eye. Let me tell you it is not just the Sioux that are suffering from this, but it is every team in the league that has to deal with these a** clowns on a weekly basis. I can't even count the number of penelties that I have seen blown this year and in many cases instead of manning up they take offense and start to become bigger than the game. The system has been the biggest old boys network that has ever existed and until it is revamped with more scrutiny and accountability of officials instead of bringing in someones brothers-cousins-uncle's-best friend we will continue to suffer these officiating woes.

A split is fine, but I think a sweep could really knock the knees out from under the Goofs confidence building tour they have been on as of late. Could prove very important in an end of the year Final Five match up on what I say is always home ice advantage for them.

I don't know if it was his free wheeling that got him sent down. Cliff Ronning used to take over this role on power plays for the Wild last year so you would think having a defensmen instead of a forward be able to handle this role would be beneficial for the team. I watched every game that Travis played including preseason and I have to say I agree with the decision to send him down. He is very talented and should and will probably get another shot with another team. His play was a lot like Bouchard's rookie season where he suffered from a somewhat awe of the situation that he was in and tentitive play for fear of making mistakes. You how when you are trying so hard to not mess up that it causes you to mess up twice as much. Travis had a lot of turnovers and was just not getting the job done physically. He needs to bring his play up to the level of "I've been here before". I do think that Lemuire gave Bouchard more of an opportunity to work through those bugs his first season. You can tell the difference in his play this year by having the "I'm going to get sent to the minors if I play bad" monkey off his back.

Don't forget the Gopher womens team

I will conform from here on out about the score around the league. I didn't realize that it was that annoying to have work your way through a post with a score to get to 6 posts about a Sioux goal. I think that if we are here we have more than enough time on our hands. I will be calling for an elimination from all PA, radio and tv announcers for scoring updates around the league during games because someone can read or hear about from a different source while Sioux hockey is on. (Heavy sarcasim )

I was just wondering why other scores around the league needed to be posted on another thread? It would seem to me that everyone tuned in here would be just as interested in other games around the league. If we don't know everything we can about our opponents it makes it difficult to discuss objectively the upcoming series for the Sioux.