Sunday pontifications; Seen and heard at the Final Five

Thursday night after returning from the hotel lounge I was waiting for my elevator when I noticed one of my fellow Sioux fans passed out in one of the chairs in the lobby. That was one of those times that I wish I would have had a sharpie marker in my pocket because It would have been real tempting to have drawn a mustache on that person sleeping passed out in the hotel lobby.

Just a word of advice; when you put on your school's jersey you're a unofficial representative of that institution, so if you going to get so drunk that pass out in an random hotel lobby in downtown Saint Paul, please take off your jersey or hoodie that identifies you with said team. This is not the kind of P.R. that the University of North Dakota needs and you’re really not doing a very good job representing our favorite team. It's also ok to cut yourself off before you get to the point of passing out in public. If this was the south they could arrest you for public drunkenness.

Contrary to public belief I do remember all of the Final Five and it will go down as being one of the more exciting ones that I have witnessed. I have attended every Final Five since 1998; I am also going next year. I think believe that every good WCHA hockey fan should attend the Final Five.

Seen and heard at the Final Five

I was reading the Star and Tribune this morning when I ran across this gem by Sioux goalie Brad Eidness. This was one of the more funnier things I have read this season.

"I looked up at the clock somewhere around the eight- or nine-minute mark," Eidsness said, "and I looked at our bench and I had a feeling I probably should not let in another goal. The boys wouldn't be too happy with me if they had to go into overtime."

Here is the format for next years WCHA Final Five.

With the conference expanding from 10 to 12 teams next season, with the addition of Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha, there were will be six first-round series. And the winners of those will advance to St. Paul.

Among other pertinent details:

• The four lowest seeds in the field will play on Thursday in two quarterfinal games played back-to-back in one session. Tentative times are 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

• On Friday, the two Thursday winners will face the top two seeds, the MacNaughton Cup champion and the WCHA regular-season runner-up. The so-called "Minnesota rule" will remain, meaning if the Gophers are playing, they will be in the late game both nights.

• On Saturday, the championship game will be played at 7 p.m. as usual, but the afternoon third-place game has been eliminated.

Not only did Denver lose both games this past weekend at the Final Five they also lost one of their top forwards to a finger injury.

Junior wing Anthony Maiani, who is DU’s fourth-leading scorer, will miss today’s WCHA Final Five consolation game against Wisconsin and might not play again this season. He sustained a finger injury in Friday’s 4-3 loss to North Dakota in the tournament semifinals. [Denver Post]

Patrick Reusse from KSTP AM 1500 in the Twin Cities started a fire storm with these two twitter posts. First off why would someone from UND be mentioned in this conversation, Blais works for UNO. Also; I would love to see who the source of this rumor is.

Blais has told Minnesota, “I don’t want any open job search, I just want the job if you are going to give it to me. None of the B.S.”
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E-mail from Fargo: “Plugged-in” UND sources say the Gophers have already called Dean Blais in Omaha about replacing Don Lucia.

Fighting Sioux Three Stars from the Final Five

Evan Trupp (3g-3a-6pts)at the Final Five.

Jason Gregoire recorded his 20th goal of the season March 18th against the Duluth Bulldogs.

Brad Eidsness 3-0 during the Final Five and recorded a shutout. While I tend to be hard on goaltenders I must give credit where credit is due; Brad made some big saves and was solid when he had to be. Brad also hasn't given up more than three goals since February 12th, 2010.