George Gwozdecky speaks.

Here is an interesting blog post by every Sioux fan's favorite college hockey beat writer Mike Chambers from the Denver Post.

MC: What’s the thing that upset you the most in that game? Was it VandeVelde’s hit on Ruegessger against the sidewall? Is that what started the emotion on the bench?

George Gwozdecky: No, it started long before that. I think people know me well enough – officials and the people that have watched me coach this team for 15 years – that I’m not going react to one incident, I’m not going to blow my top and get all worked up over one call. It takes more than that, and there are times I won’t even react. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Sometimes you really have to fight and battle and stick up for your team, and I felt that was the time it had to be done.

MC: Do you think it’s time for the WCHA to separate certain officials from certain opponents? (It was obvious I was asking about referee Todd Anderson and the DU-UND rivalry. Three years ago, Anderson ejected Gwozdecky in a Sioux game in Denver, after UND’s Mike Prpich speared Geoff Paukovich in the privates off a center-ice faceoff. No call was made, despite the fact the officials had their eyes trained on the neutral zone and Paukovich went straight to the ice in pain).

George Gwozdecky: Nobody’s perfect, whether you’re a coach, player and official. Everybody wants to do their best, and at times because of whatever reason, it’s difficult to do. That’s a very difficult place to play. It’s loud, they’re energetic, great fans, and if you let it, it can be intimidating – including to the officials. I’m not going to blame anybody for what went on. Obviously, I took the actions I felt needed to be taken.

MC: Let’s talk about your suspension for talking to your staff during the third period via headset from the press box.

George Gwozdecky: I certainly didn’t have a thorough understanding of the rules. Obviously, for me walking around the press box, for everyone to see me, and for me to comment afterwards to the media about where I was at the end of the second period and in the third period, it’s pretty obvious I wasn’t trying to hide anything. It certainly was a violation when I found out about it, and there was no question what I felt needed to be done. I support the administration. It’s a rule; it’s in the book.

All joking aside, when your children lie there are consequences for their actions, come on now George! Seriously folks, it doesn't take a genius to know if your coach has been kicked out of the hockey game and asked to leave the bench you can not have ANY, ANY communication until after the game is over. The fact that he keeps saying this stuff is insulting to hockey fans and is utter bull shit Bravo Sierra.

The heated rival, The Gophers come to town.

Dave Berger has a interesting piece on the Sioux vs Gophers matchup.

Here are some fan’s opinions on both sides of the Sioux/Gopher rivalry:

“Proximity. UM is the closest elite team to UND. Going to games in Grand Forks, you would see tons of Gopher fans, and that always makes for a heated atmosphere.” OETKB

“I hate the way (North Dakota) steals all of our home grown talent.” Go4er

“(The Gophers) always get the night games at the Final Five - that makes lots of UND fans angry.” dj_hoime

“From the maroon and gold side of things - I’ve come to love the intensity of this rivalry and put this matchup at the top of all rivalries in college sports today.” hoop

And one that sums up what all of us are thinking:

“It comes down to one thing at the end of the day - the scoreboard. Is it 7:30 yet?” Go4er...

This is one of my favorite rivalries that the Fighting Sioux play the Wisconsin BADgers are my second favorite rivalry, Denver University is number three, I find that Denver fans are the more reasonable of the three. Badger fans are a lot of fun as well.

As a rabid Sioux fan nothing is more offensive to me and other Sioux fans than the hated Golden Rodent, maroon and gold and that cheesy “ M”. Their fans come up the Ralph and act like they own the place, maybe why that is why the Holy Cross defeat is so funny. No I didn't by a Holy Cross shirt, but I used to go to their football games when I lived in Massachusetts. I am not sure the Gopher football team could beat them either. I don’t care to this day the Gopher defeat to the Holy Cross is funny to me and I could care less if anyone takes issue with it. I have never seen a fan bass leave town so fast. Actually, I think Minnesota is one of the few WCHA teams to have the honor of losing to both RIT and Holy Cross.

Of my Brother and sisters there are five us, only two of us like the Fighting Sioux, my sister Kim is also a 1992 graduate of the University of North Dakota. One of my sisters is married to a former Golden Gopher Hockey player; some refer to as the golden golfer. I know the question you are going to ask; No I don’t hate my family members. I can’t help it they make poor choices in their sports teams. I also don’t hate Gophers fans, it’s like democrats and republican we are all Americans. Living in a border town we are surrounded by Gopher Fans and have many friends that also make poor choices in their sports teams. I like the Gopher football team but hate the Hockey team. Some have said that makes no sense, I can’t explain it.

I just want the Sioux to crush the Gophers and beat them up doing it. I want to see the Sioux send their chirping fans home down I-29 and I-94 with their tails between their legs. The Sioux have had a lot of success lately playing the Gophers as they are 9-6-1 since Dave Hakstol took over the Fighting Sioux reigns. Who is going to win this weekend I don’t have a clue, while I did make the prediction of three points for the Sioux I believe a split or two ties could happen as well.




(If you take offense to this article your too thin skinned)

AHA is not a good league.

Here is a post that I must respond to that was on USCHO.COM

All you people are making the writers point that there is bias against the Atlantic Hockey. Last two years Atlantic Hockey teams have been playing with every other league and coming out with a lot more wins then they were in years past. Air Force took Miami to the third period with a lead in the NCAAs last year.

OK lets look at the AHA's record against the big four conferences. Wow, the AHA has won 8 games out of 45 against the big four conferences. That is NOT very impressive folks, I wouldn't want to hang my hat on that one. What are we measuring here?

While we are on the subject the EZAC they are not doing that well against the big four conferences either as they have won an impressive 9 games out of 34 games. Yet we have Princeton and Cornell ranked in the top ten of all the major college hockey polls. Please! Give me a break.

Conference vs. 'Big 4'
AHA 8-34-3 (.211)
CCHA 14-18-5 (.446)
CHA 8-21-2 (.290)
ECACHL 9-24-2 (.286)
HEA 24-14-3 (.622)
WCHA 18-9-6 (.636)

Here is the KRAH for the AHA there isn't a team with a strenght of schedule over 47 and their numerial order is 47, 48, 49, 51, 52 53, 54, 55, 56, 58. Playing these teams and beating them doesn't nothing for your teams RPI numbers imagine what losing does as well.

11 Air Force 350.4 .7273 1 14-2-0 .8750 7.000 47 50.1
44 Bentley 32.8 .3005 37 6-8-1 .4333 .765 48 42.9
46 RIT 29.5 .2835 35 8-9-1 .4722 .895 52 33.0
47 Mercyhurst 27.4 .2718 39 7-10-2 .4211 .727 51 37.7
48 Canisius 26.3 .2656 28 7-6-4 .5294 1.125 56 23.4
52 Sacred Heart 18.1 .2110 44T 4-10-3 .3235 .478 49 37.8
54 Holy Cross 15.6 .1919 44T 5-11-1 .3235 .478 53 32.7
55 Connecticut 11.1 .1510 49T 4-11-0 .2667 .364 54 30.6
56 Army 10.0 .1391 46 4-9-1 .3214 .474 58 21.0
57 American Int'l 9.3 .1320 54 4-13-0 .2353 .308 55 30.2

Jan Brady State University is up next after UND sweeps Dirty Mavericks

Last weekend the Fighting Sioux swept a very important hard fought two games series at the Ralph Engelstad Arena against the dirty Mavericks of Mankato State University. UND now sits in 4th place of the WCHA with a 10-8 record one point ahead of the Colorado College Tigers who are idle this weekend. Next weekend the Fighting travel to Colorado Springs to play the Tigers next weekend who were swept on the road by the youthful Golden Gophers last weekend at Marriucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After this weekend's series I am convinced that Mankato is by far the dirtiest team UND has seen all season, to take a phrase from my book I would call them a goon squad. They continuously run their mouths and spend more time cross-checking, haching and cheap shooting their opponents up and down the ice than they do playing hockey. This style of play is also reflected by their Coach “head goon” Troy Jutting who is the king of smug thugs as he sits on the players bench coaching his gang of merry thugs on to their next egregious act.

Mankato brings to the ice a repatriate of dirty tactics and bush league moves. It was none more obvious from the start of the two game series that Mankato couldn’t keep up with the much more skilled and fleet footed Fighting Sioux. From the Start Mankato was dirty skating up and down the ice taking their runs at UND highly skilled players. Friday Night they almost started a brawl at the end of game by running one of UND skilled players.

Saturday night with UND up 3-1 in game two with 8:59 left in the game Mankato State University goon Joel Hanson jumped Spirko from behind staring a melee involving three players from each team. As a result of the scrum two fighting disqualifications were originally called on Kyle Radke and Ratislav Spirko. Ratislav Spirko has the Fighting Sioux record for most games without ever having a penalty called on him and to this point only has had two penalties his whole career initially received his first fighting major for his career. After Greg Sheppard reviewed the game tapes it was later ruled that Big Joe Finely was the guilty culprit instead. Radke and Finely will sit out Friday’s game against SCSU.

Hakstal was pleased with the Fighting Sioux’s effort after the game.
But, after the game, Hakstol didn't seem as upset with the fighting on the ice. Rather, he was more pleased with the hockey his team played. Guys are sticking together, and sticking up for each other," Hakstol said. "What the repercussions are, we have a week to regroup and get ready to deal with that. As a team, we want to make good decisions and smart decisions. But the bottom line is that it's a team game and you stick together as a team."


Now up next is SCSU aka Jan Brady State University also known as Sterns County Community College. The college hockey team known for its late season swoons, I believe the swoon starts this weekend at the Ralph. If UND plays it game and takes the puck to the net it should be another home sweep for the Fighting Sioux