Goon's picks for the week: Holiday addition.

Friday, December 28th

Non-Conference

New Hampshire @ Sioux
Princeton @ Minnesota State-Mankato

Badger Showdown

Colgate @ Wisconsin

Great Lakes Invitational

Michigan Tech vs. Michigan State

Denver Cup

Sacred Heart @ Denver

Governor's Cup

Alaska-Anchorage @ Alaska


Saturday, December 29th

Non-Conference

New Hampshire @ North Dakota

Badger Showdown

Bowling Green @ Wisconsin
Northeastern @ Wisconsin

Great Lakes Invitational

Michigan Tech vs. Providence
Michigan Tech vs. Michigan

Denver Cup

Northern Michigan @ Denver
Dartmouth @ Denver

Governor's Cup

Alaska-Anchorage @ Alaska

Dodge Holiday Cup Cake Classic

RIT @ Minnesota

Ohio Hockey Classic

St. Cloud State vs. Miami

Lightning Classic

Colorado College vs. Rensselaer


Sunday, December 30th

Non-Conference

Yale @ Minnesota State-Mankato

Dodge Holiday Cup Cake Classic

Air Force @ Minnesota
Boston College @ Minnesota

Ohio Hockey Classic

St. Cloud State vs. Ohio State
St. Cloud State vs. Harvard

Lightning Classic

Colorado College vs. Notre Dame
Colorado College vs. Massachusetts

Last week 5-3
For the Year 50-36

KO is gone in Minnesota

All I can say that I am a little shocked that Kyle Okposo would leave his team in the middle of the hockey season. Can you at least wait till the end of the season? I also think that leaving his team during the middle of a season lacks class. For me; lets just say that its a character issue. I can't imagine how his team mates feel. Seriously, if I was one of the Gopher players on the WJC with Kyle Okposo and knew that my team mate walked out on the team, I wouldn't be all that happy with him. I might not spend a lot of time talking with him.

During the summer months I was surprised that Okposo even came back after his freshman season. There were a lot of rumblings about him signing a professional contract. Many of us in the blogsphere were predicting that Kyle Okposo would be gone and never make it back to the U of MN. Wrongly, I a few soles called me out for predicting that Kyle would sign a professional contract, however, it seems that when it was all said and done, I was pretty close to being right on. The only thing that was stopping him from signing a professional contract was that his professional team didn't want him at the time. Why the sudden change? I am assuming the 30 game suspension to Chris Simon is probably a major factor. My only question to Okposo is if he wasn't happy in Minnesota; why didn't this kid just didn't go play Major Junior hockey like the Islanders originally wanted him to?

Here is the Story from Newsday:

Kyle Okposo, the top prospect in the Islanders' system, has left the University of Minnesota and is in the process of negotiating an entry-level contract with the Islanders, the team acknowledged in a statement Wednesday.

"We're extremely excited about the possibility of Kyle joining our organization soon," general manager Garth Snow said in the statement. "He's a great talent, one of the most exciting prospects in the game. Kyle has the dedication and character we want for our franchise."

The 19-year-old winger from St. Paul was the Islanders' first-round selection and seventh overall in the 2006 NHL draft. .Okposo had 40 points (19 goals and 21 assists) in 40 games for the Golden Gophers as a freshman, but he struggled this season after coach Don Lucia put him at center. In 18 games, Okposo totaled six goals and five assists for 11 points, and he had a team-worst minus-9 rating.

Don Lucia isn't happy with the Islanders:

At a news conference Wednesday to announce Okposo had dropped out, Lucia hinted at meddling by the Islanders, saying, "It is unfortunate that the Islanders put him in a very difficult position."

Okposo not happy with former coach:

But Okposo previously indicated to local reporters that he was unhappy playing for Lucia.

Some Perspective: WCHA is top in SOS

Just for some perspective the WCHA has the highest Strenght of Schedule ranking in college hockey.

1. UND
2. C.C.
3. DU
4. Minnesota
5. UMD
6. Wisconsin
7. UAA
8. MTU
9. UNH
10. SCSU
11. Minnesota State

12. Notre Dame
14. Nothern Michigan
15. Miami
19. Michigan State
23. Michigan
26. Bowling Green
28. UNO

J.P. Lamoureux steals the show.

Last night Jean-Philippe Lamoureux was Mr. Clutch has he had 37 saves in the 4-2 victory over Minnesota. While in the past I have questioned Phil's muster, last night Lamoureux was the reason the Sioux won the game. The Sioux were totally out shot 1-15 before UND got a second shot on net. In the end the shots kind of evened out and the Sioux ended up only being out shot 30-39. This is one of the few times you will see a team play for 20 minutes and win/steal a game.

A few things

~First off to Gopher fans that thought the Holy Cross announcement lacked class, so what get over it. While it could have back fired on the Sioux and in turn fired up the Gophers it was funny. The Gophers lost to a 16 seed at our regional. The Sioux are going to hear about it forever.

~To the morons that threw a bunch of crap on the ice, grow the f up. Your selfishness could have cost the home team a penalty and a power play goal. The people that littered the ice should be kicked out of the arena for good. The REA is a nice arena and not a sewer. So grow up and stop crapping all over the ice like that.

IIHF Shrinks Its Rinks

I found this story On Frozen Blog

By The OFB Team
The International Ice Hockey Federation has decided to adopt North American dimensions for all of its tournaments from 2008-2012. On one level, this move is mere pragmatics: the 2008 World Junior and senior World Championships as well as the 2010 Olympics are being contested in Canada. These events require multiple sheets of ice to contest their respective tournaments, and Canada, as much as it loves all forms of hockey, wasn’t likely to fund construction of scores of international-sized sheets of ice (deconstructing existing rows of seats as well) for tourneys lasting a merely couple of weeks. Interestingly, though, the IIHF is applying this decision to all of its tournaments contested around the globe.

An obvious interpretation is that the international governing body wants more physical hockey: smaller sheets mean more body contact. But that doesn’t appear to be the decisive factor here. The IIHF apparently studied North American pro hockey with an eye toward its high profile tourneys here and found that 70 percent of the play (in the NHL at least) takes place in the two end zones. The IIHF apparently likes that.

The other obvious discussion point with this news is whether Canadian and American teams will enjoy an advantage. On the surface (pun intended), it would appear so. But the guess here is that so many European players — particularly the ones likely to be selected for national teams — have been competing for significant portions of their careers in North America, on the smaller sheets, negating any significant advantage.

This is really good news in my opinion. I hate those Olympic sheets of ice, I could never understand why some of the teams in the WCHA played on these God awful rinks. I think Olympic sheets of ice hinder physical play and think the bigger sheets of ice actually slow the game down making the game less exciting to watch. Take the DEC in Duluth for instance, it is a smaller ice and things happen a lot faster on a rink that size.

Halos are us.

Amy's Picure
There has been a lot of discussion on whether the University of Minnesota get the better of the calls from the Refs in the WCHA. It is the personal opinion of this writer that they do. I know others that feel the same way. While some think it's blatant whining I think it is a legitimate discussion. Fans of other teams in the WCHA have brought this up as well. Gophers fans then turn around and call other fans in the league especially Sioux fans "Halos". I guarantee if the Gophers put up with the calls the Fighting Sioux take their fans would complain like ours.

Since I was interested in seeing how the calls have shook out this season, I decided to break down the numbers and take a look. As most of you know I think the officials in the WCHA suck plain and simple. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the UND vs Minnesota series have 4 game officials with a combination of Campion, Adam and Lil Sheppard on the ice for the calling of the games. We are due 2/3 one of these three clowns.

Minnesota vs C.C.11-9 in favor of Minnesota
Minnesota vs DU 9-11 in favor of Denver
Minnesota vs Mankato 10-6 in favor of Minnesota
Minnesota vs UAA 11-6 in favor of Minnesota
Minnesota vs MTU 9-6 in favor of Minnesota

UND vs MTU 10-12 in favor of MTU
UND vs C.C. 10-9 in favor of UND
UND vs Wisconsin 9-11 in favor of Wisconsin
UND vs UMD 6-9 in favor of Duluth
UND vs DU 9-12 in favor of Denver

Out of 5 series the Gophers have been on the short side of the ledger once. On the flip side of that equation, the Sioux in five series the Sioux have had the numbers break in their favor just once. Af far as this year goes I would have to say that UND hasn't had it too bad with the officals I think last season was worse. The only complaint I have is during the Denver series T.J. Oshie was viciously hacked right in front of the official only to have the offical over look it. The officals have to make that call.

Here is another example of how other fans feel about the officating in this league.
MeG the Tech hockey blogger was not happy of the calls that were made this past weekend in Saturdays game against the Gophers:

Saturday 1 December 2007: Why we lost - getting our early goal taken back by minimal goaltender interference kind of knocked the wind out of my team. Combine that with how UMN scored soon after that to take first official blood and a poorly called "checking from behind" penalty called on Malcolm Gwilliam after he hit some guy in the side. Even though Tech was able to kill all five minutes of the penalty, it was quite an exhausting task, plus we were down a man. And lastly.... why we lost: the Gophers wanted the two points more than anything and they were fully ready to earn them.. and that they did.

I could care less if some one calls MeG or I a halo. I say big deal, however, you have to admit from a objective stand point that Michigan Tech got screwed on the goal being waived off. To make an obseration that was a horse bleep call by Don Adam. If there was any interference on the Minnesota goalie it was minimal and hard to see. What made it a horse bleep call was the fact that Don Adam didn't even have the balls to waive it off himself, he had to call over his counter part and confer with him. Come on Don if it was such a blatant goalie interference you should have just made the call. Either it is goal or not a goal, make the call and lets move on, lets not spend 5 minutes reviewing the goal looking for some thing that didn't happen.

A few things from last night.

Just a few thing that I noticed from last nights game. It seems that Sioux fans have been through this routine before. It is almost like a bad dream or the movie Ground Hog Day. This is Dave Hakstol's fourth season as coach of the Fighting Sioux and for what ever reason the boys just don't go out do what it takes to win early in the season. We get it that championships are won in March and April but it is easier to win them if you win more than you lose in November and December. Last night the goal tending was awesome and the forwards didn't show up.

`First off shoot the puck. The goal doesn't have to be pretty to count. Get the puck on net and then drive to the net. if someone is in your way drive through them.

`Defensemen are supposed play defense and help in the defensive zone, see goalie. Odd man rushes can cause goalie to give up goals. The Fighting Sioux defensemen need to thank their goaile for saving their ass last night. This could have been a 5-0 game.

`What the hell is a obstruction penalty. I hate to keep harping on the officiating but the league needs to start evaluating some of the clown they have calling the games. Mason company was god awful last night.

`Denver's offensive skill is amazing. They will be lucky if they can keep them all in the off season.


Fighting Sioux 23 posted this stat on USCHO

Under Hakstol, North Dakota's record...
First Half*: 38-29-5 (24-26-2 WCHA) .5625 Win %
Second Half**: 46-21-7 (22-14-6 WCHA) .6689 Win %

* - Games played BEFORE Christmas Day
** - Games played AFTER Christmas Day

Here is something you wont' see this weekend againt DU.

Here is something you won't see against DU, or at least I don't see it happening. Both combatants are now gone from their respective teams and I believe that we have finally moved on. Time for Sioux fans to focus on the rivalry; Paukovich is no longer there to kick around. While in the past this series always had the makings of being a blood bath the last couple of years, I don't think this will happen anymore. Both teams are skilled and can get up and down the ice. I am predicting that both teams will probably concentrate on the game. There is no longer any need for retribution, there is also no longer any need to even scores. Time to play some WCHA hockey.

Series against Denver: UND leads the all-time series with Denver 125-108-7. The Sioux have earned splits against the Pioneers in their last two series in the mile high city, winning 6-2 and losing 7-3 on Feb. 24-25, 2006, and losing 4-3 in overtime and winning 3-0 on Feb. 23-24, 2007. In its last 14 games against the Pioneers in Denver, UND is 10-3-1. Overall, UND and Denver are 3-3-0 in their last six meetings.

~Last Year in Denver T.J. Oshie and Ryan Duncan both had great weekends recording 5 points each for the weekend against DU. No small feat since DU is a defensive juggernaut. Look for the Pioneers to check these two guys pretty hard. Oshie is probably going to think there is Denver Pioneer in his jersey by the end of the weekend.

~To the people that said that Oshie and Duncan are having horrible seasons. How? Both players have average a point a game against top competition. They aren't feasting on second tier bottom dwelling teams.

~Offensive defenseman, Robbie Bina 11 points and Taylor Chorney 9 both have made a huge impact in the offensive zone this season.

This weeks picks

Friday

North Dakota @ DU - UND
St. Cloud State @ Wisconsin - SCSU
Michigan Tech @ Minnesota - MTU
Colorado College @ Alaska-Anchorage -CC
Minnesota-Duluth @ Minnesota State-Mankato -TIE

Saturday

North Dakota @ Denver - DU
St. Cloud State @ Wisconsin - SCSU
Michigan Tech @ Minnesota - TIE
Colorado College @ Alaska-Anchorage - C.C.
Minnesota-Duluth @ Minnesota State-Mankato - Duluth

Last week 5-5
Year 38-22

In the WCHA there are no nights off.

1 Miami 12
2 Colorado College 1
3 Michigan 21
4 Denver 5
5 New Hampshire 6
6 North Dakota 3
7 Notre Dame 10
8 Minnesota-Duluth 2
9 Michigan State 17
10 Minnesota 7
11 St. Cloud State 18
12 Wisconsin 4
13 Northeastern 11
14 Michigan Tech 8
15 Niagara 37
16 Harvard 35
17 Bowling Green 20
18 Robert Morris 29
19 Clarkson 34
20 Boston College 13
21 Merrimack 25
22 Massachusetts 31
23 Alaska-Anchorage 27
24 Northern Michigan 9
25 Vermont 15

Just to illustrate just how tough the WCHA conference is right now, the WCHA has spots 1-5 locked up in strenght of schedule. Not surprising; UNH is ranked 6th, then Minnesota is 7th and Michigan Tech is ranked 8th. That is a statement on how teams have to come ready to play in night in, night out.

On the flip side of that CCHA conference teams strenght of schedule is not as hard as the WCHA; Miami of Ohio's scheudle is ranked 12th, Michigan state's schedule is ranked 17th and the University of Michigan is 21st.

Clarkson Unviersity's schedule is ranked a cup cake like 34th.

Goon's picks for the week

Friday

DU at C.C.
UMD at UND
SCSU at Clarkson
Minnesota at Michigan State
Wisconsin at Michigan

Saturday

C.C. at DU
UMD at UND
SCSU at Clarkson
Wisconsin at Michigan State
Minnesota at Michigan

I hope I have not given SCSU any bad mojo for this weekend. I want SCSU to go out to Clarkson and spank the Knights and show the college hockey pollsters that the WCHA is for real and stacked top to bottom. I think that Clarkson's ranking is a little high.

Picks last week: 5-3
Year 33-17

A little perspective: Early Season Rankings.

USCHO.com poll

1. Miami (48) 11-1-0
2. Michigan (2) 11-1-0
3. Denver 8-2-0
4. Colorado College 7-3-0
5. Michigan State 8-3-0
6. UND 5-3-1
7. Clarkson 9-3-0
8. New Hampshire 6-2-1
9. Notre Dame 9-4-0
10. (tie) Massachusetts 5-2-4
10. (tie) St. Cloud State 6-2-2
12. Wisconsin 5-5-0
13. Minnesota 7-5-0
14. Boston College 3-3-5
15. Minnesota-Duluth 5-3-2
16. RPI 6-3-2
17. Niagara 8-3-0
18. Harvard 4-2-0
19. Michigan Tech 5-6-1
20. Northeastern 5-4-1

USA Today poll

1. Miami (26) 11-1-0
2. Michigan (8) 11-1-0
3. Denver 8-2-0
4. Colorado College 7-3-0
5. UND 5-3-1
6. Michigan State 8-3-0
7. Clarkson 9-3-0
8. New Hampshire 6-2-1
9. Notre Dame 9-4-0
10. Massachusetts 5-2-4
11. St. Cloud State 6-2-2
12. Minnesota-Duluth 5-3-2
13. Boston College 3-3-5
14. Wisconsin 5-5-0
15. Minnesota 7-5-0

Power Rankings From College Hockey News

1 Miami 24 11-1-0 .9167 1t .6487* 1
2 Michigan 23 11-1-0 .9167 1t .6428* 2
3t Colorado College 21 7-3-0 .7000 8t .6346 3
3t Denver 21 8-2-0 .8000 3 .6301* 4
3t New Hampshire 21 6-2-1 .7222 7 .6109 5
6 Minnesota-Duluth 19 5-3-2 .6000 17t .5947 6
7 North Dakota 18 5-3-1 .6111 16 .5845 7
8 Notre Dame 17 9-4-0 .6923 10 .5800* 8
9 Michigan State 16 8-3-0 .7273 5t .5796* 9
10 Clarkson 15 9-3-0 .7500 4 .5753 10
11 Harvard 14 4-2-0 .6667 11t .5549 11
12 Wisconsin 13 5-5-0 .5000 26t .5437 12
13 Minnesota 12 7-5-0 .5833 20 .5436 13
14t Niagara 10 8-3-0 .7273 5t .5434 14
14t Northeastern 10 5-4-1 .5500 24t .5433 15
16 Bowling Green 9 6-3-0 .6667 11t .5428 16
17t Massachusetts 8 5-2-4 .6364 14t .5424 17
17t Merrimack 8 6-4-1 .5909 19 .5398 18
19 St. Cloud State 6 6-2-2 .7000 8t .5369* 19
20 Rensselaer 5 6-3-2 .6364 14t .5358 20
21 Michigan Tech 4 5-6-1 .4583 32t .5289 21
22 Boston College 3 3-3-5 .5000 26t .5271 22
23 Robert Morris 2 6-3-1 .6500 13 .5245 23
24 Cornell 1 4-3-0 .5714 21 .5208 24
25 Princeton 0 3-3-0 .5000 26t .5135 25

These ranking (whether they be the RPI, USCHO and USA Today polls) are really nothing to get excited about this early in the season. They make for nice reading and give the bloggers something to talk about. My team the UND Fighting Sioux beat MSU Spartans and then they were swept last weekend by Miami of Ohio and the Spartans still stay above UND in the USCHO poll, no bias there. All I can say is whatever. Per Brad Schlossman the Fighting Sioux have played a hardier schedule so far this season and do not play an unranked team until the Sioux go to Mankato to play the Minnesota State University Mavericks.

Michigan State (5)
Boston College (14)
Northeastern (20)
Michigan Tech (19)
Colorado College (4)
Wisconsin (12)

On the flip side of that #1 Miami of Ohio has played a much easier schedule, one could say that their schedule doesn't look all that intimidating:

Vermont
Ohio State
Nebraska-Omaha
Northern Michigan
Notre Dame (8)
Michigan State (9)

I just found this on line.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal Joe Finley smacked the Bucky Badger mascot, I wonder if anything will come out of this incident or not...

Meanwhile, a UW official confirmed that Finley allegedly used his stick to smack Bucky Badger in the leg when the two passed one another on the runway to the dressing rooms Saturday night.

UW senior associate athletic director Vince Sweeney said Sunday he had not spoken with the student, who he identified as David Blanchard, but it was Sweeney's understanding that the alleged incident was unprovoked.

"We'll talk about it (today),'' Sweeney said. "We may pass it along to the (WCHA).''

Adam Wodon's take on the Sioux and Badgers

CHN/Wodon: North Dakota responded to getting shut out the night before. T.J. Oshie scored his sixth of the season in the win. But the story of the game was the full out line brawl in the third period. Every skater on the ice got a roughing and a misconduct -- that's 120 penalty minutes right there -- and North Dakota's Rylan Kaip got the extra roughing. Wisconsin's only goal came on the ensuing power play.

The Polls are out: UND 3 or 4

USCHO.COM

1. Miami (49)
2. Michigan
3. UND
4. Michigan State (1)
5. Denver
6. New Hampshire
7. Boston College
8. Clarkson
9. Colorado College
10. Wisconsin
11. Maine
12. Notre Dame
13. Michigan Tech
14. Minnesota
15. Minnesota-Duluth
16. RPI
17. St. Cloud State
18. Princeton
19. Niagara
20. UMass

USA Today

1. Miami
2. Michigan
3. Michigan State
4. UND
5. Denver
6. Boston College
7. New Hampshire
8. Clarkson
9. Colorado College
10. Wisconsin
11. Maine
12. Notre Dame
13. Michigan Tech
14. Minnesota
15. Minnesota-Duluth


First off this polls are about as meaningless as a Rosie O'Donnell and her 9/11 truth theory, these polls make very interesting reads but it's just way too early in the season to infer anything from them. I almost think hockey should wait till after the Christmas break before they release the rankings. The BCS in college football waits until they have a certain number of games before they make any inferences. Championships are won in March and April and you win nothing except points and pride for wins in November, December and January.

While these polls make good water cooler discussion material but honestly, does any one think that if Clarkson was in the WCHA or Hockey East would be above Maine, Michigan Tech, Minnesota or Minnesota Duluth for that matter. They could be but I doubt it. How did that first round bid work out for them last season? That doesn't mean I don't like Clarkson University beause they are year in and year out a top team in the ECAC but they are not a hockey powerhouse in the East.

Also, I guess the USA today forgot that UND pasted MSU pretty good in the hockey hall a fame game. Anyone that doesn't think Denver is playing great hockey right now is delusional and they are are my pick for number #1 right now. I would like to see how they are doing later in the season with the younger players. Denver is looking really good to get back on top in the future if they can keep their top players.

Matt Greene out for Three months with a broken Ankle.

This is not good news for Matt Greene

Rash of injuries to defence corps testing Oilers early in the season
Canadian Press Oct 31, 2007, 7:33 PM EDT

EDMONTON - The talk when training camp began was that depth on the blue line might be the Edmonton Oilers' ace-in-the-hole this season.

That's a card the Oilers are going to have to play now as they've lost third-year rearguard Matt Greene to a broken left ankle that will keep him out of the line-up as long as three months.

Greene, injured in the second period of a 2-1 loss to Detroit Tuesday, will need surgery. He joins Sheldon Souray, out since Oct. 10 with a sprained left shoulder, and Joni Pitkanen, out another month after surgery to repair damaged knee cartilage, on the shelf.

With all of that, coach Craig MacTavish summoned his best poker face Wednesday.

"These (comments) could come back to haunt me and I don't normally throw these out there, but I'm not all that worried about the injuries on the back end," MacTavish said.

"From what I've seen, with (who) we have healthy, we're going to be able to overcome it."

Happy Halloween: Musings

I came home from walking the dog and my wife was putting this thing on our daughter. Yikes, I said you have to be kidding me? I aks her, what do you want her to look like the great punkin? Actually after looking at the picture I decided that I would share it with the four people that read this blog... It is amazing what ten dollars can buy. I suppose we can use it during the Thanksgiving season.

I found this new blog that had me linked up. Czech hockey on and it was pretty interesting.

I found a couple of interesting points of note.

(1.) Former Gopher Thomas Vanek has been named the Austrian Sportsman of they Year.

Vanek sorgt für eine Premiere
Nicole Hosp und Thomas Vanek sind Österreichs Sportlerin und Sportler des Jahres. Der NHL-Star sorgte damit für eine Premiere: Noch nie in der Geschichte der 1949 eingeführten Ehrung konnte ein Eishockey-Spieler die Wahl für sich entscheiden. Hosp dagegen landete bei der von Sports Media Austria, der Vereinigung der österreichischen Sportjournalisten, durchgeführten Wahl einen Favoritensieg. Den Titel der Mannschaft des Jahres sicherte sich das ÖFB-U20-Team, das ebenfalls für ein Novum sorgte.

(2.) Check out this Hockey Chick apparently according to the article is supposed to be a girl friend of Jaromir Jagr. ---edit---This woman is also a CZECH model not a slut.

Flawed argument

There are a few points in Doreen Little Bird's aritcle that I must take issue with this article


Grand Forks Herald columnist Doreen says:

Several people asked why Ron His Horse Is Thunder, tribal chairman for the Standing Rock Nation, was speaking for the Lakota people. The answer is that he, like North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, is the elected leader of the Lakota and their spokesman.

Collectively, Standing Rock does not seem to like what happens to their children who attend UND and the disrespect aimed at them. The tribe has said no.

Some of the Internet comments were repetitious. Some were excellent and well-thought-out, talking about the negotiations and even scolding the writers who made awful comments.

But it was those “awful” comments that astounded me. Some were full of bile, bigotry and racism. The NCAA was correct when it said that the nickname and logo created an abusive and hostile environment, I thought as I read those comments.

In some cases, the comments were even threatening. Some of them made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It made me afraid for the young people at UND.

First off; this is a tactic the pro name change crowd is famous for: true to forum, Doreen has leveled some serious allegations and basciallt have given nothing in the way of evidence, where are the police reports. What do we have, other than Internet posts by nameless people which can not prove what their identity is we may or may not even know if theey are Sioux fans. For all we know they could be fans of other teams like the Gophers, Bison or_________ team. These post could be from trouble makers that don't even follow sports.

I keep hearing who UND is a hostile and abusive place but no one can ever given an credible evidence. If there are incidents lets see the specific incidents laid out for us, you must have a police report or something other than an implied or infered action? We can discuss acedotal evidence till we are blue in the face but it does not count when you are leveling serious charges like this.


Katherine Kersten also had a blog article on this subject on November 13th 2006 that addressed these same issues Yellowbird has brought up. So who are we to believe? I would think that Kersten's article is more credible that Yellowbirds, just my hmo.

Fool Bear himself voted for such a resolution in 2005. “They told us just negative things — that UND was a racist place,” he explains. Now, he says, he believes that he and others were fed a bill of goods.

“When I went around to my constituents on the reservation,” says Fool Bear, “a majority of people said, ‘Why can’t we vote on it?’ “Most tribal members would support the name if they got the chance,” adds Joe White Mountain, another committee member.

More from this article on the issue:

Members of the Standing Rock judicial committee visited UND early in 2006 to assess the situation for themselves. “We spoke to everyone, from students on the street to people at the gas station,” says Fool Bear. “Not one gave us any evidence of racism. We went to a hockey game, and they talked about the courage and integrity of the Sioux people. We looked at each other like, ‘Wow, we don’t even honor our Sioux warriors or veterans like this on the reservation.’ ”

White Mountain recalls the committee’s meeting with a UND group that opposes the name. “I asked them, ‘What tribe do you belong to?’ ” he says. “Not one was a Sioux Indian.”This group insisted that the name promotes racism on campus,” adds Fool Bear. “I told them, ‘Put any instances of abuse in writing.’ Today, I’m still waiting — I haven’t gotten one complaint.”

Goon's Picks for the Week

This Weekend's Game

Conference

Denver @ Minnesota Split
Alaska-Anchorage @ St. Cloud State SCSU Sweep
Michigan Tech @ Wisconsin Split
Colorado College @ North Dakota Split

Non-Conference:

Minnesota State-Mankato @ Alabama-Huntsville Mav's Sweep

Last Week's Picks 8-2
Record for the years 17-7

Sioux play 2/3 of a game and get the tie.

Gong Show in Boston

If I was part of the administration at Boston College I would be very embarrassed today. What happened last night on national television was a debacle, a gong show and there is no excuse for it, this is utterly unacceptable.

If you had to describe how I feel today the word disappointed would be the first thing to come to mind. I waited all week for the watch up of the fall in college hockey. The Boston College Eagles and the UND Fighting Sioux were renewing the rivalry and the match up was supposed to be a must see game of the week.

In the end the game was a non-starter and ended up being a fog bowl and had to be called after two periods due to the safety reasons of the athletes involved. Before this game I thought of Boston College as being one of the bench mark teams in Hockey East, on further review they have some major issues with their hockey facility that should be fixed before UND makes the trip out east. One could describe this as being unacceptable.

If I was Hakstol I would tell Jerry York thanks for the invite but we aren’t coming back until you get your arena in order, or suggest playing the game at an alternative site like the TD Bank Garden. Hell I bet this doesn’t happen at the University of Mass Lowell and it should happen at a bench mark school like Boston College.

In the face of a debacle there is something possitive, our goaltending has been great so far as Lammy has faced 47 shots and not let a goal in as of yet, in fact many of these saves have been of the high quality type.

BOSTON- For the second time in two seasons, a game at Boston College was called because of poor ice conditions, and once again it came in front of a national TV audience.

The game between Boston College and North Dakota on Friday was halted after two periods with the game tied, 0-0. It will go down as an official game, a tie for both teams.

Last season, a game between BC and Boston University was halted in the first period because humid conditions caused fog and poor ice. That game was resumed from where it left off and finished at a later date.

In this case, the game was official, and was declared complete. A power outage caused a delay to the start of the game. Reports indicate that de-humidifying machines, brought in to Conte Forum in anticipation of the humid conditions, contributed to the power failure. Later there was another brief outage.

Power was eventually restored, but the foggy conditions forced the game to be halted. The final decision came during the second intermission, during a meeting with the two game referees and Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna.

Bertagna indicated that the "safety of the athletes was the most important concern." He said that consideration was given to starting the period, and then seeing how things went. But he said there was concern a team would score a quick goal, and then officials would be put in position of having to call a game without giving the trailing team an opportunity to respond.

Temperatures were unseasonably warm throughout the Northeast on Friday, and it was raining most of the day.

North Dakota (1-0-1) heads down the road to Northeastern on Saturday. BC (1-1-1) is off until Sunday, when it plays at Vermont.

This Post is the 500th post of Goon's World

Boring hockey

I found this over on article over on
Chris Dilk's blog:

Notre Dame hosted Denver tonight, in the first game of a two-game series. The game was moved to Thursday because Notre Dame's football team(and I use the term football team extremely loosely) has a football game to lose on Saturday.

Denver jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead off a Kyle Ostrow goal, and led 2-1 after the first period, but Notre Dame dominated the second period, outshooting Denver 9-3, and scoring twice to take the lead. Notre Dame extended their lead by a goal in the third period when freshman Ben Ryan scored on the powerplay. Denver answered back 32 seconds later, but could not get any closer.

Notre Dame goalie Jordan Pearce made 17 saves, while Denver's Peter Mannino made 14.

My first comment is is that the first period of hockey? That can not be for the whole game. My first though on that game was I thank God that I didn't have to watch that defense feast. Honestly, who likes to watch that type of hockey? I guess no one unless you are fan of the Wisconsin Badgers or the Cornell Big Red. Recently on Sioux Sports Redwing77 said that the Wild play a boring style of hockey. While appreciate Redwings's post I don't think he could be further from the truth. Check out the link below and then tell me how anyone can call the Wild hockey games boring hockey?




Ovechkin now has 100 goals for his short NHL career

Alexander Ovechkin got 100 goals in 167 games. For the people that aren't math wiz's, that is 100 goals in 2 season plus 7 games this year.