I called it.

I was right on in my prediction over on Siouxsports.com: on December 2nd 2007. I was pretty close to be spot on.

(The The Sicatoka said:) What do you bet it's Lil' Shep in GF next weekend. My Response was: You can bet on that one. Also, you can bank on Greg Sheppard being there. You can also count on this being one series where there will be four officials. Mark it down, you heard it here first. Also if the Sioux win big you can expect night number two to be a barrage of penalties for the Sioux.

Anyone want to bet? I know Redwing_77 isn't going to.

While I was wrong on my prediction about being a barrage of penalties. There were 4 officials one being Lil Sheppard and known Fighting Sioux hater Jon Campion.

This weeks picks

Friday

Colorado College @ St. Cloud State
Denver @ Alaska-Anchorage

Non-Conference:

Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan
Minnesota State-Mankato @ Bemidji State


Saturday

Colorado College @ St. Cloud State
Denver @ Alaska-Anchorage

Non-Conference:

Northern Michigan @ Michigan Tech
Minnesota State-Mankato @ Bemidji State

Last weeks record 3-5
Record for the Year 45-33

Ramblings

There is no way C.C. is going to be caught by anyone, they are gone and have wrapped up the league title at mid-season. You might as well just send the Tigers the trophy now, good luck. I think the league office should call Minnesota, have them box up the trophy and send the McNaughton anchor to Colorado Springs this week, its yours you earned it.

Hey Schmidt get off your knees your blowing the game

I think SCSU fans should flood the league office with angry emails and calls protesting the goal that should have not been. There is no excuse for this type of stuff to ever happen. Even the Denver based FSNRM said that it shouldn't have been a goal.

Allowing that goal is a travesty and a social injustice, how in the hell in this day of video review can a league official blow this call this bad. There is no excuse for it. The NHL has a war room to make sure the right calls are made, so maybe the WCHA should as well.

Call me a Halo I don't give a flying ef, this was a bad call by a veteran official. I could see this maybe if the guy was a rookie official. I mean no offense to Denver fans you run a good program but this win was tainted. Imagine if this had happened to the Goofs, Schmidt would have been fired immediately and the game would have been replayed. However, since this was SCSU all they got was an apology, Huskie fans should send Sheppard a big f'you. The fans of this league needs to have justice and the head of an official on a platter.

Linkorama: SCSU gets Hosed by the Refs.

More popular and funny pictures at Popular-Pics.com
Western College Hockey: "That Shouldn't Be A Goal" Now we know how DU swept the Huskies. Chris had this posted over on his blog. If I was the SCSU coach I would have gone postal and snapped. This is the crap that I have been talking about for years. This should not be a goal this is a disgrace and Schmidt should be fired, not suspended from his job he should be fired. I also believe it will be a travesty if Randy Schmidt should ever be allowed to ref another game in this league.

Gabby goes airborne

Wow, that was crazy, Lucky for Gaborik he wasn't hurt. If you think that Woog and Frank are biased homers on FSN, these two clowns from FSN Michigan/Detroit are the worst in hockey, well they aren't has bad as the Ducks announcers, but I digress. Listen two these two clowns. Look how far Hasek is out of the net, he is half way to the blue line.

You have got to be Kidding me.

I found this blatant example of stupidity that was posted over on GPL Thanks to Fire_Helmet_Guy 26 for posting it over on Sioux Sports: It was posted by some Skippy named CMC.

I sent an email to UND right after the game on Friday regarding the Holy Cross comment by the PA announcer. Here is their response:
Mr. Cliff,
Thanks for your note.

For anyone who found that comment offensive, I apologize on behalf of our arena and athletic program. Certainly no intentional slight or disrespect was intended to the University of Minnesota's outstanding men's hockey program. I do believe that the interaction between the two schools and programs is conducted with the highest degree of professionalism.

PA announcements and scoreboard announcements are meant to entertain the crowd. If you attend regular college or professional sporting events, I am sure you understand there are a certain amount of scoreboard displays, music, and inflections by the public address announcement that are for this purpose and serve to help create a "home ice (field or court) advantage." That is what the intention was with that particular announcement. These type of announcements are intended as friendly ways to get the crowd involved--nothing more.

However, we do understand your opinion, and the opinions of some others who may feel that this particular PA announcement was in poor taste. Therefore, we are sorry for any offense taken at this announcement and any subsequent misunderstanding that has resulted. Again, our sincerest apologies to those who might not have understood the intent of this announcement or to those who feel it should not have been made.

We will make every effort to be careful about our public address announcements in the future to avoid such misunderstandings.

We have a great deal of respect for the University of Minnesota and all of our opponents.

Thank you for your thoughts, and I hope this response helps alleviate some of your concerns.

Best wishes,
Dan Benson
Media Relations Director
University of North Dakota Athletics

First off I would apologize for nothing and this moron is not entitled to anything other than the game he witnessed. People like this guy is the reason our once great country is in decline and going to hell in a hand basket. We are a nation full of cry babies that complain about everyone and anything. The USA has become this hypersensitive, sniveling, whinny bunch of wussies. This is the same person that lodges a complaint about everything and everything at work. Get real and cry me a fricken river junior, grow a sack and stop crying you sniveling baby. We have way to many bravo males in the world, I just don't have time for these morons. I suppose this cry baby thinks he has the right to not be offended. It's funny your team lost to a 16 seed and it will still be funny ten years from now. The 1989 game is still funny to me. Chink!

Lastly if I was Dan I wouldn't have even responded to his email or I would have written something like this:

Here is the letter Dan should written to this hypersensitive clown.

Dear Mr Cliff, thank you for your letter. Sorry you were offended by the announcement of Holy Cross being off this weekend. Since you are so thinned skinned I would recommend you stay home next time and watch the game on the Minneapolis Sports Channel where you are less likely to be offended and will get a less objective broadcast that suits your pro gopher needs. Please don't bother ever coming back up to the REA anymore, we don't need you nor do we want your money. We will gladly sell the ticket you would have bought to a more deserving, less sensitive and gracious hockey fan. You give the many great gopher fans a bad name.

Sincerely,

Dan Benson

The aftermath of the weekend.

Herald Picture
The way I figure the Fighting Sioux should be rested after this weekend series with the Minnesota Gophers. In fact; if my math is right, I figure that out of 120 minutes of hockey the Fighting Sioux gave what I consider a grade A effort for 26 1/2minutes. Enough of the first half slow starts, its time for some leaders to take the bull by the horn and win. Enough excuses.

~After re-watching the Saturday night game thanks to DVR, it is hard to tell if the second goal against UND should have counted. It would appear that the Gophers were offsides, but even after rewinding the tape numberous few times its really hard to see who the puck bounced off of, it was a bang, bang play. If you watch the play from my television it does appear that call was blown, of course Gopher fans are going to say differently.

~The refs made the right call in not giving Lammy a penalty on the so called kick, however, in listening to Mazzocco you would have thought the kick was as bad as the Erik Westrum kicking incident from a few years back. Not even close! While it was a bush league move on Phil's part, it didn't warrant any more than possibly a two minute minor.

~I was wondering why FSN doesn't just give Frank Mazzocco a set of pompoms. That guy is the biggest cheer leader and has not one bone of objectivity in his body. I think FSN would be better if they had less Frank and more Woog. Woog I find amusing but Frank is a pompous in your face jerk.

Crawford ordered attack on Moore

TORONTO (AP) — Todd Bertuzzi's on-ice attack on Steve Moore might have been ordered by former Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford, according to a report aired on CBC's "The National" Wednesday night.

Bertuzzi grabbed Moore from behind during a 2004 game, punched him on the side of his head and then landed on top of Moore, driving his head into the ice. The bloodied Colorado player was removed on a stretcher.

Moore sustained a broken neck and a concussion. He filed a lawsuit against Bertuzzi, the Canucks and their parent company in Ontario in February 2006.

A statement of claim filed in court by Moore's lawyer and obtained by CBC alleges that Crawford pointed to Moore's name and number on a board in the Canucks' locker room during the second intermission of that game and said "... (Moore) must pay the price."

In an accompanying document, Moore's lawyer claims Crawford's statement was disclosed by Bertuzzi while under oath, and by Canucks general manager Dave Nonis.

I heard about this today on my way home from work on XM204. This is a serious alegation if true. I tend to believe it is true. I believe that Marc Crawford should be suspended from coaching in the National Hockey League for at least one calender year. This is a disgrace to the game and to the Canucks.

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.

The Boogey man breaking glass.

One of my friends sent me this awesome youtube clip in an email. Wow, I am not sure what else we could say about it... One could say that Derek Boogaard breaks glass the hard way.

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.

License to kill gophers

May it's Sioux vs Gophers week and the message board fodder this week has been really weak. Oh well, this is one of my all time funny links.

The Stats for Lucia.

Someone sent me this in a email today and brought this to my attention. Wow, at first I must admit that I didn't really pay attention to those graphs (I am qualitative guy), but after analyzing the numbers it would appear that the mighty have fallen substantially. Talk about a power outage; Goals per game around the 2005-2006 time frame was 4.12. Now fast forward to present day 2007 and that number has dropped to 2.5. Wow; that stat is eye popping, when your team known for offensive prowess is only scoring 2.5 goals per game there isn't much room for error. Then you look down in the Gopher net and see Frazee standing there, I can see how people would be concerned. Yikes!

Power play

Another bread and butter of the Gophers was their vaunted power play in 2006-2007 the Gophers were scoring at a 22.4% clip. In other words you wanted to stay out of the penalty box when your team was playing the Gophers. Fast forward to present day 2007 the Gophers are scoring at 11.6% clip on the power play. I guess that the refs are going to have to double the penalties against the Sioux this weekend.

Parise Goes Bruin Hunting.

I am sitting in my living room last night watching the Bruins and Devils game and when the Bruins went up 3-0, I decided to call Sioux_7 and B.J. to rub it in. I figured there was no way the Bruins would choke away a three goal lead in the Claude Julian defensive system. Boy was I wrong. It was Parise that took the Devils on his back and went to work. When it was all said and done Zach Parise was 2-2-4 and a +3 for the night. Seems Julian forgot to have his Bruins check Parise.

Bruins Starter Tim Thomas Hurt

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY -- Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas left Wednesday's game against the New Jersey Devils with 1:10 remaining in the third period with an apparent ankle injury. Rookie Tuukka Rask replaced Thomas with the game tied at 3-3.

Bruins acquire G Auld from Coyotes

BOSTON-- In desperate need of help between the pipes, the Boston Bruins on Thursday acquired goaltender Alex Auld from the Phoenix Coyotes for right wing Nate DiCasmirro and a 2009 fifth-round draft pick.

In my opinion, the Boston Bruins got the short end of this deal. I can't believe the general manager for the Bruins would make this deal. The Bruins lose a 5 round draft choice for a proven second rate goalie. Nice! I have a hard time believing that Alex Auld is the best option out there.

Bochenski in the Bruins Dog House

It would appear that former UND Fighting Sioux forward Brandon Bochenski might be looking for a new home soon. After missing the last two games as a healthy scratch it appears that Bochenski's welcome in Boston is coming to and end. Bochenski has given Julian little reason to keep him in the line up; Bo has 0 goals and 4 assists in 15 games. For what ever reason Bochenski has become Claude Julian's whipping boy in Boston. Since Bochenski isn't scoring any goals or beating anyone up ala Milan Lucic, Bochenski is sitting.

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.

This week's picks

First off Win Twins has asked me to stop jinxing her Huskies. So I have decided to honor her request. So will predict a sweep of the Huskies by the DU Pioneers. I would have to admit that this would be a fun series to watch if I was not wrapped up in the UND - UMN series. I must let it be known that I do believe in Reverse Psychology, I am not opposed to the Huskies taking two versus the Pioneers but a split will do.

Friday

Wisconsin @ Minnesota State-Mankato
Alaska-Anchorage @ Minnesota-Duluth
Minnesota @ North Dakota
Denver @ St. Cloud State

Saturday

Wisconsin @ Minnesota State-Mankato
Alaska-Anchorage @ Minnesota-Duluth
Minnesota @ North Dakota
Denver @ St. Cloud State

Last Week's Picks 4-6
For the Year 42-28

The World Junior Roster is Sioux-less

Here is the Roster for the 2008 USA WJC Team

Goaltenders (2)
Joe Palmer (Ohio St.)
Jeremy Smith (Plymouth - OHL).

Defensemen (8)
Jonathon Blum (Vancouver - WHL)
Ian Cole (Notre Dame)
Cade Fairchild (Minnesota)
Jamie McBain (Wisconsin)
Kevin Montgomery (London - OHL)
Bobby Sanguinetti (Owen Sound - OHL)
Brian Strait (BU)
Chris Summers (Michigan).

Forwards (12)
Mike Carman (Minnesota);
Ryan Flynn (Minnesota)
Blake Geoffrion (Wisconsin)
Kyle Okposo (Minnesota)
Max Pacioretty (Michigan)
Rhett Rakhshani (Denver)
Tyler Ruegsegger (Denver)
Matt Rust (Michigan)
Jordan Schroeder (U.S. Under-18 Team)
Billy Sweatt (Colorado College)
James VanRiemsdyk (UNH)
Colin Wilson (BU).

*Head Coach*: John Hynes (U.S. Under-18 Team) Assistant Coaches: Keith
Allain (Yale) and Patrick Foley (Harvard).

First off It is nice to see that there are not Fighting Sioux on the roster, that is actually a first since 2002 there won't be a Fighting Sioux player on USA or Canada's World Junior team.

It is unforunate Sioux fans will not get to see Van Riemsdyk (sp) play when the Wild Cats invade the Ralph in December. One can wonder if he won't be in the NHL next season as well. Second with 4 gophers making the team USA roster it is a guarentee that we will hear the excuse about how the Gopher players that played in the WJC are tired. Heck expect this excuse the rest of the second half. Funny how you never hear the other teams in the league use that excuse after their players return from the World Junior Championship.

So who's the real Sieve?

I hear a lot of Gopher fans referring to Jean-Philippe Lamoureux as a sieve. As a matter of fact it seems as if the Fighting Sioux's starting goalie is well liked by opposing fans around the WCHA. One of my fellow bloggers referred to him as a drama queen. Yeah! Lets take look at the numbers and see if Jean-Philippe Lamoureux is really the great sieve others fans around the league are taking about.

Lamoureux has played in all 13 games this season. Lamoureux has a record of 7-5-1 and a 1.51 GAA with a save percentage of .940, these are hardly the numbers of a sieve. It would appear that those numbers are not the statistics of a sieve.
Jeff Long Island Frazee on the other hand has played in 11 games and has a record of 6-5-0 with a GAA of 2.72 and not so good save percentage of .896. They say you want to be above .900 to be successful in the WCHA.

Things that never get old

My all time favorite Gopher meltdown moment you just can't talk about sieves without bringing up Kellen Brigg's name. That being said I would never buy a Holy Cross Jersey.

My second all time favorite Gopher sieve out moments this one never gets old. I will take a trip to the frozen four over a Final Five victory any day.

Former Gopher Keith Ballard fights Colby Armstrong

Seems that the former Lake of the Woods Bear and former Golden Gopher Keith Ballard has a nose for trouble, or he seems to be around where the action is happening. Ballard has also gotten in a quite few high energy fights the last couple of seasons, in fact there is a whole bunch of them on You Tube. I have to admit that I like his style of play. While he can be an agitator he isn't afraid to drop the gloves and fight. While Ballard is not a very big player, he is tough.

I also found this Keith Ballard Montageon You Tube.

Flyers Hack Cote the Next one to sit.

I wonder if anyone else is getting bored with the Flyer's and their dirty antics? I am beginning to believe that these suspensions are not an accident and if there is another incident like these the Flyers will be writing a check to the league office. One could make the argument that the Broad street Bullies are back. I don't think it is a stretch to ask the question; are the Flyer's are a dirty team? Their actions on the ice seem to reflect that theme. The Flyers have had their fair share of suspensions this season (5). Every week it seems like the NHL is reviewing a new incident committed by a Flyer's player.

TORONTO- Philadelphia Flyers hack/forward Riley Cote has been suspended for three games, without pay, as a result of being assessed a match penalty for attempt to injure during NHL game #376 against the Dallas Stars Dec. 1, the National Hockey League announced today.

Cote was assessed a match penalty for elbowing Dallas defenseman and former UMD Bull Dog Matt Niskanen at 17:46 of the third period.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Cote will forfeit $8,021.40. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Cote will miss Philadelphia's next three games -- Dec. 5 at Minnesota, Dec. 7 at Colorado and Dec. 11 vs. Pittsburgh. He will be eligible to return Dec. 13 vs. Montreal.

Flyer's Wall of Shame

First it started out with super hack Steve Downey's dirty hit on Dean McAmmond.

Lets not forget Jesse Boulerice's vicious crosscheck on Canucks player Ryan Kesler.

Randy Jones hit on Patrice Bergeron, Patrice is yet to return back to the Bruins line up.

Scott Hartnell's dirty hit on Boston Bruins Defenseman Andrew Alberts

3 Second in...

I really like this guy Wild forward Aaron Voros. Voros isn't afraid to drop the mitts and fight, but he also scored the winning goal. It took three seconds for Jeff Cowan vs Aaron Voros to drop the mitts and fight it out. If Voros keeps playing like this why would the Wild need to keep Derek Boogaard or Todd Fedoruk.