NCAA Tourney Time!

[Bear55]

4-0 now, this one is over.

[Bear55]

8 minutes left but this would take a maricle.

[solbes]

Have at 'er Gopher faithful. Can't stand this BC squad. Unforunately Milner still carries his shutout streak forward. He did make some really good saves.

Thanks for the great year Dogs. At least I have a clearcut favorite team to watch in Tampa.

[Bear55]

Well here we go.

Union and Ferris play the early game

BC and the Gophers in the night cap.

I hate the two week layoff, hurry up April 5th!

[Bear55]

BC looked good, can't wait to take them on. I think we can go toe to toe on the offensive end of the ice it just the D zone that worrys me. Shutting out UMD is impressive.

[Bear55]

Lets take peek at the Brackets, top 5 guys have a shot to win based on who they picked to win the title. If Union or Ferris wins who knows what will happen. I think either 10K, Bran, or Dylan will take it as long as BC or MN win the title.

14 10K

13 Bran

12 Bear

12 Dylan

11 Savre

10 tjbass

9 mission

8 yak

7 cbrooks

7 Pier

6 solbes

6 matt

[broodwich]

I thought the St patty's day parade started again with all the green jersey leaving early. Sue fans sure were quiet the 2nd half of the game.

Same goes for the forum! I was hoping for some trash talking but I guess the No Daks are too proud. Congrats on the Broadmoor ND. SEASONS OVER.....SEASONS OVER.....

[&JAG]

Congrats Gophers! Sioux were flat all weekend... Nothing to say it was terrible. BC vs. Gophers good game to come!

[cbrooks]

Just back from StP. Congratulations to the Gophers and there fans. I'll be pulling for ya the rest of the way. Beat BC please

[archerystud]

I went up to my cabin and did some work. I did catch the 1st Gopher game at the bar and DVRed a couple other games. I think the Gophers look like they are picking up their game at the right time.

The only thing I dislike about the tourney is some of the reffing (like the UMD/BC game). I don't think it mattered in the outcome but some of the early penalties against UMD were horrible. They did kind of even it out at the end with some ticky tack calls against BC but it's kind of hard when you are down that far.

BC does look good but I kind of hate the way they play. They ALWAYS have 3 def back. I hope the Gophers can take it to them. Need to get a lead on them and make them open up.

[solbes]

Stifling is the way BC plays. Agressive forecheck and backcheck last night. Duluth could not get anything going on the offensive end. I thought the reffing was fair when you looked at the entire game. If you can't even score 5-3, you certainly don't deserve to advance. Mr Lucia and Guentzel have their work cut out for them on an effective gameplan.

Gophers are playing great right now too though. And this game will be played in Tampa instead of BC's backyard where they are nearly perfect in recent years. Please wipe that smirk off Bill Arnold's face, it's all I can see right now. Like to see a huge legal hit from Buggie into the boards. Go Gophers!

[Bear55]

Man I can't wait, it's going to be a long 10 days. I was taking a closer look at BC, they have some trees back on D. I think four guys around 6'3" and 210+, a couple of them have nice offensive numbers too. Their goalie looks good but that can often be a product of the team in front of him. Bunch of snipers up front, typical BC team with probably better D than usual.

Overall I think the Gophs have the better offensive, not by much but I like our depth and skill a little better than BC. 2nd line is playing awsome, Bjugstand looked better against UND and his linemates always seem to play well. Lets not forget the 3rd line just put up 3 goals against the Sioux, 4th line is playing quality minutes too. Marshall looked better against the SIoux and Nate Schmitd is playing like a stud.

You have to give the nod to BC on the back end more for consistancy than anything. Patterson and the BC goalie could be a wash but P has had a few bad games in the 2nd half so its hard not to give BC a slight edge there. I feel the Gophers are capable of playing great D and have the potential to shut out anyone but are prone to making bone head plays from time to time so its alwasy hard to know who is going to show up. I think we need to get one past BC in the opening period and break this shutout streak they have going, no reason to give them any more confidence.

[Shorelunch]

Congrats to the Gophers and their fans. They out-gunned the Sioux. Should be a very interesting weekended in Tampa Bay Tampa Bay.

While the MN/BC game in the marque match-up, you can't overlook Ferris and Union. They each won their conference title, too.

My hat's off to the UND staff who had a very good year of coaching the hand they were dealt.

[Bear55]

Scott or Pier, you guys have any good sigs for these Sioux fans? I will let you two have the honors.

[Bear55]

I do have to congradulate UND on a nice season. Most years I expect a 2nd half run from the Sioux but this year I had major doubts about their ability to pull it off. Well they certainly proved me wrong on the way to a #1 seed. A few years back the same thing happened, you would think I would learn not to count them out.

Sad next year is the last of the old wcha, after the off season dust settles it should be a great final year. It should be interesting who returns and who steps up next season, there are always surprises.

[scsavre]

Bear I have the creativity of a bag of dirt.

Peir, you better think of something good.

I havent looked into the matchups yet. I keep thinking that the Gophs are just too fragile, but that may have changed. They asnwerd back to every goal scored on them this weekend.

Lets score first and score often.

Lets have a week of practice at Ridder and really work on some of the small things, like moving the puck out of the zone, using the glass etc.

Go Gophers.

[Bear55]

Some fun stats for you.

Union and Ferris have zero draft picks on their rosters, Gophers and BC too many to count.

This is also the first trip to the Frozen Four for U&F, BC and MN will have a combined 42 trips to the FF.

Interesting matchups for sure, whoever wins the BC MN game will likely get labled the favorite because of their school history but we can't forget that Union is the #3 overall seed and Ferris is #6.

I also just realized that all 4 were regular season conference chapions, that doesn't happen too often.

[Bear55]

Ok Sioux fan, we haven't heard from Pier in while so post this up in your sig until the new NCAA champion is crowned.

"I am a closet Gopher Hockey fan, I LOVE THE GOPHERS

NCAA National Champions 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 & 2003"

Looks like cbrooks, Shorelunch and Bryce were the only takers, post em up boys, lets see those beautiful sig lines.

[PierBridge]

I'm so Happy I'm not going to RIP or pile on anybody today!.....

Well maybe later tonight after I thrown down a few Surly's.....

go Gophs~~~~~

[yakfisher]

I got a chance to watch the replay last night and I gotta say the Gophers looked like the team I saw play UND in December. They were doing the little things well, had a little puck luck and were able to play a physical game. I also admire the refs for staying mostly out of the way and letting them play WCHA hockey. To bad the Sioux were a little off. I think the most critical point was the powerplay that opened the 2nd, I thought the penalty called was a little weak, but what do you expect when you get near the crappie flop king. That goal took just enough wind out of the Sioux to break open the game for the U. If they play like that they have a chance against BC. Good luck Gophers BC is ripe for a loss.

[PierBridge]

The 2 biggest flops of the tourney were by the Sioux early in the 3rd period, both resulted in power plays. Kristos was ridiculous and should could have easily been an embellishment plenty.

I didn't think we should be shocked that Gophers totally dominated the Sioux, they have pretty much destroyed the Sioux top to bottom in 7 of the last 9 periods. Obviously we are a much better team and are way better coached then the Sioux this year.

I tried ..

[Bear55]

I do think BC is ready to lose, they just don't know it yet and that might be a good thing. Looking back at the Final Five you could almost say the azz whooping the Sioux gave us in the 3rd period was a good thing. Now I'm not going to say we are going to beat BC but I like our team right now and I like our chances.

[scsavre]

Im calling a victory over BC for the gophs.

Ive been looking at the rosters, actually on the scoring side we are very similar.

gophs 4 -2 or 4 - 3 in OT.

Its all going to come down to preparation and individual efforts.

Haula is on fire, and Bjugstedt is due. If we get a few more out of our 3rd liners I think we take em in that math up.

Haula 20g 48ps vs Krieder 23g 44p - Winner Haula- hes on fire

Rau 18g 43ps vs Gaudreau 20g 42p - Winner Rau, because of the Rau factor

Bjugstedt 25g 42p vs Almeida - Winner Bjugstedt

Schmidt 3g 41p vs Dumolin 7g 20p - Winner is schmidt, hes nasty

Patterson 2.2GAA Miner 1.7 GAA Winner is Miner

Hansen 15g 37p vs Mullane 10g 37p - Winner Hansen, hes always working

Secondary scoring - Winner looks like BC might have more

Upperclassmen - Winner BC 14 vs 7

Power Play - Winner Gophers 23.5%

Coaching - Draw - Lucia and Guentzel have picked it up.

There you have it.

[Bear55]

I was paroozing uscho, looks like BC has killed 39 of their last 40 opponent power plays. That is a little crazy to think about.

I also have to say it feels great to be back, this frozen four tastes so much sweter after our recent funk. Win/lose or whatever it should be a heck of a game.

[scsavre]

Bear, snap out of it. We are hear to win. This getting there is good enough is dump. This looks like the easiest frozen 4 ive seen in year. s

I hope Lucis is sending that message, everything I hear is this we are just glad to get there.

Play to win.