Minnesota Gopher Hockey

[Rolly22]

Hockey Guy:
Tell Sean Reddington that Rolly from UMD said hello. I roomed with him for a couple of months when he walked on at UMD.

[pikehunter]

I can't believe someone who knows Eric Means wouldn't be giving Minnesota State a little more love right now!
Geez!

Great discussion in here fellas ... can't wait to see what it's like when the season actually starts!

I do have one disagreement with a couple posters however: I just don't see Alaska going top five anytime soon with the travel schedule they have to keep. Yes, they had a good run at the end of last year, but lets not forget that they were able to stay down here for three weeks while they made that run!

Go Mavs!

[buzzsaw]

I definitely agree with you Pikehunter! Especially after I read today on www.uscho.com that they lost there second leading scorer (Fournier) and about a month ago lost Curtis Glencross who was there best player! They will be a bottom three team with Mich Tech and MSU. (sorry Pikehunter about the MSU pick)

[buzzsaw]

It's official.... Bochenski the sniper has bolted the frozen tundra of North Dakota!!
It's too bad, now I have to hear my friends from Nodak cry about the early departures.

[buzzsaw]

Darn!! The Gophers have now lost Vanek!!
It will be tough to replace both him and Ballard! Oh well, we don't re-build at the U of M, we re-load!! ( :

[slick814]

The 'Dogs RULE.... I don't worry about how things have been in the past between the Gophs & Dogs, only that UMD has a team on the ice!
I just hope that they can play as well this year without Junior Lessard...
As far as the Sioux losing everyone goes... You gotta love that!!!
I like seeing that the Dogs & Gophs are both elite teams again. makes it more fun, and having a true rivalry in state makes things that much better!!

[buzzsaw]

Nice to see the Gophers young guys come out and play good against the defending national champs in the game at Excel energy center this past weekend... a 5-2 win! Too bad it was only exhibition.

[jegerjack]

Gotta go with goaltending and defense, that is it pains me to pick either Duluth or Wisconsin to take the WCHA this year… Even though UMD lost Lesard, I think that their defense and Reichmuth behind the net will be enough to keep them fighting Wis for the title. And as far as Gophers go, I cannot drop them any farther than 3rd just on principle. Losing Vaneck hurt but Lucia had to have known that coming into the season, good strong showing by Briggs this year should enable them to shoot for the WCHA title…

Here is my top 5…

1.UMD

2.Wis

3.Gophers

4.N.D.

5.Denver (can't drop the NCAA champs out of top 5)

[buzzsaw]

As nice as it was to watch the Gophers outplay the Fighting Sue (Sioux) in both games this weekend, I was dissapointed that we didn't win a game we should have won... Friday.

I think we outshot them like 42-24 on friday and controlled alot of the play... Saturday we just destroyed the Suzies 6-0. That was nice! It's along season but Iike what I've seen out of all the new freshman the Gophers have brought in.

[jegerjack]

ya, we should have won fri.... 2 for 13 on power plays is not good.... but still they had pleanty of shots, around 40 I think, and those will start to go in as the season moves on...

[buzzsaw]

Jegerjack, Don't forget about the four or five posts that we hit.... the puck just bounch our way on Friday. I have a good feeling that we are better than the Sioux at this point in the season... of course it's not were you start, but where you finish.

[buzzsaw]

Nice to sweep Mankato State (MN State) this past weekend while the Sioux got beat by BC and tied a weak Northeastern team! The Sioux are not looking all that mighty and I think you'll see them continue to slide in the national polls. CC is playing good but give them time to play a few good teams.... UMD is good but we will see if they can play up to all of their fans high expectations.... I'm not sold that they can just yet.

Wisconsin is coming to Marriucci this weekend so we can compare them and the Gophers.... St.Cloud is just plain St. Cloud!

[buzzsaw]

AWWWW, poor Wisconsin! Nice to see our Freshman are panning out! I'm a little surprised so far by how well this teamcontinues to play. ND looks to be down, UMD gets swept by Anchorage... very nice! First place is ours for now!!

[Dotch]

Too bad the results of the second game weren't history by the time the football team was getting shellacked. Heard from several locals in attendance that the WI fans at Camp Randall were downright rude. I too am encouraged by what I've seen thus far. Thought perhaps WI would be all over 'em as they were a good young team last year. 15 game winning streak at home is still intact.

[Pete Riola]

The Gophs skated around the Cheese like I once did to Buzzsaw? 3 Titles in four years ya say?

[buzzsaw]

Peter!!! How ya doing? Our Freshman pucksters are looking solid with another kick butt class coming in next year! We will win another title or two in the next three years if our young guns don't bolt for lockout city... I mean the NHL.

[Pete Riola]

Doing well, caught a 40 incher on Sunday had a bigger one going had being the key word. The Gophs looked great against the cheese. How about that Irmen? He looks good. This may not be a rebuilding year after all. NHL...what's that?

[buzzsaw]

I thought about fishing Saturday morning after I got done cleaning out the 8 pt buck I shot. It was such a great day... one last hurrah on the water would have been a nice way to spend the afternoon! Irmen has the die hards in North Dakota cringing, I love it! So far so good for Pride on Ice.... we shall see if it continues to get better....

[merc40]

Did you see that Irmen and Potulny are already being mentioned for Hobey finalsts? I would think it is a bit early but what a team the Gophs have this year!!! I never thought they would do so well with a fairly new team!! I am bummed out they have a weekend off!!!

[buzzsaw]

nice to see Nodak get swept away by a Badger team we just whooped! As of right now the power of the WCHA resides in Minneapolis! It's a long season but we have a good young team and I look for them in the end to hold off UMD and maybe Denver... everybody else will be fighting for the 4/5 playoff home ice.

[buzzsaw]

Did you know..... Minnesota's Kellen Briggs is 7-1-0 despite facing ranked opponents five times

[nolte]

buzzsaw

I see in your other post, you already downplayed the Badgers being number 1 in the WCHA. Thats fine. But I think it is a little early in the season to start crowning champs. I'm just glad I follow the WCHA and don't have to watch that hockey East & ECAC dump all the time. Top to bottom the W is always the best conference.

Just remember national championship count is 5-5. The Gophs started doing a lot better once they got rid of Woog and also recruiting the best talent they could, including players from outside of MN. time will tell how this season shakes out, and I wouldn't count out the red yet.

[buzzsaw]

Well said Nolte! I (of course) had to toss in the fact we swept you guys ( : even though you are ahead in the standings it is only because you have played two more games... a possiblility of 4 more points... blah blah blah right. I wonder whats wrong up at UMD? They had such high hopes and are playing like dirt! North Dakota had also underachieved, especially from a scoring standpoint. I like the chances of MN, Denver, Wis, and CC, I just don't see anything yet from the other teams.... of course this can and will change come February.

Did I mention SCSU is foul!

[merc40]

The Gophs looked really awesome last Friday night, moving the puck around with ease, tape to tape, but they had a few lapses around the net and more giveaways than they needed. Denver looks like a good team again this year. I didn't see Saturday's game but I saw we lost 5-2. I'll be listening to the game tonight on WCCO since they are on some CSTV station. Is that on satellite tv? I'm glad we had a loss early on in the season so these young guys can get used to losing now versus the end of the season when it will really hurt. You think the Gophs will sweep Michigan and Michigan State this weekend?

[30 inch eyes]

They sure did open up a can of whoop ''' on the boys from the ccha. It was so great I got out the broom and swept the whole dang house.