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Might help recruiting for the five schools.

.ap4mvp wrote:One: Make it a "Minnesota Final Five" every year every Minnesota team plays in the tournament. Perhaps if Minnesota State-Moorhead comes into the picture then changes can be made. Maybe adding UND and Wisconsin to make it an eight team tourney? A few D3 teams???? Possibilities???? It could be fun with the improvement of D3 in recent years.

This won't happen because teams need to plan their regular season schedules out and they are limited to 34 games (with a trip to AK, it is 36 games). Hence, it will have to be an event where each team is guaranteed two games.

Two: Why the Xcel Energy Center? Yes I know nice big arena. IMO the "Minnesota Cup" should rotate where each school can host that way the Gophers can't always capatilize with their big draw in their own backyard. (Everything for the precious big budget rodents) Plus with tourney being in St. Cloud, Mankato, Duluth, or Bemidji would be huge for those communities. If the Gophers want to keep playing Minnesota teams maybe they can make those changes happen.

It is about money for all these programs. Not just the Gophers. Not to mention, this about as good as it is going to get when it comes to consistently playing the Gophers for some of these teams. With only 4 non-conference road dates available on the Gophs schedule each season, they aren't going to be in these other schools rinks very often.

Reading a publication a while back the NCHC said they were thinking of possibly not scheduling Big Ten teams. Maybe that was just some AD's over-reaction to the new Big Ten. UMD and SCSU don't need the gophers like MSU and BSU does.

UMD and SCSU may not need the Gophers as much as those other two but you are kidding yourself if the lack of a Gopher series in their rink doesn't hurt them. There is a reason why the ticket prices for Gopher games in St. Cloud are higher than other games. They want to cash in as much as possible on the Gopher drawing card.

I know UND has already signed an a scheduling agreement with Wisconsin so whatever you think you heard was nothing of merit. Besides, the Big Ten teams will just shell out money to the WCHA to visit. It's going to come down to money when it comes to competing for scheduling home games (how much you can dish out to the visiting school) and all you have to do is look at the athletic department budgets of a Big Ten school vs. an NCHC school to see who is going to have a major advantage there.

A little more info on the "Minnesota Cup":

http://mankatofreepress.com/sports/x431 ... tournament

It's nice to see Warning FINALLY get a goal. I was wondering why this kid kept getting ice time. Lets hope this is a springboard to a successful rest of the season for him, and the gophers.

Great to see the Reilly boys are all doing well:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/138378014.html

It's nice to see Warning FINALLY get a goal. I was wondering why this kid kept getting ice time. Lets hope this is a springboard to a successful rest of the season for him, and the gophers.

I like Warning but points do tell a story. They have another out of State USHL player coming in, Gabe Guertler, 5 goals in 37 games with Fargo. We'll see. They obviously see something in him. The out of State USHL track is a bit new for the Gophs so I'm not sure how they're doing with it yet.

Yikes!

My favorite college squad lost two games last week to Denver.
Things in the Pariwise were starting to look good, then last weekend occurred. The Gophers are in a very precarious position at the moment, and still in first in the WCHA, but hangin on by a thread... Worse yet, they are in 14th position in the Pairwise...

Bemidji State is playing well, they are a good team, and one that may play with an abandon that I do not quite frankly see in this Gopher squad of late... D core is having issues again with the puck, Patterson is fighting the puck, and our scorers are not putting up the numbers as they did early in the season...

I feel this weekend will show us what Gopher squad we will see for the remainder of the season.

Sweep is needed. Sweep is required for this team to move towards a run in Final 5 & NCAA. Anything less, and Mr Lucia and squad will be watching the St Paul regional & NCAA tourney from their living rooms.

They have to get over their Friday night woes, its just ridiculous.

DmanDad1980 wrote:Yikes!

My favorite college squad lost two games last week to Denver.
Things in the Pariwise were starting to look good, then last weekend occurred. The Gophers are in a very precarious position at the moment, and still in first in the WCHA, but hangin on by a thread... Worse yet, they are in 14th position in the Pairwise...

Bemidji State is playing well, they are a good team, and one that may play with an abandon that I do not quite frankly see in this Gopher squad of late... D core is having issues again with the puck, Patterson is fighting the puck, and our scorers are not putting up the numbers as they did early in the season...

I feel this weekend will show us what Gopher squad we will see for the remainder of the season.

Sweep is needed. Sweep is required for this team to move towards a run in Final 5 & NCAA. Anything less, and Mr Lucia and squad will be watching the St Paul regional & NCAA tourney from their living rooms.

Nice win. Good to get that shutout again. But...
Bemidji St did not play with the abandon I thought they would coming into Mariucci... Gophers pinned them in their own end for 75% of the game, which was good to see. Like to see another victory tonight.

Pairwise moved them to #9 tied...

DmanDad1980 wrote:

DmanDad1980 wrote:Yikes!

My favorite college squad lost two games last week to Denver.
Things in the Pariwise were starting to look good, then last weekend occurred. The Gophers are in a very precarious position at the moment, and still in first in the WCHA, but hangin on by a thread... Worse yet, they are in 14th position in the Pairwise...

Bemidji State is playing well, they are a good team, and one that may play with an abandon that I do not quite frankly see in this Gopher squad of late... D core is having issues again with the puck, Patterson is fighting the puck, and our scorers are not putting up the numbers as they did early in the season...

I feel this weekend will show us what Gopher squad we will see for the remainder of the season.

Sweep is needed. Sweep is required for this team to move towards a run in Final 5 & NCAA. Anything less, and Mr Lucia and squad will be watching the St Paul regional & NCAA tourney from their living rooms.

Nice win. Good to get that shutout again. But...
Bemidji St did not play with the abandon I thought they would coming into Mariucci... Gophers pinned them in their own end for 75% of the game, which was good to see. Like to see another victory tonight.

Pairwise moved them to #9 tied...

They didn't show the game up here so I'll take your word for it. I'd be surprised if a team coached by Serratore came out flat two nights in a row. I'm not saying BSU will win. But hopefully they play with more fire.

DmanDad1980 wrote:Nice win. Good to get that shutout again. But...
Bemidji St did not play with the abandon I thought they would coming into Mariucci... Gophers pinned them in their own end for 75% of the game, which was good to see. Like to see another victory tonight.

Pairwise moved them to #9 tied...

BSU played much better last night, but it wasn't enough to prevent the sweep. The Gophers moved up another notch in the Pairwise, but to stay there they'll need at least a split in Omaha this coming weekend. I'd really like to see them win the first game, and put that Friday night jinx behind them for good.

observer wrote:

It's nice to see Warning FINALLY get a goal. I was wondering why this kid kept getting ice time. Lets hope this is a springboard to a successful rest of the season for him, and the gophers.

I like Warning but points do tell a story. They have another out of State USHL player coming in, Gabe Guertler, 5 goals in 37 games with Fargo. We'll see. They obviously see something in him. The out of State USHL track is a bit new for the Gophs so I'm not sure how they're doing with it yet.

No offense but your post comes off as a tad shortsighted. Guertler is a 16 year old kid. It is pretty rare for a 16 year old rookie to light it up in the USHL. That's just reality.

To put it into perspective, Fargo's current leading scorer (Farley) had a worse rookie season (in 2010-2011) than Guertler is this year and Farley was also a year older at 17.

Guertler has lit it up when he's played the best in the country for his age group at Selects the last two years. He had offers from places like UND and Denver as well as the Gophers. That's not exactly chopped liver for options.

Excellent road sweep of a solid UNO club. Now the team needs to take care of business at home vs. UW.

Not a Lucia fan, but must give credit to him for turn around this season. Could have folded after Denver sweep, but came back with 2 sweeps and will win the WCHA. Should be a force in the NCAA tournament.

Lot of one goal wins lately...

Good for playoffs? Hope so...
I would like to see the Gopher Offense get back on track a bit, like we saw early in the season, to provide a little more cushion in offsetting any D breakdowns this squad may have in WCHA & NCAA playoffs...

Mulefarm is correct. Could have folded up a bit after Denver weekend, but didn't... It would be a nice end to regular season to sweep Bucky, and win league championship heading into Final Five... Also gets Gophers Alaska Anchorage... Incentive enough...?

Terrible effort tonight so far... Unacceptable... 3-0 in 2nd...

Bjugstad or no Bjugstad, very poor effort at home against a rival with the league championship on the line... No good!

How does this happen?

Speaking of D earlier...

Alt... Helgy... Puck watching...

4-0 in 2nd...

If the Gophers continue this, we could be looking at playing the Badgers next week again...

DmanDad1980 wrote:Speaking of D earlier...

Alt... Helgy... Puck watching...

4-0 in 2nd...

If the Gophers continue this, we could be looking at playing the Badgers next week again...

Thankfully, UMD lost.
I'm starting to really move off the Helgeson bandwagon. He had a horrible game. He gets absolutely schooled on the final goal, and he probably should have been tossed out for fighting as well.
Dude..........make a contribution.

Why were you on the bandwagon in the first place?

WayOutWest wrote:Thankfully, UMD lost.
I'm starting to really move off the Helgeson bandwagon. He had a horrible game. He gets absolutely schooled on the final goal, and he probably should have been tossed out for fighting as well.
Dude..........make a contribution.

Helgeson has been much more solid defensively this year but he still has his gaffes. No doubt about that.

Congrats to the Gophers!

1st two periods were bland, but the team picked up play in 3rd... Haula's goal was huge, but the effort and play by Schmidt at blue was beautiful to see! he is a Dman you know...

Offense needs to find its mojo again for Final Five & NCAA.

Good to see Bjugstad back as well.

Go Gophers! M I N N E S O T A...

Where are all the Lucia haters??

And, where are all those people that thought Blais should take over for Lucia??

Tigers33 wrote:Where are all the Lucia haters??

Let's be fair... There were legit reasons to be angry at Lucia. Especially considering he seemed more concerned about maintaining his buddy's job than winning games. If Maturi hadn't told Lucia that he wouldn't get an extension unless he gave Hill the boot, we probably wouldn't have finished in 1st place this season.

And, where are all those people that thought Blais should take over for Lucia??

I am one who would have liked to see Blais get the job but I can't complain about the job Guentzel has done.

Gopher Blog wrote:

Tigers33 wrote:Where are all the Lucia haters??

Let's be fair... There were legit reasons to be angry at Lucia. Especially considering he seemed more concerned about maintaining his buddy's job than winning games.

This is you being "fair?"

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It's over.