Spirit Animal

"This might sound arrogant, and if it is, it is. We're Michigan. We have a global education. We're the winningest program in the history of college football. We have a tremendous staff of guys. The lifeblood for all of us, no doubt, is the guys you bring in your program. We've really tried to focus on the guys that fit the mold of Michigan with the integrity and character that we want to have. We want guys who will play with a toughness, play with an accountability and on a team for each other.  Those guys [recruiters] out on the road, they work it and they do a tremendous job. But first and foremost, it's Michigan."

 --Brady Hoke, Big Ten Media Days, July 28, 2011

Short and sweet on this.  I don't know if Brady Hoke means this as deeply as it sounds, but I believe he does.  I don't know if this will translate into a single win in the fall, but I suspect it might.  But if you want to talk about the guy who knows how to sell his product, who knows how to play to his base.  Who knows what any of this means, really, it's just an opportunity to fill column inches and blog posts until we actually get some real football to deal with this.  But you got the word "tremendous", the word "arrogant" and "integrity and character" in there.  Strictly from a lyrical construction standpoint, it's like this beautiful hybrid of Bo, Lloyd, and Fielding Yost.  I'm in Coach Hoke.  I'm drinking the Maize and Blue Kool-Aid (which tastes like blueberry lemonade, which is a definite upgrade from sadness and blood.)  Let's get the season started, and let's let our spirit animal guide our way.

Statues, Rings, and Latin

For what it's worth, my take on retired numbers, statues, and the like.  This lacks a coherent narrative because there is no coherent narrative on this in my mind.

With his enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame, Desmond Howard has been talking about Michigan football's lack of recent retired numbers.  He's right in this sense, Ron Kramer is the most recent player to be honored, Gerald Ford the most recent honoree.  Consider that for a moment, Ron Kramer played before the near two score decades of Bo-Mo-Lloyd, the "vision" of Michigan football that most hold in their mind's eye.  So there's some validity to this.

However...

Football only has 99 eligible numbers.  Michigan has retired five of them: #11, #47, #48, #87, and #98.  Oddly, these numbers are not honored anywhere in Michigan Stadium, so it takes a discussion of retired numbers to properly honor the men who wore these numbers.  Do we want the same fate to befall #21, or #2, or any other worthy number?  How do we acknowledge the fact that Tim Biakabutuka had one of the all-time great performances in 1995 while wearing #21?  This is a giant game of whack-a-mole; every time we answer one question, two new ones pop up.

My leaning is to go to a Ring of Honor, but Michigan's 130+ year history of playing football makes this a very difficult and complicated selection process.  Would popular players of recent vintage get put up ahead of legendary players of the past?  Would the retired numbers automatically be honored?  There are many questions and very few satisfactory answers.

Here's the real sticking point: #1.  By any right, #1 should be retired (three time , but well, it isn't and it won't be.  It should be retired for AC, but Derrick Alexander and David Terrell and Braylon Edwards had pretty good games in the #1 jersey (and now Braylon controls a great deal of the influence over who wears #1 with his endowed scholarship, making this even trickier.)

My sense is this: "Retire" #21 and #2* to complete the Heisman Trilogy, however, allow Desmond and Charles to authorize players to wear it if they a). play the same position, and b). have earned it. Of course, I say this like it's "easy" but it's not. 

*--For what it's worth, I have not seen anything from Mr. Woodson regarding the retirement of his number.  Of course, he's still in the NFL and rehabbing an injury, so it may not be a big deal to him right now.

By the way, the other issue with a Ring of Honor is that you would need to honor almost every Michigan head coach ever: Yost*, Crisler, Oosterbaan, Schembechler**, and Carr***.  With the exception of Coach Carr****, every one of those men has a building on the athletic campus named for them, which leads me to be reminded of Christopher Wren's epitaph: "Lector, si monumentum requiris circumspice." or "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around."

*-You cannot make a statue of Fielding Yost because you cannot capture the old man's smirk in any three dimensional medium.
**--Bo's statue would need to look like Joe Paterno's statue at Penn State and you would need to make a metal version of the banner.  Wait a second, does this not sound like a fantastic idea for a "photo op" at the Big House?  The Bo statue would need to look like this, block M hat, sunglasses, headset and the base would need to have "The Team, The Team, The Team" on one side and "Those who stay will be champions." on the other side.
***--The Coach Carr statue would just be this picture (yes, I know, all of you want the Capital One Bowl ride off in to the sunset, but this photo is so much more Coach Carr.)  It would also have a dictionary in its base where people could look up words and learn something, and the base would simply say "Tremendous."
****--I thought for sure that the Glick Building was going to be named for Coach Carr, which would have been awesome because then we could have called it the Carr-port.

I do think that the Ring of Honor is coming, especially if Mr. Brandon's vision of the breezeway connecting the east and west concourses with a south concourse comes to fruition, as , especially if it were brick arch, would be the perfect spot for the names.

In the end, this is going to be something that continues until an announcement from the Athletic Department is made, and I suspect that announcement has been delayed as Mr. Brandon struggles with many of the same issues we has as fans.

Hockey Jerseys 2011-12

Let me just say that I am, officially, a card carrying member of Uni Watch. (So is Geoff, as a gift from me, he got the MMB uniform.) So it's no surprise that I am tracking Michigan uniform changes, because, well, it's what we do.
So, M-Den put up the new hockey jerseys for 2011-12 tonight and reaction in the Michigan Twitterverse was swift. So let's take this step by step.  (As a reminder, here's what we said in 2008.)

The Home Whites

It's a variation on the much beloved home whites from the last two seasons, swapping in a maize outlined Block M for the M.  I presume that there will be sleeve numbers and number on the chest as well, like the old ones.  I see the faint echo of the 1989 men's basketball jersey in this.  I don't hate it, but there was no need to change last year's look.  That was a classic for the ages.  Also note that Reebok is now the maker of the hockey jerseys, instead of Reebok's parent company adidas.  The logo also moves from the left shoulder to the center.  It's not terrible, it's just unnecessary.

Road Blues

The road blues are largely unchanged from last year, save the slight alterations to the sleeve striping (which I don't get), the shoulder patches now being straight block Ms instead of the Hockey Sticks M, and the Block M now has chain stitching on it.  There will be "OUTRAGE" at this similar to what happened with the Under the Lights jersey, but there is late 20th century/early 21st century Nike precedent for this.  Also, I am pretty sure that the stitching will be the same color, meaning that it will not show up as readily as it does in this image.  I'm wondering if this signals the end of the Hockey Sticks M, but for now, no harm, no foul.

Alternate Maize Thirds

Ditching the Rangers angle lettering to go with consistent Block M branding, this makes the Maize third just a maize version of the road jersey.  It's a little disappointing, because I liked that Michigan had three distinct looks for its three jerseys, but this isn't bad.  I am hopeful that the chain stitching is non contrast, but this isn't a bad look.

Overall, none of these are "bad" as much as the changes feel "unnecessary" and there's kind of disheartening.  It's nothing new.  Go back and look at Michigan hockey's jersey history and you'll see more changes than an EPL team, but I'm mostly disappointed because my hope was for a reverse of the homes where the Block M would be the home whites (with a Maize M outlined in blue) and the road blues would have been the arched Michigan.  I also kind of wish Wolverbear were the shoulder patch.  That would be insanely awesome, if off message.

Have at them below.

Lacking a Coherent Narrative

I want to have an actual, fully formed opinion on the "Under the Lights" "Legacy" jersey. But it's just not happening. Moreover, I think I am upsetting people in that I am wavering so much on it. So I am basically going to lay out pros and cons here and see if anything comes of it.

Pro: It could be worse.

Con: It is wholly unnecessary.

Pro: It is a likely significant revenue stream for the Michigan athletic department. You can't keep counting on people to keep buying different numbers of the same classic Michigan jersey.

Con: It's whoring out Michigan "tradition" for the sake of the adidas marketing machine.

Pro: The throwback helmets are a nice touch.

Con: You could have done the throwback helmets without the jersey, which would have been more true to the era anyway.

Pro: It's just one game.

Con: Unless the jerseys sell like crazy, in which case it becomes another jersey next year, and so on and so forth. I wonder if in 2012, it will be a retro Schembechler era white jersey for the game at Notre Dame or the game against Alabama.

Pro: Wait, that would be cool.

Con: Yeah, that's the problem. You let your guard down on one thing, and the next thing you know, maize jerseys.

Pro: They're auctioning off the jerseys after the game.

Con: Which is a nice way to keep the pressure off from the 'these jerseys suck' crowd.

Pro: Looked good on Denard.

Con: Anything looks good on Denard.

So yes, I'm sorry, I have no real sense of how I feel about this. I don't hate them, but I don't like what they represent, but more importantly, I don't like what they can represent in a forward looking narrative. So for now, I'll continue to be confused as we wait for September.

The Hardest Part

I'll make this quick. The hardest part about the National Championship game last night was that there's no new lesson to glean from it. When you take penalties, you're going to have a hard time winning. When you can't get the puck into the opponent's zone, you're going to have a hard time winning. When you can't get a change in overtime, it's going to be almost impossible to win.

In the long run, maybe it's a lesson about rising expectations. When Michigan won the West Regional, I did not see how, realistically, Michigan could beat North Dakota. I hoped they would, I put together scenarios on how they could, but I just could not see it. But, after 60 minutes of panic and fear, Michigan was one game away from being national champions. I saw all of the old ghosts, the shutout in the national semi-final, wearing the maize jerseys, all of those things, and presumed that fate was going to intervene, especially when it was 2-2 going to overtime. But, alas, it was not to be.

So let's sum up in the best way we can. Hats off to Minnesota-Duluth, a worthy champion. Hats off to Red, for being Red, my favorite coach ever. Hats off to this senior class, because you were probably the most fun group of seniors since the 1997 senior class. Hats off the the Children of Yost, for being the best student section in any sport anywhere in America. Hats off to the Michigan Hockey blogger community, for being passionate, articulate, and an awesome read throughout the season. Hats off to the Michigan Daily's hockey coverage, one of the absolute best groups of writers I have ever read. Hats off to Geoff for driving us to cover Hockey Christmas once more in the way we knew we could. Hats off to all of you for being a part of Hockey Christmas.

Last and certainly not least, Next Year in Tampa Bay.

Let's Go

It's only a few hours before the puck drops on Michigan's first appearance in the national championship game since 1998, and I find myself totally incapable of coming up with anything that's worth reading. If you want a preview, go over to Yost Built, MichiganHockey.net, mgoblog, or a few other places. Even the preview I wrote in 45 minutes three weeks ago might be worth it.

I saw my first Michigan hockey game in 1993. I was 12, and my family went to see the very first College Hockey Showcase at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Almost by mistake I stumbled on the '96 and '98 national title games in overtime, and in between I went to Day 1 of the '97 GLI. But I can pinpoint the moment that everything changed for me: January 29, 2000.

My friend Sara was a huge Mike Comrie fan, and for her birthday party we all went down and got standing room tickets at Yost. We climbed up and up into the rafters in the north end zone. The game was against Ohio State, and there was a t-shirt giveaway. I wore it for the UNO game just a couple weeks ago. The game was one of those classic ones where the better team takes a ton of shots, but can't get many quality chances. Michigan's Sean Peach scored early, but OSU got one back in the 3rd, and that's how it ended. But not for me.

I think that's how it starts for a lot of Michigan hockey obsessives – You see a game at Yost, and you want more of that. By next season, I was traveling to the CCHA Super Six, and skipping out of a UAC meeting early to watch Michigan die like Vikings against Minnesota in the Frozen Four.

I've never witnessed this moment for Michigan hockey. I've watched three championships in person – '05, '08, and '10 – and none of them featured Michigan.

It's been 13 years since Michigan last made it to this point. I remember the exit in '01 to BC and Brian Gionta (the OG of magic midgets), the furious comeback against Minnesota in '02 that wasn't enough, that horrible thing in '03 to Minnesota where you thought they might just might do the thing but Thomas Vanek is soul-killingly good at hockey. In '04 it was BC again, when scoring chances just seemed to melt away and whistles ceased to exist for vast stretches of the game until it was Ben Eaves connecting on a mid-air rebound and it was over, then in '05 Al Montoya and the rest of the team imploded and let a 3-goal lead to CC evaporate. '06 was a NoDak bludgeoning; '07 was a NoDak bludgeoning where a frustrated TJ Hensick said the magic words and somehow Eric Ehn is walking out of there with his Hobey Baker. I was there in '08 sitting right in front of Brian when Billy Sauer let in a couple soft goals, and one of my favorite Michigan teams ever just ran out of gas in an overtime loss. '09 was Volkening stealing one for Air Force. '10 was Waterloo, Indiana. And even this year: What are the chances we win that game against UNO if the review goes the other way?

My point is this: The best team doesn't always make it this far, the best team doesn't always win, but Michigan has made it this far and they have that chance. And it's almost hard to believe that it exists. I hope they take it.

Michigan 2, North Dakota 0

Sometimes that happens. It's a product of the tournament, it's a product of the sport, it's a product of the fact that you are capable of spectacular things every once in a while. Shawn Hunwick flat out robbed North Dakota on any number of high quality chances, and even giving up 40 shots the defense didn't hang him out to dry. Ben Winnett had 3 goals coming, 4 coming out, and that was all that was necessary tonight. Michigan held a team that was averaging 5.88 goals per game in the last month to ZERO goals in this game, including something like five power play opportunities. It was by far their best performance of the year on the biggest stage against the baddest opponent. We hope they kept something in the tank for Saturday against Duluth, but tonight we can revel in our victory over a despised foe. As Craig said on Twitter, "My Michigan brethren, I want to hug all of you." Go Blue.

Frozen Four: Michigan vs. North Dakota

If you've looked around here recently, or anywhere related to college hockey, you know the basics: North Dakota is dominating, balanced, Goliath. They're near the top of every statistical category and don't have any glaring weaknesses. What Michigan has going for it: It's one-and-done hockey, and you never know when someone's going to have an off night. (Hello there, BC!)

I don't have any idea what's going to happen. Michigan's not a favorite, obviously, but not a prohibitive underdog. They don't have the same glaring weaknesses as the last couple of times they've faced NoDak, but they aren't really better than them at anything.

If the game goes like it should on paper, North Dakota wins 5-3 with an ENG. But a 3-2 Michigan win isn't an insane prediction either.

Can't Hardly Wait!

Michigan looked exceptional in every phase of the game, shutting down CC's lava-hot power play unit, getting to loose pucks, winning battles in the corners, and ringing shots off the post like it was their job. A late CC scramble goal made it a high anxiety finish, but in the end, Michigan has punched its ticket to its 24th Frozen Four. In honor of the next two weeks of anticipation and the greatest Minnesota band of all time...

Hail Yes!

Ten heart rending minutes of review leads to a great geometric conclusion, if the puck goes fore, you must call it a score. On to the Regional Final. Great game UNO! Celebratory Homestar Runner!

West #1: Boston College

Boston College Eagles

1 seed vs. Colorado College, West Regional (Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Hockey East Regular Season Champions
Hockey East Tournament Champions

Record: 30-7-1
Coach: Jerry York

It is a terrible, terrible idea to bet against Boston College and Jerry York in the postseason. The last four times BC has made the NCAA tournament, they've at least made it to the championship game. They've won it twice in the last three years: In 2008 over Notre Dame, then last year against Wisconsin. Neither game was close, and I was there for both of them. Goalie John Muse is a senior now and has never lost an NCAA tournament game. That's right: He's a perfect 8-0 (BC failed to make the tournament in '09). This year he's put up a .926 SV% and 2.13 GAA, better than both his freshman and junior years.

BC hockey thrives on magic midgets: Brian Gionta, Nathan Gerbe, etc. Six different Eagles this year are listed at 5'8" or shorter, including scoring leaders Cam Atkinson (30-21--51) and Brian Gibbons (18-32--50). I remember 5'6" Joe Whitney (5-26--31) as a problem for which Wisconsin couldn't find an answer. 6'3" Brian Domoulin is the exception – a big defenseman who's an assist machine (3-30--33). In all, nine Eagles have 20 or more points, and six have 10 or more goals.

Boston College has been rampaging through Hockey East this year. They've lost a total of two games since November 26: A 1-4 decision at Maine and a 1-2 loss at Northeastern. They won the Beanpot again this year, a 7-6 overtime game also against Northeastern. Weirdly, they followed it up on Friday night with a 7-7 tie against the Huskies, then the aforementioned 1-2 loss. Since then, they've won 8 straight games, their longest winning streak of the year (They've won 7 in a row two different times). There aren't a lot of teams out there that have played as well as BC at any time this year, let alone heading into the tournament. But it's one-and-done, so all it takes is one bad game to send you home. Still, it's BC vs. the field at this regional.

West #2: Michigan

University of Michigan Wolverines

2 seed vs. Nebraska-Omaha, West Regional (Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO)
Friday, March 25, 2011
CCHA Regular Season Champions
At-large bid from the CCHA

Record: 26-10-4
Coach: Red Berenson

Most people around here know the story of the 2009-2010 Michigan hockey team. They were inexplicably bad, getting swept by MSU and Nebraska-Omaha, and just not looking very good. Then, in a late season game, goaltender Bryan Hogan went down with a groin injury. His backup, Shawn Hunwick, was a lightly recruited undersized kid ticketed for Division III Adrian when Hogan's former backup, Steve Jakiel, left the team. Hunwick, brother of NHLer Matt, walked on and hung around getting minimal playing time. He went in against the Irish, finished off Hogan's shutout, then let in 5 goals the next night. He wouldn't let in more than 3 the rest of the year. Hunwick led the 7th place Wolverines on a Cinderella run through the CCHA tournament to beat Miami in the championship and keep the NCAA tournament streak alive. Michigan beat Bemidji State in the opening round, but a quick whistle cost the Wolverines a trip to the Frozen Four.

Fast forward to 2010-2011. Hogan has recovered from his injury and is now splitting time with Hunwick -- Hunwick usually gets Fridays, Hogan on Saturdays. For some reason, Michigan on Saturdays is playing a lot better than Michigan on Fridays, and it's looking like Hogan is going to be the guy again. Everything is set, leading up to the biggest hockey game ever played, the Big Chill at the Big House. Hogan is named the starter...but then he injures his groin in warmups. Hunwick is called in. He stops everything Michigan State can throw at him and walks out with a 5-0 shutout in front of a Guinness-certified 104,073 paying customers.

Since that time, Michigan has been playing solid, if not great, hockey. Their only sweep of the season came at the hands of Miami down in Oxford, and they've swept 8 series of their own. They beat Colorado College to win the GLI again over the holidays in a wild 6-5 game, and they're 2-1 against Notre Dame this year, including their 4-2 win in the CCHA tournament third-place game after falling to Western in the semifinals. It feels like there haven't been a lot of highs this season, but not a lot of lows either. They don't have many bad losses, but they don't have a lot of good wins either. If you told me they would lose to UNO in the first round, I wouldn't be surprised. If you told me they made the Frozen Four...OK, maybe a little surprised, because BC is a terrifying team this time of year.

The 2010-2011 Wolverines don't have any 20+ goal scorers. In fact, they have only one with more than 15, senior Carl Hagelin (18-30--48), but they have 13 skaters with at least five, and the only Wolverines without goals are the goalies and lightly-used freshman defenseman Kevin Clare. Hagelin is also the leader in points and assists, with fellow senior Matt Rust (5-20--25) having some trouble scoring goals, but not having problems getting assists. Converted defenseman Scooter Vaughan has come out of nowhere to go from 2 career goals to 12 goals this season as a senior.

Other guys to watch: Sophomore wing Chris Brown doles out a lot of punishment and can be found crashing the net. Freshman defenseman Jon Merrill has immediately become an excellent two-way player. And watch Hagelin some more, just because his skating is unreal.

Bryan Hogan has returned from injury, but has only played a few minutes in net since then, so his .924 SV% and 2.08 GAA should be taken with a grain of salt. Hunwick was named CCHA goaltender of the year, posting a .921 SV% / 2.31 GAA and is the presumptive starter, barring injury.

Speaking of injuries, the Wolverines are dealing with some significant ones. Senior Louie "The Love Expert" Caporusso came back from a knee injury in time for the CCHA playoffs, but David Wohlberg, the team's second leading scorer after Hagelin, broke his collarbone against Bowling Green and is out for the season. Meanwhile, junior defenseman Brandon Burlon came down with a bad case of strep throat, then suffered a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics he was taking. This landed him in the hospital before the CCHA tournament and is still an ongoing problem, He's down with an "inflamed esophagus" and has reportedly lost 15 pounds and is definitely out for today's game, and I'd be shocked if we saw him on Saturday should the Wolverines win today.

West #3: Nebraska-Omaha

University of Nebraska at Omaha Mavericks

#3 seed vs. Michigan
West Regional (Scotttrade Center, St. Louis, MO)
Friday, March 25, 2011


At-Large Berth from the WCHA

Record: 21-15-2
Head Coach: David Letterman Dean Blais

We're going to be as serious as possible on this one, because, as Michigan's regional semi-final opponent, we suspect that maybe, just maybe, you'd like to know what the Maize and Blue are up against on Friday.  We understand this.  Let's start with coach Dean Blais, who was brought in by UNO Athletic Director Trev Alberts (yes, that Trev Alberts) to ramp up the Maverick hockey program to new heights.  In just his second year behind the bench in Omaha (and the school's first in the WCHA), Blais has garnered UNO's second trip to the NCAA tournament, and as one of my friends put it to my bluntly, "I am loathe to bet against Blais in a tournament setting."  He has a point.  Blais resume includes 5 30+ win seasons at North Dakota and two national championships for the Fighting [NICKNAME] and he lead the USA Hockey World Junior team to the gold medal in Saskatoon in 2009-2010.  He is a coach who gets the most out of his talent and whose team will play hard every shift.  Michigan split their (non-conference) season series with the Mavs, losing on Friday night 4-2 before blitzing them 6-1 on Saturday night (because, remember, Michigan loves Saturday nights.  Hopefully Michigan remembers it can't play on Saturday if it doesn't get it done on Friday.)  Omaha is also a team that is much better somewhere in middle America, going 13-6-1 at home, but just 8-9-1 on the road this year.

One of the Lights in August for the Mavericks is sophomore goaltender John Faulkner.  Third team all-WCHA this season, Faulkner seems to be your classic mercurial goalie, sometimes being the unvanquished (posting six shutouts), while other times, being full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (he's allowed three or more goals in seven of his last eleven games.) (Stick tap to INCH for that tidbit.)  Faulkner, a native of Yoknapatawpha County Sarnia, will need to be something better than a Pylon if the Mavericks hope to make it to St. Paul.

If Nebraska-Omaha is going to make it to the Regional Finals, it's going to need to find the balanced scoring attack that was its hallmark throughout the season.  No Maverick has more than 17 goals, but eight players have double digit goals.  UNO has not scored more than two goals in any of its last five games, so it will either need to play lock down defense and hope that Faulkner is more than an Intruder in the Dust.  There is no doubt that this team is a tough out, and it can make some noise if it rediscovers its early season form.

West #4: Colorado College

Colorado College Tigers

#4 seed vs. Boston College
West Regional (Scotttrade Center, St. Louis, MO)
Friday, March 25, 2011


At-Large Berth from the WCHA

Record: 22-18-3
Head Coach: Scott Owens

How do we say this politely?  Colorado College probably doesn't make the field in most years, but thanks to a weak bubble, a team just four games over break even gets in to the field as the the 14th overall seed.  Going 5-4-1 down the stretch (including five straight games against Wisconsin due to a scheduling quirk where they played them on the last weekend of the regular season, then in a best two of three in the WCHA first round), CC doesn't limp into tournament, but they're also not charging in hard.  They're a special teams nightmare, in that being top 10 in the nation in the Power Play (40% of the teams goals come on the man advantage) is balanced by the fact that they have given up a nation's worst 11 shorthanded goals.  (Like Michigan Tech, the Tigers are clearly NOT doing it for the shorties.)

So, how does CC get by the defending national champions?  Well, for starters, they'll need the Schwartz(es) to be with them, as brother combination of freshman Rylan and sophomore Jaden power a scoring line with the Tigers' leading scorer Stephen Schwartz.  They'll need to play well on even strength.  They'll need some puck luck.  So yes, basically, they'll need all of the things you normally need as a #4 seed if you want to upset the top seed.  Will the Tigers be burning bright on Friday?  We'll see.


(On a non-hockey note, this seems as good a place as any to send our best wishes to NFL Films President (and Colorado College alumnus) Steve Sabol, who has begun treatment this week for a brain tumor.)

Midwest #1: North Dakota

University of North Dakota Fighting [NICKNAME]

#1 seed vs. RPI
Midwest Regional (Resch Center, Green Bay, WI)
Saturday, March 26, 2011


Automatic Qualifier from the WCHA
WCHA Regular Season Champions

Record: 30-8-3
Head Coach: Dave Hakstol

(Before we start, yes North Dakota is still fighting over the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo, at the state legislature level, so, while they're working that out, we're going with Fighting [NICKNAME] and allowing the reader to make their own choice.)

North Dakota comes in to Hockey Christmas as the hottest team in the country.  We're talking solar fusion hot, 12-0-1 in their last thirteen games, their last loss coming to Colorado College in late January (OK, four of those games were against Michigan Tech, in which NoDak beat the Huskies by a combined 28-4 margin, but you have to play the teams on your schedule and two of the games were in Houghton, so...)  North Dakota is arguably the scariest team in the tournament from top to bottom.  One major question mark is the health of Jason Gregoire, who was, before his injury, racking up the points like it was a game of Duck Hunt.

Continuing one of the great NCAA Hockey traditions, North Dakota continues to have the best hockey names, and currently has a first pairing defenseman on their roster named Ben Blood.  Ben Blood.  Seriously, his jersey IS the blood jersey!

Matt Frattin is lighting the upper Great Plains ablaze, scoring 35 goals in North Dakota's 41 games this season and chipping in 22 helpers and sophomore goalie Aaron Dell clearly shakes off bad games well, the question becomes, in a one and done format, can you avoid that bad game?  North Dakota looks to keep rolling, trying not to look too far ahead to a potential rematch with Denver in the Regional Final and a trip back to St. Paul, but if Dave Hakstol's team plays as they have over the last two months, they could win title number 7 8 (thanks for the correction!).