The NDSU Bison defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 23-21 today in Iowa City. What a great game. Iowa was ranked #15. The win maintains the Bisons’ streak of victories over FBS teams. Since 2010, NDSU has beaten Iowa State, Kansas State, Colorado State, Minnesota and now Iowa. The Bison have won five consecutive FCS National Championships.
Golden Gopher Baseball in 1900: The team was 17-11-1 that year.
The University of Minnesota Golden Gopher baseball squad takes on Wake Forest in the Texas A&M Regional on Friday. It’s the Gophers’ first appearance in the NCAA tourney since 2010. Minnesota, the Big Ten regular season winner, is the region’s second seed, behind A&M.
It’s been an emotional roller coaster ride for Gopher baseball this year, with veteran pitching coach Todd Oakes facing another battle with cancer. Oakes, who was with Minnesota for 18 years, lost that battle on May 26; he was 55.
Good luck to the Gophers at Blue Bell Park.
Photo and Goldy courtesy of Golden Gopher Baseball
I’d be remiss if I didn’t send a shoutout to Leicester City FC after their first Premier League Championship. It is the Club’s only championship in its 132 year history. Their previous best season in the league was the 1928-29 season when they finished second.
Leicester was a 5000 to 1 longshot at the start of the season at Ladbrokes (Vegas odds had them at 2500-1). To give that some perspective: The Miracle on Ice Team that beat the Soviets in hockey at the 1980 Olympic Games were at 1000-1 odds; the 1987 Minnesota Twins entered the season at 500-1 odds to win the World Series, which they did against St Louis; even the famed ’69 Mets entered the season at “only” 100-1 odds.
24 bets still stood at Ladbrokes when the Leicester City Foxes won the Premier League. A 10 pound bet would bring a haul of 50,000 pounds. In all, Ladbrokes will pay out 3 million pounds with Leicester City winning the league. Luckily for them, Manchester United fans bet far more than that on their team, so Ladbrokes is well ahead.
Game One Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Miami, Florida
Walking up to BB&T
This comes under the heading of: Since I was in the neighborhood…
The Florida Panthers are hosting the New York Islanders in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and I found out that tickets were fairly affordable by NHL standards.
Main entrance into BB&T. The green alien discs glow at night
As this will probably be my last hockey game of the season, I was looking forward to it.
The view from inside B&T
BB&T is a very nice arena. I was impressed. If Miami put in for the Frozen Four some year, I would certainly think they’d get the event from what I’ve seen. This is not quite the hockey town that Tampa has become, but it has come a long way.
Center ice before warm ups
I received a free t-shirt at the game, and the Panthers have become my adopted team this year. Nick Bjugstad is a former Golden Gopher, and I’ve followed his career since he left Minnesota. Jaromir Jagr was playing in his 204th playoff game! That is insane.
The Panthers during warmups
The Panthers put on pressure all game, ending up with 46 shots on goal. They got things started with a goal by Teddy Purcell, but by the end of period one it was tied 2-2.
The aisles were jammed packed when Panthers Reilly Smith scored to take the lead, but once again NY sent it to intermission tied.
NY scored twice in the third, and Smith scored his second goal, but it was not enough for Florida as the NYI went on to a 5-4 win. Game two is tomorrow night.
John Tavares had a goal and an assist for NYI for the #1 Star of the game. Reilly Smith was the second star. Bjugstad had an assist for Florida.
Hopefully, the series will be tied up when it heads north to Brooklyn.
Outside Amalie Arena between the two semifinal games.
In between what was two very good semifinal games at the Frozen Four this year, was a situation of NCAA manufactured chaos. At the end of game one, it was announced that every fan inside the arena would have to leave, stand around for 30 mins or so, and then reenter. It was met with an attitude that suggested this was the dumbest thing any of us had ever heard.
Out on the balcony, the Frozen Foursome ran into an arena employee, who made it clear that the arena personnel had argued against the insanity, but the NCAA had insisted. In fact, the employee was taking pictures to send to the NCAA asking, “Is this what you wanted?”
None of us could figure out what kind of mushroom the college officials had been eating.
“NCAA: Is this what you wanted?”
It turns out that the NCAA didn’t have any answers, so they placed the blame on fans who attend the tournament every year:
“We get feedback from this group of fans quite a bit,” said Kristin Fasbender, associate director of championships for the NCAA. “That’s part of the reason we did what we did last night by emptying the building. We’ve heard from our fans over the years a lot that they don’t like being stuck in the building in essence for six hours.”
When I first started to attend the Frozen Four, there was enough time between the two Thursday games, to leave the arena and find a nice local place to have a meal before the second game began. But ESPN didn’t like the delay, and the NCAA likes to keep their financial backers happy, so they changed the setup so that there was one hour between the two games. Not enough time to go out and get a beer, let alone a meal, so fans have been stuck paying the outrageous prices for crappy food inside of the rink.
Let’s be honest Ms. Fasbender, and get down to the nitty-gritty. Up until this year, four sections in the corners have been for the students and fans of the four teams competing in the tournament. But that is such a waste, after all, this tourney is not for the fans or the students. So some pencil pushing, cubicle dwelling NCAA official, came up with the bright idea that they could get by using only two sections for those fans, therefore selling tickets to the other two sections for more money. Since the NCAA has not reached the point of putting two people in one seat yet, they had to force everyone outside and reseat those in the two student sections.
As stupid as this whole incident was, other than some grumbling and mocking of the NCAA, I would have let it go, but I took exception to Ms. Fasbender placing the blame for this on 20 year priority customers. I, for one, would love to go back to the time when we started Game One in the early afternoon and we had several hours between games, but television rights will never allow us to go back to that. With the second game puck drop scheduled for 8:30pm, which was late enough, it’s inconceivable that anyone thought they could empty 18,000+ people out of an arena and get everyone back in and seated in an hour. There was no time to do anything but stand outside and wait to reenter. With 18,000+ people headed outside, did the NCAA really think a couple of food trucks and a few soda stands would be enough to take care of everyone?
After talking to members of the Amalie Arena staff, and even a couple of Tampa Bay police officers, I am confident that they could handle letting those fans who want to go outside to do so, and then reenter in what would have been an orderly fashion, if your intent was to let fans go outside.
But that wasn’t really your intent, was it?
When you hire experts to host your events, maybe the NCAA could put a little trust in their ability to do their jobs, and listen to the advice they offer.
And NCAA, next time don’t blame your most loyal customers when you screw up.
2016 Frozen Four
Tampa, Florida
Amalie Arena: The Frozen Four
In Tampa for the Frozen Four. The second time this city has hosted the Division 1 Hockey Championship game in four years. Tampa has quickly become a hockey town, and once again we have received an enthusiastic reception.
Quinnipiac and Boston College line up for the National Anthem
Thursday held the two semi final games. The east faced off with the Quinnipiac Bobcats facing the Boston College Eagles. Quinnipiac started quickly, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on goals by Kevin McKernan and Andrew Taverne.
Alex Tuch put BC on the board, but the Bobcats responded right away on a goal by Landon Smith to keep a two goal lead.
Ryan Fitzgerald of the Eagles scored in the third to make things very interesting. I was pulling for Quinnipiac, but admit I wanted BC to score on that power play.
In a great game one, Quinnipiac held on to the 3-2 win.
Attendance was 17,816.
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North Dakota and Denver in warmups
In the second semifinal, old foes Denver and North Dakota would go to battle. The first period was tight, and scoreless. In the second, Drake Caggiula would open things up for the Fighting Hawks, with two goals. Denver would rally to start the third and tie things up at two, but the Hawks would come back with two more goals, including an empty-netter.
The Fighting Hawks would win 4-2, with Caggiula getting a goal and an assist.
Attendance was 18,037.
Two great semifinal games.
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Hawks and Bobcats during warmups
The Championship game was held on Saturday, with Quinnipiac facing the Fighting Hawks. The Hawks would score first, with a goal by Shane Gersich.
Quinnipiac would go on a power play, but would have a costly error allowing Brock Boeser to come in on goal alone. Bobcat goaltender Michael Garteig came out of his crease to play the puck away from Boeser, but ended up hitting the forward from Minnesota in the thigh. With Garteig completely out of position, and the net empty, Boeser easily put the puck in the net for a two goal lead. QU would be chasing their tails out on the ice for much of what remained in the period; they were in complete disarray after falling behind 2-0. Luckily, the Hawks helped them out by taking two penalties. With the two man advantage, QU score to make it 2-1.
The second period was scoreless, but Drake Caggiula would take over the third period with two goals in the first four minutes. The Hawks added one more in the 5-1 killing, and their 8th National Championship.
Caggiula had the two goals and Boeser had a 4 point night.
Attendance was 19,358, good for the third highest in Frozen Four history, although most of us fans do not count that year held in a football stadium.
Back at The X,
Saint Paul, Minnesota
The Big Ten Hockey Tournament started on Thursday at The X in St Paul. Ohio State prevailed over Michigan State in OT, and Penn State beat Wisconsin 5-2 to advance to the semifinals.
Michigan takes on Penn State
In the Friday afternoon game, Michigan faced Penn State, and the Wolverines have lit the lamp against the Lions this season.
Michigan led 2-0 after one period on goals by Max Shuart and Alex Kile. In the third period, Kyle Connor scored three in a row for the pure hat trick. JT Compher assisted on all of Connor’s scores. Kevin Kerr finally put one behind Wolverine GT Steve Racine, which put the score at 5–1 after two.
Michigan would tally two more in the third, with one being from Connor, and PSU sandwiched a goal in there for a 7-2 Michigan win.
Kyle Connor, the B1G Freshman & Player of the Year, scored 4. Connor now leads the nation in scoring with 34 goals and 65 points.
Compher had 5 assists.
In their five games against PSU this season, Michigan has scored 33 goals, with ten of those being scored by the freshman Connor.
Minnesota and Ohio State during warm ups
In game two, the Minnesota Gophers faced The Ohio State Buckeyes. Minnesota had great tempo in the first, but OSU did a good job of boxing the Gophers to the outside. Still, the Buckeyes took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission on a goal by Kevin Miller.
The second period had some great defensive hockey, and the period was scoreless, although the natives were getting restless.
Tyler Sheehy opened the scoring for Minnesota on a great shot from the left circle to tie the game up, 1:36 into period three. Vinnie Lettieri, would score the go-ahead 4 minutes later and the small crowd at The X exploded. Taylor Cammarata would score two more for the Gophers, both assisted by Sheehy, and Minnesota would go on to win 4-2.
Minnesota had 45 SOG to OSU’s 29. Attendance was 5423.
They gave away hats! Notice anything odd about them though?
Minnesota will face Michigan on Saturday night for the B1G Championship, and the Gophers will have their hands full. Michigan is already in the national tourney, but Minnesota needs the win to get the automatic bid. The teams split 2-2 during the regular season.
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Congrats to the Minnesota Gopher Women’s Team in their overtime win over the Wisconsin Badgers. Minnesota will now face Boston College for the National Championship. It will be the Gopher Women’s fifth straight appearance in the title game.
The X, Saint Paul Minnesota:
2016 marks the 72nd annual Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, one of the largest such events in the country. I was in St Paul on Wednesday, the first day of the tournament, so I ventured over to The X for some first round action.
Litchfield & Hermantown during warm ups
The Litchfield Dragons were taking on the Hermantown Hawks in the third game of the day. The Hawks had been state runners-up the previous six years in a row, and they played like they were on a mission. Cole Koepke would score 4 goals in an 11-3 romp. Kopek’s 4th goal was, to use the high school vernacular, sick. He took the puck at the top of the circles, skated in on the goal, a couple of stick handling moves put the goal tender on his rear end, then Koepke calmly put the puck into the back of the net.
Hermantown would go on to win the Class A Championship with a 5-0 win over Breck, behind a strong performance by their goaltender Luke Olson.
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Wayzata celebrates first title, Photo credit: AARON LAVINSKY – STAR TRIBUNE
The Class AA Championship was between the Wayzata Trojans and the Eden Prairie Eagles on Saturday night. Eden Prairie was the obvious favorite, although Wayzata would take an early 1-0 lead behind some very physical play and sound defense.
Eden Prairie would score the next three and led 3-1 midway through the second period. That is when things took a turn for the interesting. Wayzata was called for a 5 minute major penalty, their second of the night. Trojan coach Pat O’Leary called a time out. Coming out of the time out, Billy Duma scored a short handed goal. Then Wayzata drew a penalty, and the teams were skating 4 on 4 when Matt Nelson scored to tie it up at 3.
Defenseman Logan Lindstrand scored from near the point in the third for what would be the game winning goal. The Trojans would add an empty netter with .8 seconds left for a 5-3 win, and the program’s first state title.
Wayzata’s MVP: Clyde the Lucky Frog
Attendance for the Class AA session was 19,655. Over 22,000 attended Friday’s session for a new tourney single session record.
Saint Cloud, Minnesota
The home of the St Cloud State University Huskies was the final D-1 rink in Minnesota for me to catch a game in. The facility is named after Coach Herb Brooks, who was instrumental in the St Cloud program moving up to Division One. The main rink is named after late university President Brendan J. McDonald, who was also a huge advocate for the D-1 move.
Completed in 1989, the Brooks Center is a no-frills kind of ice rink, seating 5159 for hockey; there is minimal seating at the ends and a low ceiling. It also has the worst PA system of any rink I’ve been in. But it’s a loud arena for the home town Huskies, and the student section: The Dog Pound, is as raucous as they get.
UMD and SCSU during pre-game warm ups
The Duluth Bulldogs were in St Cloud to try to keep their home ice in the first round of the playoffs. St Cloud would be trying to stay tied at the top of the NCHC with North Dakota.
The Bulldogs set the tone early, with a goal in the first 39 seconds. Both teams were flying, but it was UMD that would expand their early lead. UMD worked a delayed penalty to perfection, keeping the puck away from St Cloud until Brenden Kotyk buried the puck behind Husky goaltender Charlie Lindgren. Then UMD went on the power play, and Karson Kuhlman scored unassisted to give Duluth a very sudden 3-0 lead.
Duluth gave a clinic on how to take the early lead and then just hang on. St Cloud is a very fast team, and their puck movement is impressive. They peppered Duluth goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo with 14 SOG in the second, but only put one past him. Kaskisuo turned away another 21 SOG in the third, but did not allow a goal. UMD’s Kuhlman added his second goal of the game, an empty netter, for the 4-1 Duluth win.
Kaskisuo faced 50 shots total, and Lindgren faced 35. Attendance was 4861.
Second period entertainment: “Too Tall Ike” skates around on 4′ high stilts, dressed as one of the Hanson bros.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Williams Arena: Home of Golden Gopher basketball
A slight shift of gears here with a change of sports. #6 Maryland was in town to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers, so I decided to head down to Williams Arena to take in some hoops action.
Williams Arena, affectionately known as The Barn in these parts, opened in 1928 and currently seats 14,625. Between 1950-1971, Williams Arena was the largest college basketball arena in the country, seating 18,025. Located in Stadium Village on the East Bank of University of Minnesota campus, I had not been to a basketball game in the venerable arena since I was a student at the U of M.
The Barn, with its raised floor, is a unique venue for college basketball. It is one of three college basketball arenas in the country with a raised court. Getting to the second deck in Williams Arena, is like making your way through the bowels of a WWII battleship. It’s an old building, and fans can literally hang from the rafters. When the Gophers are winning, especially if it’s a rivalry game, The Barn simply roars and the entire building shakes with the stomping feet of the fans. There was a time when opposing teams did not relish coming into Williams Arena.
Warm ups at Williams Arena
This year, I’m not sure a whole lotta shakin’ has been going on. It’s not so much a rebuilding year, as a resuscitation year. Prior to Thursday night, Minnesota had not won a B1G game this season.
Enter the Maryland Terrapins: Second in the Big Ten behind Wisconsin and #6 in the nation.
Minnesota hit 7 of 10 three pointers in the first 10 minutes to build an 11 point lead and set the tone of the game. Nate Mason had 18 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds; Jordan Murphy 17 points and 11 boards; and Joey King scored 15 and added 6 rebounds.
Minnesota led until 3 minutes left to play when Maryland went ahead 60-59, but Mason, King and Murphy all nailed free throws for the Gophers to retake the lead. In fact, King was 6 for 6 at the line in the final minute.
Final score: Minnesota 68 – Maryland 63. Attendance was 10,768
What happens when a 14 game losing streak comes to a surprising end? The student section storms the raised court.
Fans have not stormed the court, since 2013 when Minnesota upset #1 Indiana.
