Re: North Dakota at UNO - 1-30/1-31 - The biggest series in UNO program history
When I signed on for this, 18 seasons ago, weekends like this one, which took that long to finally get here, are what I signed on for.
It doesn't get much better than this weekend was. Would I have liked to have won both games? Sure. There are lot of people around here that have listened to Tom Osborne say for years that if you play well and lose, you have nothing to hang your head about (all while Osborne spent the first 20 seasons or so of his coaching career losing a lot of big games, some with the title on the line) and that was what this weekend was about, really, for both teams. Neither team has any reason to hang its head.
I reckon there aren't a lot of teams lining up to play either us, or, North Dakota. If they are #1 then we are in the realm of #1A. UNO fans have seen Minnesota State, too (split), and they are part of this discussion as well, obviously, with apologies to BU, which I have seen little of.
The NCHC is probably going to get at least 4 teams in the tourney and they will be a handful for anyone that draws one of them.
I've never felt better after a loss that I can recall. Weird.
What an amazing turnout tonight given the horrendous weather here. Easily the biggest student turnout for a Saturday night UNO home game I have ever seen. Too bad the weather and the fact that the game was televised on local (non-cable, non-satellite) TV that made a lot of people that held tickets stay home. They missed a barn-burner. My guess is that the crowd tonight would have been quite a bit larger had the weather cooperated. Took me almost an hour to drive home, something that unusually takes 20 minutes or so.
Easily double the North Dakota fan presence tonight from last night. I hope they enjoyed themselves because it is the last time they are ever going to be able to show like this here again unless Trev Alberts makes good on his insinuation that we play some "high demand" games, still, in the Clink.
This was one fine weekend of college hockey here in Omaha. No other way to put it. These two teams have had a knack for putting on quite the show in the 14 times they have now squared off, all time.
One last thing, it is amazing to me that our team has played so well this season with so many underclassmen. Coach Blais did say during his radio show a few weeks ago that all the freshman in our class were a team captain from wherever they came here from, besides being, by and large, stars on their respective teams as well. That said, my hopes, really, were for next year's team because we have 16 underclassmen, currently, who will be better players next season, barring pro defections, a great looking (on paper, albeit, smaller) class coming in again next season and I thought those things, coupled with the excitement of moving to a new arena (see: Minnesota-Duluth) might make next season the "special" season.
What the hell? Lets just do it, now.