Re: UND @ UNO Dean and Dave take it outside Feb 8th & 9th.
I have a feeling the Whioux sweep this series. I just don't think Faulkner will be able to keep UND under 4 goals a night.
I think the whole outdoor thing kind of makes the entire series a complete wild card. Coach Blais so wants his guys to focus on tonight that they are not even setting foot on the outdoor ice until tomorrow morning. By the way, the Omaha Lancers did practice on it yesterday and they pronounced the ice "awfully hard".
Aside from the game itself on Saturday, I think we're gonna hear quite a bit about the unsuitability of this facility for a hockey game come Sunday morning. There are not any real good sight lines anywhere. As I said in the UNO thread, Dave Ahlers, UNO's play-by-play man, during Coach Blais' radio show last week, expressed large concerns about his ability to call the game from the assigned vantage point for the broadcasters. He seriously thought they'd need binoculars.
About 12,000 tickets have been sold for tomorrow. UNO's promotion (just like that of almost anything hockey at our "hockey" school") has been predictably lackluster, almost non-existent, and unimaginative. Sigh...... There probably will be around 10,000 or so at tonight's game. They have undraped one section of the arena (upstairs) that normally is undraped to accommodate. I would not be shocked to see a reasonably good walk-up tonight and a crowd maybe even approaching 11,000 or so. The early start will hurt the crowd some, as it is hard to get (back?) downtown from the 'burb's here that early on a work day. It will be something of a late arriving crowd as well.
This is as big a series as UNO has ever played, by the way. Arguably, THE biggest. There's an article on College Hockey News today lamenting the potential impact on the conference race of a novelty game (it also mentions the upcoming Minnesota/Wisconsin game at Soldier Field as well). I'm not sure I disagree with it.
Tonight's game is the one that will
really have "the atmosphere", I think, and it will set the tone for tomorrow, too.
One last thing, I hope North Dakota fans can restrain themselves this time and not mob our athletic director for autographs again before the game while he's making the rounds. That was very unseemly the last time you were here.
