Note: Very long post! If you read all of this, more power to you!
My demented trip review.
What a great trip! For those of you who have not been to the
Final Four before, make sure to put it in your plans next year!
Wednesday:
I left around noon with Brian Hvinden, of Vindy's Let's Drop the
Puck fame, from Grand Forks. The trip was uneventful until we reached
Minneapolis. As we were driving through the outskirts, the traffic was
light and seemed unimposing until a man, who looked displaced from
Woodstock, decided to have a flashback right in front of me. This
resulted in him slowing quickly down to around 35 and almost caused the
trip to end early. One the radio, KFAN, the local sports call-in station, was
only talking about the Gopher basketball team. One person finally did
call in and asked the announcer about the hockey final four. He
proceeded to rip into the Canadian's on UND's team and confidently announced
that the Big Ten would pick up two pieces of hardware over the next few
days (basketball being the other one).
EuClaire was the final stop before Madison. I don't know if the
town was laid-out by the local drunk, but it was the first place that I
have been in that I had to drive two miles just to reach a store that was
only a few hundred feet away.
After EuClaire, we arrived in Madison and decided to do the
All-American thing: eat at Denny's at Midnight.
THURSDAY:
The temperature stayed close to fifty degrees all night, and the
"summer-like" day started in a most interesting way. We were sitting in
the lobby enjoying breakfast, when an individual noticed my UND clothing.
He started talking to us, and went mentioned that he played for UND back
in the 60's. Furthermore, he talked about playing against Red Berenson.
He said that his coach at the time pointed Berenson out to him and told
him to defend him and watch out for him at all times. He said that toward
the end of the game that Berenson speared him and as he sat on the bench, he
noticed he was bleeding from the wound. He also had a championship ring
from that year.
The drive to the Bradley Center only took about an hour, and
temperatures in the 60's greeted us. Parking was not a
problem, and in a matter of minutes, we were walking toward the arena. I
still didn't have a ticket for Saturday's game, but that problem was
quickly taken care of as scalpers were quickly ready to assist me. I was
able to get a nice seat at only $5 over face value. There were so many
scalpers present that some of the UND band members were being asked if
they wanted to purchase tickets.
We went to the Will Call area, and talked to Dean Blais's son for
awhile. As I was talking to him, he mentioned that he might be able to
get a ticket for me. The next thing I know, I had a seat only three
rows back from the ice.
The UND/CC game was entertaining, but the suspense was quickly
taken away as the Sioux dominated virtually all aspects of the game.
Give the Tigers a lot of credit for making it to the Final Four, and look
for them to make a run next year. The UND band attempted to please the
UW faithful by playing "On Wisconsin" and the Budweiser song. CC
countered by having their mascot skate around the arena with a piece of
cheese on his head. He then went around holding up two signs. One said,
"The Pack is Back" and the other said, "Ski North Dakota".
Once every period, the Jumbotron would show the top five plays of
college hockey for the year for each position. As these were being
played, all of the players stopped to watch the films. Most of the shots
did not receive much reception, except for a check that pushed Nick Checco
into the bench and another clip which showed a Michigan player being
checked into the bench. The clips were fairly pro-Wisconsin, as the
dialogue often had lines like, "Wiconsin's own...".
After the game, we went back to the Holiday Inn for the post-game
celebration. Actually, we had planned on going to "Captain Goolsbey's"
right after the game, but it appeared that everyone else in the state did
as well. We arrived at the Holiday Inn to find the line to the buffet
stretching to Lake Superior. So, we hit the restaurant instead. While
at the restaurant, Eva Braun greated us and basically threw the
menus at us. Then, as we finished, she ripped the silverware away from our
hands. While we were eating, the ex-Sioux player who we met earlier
that day, stopped by to congratulate all of the players, and had another
story for us.
The game Thursday night proved to be much more exciting then the
morning affair. This was my first chance to see Drury play, and after
seeing the game, I was pulling for him to win the Hobey Baker award. I
sat next to Coach Blais and got to talk to him throughout
the game. He said before the game that Michigan was basically in a league
of their own and said that he was surprised that they lost any games
during the year. As the game progressed, and BU remained in the lead, I
could tell that Blais was not troubled by having to face BU instead of
UM. He said to me that he was shocked that Michigan was loosing (this
was by the third period). He also mentioned that BU had greatly improved
since playing in Grand Forks and that it would be a very tough game. He
did mention that the general strategy against BU would be the same as
before. I also sat next to two BU fans, and talked to them for awhile about
hockey in the east. It was nice to be able to get another perspective on the
game. After the game, we went to Shoney's only to be greated by a server who
acted like Lurch and looked like he could crush my skull with his hand.
Strike two against restaurants.
FRIDAY:
The one day of the trip without any games. This gave us more of a
chance to explore Milwaukee. This, of course, meant going to the
Miller Brewing facility. We hit the ten o'clock tour (well, actually, we
got there at 10:15 and the receptionist told us that we could join a tour
already in progress. This meant getting our free samples faster, so we
agreed). The tour is interesting, but the wide range of temperatures
that they subject you to and the amount of walking that you have to do,
constantly makes you remind yourself that the reward for the tour is free
beer. The tour ended with an underground section and then a stop at the
pub. I was surprised to find out that they were going to give three free
beers to everyone :-)
After sobering up, we headed over to Captain Goolsbey's. Fortunately,
the crowd was much lighter than the last time, and we were able to get a spot.
Be sure to check out this place if you want to try the world's first
combination egg-roll and cheese stick.
We arrived at the Hyatt around 1:30 to check out the Hobey
ceremonies. A local sports show was broadcasting live and had the actual
Hobey trophy sitting next to their booth. It was great to be only inches
away from it. We listened to the show for awhile, and go to see a UND
fan quickly become flustered by the radio announcer's questions. I also
checked out the World Championship trophy and stopped by to see the USCHO
stand. Tim Brule certainly had his hands full. He had printed out
color copies with information about each of the Hobey finalists.
However, he had only one copy of each and he did not have a sign stating
that the copies were not to be taken. So as people were talking to Tim,
he was constantly having to rush over and guard the profiles. Jason
Blake's dad become one of the "victims" and appeared to be fairly unhappy
with Brule. By 2, close to 200 people were waiting for the doors to
open. At 2:30 the doors opened and we ended up sitting next to a large
contingent of Michigan fans. To kill time, they showed several college hockey
films. The first one was about Maine's 1993 championship run. They
showed quite a few speeches from the locker room. Several of the clips
had every other word bleeped out, which I thought was strange to show at
the Hobey awards. After that film, another film discussed who Hobey
Baker was (quick fact: he averaged four goals per game!) and how he
became the "King of Hockey". Finally, we were shown films from 1981-1990
which gave every candidate for every year. One other funny note on the
films, the sponsors for the Hobey Award have greatly improved. Many of
the early films were sponsored by Stroh's.
The committee finally started the presentation at 4:30 and after
15 minutes of thank-you's, the award was given to Brendan Morrison.
Morrison accepted the award and went on to thank his coach, the staff and
his teammates. He then said the infamous lines, "You know, I know a lot
of the guys were upset about the game yesterday, but we have nothing to
hang our heads about. Sometimes the best team doesn't win". This
resulted in cheers from the Michigan fans and silence from everyone
else. Unfortunately, the line took away most of the respect that I have
for Morrison.
Saturday:
I thought my luck was going to run out for good seats. However,
after attending a pep-rally before the game, I found my seat in the upper
section was GREAT (more on the arena later).
By the time the game started, I was surrounded by UW fans, but I
was happy to find out that all of them were cheering for UND. Both teams
played well during the first period, but UND looked tight and appeared to
be getting very few lucky bounces. One nearly open net that was entirely
missed seemed to sum up the period for the Sioux. Before the first goal
was scored, I turned to a guy sitting next to me and mentioned that if
UND scored the next goal (it was 2-0 at this time), that they would get
in a flow, and probably win. UND countered with five tallies in the
second period and went on to win 6-4. I did miss BU's last goal due to
the fact that I was running downstairs to the UND section to join the
celebration.
After the game, Brian and I went back to the Holiday Inn for the
post-game party. I was able to talk to Dean Blais's mother and also his
wife (happiest women on the planet). The players came in about twenty
minutes later and each one gave a short speech in the ballroom. Several of
the speeches had items worth noting. When David Hoogsteen was speaking, a man
next to me kept yelling, "Hey David, stand up!" Whenever UND athletic
director Terry Wanlesswould speak, a woman in front of me kept saying,
"Terry where's your green?" (Wanless was wearing a black and white suit).
The modesty of the team showed as several players didn't want to give speeches
(Pivets was practically pushed) and one player (who shall remain nameless) did
mention the Morrison comment and said that "Tonight...the best team
won". Ian Kallay said, "what is one less than two" and then started to
sit down until Jason Blake grabbed him and made say a few more words. In
the process of grabbing him, someone's beer was spilled - DOH! Finally,
it was good to hear a few words from assistant coach Scott Sandelin.
However, before he could say anything, the team shouted, "Hey Sandy, keep
it short!" After that it was back to Grand Forks.
Kudos to:
Milwaukee - a fun city to go to and extremely easy to navigate around!
CC and BU - Two classy teams with great fans and players. I hope that a
BU / UND match becomes a yearly occurrence.
Bradley Center - As I said, my seats on Saturday were almost at the top,
but they were AWESOME. This is the best arena that I have ever been in.
No Kudos to:
Red Berenson - I thought it was classless of him to leave after the game
on Thursday, especially since he was on the 50th anniversary team.
Some kid from Illinois - Don't know who this person was, but he was
frantically giving me the thumb's down sign on Friday as his mother was
speeding past me on the beltway. I promptly gave him another sign (use
your imagination).
Minneapolis sport's radio - no mention of college hockey on the way
back (way to go Dark Star).
charles
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http://www.aero.und.edu/~cbell/hockey
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P.S. Brian Swanson - if you read this, Vickar got the package.
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