I wrote the last part of this first, and decided that, even for the off-season,
it made a very frivolous post.  I'll add a little pseudo college hockey stuff
first, and you can quit reading when it gets too frivolous for you...
 
Carol already posted the North Dakota item from the Mpls paper.  The St. Paul
paper has SLIGHTLY more info:
 
UND picks Blais as hockey coach
(from the Area Update column, "from staff and news service reports")
 
Dean Blais, athletic director and hockey coach at Roseau High School [this is
wrong, he's coach and AD at I-Falls.], has been chosen as the University of
North Dakota's next coach, sources said Thursday.  The announcement could come
today.
 
Blais, who played high school at International Falls and at the University of
Minnesota, succeeds Gino Gasparini, who was forced to resign after last season.
Blais was an assistant to Gasparini before taking the Roseau job.
 
Mark Mazzoleni, an assistant to Doug Woog at Minnesota, was a finalist.
 
[end quoted stuff]
Now to clarify this poorly-written note:  Blais obviously did not "play high
school" at the University of Minnesota, as the note would have you believe... he
played college hockey there like everybody else.  Well, all good Minnesota boys,
at any rate!  :-)  He was assistant at NoDak, then took the Roseau HS job,
leading them to the state title in 1991.  He left Roseau to be an assistant with
the 1992 Olympic team.  When he returned from the Olympics he went back to his
hometown to be coach and AD at International Falls HS.
 
The Area Update also includes an item on the Minnesota golf team.  Congrats to
Gopher hockey captain Jeff Nielsen for shooting a college personal-best 69 in
the first round of the NC$$ Central Regionals to tie him for 6th, 2 strokes back
of the leader.  The team is tied for fifth.
 
Now to the REALLY fluffy stuff:
 
Greg writes:
> Probably not; but with the inclusion of Jason
> Dailey and Jason Elliot, Cornell now has the
> following Jasons on its roster:
>
> Dailey (D)
> Elliot (G)
> Kendall (D)
> Zubkus (D)
> Weber (C)
>
> Question, then: what is the largest number of
> players with the same first name (alternate
> spelling, e.g. Jeff and Geoff, are acceptable) on
> one roster at one time?
 
Don't know about that one.  I thought the Jasons would just about be finishing
college by now.  The next trend is the Ryans.  When Erik, Paula and I went to
the Gopher State Hockey Festival (10th and 11th grade) this Spring, there was
one team with 4 Ryans on it and another 1 or 2 teams with 3, and the state HS
tourney rosters were littered with 'em, including 2 younger brothers of Gophers:
Ryan McAlpine and Ryan Trebil.  (The Gophers are getting Ryan Kraft next year to
start *their* Ryan Era...)  Jared is the runner-up name.  (As Chad was in the
Jason Era).  Didn't see any teams with FIVE, though!  Of course, I suppose this
may differ in other areas of the country/Canada - we even noted that the "North"
teams, made up mostly of players from outside the Twin Cities, were relatively
deficient in Ryans and Jareds.
 
 
 
Pam Sweeney                            Go Gophers!!!
[log in to unmask]      1993 & 1994 WCHA Playoff Champions!!!
                                  1994 NC$$ PHinal PHour!!!
                                        Ski-U-Mah!!!