New NHL conference allignment to take effect 2012-13 season

This past week the NHL's board of governors approved a 4 conference system that requires realignment from all 32 NHL teams. The format requires every team to play every other team outside its conference twice and every team would also play every other team in its conference either 5 or 6 times.

The playoffs settings are that the first two rounds will be played within the conference, and the four conference winners will play in the Stanley Cup. The new conferences are as follows:

Conference A                        Conference B                     Conference C                Conference D
Anaheim Ducks                     Chicago Blackhawks          Boston Bruins                  Carolina Hurricanes
Calgary Flames                      Columbus Blue Jackets      Buffalo Sabres                 New Jersey Devils
Colorado Avalanche              Dallas Stars                         Florida Panthers               NY Rangers
Edmonton Oilers                   Detroit Red Wings              Montreal Canadians         NY Islanders
Los Angeles Kings                Minnesota Wild                  Ottawa Senators               Philadelphia Flyers
Phoenix Coyotes                    Nashville Preditors            Tampa Bay Lightening     Pittsburgh Penguins
San Jose Sharks                     St.Louis Blues                   Toronto Maple Leafs        Washington Capitals
Vancouver Canucks               Winnipeg Jets

No more Fighting Sioux

Last Tuesday, November 29th 2011, was the final day in which the University of North Dakota would be referred to as the Fighting Sioux. The day had finally come after many efforts to keep the nickname, but after pressure from the NCAA and multiple Sioux tribes, its days were limited.

UND president Robert Kelley has sent out a memo through the campus informing the school of how it should shy away from using the Sioux nickname. The UND web site will see the quickest changes with the removal of the Sioux head and have it replaced by the ND logo. University owned facilites will also have the Sioux head removed but only if it is used in historical terms like championship banners. Ralph Engelstad Arena and Betty Engelstad Sioux Center have the Sioux head and logo plastered all throughout the arena. Both arenas would not be required to get rid of all of the logos which are engraved in stone. However the Alerus Center in which the school plays football at, has agreed to get rid of all Sioux logos.

Since it is in the middle of the North Dakota hockey season, people were wondering what would they do since their jerseys have the Sioux name and Sioux head on them. The answer is that the new jerseys would not be available until February. So in that case, the hockey team will continue to wear those jerseys for the rest of the season. Fans will also be allowed to wear all clothing with the Sioux name and logo on it, which will be a very hot article of clothing to wear around campus due to the state is not to happy to get rid of the name and logo.


As far as the new nickname and logo being chosen, the law that was passed saying that North Dakota could retire the name, they can not agree on a logo and nickname until January 2015. Until then the school will be known as UND or North Dakota.

Wolves to be back in action in December

With the NBA Players Association and owners agreeing on a new 10 year labor agreement, that means that Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams will soon be making their Timberwolves debut. The shortened off season will make it difficult for new coach Rick Adelman to get possible new free agents in town and to figure out how he will use his new team since he was never able to contact players during the lockout.

The start of training camp is scheduled to begin on December 9th and with preseason games to be played soon after. The much anticipated regular season will hopefully begin after Christmas with no details on location for either determined as of yet. Best bets are that training camp will be held at the Target Center or Lifetime Training Facility rather than the campus of Minnesota State University Mankato as in years past.

One big problem, in which it may not be a bad problem to have, will be how to use forwards Micheal Beasley, Kevin Love and rookie Derrick Williams. Most people think that Love will be used for power forward and Williams and Beasley will swap time at the small forward position. The Wolves did send out a thank you memo to fans thanking them for their "understanding and patience"  

Wild keep up strong start, Gopher football ends season with a Win.

This past holiday weekend, the Minnesota Wild came back home to the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Center for a 6 game home stand vs division opponents Colorado, Edmonton and Calgary, while the University of Minnesota football team ended their season after a solid win vs Illinois on Saturday.

Devin Setoguchi scores the game winning goal vs Colorado

The Wild ended their second longest road trip of the season with a good note after beating the pesky Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2. Colorado Avalanche would be the first test after returning home. It seemed like the Wild still had the weary legs of a long road trip once the puck dropped vs Colorado as there was no flow or rhythm to the game when the game was going into the third period in a 0-0 tie. It took until two minutes left in regulation when Captain Mikko Koivu put a shot on goal and winger Devin Setoguchi followed up the rebound to put the Wild up 1-0. They would have to hold off a late surge from the Avalanche but the Wild held on to win game one of the six game home stand.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard scores vs Tampa Bay

The next two games would turn out good for the home team defeating the St Louis Blues and Nashville Predators both by the score of 3-2. After the four game win streak, the Wild would hit a little bump in the road after they lost badly to Edmonton and Calgary 5-2 with Niklas Backstrom getting pulled after giving up three goals on 8 shots. The positive part to the two game loosing streak was that the Wild still held a lead of the division. Monday night would be a chance for Minnesota to have a solid bounce back game vs the high flying Tampa Bay Lightening. They would be true to having a solid bounce back game beating Tampa Bay 3-1 with goals from Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Mikko Koivu.
The next game for the Wild is Wednesday November 30th vs Edmonton at 8:30pm

MarQuis Gray rushed for a team leading 167yards and 2 TD

After a long struggling season once again for the University of Minnesota football team, the team sent their seniors out on top beating the Illinois Fighting Illini 27-7. MarQuis Gray sent a new quarterback season rushing record after running for 167 yards and two touchdowns. The defense really came up big as in recent seasons, sacking the quarterback with no existent. Ra'Shede Hageman proved that it will be on the comeback after recording two sacks and a forced fumble that lead to points for the Gophers. This is second consecutive last game of the season win for that Gophers as they defeated Iowa last year on senior day. This game showed that there is tremendous upside to this program in the coming seasons.

Gopher sports take center stage, Wild continue hot streak

With the Vikings on their bye week, the sports world in Minnesota turned to the U of M and Wild for their weekend entertainment. The Gopher hockey team looked to improve on its already hot start to the season with a weekend series with rival North Dakota Fighting Sioux (yes they still are the Sioux) at Marriucci Arena, while the Wild were riding a 3 game win streak going into their Saturday match-up with the St.Louis Blues in St.Paul.

Freshmen Kyle Rau scores his game winning goal with 45 sec left on Saturday

The start of the sports weekend would be with the Gopher hockey team, who was ranked 5th in the nation, taking on the rival #15 North Dakota Sioux. In the past, all of the games between these two schools has always been chippy to say the least and this series would be more of the same. With a total of 29 penalties and 1 game misconduct, you could say that the two teams don't like each other. As far as the actual game, the Gophers and Sioux would take a full period to feel each other out, skating to a 0-0 tie after 1 period. In the second period, the Gophers would strike first on a 5-3 opportunity. Freshmen Kyle Rau fed Nick Bjugstad who scored top shelf over goaltender Aaron Dell and 10,176 fans erupted. The period would end with the Gophers holding a 1-0 lead. The third period would again show some excitement as Tom Serratore scored on a break away beating Dell five hole to give Minnesota a comfortable 2-0 lead. That would be all they would need as hot Gopher goaltender Kent Patterson shut out the visitors from North Dakota earning his 5th shutout of the year, which ties Robb Stauber for most shutouts in a single season in Gopher history.

Game two would be a nail biting finish. The 10,234 fans, tenth most attended game in Marriucci Arena history, would see the home team score first when Nick Bjugstad gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead. The lead wouldn't hold up for long as Brock Nelson for UND scored to tie the game at 1-1 after 1 period. UND would ride the momentum as UND forward Rocco Grimaldi scored to give the Sioux their first lead of the series and it would stay that way until mid way through the third period. The Gophers would draw even late in the third period when Nick Larson scored to make it 2-2. It looked like the game was certain to head to Overtime but a brilliant feed from Bjugstad through the goal crease found Kyle Rau's stick and Rau stuffed it home with 45 seconds left in the game to put the Gophers up for good and a 3-2 win and complete the series sweep of North Dakota, first home sweep since the 1995-96 season.

Dany Heatley celebrates his goal with Mikko Koivu

The Minnesota Wild are not the only hockey team in this state that is not on a hot streak. The Wild have won their past 3 games versus some of the better competition in the NHL. The beat the Detroit Red Wings 1-0 at home and 2-1 in Detroit and most recently beating Vancouver 5-1. Goalie Josh Harding through that period was 3-0 with a 0.99 goals against average. He would get the start on Saturday vs St.Louis.  After a scoreless first period, the Wild would score first with Dany Heatley (Koivu, Prosser) scoring on a 2 on 1. The Wild would not back down and late in the second, Guillaume Latendresse scored muscling a St.Louis defender off him and scoring backhand over goalie Jaroslov Halak to give the home team a 2-0 lead after 2 periods. Late in the third period, after pulling Halak for the extra skater, St.Louis forward and Minnesota native Jamie Langenbrunner scored his first of the year to get them on the board. The Wild would go on to win the game and push its winning streak to 4 games. A impressive note is that Minnesota has killed 14 straight penalties.

Minnesota sports with weekend of excellence

VIKINGS –24           CAROLINA--21

Two top rookie quarterbacks faced off on Sunday with the 12th pick getting bragging right. A Christian Ponder inspired Vikings club got a little help from the defense to take an early lead. An E.J Henderson forced fumble from Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, was recovered by Jared Allen and gave the offense a short field to work with. A couple plays later, Percy Harvin rushed up the middle for a 10 yard touchdown, his first touchdown of the season. Carolina then came storming back with back to back scoring drive which ended with Cam Newton connecting with Jeremy Shockey from 1 yard out and Greg Olsen from 39 yards out. But the Vikings would not go down easy. After an impressive drive going into halftime, Ponder connected with Adrian Peterson for a 19 yard pass to tie the game, 14-14 at the half. After the break, Carolina would resume the lead with Newton finding Steve Smith on a pretty pass play to make the score 21-14 Panthers. Another well executed drive by Ponder and the Vikings lead to a Adrian Peterson rushing touchdown from 9 yards out to tie the game once again. The fourth quarter was one mostly dominated by each team’s defense with no team scoring until Ryan Longwell hit a 31 yard field goal to give the Vikings a 24-21 lead.  The Panthers would put up a big fight at the end of the game but Carolina kicker Olindo Mare missed a 31 yard field goal with 26 seconds left. The Vikings improve to 2-6 on the season with their bye week upcoming, the next game is on Monday Night Football November 14th at Green Bay.

GOPHERS—22        IOWA--21

One of the more shocking turn of events this past weekend was the Gopher football team upset the Iowa Hawkeyes 22-21 and keep the Floyd of Rosedale in Minneapolis for one more year. For the second year in a row the Iowa Hawkeyes came into TCF Bank Stadium and left disappointed. In the first quarter both teams held their own with each team being held scoreless. The second quarter on the other hand, the Hawkeyes showed their powerful running game but ended up scoring with a pass from quarterback James Vandenberg to wide out Marvin McNutt to give the visitors a 7-0 lead. It wouldn’t be until 1:13 left in the first half until the Gophers score on a three yard pass from quarterback MarQuis Gray to tight end Colin McGarry to even it up at 7-7. The key play on the drive was when Gray hit wide receiver Devin Crawford-Tuftus for a 61 yard gain. After the half, Iowa once again kept at the running game and ended the drive with running back Marcus Coker scoring from one yard out. Coker would have a career day ending up with 252 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns.  The Gophers would answer with a 28 yard field goal by back up kicker Jordan Wettstein, which were his first collegiate points. In the final quarter, Coker would score once again from one yard out to make the score 21-10 Hawkeyes. Just when most people thought the Gophers were out of the game, they would make it a ballgame when running back Duane Bennett rushed in for the touchdown but the two point conversion failed. Then the biggest play of the game took place when head coach Jerry Kill when for the onside kick which was recovered by Gopher safety Kim Royston. With Minnesota only down by one score, they would march down the field and end up scoring to go ahead for the first time in the game when Gray scored from three yards out to give the Gophers a 22-21 lead. Then Iowa would get the ball back but failed on fourth down and Minnesota would run out the rest of the clock to cap off an improbable win. After the game, students and fans stormed the field and celebrated with the Gophers and Floyd of Rosedale.

Gopher hockey sweeps weekend series in Duluth

There was a bright spot this past weekend for Minnesota sports. The University of Minnesota Men's hockey team swept the weekend series with the defending National Champs from Minnesota Duluth and move up to 8th in the National Polls

Minnesota forward Erik Haula celebrates vs Minnesota Duluth

Well to start with the good events from the weekend, the Gopher hockey team showed what kind of potential they have after a weekend sweep of the UMD Bulldogs in Duluth. Friday night was a hard fought game with the game ending late in overtime. From the start of the game, the Gophers looked very focused. Erik Haula (from Schmidt, Bjugstad) scored his fourth goal of the season on the power-play. After multiple penalties from both sides, freshmen Kyle Rau (from J.Hansen, N.Condon) scored his second goal of the year and also scored on the power-play once again. That made it 2-0 Gophers after 1 period of play. The second period showed that the defending National champs would not go down easy. Duluth forward Caleb Herbert scored just five minutes into the period and that made the score 2-1 Gophers but a little over a minute later, Travis Oleksuk scored his third goal of the year on the power-play. The power-play was courtesy of a debatable game misconduct penalty for checking from behind on Gopher forward  Zach Budish.  The Gophers would answer with Rau again (from Haula, Schmidt) on a tap in power-play goal and made the score 3-2 Minnesota. The third period was a different story, with no scoring until late in the period. UMD scored with two minutes left in the game courtesy of Justin Crandell. As the clock winded down, the Gophers looked like they were out of luck, but after goalie Kent Patterson was pulled for a extra attacker, Erik Haula scored his second goal of the night (from N.Bjugstad, M.Alt). The game would then go to overtime. In the extra period, the Gophers and Bulldogs both put together surges but the one that would matter the most is with under a minute left, Nate Condon scored the game winner to close out a very well earned win for the upstart Gophers and give them a 1-0 series lead.

Game number two was a complete 180 from the first night. The Bulldogs scored two quick goals in the first period. Travis Oleksuk scored in the first minute of the game and Jack Connolly scored a power-play goal at 7:11 of the first period. The young Gophers however would not crumble. A charging penalty to UMD's David Grun gave Minnesota a power-play chance and would not let it go to waste as Jake Hansen scored his second goal (from E.Haula, N.Bjugstad) of the year. Towards the end of the first period, Nate Condon continued his hot series as he netted his second goal of the year (unassisted) to even the scoring up at 2-2. The Gophers were composed enough to climb back into the game. In the second period, the Gophers look to take control of the game with Nick Bjugstad scoring his third goal of the year (unassisted) a little over a minute into the new period and Nate Condon again scored to give the U of M a 4-2 lead after two periods. The third period however was one in which the game looked in question. Early on Kyle Rau scored his fourth goal of the year on the power-play which would end up being the game winning goal. Late in the period, Duluth gave the Gophers shot with Caleb Herbert scoring his second of the year and then under two minutes, J.T Brown scored his second of the season. That made the score 5-4 but the visitors from Minnesota would hang on for a series sweep and well earned series at that. Minnesota goaltender Kent Patterson stopped 92 of 100 shots faced in the two game series.