Join UND media relations director Jayson Hajdu and new media editor Matt Schill for a Fighting Sioux men's hockey travel blog throughout the weekend.
THURSDAY, MARCH 17th
Jayson (4:16 p.m.) -- Greetings from the 2011 Red Baron WCHA Final Five in St. Paul!
The first period of the tournament is in the books, with Minnesota Duluth leading Bemidji State 2-1.
The Sioux left Grand Forks last night and spent the night in Plymouth, Minn., before practicing on the Augsburg campus this morning. The practice featured an extremely high tempo, and I asked Dave Hakstol to summarize it with one word. He resoponded, "borderline 'fierce.'"
I'd say that's a good sign that the team is approaching the weekend as a one-and-done type of situation, even though a berth in the NCAA tournament is a lock. That attitude is hardly surprising, after the way the players handled questions at media day on Wednesday. The theme of the questions surrounded the team's approach to a tournament, which they could lose and not have their season end.
To a man, every player emphatically stated that the team's goal is to win the Final Five. Period.
The nice thing is, the words are genuine. They required no pre-interview coaching from myself or Hakstol. And they never do.
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It's been pretty light on the media end of things today. Brad Schlossman sat down with Danny Kristo, who practiced with the team this week and made the trip to St. Paul. Kristo's playing status is still unkown, but look for Schlossman's story on Danny to run in Friday's Grand Forks Herald. The sophomore from Eden Prairie, Minn., tells everything about that fateful night when he suffered severe frostbite to toes on his foot.
There have been some fanciful stories out there about what supposedly happened that night, and the originators of those rumors will be quite surprised to hear the truth.
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Matt Frattin and Jason Gregoire will each do interviews tonight with Julie Robenhymer of HockeyBuzz.com. HockeyBuzz primarily covers the National Hockey League, but Julie has provided tremendous exposure to the college game with her coverage.
Frattin's Hobey Baker Award fate will be announced at 6 p.m. Central, when the national finalists are announced.
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Finally, Mike Chambers of the Denver Post spoke with Brad Malone this week as part of an update he is doing on Jesse Martin. It is Brad's first interview about the incident since it happened in late October.
Look for the Post to run that story tomorrow.
Matt (8:26 p.m.) -- This is now my second entry. Jayson erased my first entry. Some boss, huh?
Anyway, my original entry was some witty response (probably not) to Jayson's long first entry. How does a guy follow that? Apparently he's been hard (if we believe him). Meanwhile, I was out working the crowd, finding Sioux fans and lots of green and white during the St. Patrick's Day Parade (if you believe me).
Anyway, I took a photo from the event: http://twitpic.com/4aekuw Stay tuned to our Twitter feeds: @UNDMHockey, @mattschill and @UNDSID. Hopefully, we'll provide a little more fun into the #finalfive.
Jayson (8:29 p.m.) -- Congratulations to UND's Matt Frattin, who, to the surprise of no one except Bruce Ciskie (sorry Bruce, couldn't resist), was named one of 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists tonight.
Frattin is UND's first finalist for the top award in college hockey since Ryan Duncan won it in 2006-07. He also becomes the 21st Sioux to be named a finalist, matching the number on Frattin's sweater.
You can read about all 10 finalists HERE.
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More congratulations are in order, this time for a former Sioux. Chris VandeVelde, who led UND in scoring last season, was called up by the Edmonton Oilers this morning and is making his NHL debut in Phoenix as I type this.
Chris is one of the most laid back, easygoing student-athletes I've ever had the pleasure to work with, making him a very easy person to cheer for. It doesn't hurt that he's suiting up for my favorite NHL team either.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18
Matt (12:29 p.m.) -- It's game day. UND set to face Colorado College this evening. Jayson will have an update on morning skate later today.
Here I am trying to fight for my own space in this shared blog, and we're getting called by Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. That's it, Schlossy, this blog war is on.
One of the great things about the Final Five is the people. It's a place were fans from all over the league come to watch and talk hockey. It's also a place for all the staff and media to do the same. Some of us use the time to catch up on the news and rumors from other teams, or trade techniques of the job, bettering ourselves professionally. Others (not naming any specific Herald hockey writers) stay to themselves, find the nearest pepperoni pizza as possible and flip on the old internet poker.
As for the fans, we'll be at the pre-game party and post a short video of the action. Until then ...
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Jayson (2:57 p.m.) -- So Schlossman has decided the gloves are off, eh? That's fine. We had plenty of fun without him, thank you very much. I hope he's not surprised when I give all future Sioux men's hockey exclusives to Jess Myers.
He should also cross his fingers we are on the same team next Tuesday at floor hockey.
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In all seriousness, the hospitality suite at the Final Five, graciously hosted by Tom and Cathy St. Martin for more than 20 years, is can't miss. It's the one time a year all of my SID colleagues from around the league are in one spot and there's never a shortage of laughs.
It was also great to run into Dean Blais. Congratulations on Coach Blais on once again being named head coach of the U.S. World Junior team.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19
Matt (11:50 a.m.) -- Sometimes we take it for granted at home in Grand Forks, but in a setting like this, it's easy to see the passion of UND fans.
The largely pro-UND fans of 15,000 in attendance at yesterday's game. The long line of hundreds to get into the pre-game party at the Hamm Building. Most even showed before the start time of 5 p.m. The Sioux jerseys, hats and shirts throughout St. Paul. There are a number of examples, but this has been a great weekend, so far, for UND fans.
We don't always get a chance to thank them, but here's a chance to do so. Thank you.
A few Sioux fan links from yesterday: Pre-game photos and video from the party. The best part? We do it again today.
Jayson (5:56 p.m.) -- I apologize for the lack of bloggage today, but it certainly wasn't an average regular season Saturday. So let's start at the beginning.
Nearly every Sioux player participated in the morning's optional gameday skate, which lasted the normal 30 minutes. The staff got the opportunity to say hello to former Sioux assistant coach and defenseman Brad Berry, now an associate coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets defeated the Wild this afternoon.
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Speaking of the Wild game, after running back to the hotel to change, Coach Hakstol and I ventured back to the Xcel, where he and DU coach George Gwozdecky kicked off the Wild-Blue Jackets game by leading the crowd in the in the traditional 'Let's Play Hockey' cheer.
Hakstol, by the way, was roundly booed by the crowd. As he said to me with a smile leaving the arena, 'Did you expect something else?'
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On our way out of the press box, Hakstol was intercepted by another former Sioux defenseman, Brad Bombardir, who wanted to wish his old college teammate luck. Bombardir is now the Wild's director of player development and senior director of community relations.
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After finally getting back to my normal Saturday routine of updating the media information packet for tonight's game, I received a call from an ESPN producer to wrap up details for tomorrow's selection show. ESPN will be sending a camera crew to Engelstad Arena to get live reaction of the players as their tournament location and opponent are announced.
ESPN's John Buccigross will interview Hobey Baker Award finalist Matt Frattin on the show after UND's fate is announced. I'm also told that Evan Trupp's stickhandling wizardry from last night will be featured during the UND segment.
The selection show airs on ESPN2 at 10:30 a.m. Central.
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Only two days remain to vote for Chay Genoway for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The fan voting has a major impact on the final result, and Chay is currently third in the voting. So let's do our part, Sioux fans! You can vote HERE.
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Exchanged a few text messages with former Sioux captain Peter Armbrust after last night's game. He will be in the house for tonight's championship game. The first Final Five I ever attended was in 1997 when Armbrust, then a freshman, scored the OT winner against Minnesota.
