This rivalry in the past couple years is as good as any in college hockey. Both teams are big, both are physical, and they don't like each other. North Dakota and DU have both seen very good success in the last few years.
Last year, the Pioneers swept the entire season series. The Sioux fought very hard in Denver and were rewarded with losses of 1-0 and 3-2. On that Friday night, Magness was as loud as I have ever heard it, with nearly 40% of the crowd being Sioux fans. Saturday night, the refs hosed UND clearly, giving DU a huge advantage on the powerplay. Even Schloss made it quite clear that DU was getting beneficial calls. The Sioux should have tied the game but a video replay that was unclear gave DU the game. In January, the Sioux had a lackluster effort at home, getting swept by the Pioneers, but that possibly provided the spark they needed to turn their season around, which they did.
The Final Five finally gave the Sioux a victory over DU. Trupp played a great game and had Wooger singing his praises. UND eventually went on to win the Final Five championship game against St. Cloud.
So what will we see this weekend? Not Alanna Rizzo. She wants to hide from the Engelstad. Just as well. She can't report and she's really unfriendly. George get ejected? He's been ejected twice and both have come against the Sioux. A scrum? If we don't, neither team showed up. A fired up Sioux team? After getting their butts handed to them by Maine and their first home series of the season? Damn right.
It's going to be a hard-fought, physical series. And it's going to be a lot of fun. :-)
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3 comments:
Let's be realistic here. 40% Sioux fans at Magness? That's fucking absurd.
Maybe a bit og an exaggeration but I would say close to 30%
to the first anon - yeah, there was an alumni weekend there. And a lot of Sioux fans live in Denver. There were close to 40% there.
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