What a night in WCHA Hockey Playoffs

Final Scores from Game 1 of the WCHA Playoffs



Duluth upsets Denver in OT 3-2!! Huge Upset!!

Mankato upsets North Dakota in OT 3-2!! Another upset but the way Mankato is rolling it is not a suprise. North Dakota has lost its edge and maybe peaked to early in the season.

St. Cloud State upsets CC 2-1. Wow...another shocker! All three of these losses were against the home team.

Minnesota upends Alaska-Anchorage 7-4. This was a lopsided score but the game was not. AK really played well and the Gophers came out flat. Potulny gains his third hat trick of the season and fourth of his career. Gordon also had two goals on the night. They meet at Mariucci again tonight at 7pm CST.

Wisconsin rolled over Michigan Tech 4-1.

Outside of the WCHA a HUGE upset was Alaska-Fairbanks shocking Michigan State 2-1 in the begining of the CCHA tourney.

What a great night in Hockey! You can see the USCHO projected NCAA bracket for March 10th here.

WCHA Tournament Round 1:

Samsung SCH-a950 VCast Phone

Ok, imagine you are stuck on a deserted island with nothing but one palm tree, a monkey with a cold and your VCast phone. Now pull your head out of the gutter...

This is a nice phone. It has some weight to it and feels solid. The price is a little much ($79.99 with a 2 year contract and $129 with a one year contract) but still competitive. It has standard cell phone functionality but it really has a nice screen. Bright and clear (which it needs for the video) and the sound from the external speaker is not to bad.

This is a great phone if you are into watching re-runs of late night TV shows and cartoons (Bugs Bunny) from the early 80's. Gnarly. I am not sure if the phone actually streams video. It does buffer but...I don't know. Seems like it takes too long. It acts more like it is downloading vs. streaming. Once the video gets to the phone it is crystal clear. I was very impressed. The sound again was ok but plugged into the headphone jack it sounds much better.

This is the problem. The cheapest plan I could find on Verizons site was 1350 minutes for $79.99 a month. Add the VCast (which they push HUGE on their commercials) and you add $15 a month. Calculator says...$95 a month. Now add text messaging. The lowest plan is $10 per month and the highest is $20 a month. Calculator says...$105 to $115 a month. Ack!

You think that is the worst? Say you hear a really cool song on the radio and you want to download the music video to your VCast phone. $3.99 per song! Double ACK!! I don't think I am going to pay hip hop stars to jump around on my VCast phone for $3.99 a piece. Thy should pay me for the suffering I endure when listening to that garbage. Oh ya, that goes for country too. Blech!


On the outside of the phone is another color screen and a control panel so you can play, pause and skip forward or backward through your playlists. You can also connect headphones and it incorporates a set of stereo speakers.

The phone also has MicroSD (up to 1GB of data), Bluetooth and a Hi Res camera (1.3 Megapixel).

The SCH-a950 is available now and retails for $250.

NCAA Bracket as of March 5th

See it here.

Gophers and Bulldogs, Game 2

That is all she wrote, the fat lady has sung, the cow has left the barn, and Elvis, has indeed, left the building. He followed the Bulldogs out as they went back to Duluth with a 2-0 loss in Saturdays game against the Gophers. I do not envy the Bulldogs because now they start the WCHA playoffs in Denver and the Gophers host Alaska Anchorage.

Potulny got another 2 points tonight. He scored the game winning goal and an open net goal at the end of the game. He ended up 7 points shy of NCAA leader Scott Parse of UNO with 54 points on the season. The only difference is that 31 of those points...are goals. 23 are assists. Parse had 20 goals 41 assists. So Potulny does lead the NCAA's in goals over Brett Sterling from CC. Can you say Hobey Baker? I knew you could. I hope he wins it. He is having a great season.

Next Friday night it is the Sea Wolves and the Gophers at Mariucci. I am not going (so far) but I will be watching. This is the best of 3 but I don't think MN will need more than 2 to put the Sea Wolves away!

Go Gophers!!

Gophers and Bulldogs...It Wasn't Pretty

Oh those lowly Bulldogs. After the Gophers handed them their fifth straight loss tonight with a 7-0 romp, they tucked their tales and headed for the locker room. The Gophers dominated this game allowing only 1 shot on goal in the first period, 10 in the second and 10 in the third. One positive for the Bulldogs was the fact they outshot the Gophers in the 3rd period 10-7. That is definitely the only positive though.

The Gophers scored the first goal on a Ryan Potulny feed to Ryan Stoa at 9:31 of the first. This was the game winner. The second period had goals from Evan Kaufmann (2), Mike Vanelli and Ben Gordon. The third period brought another goal from Ryan Stoa and the final goal of the evening was scored by Danny Irmen. Overall, 11 Gophers had points on the night.

My lucky, unlucky, lucky and unlucky streak at this game. I was lucky enough to enjoy this evening with my wife and some of our friends. My wife and I were in the third row while our friends were another section over and up a few more rows. I was unlucky because the Gophers spent almost the entire 1st period shooting on the Bulldog goal on the other side of the rink from me. I was lucky when, in the 1st period, a puck came hauling over the glass and I actually caught it. My first official WCHA Golden Gopher puck! I was so excited! I was unlucky in the fact that I did not notice it bounced off the 20 year old girls melon in front of me. Once she was done wiping the tears, I handed her the puck. She was very thankful. I would not feel right keeping it. Heck, I only caught it because her head added some backspin to the puck, slowing it down and allowing me to hang on to it. It was the noble thing to do (damn it).

When it was all said and done, it was a fun evening. The Gophers won the game, a fight broke out at the end of the game, the MacNaughton Trophey was handed out, we sat in traffic, picked up the boy and went home. What more could you ask for?
Ladies and germs, this Gopher Hockey Team is the real deal. I honestly think this is a better team by far than the 2002 and 2003 NCAA champion teams. All I can say is...WOW. It is all theirs to win!

Go Gophers and good night from The Crustacean Nation!