I felt it appropriate to steal SCSU's icon for this because we all know UND fans, like their hockey team, are cheap losers that have to be cheap to win.
It seems to me in the little time I've spent following the game of college hockey and the WCHA that one fallacy immediately springs to mind every playoff time, and that is the belief that the Xcel energy center is a 'neutral' site. Yes, thats right, a mere stones throw from the UMTC campus, this venue somehow remains a 'neutral' location. Every school that competes in the final five save one (well, not counting this year) has to travel to the arena, some as little as 70 miles, some as much as 1,000 miles (UAA doesn't count). Then there's the team that can ride their bikes to the arena. Who thought that would be neutral? Even the pep band has to make a day of the drive down.
Therefore I propose an alternative. There is one arena within the WCHA that will likely never see its team in the Final Five, so I propose we do it there. That location? the MacInnes Ice Arena. We know that the Huskies would never play in the tourney, and the arena itself is nicely located on the UP, far enough out in the booneys that every team in the tournament would more or less have to take at least a half if not a full day to get there, and the pep band wouldn't even have to go anywhere!
It makes perfect sense.
It seems to me in the little time I've spent following the game of college hockey and the WCHA that one fallacy immediately springs to mind every playoff time, and that is the belief that the Xcel energy center is a 'neutral' site. Yes, thats right, a mere stones throw from the UMTC campus, this venue somehow remains a 'neutral' location. Every school that competes in the final five save one (well, not counting this year) has to travel to the arena, some as little as 70 miles, some as much as 1,000 miles (UAA doesn't count). Then there's the team that can ride their bikes to the arena. Who thought that would be neutral? Even the pep band has to make a day of the drive down.
Therefore I propose an alternative. There is one arena within the WCHA that will likely never see its team in the Final Five, so I propose we do it there. That location? the MacInnes Ice Arena. We know that the Huskies would never play in the tourney, and the arena itself is nicely located on the UP, far enough out in the booneys that every team in the tournament would more or less have to take at least a half if not a full day to get there, and the pep band wouldn't even have to go anywhere!
It makes perfect sense.
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