Final Five starts tonight.

Without me. I have been at all of the final 5s that have included the Huskies for a long time. It's well known fact to people that know me, that I was a big fan of the St. Cloud State hockey team. It might have started when I was very young, eating popcorn off of the bleacher floor, when my parent's took me to some games at the arena. I vividly remember a game I watched on TV in college at NDSU (a school with no hockey team). This was before the dorms had cable, and I was watching championship game in the final five tournement in a deserted bowling alley in the basement of the student union, and the Huskies were playing the hated Gophers. It was an all time great game, and the huskies lost a heartbreaker in overtime. And the time we drove to Milwaukee for the final five, and in the play in game (alot like tonights) we prevailed over UMD in overtime. That was GREAT, even though we lost the next day. After college I moved back to St. Cloud, and missed very few home games. There were some good years with players like Matt Cullen, Tyler Anason, Mark Parrish and Ryan Malone, that have had reasonably successful NHL carreers. I guess I'm still a fan, but I live in Oregon now. It could just as well be costa rica, as far as the sport of hockey goes, the nearest real rink is about a 3 hour drive from where I live now.

The energy at the National hockey center is unbeatable (in my opinion), and the atmosphere at the game tonight in the Excel engergy center where SCSU will play the UMD Bulldogs will be great, but I will not be there, not be watching on TV, or even listening to the game. I might check the score tonight if I remember, to see if the Huskies can pull it out. If they win, I may try to watch or listen tomorrow for the semis. If they lose, their done and they can start worrying about next year. Good Luck to them.

Now-a-days, there is a Thursday night broom hockey league, played at a rink about 15 miles south of Bend in Sun River. The rink is the best one for hockey (or broom hockey=like broomball with hockey skates) within a 3 hour drive from Bend. The rink itself is only about 1/4 the size of a real hockey rink. Maybe someday Bend will build a real one? This is definaltly not a hockey hotbed though. You can't even get your skates sharpend here! I'll stick to XC skiing. Exactly one week until Masters Nationals begins...