Nice goal!

In honor of the NCAA tournament

Not only does North Dakota have a racist mascot, follow this link:
http://gif.mocksession.com/2011/04/northdakotabird/
  - to see that they have some really classy fans.  But who didn't already know that?! 
Go Pioneers and Falcons!

Now that's a PK clear!

Call me a homer, but this may have been the college hockey goal of the year.  DU's David Makowski:

The worst part of the year for sports....

....is upon us.  Ergo, I am going to suggest Track and Field - specifically women's college Pole Vault.

More love for the Blue Devils?!?!

We already showed you E5 proudly sporting a Duke hockey jersey...and the love continues.  During the NCAA lacrosse tournament the announcers typically spent a lot of time talking about Duke's two all-americans on Attack, Ned Crotty and Max Quinzani.

They mentioned that Crotty was a two-time all-State hockey player in New Jersey, won a player of the year award, and had recently been elected into the state's high school hockey hall of fame.

Quinzani, from Duxbury, MA - with 68 goals last season and 199 for his career, was also an excellent hockey player as he led his high school hockey team to a state title.  More importantly, while at Duke he changed his number from # 16 to # 8 - because it was "more slimming" and because of his all-time favorite hockey player - who else but Cam Neely.  Gotta love that guy!

NCAA Lacrosse Final

The overtime of the NCAA Lacrosse championship game.

Dates - The Frozen Four

Looks like a re-match of the 2006 National Championship as Wisconsin will play Boston College.  Speaking of college....

The McNaughton Cup

For the WCHA regular season champion!

The Gold Pan returns to Denver

And your DU Pioneers head into the WCHA playoffs as the # 1 team in the country!

God bless America

In case you missed it, the USA beat Canada for the Gold Medal in the World Junior Championships Tuesday night in Saskatoon (yes, really). 

The USA gave up two late goals to Cananda that sent the game into OT tied at 5-5.

John Carlson scored this game winner in overtime!  The team included DU D-man Matt Donovan and incoming DU recruit Jason Zucker. 

Congrats to the boys!

College basketball?

I hear it is underway. I know UCONN is always strong....and I hear great things about their volleyball team!

more college

Speaking of college, your Denver University Pioneers travel to Minneapolis this weekend to play the always annoying Minnesota Golden Gophers. The famous Tyler Hirsch meltdown is here.

The new Boone mascot

Last Thursday in Washington DC, at the Lincoln Memorial, staff from the always brilliant "Let's Go DU" Hockey Blog presented the new "unofficial" Denver Pioneers Boone mascot. One of our staff was in attendance to capture this quality photo of our new hero.On an amusing side note, I heard the following conversation:

Child "I want to get my picture with that pirate!"

Dad: "I'm not sure that's a pirate?"

Mom: "I don't know what that thing is!"

Reminder...

The Tournament starts tomorrow (oh, today). Our beloved DU Pioneers go in as a # 1 seed and face the Miami Redhawks - Friday March 27th at 3: 30 PM MST. Here is a link with the bracket and a link with the TV schedule.

Remember, playing hockey, watching hockey, and drinking beer makes you a better person. Especially if you can combine those last two. At least that is what Sean Connery says......

Nice Hat!

Yes - this improbable Hat Trick from Minnesota State's Zach Harrison was a nice way for him to start the NCAA season.

Voting for Boone, part 2?

Once again, time to vote for Boone. A chance to help DU get away from the jelly donut logo and re-embrace tradition. Follow this link to express your views.

To follow up on Peter McNab's thoughts, you can see one of our all-time favorite DU Pioneers, Conor James, from earlier this year scoring his first NHL goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins - right here - go to the second goal in the 3rd period.

It is tournament time....

You had to know that this week's entries would all relate to college hockey. The big reminder though is that the Frozen Four is in Denver on April 10th and 12th at the Pepsi Center - here is the info link. It is rare to get to see this nostalgic of sporting events, so I hope I see you there!

The State of College Hockey?

That's right, read 'em and weep. Colorado gets all three of it's Division 1 college hockey programs into the National Tournament. And if you are scoring at home, that is more teams than from any other state - including Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York!
Mike Chambers alluded to this in his Denver Post college hockey blog, and the blog to which all bloggers should aspire - "Let's Go DU" - (where I stole this picture) also links to several articles.

The Anthony Maiani goal

DU Freshman forward Anthony Maiani scored the winning goal in game 2 against Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the WCHA tournament. He did it again in the # 2 vs. # 3 seed, semi-final game against the hated Sioux of North Dakota, on the way to DU's WCHA tournament championship.
There are also two great fundamentals on this play to think about: keep your feet moving and be aware of your defensive positioning. Honestly though, this is a pretty goal and one of the best backhands you will ever see. You can tell how great it is from the announcers laughing "That was ridiculous" commentary. Enjoy!