The Final Five

Today was supposed to be a day of great anticipation.  This Monday marks the beginning of the week that culminates in the greatest sports weekend of the year.  Unfortunately, a lot of that enthusiasm is gone, following the unceremonious exit of the Golden Gophers in two games at the hands of Alaska-Anchorage.

Last July, when the news of another early departure shook the Gopher hockey program, I opined on how far things had fallen the past few years.  Since then, as another disappointing season unfolded, my feelings haven't changed.  While I definitely don't want to see Minnesota back on top of the college hockey heap, the lack of their presence at the league tourney takes some of the wind out of it's sails.  Never is that felt more keenly than a day like today, instead of eager anticipation, many of my compatriots and stuck lamenting what went wrong.  I'm not going to let it affect my mood, as my team is still scheduled for Friday night at the X, and I'm extremely fired up.  It's just that events are always more fun when people are fired up and attendance is solid, the more buzz the merrier.

So instead of a Thursday night game and potential showdown with the Sioux looming, Gopher fans get to spend today wondering how they've managed to sink lower still.  As I wrote last week, Anchorage is not a good team.  They may have played well this past weekend, and gotten some phenomenal goaltending, but they're still an 8th place team with a losing record.  Minnesota can, has and should've blown them off the ice.  Or at least pushed it to a third game.  Or at a minimum looked interested in participating on Saturday!  Instead, they followed up a poor effort on Friday with one that was even worse on Saturday.  The issues facing the team have been re-hashed ad nauseum over the past few years, and it's happening enough places right now that I don't need to belabor it here.  Let me just say that although we don't see eye to eye, I feel your pain Gopher fans, and hope this thing gets back to respectability soon.

But enough of that negativity, because as I've mentioned several times, the best sports weekend of the year starts this Thursday!!!

My personal Top 5:

1) Final Five/March Madness - In a class by itself, due to the nonstop action it offers.  Do-or-die hoops action starts at 11 AM and runs until midnight, with a constant stream of clutch moments throughout. 48 games hammered out in 96 hours, whittling the 64 tourney teams down to 16 by Sunday evening.  But March Madness is only the backdrop for things, and although it's the greatest backdrop one could wish for, it's secondary to the live action on the ice.  Toss in 5 hockey games over the course of 3 days and, at least in a typical year, one of America's best St. Patrick's Day celebrations...well you had me at hello.

2) NFL opening weekend/college football/MLB pennant races - I probably rate this higher than some, due to my love of football.  But when you have the most popular league in America kicking off the day after you get your first dose of big time college matchups (following the first weekend's slate of cupcakes in tune-up games, and have important baseball games happening to boot?  Well that's one heck of a weekend!

3) The Masters/MLB return/NHL crunch time/Frozen Four - If you're not a golf fan, that's unfortunate, because the Master's is a great event that serves as the signal spring has finally arrived each year.  It typically coincides with one of the first weekends of baseball season, either the last regular season/first playoff weekend in the NHL and college hockey's Frozen Four.  Pretty darn good slate there when it all comes together, and kind of the bridge between the seasons in this part of the world.  Sure NHL season won't technically be over for another 8 weeks, but psychologically you're moving on down the road.

4) Final weekend in October - Tipoff of the NBA intersecting with baseball playoffs makes this the only time all year that the 4 major sports are happening at the same time.

5) Thanksgiving - Okay, so sports aren't the first thing that spring to mind when you think Thanksgiving, but with the staggered NFL schedule, the college basketball and hockey tourneys, NBA and NHL throwing out their best matchups and a full slate of crucial college football games, it definitely makes the cut.  Used to be neck-and-neck in this slot with NFL Draft weekend (playoff hockey, early-season baseball, etc.), but then they moved the draft to Thursday night and screwed everything up.

So there it is, the best of them all starts in only a few short days, and I couldn't be more excited.  Started attending this tourney a few years ago, and if it's up to me, will never miss it.

Some personal memories:
 
2003

The Final Five: Colorado College, Duluth, Mankato, Minnesota, North Dakota

Highlight: Not much for me, as the only game I attended was the unceremonious 2-1 bouncing of the Sioux by the Duluth Bulldogs.  About the only thing I remember about it was thinking it was the emptiest I'd ever seen the Xcel Center.  I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to note that I regret missing Mankato's only appearance in the tourney since I've been attending.  I'm not losing too much sleep.

2004

The Final Five: Anchorage(!), Colorado College, Duluth, Mankato, Minnesota, North Dakota

Highlight: Also only made it to one game this time out, but it was an amazing one that made me a fan of this tourney for life.  Won't rehash that all again, just repeat it was one of the best games I've ever seen.  I'll always remember getting the call that there was an extra ticket and catching a ride down with a buddy.  His girlfriend (now wife) gave us a ride, and when we hopped out of the car, I manage to kick a toy that was in the backseat onto West 7th.  I picked up what I thought was all of said toy, but apparently lost some piece of it. 

This would seem a trivial and forgettable episode, but for the fact it caused me to get branded for the rest of my days as "the guy who kicked my son's toy into the street".  Not a good moniker to carry, as bad as being "that drunk guy who pissed on the floor", which I've also been on a couple of occasions.  Not proud of that.  Of course I am not "that drunk guy who took a header down the stairs at McGovern's and opened up a bloody gash on his forehead", that was my aforementioned pal Jud, about two hours after his Gophers won the title, good times.

2005

The Final Five: Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin

Highlight: You know in soccer, when a guy scores a goal, then goes running full speed and slides along the ground while celebrating?  I've determined that it also works quite well on the carpeting at the X.  North Dakota was battling for it's tourney life during the Thursday night play-in game against Wisconsin.  As luck would have it, this particular Thursday also coincided with St. Paddy's, and I'd been celebrating since the AM hours.  The Sioux scored a huge third period goal to take the lead and the Mexican Soccer Slide was born.  I came to rest at the feet of two St. Paul cops, who were more than a bit amused with my celebration.  Not wanting to get into any line of questioning about how much I'd had to drink that day, I simply hopped up, said "Huge goal" and went back to the business of spectating.  The tourney ended with a dull 1-0 Denver victory over Colorado College in the championship game, but will always be remembered as my first year attending every game.

2006

The Final Five: Duluth, Minnesota, North Dakota, St. Cloud, Wisconsin

Highlight: This was the first time I got to see the Sioux win this tourney, an impressive feat for a team that had finished 5th in the conference and having something of a down season.  That championship was somewhat overshadowed by another game that, while I wouldn't call it one of the best I've seen played, would certainly rank among the most entertaining.  St. Cloud was a .500 team during the 2005-06 season, that found itself up against league champion Minnesota in the Friday night semifinal.  What ensued was a wild and crazy affair that included 15 goals, a 3-goal comeback by the Gophers, which included tallies with under a second left in the 2nd period and 15 seconds remaining to force OT in the 3rd.  Just when you thought St. Cloud was done, they popped the OT winner past my all-time favorite Gopher, Jeff Frazee, and moved on to meet Nodak in the Finals.  Hilarious because it led directly to our buddy Andy f-bombing Frazee in front of his dad at next year's tourney.

2007


The Final Five: Michigan Tech, Minnesota, North Dakota, St. Cloud, Wisconsin
Highlight: Tech sighting!  Typically, the only representation Tech has at the Final Five is it's excellent band, they're the ones dressed in yellow-and-black striped overall. (Quick sidenote, while sitting in a suite during 2006, our group pioneered the "invite the entire band into the suite to play a tune" craze that has become common at this tourney.  The idea came from a wily Xcel employee who thought it would be funny to sneak the band in as a surprise to an extremely hungover member of the entourage during Saturday's third-place game.  Turns out it was hilarious and a tradition was born that got brought back every year.  But like anything else, people saw it and it spawned a gang of imitators.  Just know it was not your idea.)  If memory serves, this was also the year when my buddy Scott saw a man get struck by vehicle, another championship classic. 

Scott was minding his own business, talking on the phone out in front of the Liffey, when a guy stepped out into the street and got SMOKED, losing his shoes and cell phone in the process.  Scott and others rushed over to see if the gent was still breathing, but after a couple of unconscious minutes, he popped up, retrieved his phone and picked up the conversation right where he'd left off.  This is the kind of thing you absolutely kill yourself for missing when you hear the story, could've crossed something off the bucket list and I was 30 yards away! Missed opportunities.

Oh yeah, there was also a g championship game that year, some guy named Wheeler scored

2008

The Final Five: Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota, North Dakota, St. Cloud


Highlight: This year's tourney was all about Minnesota.  The Gophers entered the playoffs as a bubble team, played an epic three-game series on the road at Mankato (total of 5 OT periods in 3 games, and the classic "everyone in this building is standing, except for the folks in wheelchairs" quote from Doug Woog), beat St. Cloud in a 3-2 play-in thriller (for which I was seated on the glass) and beat CC in OT, before giving Denver all they could handle in a 2-1 championship loss.  The Sioux fell to Denver in the semifinals, which I believe was their 581st consecutive Final Five loss to the Pioneers.  Or perhaps it just seemed that way.


2009

The Final Five: Denver, Duluth, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin

Highlight: Duluth becomes the first team to win the title from the play-in game, ousting Minnesota, North Dakota and Denver along the way.  Uber-hot goaltender Alex Stalock allows one goal in three games, pitching shutouts in the last two.  My brother came to the tourney this year, and we scared him so bad that he hasn't been back since.  At least that's what I think.

2010

The Final Five: Denver, Duluth, North Dakota, St. Cloud, Wisconsin

Highlight: The first non-Gopher year I ever experienced, and sadly not the last, the atmosphere wasn't quite on par with past seasons.  But things were great on the ice, as the Sioux finally hand Denver it's first ever loss in a Final Five at the Xcel, with a 4-3 victory in the Friday night semifinal.  I believe the streak got to 10 games, meaning the Pioneers had won five tourney titles in the last decade without a single blemish on their record.  Of course they missed the tourney entirely a few times, as noted previously, but still a huge monkey to get rid of.  Other highlight of the weekend was touring Target Field that Saturday.  Watching UND win the championship again was nice, but after the breaking the Denver hex and seeing the inside of the new stadium, beating St. Cloud again just gets to be kind of blah.

2011

The Final Five: Anchorage, Bemidji, Colorado College, Denver, Duluth, North Dakota

Highlight: The darkest days in Gopher hockey are upon us, as Minnesota is swept out of the playoffs on home ice by lowly Anchorage.  Two seasons in a row of something that used to be a given has fans looking for answers, and generally lamenting the horror of the whole situation.  Bemidji fans make a nice effort to pick up the slack caused by Minnesota and St. Cloud missing the tourney, and are rewarded with a fun OT victory.  North Dakota plays two thrillers on it's way to back-to-back titles, beating CC with a late 3rd period goal in the semis and Denver in double-OT on Saturday.

2012

The Final Five: Denver, Duluth, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, North Dakota, St. Cloud

Highlight: Gophers back at full strength, if they tell you they always were, that's not true, it's not even debateable.  Also unique for the first Michigan Tech sighting in 4 years, but this year's tourney will forever be known to North Dakota fans as the "Timeout Game".  After getting worked like a part-time job for 30 minutes and trailing 3-0 in the Friday night semifinal, UND called a timeout...then promptly ran off 6 straight goals to complete the scoring.  I've never in my life seen a game in any sport turn so completely.  The next night they thumped Denver 4-0 to win an almost passe 3rd Broadmoor trophy in a row.  Unfortunately, after continuing that tradition, they also continued the tradition of the Final Five victor between these two teams losing in the national tourney, as Minnesota ended their season a week later.

So what will happen this year?  Will North Dakota make it 4 in a row?  Will St. Cloud win their first title in 10 years?  Will Mankato make a run at their first ever?  Will the Gophers finally get back to the championship game for the first time in 6 years?

ALl I know is, I can't wait to find out, drop the puck!