I’ve been asking and finally got the answer. The Gophers men’s hockey awards banquet will be at noon on Saturday, May 3, at Mariucci Arena.

That’s a couple weeks later than last season.

I was hoping to attend — maybe somebody would say something interesting about the season — but have been told it is private. For players, staff and families only.

Few people knew, but I am Brent Solei’s second cousin twice removed. Just kidding. I did have a nephew play hockey for Elk River and Solei played for the Elks. But that probably won’t get me in.

FROZEN FOUR FEVER 

I’m getting excited for the Frozen Four. Unfortunately I will have to try and catch as much as I can on TV. The Star Tribune is not sending anybody to Denver.

Been doing some research on the teams. Notre Dame is quite an underdog story. The Irish, the second half of the season, had as much trouble scoring as the Gophers.

Michigan has the Hobey Baker Award favorite, Kevin Porter, and another senior who has played great, too, Chad Kolarik.

In the other game, Boston College has a bunch of snipers like Nathan Gerbe and Joe Whitney that just came at you. They drove the Gophers nuts by continually getting open around the net.

Then there is big, bad North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux have a handful of Minnesota players and their coach, Dave Hakstol, is up for the Coach of the Year despite being suspended for two games after making an obscene gesture to a referee in one of North Dakota’s games at Mariucci.

Junior T.J. Oshie of Warroad is as dangerous a forward as they come. Watch him. It might be the last time you will see him in a Sioux uniform. He and several other could turn pro.

Defenseman Chay Genoway is a dynamic player, too, who can take the puck end to end. And defenseman Joe Finley is big and rugged.

Should be a good matchup. Drop the puck already.

A MILESTONE POST

This is my 200th post on Gophers’ hockey this season. Hope you enjoyed a few of them at least. I will try to keep on top of any Gophers’ offseason news as much as possible. But they don’t have optional mini-camps, spring practices, etc., so I’m not sure how much there will be.

FRAZEE GONE?

I made a bunch of calls Tuesday night checking on junior goalie Jeff Frazee, but found out nothing definitely.

The rumor is he has either signed or is closed to signing with the New Jersey Devils. But the Devils’ website had nothing and a person close to the team knew nothing about Frazee’s status. Will keep checking today.

His leaving would not be a surprise, but it would mean the Gophers would have to bring in two goalies for next season, one as a backup to freshman Alex Kangas, the other primarily for practice.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.