Headline: U survives brawl in Houghton, penalties mar series with Tech
Publish Date: 02/06/1995
Matthew Cross
Staff Reporter
 
Houghton, Mich. -- A 3-3 tie Friday and an 8-1 win Saturday over
Michigan Tech is enough to satisfy the Gophers hockey team, but they
are still hungry.
 
The three points the Gophers earned for their performance this
weekend keep them in the race for second place in the WCHA, but
Minnesota gained little ground in the conference standings.
 
The Gophers remain in fourth place in the conference behind Colorado
College, Wisconsin and Denver. The Tigers split at Alaska-Anchorage,
and Wisconsin and Denver swept their respective WCHA foes this
weekend.
 
For Minnesota, Gophers coach Doug Woog described the weekend as one
of ``survival'' not only in the standings but in the games themselves.
The two teams compiled 281 penalty minutes in the two-game series, in
what Woog called the worst series for penalties this season.
 
The Gophers set team records for penalties and penalty minutes in a
single period when they were given 12 penalties for 64 minutes in the
third period of Saturday's game.
 
The WCHA record for penalty minutes in a period is 70, which was set
at the WCHA playoffs last season by Alaska-Anchorage in the third
period of a game at Northern Michigan.
 
After the first game, Huskies coach Bob Mancini blamed the Gophers
for causing the penalty war.
 
``I was surprised that, with all the crap Minnesota pulled, they were
still in the game in the second period,'' Mancini said. ``They had
one line out there whose only purpose, it seemed, was to start stuff.
I was disgusted by that.''
 
Woog merely shook his head at Mancini's remark, but agreed that the
physical style of play was not admirable.
 
``That was a step beyond what I call good hockey,'' Woog said. ``It
made it difficult to do some things, but we've got to overcome that
and we never did (in the first game).''
 
Rookie winger Ryan Kraft, the top-scoring first-year player in the
WCHA, said the Michigan Tech players were out of control.
 
``(The Huskies) have good skill when they want to use it, but that
`goony' style of play takes away from the game,'' Kraft said. ``And
once you lose control, you're already beaten.''
 
Control was definitely lost in the third period on Saturday afternoon
when Gophers goaltender Jeff Moen, who earned the Winter Carnival
series MVP honors, was hit for the second time by MTU's Jason Prokopetz.
 
Minnesota defenseman Jay Moser hurried to retaliate, but ended up in
the emergency room after getting double-teamed by Prokopetz and Tim
Harris in the third period fight.
 
He suffered a swollen left eye that required four stitches and was in
the hospital for two hours. It was suspected that Moser broke his
orbit bone around his eye, but the X-rays were negative and he is in
good condition.
 
Moser, teammate Jesse Bertogliat and Michigan Tech's Prokopetz and
Harris were all disqualified and given five-minute major penalties
for fighting.
 
Gophers rookie winger Casey Hankinson was involved in a scuffle on
Friday night and received his second disqualification of the season.
Under NCAA rules, he must sit out two games, so Hankinson missed
Saturday's game and will miss Friday's home game against Minnesota-Duluth.
 
Moser and Bertogliat will also miss Friday's game because of their
disqualifications.
 
The Gophers, however, had their best offensive game Saturday when
they scored eight times.
 
More importantly, the scoring was spread among 14 Gophers players.
Moser and Charlie Wasley scored their first goals of the season, Jed
Fiebelkorn got his second goal of the season and Bertogliat got his
third point of the season on an assist of Fiebelkorn's goal.
 
The brightest spot was the stellar play of backup goaltender Moen,
who started in place of Jeff Callinan on Saturday when Callinan
didn't perform well on Friday.
 
Moen stopped 23 shots in his best performance of the season. He also
picked up his first win of the year.
 
``(My performance) meant a lot to me,'' Moen said. ``It let my
frustrations go and added to my confidence.''
 
Senior co-captain Scott Bell led the team with four points on a pair
of goals and two assists for the weekend.
 
``That's my job,'' Bell said.
 
Gopher notes: Rookie winger Joe Pankratz tore cartilage in his knee
and will undergo arthroscopic surgery Tuesday. Pankratz was getting
up from a chair in study hall Wednesday when he turned his knee and
popped it. Although the surgery is minor and he will be home the same
day, Pankratz will be out of action for two to three weeks.
 
Carol S. White                            BITNET: c-whit@uminn1
University of Minnesota        internet:[log in to unmask]
Office of the Registrar
(612) 625-8517                                    GO Gophers!!!