Well, the "Conspiracy Theory" has been laid to rest. Hopefully for the last
 time this season! ;-)
 
 The Gophers squeaked out a 2-1 victory on Friday night in Mariucci Arena and
 then went up to the National Hockey Center on Saturday night and won decidedly
 by a score of 4-1. I believe the magic is back.
 
 There was a VERY humorous article in the Saturday Star Tribune written by the
 infamous Pat Reusse. Here are some excerpts from that article:
 
 The Gophers' puck chasers win a greater percentage of regular-season games
 than the rest of the teams (of the 7 highly publicized teams in the Twin
 Cities) -- by a large margin. You would think that this would make the
 spectators in Mariucci Arena the most contented fans around.
 
 Mysteriously, they spend almost as much time moaning as the Vikings'
 followers, a group with plenty of reasons for their discontent. The Gophers'
 hockey loyalists have to search to find demons. Here is the list of grievances
 that have been popular lately:
 
 * The Mariucci faithful figured it was a conspiracy that no players with ties
 to the Gophers were included on the U.S.Olympic team, even though the coach,
 Dave Peterson, is a lifelong Minnesotan.
 
 * The Mariucci faithful were convinced a conspiracy was at work when the
 Gophers dropped to No. 2 in the coaches poll a few weeks ago. The No. 1 team
 -- Michigan -- had swept the Gophers earlier. Minnesota is currently rated
 third, behind Michigan and Maine. It has become part of the Gophers' tradition
 to complain about where the team is seeded in the NCAA tournament bracket.
 
 * The Gophers have not won the national championship since 1979. If they
 stumble again, the Mariucci faithful will complain that the opposition skated
 Canadians. The conspiracy is that the Canadians seem to enter college at an
 older age than do our lads.
 
 You would have to assume the U of M's hockey followers bought a lot of tickets
 to see Oliver Stone's "JFK", when they were not at Mariucci this winter.
 
 Reusse goes on to talk about the (now ended) slump the Gophers were in. He was
 highly amused that our "slump" would have been great for any other team! Oh
 well, it was a funny article and taken with a grain of salt by most of the
 truly loyal Gopher fans!
 
 Considering the outcome of both games this weekend and what I've read on the
 list lately, there seems to be quite a few goals that are disallowed for
 various reasons. 1. Goal judge was asleep. 2. Ref not in correct position,
 misses the call. 3. Quick whistles. I've seen 3 goals (that were goals!)
 disallowed in the last four games.
 
 In Friday's game with St Cloud State a last minute flurry in front of Gopher
 goalie Tom Newman the goal by Saterdahlen was 1/2 second too late. The Huskies
 protested vehemently, but the red light never came on, only the green light,
 and the Ref Burlew signaled no goal right away. According to the replays, the
 call was correct. The Gopher team didn't even wait around, they headed
 straight to the locker room! Whew! that was too close for comfort. Tom Newman,
 who started due to an injury (in practice) to Jeff Stolp, was absolutely
 outstanding!!! In Friday's contest he stopped 20 shots and looked in peak form
 even though he hasn't started a game since October 19th.
 
 Saturday night at the National Hockey Center in St Cloud was a different team
 and a different Ref! All of a sudden we have Supervisor Ron Foyt doing the
 game, I was not happy. Of course it seemed as if Foyt had a personal vendetta
 and was trying to help St Cloud State secure its very first win over the
 Gophers in eight attempts. Well despite the plans of certain folks the Gophers
 are still 8-0 against the Huskies. They never lost their composure although
 there were several eruptions of tempers during the game.
 
 A goal which was disallowed for the Gophers in the third period was due to a
 very quick whistle. The very loud and vocal crowd of Gopher fans (approx
 2,000) were outraged! It was a bad call on the Ref's part. My personal advice
 to Ron Foyt is to retire from reffing games...if you can't keep up with the
 action, get out!
 
 Newman was once again awesome in goal and almost perfect. The SCSU crowd is
 really quite rude to the Gophers. Whenever the Gopher crowd would do the
 LAAR-RRY OOO-LLIMB cheer, the student sections countered with OLIMB SUCKS or
 GOPHERS SUCK. Nice bunch. We are their biggest rivals although the feeling is
 definitely NOT mutual. There was a SRO crowd of 6,514 in St Cloud and their
 only sell-out all season. The Gophers had 33 shots on goal to SCSU's 20.
 
 Cory Laylin (aka Thugmaster) who is a St Cloud native got an assist on McHugh's
  goal. This is very fitting. Laylin who is 5-9 has always shown no fear to
 opposing players much larger than himself, and occasionally has taken on and
 won a few battles. Well, freshman Justin McHugh appears destined to inherit the
  title of Thugmaster II as he is 5-8 and also has begun to take on others much
 bigger than himself. ;-) Way to go Justin!
 
 That's all for now from Minnesota.
 
 Carol
 U of M
 Go Gophers!!!!            1991-1992 WCHA CHAMPIONS!!!!!