Gopher Hockey Fan Training Camp Report
 
Several Gopher fans spent the fall weekend up north in Duluth at Gopher Fan
Training Camp hoping to work our cheering skills into top form for the home
opener versus the Cheeseheads next weekend.  Not believing the Cheesers to be a
sixth-place team until we see it in March, and knowing that even if it were a
game between ninth- and tenth-place (or even first- and tenth- place) teams, the
Minnesota-Wisconsin Border Battle would always be a barn-burner, we wanted to
get in shape for the start of the new season.   We know we can't afford the
lack-luster start we had last year (although that could perhaps be attributed to
initial shyness around new seat neighbors in the new arena.)
 
Camp Goals:
When we assembled for the camp (held Friday and Saturday night at the Duluth
Entertainment and Convention Center), we were expecting some refresher exercises
in the Basic Fan Skills: synchronized "Minnesota" spelling (hopefully LOTS of
exercises in synchronized "Minnesota spelling":-)), elementary clapping cheers,
mild goalie taunting, and simple referee criticism.  In addition, of course,
basic goals of all of the campers were to regain our hockey-season ease with
such phrases as "Kraft really wants the puck," "Bonin faked the goalie out of
his jockstrap," and "They just can't move that guy from in front of the crease"
and to attain instant recognition of the new players from their jersey numbers
so that when #9 got the puck, we yelled "Let's Go, Casey!" instead of
embarrassing our selves by calling him Joe (for Joe Dziedzic who wore #9 last
year.)
 
Friday Night:
Hockey Fan Camp was all we expected and more.  We had ample opportunity to
practice our recognition of the numbers of the four freshmen in the lineup for
Minnesota's Friday night 5-4 victory over Minnesota-Duluth, as frosh forward
Ryan Kraft tallied a goal and two assists,  Casey Hankinson got an assist (on
soph Dan "Not Just the Coach's Son Anymore" Woog's goal), D Mike Crowley tallied
3 assists, and Jason Godbout, while held out of the scoring, saw plenty of ice
on D (although he hurt his shoulder and missed the Saturday session).  I also
enjoyed wondering if Player of the Game Nick Checco scored three goals just to
give the scoreboard operator multiple chances to figure out that his name is NOT
spelled C-H-E-E-C-O.   (I guess the scoreboard operator needs more time to get
in shape, too, despite having a week's head start on us, with that series
against Wisconsin last weekend...)  This game also gave us a chance to practice
an Advanced Fan Skill: cautious concern in the face of victory.  We couldn't
really worry TOO much about the fact that the Gophers had fallen behind 2-0 at
the beginning of the game, as we attributed that to the fact that the Gophers
just needed game experience, but post-game bar talk concerned the lack of
scoring from the first line of Brian Bonin, Justin McHugh and Dave Larson.
(Bonin and McHugh were shut out; Larson DID manage an assist.)  In retrospect,
perhaps we should have considered that Bonin and McHugh spent a great percentage
of their ice time successfully killing all nine Gopher penalties, but our
post-game analysis skills were still a little rusty...
 
Saturday Night:
By Saturday night our voices were showing the effects of the unaccustomed use at
the previous night's session (see below), the extracurricular synchronized
spelling practice (prompted by the victorious post-game performances of groups
of our campers, "Gophs" and "U of M", in sports-bar trivia competition), and
unexpected use upon learning the results of Saturday afternoon's football game
in Madison.  While we managed to maintain our level of performance (despite some
deterioration in our upper registers), the Gophers first line forwards Bonin and
McHugh seemed intent on vastly improving on their scoring showing from the
previous night, while continuing their perfect penalty-killing.  After Duluth
went ahead 1-0, Bonin connected on the power play near the end of the first
period.  After Duluth freshman Joe Rybar's third goal of the series put Duluth
up 2-1 in the second, the Gophers really went to work, scoring 5 unanswered
goals.  McHugh scored to tie the game at 2 and then, while skating 4-on-4, UMD's
Ciccarello pulled down Bonin.  It took 20 seconds of the ensuing 4-on-3 power
play for Trebil to give Minnesota the 3-2 lead.  Early in the third, the Gophers
dashed the Bulldogs' hopes of coming back on the power play when Bonin stole the
puck while shorthanded and got it to McHugh, who circled the Bulldog net and
dished it off to Bonin who directed it in for the 4-2 lead. Not too much later
UMD took a penalty and it took 18 seconds for Kraft (who takes Larson's place at
wing on the first power play unit with Bonin, McHugh, Trebil, and Crowley) to
make it 5-2.  The Dogs picked up another penalty on that play, and 40 seconds
later McHugh made it 6-2.  Bonin and McHugh had assuaged our worries about their
scoring prowess.  Player of the Game Bonin had 2G-3A and was on the ice for all
6 Minnesota goals.  McHugh (2G-1A), Trebil (1G-3A), and Crowley (1A) were each
on the ice for 5 Minnesota goals.  At that point the Gopher fan campers should
have been able to coast the way to the first sweep of the season, having well
prepared for the Badgers (Tony, who was ushering, tells us one of our goal
celebrations was so loud he couldn't tell which team had scored until he
realized the band wasn't playing!), but there were other things in store for us.
 
Refereeing:
The highlight of our Hockey Fan Camp was, however, the grueling Referee
Criticism Endurance Exercises led in both sessions by Buzz Christensen.  We knew
as soon as we saw that mustache Friday night that he was going to stretch our
summer-blighted skills to the limit. When he reappeared after warm-ups without
his jacket on, we were also surprised to see that our efforts this year will be
aided by the fact that the WCHA officials finally have summoned up the courage
to wear their names on the back of their jerseys, although this is clearly
superfluous for anyone as recognizable as Buzzy.  He warmed us up with some
basic "point of emphasis" wind sprints, calling three interference penalties
against the Gophers, to the Bulldogs' one.  (One would think this might be
because Duluth had played the previous weekend and adapted to the "emphasis",
but the interference calls actually increased to four on each squad Saturday
night.)  He ran us through some basic indignant attitudes, stretching the full
range from unjustified to justified referee criticism.  9 Minnesota penalties
were whistled to UMD's 4, allowing us to progress from the basic Marble Analogy
into Advanced Marble Analogy Irony.  After Buzz demonstrated that elbowing and
holding apparently are NOT "points of emphasis" this year, Woog (apparently also
out of practice) stalled a line change to complain to Buzz.  Instead of the
usual time out, he was slapped with a delay of game call.  Apparently pleased
with our high level of criticism so early in the season, Buzz decided to treat
us to that rare controversy: a disallowed AND RE-ALLOWED (undisallowed??)
game-winning goal. Kraft knocked the puck down (apparently with his glove -- he
claims it hit his shoulder) to the right of the goal (directly in front of most
of our campers), skated a stride or two and passed it to Checco in front of the
crease.  Buzzy whistled it down just as Checco knocked it in and waved off the
goal, apparently assuming Kraft had made a hand pass.  After extended conference
with fellow referee Mark Thomas and linesman Jon Elvy, the goal was awarded,
thus ending the string of gleeful praise the UMD fans near us had directed at
Buzzy in appreciation of the lopsided penalty count.  Fortunately, the replays
show that the correct decision was reached, as this was the deciding goal in a
5-4 game.
 
Saturday night Buzzy was intent on really exercising our endurance.  In the
first period play was stopped for about six and a half minutes (causing Woog to
have his players skate to keep loose) as they apparently debated the serving of
a Bulldog double roughing minor awarded coincidentally with 2 single roughing
minors to the Gophers.  Eventually all penalties were served starting
immediately, and Duluth had a 2-minute 4-on-3 power play followed immediately by
a 5-on-4 Gopher power play on which Bonin scored.  In the second period there
was a three and a half minute wait to call four roughing double minors.  In the
third, the game began to get ugly as Minnesota's special teams put the game out
of reach, scoring 3 goals during some of the 7 penalties in the first few
minutes.  The remainder of the game, during which there was no scoring, took
over 45 minutes.  At 10:28 UMD's Sergei Petrov shot the puck at Minnesota goalie
Jeff Callinan well after the whistle for offside had sounded (Petrov said he
didn't hear the whistle).  The resulting testosterone fest took about a minute
to settle down, but it took another 12 and a half minutes (timed on my tape of
the live broadcast) for the referees to dole out double minors to all skaters on
the ice except Petrov, who got a double minor AND a misconduct, and the Gophers'
Dan Hendrickson, who got a 5-minute fighting major and DQ.  In addition, just to
make me fret about the possibility the end of the game wouldn't be captured on
my VCR (set to tape for *only* 3 hours), there was a scuffle with 46 seconds
remaining which stopped the game for assignment of 4 roughing minors.  (I guess
that's my game-taping refresher lesson for the year!  My VCR clicked off about 3
seconds after the final buzzer.)
 
It was a shame to see the game break down into that sort of play at the end.
And it seemed to take the refs a horribly long time to sort things out.
Unfortunately that time didn't seem to serve to cool down the players' tempers
much.  The Bulldogs ended up 0 for 16 on the power play, giving up a shorthanded
goal.  The Gophers were 5 for 10 (4 for 6 Saturday), also surrendering a
shorthander.
 
Still, the campers had a sufficiently enjoyable time (as well as useful
preparation for the Border Battle series) that some are considering a Hockey Fan
Practice Session sometime this season when the Gophers are out of town, when
we'll go up to Duluth to cheer FOR the Bulldogs.
 
 
Pam Sweeney                             Go Gophers!!!
[log in to unmask]       1993 & 1994 WCHA Playoff Champions
                                   1994 NC$$ PHinal PHour
                                        Ski-U-Mah!!!