Brady Clark wrote that I may be getting a bit ahead of myself predicting a
Minnesota victory over Alaska-Anchorage.  After watching BOTH games in
Madison this weekend, it would be pretty hard to gainsay him, but I'll
stand by prediction.  I think the fact that no one has swept the Seawolves
at home is entirely irrelevent.  They simply are not the same team at home
and on the road.  In addition to having a loud, vocal crowd, the travel
effect works against their opponents in Anchorage and against the Seawolves
in the lower 48.  They may be really fired up by Brush Christiansen's
resignation, but I was hoping that they got some of that out of their
system with a sweep of Denver.  We'll see, of course, but I'm still putting
my two bits on the Gophs.
 
Todd Milewski had some comments on the brawl near the end of the Friday
game.  Actually, the majors/DQs were even; while Wisconsin only got one for
fighting, they also got one for spearing.  The spear couldn't be seen in
the replays, but my hunch is that this was what really set off the Gophers
on the bench and Mike Anderson on the ice.  Unlike some of the follow-up
posters, I'm not going to condone fighting under any circumstances (if
that's what you want, pony up your $40 to catch the upcoming Tyson fight
and leave the rest of us to watch hockey).  I would advise players not to
take cheap shots two feet from the opponents bench, though.  This might cut
down on the amount of abuse you receive in the aftermath.
 
I'll also disagree with Todd about the Badgers being lucky on Friday.  This
looked like last year's Wisconsin team in a number of ways.  They are
getting very good at capitalizing on opposition miscues.  Compare what they
did this weekend to their victory over Michigan State in last year's NCAA
Regional.  They really jump on miscues at the blueline and spring a player
or two for breakaway chances.  Their forecheck was also very aggressive and
forced a large number of turnovers behind the Gophers' net.  They aren't
nearly as solid on defense as they were last year and allowed Minnesota to
spend lots of time peppering Daubenspeck.  Unfortunately, the Gophers'
shooting seems to have returned to last year's form, so this isn't a huge
threat.  If only they would start playing 'D' like they did last year, this
wouldn't be such a big problem.
 
A rules question: The brawl on Friday resulted in two players from each
team being DQed for Saturday.  Since you're only allowed to take 21 players
on a road trip, this means that the road team is forced to play with a
shortened bench.  I seem to remember that if this happens due to even
suspensions from a fight, that the home team is also only allowed to
replace one player so as not to give them an advantage, but this didn't
happen on Saturday.  Has the rule been changed, am I remembering something
that never existed, or did someone goof this weekend?
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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