Carol has privately invited me to take her place in submitting a (now
pretty late) report on last weeekend's Wildcat-Gopher series in
Minneapolis.  Since I've already sacrificed part of my lunch hour to
stay in and listen to the inauguration ceremony, I might as well use the
rest up with this brief summary.  Fortunately, Erik B. posted a
statistical summary earlier, because I don't have the printed materials
or the memory facility available to me now to provide any details on
players' names, times of goals, saves, etc.
 
Friday night's 4-3 Gopher win was an extremely exciting game.  NMU coach
Rick Comley had said a key to the game was to stay close in the first
period, because Minnesota had outscored its opponents about 2-1 in the
first.  That objective was accomplished, as the Gophers scored first but
the 'Cats tied the score a few minutes later, and the period ended 1-1.
Wildcat sophomore goalie Corwin Saurdiff was to display some of the
inconsistency which has led Comley to alternate him with freshman Paul
Taylor.  He gave up a goal on the first Gopher shot, and it was a pretty
soft shot from the the lower part of the left wing faceoff circle that
trickled through Saurdiff's pads.  Following that, however, Saurdiff
made a number of excellent saves and was solid for the rest of the
period.
 
Again, the first shot of the second period saw a very quick Gopher goal
as a Minnesota player got away from the opening faceoff on a breakaway
and came in on Saurdiff alone.  This produced a 2-1 lead for Minnesota.
The goal was rather strange; Saurdiff appeared to be looking off to his
right for some defensive help as the Gopher bore down on him, and when
the attacker took a rather soft shot right at him, it seemed as if the
puck rolled through his legs while his attention was not quite on it.
Later on the Gophers scored again on a scramble in front of the net, and
Saurdiff was down and didn't have much chance to stop it from becoming a
3-1 game.  I've commented on the fourth Gopher goal, also scored in the
second period, earlier, and Erik gave an excellent description of it as
well, so I'll just continue to shake my head about how the best
intentions can sometimes lead to disasters!
 
The Wildcats came back with two goals in the third period to make it
4-3, and came within one second of tying the game as they buzzed the
Gopher net with six attackers for the final minute.  Greg Hadden's shot
from right in front, following two others which were blocked, found the
back of the net, but the shot occurred just after time expired.  It was
very close, but not close enough for the Wildcat players or bench to
argue about it.
 
Following the Friday game Comley was actually quite upbeat during his
radio interview, indicating that it was clear the Wildcats could play
with the Gophers in Mariucci Arena, and that he felt a number of his
players were capable of better play than they had just showed; he was
hoping that if they came closer to their potential the next night things
would be different.
 
The Saturday night contest certainly vindicated Comley's comments.  I
imagine the 7-0 final score raised quite a few eyebrows around the
college hockey world last weekend.  Apparently that was the first time
the Gophers have been shut out in Mariucci in almost exactly twenty
years, at least as far as regular season play is concerned.  The NMU
team played extremely well for the entire sixty minutes.  In particular
(and this was a key Comley pointed out in his pregame interview) the
'Cats carried the puck out of their own zone with great speed and
crispness, almost never giving the Gophers a chance to mount a sustained
attack on their net.  They also played with exceptional sharpness
offensively, making some of the best passes I've seen from them this
year.
 
Freshman Paul Taylor got the start in goal, and the shutout.  He made a
number of excellent saves, and was very much in the game the entire
time.  He also received outstanding help from his teammates and seldom
had to face shots off rebounds.  I believe he was credited with 27 saves
 which was of course the Minnesota shots-on-goal total for the night.
(The previous night Saurdiff had faced 34 shots on goal.)
 
The Wildcat goals were scored by seven different players, including Mike
Harding, Bill MacGillivray, Greg Hadden, Joe Frederick, Troy Johnson,
and, I believe, Scott Smith, plus one more who I can't recall.  It was
2-0 at the end of the first period and 5-0 at the end of the second.
Two of the second period goals were shorthanders, the first by Hadden,
who got a 2-0 breakaway with Frederick trailing and went straight in on
the Gopher goalie, lifting a shot over the goalies' left shoulder from
about four feet in front.  The second shg was Frederick's, no surprise
as he's already known as "Shorthanded Joe" and is the Wildat career
record holder in this category (but all of it accumulated over the last
ten games of last season, plus now three in the last two weeks).
Freddie was another 2-0 with Hadden, this time side by side with him,
and Hadder fed him beautifully as he was going by the goalie's stick
side; he slid the puck into the lower left corner.
 
The Wildcats scored almost immediately, again, at the opening of the
final period to make it 6-0 just after an NMU power play had expired.
(Teams seem especially vulnerable at such times; I've seen NMU give up
quite a few goals over the past two seasons just AFTER they've killed
penalties themselves.) About midway through the period they scored the
seventh and final goal.
 
The Minnesota TV announcers were most critical of the Gopher's failure
to clear Wildcats from the slot area during attacking situations, and
there were several cases where NMU green surrounded the Minnesota net
and goals resulted.  The announcers, to give them credit, were pretty
good-humored about things once the game was completely out of reach.
The most amusing thing they did was try to put the hex on Taylor's
shutout, repeatedly saying he had one going and rooting for the Gophers
to ruin it.  (The Gophers did try hard to do so, according to the NMU
radio broadcasters.  They said Minnesota kept a winger stationed near
the Wildat blue line throughout the final minutes, hoping for a
breakaway opportunity.) Anyway, the fact was that Taylor only had to
make four saves in the final period.  I was very pleased to see that the
first player out on the ice to embrace him was Saurdiff.  And, I predict
we will see an exceptionally strong effort from Corwin in his next
start!
 
A fun weekend--especially Saturday!  (obviously my own "spin")
 
 **********************************************************************
 *  Steve Christopher, NMU  [log in to unmask]             * * * *    *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions  1990-91   *   GO   *   *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92           *        *
 *  WCHA League Champions 1990-91                        * 'CATS! *   *
 *  WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 . . .   * * * *    *
 **********************************************************************