Ok, Wisconsin won...we all know that.  In OT.  3 of the 5 games went
to OT, and all of the games were decided by one goal.
 
Quite frankly, Thursday night's MN-ND game was a little boring.  The
last 7 minutes or so were pretty exciting, hoping that the Gophs could
hang on to their one point lead.  I was particularily impressed with
Ryan Kraft's play, not only that night, but all weekend.  Casey
Hankinson had a good game as well.  The Souix stayed with the Gophs
all game, I can't really think of anything negative about their performance.
 
I wasn't at the DU-WI game, I got there with about 5 minutes left to
go, and Chuck Sackett and his party assured me that the Badgers would
hang on to their one point lead.  They did, much to my dismay.
 
That evening, there was an enthusiastic St. Patrick's Day crowd, sipping the
green beer, cheering on the Gophers who jumped out to a nice lead over CC.
Chuck came over to tell me that he thought the Gophs had it won, and I said
"no, just wait...these are the Gophers, anything can happen"  which it did.
I honestly didn't see the called off goal, so I can't comment, but both
teams played hard thru the OT.  It was a shame anyone had to lose, but CC
played hard and battled back to get the win.
 
Saturday afternoon the Gophers once again jumped out to a 3-0 lead after
only about 3 minutes of play, and then Wallenheimo came in and gave up
another goal minutes later.  Chuck again came by and said "you've got
this won" to which I said "remember last night?"  I was right again, as
DU battled back to a 4-4 tie.  Dave Larson came as close as he'll probably
ever get to having a hat trick, with 2 goals and 2 "almost..."  Wallenheimo
played a good game.  Unfortunately for him, however, about 16 minutes
into the OT, senior Scott Bell got the game-winner for Minnesota.
 
Saturday evening, CC got off to the early lead, to what I thought were many
cheers.  I changed my mind after WI scored and the place exploded.  Now,
I'm not a WI fan by any means, and I do have strong opinions of them,
but I'll refrain and simply state that their fans are very supportive
of their team.  WI jumped to a 3-1 lead in the 3rd, at which point I had
to walk away from where I was because of the middle-aged WI fan who
jumped up, got in my face and screamed "take that, you golden f*****g
Gopher fan"  Have another beer, buddy.  That's when Nicole and I left
to go downstairs to set up the trophy table, with about 5 minutes to
go.  By the time there was 1:29 left in the game, CC had tied it up.
Unfortunately, WI scored 43 seconds into the OT.  I say unfortunately
#1 because I wanted to see CC win, and #2 because Nicole and I had to
carry the trophy table onto the ice, and I was hoping that they wouldn't
score for a good 5 minutes or so, so the ice would have worn down and I
wouldn't fear falling on my ass.  We made it though, slowly but surely.
 
While we were out there on the ice, I had a chance to talk to CC's
Peter Geranazzo.  I told him we were cheering for them, and that he had
a hell of a game (hat trick)  He thanked us, and said it was nice to
have people behind them, even though it hurt to lose.  We chatted a
little bit more - he's a pretty nice guy.
 
All in all, it was a decent weekend.  Though I personally would have liked
to see some of the results a little different, all the games were close,
and well played.  Congrats to all the schools for playing well.
 
Katie
Go Gophers!