MINN 1 3 4 - 8
MTU  1 0 0 - 1
 
A loss. I could be extremely bitter at what happened in this game.
We played well in the first period but could not gain momentum. Then the
second was a disaster in penalties. The third was more of the same.
 
Minnesota scored first just as a power play ended. In a scrum at the
crease edge, Woog found the puck and scored at 3:57. The game stopped
at 4:33 while a rule clarification was made.  Last night we had a player
DQ'ed. According to NCAA rules, we can replace the player for the following
game although the DQ'ed player can not participate. According to WCHA rules
the player can not be replaced if the game is of the same series at the same
site.  Coach Woog was sharp enough to notice that MTU had dressed 20 players
and called the situation to the attention of the ref's. Even the ref's did
not know the WCHA rule; so the game stopped until the rules could be
settled. We gained a bench minor over an extra player dressed for the game.
Dupont even things up at 13:05 with a screen shot from the top of the circle.
(Apparently, Coach Mancini had asked the ref's about this before the game and
received bad information.)
 
In the second period, Garvey took a cross check at 1:03 which led to a Bonin
power play goal at 2:20 as Bonin successfully got a beautiful wrap around.
Then Harris took a penalty and McHugh capitalized on the end of it with a
blast from the far right side a poor angle that managed to get to the
far left corner of the net( 4:35). Then Sutton took a penalty and Moser
got a powerplay goal on a point blast at 6:37. Goalie Pete Hamilton was
replaced with Mat Kucway at 7:46. It continued to be ugly. I met Eric from
Minnesota at the game. Eric has a marble theory about ref's: at the beginning
of the game he starts with pockets on both sides filled with the same
number of marbles. As the game goes on he transfers marbles as the calls
are made for and against the team. At the end of the 2nd period period, one
pocket was empty demonstrating the one-sidedness of the calls.  We did
get one call in MTU's favor when Pat Mikesch did a beautiful pirouette
dive to bring emphasis to a Minnesota penalty. However, our dives were not
in general as well practiced as those of Minnesota: we were geting 1.2's
while thery were getting 8's, 9's and 10's. We lost our discipline in the
2nd and did not not regain it in the game.
 
The third was not better. Bonin got an honest 4 on 4 goal at 2:43 from the
edge of the left circle as Kucway was falling to the ice.  Bell stole
the puck from an MTU player and drove down the right hand side of the
slot to gain an unassisted goal at 6:42. Bell the got a powerplay goal
at 10:11. Pete Hamilton was put in net again. THis did not stop the
hemorrage: at 10:52, Fieblekorn got a scraper from the left of the
crease. At 14:03, Prokopetz, who played well up to this point, ran the
goalie. THis cause a major fight which resulted in DQ's for Prokopetz and
Harris from MTU and Checco and Moser form Minnesota. Other 4 minute
and 10 minute misconduct's were assigned. Overall, MTU picked up a 5
minute major which was successfully killed off.
 
We got routed. Enough said. I assume Dave Fischer will fill in the stats.
 
Walt Olson
MTU