Well... the "Minnesoder" Golden Gophers fell short once again at the
final four. As a Gopher fan, I'm bummed, but looking back on how the
whole season went I'm still proud of my team. The Gophers were not an
especially large or physical team this year, so all things considered,
they did pretty well just making it to the final four.
 
It seems that the Gophs were good enough to compete in the WCHA but when
it came to playing with the assorted giants on the BU team just the fact
that the gophers played BU tough for 2 periods is somewhat incredible.
 
I couldn't believe how huge BU is! Grier is a Mac truck on skates!!! I
kept on hoping someone on the Minn team would step up and lay a hit on
the BU team, but the Gophs just didn't have the size to compete against BU.
 
Looking back on the game it's easy for a MN fan to get into what-ifs:
 
What if Charley Wasley wouldn't have taken that stupid penalty in the
first that lead to BU's first goal?
 
What if the gophs could have cleared the puck out before BU scored their
2nd goal to tie it at the end of the 1st period?
 
What if Bell would have scored instead of hitting the cross bar?
 
What if the gophs could have controlled the puck  and cleared the zone
before BU scored the go-ahead goal 20 seconds into the 3rd?
 
All these what-ifs are pointless, I know, but I believe the Gophs could
have stayed in the game if they could have held the lead.
 
BU is a great team, there's no doubt about that. The way they pressured
the MN net was incredible. They would just buzz around in the MN zone and
you knew they would find a way to bury the puck.
 
Hats off to BU. I think they have a slight edge in Saturday's game. They
didn't have to play as grueling a game as Maine did and BU is 0-2-2
against Maine this year... BU is due to beat the Black Bears.
 
Know that the season is over for Gopher fans, all we can do is
look forward to next year and dream of the team that will bring Woog his
first national championship. Hopefully the freshmen coming in next year
will contribute some size and physical prescence and hopefully the
players on this year's team that will be coming back will have greater
maturity and poise next year.
 
What a year!
 
Reed