I have to concur with Mr. Neal's comments on the game.  The most
important of which are that the Gophers are struggling and the Huskies
are getting the job done on the ice.
 
It appears to me that the Gophers are not in sync enough to get any speed
up on a rush down the ice.  Their inability to get the puck deep into the
offensive zone and mix up on the boards is a problem they need to work
on.  And probably the most frustrating spectacle to watch is the "un"
power play.  Apparently it's simply an exercise in perimeter passing and
bad angle shooting.  Apparently the gophers are unable or unwilling to
take shots from the point and scrum in front of the net.
 
The Huskies, on the other hand, were in the Gophers face all night.  They
played well and deserved to win.
 
Should be an interesting game tonight!
 
Zac "ren" Halter
Way to go Seawolves!  Sweep 'em!  Drown those 'cats!
 
 
On Sat, 18 Jan 1997,
Eeyore wrote:
 
> Boy is this Gopher team struggling.  This may be one of the lousiest
> stretches of hockey I've seen in the ten years I've been up here.  I'm
> not taking anything away from the Huskies, but Minnesota spent the first
> period unable to complete even the simplest passes.  I'm worried.
>
> Pregame
>
> Erik Rasmussen was suspended for two games by the University.  It was
> stated during the broadcast that it was for improperly dropping and
> adding classes this last week.  I have no ideas what this means.
> Granted, I remember registration procedures around here as being a mess,
> but this shouldn't happen.  There are only two explanations I can come
> up with.  The first is that this is something incredibly nit-picky and
> if we knew the whole story, we'd be hooting about silly restrictions.
> Unfortunately, I think the more likely explanation is that this is an
> indication that Rasmussen isn't very serious about school and we won't
> see him back next year.  I know that this is blatant, uninformed
> rumor-mongering.  But I can't think of any other way that you end up
> suspended for two games over drop/add procedures.
>
> First Period
>
> Yecch.  That the Gophers were outshot 15-3 doesn't begin to describe the
> extent to which St. Cloud outplayed them.  This isn't like the losing
> stretch late last season where things just didn't seem to be going right
> and the team pressed too hard.  This team is not all on the same page of
> the playbook.  It really started back during the Mariucci Classic.  Back
> then, I just thought that the problem was missing people at the World
> Juniors.  They managed to win those games, but are now looking just as
> bad and losing.
>
> I'm going to once again criticize the officials.  Don't be fooled by the
> box score showing lots of power plays; Mark Thomas didn't call [log in to unmask]
> Interference was the norm.  In one case, a player beat his man, but had
> his stick ripped from his hands before he could get to the puck.  I'm
> saying which team he was on, because it doesn't matter.  The lack of
> calls was even handed.  It didn't help the Gophs, but that's because
> they didn't take advantage of the situation as well.  The Huskies, Josh
> DeWolf in particular, sized up the situation and committed any
> infraction they could think of secure in the knowledge that it probably
> wouldn't be called.  More power to them; you've got to play the game
> that's called.  Still, it's disgusting to watch a ref discard the
> rulebook like that.
>
> Second Period
>
> Minnesota dominated, but St. Cloud scored twice in the last 3 minutes to
> end the period up 4-1.  The key came when Minnesota went on a two-man
> advantage halfway through the period.  The Huskies put on wonderful
> penalty kill, but Minnesota didn't force the issue.  The whole power
> play seemed designed to get the puck on the left wing and then pass it
> through the slot to a man standing at the other side of the net.  Brian
> Leitza made some nice saves, but I was yelling at the TV for the Gophers
> to just bang away from the top of the slot with someone in front.  The
> whole thing seemed to me to be way too complicated.  With Crowley's
> niftiness and Bill Kohn's slapshot back on the point, they ought to be
> simplifying a 5-3.
>
> Once the Gophs failed to score on that power play, I pretty much had the
> game written off.  They threatened a few more times, both before and
> after SCSU's third goal, but nothing really changed.
>
> Third Period
>
> Largely irrelevant.  St. Cloud played out the string without letting
> Minnesota get anything going.  Reg Berg scored late and the end got a
> bit surly.  Really nothing much else to note.
>
> Retrospective
>
> St. Cloud is going places.  Expect to see them in the NCAAs this year
> for the first time since the automatic berth for an independent was
> dropped.  They'll desrve it, too.
>
> The Gophers on the other hand, have a lot of work to do.  Hopefully,
> Rasmussen will come back next week breathing the kind of fire he was
> before the trip to Switzerland.  I think they miss Brian LaFleur a lot;
> Crowley certainly hasn't been the same without him.  They need to get it
> turned around soon, though.  The rest of this league is too good to go
> into a long funk.
>
> J. Michael Neal
>
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>
 
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