Eeyore's post hits the nail on the head!
 
The Gophers are Minnesota's lack of pride on ice!
 
The Gophers have the talent but are incredibly unmotivated.  How can you
reach this level of hockey and have so little hustle for a big series
like this?  With the exception of Steve DeBus, the entire team should be
embarrassed!
 
Quotes from the Grand Forks Herald:
Casey Hankinson: "We've been relying on (Steve DeBus) too much all year."
 
UND's Jason Blake: "They have a good team...,if they just settled down a
little and just played instead of yapping all night.  They'd be better
off."
 
Well put Mr. Blake.
 
 
Zac "ren' Halter
Way to go Pioneers!  Way to splat those 'cats!
 
 
On Sun, 2 Feb 1997, Eeyore
wrote:
 
> First off, North Dakota played very, very well.  The desraved the win.
> On the other hand, this is developing into the most gutless group of
> Gophers I have witnessed in a lomg time.  Steve DeBus (despite the 12
> goals against), Brett Abrahamson and Wyatt Smith were the only Gophers
> who had a good weekend.  Add to that back-up goaltender Willy Marvin,
> whose only action was to go after a VERY mouthy Jason Blake after the
> final buzzer.
>
> DeBus was tremendous.  Granted, the goal that broke the 2-2 tie tonight
> was set up when he mishandled the puck and the next UND goal was soft.
> Still, he made some tremendous saves in these two games.  If the goalies
> had been reversed, the combined score of the two games would have been
> something like 22-3.
>
> Minnesota has gone back to giving up an amazing number of odd man
> rushes.  When they make passes, they don't seem to pay any attention to
> whether there is an opposing player (or two) between the passer and
> receiver.  It is time to stop being so cute with the puck and pay
> attention to the situation as it actually exists on the ice.
>
> Most conspcuous for poor play has been Erik Rasmussen.  He has been a
> non-factor since returning from the World Juniors.  He is far too
> concerned with throwing his weight around and taking dumb penalties.  He
> is contributing nothing constructive.  Through the first half of
> December, he was the best player on the team.  I can only go back to
> what I said about his suspension for improper registration; I think his
> head is already focused on his pro career.  If this is the case, I wish
> he would go ahead and sign with the Sabres, because he isn't helping
> here.
>
> Casey Hankinson has also been a disappointment.  He disappeared in the
> first game of the series and took a checking from behind major late in
> the first period tonight.  Minnesota killed off the penalty, but Casey
> got tossed and wasn't around to help out the rest of the game.  The
> whole team has to cut down on the penalties, and this would be a fine
> place to start.
>
> Other than that, it's not worth singling out individuals for criticism.
>  These two losses were a total team effort.  That Minnesota was in the
> Friday game at all was a miracle; after two periods, they had been
> outshot 41-11, but were within one goal not long into the third because
> DeBus stood on his head.  They couldn't ever get over the hump, though,
> and lost 6-4.
>
> Tonight, they just collapsed.  Minnesota led 2-1 after two periods
> despite being outshot and marginally outplayed.  After they gave up the
> tying goal, the Gophers lost heart.  When the Sioux stepped up the
> pressure, Minnesota had no answer except to cough up the puck and watch
> the game turn into a rout.
>
> It has now been almost two months since Minnesota actually outplayed
> what the Pairwise Rankings consider to be a TUC.  Boston College,
> Alaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech are all sub-.500 teams (the last two
> dramatically so).  Over this stretch, they were outplayed by Miami in
> the Mariucci Classic but stole a win, outplayed by Denver but managed a
> split and did the same against St. Cloud.  Now they've been whitewashed
> in Grand Forks for the second year in a row.  If they continue to play
> the way they have lately, it isn't inconceivable that an NCAA berth
> could slip away from them.  Doug Woog has to use this weekend to light a
> fire under his team.
>
> J. Michael Neal
>
> Tonight's game was very chippy all the way through.  For starters,
> someone seems to have torn the interference page out of Don Adam's copy
> of the rulebook, so bodies were flying everywhere.  A major scuffle
> broke out after the first period.  It was probably ignited by a North
> Dakota player poking at a puck underneath DeBus a good three or four
> seconds after the horn, though tempers had been high for ten minutes by
> that time.
>
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>
 
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