Someone asked: "What happened to the Gophers in Grand Forks?
 
Not an easy question, and certainly there's no easy answer. I'll not patronize
you by making excuses for the Gophers either.
 
They played AWFUL (for whatever reason) and the Sioux played great and were
really fired up about the series.
 
The unbeaten streak is stopped at 19.
 
On Friday night, the first line (Bonin, Hankinson and Rasmussen) was on the
ice for most of the Sioux goals. Obviously, they were not "taking care of
business" as they should. The second and third lines played very well, and in
fact, the second line of Berg, Kraft and Larson started on Saturday night.
 
Moen looked shakey in the nets on Friday, but I was more concerned about
DeBus' performance, or lack thereof on Saturday night. Not only did the
forwards and the defense have two lackluster games, so did the goalies. All
combined into one big disappointment of a weekend.
 
Highlights for the weekend were few. One of them was that Andy Brink *finally*
scored on his old teammate from Bemidji, UND goalie Kvalevog!! The other was
that Dave Larson got two goals for the weekend! One of which was scored right
in front of his parents who were present at Englestad Arena.
 
And for all you Sioux fans who think that throwing dead gophers on the ice
after your team scores is okay, now hear this: IT IS UNACCEPTABLE. PERIOD.
 
There *should* be a WCHA league rule prohibiting the tossing of dead (or live,
or stuffed) animals on the ice after you score. The rule should be enforced by
giving the home team a penalty EVERY TIME A DEAD ANIMAL HITS THE ICE AFTER UND
SCORES. That would stop it, pronto. Publicity on campus could make it clear to
all. Several years ago, a misguided soul tossed a dead Badger onto the ice,
when Wisconsin was playing at Englestad. That misguided soul ended up in jail
and paying a stiff fine....he didn't know that Badgers are on the endangered
species list!
 
I can't say that I thought the officiating made a difference in whether we
would have won or not, but it was a subpar performance by that crew to say the
least. There were phantom calls on both sides and non-calls on both sides. It
was frustrating for both teams. I *have* seen worse officiating this season.
 
The Gophers need to re-group, study their mistakes and prepare for the big
matchup with CC this weekend. The chances for a WCHA championship are very
slim at this point...but stranger things have happened.
 
-Carol
GO Gophers!!!
 
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