Several WCHA penalty records fell in Grand Forks, ND Friday night as the
Minnesota Gophers got goals from 9 different players to defeat the North
Dakota Fighting (and they certainly were last night!) Sioux 10-1.
 
Combined penalty minutes:  128 (old record 116, UMD vs Minn 12/3/88)
Combined # penalties: 59 (old record 53, Mich Tech vs Col. Coll. 2/22/91)
Single team penalties: 30 UND (old record 29 UMD vs. Minn 12/3/88)
 
16 different Sioux players took penalties, and 12 different Gophers.
 
While the two teams were certainly willing participants, they
were greatly assisted in their quest for immortality by so-called
referee "Brutal" Bob Ames.  This is the referee about whom so many
complaints were heard after he handled the Cornell-Air Force series.
The man simply cannot control a game.  Given a two-game series "reffed"
by this man, I can almost guarantee a fight by the 3rd period of the
second game.  It took the Sioux and Gophers only until late in the first
period of the first game.  Even the Gopher announcers, who were bending
over backwards trying to be fair to Ames, had to say he was doing a bad job.
From the very beginning of the game UND decided they were going to attack
any Gopher who dared go near the crease.  On several occasions a Gopher
standing in the crease when the whistle blew was shoved at by three
Sioux players after the whistle.  When fights ensued Ames called the
penalties even up every time.  The Gophers soon realized
there was going to be no extra penalty for instigating, so they started
initiating some of this crap too.  Let's just hope that Ron Foyt sees fit
to assign a *somewhat* competent referee if these two teams meet in the
first round of the playoffs at Mariucci next weekend!
 
First Period
____________
 
One of those 3-on-1 crease incidents occurred 59 seconds into the game.
The Gopher, Larry Olimb, was just standing there when he was jumped on.
After Brutal Bob handed out 8 minutes in penalties to each team, the
Sioux scored on the ensuing 3-on-3 when Greg Johnson put a move on Travis
Richards and broke in on Newman off the faceoff.  After that goal there
was a long stoppage to fix the clock during which both teams skated around
to keep loose. It must have worked for the Gophers who soon had a 2-1
lead on goals by Nielsen and Hendrickson.  Later the Gophers took a 3-1
lead on a power play goal by Larry Olimb.  Then came the fight. Another one
of those goal-mouth tussles started up and Shriner of UND and Fabian of the
Gophers started swinging at each other away from the rest of the action.
Fabian was at a serious disadvantage, as he was playing with a broken
thumb and his helmet came off, but he still got in a few good blows,
despite being cut and leaving blood to be cleaned from the ice.  Cory
Laylin got a goal to make it 4-1 a short time later.
 
Second Period
_____________
 
Just in case the game wasn't going slowly enough, the Zamboni ran out of
propane between periods.  After the players returned to the ice, the
game continued with the same basic flavor.  To be fair, Ames was
undiscriminatingly brutal.  On one occasion in particular, Larson of UND
put perhaps a TEENY TINY hold on Klatt, who responded with a couple
vicious wacks of his stick.  Ames called this one even, also.  The Gophers
continued to dominate the game, with Trent Klatt scoring on the power play
to make it 5-1, Scott Bell to make it 6-1, and Mike Muller to make it 7-1.
The shots through the first two periods were 35-17 in favor of Minnesota
and this just wasn't a game at all.
 
Third Period
____________
 
In the third Darby Hendrickson gave Scott Bell a great set-up for his
second goal of the game to make it 8-1.  Brill made it 9-1, leading
some Gopher fans present to start a "USA! USA!" cheer.  Sophomore
defenseman Eric Means then brought the score into double digits with
his first collegiate goal unassisted.  With 8 seconds to go in the game
the players decided they wanted to set the penalty-minute record outright
instead of just tying it, so they shattered the record with another
skirmish that led to 6 more minutes in penalties for each team.
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!
1991-1992 WCHA Champs!!!