Tonight I witnessed a hockey game I will likely never forget.
 
First, and most important, the North Dakota Fighting Sioux clinched a
share of the WCHA title and the historic MacNaughton Cup.  The sellout
crowd of 6067 witnessed the cup presentation, since it was UND's final
home game.
 
While the Cup itself is not mathemically clinched outright, the No. 1
seed for the WCHA playoffs is, as the Sioux hold the tiebreaker
advantage, having outscored the Gophers 20-19 in the season series.  It
is up in the air as to whether the Sioux have clinched an NCAA berth, as
even league commissioner Bruce McLeod could not answer this question.
 
Now to the game itself, The Seawolves, the leagues least penalized team,
finished the weekend with a mere two penalties.  However this was still
one more than UND accumulated.  Neither team was called for a penalty,
something that last happened Feb. 5 1982, in a Sioux 6-1 victory over
Colorado College.
 
The Sioux allowed only 16 shots on goal as Aaron Schweitzer picked up his
second straight shutout and third of the season.  UND racked up
advantages of 43-16 in shots on goal, and 73-23 in total shots attempted.
Schweitzer's consecutive shutouts marked the first for the Sioux since
Nov. 28-29 1967, also against Colorado College.
 
UND has now won 7 of 8 and travels to Denver for the final series of the
season.  They will likely face Michigan Tech in the first round of the
playoffs, a team they defeated all four times they met in the regular season.
 
Schweitzer's three shutouts in a season are the most since another
freshman netminder piloted the Sioux to a league and NCAA title, that of
course, was Eddie Belfour.
 
Vindy
Let's Drop the Puck
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.