Sara writes:

> Despite my dislike for Comcast I added a sports package to my cable lineup.  I was checking out the channels last night and found a MN at ND game last night.  It was in the third period and I decided to watch.  (The Comcast guide said it was live but when they said they were skipping ahead in the period due to time constraints  I decided it must be on tape.)  It was a pretty exciting third and overtime period.  I was interested in seeing the arena at North Dakota.  it certainly did seem pretty impressive.  It looked more like the Boston Garden then SLU's Appleton Arena.  The crowd seemed very excited.  Is that the usual level of crowd excitement?  I really was impressed with the intensity that the MN team seemed to step up to late in the third.  They seemed to take it to a new level even if it didn't yield a goal.
>
> rSara
> SLU '77

This was my first visit to the Ralph.  A few thoughts:

Good thing you didn't watch the Friday night 4-0 UND win.  The Gophers appeared 
unprepared, slow, and uninspired.  The Saturday game was far more entertaining.

The Ralph is fancier, though a bit smaller, than the Boston Garden.  Marble and 
granite everywhere you look, leather seats, Sioux logos in all possible 
locations, just as we've all heard.  There's nothing like it, as far as I know, 
in college hockey. An amazing place.

The fans were loud and enthusiastic, befitting the rivalry between UND and 
Minnesota.  It might even compare in intensity to the fabled SLU/Clarkson 
rivalry, though I've been told that such a thing is not possible. :-)

I anticipated and received a certain amount of heckling because of my Minnesota 
jersey and "gopher ears" cap, but nothing I hadn't heard in, say, Duluth or 
Houghton.  I'm looking forward to return visits -- it's a fun place to watch a 
game.

-- Erik