What a weekend. Stands almost full. Team fully charged up. The Gophers made it
eight straight victories in a row! Result: Gophers in first place in the WCHA.
 
The crowds were loud. The officiating was questionable. Both teams skated with
a powerfull intensity.
 
As quoted in the Sunday Star Tribune article by John Gilbert: Doug Woog said,
"I didn't learn anything about our character tonight. Tonight just *confirmed*
what I knew. We've got a lot of guys willing to pay the price to win."
 
Both coach Woog and Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley were frustrated by the
officiating (if you could call it that). Again from the Star Tribune:
 
"When it was suggested the game got ugly, Comley said: 'There were a couple of
people on the ice who made it ugly. There were two very balanced clubs out
there, and you're going to have emotion. It was a tough environment. They
played great and had great emotion; we played much better tonight. We hit a
crossbar at 3-2, and if we'd ever tied, who knows?'"
 
The officiating was the most bizarre I have ever seen from Brutal Bob Ames and
Tom Goddard. If the ref who was near to the play didn't call the penalty, the
ref at the other end DID! Joe Dziedzic who was mugged by two or three NMU
players in front of the NMU goalie, Dziedzic got 2 minutes for roughing and
NMU received no penalty. I was so upset, half my section turned to see who was
screaming at the refs. The student section got the best BULL-S**T cheer going,
and they also did the "pull your head out" cheer several times.
 
Friday night the Gophers lost OT-Hero Dave Larson for 7-10 days when he
received a deep cut through his skate that required seven stitches to close.
On Saturday, Charlie Wasley was back but had trouble, and saw only spot duty.
Also lost on Saturday was our pint-sized-power-house Tony Bianchi with a
sprained shoulder. These losses were from the "clean" action. So you can
IMAGINE how ugly it got!
 
Gopher captain Chris McAlpine was charged with a major for spearing NMU's
Steve Carpenter in the third period. This was in retaliation for Carpenter
spearing Gopher John Hillman in the first period. Carpenter's spear went
undetected by the referees. McAlpine will now miss both games next weekend due
to the automatic DQ that accompanies the 5-minute major for spearing, and due
to his previous DQ during the Hall-of-Fame game.
 
NMU goalie Dieter Kochan had a good game, but he was treated to the loudest
Black Hole cheer the student section has managed this season. It is really
great to see the students getting into the game and being really organized for
a change. It's almost like having the old NE section back!! ;-)
 
There were still about 150-200 empty seats on Saturday night, despite the
announced sellout attendance of 9300+, but it was great to see it ALMOST full
for a change. Even some of the players had begun to notice that there were
quite a few empty seats in the barn and were disturbed by it. Now, if we could
only train those North Stars fans to get there on time and not leave early
(which they do...no matter what the score!) it would be heaven!!!!
 
The crowd was the loudest I've heard this season, especially the thunderous
standing ovation after we killed off the 5-minute major in the third. It was
great. We could hardly hear the band at the end playing the Battle Hymn!! ;-)
 
I'm going to type in most of the article from Monday's Star Tribune article by
John Gilbert, as it talks about the rule controversy about majors and DQ's now
going on in the WCHA. (start quoted material)
 
The Gophers held their "Skate with the Gophers" gathering at Mariucci Arena
Sunday afternoon, and nobody reported getting speared, run from behind,
disqualified or having goals disallowed, a departure from Saturday night's
emotional and controversial 4-2 victory over Northern Michigan.
 
But even the good parts of Saturday night were curious.
 
Jeff Nielsen scored two goals and set up another. And while standing all alone
at the edge of the crease in the first period, Nielsen tapped in a Dan Woog
pass for what appeared to be another goal. But that one was disallowed when
Nielsen was tagged with a disputed holding call.
 
"The whistle didn't blow until after the puck was in," Nielsen said. "I was
getting speared, hooked and elbowed in front, then I got open, caught the
pass, put it in --- and they called me for holding.
 
"I told the ref that it's kind of hard to score a goal with both my hands on
my stick and be holding at the same time."
 
Later, Chris McAlpine was ejected on a spearing major in the third period that
will keep him out of this weekend's games against Minnesota-Duluth at
Mariucci. McAlpine's spear was to Northern defenseman Steve Carpenter, and
might have been a payback for Carpenter's unpenalized spear of Gophers
freshman John Hillman in the first period -- a poke in the midsection even
Northern coach Rick Comley acknowledged seeing.
 
Replays of the McAlpine incident showed he shoved his stick between
Carpenter's knees from behind, then raised the shaft of his stick, hard, to
leave Carpenter writhing in pain. It was ugly, and could have been called
various things, such as slashing. The officials, however, didn't have the
video replay at their disposal.
 
Woog was incensed because WCHA Commissioner Otto Breitenbach had sent a
statement to all league teams Wednesday reaffirming a rule interpretation
declared at the start of the season. The statement said that "without
exception," any use of the stick to strike an opponent's head or neck, and any
hit from behind that caused a player to be knocked into the boards or net,
would be penalized with a mandatory 5-minute major and a Disqualification.
That eliminates any referees discretion, because a minor termed "checking from
behind" could only be called if the victim *didn't* hit the boards or net.
 
Woog posted the message in the locker room Wednesday, highlighting the key
phrases, and he carried the notice with him Saturday night. Yet, when Northern
Michigan's Trevor Janicki checked Bobby Dustin hard and into the boards at
5:11 of the first period Saturday night, referees Bob Ames and Tom Goddard
called "checking from behind" -- but made it a minor, instead of the mandatory
major and DQ.
 
At 17:26 of the first period, Shayne Tomlinson slammed the Gophers' Brian
Bonin in the facemask after a whistle, and while the refs called him for a
5-minute major for high-sticking, they did not issue a disqualification.
 
"After the first period, I called the refs over and showed them the sheet from
the commissioner ," Woog said. "I asked them if they had gotten the same memo,
and they said they did, but that Otto -- who was at the game -- had told them
to use their discretion. Then I got hold of Otto downstairs between periods,
and I asked him about the memo. Otto said it was discretionary, and I said,
'Well then, why don't you take this piece of paper back, Otto'
 
"The fact is, we're told that hitting from behind into the boards and the
stick to the head is a mandatory DQ, but when it happened they didn't call it.
On the call on Mac, they *had* the chance to use discretion, and called a DQ."
(end quoted material)
 
Well, we won anyway and it was a great weekend. Hope we don't see those two
refs again this season. Inconsistency is inexcuseable.
 
-Carol
GO Gophers!!!
Bring on the Bulldogs!
 
Carol S. White                            BITNET: c-whit@uminn1
University of Minnesota        internet:[log in to unmask]
Office of the Registrar
(612) 625-8517                                    GO Gophers!!!