The Gophers suffered a rare sweep at home this weekend. The Wildcats won 7-5
 on Saturday despite being outshot 48-27, on Sunday the Gophers again outshot
 their opponents 44-19 and still lost 4-3.  It was a really funny weekend. The
 Gophers outplayed the Wildcats on Sunday for the first period and half of the
 second period. I thought we were in for a 10-2 blowout, when Northern recovered
  and got control of the game.
 
 The Gophers did get a lot of shots this weekend but many were not "quality"
 shots.  They also hit at least 5 pipes, guess we might have to repaint those
 soon. ;-) To Northern's credit they also hit a few pipes this weekend.
 
 Both games were fabulous to watch and there was some really great hockey that
 was played in Mariucci this weekend.  The "officiating" was LOUSY.  I guess
 Referee Bob Ames decided it would be fun to "let them play" and for the first
 13 minutes of the first period (game one) no penalties were called although
 there was some cluthching and grabbing evident from both sides.  By the time
 Ames decided to TRY and get control of the game, it was already gone. This
 was unfortunate, because if the chippy stuff had been eliminated we would have
 seen more quality hockey that both these teams are capable of.
 
 Ames only got worse as the weekend progressed and although Supervisor Foyt
 was in attendance on Sunday, I don't believe anything will come of it. The
 crowd loudly booed the bad calls and some of the Northern players that resort-
 ed to the chippy play.
 
 Northern's goalie Saurdiff was outstanding although he did get good help from
 his defense which is more than I can say for the Gophers. Stolp is an excellent
  goalie, he just can't do it all the time BY HIMSELF!!  He was consistently
 left alone in the crease and consequently got scored on.
 
 On a lighter note, Erik, his wife Paula and I met up with Justin Doherty in
 between the second and third periods on Sunday and talked some Hockey-L! It is
 always so much nicer to have a face connected with the e-mail address. :-)
 Northern will be staying in Minneapolis until Wednesday when they will head up
  to Alaska for the tournament up there. Justin told us that some people were
 concerned in the press box about the officiating too. As one of the people in
 my row said "It's funny don't you think...5000 people see something that the
 Ref misses...makes you wonder!!??"
 
 That's all for now.  If I have more time tomorrow, I'll try to type in the
 game summaries.
 
 Carol
 U of M
 GO Gophers!!!!