Contents:
(New MINNutiae feature! I copied exact subheadlines, you may want to
search for any of these text lines of interest. Anything in parentheses is
my added explanation.)
Bonin's weekend earns him award
A long end to a long day
If they build it,will they come? (CC's new arena)
Woog makes more changes
Power play ups and downs
"Hey baby, let's goto Vegas"
Homeward Bound
=46rom today's (10/24/95) Minnesota Daily:
Bonin's weekend earns him award
Jeff Sherry - Staff Reporter
Brian Bonin, the All-American center on the Gophers hockey team, was named
WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Monday for tallying two goals and four
assists at Colorado College this weekend.
Bonin's performance moved him into a four-way tie for the league lead in
scoring with eight points. But he is more concerned with the one point
Minnesota earned after tying and losing to the Tigers than winning any
individual honors.
"It's nice to win the award I guess, but that's the last thing on my mind
right now," Bonin said. "I'd trade it in for four points in a second. I
could really care less about the award."
A long end to a long day
As if the Gophers' 7-5 loss to the Tigers wasn't hard enough on Minnesota,
the team's trip home made matters even worse.
When the Gophers left the arena, they found themselves in the middle of a
snowstorm. On their way to Denver International Airport, the Gophers' bus
drove past several cars that had slid off the slippery highway. By the time
the team made it to the airport, it was about 15 minutes late for its
flight.
The airline held the flight for the Gophers, but they had to leave their
luggage behind. They then had to wait nearly 90 minutes for other planes to
de-ice.
The scariest part of the trip came once they finally got in the air. The
storm was so rough, the flight attendants couldn't serve food or drink.
There were several pockets of severe turbulence, which according to Bonin,
shook up some of the players.
"About half the guys on the team were really kind of scared," Bonin said.
"There were a lot of happy people when we finally got on the ground."
If they build it,will they come?
Representatives from the Colorado Springs World Arena, the 8,000-seat future
home of the Colorado College hockey team, were at the Air Force Academy Ice
Arena on Saturday trying to raise funds for the planned building.
Tom Falgien, a volunteer for the new arena, said it would take about 18
months after the necessary money is raised to complete construction.
Until their new rink is ready, the Tigers will continue to play and lose
money at the 2,700-seat Air Force rink. They used to sell out their former
home, the 4,300-seat Broadmoor World Arena, before it was demolished after
the 1993-94 season.
This weekend, however, the local fans didn't seem very supportive. On both
days, there were several empty seats for what could have been the Tigers'
biggest home series of the year.
Woog makes more changes
Gophers coach Doug Woogdidn't do much line-juggling over the weekend, but he
did switch the positions of sophomore Jason Godbout and senior Andy Brink.
Woog made Brink the center of the team's fourth line on offense and moved
Godbout back with Greg Zwakman on the Gophers' second defensive line. Both
players saw time at those positions last season.
Woog said the reason for switching Brink to offense was simple.
"He was our worst defenseman at Michigan Tech," Woog said. "We had him
ranked sixth out of six. He might have been seventh if we had seven. So we
weren't going to play him on defense. It was either move him up or have him
sit at home."
Power play ups and downs
The Gophers combined to go a very respectable three-for-eight on the power
play over the weekend but played inconsistently with the man-advantage.
On Saturday, Minnesota managed only three shots during five power plays. The
Gophers capitalized on two of three power play chances on Sunday.
"Hey baby, let's goto Vegas"
The Gophers got a big thrill early in the weekend when they arrived at
Denver International Airport on Friday. While waiting for their bus to
arrive, one of the players heard the bus parked next to them was for country
singer Faith Hill.
But much to their disappointment, they never got to see Hill, who was
selected as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by People
magazine.
Homeward Bound
After playing their first two series on the road, the Gophers will open
their home schedule Friday night when they host Alaska-Anchorage at Mariucci
Arena.
But Woog isn't overly excited.
"Our defensive coverage killed us," Woog said Sunday. "We should be able to
play better defense in the small rinks on the road than we do in our rink."
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=A9The Minnesota Daily
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!
Nastier, Bigger, Faster in '95-'96!
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