Donovon Verrill wrote:
 
> And Woog should teach some of his players how to play with integrity.
> Hits after the whistle, high sticks, and all that other crap has got to go.
>
> I apologize for the soapbox, but like I said, the Gophers used to be a
> class act, now they seem to be nothing but a bunch of thugs, Rasmussen
> and Hankinson being the worst of the bunch.  I'm all for a good clean
> game.  I also enjoy seeing a big guy use his size to deliver good, clean
> checks.  Rasmussen didn't carry his stick beloew his chest the whole weekend.
>
> As for Blake's "yappin", believe me, the Gophers were doing more than
> their fair share of that as well.
 
To single the Gophers out for cheap play in this series would be an
injustice.  I think they did more than their fair share, as is reflected
in the penalty calls, but they had help.  The skirmish after the first
period on saturday was started when a Fighting Sioux poked at Steve
DeBus well after the horn sounded.  The one at the conclusion of the
game looked to me to be a case of too many players on the ice with high
tempers once the teams left the benches.  This one also involved no
punches and minimal shoving for a situation with forty people skating
around.
 
Contrary to what Donovan said, after this first scuffle broke up, Jason
Blake did indeed skate down the length of the Gopher bench, taunting and
pointing at the scoreboard.  This was what set off backup goalie Willy
Marvin and started what almost became a more serious incident than the
first.
 
Part of the problem was how much referee Don Adam let go during the
game.  As I've said, the Gophers weren't robbed; they definitely
deserved the bulk of the penalties.  But there wasn't an interference
call all weekend, which led to all sorts of extraneous physical play.
(If Walt Olson is still on the list, it was the kind of game you would
have loved.)  He also let players get dragged down from behind
regularly, though not always.
 
I do agree with Mr. Verrill about Rasmussen's play; if it were up to
me, he'd by in civvies for this week's Northern Michigan series for
several reasons.  For the most part, I disagree with his assessment of
Casey Hankinson, though the check from behind that got him tossed on
Saturday WAS blatant and cheap.  If you go back to the first period of
the Friday game, this series started out as very intense, hard-hitting
but pretty clean between the Gophers losing their focus and the lack of
any calls, it got steadily uglier for six periods.  North Dakota did
plenty to help this progression along.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.