Tom Vanelli, the tournament MVP from Minnesota and their leading
scorer for the season, also got ejected from the game.  Considering that, I
wouldn't have thought it too effective of a strategy, deliberate or not.

The Minnesota teams during the 1970's had a lot of Juniors players on
them.  Most fans of a team like theirs would call them "gutsy and
physical".  Their opponents would call them something else.  A fair
number of 1970's Gophers ended up on the WHA St. Paul Fighting
Saints, including Paul Holmgren.  As Pat Phippen from the 1976 team
said "They called us shabby, they called us inconsistent, now they call us
NCAA champions."

The 1976 team also included Jim Boo (who had a bit part in the movie
Slapshot), Joe Micheletti (from the long line of Micheletti's that opponents
took instant dislikes to), Reed Larson (long-time Detroit Redwing) along
with 1980's Olympians Bill Baker, Phil Verchota and Steve Janaszak.
Russ Anderson (married the 1977 Miss America), Tom Gorence and Tom
Younghans also had stints in the pro's.

Doug Peterson

On 31 Mar 2002 at 13:12, [log in to unmask] wrote:

>     As for the B. U.-Minnesota fray at D. U. Arena in '76, the details have
> been recounted many times, but suffice to say, I will always blame
Coach
> Herb Brooks for intentionally (with malice aforethought a.k.a win at any
> cost) having one of his spares (Russ Anderson) incite a brawl with the
> Terriers' best forward, All-America Terry Meagher, resulting in both
players
> being ejected in the first five minutes of play.  And yes, the Minnesota
> trainer got into it as well, (I recall that it was claimed he spit in
> Meagher's face) trying to goad Meagher even more when the tussle
ended up
> near the Gopher bench.  It remains, in my view, the best example of
blatant,
> premeditated goonery the NCAA FF has ever been witness to.  The
shame of it
> was that the plan succeeded in having the best B. U. scoring threat
banished
> to the locker room while Minnesota lost a little-used defenseman in the
> bargain.  Needless to say, even though the Minnesota 'All-American'
team
> went on to defeat Michigan Tech (6-4) in the championship final, it was
> clearly not the Gophers' finest hour.