I have just a few comments to add to Pam's excellent weekend report!
 
I think the Gopher hockey team has cornered the market on Rold Gold Pretzels.
It was *so* exciting to see the team come out and play so well. The freshman
are as good as they have been touted in the press. There were a few
butterflies for them, but on the whole played very well.
 
One disturbing new event at the DECC, was after the first Bulldog goal each
night, a large Carp was thrown out onto the ice. Of course the officials just
stood around with their hands in their pockets until one of the arena staff
came out with a shovel. Sort of took the wind out of the UMD team too, the
delay was so long. Tony Frolik told me that on Saturday night nine guys were
kicked out for tossing the fish. What *will* stop the fish toss, is to
warn the crowd that anything further tossed on the ice will result in a
penalty to the home team. (This was done at Denver last season with great
success.) And then follow through with the penalty every time.
 
Neither of the referees endeared themselves to the crowd with their
performances. Both the Bulldog and Gopher fans had fits. The best line of the
weekend was yelled by a Gopher fan: "Buzzy, do you suck at your real job too?"
It received applause from Bulldog fans and Gopher fans. :-)
 
For an example of the ineptness, in Friday's game a UMD player threw three
punches at a Gopher. Both received four minutes for roughing. SO, we know that
Buzz and Thomas, won't invoke the "punch rule" and issue a DQ. Whether the
other refs will have the same interpretation remains to be seen.
 
Can't wait to watch the replays which are being rebroadcast tomorrow and
Wednesday during the day. We did try to stay up and watch the midnight
replays, but didn't make it through the whole game.
 
It was great to finally meet fellow Hockey-Ler Tony Frolik and his lovely
fiancee. Next time we'll have more to talk about I'm sure!!
 
Looking forward to the Border Battle this weekend.
Bring on the Badgers.
 
-Carol
GO Gophers!!!
 
Carol S. White                            BITNET: c-whit@uminn1
University of Minnesota        internet:[log in to unmask]
Office of the Registrar
(612) 625-8517                                    GO Gophers!!!