Again, I am the one who is home watching the game tonight, so I figured
I would move my little iBook into the living room and be first to write
about the game.

The first period, for the most part, was played in the MSU end.  The
Gophers were showing lots of spirit and good play in the MSU end, not
giving up the puck much.  The score is 1-1 right now.  The MSU goal
came on another Gopher defensive "oops" as one of the Gopher defenseman
was not taking care of the MSU player coming in on the left side of the
crease.  He was wide open for the cross-ice pass into the goal.   The
MSU defense was very good as they kept the Gophers out of the crease
area, and making the Gophs have to shoot from inside.

So far, I must say that Vanek is showing what he is worth again.  On
the first power play, he seemed to have the puck 80% of the time.
Anytime it rebounded out from the goalie, Vanek would fight his way to
the puck.   He held the puck on one run for the longest time and then
just softly pushed it towards the crease for Koalska.  Unfortunately,
there was no goal.  You could see when he came off of that shift that
he was frustrated as he worked everything he had to get a goal.

In the beginning of the second, the Gophers may not have let the
Spartans touch the puck but twice in the first minute or so, but the
Spartans obviously ate their Wheaties supplement in between periods.
It was very even, with a lot of up and down play and good hitting.  The
teams could not decide who wanted to be ahead until the very last 30
second of the period, when MSU scored two goals in just what I think
was about 20 seconds.  (I am not the stats person, I will leave that to
the rest of you.)  All the MSU goals can be attributed to more
Minnesota defensive lapses.   But, mental lapses are mental lapses and
MSU are being smart hockey players and capitalizing on those
opportunities.

Just a note for Gopher fans:  Fox Sports interviewed Vanek after the
second, and he managed to keep a handle on his emotions and did not say
any words that would need to be bleeped out.  (For those of you who did
not know, Vanek was interviewed after our first game against Ohio
State.  He was so emotional after the game,that when he was asked to
describe one of his goals, he was so high on adreneline, he said the
"F" word.  Unfortunately, the guy in the truck did not hit the mute
button fast enough and Vanek's little slip was broadcast over all the
Midwest!)

Where is the Rally Bat?  Supposedly, it would just be the ghost of the
bat.

The third period was great.  Even though we almost lost our real mascot
before the third period!  Vanek put the puck in the net twice for his
second hat trick of the season.  Again, the third was full of up and
down hockey.  MSU and the Gophers were working hard all period.  No one
was giving up.   5-5 at the end of three.  And then the ugly
word....OVERTIME!

And the final is 5-5 in overtime.  More up and down hockey...I have no
nails left!

And now we move on to Michigan on Sunday!

Kathy Martin
Go Gophers!