In an unprecedented move since the switch was made to name one offensive
player of the week and one defensive player of the week, the WCHA has named
two co-defensive players of the week this week:
 
Goaltenders: Jeff Moen (senior) and Steve DeBus (sophomore) from Minnesota.
 
Details below in the "Hockey notes" column from the Minneapolis Star Tribune
11/21/95:
 
'U' goalies double up on weekly WCHA honor
by John Gilbert, Star Tribune Staff Writer
 
When the WCHA began naming players of the week a few years ago, the league
started giving out two awards, one for the best offensive player and one for
the best defensive player.
 
This week, the league departed from form and named unprecedented co-defensive
players of the week. It might seem unrealistic until you realize that the two
are Gophers goaltenders Jeff Moen and Steve DeBus -- who compiled
unprecedented back-to-back road shutouts in the 2-0, 7-0 weekend sweep at
Minnesota-Duluth.
 
Moen, a senior, has a 4-1-1 record, a sparkling 2.47 goals-against average and
a .910 save percentage. DeBus, a sophomore, has improved to 3.01 goals-against
and .891 in save percentage.
 
"I guess the thing that makes it most satisfying is that Moen and I were
considered the team's question marks in some people's minds," said DeBus, who
gave up 12 goals in losing his first two games and yielded only six in winning
the last four.
 
Denver University swept a pair of 5-0 shutouts at Michigan Tech on Jan. 14-15,
1954, and the Pioneers made it four straight shutouts by sweeping Tech again
when the two met two weeks later in Denver. But that was a different era, as
well as a different league.
 
The WCHA goes back 36 years, to the 1959-60 season, although many of the same
teams played in the forerunner Western Intercollegiate Hockey League, and the
WCHA does go back to earlier WIHL days in compiling statistics.
 
Oddity
Alaska-Anchorage's sweep of North Dakota tightened the WCHA's midsection
considerably, and St.Cloud State's victory and tie against Wisconsin was a big
boost for the Huskies. Their 3-3 tie in the first game, however, featured a
strange tying-goal scenario. The Huskies were leading 3-2 and had a power play
in the final minute. When the penalty expired, line-changing confusion
resulted in an extra Huskies player taking the ice. But before anyone noticed,
an extra Badger also went over the boards. Neither was detected by the
officials, and when Max Williams zoomed in to score the tying goal with 36
seconds remaining, the videotape proves there were 14 players on the ice.
<end quoted material>
 
 
Congrats to Moen and DeBus for two *spectacular* games!
 
-Carol
GO Gophers!!!
 
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