Gophers split this weekend with SCSU, losing in St. Cloud 3-0 on Saturday,
winning at home on Sunday 5-3.  A couple comments, not directly game
related.
 
 
My fiance, myself and 5 friends made the trip to St. Cloud on Saturday.
While the game itself was embarassing (the Gophers showed up to play about
4 minutes of the game) I wanted to comment on the arena, fans, etc.
 
The National Hockey Center is roughly 5-6 years old, and it reminded me
much of the old Mariucci Arena in that there is NO room to walk around,
no aisle space, and in the 200 level your knees are literally in the back of
the person in front of you.  We were lucky there were no large fans around
us, otherwise breathing may have been a problem as we were so tightly packed
in there.  I am amazed that such a new facility could be so un-user friendly.
 
As for the fans, we've already had this discussion I know, but I want to
raise a few questions.  There were dead gophers thrown on the ice.
1. Where the heck do you find gophers, alive or dead, this time of the year?
2. How would you feel if we threw a dead dog, Native American, etc on the ice?
 
We've gone over the danger factors of why we don't throw things on the ice, now
lets discuss the "it was once a living creature and if we threw a dead Sioux
on the ice we'd be arrested" factor.  (or husky, in this case)  I mean,
come on, grow up people!
 
The next night at Mariucci, the Gophers showed up, thankfully.  What pissed
me off, as well as many others was at the end of the game as the teams were
shaking hands, Coach Craig Dahl of SCSU refused, at least 3 or 4 times,
to shake hands with MN captain Scott Bell.  Scotty kept after him to shake
hands, and Dahl plugged his nose and walked away.  There's class if you ask
me. Who cares if you can't stand the other guy, show some respect, and for
pete's sake, you're the COACH - what the heck kind of role model are you for
those guys?  I know things haven't been good between the two of them, but
Scott Bell is a classy guy, involved on many U committees, does good in the
classroom and is a good leader on the ice.  IMHO Dahl really made a statement
about his team.  There was no need for him to act that way, and it's an
embarrassment to the league.
 
Katie
Go Gophers!