Carol's too busy this week to file her weekend report, so I'm posting
most of Monday's Minnesota Daily article about a rather disappointing
weekend for us Gopher fans:
 
Headline: Gopher loss ends string of ties
Publish Date: 11/16/1992
 
.RM138PT/By Patty Hegre
 
Staff Reporter
 
The Gopher hockey team set school records for consecutive ties and
attendance this weekend, but has yet to find the combination that
produced Minnesota's best-ever Western Collegiate Hockey Association
record last season.
 
Minnesota captured the conference title with a remarkable 26-6 league
campaign last year, but the Gophers have struggled to a 2-3-3 start
this season.
 
After a 4-4 tie Friday and a 3-2 loss on Saturday to Wisconsin
(5-2-1), the Gophers are off to their worst conference start since
Doug Woog took over the coaching duties in 1985. Despite Minnesota's
seven points and fourth-place standing, Woog remains optimistic.
 
"I'd be upset if I thought we weren't making progress or we were
sliding, but that's not the case," said Woog following Saturday's
loss in front of 16,037 fans at the Met Center. "We played a good,
hard game tonight, we just couldn't score. It was another one of
those games where I can't even pick something that was bad. Right now
there's no room for major slumps or we could be climbing all year."
 
[stuff omitted]
 
McAlpine did manage to sneak two shots past Badger goalie Jim Carey
in the first period to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead and nearly hit the
mesh again late in the third period.
 
The junior defenseman scored on the power play at 7:05 in the opening
period, when Brandon Steege and Jed Fiebelkorn fed him a pass at the
blue line. McAlpine unleashed a shot that glanced off a Wisconsin
defenseman and into the net.
 
Five minutes later, McAlpine rushed the puck up center ice, skated in
over the blue line and sent an ankle-high rocket through a
defenseman's legs that beat Carey low on the stick side.
 
Badger defenseman Barry Richter scored the game winner during
Wisconsin's 4-on-3 man advantage late in the second period.
 
In Friday's overtime draw, Minnesota's line of Justin McHugh, Joe
Dziedzic and Brian Bonin led Minnesota's offense at Mariucci Arena.
 
McHugh, a sophomore winger, scored on the power play at 8:32 in the
first period to tie the game 1-1. McHugh evened the score again at
6:12 in the second period to secure a 3-3 tie with the Badgers.
 
Minnesota pressured Badger goalie Jon Michelizzi with five overtime
shots, but couldn't find the net as time ran out on the clock.
 
[end of article]
 
As I said, it was a disappointing weekend, but it's hard to be TOO concerned,
as the young Gophers played tough against Wisconsin, even with Darby
Hendrickson out, and apparently a team-wide flu bug going around.  Still,
the story for the Gophers this year will probably be how fast and how well
their freshman defensemen adapt to WCHA play, and it's too early to tell
how that'll turn out.
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!