Well our computer move went okay, I've just been avoiding having to post my
report. First to get it over with, I'll give the impressions of the 7-0 loss
from Saturday night and follow with a little light reading on the Friday game.
 
Actually, words have failed me about how the Gophers played (or mostly didn't
play) on Saturday night when Northern Michigan pounded them. It was the first
time in almost 20 years that the Gophers have been shut out at home. The last
time was February 23, 1972 by Minnesota-Duluth and the score was 8-0. Believe
it or not, I have the distinction of having been at BOTH games. =:-O It wasn't
pleasant either time, although back in 1971-1972, the Gophers only won SEVEN
games the entire season. When a program, such as the Gophers has done well for
a number of years, it is considerably more difficult to endure a loss such as
they suffered last Saturday. Trust me.
 
There really isn't much to say except that there was no defense, the freshman
goaltender was left to fend for himself for the two periods he played. Our
sophomore goalie didn't get much help either when he played the final period.
There was no *team* play, no cohesiveness. If a pass connected, it must have
been by accident! More often than not, the Wildcats picked the Gophers pockets
and after scoring two shorthanded goals and missing another by a hair...we
were yelling for the Gophers to decline any future penalties on the Wildcats!!
It seemed that they played even WORSE (if that's possible) when they had the
man advantage.
 
Northern coach Rick Comley was quoted in the Minnesota Daily article today:
"This was just a bad game for them, and that's what happens to a young team
that doesn't trust their goaltender."(what an understatement!!)
 
A comment by Gopher coach Doug Woog (also from the Daily):"I'd say that we
were embarrassed, but they played such a wonderful game." and "We lost the
opportunity to take two points, but it's not like we got jobbed out of the
win. We got beat fair and square, and we have to admit that." Woog also kept
the team in the locker room for 45 minutes after the game.
 
The Wildcats were ecstatic with the win. Quite a few people left before the
end of the game, however, Erik Biever and his wife Paula, Pam Sweeney and
myself stayed to the bitter end along with a few other very devoted Gopher
fans who are not on Hockey-L.
 
Okay, now for the *fun* report on Friday's game which the Gophers won 4-3 and
put them in second place in the WCHA for all of 24 hours. John Gilbert wrote a
really great article for the Star Tribune on Saturday morning and I will quote
from it below.
 
It might all be attributed to good luck. Or, as they play their last season in
old Mariucci Arena, maybe the Gophers were able to summon a little help from
whatever friendly hockey ghosts might remain in that high, arched ceiling.
They needed some extra help Friday night to get past Northern Michigan 4-3 and
move into second place in the WCHA.
 
Not that the Gophers were even thinking about the standings last night. They
had enough weird things happening to keep 7,235 fans on the edges of the
benches until the final buzzer. Among them were:
 
* Bobby Dustin scoring the winning goal in the second period and never seeing
it. He crossed the red line and tried to flip the puck deep into the Northern
Michigan zone, then turned toward the bench. What he didn't see was goaltender
Corwin Saurdiff darting out of the net to head off the puck, while Northern's
Steve Woog lunged to intervene. Steve Woog, playing against the team coached
by his dad, Doug Woog, wound up scoring a goal for the Gophers when his
attempt to bat the puck out of the air inadvertently transformed it into a 90
foot goal.
 
* Jed Fiebelkorn taking the first shot of the game and sending it past
Saurdiff for a goal at 2:45 of the first period. The first shot of the second
period was by Chris McAlpine, and he scored at 0:11 to put the Gophers ahead
2-1. The first shot of the third period was by Northern Michigan's Kory
Karlander, and it, too, resulted in a goal at 2:22, closing the gap to 4-3.
 
* Karson Kaebel failing to score on the last shot of the game, a whirling try
on a six-skater attack with 0:01 left on the clock. Jeff Callinan made a huge
save on the shot from the right circle. Greg Hadden immediately smacked the
rebound in, but it was ruled to be an instant too late. The stop on Kaebel,
incidentally, might have been poetic justice because Kaebel had shoved
defenseman Charlie Wasley over the top of Callinan in the crease to allow
Scott Smith to find an unguarded patch of net for the first Northern Michigan
goal.
 
* The teams, coming into the series as the two WCHA leaders in penalty minutes,
 playing the entire first period without a penalty. And while the game stayed
clean and tense, there was one overdone hit on each side. In the second period,
 Joe Frederick skated up the right side at full speed while Wasley cut behind
the net from the left. Frederick couldn't get to the puck as it passed along
the end boards, but he could get to Wasley, who never saw him coming. The
collision resulted in an interference minor on Frederick. Wasley received a
broken nose that also was cut, needing 12 stitches. In the third period,
Fiebelkorn blasted Steve Woog into the sideboards with a leaping elbow to the
helmet that got Fiebelkorn 2 minutes for elbowing and provided Woog with enough
 cobwebs to almost make him forget his wrong-way tip-in. Almost.
 
It didn't seem as if the Gophers should need 90-foot deflected goals and any
luck at all when they outshot the Wildcats 21-5 in the second period. They got
a goal from Craig Johnson, rebounding his own wraparound try, in between the
break-in goal by McAlpine, who also had two assists and Dustin's goal. But the
game unfolded precisely the way Northern coach Rick Comley wanted it to.
 
"No question," Comley said. "We wanted to stay within reach, regardless of the
shots, and be in position to make a run at it late in the game. It looked like
we were going to be out of it a couple of times, but we fought back into it.
I think they knew they were never safe."
 
Tonight, in the rematch at 7:05, they'll probably be unsafe again.
<end quoted material>
 
More prophetic words were never spoken...
 
-Carol