There was an article by John Gilbert in today's Star Tribune on the WCHA
 coaches poll and other Gopher notes. I will skip most of the stuff concerning
 the coaches picking the favorites, but there was one interesting part...he
 listed who voted for which teams....
 
 The Gophers were the first choice of Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer, Northern
 Michigan's Rick Comley, Minn-Duluth's Mike Sertich, Colorado College's Brad
 Buetow, and St.Cloud's Craig Dahl. Wisconsin was picked first by Denver's
 Frank Serratore and Minnesota's Doug Woog.
 
 North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini and new Michigan Tech coach Bob Mancini
 picked the Gophers and Wisconsin as co-favorites.
 
 Hall-of-Fame game...
 A preview of college hockey's new two-referee system will occur Saturday when
 UMD faces North Dakota at the Eveleth Hippodrome int he United States Hockey
 Hall of Fame game.  Former coaches Amo Bessone of Michigan State, Len Ceglarski
  of Boston College, and the late Jim Fullerton of Brown will be inducted in
 ceremonies earlier Saturday.
 
 WCHA commissioner Otto Breitenbach said the increasing speed of play led to the
  move <to go to the 2-ref, 1-linesman>.  "At the same time, we are emphasizing
 that it is not just another man to call more penalties, but to work with the
 teams to play by the book," Breitenbach said. "Hockey is a game of contact,
 speed and velocity; we want to maintain those and remove the penalties in a
 positive, not negative manner."
 
 Checking out the Czechs...
 A tour coordinated by the Czech hockey federation has been arranged with the
 WCHA.
 
 A Czech select team will play seven WCHA teams, including the Gophers on Dec.
 27th at Minnesota, during a tour of the U.S. Breitenbach said similar tours
 will be arranged annually, and WCHA teams might travel to Europe for late-
 summer tours in the future.
 
 This season, the Czech selects will play Dec. 27 at Minnesota; Dec. 29 at
 UMD; Dec 31 at Wisconsin, Jan. 1 at St. Cloud; Jan. 4 at Northern Michigan;
 and Jan. 6 at North Dakota.
 
 There seems to be an increase in the number of European players in the WCHA,
 just as in the NHL. Most recently, Ulvis Katlaps, who played with the Soviet
 Union's Dynamo Riga team against the Gophers two years ago, has been given
 approval to play at Wisconsin. "He's not a superstar, but he's a steady, stay-
 at-home defenseman," said Sauer.
 
 Katlaps will have at least one year of eligibility, Sauer said.
 
 that's all he wrote.
 -Carol