Gregg Wong's College Hockey Notebook is in Tuesday's Pioneer Press:
http://www.pioneerplanet.com/sports/hockey/docs/013530.htm
        Topics:
        Intern learns at Woog's side
        Around the WCHA
        Centennial celebration
        `Pioneers' on KTCA
 
And here's Tuesday's Minnesota Daily article, which contains:
        Hat trick earns Hankinson weekly conference honors
        Carnage in Denver
        Warning: falling records
        Europeans feel at home
        No hard feelings
        Gophers optimistic
 
Hat trick earns Hankinson weekly conference honors
 
Jeff Sherry - Staff Reporter
                                                                    [Image]
While competing for the U.S. Junior National Team in Massachusetts
for most of the past month, Gophers hockey forward Casey Hankinson failed to
score a goal.
 
But last weekend against Denver, Hankinson proved he hasn't lost his scoring
touch. The sophomore's three goals helped the Gophers win 7-3 on Friday, and
on Monday that hat trick helped him win WCHA Offensive Player of the Week
honors.
 
"I was saving my goals," Hankinson joked Saturday. "It's weird because I
thought I played fairly well at the World Junior Tournament, but I just
didn't score. By looking at the stat sheet, it didn't look like I played
that well.
 
"And then I came back and scored three goals and it looked like I played
great. Really, it was no different. It just happened that I scored here and
that gets you recognized more often."
 
Hankinson, who assisted on Erik Rasmussen's eventual game-winning goal on
Saturday, now has 10 goals and nine assists this season. Hankinson had never
won the award.
 
Carnage in Denver
 
Gophers mascots have been kicked, punched and beaten several times while at
opposing schools' arenas. But in a bizarre skit during the second
intermission of Minnesota's game Friday at DU Arena, a Goldy Gopher
look-a-like was rifled down.
 
The Pioneers' mascot, Denver Boone, was at the far blue line wearing his
trademark raccoon-skin cap and practicing his golf swing. At about the same
time, a skating gopher mascot took the ice and started waving to the cro wd.
 
When Denver Boone hit a golf ball to the other end of the rink, the gopher
skated over and picked it up. A local radio personality standing beside
Denver Boone with a microphone asked the gopher to return the ball but
instead, the gopher threw it into the stands .
 
The radio announcer, in his best dee-jay voice, then asked, "You're not
going to let a gopher get away with throwing your ball away -- are you
Denver Boone?"
 
Not to be embarrassed at his home rink, the DU mascot went over to the bench
and grabbed a musket. As the gopher continued waving to the crowd and
taunting his counterpart, Denver Boone raised the musket and fired a shot
that echoed throughout the arena, dropping the gopher to the ice.
 
After the crowd stopped cheering, the gopher picked itself up and let the
Zamboni driver do his job.
 
Warning: falling records
 
A number of streaks across the WCHA have school and league officials
rewriting their record books.
 
The Gophers' 13-game unbeaten streak has tied the team record for the
longest stretch without a loss. Minnesota also had a 13-game unbeaten streak
during the 1991-92 season.
 
With its sweep of Minnesota-Duluth last weekend, Colorado College extended
its conference unbeaten streak to a league-record 18 games. The WCHA record
for the longest unbeaten streak over two seasons belongs to Northern
Michigan, which went 29 games without a loss from Dec. 28, 1990 through Oct.
26, 1991.
 
Northern Michigan would probably prefer to remember that record more than
the one it extended this weekend. The Wildcats' current 12-game losing
streak is the longest in school history.
 
Europeans feel at home
 
Denver leads all WCHA teams in the number of Europeans on its roster with
five. And the Pioneers' hockey boosters have done their best to make sure
the players feel at home skating in DU Arena.
 
Earlier this season the team's boosters donated new Swedish and Finnish
flags to the 49-year-old arena. The flags now hang from the rafters, next to
the traditional American and Canadian flags.
 
No hard feelings
 
This weekend's series at Denver featured several physical exchanges and
fights, including a scuffle with 4:17 left in Friday's game that totaled 19
penalty minutes.
 
The physical play carried over to Saturday's game, when a fight erupted at
the end of the first period. That fight produced a total of 28 penalty
minutes.
 
Gophers optimistic
 
Minnesota, which still trails Colorado College in the WCHA standings by five
points, is not letting their inability to make up ground on the Tigers
discourage their league title hopes. The Gophers know their situation and
are choosing to simply concentrate on keeping their 13-game unbeaten streak
alive.
 
"Essentially, Bonin said it at C.C. when we played them that Sunday -- if we
lost that one we'd chase them all year," said Gophers coach Doug Woog. "And
that's just what happened.
 
"I don't know if it's frustrating yet because we still have a chance to get
at them, and they have to play some tough games. We're doing what we need to
do. And we're having a lot of fun doing it. So that's got to be our
approach."
 
The teams' remaining schedules appear to give Minnesota a good chance to
catch Colorado College. The Gophers play nine of their next 11 games at
Mariucci Arena and host the Tigers Feb. 9-10. Colorado College must play
Denver -- the only team it has lost to this year -- four times in the next
month.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
=A9The Minnesota Daily
 
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!
 
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