This weekend the St. Cloud State Huskys finally played hockey with the
Gophers.  Granted the gophers are short of their usual glory but the Huskys
are also weak and have never recruited like the Gophs.  The Gophs at their
worst could probably skate with us at our best.
 
Friday night the two teams came out hitting.  What was impressive was that
the Huskys were knocking the Gophers off the puck, setting up some plays,
and just keeping up with the Gophers, not letting them skate by with
blinding speed like usual.  The Huskys seemed to feel like they could play
with them and they hit like it.  After we got a two to zero lead, the
Huskys seemed to let up pulling into a three defense shell - BAD idea.
 
In normal fashion the Gophers came back with two quick goals tied the score
and seemed to be heading the game into overtime.  Bill Lund (for.) had been
taking BAD penalties all night, constantly giving the Gophers pp chances.
We (the fans) and Coach Dahl put Lund into the dog house.  With less than a
minute Bill is in the game, with all of us fearing he would give away the
game.  Instead he takes the puck into the gopher zone, crosses the center
fighting through the defense and shoots the game winner while falling down
with 34 seconds left.  No more dog house from us fans (or coach Dahl).  The
sweetest of wins ever!!
 
Saturday we hit the New Mariucci for the Gophers home opener hoping for a
sweep (I know, a pipe dream, but we all need them).  Both teams came out
very flat, poorly hitting and very sloppy.  Then the Gophers exploded for
three goals.  They looked great and we thought we were in for a long night.
 The Huskys weren't hitting, we were letting everyone by us, but after the
first period the Huskys came back.
 
The Huskys went stride to stride with the Gophers, still somewhat loose,
but not giving up many good scoring chances.  On the other end of the rink
they were getting good chances, out shooting the Gophers 34-24 I believe.
Many shots were off the mark though, many missing high.  We did finally
come back and tied the score 4-4.  Callinan did a good job keeping the
gophers in it, granted the shots wern't great, but we had several point
blank flurries that he stopped.
 
It wasn't the prettiest series ever seen, but for the first time since I
have been here (all four years of SCS WCHA action) we played with the
Gophers and a HUGE I MEAN HUGE monkey has been lifted off the backs of our
team.
 
WE beat the Gophers, took 3 out of 4 points of the series, and turned the
Gopher games into the rivalry that it should be, not the win we need to
ligitimise (SP?!) our acceptance into Div. I and the WCHA.
 
CONGRATS coach Dahl, SCS Hockey, and the entire SCS Campus!!
 
P.S.
I was really disappointed in the turnout at Mariucci.  There were alot of
empty seats and a very quiet crowd.  I think the crowd was louder at SCS.
(amazing especialy for us!!).
 
GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Bill and his Purple Barney              *    Bill Nelson
salute motorcyclists everywhere!!       *    Chief Engineer-KVSC 88.1 FM
                                        *       St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud hockey BEATS the Gophers!!!!! *    Executive Producer/Director
My life is complete!!!!                 *       Husky Productions-SCSU
Now do we get a fancy arena?   ;-)      *    [log in to unmask]
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