Saturday night Erik Biever, his wife Paula and I made the hour's drive to
St. Cloud and watched an intra-squad scrimmage of the Olympic trials. It
really shouldn't be called a game for these reasons: 1. they did not keep
track of the time. The scrimmage was played in two 40 minute (approximately)
halves. 2. There were no officials. Jack Blatherwick was on the ice, and play
stopped only if a goal was scored, the puck was shot off into the crowd or the
net came off.(The goalie had to replace the net himself too!!)
There were few face-offs and very little hard checking. This surprised
me a bit. The line that impressed us the most was the HEK line. David Emma,
Steve Heinze, and Trent Klatt. They really worked well together and I think
that Klatt has an excellent chance of making the team. A few others who made
an impression were: David Quinn who was everywhere, a real hustler! Stan
Drulia who was also doing a great job of covering opponents, Peter Ciavaglia
also showed how talented he is, and last but not least Lane MacDonald was
great with the puck and very fast, but he wasn't doing any checking...perhaps
this was by design however.
MacDonald had a fabulous night on Friday when he scored three goals
According to the papers here his main reason for quitting hockey was that he
suffered from "trauma-induced migraine headaches" any small jolt or hit could
bring one on. He is on medication now and has his doctor's OK to play.
Now, here is some information from the Star Tribune article on Sunday. Some of
the information is quoted exactly.
Dave Peterson seems relaxed and poised even though all around him things
are not! Jack Blatherwick, who is one of the nation's top sports physiologists
has withdrawn from the staff to become the hockey coach at Hopkins High School
this season. Blatherwick has agreed to assist whenever he can and to work with
the team until they depart for Europe.
Robb Stauber is not in camp because he is still recovering from knee
surgery in early April, however he is still considered to be the top goalie
candidate. "So when former Gophers star Stauber couldn't participate at the
start of camp to allow full recovery from knee surgery, and when North Stars
prospect Dan Keczmer from Lake Superior State was missing because he got
married Saturday, Peterson simply shrugged. Both still are top candidates, and
both will get their chances when they're ready, he said. Besides, a couple of
excused absences give others the opportunity to be better scrutinized."
"'Robbie met with us and has kept us informed about his knee,'" Peterson
said. 'The Los Angeles Kings' doctors wanted to examine him again, and they
said it might be a month before he can be 100 percent. We're willing to be
cautious because we've got time. We know what he can do, but at the same time,
we've got five other goaltenders here, and all of them are playing well. I
would guess we'll take three of them to Europe.'"
Peterson said that "It'll probably go right down to the deadline. We're
shooting for Tuesday, but we're not locked into that. We're not locked into
anything, and it's like I tell the players---we don't cut; it's who you
select."
"Peterson's plan is to select 28 players Tuesday and leave within a week
for a tournament in France that starts August 15th at the site of February's
Winter Games that opens a 63-game pre-Olympic schefdule that sends the team to
a tournament in Finland, then home instead of to a tournament in Latvia, as
first planned. 'We'll come back to Lake Placid about September 1, and we'll
get back to St.Cloud about September 28th,' Peterson said."
Time is short today, so I'll post the scoring summaries (such as they are)
tomorrow or the next day.
Carol
U of M
GO Gophers!!!
|