Minnesota swept Northern Michigan, which should NOT be a surprise this season.
After all, NMU has only won five games so far this season! But NMU did
surprise the Gophers, skating with them for one period on Friday and a period
and a half on Saturday. Their efforts did not go unnoticed by some Minnesota
fans, who were a little nervous during those times when NMU kept up with the
Gophers.
Minnesota now has three shutout victories in a row. The only other time that
the Gophers have done this was in 1988 during the playoffs with Robb Stauber
in the nets. The Gophers also have tied their all-time season record of six
shutouts in a season with their victory on Saturday night.
Nine different Gophers tallied goals in the 10-0 and 7-0 wins this weekend.
Junior Dan Woog got his first ever (in his entire career) hat trick on Friday
night and Jay Moser, who is a defenseman turned winger scored a hat trick on
Saturday night. Two unexpected heros for the Gophers! Dan Woog is not just the
coach's son, despite the comments of many people including some of the local
media. They know nothing about which they are talking about! Danny gives 120%
every time he steps on the ice. He quietly goes about his job on the ice and
always plays "smart hockey". His quiet leadership and work ethic impact the
rest of the team and his critics should wake up and smell the coffee!
On Friday night, Jesse Bertogliat, a 5-6 senior winger checked Wildcat
freshman A.J. VanBruggen who is 6-6 during the third period. VanBruggen, who
fell into the boards after the hit injured his knee and did not play the rest
of the weekend. Jesse needs to pick on players his own size, sheesh!
While Friday night was fun, the student section had a blast, Saturday's rout
ended up being boring. There is something to be said about close games.
However some of the off-ice activities on Saturday kept us hopping.
A puck flew into my section during the first period...I noticed the crowd's
anticipation around me and instantly covered my head...only to have the puck
drop at my feet, hitting my boot. I was not quick enough to grab it, and the
newly retired lady that sits next to me glommed onto it before I could get to
it. She was thrilled!
Also in the first period on Saturday a puck took a weird bounce and hit
linesman Wohlers in the face, near his eye. The game was halted for about five
minutes while the Minnesota Trainer and team doctor tended to him. He was
finally escorted off the ice and sent to the hospital for treatment. I hope
that everything turns out okay for him.
Also during Saturday's game, there was a goal by Reggie Berg that didn't get
noticed or counted in the score. There was a lot of action around Kochan and
the net was bumped up during the action, but failed to go back down all the
way. It was setting up on one of the pegs just about one inch! Berg shot the
puck and it appeared to go "through" the net, when it actually went in and
under the net and then out. The goalie didn't see it, and neither did the ref.
Berg thought he had scored, he did raise his stick in celebration, but when
the puck ended up on the other side of the net, the play just continued. I got
this from the game tape which I watched this morning. You should have seen the
look on Woog's face when Reid and Mazzocco showed him the videotape!!!
Coach Woog also had something to say about a suggestion that was made to move
the games against Colorado College to the Civic Center or the Target Center
... NO WAY! Apparantly, some tickets to those two games are already extremely
hot items and selling for WAY OVER face value, like $200 plus per ticket! Even
when told that the move (and the opportunity to sell more tickets) would raise
approximately $250,000.00, Woog said that you couldn't put a price on some
things. Thank goodness!
Ryan Kraft and Reggie Berg earned the most points this weekend, each getting
six points. Jay Moser had five points with Brian Bonin getting four. Mike
Crowley and Dan Woog each got three. Nine other Gophers also tallied points
over the weekend.
Midwest Sports Channel has a new roving reporter this season, Ryan Lefebre,
who is a very personable guy and he evidently made a bet with the student
section, that if the Gophers kept NMU from scoring for five periods, he would
let the students "pass him up the section". Good as his word, during the final
minute of the game, the students chanting "Pass up Ryan", up he went! What a
good sport. Ryan has also taken the brunt of the water toss that is done on
the lucky Gopher "player of the game". Ryan interviews the potg, and then
inevitably gets splashed when the potg's teammates douse him with water. What
started out with a squirt of a water bottle, has evolved into something bigger
than life. On Saturday night, Ryan was "wearing" a large plastic garbage bag
over his clothes ... uh-oh! As he was interviewing Jay Moser, Hendy and Lars
dumped a Gatorade container full of water on Jay. Thank goodness that Ryan had
planned ahead! :-)
The Gophers have now gone 192 minutes without having a goal scored on them,
and their shot total on Saturday night of 50 is the new season high! Goalie
Steve DeBus has now won 12 games in a row, and the Gophers have won 11 in a
row. The depth of the team now leaves some players fighting for a spot on the
traveling roster for next weekend. And even though Jay Moser had an
outstanding weekend on the second line, I do expect to see Dave Larson back in
his original spot on the second line. It will be interesting to see who Woog
will put on the fourth line. Woog's motto for the rest of this season is that
they will do whatever it takes to win, and if that means that some of the team
has to sit out, then that's the way it will be. And that also goes for who
plays in goal. Woog is perfectly happy to continue with the rotation of Moen
on Friday and DeBus on Saturday, but will do whatever is best for the team and
to get the win.
The Gophers travel to Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota this coming
weekend to take on the Fighting Sioux. Dean Blais has a fine team this season,
and these two games will be very exciting to say the least.
-Carol
GO Gophers!!!
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