Well, the "Conspiracy Theory" has been laid to rest. Hopefully for the last
time this season! ;-)
The Gophers squeaked out a 2-1 victory on Friday night in Mariucci Arena and
then went up to the National Hockey Center on Saturday night and won decidedly
by a score of 4-1. I believe the magic is back.
There was a VERY humorous article in the Saturday Star Tribune written by the
infamous Pat Reusse. Here are some excerpts from that article:
The Gophers' puck chasers win a greater percentage of regular-season games
than the rest of the teams (of the 7 highly publicized teams in the Twin
Cities) -- by a large margin. You would think that this would make the
spectators in Mariucci Arena the most contented fans around.
Mysteriously, they spend almost as much time moaning as the Vikings'
followers, a group with plenty of reasons for their discontent. The Gophers'
hockey loyalists have to search to find demons. Here is the list of grievances
that have been popular lately:
* The Mariucci faithful figured it was a conspiracy that no players with ties
to the Gophers were included on the U.S.Olympic team, even though the coach,
Dave Peterson, is a lifelong Minnesotan.
* The Mariucci faithful were convinced a conspiracy was at work when the
Gophers dropped to No. 2 in the coaches poll a few weeks ago. The No. 1 team
-- Michigan -- had swept the Gophers earlier. Minnesota is currently rated
third, behind Michigan and Maine. It has become part of the Gophers' tradition
to complain about where the team is seeded in the NCAA tournament bracket.
* The Gophers have not won the national championship since 1979. If they
stumble again, the Mariucci faithful will complain that the opposition skated
Canadians. The conspiracy is that the Canadians seem to enter college at an
older age than do our lads.
You would have to assume the U of M's hockey followers bought a lot of tickets
to see Oliver Stone's "JFK", when they were not at Mariucci this winter.
Reusse goes on to talk about the (now ended) slump the Gophers were in. He was
highly amused that our "slump" would have been great for any other team! Oh
well, it was a funny article and taken with a grain of salt by most of the
truly loyal Gopher fans!
Considering the outcome of both games this weekend and what I've read on the
list lately, there seems to be quite a few goals that are disallowed for
various reasons. 1. Goal judge was asleep. 2. Ref not in correct position,
misses the call. 3. Quick whistles. I've seen 3 goals (that were goals!)
disallowed in the last four games.
In Friday's game with St Cloud State a last minute flurry in front of Gopher
goalie Tom Newman the goal by Saterdahlen was 1/2 second too late. The Huskies
protested vehemently, but the red light never came on, only the green light,
and the Ref Burlew signaled no goal right away. According to the replays, the
call was correct. The Gopher team didn't even wait around, they headed
straight to the locker room! Whew! that was too close for comfort. Tom Newman,
who started due to an injury (in practice) to Jeff Stolp, was absolutely
outstanding!!! In Friday's contest he stopped 20 shots and looked in peak form
even though he hasn't started a game since October 19th.
Saturday night at the National Hockey Center in St Cloud was a different team
and a different Ref! All of a sudden we have Supervisor Ron Foyt doing the
game, I was not happy. Of course it seemed as if Foyt had a personal vendetta
and was trying to help St Cloud State secure its very first win over the
Gophers in eight attempts. Well despite the plans of certain folks the Gophers
are still 8-0 against the Huskies. They never lost their composure although
there were several eruptions of tempers during the game.
A goal which was disallowed for the Gophers in the third period was due to a
very quick whistle. The very loud and vocal crowd of Gopher fans (approx
2,000) were outraged! It was a bad call on the Ref's part. My personal advice
to Ron Foyt is to retire from reffing games...if you can't keep up with the
action, get out!
Newman was once again awesome in goal and almost perfect. The SCSU crowd is
really quite rude to the Gophers. Whenever the Gopher crowd would do the
LAAR-RRY OOO-LLIMB cheer, the student sections countered with OLIMB SUCKS or
GOPHERS SUCK. Nice bunch. We are their biggest rivals although the feeling is
definitely NOT mutual. There was a SRO crowd of 6,514 in St Cloud and their
only sell-out all season. The Gophers had 33 shots on goal to SCSU's 20.
Cory Laylin (aka Thugmaster) who is a St Cloud native got an assist on McHugh's
goal. This is very fitting. Laylin who is 5-9 has always shown no fear to
opposing players much larger than himself, and occasionally has taken on and
won a few battles. Well, freshman Justin McHugh appears destined to inherit the
title of Thugmaster II as he is 5-8 and also has begun to take on others much
bigger than himself. ;-) Way to go Justin!
That's all for now from Minnesota.
Carol
U of M
Go Gophers!!!! 1991-1992 WCHA CHAMPIONS!!!!!
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