FROM THE MINNESOTA DAILY: The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is
expected to announce an agreement with SportsChannel America and Prime Sports
Network later next week for a nationally distributed "WCHA Game of the Week".
WCHA public relations director Doug Spencer said WCHA commissioner Otto
Breitenbach is working out a television package that will hurl the WCHA into a
national spotlight and bring additional revenue into the league. Currently,
the other three college hockey conferences (Hockey East, ECAC, and CCHA) all
have television packages.
Last week, Minnesota and Prime Sports Network announced that five Gopher
hockey games will be televised live from Mariucci Arena this season to PSN
cable subscribers in the Twin Cities area. The televised games include Denver,
Jan 4-5; St CLoud State, Jan 11; and UM-Duluth, Feb 1-2.
The broadcasts are part of PSN's total college hockey package, and the
first WCHA game is expected to be televised in December. Games will be shown
on a tape-delay basis during the middle of the week. Prime Sports Network is a
regional sports programming network reaching 1.2 million cable homes in 18
states. SportsChannel America is not available in 80 percent of the Twin
Cities area.
Referees Medo Martinello and Brian Ricci have been dropped from the WCHA.
(I can hardly believe that I am actually seeing this in print!!! Medo has been
a thorn in Gopher fans' sides for a long, long time--much like the infamous
"Pierre Belanger" we have been hearing so much about lately. Medo was well
known for his use of "the marble theory" if one team gets a penalty, it will
be offset by the other team also receiving one, either at the same time, or
shortly thereafter. Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that
the last two times he reffed games at Mariucci he wanted and got a POLICE
ESCORT to his car!!!!! He was thought to be the WORST ref in our league based
on pure incompetence and no guts. There are many people very glad to see him
banished from our league. The ULTIMATE INSULT to a bad ref lately has been the
cry of: "WE WANT MEDO!!")
One other note from this past weekend. On Saturday night Larry Olimb
scored a goal on arch rival Chad Erickson who was in goal for UMD. Larry has
tried for four years to score on Erickson and finally was successful! Also
scoring Saturday night were: John Brill, Ken Gernander, Craig Johnson, Grant
Bischoff, and Tom Pederson. Carol White, U of Minn, GO Gophers!!!
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