I watched the Gophers defend their WCHA playoff championship from section 28A in
Carol's apartment tonight (not much seating capacity, but the concessions prices
can't be beat, and no lines at the restroom...).  Paula (Erik Biever's wife)
insists that she could hear my screams in Milwaukee, but I have to claim that my
screams could only be heard about as far as the Wisconsin border.  It requires
the resonance obtained by my screams in concert with Carol's to reach as far as
Madison, and both of ours along with Kathy's to reach to Milwaukee (and scare
Carol's cats!)  Fortunately, no one called the police.  They must have heard us
cheering "M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A!" and knew we were all right.  It was a classic
hard-fought game, and those cats really missed a good one, cowering in the
bedroom like that!
 
The Mr. Hockeys were the story of the game for Minnesota.  Brian Bonin (Mr.
Hockey, 1992, White Bear Lake HS) scored the Gophers' first goal in the first
period and hit a pipe and a cross-bar in the second period (we're certain we
heard that cross-bar clank all the way from Milwaukee).  Nick Checco (Mr. Hockey
1993, Bloomington Jefferson HS) scored for the Gophers in the second period and,
of course, the OT, on a shot that bounced off the inside of the pipe and into
the net.
 
Unfortunately Mr. Hockey 1990 (Joe Dziedzic, Minneapolis Edison HS) was out
injured, and Mr. Hockey 1991 (Darby Hendrickson, Richfield HS) just signed with
Toronto, or maybe the Gophers wouldn't have had to subject us to OT.  :-)  It's
also nice to know that Mr. Hockey 1994, Mike Crowley, a defenseman from
Bloomington Jefferson, is also a future Gopher.  (Jefferson coach Tom Saterdalen
calls him "the best defenseman I've ever coached" and says he's better than
former Gopher and current San Jose Shark Tom Pederson.  Crowley was the only one
of state champion Jefferson's top four blue-liners who wasn't a sophomore.)
 
Further recruiting notes:
The Gophers have also signed Moorhead's Ryan Kraft (and it's a good thing,
otherwise I'd NEVER forgive him for scoring 4 goals in their HS tourney victory
over White Bear Lake) who was probably the most impressive forward in the
tourney, scoring 4 against WBL, 3 against South St. Paul, and Moorhead's only
goal in the 3-1 championship game loss to Jefferson.
 
In addition, Duluth East's 200-lb forward Clint Johnson, the recipient of an
Evans scholarship for caddying, will attend Minnesota and play hockey.  (I
thought he was quite impressive in East's win over Minnetonka in the tourney,
although I would have liked to have been able to see Jefferson's defensemen try
to move him out from in front of the net in the semi-final...that size is
something the Gophers could use!)
 
South St. Paul's high-scoring Jason Seils has also verbally committed to accept
a partial scholarship to Minnesota.
 
This meant there was a Minnesota recruit to watch on every team that made the
semifinals of the state tournament.  In addition, the best goal-tending
performance of the tournament was by Matt Jeffers of Osseo (in a 1-0 opening
round loss to Bloomington Jefferson), who plans to attend the Institute of
Technology at Minnesota but not play hockey.
 
Class A Hibbing's Brian Bolf will attend Minnesota-Duluth.