(Ed note: the following is from Steve Christopher, NMU). > Sophomore Craig Johnson and freshman Darby Hendrickson have DECLINED their > invitations to play on the U.S. Junior National team. This is good news for > the Gophers who will need these guys when Northern comes to town this weeken > > Question for Justin Doherty: Will Beattie and Melone be playing this weeken > We WANT to see them play, we'd hate to beat you with two of your best on the > injured list! :-) > Hey, we'll have to see about that, Carol! But it certainly is true that Beattie, Melone, et al are important cogs in the 'Cat machine. Last weekend in the NMU-St. Cloud series it was evident that the Wild cats were not up to their best form, by a long shot. In fact, despite winning 8-4 Friday night Rick Comley expressed total disgust on the postgame radio interview. (He also stated that Jim Beattie was speared even though no penalty was called on the play--Beattie did leave the ice for the rest of the period in which the injury was incurred.) Rick was evidently so unhappy after Saturday's loss that he didn't even give a radio interview, which is highly unusual. As it happened I ran into the "Voice of the Wildcats" Joe Blake at a party last night and he said that Rick also had a couple of other distractions Saturday, including a TV interview team which grabbed him right after the game end, and some concern about a family problem which had just come up. Actually, Rick sounded so upset with the team's performance on Friday that I speculated (before hearing about the injury's seriousness) when Beattie wasn't on the ice Saturday that he had been taken out of uniform for a game for disciplinary reasons. I was obviously wrong about that. In general, it's obvious Wildcat fans are not going to enjoy the kind of season they did last year, but the WCHA seems evenly balanced and we're certainly holding high hopes for the league title again. (We've already lost one more game than we did all last year, but then I have to remember that we lost NO games after mid-December last season, so who knows . . . ? > Blaine Moore got his first hat trick as a Badger on Friday night. NOT > ONE HAT was thrown on the ice. All the media people were speculating > that the fans were in shock at how many goals Wisconsin had scored (or > that they had let CC back into the game). Basically, it was a boring This custom of throwin hats on the ice when a player gets a hat trick-- how widespread is this? It happens pretty often here in "Wildcat scoring land" (would that our defense were currently doing as well as our offense), but in my short time here over two seasons I've never seen it done at Lakeview Arena. > Hey, what about all the bands west of the original 13 colonies!?! Here's a > vote for the Michigan Tech Pep Band...okay, they may not have the best sound > outside of the Upper Peninsula, but they can shatter ear drums in between > periods. A certain newspaper in Duluth, MN rates all the stops in the WCHA > each year and annually rates the Tech Pep Band as the best...the loudest, the > rowdiest, and the best spirited of them all. All right, I will admit, I am > biased as a former member and trumpet player of the band. > I really must put in my two cents' worth on this topic! Admittedly, I have not had the pleasure(?!) of hearing any other college hockey band except Boston University's at last year's NC** Championship game (was right behind it, in fact, at St. Paul), and they were great. But I do have to tell you that Northern Michigan officials received terrific compliments on the Northern Sound Machine's work, and at least one NCAA official said it was the best college band he'd ever heard. Since I recently made acquaintance with Don Smith, our new-last-season band director, I had to put in a note for the NMU effort!