Friday the Thirteenth strikes Mariucci Arena! Only one of many theories of WHY? the Gophers came out flying and went flat after 20 minutes. They picked it up in the third for about 10 minutes but it wasn't enough. North Dakota won 5-3 with one empty net goal at the end. The crowd was large (6300) and really into the game from the first face-off. I was amazed at the noise from the crowd in the first period and then they were so quiet in the third. Woog's secretary sang the national anthem all three nights and did an outstanding job. However, she was wearing a kelly green coat (North Dakota wears green) and we saw that as a bad omen to say the least. The Sioux just out-played us. One new thing the band has started is to play the theme song from the old Dudley Do-Right cartoons when the Refs enter the ice! Very amusing. After the game we were understandibly in a poor frame of mind...so we adjorned to Stub and Herb's for an "attitude adjustment"! It helped. Most of our co-horts had the same idea and we mingled and took our minds off the game. Saturday night was a whole different story! The Sioux picked up their chippy play and as a result played very badly. Alot like their 10-1 loss a week ago. There were several altercations with all players on both teams getting into it on the ice. Referee Greg Shepard did an okay job trying to keep the peace...at least he didn't give anyone a DQ and he could have. The linesmen on the other hand were horrible! Missed off-sides and face-offs took forever! If everyone wasn't lined up just PERFECTLY...they started over. YUCK! One very funny move was by Minnesota's freshman Steve "Maggie" Magnusson when he was being held on the ice by a Sioux. He managed to do a great wrestling reversal and then HE was on top of the guy...then he got up and skated away from the area! ;-) Sean Fabian managed to get a marvelous shiner, and Scott Bell continued his feisty antics. The crowd did the "Pull your head out" cheer for the Refs often. There was a LOUD CHEER from the crowd when the SCSU-Wisconsin score was announced (SCSU won the game). Also the band did the Black Hole cheer during one of the times when penalties were being sorted out. But the funniest thing I heard all night was from a cohort in my section. The Gophers had two goals disallowed and we still don't know what happened exactly, the goal lights DID come on but.... Anyway in the third period Kirk stands up and yells really loud: " Hey Gino in your heart you know it's really 11-2!!!" It broke up the entire section. The final official score was 9-2. Near the end of the game the crowd started chanting "Double digits!" It was great fun. One landmark scoring record was tied in the second period. Senior captain Larry Olimb tied the career assist record with John Mayasich (he played in the early '50's) The crowd gave Larry a standing ovation and chanted his name over and over. After the game we were off to Stub's again to celebrate and the place was just nuts. I also heard from a friend that most of the players were at another nearby establishment and were seen celebrating and dancing on the tables! Sunday night we were back to wrap this puppy up! It was a wierd night, we were excited to be there and make sure the Gophers wrapped it up, but it was to be our last game in Mariucci for the season and that was tough. Larry Olimb did the Gophers proud by breaking John Mayasich's career assist record of 154, when he got assist number 155! The crowd was wild, although it was announced while the puck was in play and so, consequently there was no standing O for Larry last night. Too bad, as he really is deserving of the credit. Face-offs were a nightmare, as the Linesmen were again too darn picky. The final score was 3-1. Much too close for comfort, but the Sioux played a good game and it was "a game" until the end! Goldy Gopher had his last performance and he brought out all his toys for us to say goodbye to. :-) AND, at the very end he REMOVED the Gopher head/mask to reveal himself to the crowd!!!!! (Gary-what do you think of that???) It was VERY HARD to leave the arena and a few of us stood around in our section for 15-20 minutes after the game was over. We heard the pep band sing the Alma Mater acapella, it was very nice. Afterwards we wandered over to see the MacNaughton Cup once more and hung around till about 10:30! What a weekend!!! Well we advance to the St Paul Civic Center this Friday and meet Colorado College in the evening game. It should be a great weekend in St Paul. Carol U of M GO Gophers!!! 1992 WCHA Champions!!!