There was an article by John Gilbert in today's Star Tribune on the WCHA coaches poll and other Gopher notes. I will skip most of the stuff concerning the coaches picking the favorites, but there was one interesting part...he listed who voted for which teams.... The Gophers were the first choice of Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer, Northern Michigan's Rick Comley, Minn-Duluth's Mike Sertich, Colorado College's Brad Buetow, and St.Cloud's Craig Dahl. Wisconsin was picked first by Denver's Frank Serratore and Minnesota's Doug Woog. North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini and new Michigan Tech coach Bob Mancini picked the Gophers and Wisconsin as co-favorites. Hall-of-Fame game... A preview of college hockey's new two-referee system will occur Saturday when UMD faces North Dakota at the Eveleth Hippodrome int he United States Hockey Hall of Fame game. Former coaches Amo Bessone of Michigan State, Len Ceglarski of Boston College, and the late Jim Fullerton of Brown will be inducted in ceremonies earlier Saturday. WCHA commissioner Otto Breitenbach said the increasing speed of play led to the move <to go to the 2-ref, 1-linesman>. "At the same time, we are emphasizing that it is not just another man to call more penalties, but to work with the teams to play by the book," Breitenbach said. "Hockey is a game of contact, speed and velocity; we want to maintain those and remove the penalties in a positive, not negative manner." Checking out the Czechs... A tour coordinated by the Czech hockey federation has been arranged with the WCHA. A Czech select team will play seven WCHA teams, including the Gophers on Dec. 27th at Minnesota, during a tour of the U.S. Breitenbach said similar tours will be arranged annually, and WCHA teams might travel to Europe for late- summer tours in the future. This season, the Czech selects will play Dec. 27 at Minnesota; Dec. 29 at UMD; Dec 31 at Wisconsin, Jan. 1 at St. Cloud; Jan. 4 at Northern Michigan; and Jan. 6 at North Dakota. There seems to be an increase in the number of European players in the WCHA, just as in the NHL. Most recently, Ulvis Katlaps, who played with the Soviet Union's Dynamo Riga team against the Gophers two years ago, has been given approval to play at Wisconsin. "He's not a superstar, but he's a steady, stay- at-home defenseman," said Sauer. Katlaps will have at least one year of eligibility, Sauer said. that's all he wrote. -Carol