Carol's too busy this week to file her weekend report, so I'm posting most of Monday's Minnesota Daily article about a rather disappointing weekend for us Gopher fans: Headline: Gopher loss ends string of ties Publish Date: 11/16/1992 .RM138PT/By Patty Hegre Staff Reporter The Gopher hockey team set school records for consecutive ties and attendance this weekend, but has yet to find the combination that produced Minnesota's best-ever Western Collegiate Hockey Association record last season. Minnesota captured the conference title with a remarkable 26-6 league campaign last year, but the Gophers have struggled to a 2-3-3 start this season. After a 4-4 tie Friday and a 3-2 loss on Saturday to Wisconsin (5-2-1), the Gophers are off to their worst conference start since Doug Woog took over the coaching duties in 1985. Despite Minnesota's seven points and fourth-place standing, Woog remains optimistic. "I'd be upset if I thought we weren't making progress or we were sliding, but that's not the case," said Woog following Saturday's loss in front of 16,037 fans at the Met Center. "We played a good, hard game tonight, we just couldn't score. It was another one of those games where I can't even pick something that was bad. Right now there's no room for major slumps or we could be climbing all year." [stuff omitted] McAlpine did manage to sneak two shots past Badger goalie Jim Carey in the first period to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead and nearly hit the mesh again late in the third period. The junior defenseman scored on the power play at 7:05 in the opening period, when Brandon Steege and Jed Fiebelkorn fed him a pass at the blue line. McAlpine unleashed a shot that glanced off a Wisconsin defenseman and into the net. Five minutes later, McAlpine rushed the puck up center ice, skated in over the blue line and sent an ankle-high rocket through a defenseman's legs that beat Carey low on the stick side. Badger defenseman Barry Richter scored the game winner during Wisconsin's 4-on-3 man advantage late in the second period. In Friday's overtime draw, Minnesota's line of Justin McHugh, Joe Dziedzic and Brian Bonin led Minnesota's offense at Mariucci Arena. McHugh, a sophomore winger, scored on the power play at 8:32 in the first period to tie the game 1-1. McHugh evened the score again at 6:12 in the second period to secure a 3-3 tie with the Badgers. Minnesota pressured Badger goalie Jon Michelizzi with five overtime shots, but couldn't find the net as time ran out on the clock. [end of article] As I said, it was a disappointing weekend, but it's hard to be TOO concerned, as the young Gophers played tough against Wisconsin, even with Darby Hendrickson out, and apparently a team-wide flu bug going around. Still, the story for the Gophers this year will probably be how fast and how well their freshman defensemen adapt to WCHA play, and it's too early to tell how that'll turn out. Pam Sweeney Go Gophers!!!