I know Carol's off today, so the only totally-biased summary you'll get on this series is from me: I guess the headline in the Minnesota Daily article says it all (and it's not too often I agree with their headline writers) "Gophers Struggle in Series Sweep" The gophs pulled off their first sweep of the season, but they sure did NOT make it look easy. They pulled out to a 4-0 lead in the first period Friday, but just when we thought the only suspense would be whether or not they got a power-play goal to go with the penalty shot goal, short-handed goal, and two even-strength goals in the first period, they went to sleep, eventually holding on to win the game 5-4. Saturday night we at least had Chris McAlpine back in the lineup for the Gophers, after one of the few experienced defenders missed Friday night's game with a hip injury. Unfortunately, Craig Johnson hurt his shoulder during the second period. Not something the Gophers needed, to lose two of their top returning players, Johnson and Hendrickson, with shoulder injuries. Carol was informed via improvised sign language by an arena worker that Johnson's shoulder was okay (after being checked out at the hospital). I haven't, however, seen anything about it in the papers yet. Saturday's game was something less than an offensive showcase. The Gophers went up 1-0 in the first period on freshman defenseman Dan Trebil's first collegiate goal, but then managed only two shots on goal (to Tech's 3) from sometime in the latter half of the 1st 'til 10-15 minutes through the second. Travis Richards put the Gophers up 2-0 and broke the power-play drought late in the second. Tech scored in the third to make it 2-1, but when they pulled Ram with a minute left, sophomore forward Jed Fiebelkorn got his first collegiate goal. Tech did score with the extra skater with about 20 seconds left to make Jed's goal the game-winner. Oh, yes, this was the Gophers first sweep of the year and, thus the first rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by the band and salute from the team. The Gophers obviously needed a little practice on the unison in their post-sweep mid-ice salute. Hopefully they'll have plenty of opportunities! :-) (Had to live up to my billing as a "totally-biased" report!) Here are some of the quotes and a few more details from the Daily article for those who are interested: Headline: Gophers struggle in series sweep Publish Date: 11/30/1992 By Patty Hegre Staff Reporter ...(stuff deleted) The Huskies didn't let the Gophers run away with the series, but were unable to take advantage of Minnesota's shallow bench. "I thought we played with a lot of character this weekend," said Bob Mancini, Tech's first-year head coach. "Minnesota played hard even though they were a little battered, and we kept it close, but we couldn't win." Gopher goalie Jeff Callinan blocked 21 shots in Saturday's win, including 12 in the third period to ice the victory. ... In Friday's victory, Richards' second-period goal, which gave Minnesota a 5-1 lead, was the eventual game-winner after Mikesch added two goals and Jim Young another in the third period. Johnson opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game on a penalty shot, when a Tech player was whistled for covering the puck in the crease. Jeff Nielsen, Scott Bell and Bobby Dustin each contributed a goal to the victory. Senior Tom Newman gave up three goals on 21 shots before being replaced by Callinan at 13:13 of the third period. Pam Sweeney Go Gophers!!!