How does one begin to describe it? In a word....AWFUL.
 
Everyone except the Gophers showed up ready to play this weekend. I won't be
making any excuses for them either. They played badly and lost two games to
two teams they could have easily beaten. What a shock they got.
 
At the beginning of the game against Ferris State, a cohort in my section, who
is known for his very loud and opinionated rantings was carrying on about how
Ferris was a rotten team and how they should prepare to get their lumps. I was
upset with this person, I felt it was a VERY bad omen...and I was right.
 
Woog juggled his lines again and keeps trying to work out this "modular
forwards" system. I think that if you have a line that is very productive, you
should leave well enough alone! Maybe I'm wrong, but it must affect the
players in some way....?!
 
Tom Newman our senior goalie, who had shut-out Alaska-Anchorage on Tuesday
night, had a horrible first period and that's the last we saw of him in the
nets. Woog did not fault him, but was quoted in the Star Tribune as saying: "I
don't blame Tommy on any of the goals, but if he'd played better, he'd have
stopped some of them." The Gophers played pretty well in the last two periods
but the Ferris State goalie stonewalled them.
 
Some of the Gophers were really working hard like Joe Dziedzic, Justin McHugh,
and Craig Johnson. Other Gophers ended up sitting out the Third-place game for
not getting the job done on Saturday night....like Steve Magnusson and Brandon
Steege. This was Darby Hendrickson's first game back since injuring his
shoulder about six weeks ago. Darby was tentative and was rarely physical and
seemed frustrated by this.
 
There were WAY TOO many penalties. I know that the Gophers have in the past
gotten MOST of their penalties for "retaliation", but they are beginning to
instigate some of their own, and that bothers me. For instance Jeff Nielsen
has been penalized in the last 3 or 4 games for running into the goaltender.
This at times is an accident, but it's happening too often. He is now a marked
man and has to avoid skating anywhere near the goalie. He was nailed again on
Saturday, he continues to be a very valuable player and playmaker and I think
that that is why Woog hasn't benched him! But if it keeps happening...
 
I understand that assistant coach Mark Mazzoleni read the team the riot act
after the Saturday game for 45 MINUTES!!! When he gets hot, he can really yell
and scare the you-know-what out of you. The coaching staff is fed up with the
chippy play. Maybe a 4:00AM practice should be scheduled or something. Must
have been really grim in the hockey office today, hope there weren't too many
nasty phone calls. There was no practice today, but tomorrow the proverbial
"stuff" is going to hit the fan!
 
The final straw of the weekend (and the reason for my despair) is that when
the last seconds had ticked off the clock and UIC started to celebrate, there
was a full-blown melee on the ice. UIC had every right to celebrate, they came
to play and won the game. One of our players for some yet unknown reason took
exception to this and cross-checked a group of four UIC players. I might add
that the player that did this, and started the almost-brawl, is absolutely one
of the finest young men on the team and it really makes me wonder what
provoked his reaction. Very sad. As the teams were all on the ice and supposed
to be lining up to shake hands, many players "got into it" so to speak. The
officials and all of the coaches (from both teams) took several minutes to
separate all the action. The crowd that had stayed to see the handshakes,
stood and watched in shock. Dismal ending to an ugly, ugly game.
 
Despite all the disappointment, the weekend was fun as we (Erik and Paula, Pam
and I) entertained James Bradshaw and John Feigal who came to town to see the
Tournament.  I will post some notes about the Tourney tomorrow and the fun we
had at the Championship game!
 
I hope the Gophers get their helmets screwed on straight before they face the
league-leading UMD Bulldogs on Friday and Saturday this weekend.
 
A very disappointed Gopher fan.
-Carol.