Carol has privately invited me to take her place in submitting a (now pretty late) report on last weeekend's Wildcat-Gopher series in Minneapolis. Since I've already sacrificed part of my lunch hour to stay in and listen to the inauguration ceremony, I might as well use the rest up with this brief summary. Fortunately, Erik B. posted a statistical summary earlier, because I don't have the printed materials or the memory facility available to me now to provide any details on players' names, times of goals, saves, etc. Friday night's 4-3 Gopher win was an extremely exciting game. NMU coach Rick Comley had said a key to the game was to stay close in the first period, because Minnesota had outscored its opponents about 2-1 in the first. That objective was accomplished, as the Gophers scored first but the 'Cats tied the score a few minutes later, and the period ended 1-1. Wildcat sophomore goalie Corwin Saurdiff was to display some of the inconsistency which has led Comley to alternate him with freshman Paul Taylor. He gave up a goal on the first Gopher shot, and it was a pretty soft shot from the the lower part of the left wing faceoff circle that trickled through Saurdiff's pads. Following that, however, Saurdiff made a number of excellent saves and was solid for the rest of the period. Again, the first shot of the second period saw a very quick Gopher goal as a Minnesota player got away from the opening faceoff on a breakaway and came in on Saurdiff alone. This produced a 2-1 lead for Minnesota. The goal was rather strange; Saurdiff appeared to be looking off to his right for some defensive help as the Gopher bore down on him, and when the attacker took a rather soft shot right at him, it seemed as if the puck rolled through his legs while his attention was not quite on it. Later on the Gophers scored again on a scramble in front of the net, and Saurdiff was down and didn't have much chance to stop it from becoming a 3-1 game. I've commented on the fourth Gopher goal, also scored in the second period, earlier, and Erik gave an excellent description of it as well, so I'll just continue to shake my head about how the best intentions can sometimes lead to disasters! The Wildcats came back with two goals in the third period to make it 4-3, and came within one second of tying the game as they buzzed the Gopher net with six attackers for the final minute. Greg Hadden's shot from right in front, following two others which were blocked, found the back of the net, but the shot occurred just after time expired. It was very close, but not close enough for the Wildcat players or bench to argue about it. Following the Friday game Comley was actually quite upbeat during his radio interview, indicating that it was clear the Wildcats could play with the Gophers in Mariucci Arena, and that he felt a number of his players were capable of better play than they had just showed; he was hoping that if they came closer to their potential the next night things would be different. The Saturday night contest certainly vindicated Comley's comments. I imagine the 7-0 final score raised quite a few eyebrows around the college hockey world last weekend. Apparently that was the first time the Gophers have been shut out in Mariucci in almost exactly twenty years, at least as far as regular season play is concerned. The NMU team played extremely well for the entire sixty minutes. In particular (and this was a key Comley pointed out in his pregame interview) the 'Cats carried the puck out of their own zone with great speed and crispness, almost never giving the Gophers a chance to mount a sustained attack on their net. They also played with exceptional sharpness offensively, making some of the best passes I've seen from them this year. Freshman Paul Taylor got the start in goal, and the shutout. He made a number of excellent saves, and was very much in the game the entire time. He also received outstanding help from his teammates and seldom had to face shots off rebounds. I believe he was credited with 27 saves which was of course the Minnesota shots-on-goal total for the night. (The previous night Saurdiff had faced 34 shots on goal.) The Wildcat goals were scored by seven different players, including Mike Harding, Bill MacGillivray, Greg Hadden, Joe Frederick, Troy Johnson, and, I believe, Scott Smith, plus one more who I can't recall. It was 2-0 at the end of the first period and 5-0 at the end of the second. Two of the second period goals were shorthanders, the first by Hadden, who got a 2-0 breakaway with Frederick trailing and went straight in on the Gopher goalie, lifting a shot over the goalies' left shoulder from about four feet in front. The second shg was Frederick's, no surprise as he's already known as "Shorthanded Joe" and is the Wildat career record holder in this category (but all of it accumulated over the last ten games of last season, plus now three in the last two weeks). Freddie was another 2-0 with Hadden, this time side by side with him, and Hadder fed him beautifully as he was going by the goalie's stick side; he slid the puck into the lower left corner. The Wildcats scored almost immediately, again, at the opening of the final period to make it 6-0 just after an NMU power play had expired. (Teams seem especially vulnerable at such times; I've seen NMU give up quite a few goals over the past two seasons just AFTER they've killed penalties themselves.) About midway through the period they scored the seventh and final goal. The Minnesota TV announcers were most critical of the Gopher's failure to clear Wildcats from the slot area during attacking situations, and there were several cases where NMU green surrounded the Minnesota net and goals resulted. The announcers, to give them credit, were pretty good-humored about things once the game was completely out of reach. The most amusing thing they did was try to put the hex on Taylor's shutout, repeatedly saying he had one going and rooting for the Gophers to ruin it. (The Gophers did try hard to do so, according to the NMU radio broadcasters. They said Minnesota kept a winger stationed near the Wildat blue line throughout the final minutes, hoping for a breakaway opportunity.) Anyway, the fact was that Taylor only had to make four saves in the final period. I was very pleased to see that the first player out on the ice to embrace him was Saurdiff. And, I predict we will see an exceptionally strong effort from Corwin in his next start! A fun weekend--especially Saturday! (obviously my own "spin") ********************************************************************** * Steve Christopher, NMU [log in to unmask] * * * * * * NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions 1990-91 * GO * * * NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92 * * * WCHA League Champions 1990-91 * 'CATS! * * * WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 . . . * * * * * **********************************************************************