From Jon Roe's Sports radio/Tv column in today's Star Tribune:
 
Like a scene out of a melodrama, where the forces of good sweep in at
the last minute to rescue the helpless and innocent victims, Gophers
hockey fans were saved Thursday from a weekend of agonizing frustration.
 
Yes, tonight's NC$$ [$$ mine] playoff game between the Gophers and Clarkson
will be on home TV screens - at least for those viewers who get Midwest
Sports Channel. And so will Saturday night's game against Maine, if the
Gophers defeat Clarkson.
 
Through persistence and arm-twisting - as well as quite a few dollars - the
folks at MSC were able to persuade NC$$ officials that televising the
Gophers-Clarkson game back to Minnesota would not seriously affect attendance
at the Centrum in Worcester, Mass.  The NC$$ says no broadcaster can
televise a playoff game unless at least 9,000 tickets have been sold at
the site, and the sales hadn't reached that figure at the Centrum late
yesterday.
 
But MSC general manager Kevin Cattoor kept pestering the NC$$, and the
regional sports channel finally got permission to show the Gophers-Clarkson
game (7:30 p.m.) and Saturday's game (also 7:30 p.m.), too, if the
Gophers advance.  Announcers Dick Bremer and Tom Reid were dispatched to
Worcester last night to call the game(s).
 
"We're really scrambling to get a production truck and a crew together,
but we'll get it done," said Tim Scanlan, MSC's director of live programming.
"I would estimate it's going to cost us between $10,000 and $15,000 a game
for production costs, and there's also the NC$$ rights fee (between $1,000
and $2,500).  That's all pretty expensive, and we won't have any time for
our sales staff to sell advertising, but it's still a good decision for us
to do the games."
 
WDIO-TV in Duluth was not so fortunate.  It wanted to carry UMD's game
against Brown tonight from Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.  But nowhere near
9,000 seats had been sold for tonight's games (UMD-Brown, Wisconsin-Miami
of Ohio) at the 20,000-seat arena, so UMD fans are out of luck.  "It's
like the NC$$ doesn't want hockey on TV," said one disgruntled WDIO worker.
"How is showing the game in Duluth going to hurt attendance at a game in
Detroit?"
 
(end quoted material)
 
I think "disgruntled WDIO worker" said it for all of us.
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!
1993 WCHA Playoff Champions!!!