The Golden Gophers received an old fashioned butt kicking from DU last night. Defensive break downs cost the Gophers 2 goals. Minnesota had obvious trouble playing with a team as physical as Denver. DU dominated play along the boards and forechecked the Gophers into resorting to dump and run at times. Although the score was 4-3, the game was never that close. When Minnesota scored at 6:00 in the 3rd to bring the game within 1 goal, the crowd was going wild. A long time out quieted the crowd and the red-clad Pioneers tightened their defense down a couple of notches. Minnesota had a couple more scoring chances, but failed to capitalize. With a little over a minute left Gopher goalie Jeff Callinan skated off the ice. With the man advantage, the Gophers could't enter Denver's zone. The one excuse I can come up with for the Gophers is that they were coming off a 2 week break. The long break definately had a bad effect on the team. (subconsious message: thank you Northern and North Dakota) Nick Checco was hurt again, this time going out with a deep thigh bruise. It was really ugly -- a DU player checked him hard into the Minn. penalty box just as the door was opening. OW! Previous comments posted about the Gophers being afraid to hit are absolutly true! We don't have an enforcer. The Goph's game is to get by on speed and passing -- no hitting, or as about as much hitting as an actual gopher can do. Gophers look for redemption tonight