Gophers split this weekend with SCSU, losing in St. Cloud 3-0 on Saturday, winning at home on Sunday 5-3. A couple comments, not directly game related. My fiance, myself and 5 friends made the trip to St. Cloud on Saturday. While the game itself was embarassing (the Gophers showed up to play about 4 minutes of the game) I wanted to comment on the arena, fans, etc. The National Hockey Center is roughly 5-6 years old, and it reminded me much of the old Mariucci Arena in that there is NO room to walk around, no aisle space, and in the 200 level your knees are literally in the back of the person in front of you. We were lucky there were no large fans around us, otherwise breathing may have been a problem as we were so tightly packed in there. I am amazed that such a new facility could be so un-user friendly. As for the fans, we've already had this discussion I know, but I want to raise a few questions. There were dead gophers thrown on the ice. 1. Where the heck do you find gophers, alive or dead, this time of the year? 2. How would you feel if we threw a dead dog, Native American, etc on the ice? We've gone over the danger factors of why we don't throw things on the ice, now lets discuss the "it was once a living creature and if we threw a dead Sioux on the ice we'd be arrested" factor. (or husky, in this case) I mean, come on, grow up people! The next night at Mariucci, the Gophers showed up, thankfully. What pissed me off, as well as many others was at the end of the game as the teams were shaking hands, Coach Craig Dahl of SCSU refused, at least 3 or 4 times, to shake hands with MN captain Scott Bell. Scotty kept after him to shake hands, and Dahl plugged his nose and walked away. There's class if you ask me. Who cares if you can't stand the other guy, show some respect, and for pete's sake, you're the COACH - what the heck kind of role model are you for those guys? I know things haven't been good between the two of them, but Scott Bell is a classy guy, involved on many U committees, does good in the classroom and is a good leader on the ice. IMHO Dahl really made a statement about his team. There was no need for him to act that way, and it's an embarrassment to the league. Katie Go Gophers!