Alan Harder wrote: >- --RANK-- 09-Oct-96 Total -----RANGE----- Ttl #1 >New 96end Pts Hi Avg Mode LowVts > > 3 7 Minnesota 272 1 ---- 3 ---- 24 2 > >I have read that Minnesota is incredibly deep and strong. It >surprises me that they only got two first place votes. I was surprised to see them that high. They have only 13 returning letter winners from a team that didn't make the Phinal Phour last year. (They lost to the eventual national champs 'cause of "the lacrosse goal") They lost one of their goalies, a Hobey Baker winner forward, and 3 regular defensemen. (Also two "part-time" defensemen: Andy Brink and Jay Moser). They're going to need to depend on Steve Debus in net at the start of the year while the D settle into the college game. Fortunately Mike Crowley came back, but after him, the returning defense is Brian LaFleur, Jason Godbout, Billy Kohn, and maybe Brett Abrahamson (who saw action at forward last year). A couple of those guys are going to have to step up AND freshmen Ben Clymer, Ryan Trebil, and Mike Lyons are going to have to make a quick adjustment to WCHA hockey. Then again, the Gophers had three regular senior D last year because they faced this same situation four years ago. After 2 early pro signings, they had Travis Richards, Chris McAlpine and Eric Means and then a bunch of freshmen on D. Wasley, Zwakman, and Dan Trebil had a real trial by fire. And theirs are the skates Clymer, Ryan Trebil and Lyons have to fill this year. So we know it can be done... I think this also means Dave Spehar is going to have to learn to be an all-around forward awful fast, because they aren't exactly going to want to do a lot of free-wheeling with a rookie defense back there. Also, the Gophers start out the season with BU, CC, Duluth, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. And they'll face Michigan and MSU at Thanksgiving. Probably not the teams Doug Woog might have chosen to cut the teeth of all these young players. {insert your own joke about hockey players and teeth here} So others can read and decide for themselves, I guess I might as well make the first Gopher Hockey article URLs post of the year. I've contacted the Minnesota Daily about permission to repost their articles but haven't heard back yet, so I'll only post URL's for now. U hockey might be lost in Woods http://www.daily.umn.edu/daily/1996/10/10/sports/puck10/ High expectations come with territory for Spehar http://www.daily.umn.edu/~online/daily/1996/10/03/sports/puck02/index.html And the Star-Tribune articles: (BTW for Pointcast users: the Strib is now available as a channel on Pointcast if you have the very latest version...) Goalie DeBus is Gophers' go-to guy this season http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/article/rootEval.cgi?currentStory=45021972 Crowley, Rasmussen happy to return to Gopher hockey team http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/article/rootEval.cgi?currentStory=45020516 Spehar opens Gopher hockey career amid high expectations http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/article/rootEval.cgi?currentStory=45017658 Woog optimistic as Gophers open hockey practice http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/article/rootEval.cgi?currentStory=45017148 Pam Sweeney Go Gophers!!! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.