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The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Golden Gophers will open the 2007-2008 Mens Hockey Season on Friday, October 12th against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota in the first round of the IceBreaker Invitational.
Rensselaer opened their season on Tuesday, October 9th by defeating Bentley College by the score of 4-0.

INCH Power Rankings:
Minnesota-Twin Cities #8
Rensselaer #33

Thoughts or predictions on this season opening College Hockey match-up?

Zamboni Guy wrote:The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Golden Gophers will open the 2007-2008 Mens Hockey Season on Friday, October 12th against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota in the first round of the IceBreaker Invitational.
Rensselaer opened their season on Tuesday, October 9th by defeating Bentley College by the score of 4-0.

INCH Power Rankings:
Minnesota-Twin Cities #8
Rensselaer #33

Thoughts or predictions on this season opening College Hockey match-up?

Gophers by 4

I believe the Gophers start the year strong. Some young guys will get some points.

Gophers 6
RPI 2

Home Tourney, Home win.

gophers 5-2

No brainer here...........however, while RPI is in town can we get them to build a bridge?

5-1

GOPHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I too like Minnesota-Twin Cities in this one:

Golden Gophers - 6
Engineers - 2

Should be a win - lose weekend for the Gophers.

Have to hope the forwards backcheck hard and do not stray when coming out of the zone. D will need some time. Hope Frazee doesn't get overworked.

RPI 3
Gophers 1

End of two.

But the Gophs finally showed some life at the end. I'm looking forward to an exciting second period.

Evan Kauffman ties the game at 3.

Gophers 4
Engineers 3

Final

Okposo with 3 points

Nothin like winning on a cheap call...congrats to the Gophers tonight

wisconsinprephockey wrote:Nothin like winning on a cheap call...congrats to the Gophers tonight

It kinda sucks winning on a cheap call but it could've been the other way around also. It's part of the game we all need to deal with.

Where was Fairchild tonight? Is he injured or just not playing right now?

Gophers came out absolutely flying, but RPI kept up with them. I have to question RPI a little bit when it comes to penalty killing. When they were aggressive and attacked the puck, MN couldn't do anything, but when they sat back in a passive box MN was able to get all kinds of shots. Why did they change from that at the end? It seemed like they wanted to get scored on at the end. Regardless, they definitely were able to keep up and will have a solid team if they can stay out of the box.

For the Gophs, definitely some nerves going for some guys. PWhite looked lost out there a bit, hopefully it was just jitters. The big guys came through and I liked the line of Okposo, Barriball & Stoa that Lucia had going for a bit. Seemed to fire up the team quite a bit.

Fairchild, Carman and Pohl didn't play as far as I can remember. I know Lucia usually scratches a few guys, not sure if it was because of injury or what.

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Fairchild, Carman and Pohl didn't play as far as I can remember. I know Lucia usually scratches a few guys, not sure if it was because of injury or what.

Fairchild was held out due to a minor injury. Carman is out of the lineup until the first semester is done due to academics. Pohl probably won't see much ice time this year.

wisconsinprephockey wrote:Nothin like winning on a cheap call...congrats to the Gophers tonight

Why do you consider this a cheap call? The player had time to hold up, he even did for a second, then hit the Gopher player from behind. Exactly the type of play that needs to be penalized. Ref did a nice job to make the right call regardless of what the announcers think of the situation.

theref wrote:

wisconsinprephockey wrote:Nothin like winning on a cheap call...congrats to the Gophers tonight

Why do you consider this a cheap call? The player had time to hold up, he even did for a second, then hit the Gopher player from behind. Exactly the type of play that needs to be penalized. Ref did a nice job to make the right call regardless of what the announcers think of the situation.

Dont know what game you were watching, but the RPI player was coming in from the side, and laid a soft check right was the gopher turned his back. Not a violent check and no time to stop. I still have it saved on my DVR and am watching right now there was no time to stop and no hesitation as you said there was.

wisconsinprephockey wrote:

theref wrote:

wisconsinprephockey wrote:Nothin like winning on a cheap call...congrats to the Gophers tonight

Why do you consider this a cheap call? The player had time to hold up, he even did for a second, then hit the Gopher player from behind. Exactly the type of play that needs to be penalized. Ref did a nice job to make the right call regardless of what the announcers think of the situation.

Dont know what game you were watching, but the RPI player was coming in from the side, and laid a soft check right was the gopher turned his back. Not a violent check and no time to stop. I still have it saved on my DVR and am watching right now there was no time to stop and no hesitation as you said there was.

That's funny, cause I watched it live, on replay, and have it on DVR as well.............oh wait a minute, You are just a whining Badger fan that's ticked off because the Gophers won. You can just go ahead and say what you want. Chances are that you aren't a referee and even if you are I doubt that you are even at the level that this referee has been to. I've read a few of your posts and it's obvious that you are just a Badger fan and not intelligent hockey fan. You probably think Jesse Boulerice didn't deserve a 25 game suspension either.

wisconsinprephockey wrote:Dont know what game you were watching, but the RPI player was coming in from the side, and laid a soft check right was the gopher turned his back. Not a violent check and no time to stop. I still have it saved on my DVR and am watching right now there was no time to stop and no hesitation as you said there was.

NCAA rule book states about checking from behind:

Note: The committee reminds coaches and players that the responsibility remains with the player approaching an opponent along the boards in this rule.

In other words, if a player is going to make a check, he has to take responsibility for the consequences. If the risk of hitting a guy from behind is there, the player needs to use his head and ease up.

By definition in the rule book, the hit doesn't have to be "violent". It just has to be a hit from behind. RPI player's right shoulder hit square into the middle of Schack's back. That IS a check from behind. No amount of whining changes that fact.

If you weren't so busy allowing blind dislike misguide you, you easily see in that DVR replay (which I have as well) that the RPI guy hit the Gopher player dead square in the back. The rule book states you make the call and it is an automatic major. If you don't want to get it called, then you don't hit the guy in that position. Period.

Glad to see another person (that's not an ignorant badger fan) saw the play the same way that the referee and myself did.

I do think it was a penalty but 5 and game seemed a little excessive. Do they have the 2 and 10 rule in college? I know some refs will make a boarding call or something too when it isn't a bad hit.

State Champ 97 wrote:I do think it was a penalty but 5 and game seemed a little excessive. Do they have the 2 and 10 rule in college? I know some refs will make a boarding call or something too when it isn't a bad hit.

Thank You!! I never said it didn't warrent a call period, I said it was a cheap call. Also for those others I am not a whining Badger fan, we dominated the 8th ranked team in the country while the Gophers got outplayed be RPI, pretty sure it speaks for itself.

If you had honestly read other posts by me I have givin the gophers credit where credit is due and have the enourmous respect for their program, this just doesnt look like it gonna be one of those years for them...

Even Woog said it didnt warrent the 5 minute major call