#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -5). Only one game this screening week, but it's a helluva victory: 3-2 at North Dakota, the second-ranked team in the country. Even though the Fighting Sioux rallied to tie, it seemed important that Mike Hoffel and Jake Hansen scored early at Engelstad Arena just to let the team know they could do it in hostile territory. And, of course, Nico Sacchetti netted the game-winner early in the third, that was important.
I am saddened to hear that Alex Kangas will had hip surgery this (Friday) morning that will end his year and college career. Really, I am. He epitomized the dutiful soldier, playing the third-most games of any Gopher and having a save percentage of .912, highest in program history. But that hip has bothered him this season and, I believe, a large part of last season. Kent Patterson was outplaying him for most of the season, and for the good of the program in its current, fragile state, Patterson gives the team its best chance of winning, game in and game out. And Patterson saved 35 shots for the win tonight. They play the back end of their series with UND tomorrow night, then start a home series with Alaska-Anchorage Friday.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). A win -- well, it's technically a tie, but they go to a shootout after overtime, and they won that -- at Ridder over fourth-ranked UMD. Pretty impressive. Didn't think they had it in them to defeat their little sisters from the Arrowhead. I have nothing to say after that. They finish up tomorrow afternoon; they start a two-game series at Ohio St. Friday.
#-3: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -3). Holy shit this team's had a hard-ass way to begin conference play. They faced two ranked teams this week; splitting seems remarkable.
First, they travelled to Ohio St., ranked second in the country. They made up a 15-point deficit late in the second half, but an Austin Hollins three with two seconds left the comeback short. Still, I didn't think this team had a three-point loss at the second-best team in the land in them.
Then, the shit hit the fan. Wunderkind Trevor Mbakwe violated terms of a restraining order by posting a good luck message on his ex-girlfriend's facebook. First of all, even though it seems innocuous on its face, stalkers usually start being all sweet, like Ike Turner, with small and kind gestures like this. And when the stalkee permits the man back into his life, he beats the shit out of her. So it's a good thing that Mbakwe was arrested.
And that's the second thing; Mbakwe was arrested. So why wasn't he kicked off the team? This guy seems like nothing but trouble. But after he apologized, in a way that all stalkers do, Tubby Smith kept him on the team -- no expulsion, not even a suspension. Once again, if a felon is the best interior presence on your team, and he is a literal beast on the court as well as off, well, you can't really handicap your team by following the rules of law and basic decency, can you?
At least Mbakwe wasn't the Most Valuable Player in the win over 8th-ranked Purdue at Williams on Thursday. Blake Hoffarber, another dutiful soldier wearing the maroon and gold (though maybe a tad more successful than Kangas) scored 26, one short of his career high, to beat the Makers by three. However, there's no way they win without Mbakwe. Only one game this week, home to Iowa Sunday.
#-4: Swarm (Re-Entry!). Welcome back to the WMNSS the Major League Lacrosse Western Conference fourth-place finishers, your Minnesota Swarm!!! (Bzz-bzzzzz-bzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!) They began their season on Saturday with an overtime loss to the Rochester Knighthawks; from the little I remember seeing them, they always seem to lose in overtime. But then, shockingly, they go to the Evergreen State and beat the defending MLL champs, the Washington Stealth. And not only did they beat them, they beat the shit out of them -- 16-8! They have never routed an opponent, not as far as I can remember!
Most shocking than the dominating team performance was the pwning individual performance from Forward Ryan Benesch, who scored seven of the Swarm's 16 goals, which is a franchise record by, I believe, a country mile. He already holds Swarm records for most assists in a game and, therefore of course, most points in a game. And this guy's been with the team for four years. Does this make him the franchise cornerstone? In a league that only plays on weekends and still pays them so little money that the players have full-time jobs, I didn't notice.
Maybe -- OK, probably not -- this is the win that finally jumpstarts this franchise. The Swarm turn in shitty records year after year, and yet because the NLL has a generous-like-when-the-NHL-was-at-21-teams playoff system, they are virtually pushed into the postseason, where they do nothing. They are off for the week.
#-5: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). Played four teams over two days in the National Duals in Iowa last weekend. Like an adaptive admissions test, the Gophers played better and better teams until they lost, whereby they played a worse opponent. So it looks like the grapplers are exactly where they should be: Fifth in the nation, nowhere near championship contention.
On Saturday they destroyed unranked Northern Illinois, then escaped sixth-ranked Boise St., 18-17. While it was close, on Sunday they lost to the top-ranked team in the land, Cornell, 20-16 ... wait -- Cornell is the best wrestling program in the country? They finished the tournamnet against fourth-ranked Wisconsin, where they dropped another close one, 19-17 ... wait-wait-wait -- Wisconsin is the fourth-beset wrestling program in the country?? I assumed they had a wrestling program, but they've never been this good. What the fuck??? They started Big Ten play by whipping Indiana, 25-14, but if they're not going to win the NCAA title, who cares? This week they have a huge meet at Iowa St. tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, and then visit Purdue Friday.
#-6: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). 1-2 for the week. As anticipated, they lost their home-and-home to the best team in the Association right now, the San Antonio Spurs. The Woofie Dogs had the and-home home game on Tuesday, where a ref doled out five technicals on them in a span of ten seconds. Two of them were for Head Coach Kurt Rambis, who was ejected for possibly the first time as Minnesota Head Coach. Well, at least they won vs. Washington, when they fell behind late but finished the game with a, I think, 19-3 run, including some nifty play by Darko Milicic. The Wizards are now 0-19 on the road this season. Three games this screening week: Home to Orlando tonight (Saturday night), at Portland Monday, at the Bastard Buffalo Braves Wednesday.
#-7: Wild (Last Week: -1). Uh-oh. Their good play is gone and seems like a distant memory after their 1-3 week. That one win was the first game, a confidence-boosting 4-0 ass-kicking at Pittsburgh (even though Sidney Crosby was out of the game with a concussion). That gave the Wild a four-game winning streak.
And then The Team That Was Stolen From Us came to Xcel, and they beat the shit out of the Wild, also by a 4-0 score. (The Bastard North Stars lead their division and are third in the Western Conference, but that doesn't mean they should have been stolen from us. I will never let that go.) Having ghosts dominate you at home seemed to have sucked the life out of this team; with successive losses to Nashville and Colorado, the Wild have lost their last three games by a combined total of 13-2.
At least we can congratulate Brent Burns. He is second among NHL defensemen in goals, and for that he is the only member of the team to go to the All-Star Game. Meanwhile, the Wild play three games, all within the division, in four days: home to Vancouver, then at Edmonton and at Calgary back-to-back.
#-8: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -6). God, this team, and this program, blows. Although they were only by, respectively, five and four points, they dropped both of their games this week, at Wisconsin and Penn St. They are now 0-5 to start league play and haven't won since before Christmas. I keep saying: When in the hell will people start bitching about the direction of this program? Will they move games back to the Sports Pavilion? If so, will people care? Only one game this week, home to the Badgers. They play the same team a dozen days apart?? What shitty scheduling. Almost as shitty as the play of the Minnesota women's basketball team.
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