The North Dakota/Minnesota Hockey Rivalry: What Are Your Favorite Memories?

[farce poobah]

March 3, 1979, at Williams Arena.  Last game of regular season. UND with a chance to end a 12-year drought in WCHA titles, but we needed a win after Rodents won Friday's game.   A dozen of my closest buds joined several hundred noisy Sioux fans in the old barn.  (True optimists, we bought tickets for this final weekend series back in October, expecting (hoping?) this series would be the decider.)

After Friday's game, a couple guys said that star freshman goalie Bob Iwabuchi (who had stood on his head for most of the season) looked tired, so it was only a little surprise that veteran senior Bill Stankoven started the deciding game.  

Hostile environment? Heck yes.  We were called "communists" and a lot worse by the local fauna (apparently because we had Canadians? but perhaps wearing yellow helmets with red flashing lights helped us stay obvious).  On the plus side, sitting in the corner of old Williams Arena helped our non-stop chants and songs carry quite well. 

On the ice, UND got some early goals, Stankoven played very well, and when Dave Christian blasted a slap shot into an empty Gophers net in the final minute, we were delirious.    Final score UND 4, UM 2. We stayed and cheered for a full hour after the game, and got high fives from players and staff. 

Virg Foss captured the sentiment well in Sunday's GF Herald:  "Welcome back, Billy the Kid."

[Blackheart]

21 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

March 3, 1979, at Williams Arena.  Last game of regular season. UND with a chance to end a 12-year drought in WCHA titles, but we needed a win after Rodents won Friday's game.   A dozen of my closest buds joined several hundred noisy Sioux fans in the old barn.  (True optimists, we bought tickets for this final weekend series back in October, expecting (hoping?) this series would be the decider.)

After Friday's game, a couple guys said that star freshman goalie Bob Iwabuchi (who had stood on his head for most of the season) looked tired, so it was only a little surprise that veteran senior Bill Stankoven started the deciding game.  

Hostile environment? Heck yes.  We were called "communists" and a lot worse by the local fauna (apparently because we had Canadians? but perhaps wearing yellow helmets with red flashing lights helped us stay obvious).  On the plus side, sitting in the corner of old Williams Arena helped our non-stop chants and songs carry quite well. 

On the ice, UND got some early goals, Stankoven played very well, and when Dave Christian blasted a slap shot into an empty Gophers net in the final minute, we were delirious.    Final score UND 4, UM 2. We stayed and cheered for a full hour after the game, and got high fives from players and staff. 

Virg Foss captured the sentiment well in Sunday's GF Herald:  "Welcome back, Billy the Kid."

You just won the internet today!  Awesome!

[farce poobah]

11 hours ago, thUNDer said:

12/15/1978- no face masks, wood twigs, punier pads, fights & blood on the ice. Right in front of us trading jabs were Mike Burgraff & Don Michelleti. We won, not so much Saturday night but those two were sporting black eyes & fat lips.

Good choice.  The old Winter Sports Building was never louder - after several years of Gopher beat-downs, Gino had people starting to believe.   I recall a shower of dead gophers on the first Sioux goal. 

Also the first game between Gino Gasparini and Herb Brooks. It really is too bad that Gino and Herbie only had five contests as opposing head coaches. 

[Dustin]

There's some obvious ones:  the timeout, Porter's wraparound, Bina's 180' shorty, Trupp's bat out of mid-air, etc.

A series of games that stand out to me happened in 2009.  In January, the Gopher's come to the Ralph highly ranked (maybe top 3?) and I believe the Sioux were unranked and about to start one of their famous second half turnarounds under Hakstol.  Sioux put on a clinic and unleash on 'em: 6-3 Friday and 6-1 Saturday.  Tons of scrums in the Saturday game.  Then the next season, in October 2009, in the Friday night game, the Sioux won 4-0 in similar style and the crowd is chanting "Just like last year."

 

[siouxforce19]

39 minutes ago, Dustin said:

There's some obvious ones:  the timeout, Porter's wraparound, Bina's 180' shorty, Trupp's bat out of mid-air, etc.

A series of games that stand out to me happened in 2009.  In January, the Gopher's come to the Ralph highly ranked (maybe top 3?) and I believe the Sioux were unranked and about to start one of their famous second half turnarounds under Hakstol.  Sioux put on a clinic and unleash on 'em: 6-3 Friday and 6-1 Saturday.  Tons of scrums in the Saturday game.  Then the next season, in October 2009, in the Friday night game, the Sioux won 4-0 in similar style and the crowd is chanting "Just like last year."

 

I think they ranked were #1 at that point that year. UND was probably barely above.500. That series led to an absolute meltdown by Minnesota the rest of the season and they missed the NCAA’s. 

[The Sicatoka]

Time out. 

I was in a Fargo eatery and there was some maroon and some 'SU yellow in the room and they were yuckin' it up good toward my table and guests. 

Not so much an hour later. 

[tnt]

I like the Robbie Bina goal from the far end line on Frazee at Mariucci.   I think that happened to Jon Casey once at Wisconsin too.  I remember Tim Hennessey telling the story of Troy Murray tongue in cheek apologizing to Jon Casey, saying "Sorry I should have won the draw" in his own end.  

[SJHovey]

Obviously, most of the memories already mentioned are at or near the top of all of our collective recollections.

There is another series that is a personal favorite of mine, however.

In 1995-96, Dean Blais was still trying to lead the program back to the top.  That February, on the 2nd and 3rd, the #1 ranked gophers visited the old arena.

I traveled back to Grand Forks with three friends from Minnesota, two of whom were U of M alum and were diehard gopher fans.  The other friend was just a casual sports fan with no rooting interest.

Minnesota was on a twenty game unbeaten streak (19-0-1) and twelve game winning streak.  Furthermore, they were on a three game shutout streak.

That weekend was also one of record cold in Minnesota, with Tower, Minnesota setting the record at -60 on 2/2.  During the entire five hour drive to Grand Forks, I had to endure an endless barrage of questions like, "will ND even score this weekend," "will you generally be happy with one goal losses, if ND can manage them," etc...  Candidly, I didn't say a lot in response because I wasn't too sure what to expect.

We had planned to get in the car and drive back to the Twin Cities after the Saturday game.

Friday, UND won 8-2, and it wasn't that close.  So much for the shutout streak.  Saturday, MN put up a better fight, but UND completed the sweep, 7-5.

We got in the car and started the drive.  The fourth member of our group tried to engage our MN friends who were sitting in the back seat, but nothing.  Five hours of complete silence until we arrived home, which ended with "thanks for the ride."  It's hard to imagine five hours of complete silence in a car with someone until you've done it, but it's something to behold.

Classic.  Every time someone mentions the Tower, MN record temperature around those guys, I still get to rib them about that weekend.

[Dustin]

13 minutes ago, SJHovey said:

Obviously, most of the memories already mentioned are at or near the top of all of our collective recollections.

There is another series that is a personal favorite of mine, however.

In 1995-96, Dean Blais was still trying to lead the program back to the top.  That February, on the 2nd and 3rd, the #1 ranked gophers visited the old arena.

I traveled back to Grand Forks with three friends from Minnesota, two of whom were U of M alum and were diehard gopher fans.  The other friend was just a casual sports fan with no rooting interest.

Minnesota was on a twenty game unbeaten streak (19-0-1) and twelve game winning streak.  Furthermore, they were on a three game shutout streak.

That weekend was also one of record cold in Minnesota, with Tower, Minnesota setting the record at -60 on 2/2.  During the entire five hour drive to Grand Forks, I had to endure an endless barrage of questions like, "will ND even score this weekend," "will you generally be happy with one goal losses, if ND can manage them," etc...  Candidly, I didn't say a lot in response because I wasn't too sure what to expect.

We had planned to get in the car and drive back to the Twin Cities after the Saturday game.

Friday, UND won 8-2, and it wasn't that close.  So much for the shutout streak.  Saturday, MN put up a better fight, but UND completed the sweep, 7-5.

We got in the car and started the drive.  The fourth member of our group tried to engage our MN friends who were sitting in the back seat, but nothing.  Five hours of complete silence until we arrived home, which ended with "thanks for the ride."  It's hard to imagine five hours of complete silence in a car with someone until you've done it, but it's something to behold.

Classic.  Every time someone mentions the Tower, MN record temperature around those guys, I still get to rib them about that weekend.

Yup, I remember that one being big as well.  The very next year Blais completed the rebuild by being WCHA co-champs (with Minnesota), beating the Gophers in the Final Five championship, and then on to the Natty.

[Dustin]

6 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Yup, I remember that one being big as well.  The very next year Blais completed the rebuild by being WCHA co-champs (with Minnesota), beating the Gophers in the Final Five championship, and then on to the Natty.

Pretty sure UND had a huge penalty kill (5 on 3 for an extended time?? or something like that) on Saturday night.  Does that sound familiar?

[petey23]

2 hours ago, tnt said:

I like the Robbie Bina goal from the far end line on Frazee at Mariucci.   I think that happened to Jon Casey once at Wisconsin too.  I remember Tim Hennessey telling the story of Troy Murray tongue in cheek apologizing to Jon Casey, saying "Sorry I should have won the draw" in his own end.  

I like to credit Taylor Chorney with the great pass on Bina's goal.

[Brucesky02]

18 hours ago, Blackheart said:

Evan Trupp with a spectacular goal to beat Minny at Mariucci...

 

This was my favorite memory - it was my first game at Mariucci. My friend and it were in the SRO up at the rail in the offensive zone for the goal. We danced around the concourse as the Minny fans filed out.

Also, we spent the remainder of our printing budgets for the semester at the business school making about 1000 of these that we put on cars in the parking lot and handed out to fans until security made us throw away the last handful of them. The back side said "Can you please point out which number Kyle Okposo is?" (he had just ditched them early for the NHL) Credit to whoever originally created this on here:

[farce poobah]

Not all of my most memorable Sioux-Gopher games are wins.   

October 5, 2001.  Sioux 5 Gophers 7.  First game at the new Ralph.   The palace was even nicer on the inside, and obviously built to last for a long, long time.  Maybe the only night I wasn't "too" upset at losing to the Rodents.   Can still see a high floating shot loop over the blue line, bounce just in front of Andy Kollar's feet, and trickle past him. 

November 11, 1994.  Sioux 4 Gophers 4 in OT.  Dean Blais' first game as head coach.  It followed a few down years, and he hadn't yet gotten a fair shot at recruiting a full roster of his type of guys (hint:  Speed Kills).  This started an 11-game unbeaten string at home, and marked the last time a Doug Woog coached Gopher squad got even a tie in Grand Forks. 

November 9, 1996.  Sioux 6  Gophers 10.  A defining characteristic of Dean Blais' teams was "never say die"; they gave a full 60 minutes effort every night.  On this night, we got 3 late goals to chop a 10-3 deficit to 10-6.   Later on, those "meaningless" goals got UND the #1 seed in WCHA playoffs, after we shared the conference title with the Gophers (season series split 2-2, but total goals were like 20-19).  That got us last change in the WCHA Final Five title game, which Peter Armbrust won in OT. And led to a higher seed in the NCAA regionals.  We only had to beat Cornell, whereas the Gophers got stuck playing two games, including a loss to #1 Michigan in Michigan.  And eventually, a very memorable NCAA title in Milwaukee.   But it all starts with "never say die".

[Dustin]

5 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

Not all of my most memorable Sioux-Gopher games are wins.   

October 5, 2001.  Sioux 5 Gophers 7.  First game at the new Ralph.   The palace was even nicer on the inside, and obviously built to last for a long, long time.  Maybe the only night I wasn't "too" upset at losing to the Rodents.   Can still see a high floating shot loop over the blue line, bounce just in front of Andy Kollar's feet, and trickle past him. 

November 11, 1994.  Sioux 4 Gophers 4 in OT.  Dean Blais' first game as head coach.  It followed a few down years, and he hadn't yet gotten a fair shot at recruiting a full roster of his type of guys (hint:  Speed Kills).  This started an 11-game unbeaten string at home, and marked the last time a Doug Woog coached Gopher squad got even a tie in Grand Forks. 

November 9, 1996.  Sioux 6  Gophers 10.  A defining characteristic of Dean Blais' teams was "never say die"; they gave a full 60 minutes effort every night.  On this night, we got 3 late goals to chop a 10-3 deficit to 10-6.   Later on, those "meaningless" goals got UND the #1 seed in WCHA playoffs, after we shared the conference title with the Gophers (season series split 2-2, but total goals were like 20-19).  That got us last change in the WCHA Final Five title game, which Peter Armbrust won in OT. And led to a higher seed in the NCAA regionals.  We only had to beat Cornell, whereas the Gophers got stuck playing two games, including a loss to #1 Michigan in Michigan.  And eventually, a very memorable NCAA title in Milwaukee.   But it all starts with "never say die".

I also have a Sioux-Gopher memory that wasn't a win.  In fact, it was the infamous 0.6 seconds game.  Before that turn of events, one of the Sioux players sent a Gophers' stick high into the air. I laughed so hard and was a nice distraction from fingernail biting of the 3rd period.

[Goon]

13 hours ago, farce poobah said:

March 3, 1979, at Williams Arena.  Last game of regular season. UND with a chance to end a 12-year drought in WCHA titles, but we needed a win after Rodents won Friday's game.   A dozen of my closest buds joined several hundred noisy Sioux fans in the old barn.  (True optimists, we bought tickets for this final weekend series back in October, expecting (hoping?) this series would be the decider.)

After Friday's game, a couple guys said that star freshman goalie Bob Iwabuchi (who had stood on his head for most of the season) looked tired, so it was only a little surprise that veteran senior Bill Stankoven started the deciding game.  

Hostile environment? Heck yes.  We were called "communists" and a lot worse by the local fauna (apparently because we had Canadians? but perhaps wearing yellow helmets with red flashing lights helped us stay obvious).  On the plus side, sitting in the corner of old Williams Arena helped our non-stop chants and songs carry quite well. 

On the ice, UND got some early goals, Stankoven played very well, and when Dave Christian blasted a slap shot into an empty Gophers net in the final minute, we were delirious.    Final score UND 4, UM 2. We stayed and cheered for a full hour after the game, and got high fives from players and staff. 

Virg Foss captured the sentiment well in Sunday's GF Herald:  "Welcome back, Billy the Kid."

I've gotten to know Virg over the years, and he's got some great stories. The guy is an amazing historian of all things UND hockey. 

[Dustin]

19 minutes ago, Dustin said:

I also have a Sioux-Gopher memory that wasn't a win.  In fact, it was the infamous 0.6 seconds game.  Before that turn of events, one of the Sioux players sent a Gophers' stick high into the air. I laughed so hard and was a nice distraction from fingernail biting of the 3rd period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nlYz-o6ZJ8

It happened around 1:37:20 mark (hard to see live) and then replay of it from a better angle about a minute later.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

59 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

Not all of my most memorable Sioux-Gopher games are wins.   

October 5, 2001.  Sioux 5 Gophers 7.  First game at the new Ralph.   The palace was even nicer on the inside, and obviously built to last for a long, long time.  Maybe the only night I wasn't "too" upset at losing to the Rodents.   Can still see a high floating shot loop over the blue line, bounce just in front of Andy Kollar's feet, and trickle past him. 

November 11, 1994.  Sioux 4 Gophers 4 in OT.  Dean Blais' first game as head coach.  It followed a few down years, and he hadn't yet gotten a fair shot at recruiting a full roster of his type of guys (hint:  Speed Kills).  This started an 11-game unbeaten string at home, and marked the last time a Doug Woog coached Gopher squad got even a tie in Grand Forks. 

November 9, 1996.  Sioux 6  Gophers 10.  A defining characteristic of Dean Blais' teams was "never say die"; they gave a full 60 minutes effort every night.  On this night, we got 3 late goals to chop a 10-3 deficit to 10-6.   Later on, those "meaningless" goals got UND the #1 seed in WCHA playoffs, after we shared the conference title with the Gophers (season series split 2-2, but total goals were like 20-19).  That got us last change in the WCHA Final Five title game, which Peter Armbrust won in OT. And led to a higher seed in the NCAA regionals.  We only had to beat Cornell, whereas the Gophers got stuck playing two games, including a loss to #1 Michigan in Michigan.  And eventually, a very memorable NCAA title in Milwaukee.   But it all starts with "never say die".

That 96 game was the first hockey game I ever attended. Place blew up when Spehar scored; he had not yet fallen out of favor with their fans expecting another Bonin. Thanks for sharing that history of it, I had no idea about the goal total importance.

[farce poobah]

6 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

That 96 game was the first hockey game I ever attended. Place blew up when Spehar scored; he had not yet fallen out of favor with their fans expecting another Bonin. Thanks for sharing that history of it, I had no idea about the goal total importance.

It was a miserable night to be at Mariucci, I have to say.   But a fabulous lesson in pride in wearing the jersey.

[fightingsioux4life]

5 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

It was a miserable night to be at Mariucci, I have to say.   But a fabulous lesson in pride in wearing the jersey.

I believe that was the same night as the Sioux-Bison FB game in the Fargodome, which I was at.

[tnt]

Big memory was when Dave Hakstol and Ben Hankinson went at it near center ice.  Since Hankinson is a player agent now representing some ex UND players and Hakstol is an NHL head coach, I wonder if they needle each other about that. 

[thUNDer]

Definitely the St Patrick’s Day time out game a favorite. 8 of us (2goofs) stayed at the St Paul where both teams were. Fun riding elevator, hanging in the lobby/bar, the all in fun smack talk, smoking & sharing stories outside with Gino, it was like 85 degrees that day and 1 lady went off on me saying how rude we were to invade THEIR day. Ran into several more like her on the walk back to the hotel after the game. How sweet it was!

 

[siouxfaninseattle]

10 hours ago, Dustin said:

I also have a Sioux-Gopher memory that wasn't a win.  In fact, it was the infamous 0.6 seconds game.  Before that turn of events, one of the Sioux players sent a Gophers' stick high into the air. I laughed so hard and was a nice distraction from fingernail biting of the 3rd period.

Most depressing loss I've ever witnessed in person. Ugh.

[Blackheart]

shi+...how coud I forget the Tic-Tac-Toe goal?  One of the greatest plays ever!

https://fb.watch/nLcJgWmsHc/

[farce poobah]

December 3, 1982.  The Best Birthday Present Ever.   

I've seen over 90 Sioux-Gopher games in person over the last many years, but my favorite?   A birthday present. 

At the creaky old Mariucci, seats in the front of balcony were amazing, for two reasons:  the view of ice, obviously, but the swaying and rocking when the locals started jumping and bouncing made it a little scary, like a roller coaster is.  

The game was also a roller coaster, tied at 4-4 late in the third.  An old school brawl breaks out, and somehow the Sioux get called for two extra majors vs two minors to the Rodents.  (Still can't figure out why those calls were made, except to note that most of the officials in those days seemed to be former Gophers players. (?))   Anyway, its 3x3 for the final bit of regulation, then the Gophers will get 3 minutes of 5x3 major PP into overtime.  Basically, a must-score situation.

3x3 starts and Jon Casey makes an easy save off a long shot, and James Patrick pulls the puck off his pads, then carries the puck all the way down the ice, and fires a wrist shot past the Gopher goaltender for a 5-4 lead.  

UND survives the 6x3 in the final minute (which prevents the 5x3 major PP in overtime), and wins 5-4.

Yeah, we toasted James Patrick and Jon Casey over several rounds at the post game party.

 

[thUNDer]

This ….Kelly green was everywhere: 

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/north-dakota-clips-rival-minnesota-before-rowdy-hockey-crowd/amp/

The .06 game in Philly was brutal, our worst Frozen Four trip ever to a dirty, unfriendly city!