Yeah, I was a nervous wreck during many of those games as well! I used to go to a lot of games, either get tickets with/from a buddy or just go scalp some. The Old Barn would be rocking!
I remember many a rowdy game, action fast & furious, Goldy up on his perch spinning his head and playing with his toys taunting the opposing goalie, the chants echoing off the old walls. Saw one of the craziest things in there once, have to believe it happened more than once. The open end of the rink had "the cave" (so named because of that low down-slanting overhang)...I was in the general admission seats and a player came skating hard into the zone on the left point and let loose a hard slap shot that deflected off a defensemans stick, flew up and hit the overhang, ricocheting off the overhang and hit a guy square in the noggin who just oopened the double door into the arena on our side with food and drink in a cardboard tray...food, dude...all drop to the grouind and security people rush right to him. Never heard how that guy made out, but it all happened like it was slow motion...I remember the light from the door opening catching my attention in my peripheral vision as I followed the path of the puck.
I remember that damn Harvard game too! IThat game was i St.Paul and we beat a good Maine team to get into that game, and it had the famous shot-off-the-post-heard-round-the-world and we lost 4-3 in OT. Grrrrrrr! I had a cousin who played on that team, I'll keep him safely anonymous. Anyway, what a bummer, I thought we had that one!
Had a swoon there in the later Woog years, but had some good teams. I had a buddy who had a set of tickets in the Gold Club at the new Mariaucci arena, up there behind the goal MN shoots at in the 1st & 3rd periods, that mezzanine had seats in the front we'd sit at and the lounge in the back. You used to be able to get free food up there, then they started charging for that. But you could have all the beer, wine or pop you wanted. To get those you not only had to pay the ticket cost, but you also had to pony up money for the Williams Fund. I had a stretch where I would see about a half dozen games up there. Used to run into Woog's daughter, Lou Nanne, Glen Sonmor and players like Brian Bonin would roll up there. I remember congratulating Brian on his Hobey Baker award up there.
Lucia winning in 2002 (beating Maine in OT!) and 2003 (NH) was awesome. Had some 1st place WCHA teams after that that should have done more in NCAA, but losing players early to the NHL, getting new teams popping up and more competition for in-state talent and tinkering with the mix (big/strong/slow - small/light/fast) seemed to derail things. We've been kinda wandering the past 4 seasons and I hope we can turn it around.
Beating the defending Champs in their own building last week was a heck of a good start! We come into this series against unranked Vermont ranked 8th. Lets hope they can keep getting better. I really like this Rau kid, and Patterson in goal is solid. I think the offense looks good and I hope the special teams stay hot. If I have one worry it is our defense, they are young and some are smaller. I think how well our D plays will have a lot to say where we finish.