The Gophers men’s hockey team got off to a 0-4 start in WCHA play last season, losing twice to Colorado College one weekend and Denver the next.

In the middle of the season, the ‘U’ had one woeful stretch in which the Gophers scored 10 goals in eight games. And Minnesota finished seventh in the conference standings only because of a strong finish.

Yet, the fans kept coming. All 20 home games were sellouts. Average attendance was 9,942, according to the U of M. That’s the third best average in college hockey, trailing only Wisconsin (14,133) and North Dakota (11,709).

The Gophers drew at least 10,000 fans, counting standing room for 10 games and the largest crowd was 10,231 for a 4-4 tie with Wisconsin on Feb. 23.

Three other WCHA teams also were in the top 10 in attendance: CC was fourth (6,932), Denver eighth (5,933) and St. Cloud State ninth (5,872).

The 1-2-3 finish in attendance for Bucky Badger, the Sioux and the Gophers is hardly shout-it-from-the-rooftops news. This is the seventh consecutive season those teams have finished that way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.