Nate Sagan, the Alaska Anchorage sports information director, said Gophers fans should not worry about the Seawolves getting to Mariucci this weekend for games Friday and Saturday nights.

“The volcano [Mt. Redoubt] has had tremors for so long now, it’s all in the back of our minds,” Sagan said. “The status has not changed for a couple of weeks. It’s sitting there, basically.”

Ready to blow. And when Mt. Redbout does, it will send volcanic ash into the air and pity the plane that flies through it. But depending on which way the wind is blowing, the ash might not get to Anchorage, which is 110 miles northeast of Mt. Redbout.

Sagan said the Seawolves are taking a direct, five-hour flight to the Twin Cities on Wedneday morning.

“And if worse comes to worse, we can go to Fairbanks and fly out from there,” Sagan said. “… There are backup plans. We had to have them for a couple basketball games.”

The bus trip to Fairbanks, I read somewhere, is six hours long.

Wrong, Sagan said. “It’s seven or eight hours in the winter,” he said. “On those roads, you do not want to speed.”

The Seawolves have won three more games already than last season. “It’s kind of frustrating that we are still down in the standings [ninth place with 18 points] when we have proved ourselves to be a better team,” Sagan said.  “We’ll just keep chasing Mankato State.”

The Mavericks are in eight place with 20 points, just behind the Gophers and St. Cloud State, tied for sixth with 21 points.

Twenty years ago, Mt. Redoubt really played havoc with the Seawolves’ hockey schedule. An eruption forced Alaska Anchorage to cancel an eight-team hockey tournament.

ALASKA SHOWDOWN COMING  

The two Divison I Alaska hockey teams, Anchorage and Fairbanks, play a home and home series Feb. 27-28. It’s called the Governor’s Cup. And the governor, in this case Sarah Palin, usually attends the second game to present the trophy to the winning team.

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