One of the great things about the Minnesota-North Dakota hockey rivalry is that the hatred both teams have for each other both on the ice and off. Hardly a series goes by without at least one fight and tonight's 6-2 Gophers win is no exception.
With Minnesota ahead by four in the third period, things began to get chippy with both teams taking shots and bad penalties. Minnesota's Mark Alt ended up ejected from the game with a five minute checking from behind penalty along with a fight (or "roughing" in college terms) between Joey Miller and Mario Lamoreux.
It held nothing on the post game handshake, however, in which North Dakota's Ben Blood decided it would be "sportsmanlike" following an end of game scrap with Minnesota's Seth Ambroz to be a man (despite losing 6-2) and take down Kyle Rau.
From CJ Fogler of Sports Grid:
This isn't the first time both teams have fought while exchanging handshakes. In February 2008, both teams fought after the final whistle following a fight between Tony Lucia and Darcy Zajac. None of those players are still around but the hatred both teams have remains.
It's just too bad this is the last time the Gophers will be in Grand Forks in the near future - both teams will be leaving the WCHA for different conferences after the 2012-2013 season - because there is no better rivalry in college hockey.