Late to this party after just returning from Vegas yesterday, didn't spend any time reading forums while I was there so I'm doing my best to catch up today.
I'll try to share a couple thoughts, the good, the bad, and otherwise.
First and foremost, I know I generally paint with a broad brush when it comes to certain fanbases, especially UND fans. I was worried going into this game and being surrounded by green if we'd take a lot of **** or even some hostility. Everyone we sat by was indifferent or honestly flat out nice. I really enjoyed the game (other than the Gophers' 'effort) and the people we sat by. Good natured ribbing and chatter. There was an older Gopher fan sitting a few rows down from us and he seemed like he was having a good time in Vegas. He stood up when the arena played YMCA and we were just dying laughing because he either didn't know how to do it or was too drunk to do the right hand motions haha. There was one guy being a j-wagon as we were leaving after the ENG, other than that we had fun interacting with the fans we saw and sat by.
The arena , as mentioned, was a **** show. Outside of the ice and glass issues, it just didn't seem like the arena was equipped for a full house like that. We walked in with about 10-15 minutes before puck drop in the hopes of grabbing a beer before the game started. Every line was about 12-15 people deep and not moving. We watched until the first TV break and made a quick run for it to try to miss as little of the game as possible. At the ten minute mark my brother told me to go back and watch the game and he would wait it out. He returned with less than a minute left in the 1st period. The only good part is that some UND fans bought the beers for him! That's a pretty ridiculous wait time and the lines were not that long. This ship has sailed and I know everyone wanted T-Mobile, it is what it is and based on this venue I'm guessing it was a good deal for UND. I'd love to see this kind of destination game against UND in a legit arena again some time down the road. I can't reiterate how much fun it was, atmosphere, good fans, everything besides the arena/service.
For the game, yeah, Gophers looked outclassed to me after the 1st. Outside of Robson who could you point to that played well? When the only goal you can score is on a 5 on 3, you're probably in trouble. UND just looked much faster than Minnesota. UND seemed to win all the races to pucks and just had more overall effort.
Officiating was meh, IMO. Both of the major penalties were meh, IMO. Both teams took one so it evened out, I suppose. Just stupid for Rossini to take his that late in the game. I know major penalties are never smart, but you have to be smarter in that situation when you know your team is moments away from pulling the goalie to try and make a push to tie it up. The only call that bugged me was the hooking they called on Gates that led to the eventual game winner on the PP for UND. It looked unbelievably soft live and it directly affected the outcome of the game. The way the Gophers were playing the 3rd it likely wouldn't have made a difference but you never know.
Not the outcome we wanted but it was a fun weekend with good people.