Feature: Gophers' return to North Dakota mixes old and new for college hockey's best rivalry (The Athletic)

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — As a kid, Ryan Norman never had much use for the North Dakota jersey his father bought him. Being different, he put on Gopher gear to wear at the rink, having developed a bond with that team.

“We had a little bit of a rivalry growing up because I always liked cheering against him,” Norman told The Athletic of his father Todd, who played at UND from 1984-86. “I thought that it was funny to grind his gears a little bit when we would watch those games together as a kid.”

This past weekend the junior forward put on Gopher gear once again, this time a member of the team, as Minnesota made the 300-plus mile trek to North Dakota's Ralph Engelstad Arena for the first time since January 2012. None of the players on either team had participated in one. They didn’t personally know the chilling tales of snowballs thrown at buses. Many of their experiences came from growing up watching games and seeing clips on YouTube.

Five years had passed since Ben Blood and Kyle Rau’s bad-blood handshake was the final image of Gopher-UND games in Grand Forks.

“Everyone getting together at someone’s house, or trying to get tickets to the game and there’s always a brawl in any game it seemed like,” said Jack Ramsey, whose father Mike helped Minnesota win the 1979 national championship against the then-Fighting Sioux. “If your friend was cheering for North Dakota, you hated him for that week. Thinking of Gopher hockey games growing up, North Dakota games were the biggest ones to look forward to.”

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