Mark Dayton: “I rise with my colleague on the morning after a difficult night for Minnesota sports fans with both of our teams, the…”

“I rise with my colleague on the morning after a difficult night for Minnesota sports fans with both of our teams, the Timberwolves and the Wild, losing playoff games at home. This is a way to remind ourselves of days of former glory, and certainly with my distinguished colleague, Senator Coleman, who was instrumental and probably deserves more credit than any other person in Minnesota for bringing professional hockey back to St. Paul and Minnesota. The Minnesota Wild, which is now in its third year, is performing so well, it is fitting that we can rise together here for the second time this year to pay tribute to a Minnesota team, its collegiate hockey team; in this case, the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota, who have repeated now as national champions for the second time, the first time in 31 years that a college team has repeated for the men's championship. They join the University of Minnesota women's team, the Duluth Bulldogs women's team, who earlier this year won their third consecutive national collegiate hockey championship.”