Downturn Prompts Minnesota-Crookston to End Hockey

Hockey is to Minnesota as football is to Alabama and basketball to North Carolina -- and not easily trifled with. But these are troubled economic times, bad enough to force the University of Minnesota-Crookston to discontinue its Division II men's hockey program, the university announced Monday. Campus officials said the state's financial situation and the challenges of fielding a Division II program in a region where few others exist had made continuing the team impossible.