Roberg gives East winning words
Chad Roberg has been scoring quite a bit lately, so it didn’t matter that he didn’t score a single goal or assist when Duluth East whipped Edina 6-3 last Tuesday night. After the game, when the Greyhounds sang a raucus version of their school song in the dressing room at Braemar Arena, Roberg was singing the loudest.
“E…A…S…T, rah-rah for dear old Eeeeeeast.”
More importantly, before the game, Roberg had delivered the word of the day. “It was ‘everything,’ ” Roberg said. “We figured they’d throw everything at us, so we had to do everything well.”
When Duluth East cruised to the state tournament in each of the last five years, the Greyhounds would gather around their captain, who would lead the team in a simple chant: “1-2-3 ‘Hounds!” But something extra was required after the team started off 2-2 this season, with a 7-3 loss at top-ranked Elk River and a 5-1 whipping at Aldrich Arena by Hill-Murray.
“Elk River and Hill-Murray made it hard not to recognize we had to be different this year, and I guess I’m the designated preacher,” said Roberg. “I told the team we can’t get by just being the ‘1-2-3 ‘Hounds’ anymore. We can’t just put on the jersey and win.”
One of eight seniors and one of three captains, Roberg also was sixth in the cross-country sectional and 24th in the state cross-country meet.
“It took a while for me to get in the groove in hockey. I was slow and kinda sloppy. I’d like to go to college, and I’d like to get a scholarship. I’ve got about a 3.9 grade-point average and I had 1,310 on my SAT, and I’d love to go to Yale or Harvard. So I looked in the mirror and decided I needed to pick it up, for myself, and for everybody on the team.”
Two years ago, Roberg played as a sophomore when East lost to Edina in the state final. “Basically, I sat on the bench and chomped at the bit, ready to hurdle the boards whenever he called my name,” he said. “I zinged the pipe against Edina in the championship game. I played a lot as a junior, but this year, I decided I had to get back to having the same tenacity and work ethic as when I was a sophomore.”
Rodberg also asked his teammates to collaborate on a different key word for each pre-game chant. They yelled “1-2-3 Jump” before the Superior game, to remind everybody to be jumping. East won, to improve to a 3-2.
Next, the Greyhounds were embarking on an imposing pre-Christmas stretch: at Grand Rapids, against Cloquet at the DECC, at Silver Bay, at Moorhead and at Edina. “I said at that point that we could play pretty good and go 0-5 in that stretch,” said coach Mike Randolph.
Roberg issued the key word “1-2-3 Heart” at Grand Rapids, and the team responded with a narrow victory. Co-captain Mark Anunti whispered the idea of “1-2-3 Dominate” against Cloquet — and the Greyhounds won again. Another victory in Silver Bay last Thursday, then a tough triumph at Moorhead, where “speed” was the magic word, and Tuesday’s impressive 6-3 victory at Edina, allowed East to ride a six-game winning streak that transformed that early 2-2 record to 8-2 for the team’s Christmas break.
“Everybody is beating everybody else, but we’re going like this,” said Roberg, gesturing an upward vector. “But we always have to raise the bar and get ready for the next game, because we get everybody’s ‘A’ game. We might have a couple of losses, and be 2-2, and nobody looks at that and let’s up; we still get everybody’s ‘A’ game. Look at a team like Denfeld. They go out and play hard, every shift. We have to do that too.
“I started out on the power play, but when we started out 2-2, the coaches made some changes. I was taken off the power play, but I can’t complain. I wasn’t ready for it. The great thing about coach Randolph is that he always plays the guys who are ready to play.
“When I was playing kid hockey, I never got invited to Team Minnesota’s Peewees. I’ve got to come out and grind in the corners for 45 minutes a game and maybe I’ll swat in a rebound.
“I got moved onto what started out as a checking line, and then we started scoring,”
said Roberg, who scored a goal against Superior, another at Grand Rapids and a goal and three assists in the 6-1 victory over Cloquet. An 8-2 record and no games until Jan. 2 against Apple Valley at the DECC gives the Greyhounds a fresh outlook for the second half.
“I want the squad to go to state, because it’s something everyone should experience,” Roberg said. “It’s easy to say we won the state title our junior year, but we’ll be remembered for what we do our senior year. And none of us wants to have this be the East team that didn’t make it.”
Duluth, Hibbing lead girls into puck sectional
Playoff time is fast approaching in boys high school hockey, and it’s already upon us in the fast-growing girls hockey season.
Sectional play begins Tuesday in Section 8, which includes the co-favored Duluth Dynamite and Hibbing Bluejackets, as well as the rest of the Iron Range and all across the rest of the state, from Elk River northward. The Duluth Mirage (Proctor, Hermantown, Marshall), meanwhile, wind up in Section 4 in their first season.
The disparity between the girls powers and the building programs still is quite evident, with four truly elite teams at the top. They display a fast-paced style, featuring speed and finesse without the kill-shot bodychecks, and are highly entertaining. Duluth hockey fans got a chance to see one of the state’s elite teams when Eagan beat the Duluth Dynamite 3-0 Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Hall, in the finale to the girls regular season.
Eagan’s team is led by Natalie Darwitz, a dazzling ninth-grade center who has scored 50-some goals and 70-some points. She’d have more, but she joined the U.S. National team for a holiday tournament in Europe, where she wound up using her darting speed and incredible hockey sense to center Olympians Cammie Granato and Katie King on the first line.
“She’s very skilled,” said Julie Sasner, the Wisconsin coach who coached that U.S. team. “She can play anywhere, and it’s rare to see a player that young understand the game and be able to execute that well. She was the player of the game against Canada.”
Darwitz said she wasn’t feeling well Saturday, but she felt well enough to puncture a valiant effort by the Dynamite. Darwitz scored with a big slapshot on a power play at 11:42 of the first period, then she showed what happens when she gets fired up. After being chopped down a couple of times without penalties being called, she swatted a Duluth player on the stick and was penalized for slashing with 2:44 left. She came out of the box with 44 seconds to go to the first intermission, and promptly ripped in a 30-foot slapshot for a 2-0 lead.
In the second period, Darwitz forechecked to swipe the puck, did an instantaneous 180-degree escape move in the corner, skated behind the net just far enough to convince the Dynamite that she would go for a wraparound at the far post, then passed magically out front on the short side, where Megan Peterson hammered it in. Eagan won 3-0.
Eagan (21-1) is No. 3 in the final Up North state girls ratings of the season, behind Park Center (22-0) and Roseville (21-0-1), with South St. Paul (21-1) No. 4. Those four are clearly the state’s elite, with Eagan’s only loss to Roseville, Roseville’s “tie” a shootout loss to Burnsville in the South St. Paul Kaposia Classic tournament, and South St. Paul’s only loss a 4-3 thriller against Eagan in that same tournament, where Darwitz erupted midway through the third period to erase a 3-1 South St. Paul lead.
Here is a brief overview of the eight girls section favorites:
SECTION 1—Rochester Mayo is the best of a batch of new and improving programs; SECTION 2—Burnsville is the clear favorite, with rebuilding state champ Apple Valley a longshot; SECTION 3—Eagan is the pick but by the slimmest of margins over South St. Paul, in by far the toughest section, because South St. Paul must get by No. 7 Rosemount and Eagan will probably face a strong Sibley team in the semis; SECTION 4—Roseville, in what should be a clear path, although Forest Lake, Stillwater and Chisago Lakes have hopes; SECTION 5—Mounds View, rated No. 10 but inconsistent, gets a break by playing in a section without any strong threats; SECTION 6—Bloomington Jefferson, rated No. 5, is the certain pick over Edina and Minnetonka; SECTION 7—Park Center appears unstoppable, even for defending section champ Anoka; SECTION 8—The Duluth Dynamite and Hibbing rank 8-9, and should meet in the final, but Fergus Falls, which beat the Dynamite already, and Bemidji are threats.
Section 8 tournament games are Tuesday and Friday this week, with the semifinals next Tuesday at Grand Rapids, and the championship a week from Friday at St. Cloud.
The girls state tournament, on Feb. 18-20 at the State Fair Coliseum, has 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 4, 3 vs. 7, and 5 vs. 6 paired for the first round. The opening game could be an incredible showdown between Park Center and the dominant Krissy Wendell, and Eagan and Darwitz at high noon.
Boys ratings shift
While the girls ratings have been pretty stable at the top, with only Roseville preceding Park Center at No. 1, the boys ratings have undergone some turmoil, both statewide and regionally. Two games toppled the boys’ status quo, with Greenway of Coleraine beating Hibbing 4-3 last week on Tuesday, and Hermantown upsetting Duluth East 4-2 on Thursday.
Hibbing had moved to the No. 1 slot in the Up North regional boys rating last week, on the basis of beating Duluth East. But Greenway went to Hibbing and beat the Bluejackets in a superbly played 4-3 game that thrust Greenway’s Raiders to the No. 1 regional spot.
Eveleth-Gilbert is third, with Duluth East dropping to fourth after the stunning 4-2 loss to Hermantown.
But don’t assume the shakeup will be the last. Eveleth-Gilbert has the best record Up North (16-2), and is at home Saturday against Greenway and next Tuesday against Hibbing. Those be among the biggest games of the year, and will decide the IRC championship as four-point games for the Golden Bears, who are the Section 7A favorites but have played well against AA foes.
Hermantown, another Class A team, showed its intentions on getting back to the state by beating East for the first time in the school’s existence.
Statewide, the Up North ratings had returned Elk River to the No. 1 spot when Hill-Murray lost its first game, to Maple Grove. The Pioneers, who stayed No. 1 in other published ratings, last week were stunned 4-3 by fast-improving White Bear Lake on Thursday, then fell 5-2 at Elk River on Saturday. Roseau, meanwhile, shocked Warroad 7-1 with a six-goal first period and, at 18-1, is No. 2 to Elk River (15-1). Eagan (17-1) is No. 3, with Hastings (14-4) No. 4. Then comes the Up North parade, with Greenway, Eveleth and Hibbing — three virtually even Iron Range Conference powers who have gotten little if any credit around the state.
Hill-Murray slides all the way to No. 8, with Roseville 9 and Duluth East 10. Beware, however, White Bear Lake, under first-year coach Bill Butters. The Bears were without their top scorer when they knocked off Hill-Murray, and they also whipped Maple Grove 5-0 on Saturday; Maple Grove had beaten both Elk River and Hill-Murray. Also, unbeaten Holy Angels is a Class A school that is moving up to challenge Class AA at playoff time, although it has played mostly an A schedule all season.
Up North Hockey Ratings
BOYS STATE
1. Elk River, 15-1
2. Roseau, 18-1
3. Eagan, 17-1
4. Hastings, 14-4
5. Greenway of Coleraine, 14-4
6. Eveleth-Gilbert, 16-2
7. Hibbing, 14-4
8. Hill-Murray, 14-3
9. Roseville, 14-3
10. Duluth East, 14-5.
BOYS REGIONAL
1. Greenway of Coleraine, 14-4
2. Eveleth-Gilbert, 16-2
3. Hibbing, 14-4
4. Duluth East, 14-5
5. Hermantown, 14-3-1
6. Silver Bay, 13-4-1
7. Hayward (Wis.) 14-1-1
8. Duluth Marshall, 11-5-1
9. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, 10-10
10. Grand Rapids, 6-11.
GIRLS STATE (FINAL)
1. Park Center, 22-0
2. Roseville, 21-0-1
3. Eagan, 21-1
4. South St. Paul, 21-1
5. Bloomington Jefferson, 17-4-1
6. Burnsville, 15-3-4
7. Rosemount, 15-5
8. Duluth Dynamite, 16-4-1
9. Hibbing, 11-9-2
10. Mounds View, 14-8
So much hockey, so little time
If you’re addicted to hockey, these are the best days of the year. Consider how many classic games there were last week, and whether you watched or missed them.
On Tuesday you could watch Greenway of Coleraine win 4-3 at Hibbing…On Thursday, an interesting doubleheader at the DECC became monumental when Hermantown beat Duluth East 4-2, the first time the Hawks ever beat the ‘Hounds; and Marshall was whipping Duluth Central 4-1 in the second game when Central suddenly made a game of it, scoring three straight before Jake Bloomquist and Tony Tomaino scored big goals for Marshall in the third period for a 6-4 victory…
On Friday, there was UMD’s miracle-in-reverse 4-3 loss to North Dakota…Then on Saturday, you could set up camp in the DECC and sneak over to the adjacent Pioneer Hall a few times. That way, you could have seen Marshall get upset 7-5 by Chisago Lakes, while East was getting started to a 4-3 victory over Grand Rapids, then go back to watch Eagan’s slick girls team beat the Duluth Dynamite 3-0, and still have time for a sandwich before UMD’s mini-miracle 2-2 tie against No. 1 North Dakota.
You say there was a football game on Sunday? The Super Bowl? Oh, did the Vikings win? Pretty hard to get enthused about another snoozer of a Super Bowl after all that great hockey.
Tuesday was the perfect day to be on the Range. A little lunch at Zimmy’s in Hibbing, and get to the Memorial Building’s arena early, while the junior varsity game is still going on, so you can be all set up for one of those concession stand ice cream bars — rated No. 1 in the state — before Greenway of Coleraine and Hibbing face off.
These storied IRC rivals knew each other well from past years, and from earlier this year, when Hibbing beat Greenway 5-2 in Coleraine. Neither coach anticipated such a lopsided result this time, mainly because Greenway has defensemen Beau Geisler and Adam Johnson back from injuries. Geisler is a dominant defenseman, much like Hibbing’s Rico Fatticci, while Johnson is a 6-4 giant with a reach that seems larger than that.
“Geisler is good, and with the big guy back on ‘D,’ you’ve got to go to Nashwauk if you’re going to get around him,” said Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo.
The two felt each other out for, oh, about two minutes. Then they went at it. Aaron Mikulich scored a power-play goal for Greenway at 2:15, freshman sparkplug Gino Guyer filtered through the defense and scored at 3:04 for a 2-0 lead, and Hibbing’s Brad Willis knocked in a pass from Jesse Jagunich at 3:15. Three goals per minute, not bad.
It settled down a bit after that, and Mike Fatticci scored for Hibbing late in the first period for a 2-2 standoff. Jagnich gave Hibbing a 3-2 lead, scoring with a backhander from the crease on a power play, while he was being checked. Then it was Greenway’s turn to respond, and Mike Forconi rushed deep on the left and fed Gabe Miskovich for the equalizer. In the third period, on another power play, Josh Miskovich tipped in Johnson’s shot from the point for a 4-3 Greenway lead. Despite being outsot 33-21, the Raiders held on to win by that score.
“It’s been a while since we beat ’em,” said Greenway coach Pat Guyer, who saw the notion that the Raiders were one-line wonders dispelled forever. “We made a little challenge to our second and third lines, and the third line got two goals [by Mikulich and Gabe Miskovich], and our second line went out there twice and turned the momentum around in the second period with great efforts.”
Greenway assistant coach Joe Miskovich saw his son, Gabe, get a goal and one of his nephews, Josh Miskovich, get another. The Raiders won almost 80 percent of the faceoffs, thanks primarily to Gino Guyer, the ninth-grader, the coach’s kid, and the IRC’s leading scorer. Goaltender Nick Ossefoort was solid with 30 saves, as well.
DeCenzo said the only time Hibbing lost previously to Greenway was in his second season. He’s now in his sixth. “I’ve watched Guyer for a long time, and he doesn’t lose many faceoffs. They’re a gutsy team and they block a lot of shots,” said DeCenzo, who never considered using the injury to ace sophomore goalie Travis Weber as an excuse. Weber, considered by many the best goalie in the Up North area, sprained his ankle in practice and has missed three games now, but Steve Galli has played very well in his absence.
On Thursday at the DECC, Andy Corran qand Chris Baron got Hermantown off to a 2-0 lead. When Nick Licari got one back for East, Clint Van Iseghem scored the only second-period goal for a 3-1 Hermantown cushion. Ross Carlson powered a 60-foot slapshot from the right boards past goaltender Allen Knowles to trim the deficit to 3-2 for East, but then came the play of the game.
Loren Kaake took a pass from J.R. Bradley on the left side, next to one defender, and with two more between him and the net. Kaake shifted past one, then sped past another, and when goaltender Dan Hoehne started to drop, Kaake drilled his shot between his pads. It punctured East’s momentum, gave Hermantown a 4-2 lead that stuck, and would have been a sensational goal by someone on the Hawks’ big first line. It was something beyond that for Kaake, a second-line forward who had only four goals all year.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” said Kaake. “I just kept my feet moving, and got a chance to shoot through the 5-hole.”
Knowles was still jumping up and down after the game. “This is the first time in my whole life we’ve beaten East,” said the Hawks goaltender. “The long shot by Carlson, I lost it in the glass, with the dark background. I didn’t see it till it hit the net.”
For the new and onrushing program at Hermantown to establish itself by handing East its only conference loss in recent memory, it couldn’t have come at a better time. “We went down to the Twin Cities a couple weeks ago and scrimmaged Eden Prairie and Jefferson,” said Hermantown coach Bruce Plante. “We tied Jefferson and lost by one to Eden Prairie, and it did our kids a world of good. We haven’t lost since.”
Kaake, meanwhile, seemed to have no idea of the magnitude of his clinching, momentum-turning goal. And he disputed the fact that Hermantown hadn’t beaten East before. “We beat ’em a couple years ago, when my brother played,” he said. Turns out, he was talking about Bantam hockey.
The interesting thing about Licari, East’s flashy ninth-grader, and junior Ross Carlson scoring the two East goals in the loss to Hermantown was that coach Mike Randolph made an enormous change on Friday in practice. Carlson and Licari both were shifted back to defense, where they played against Grand Rapids on Saturday.
Zach Burns scored two, Mike Marshall one and Carlson got one — all on power plays — as East went up 4-1 in the second period. Matt Miskovich, Judd Welliver and Seth Nelson got the goals for Rapids, which lost by one goal for the seventh time this year, but will be a handful for anybody in Section 7AA.
East is unaccustomed to losing five games in a season, and even if those losses are to Elk River, Hill-Murray, Hastings, Hibbing and now Hermantown, coach Mike Randolph wasn’t about to let the season fizzle without exausting every idea.
“It was time for a wake-up call,” said Randolph. “Ross and Licari both liked it back on ‘D,’ and they got more ice time and more of a chance to handle the puck back there. We’re planning on leaving them there for the time being. Another reason for the move is that we’ve been having trouble scoring, and Ross and Licari have both been on our first line and are our top scorers. Now, somebody else has to score.”
So much hockey, so little time…
Bulldog resilience pays off against Sioux
Everybody in a UMD uniform had a hand in tying No. 1 ranked North Dakota 2-2 on Saturday night in the DECC. Most prominent in subduing the Fighting Sioux with the fewest goals in their 20-2-2 season was backup goaltender Tony Gasparini, who relieved ace Brant Nicklin at 5:39 of the first period, and made 28 saves — 17 of them in the third period.
Equally prominent were Ryan Homstol, who scored his third goal of the weekend to stake UMD to a 1-0 lead, and Curtis Bois, who scored for a 2-1 lead that ultimately held for the tie for the ‘Dogs. Bois, a senior winger, had all sorts of feelings tumble through his mind after the goal, and they described him and his team’s season.
It was a spectacular goal, coming at 15:43 of the second period, after Shawn Pogreba had stopped an outlet attempt and fed Bois at the left corner circle. Bois moved in, wide open, against Karl Goehring, the best goaltender in the league.
“As I moved in, I noticed that both top corners were open,” said Bois. “I looked low to the far side, made a little move that way, then shot high to the short side.”
The puck glanced off the crossbar, down and in. “It was a perfect shot, nothing I could do,” said Goehring.
It should have felt good, the way any goal feels to any proven goal-scorer. But it felt different.
“It felt funny,” Bois said. “It felt good, then I thought, ‘Wait a minute! I can’t feel this good about a goal that’s only my sixth goal of the season. I should have about 16, not six. It’s been a brutal way to end my college career.”
True, the way Bois snapped that shot in, it appeared he should have scored every game. But goals have been hard to come by for the ‘Dogs, and victories have been fewer. But the Bulldog attitude has been as tenacious as their nickname.
Only three times in 20 WCHA games have the 3-14-3 Bulldogs tasted victory, and yet, disappointment after excruciating disappointment, they keep coming back with amazing cameraderie and determination.
The most crushing of the 14 losses came on Friday night. You can’t lose in a more devastating fashion than when you lead by a goal until yielding a goal with 25 seconds remaining, then giving up the winner at 19:58 — actually, with 1.4 seconds showing.
It doesn’t matter that the opponent was No. 1 nationally ranked league-leader North Dakota. It had to be devastating, and the silence in the UMD locker room left the question about how the Bulldogs could possibly come back for Saturday night’s second game.
“I was really impressed,” said Goehring, the diminutive Sioux goaltender who once broke a lot of Duluth hearts when he backstopped Apple Valley to a four-o vertime state tournament victory over Duluth East with a record number of saves. “I thought they’d be pretty disheartened after last night, when they played so well and Nicklin had such a great game. But they came at us with a lot of fight.”
Sioux coach Dean Blais said: “Give ’em credit. I thought they’d be a little down afte rthe first game. We played pretty well, but give Duluth credit, they played hard and executed well.”
The remarkable resilience of these Bulldogs gave them only a token point as reward for playing well enough to win all four games against the powerful Sioux this season. It also drew a Friday night crowd of 4,822 and a Saturday turnout of 5,247 — best since the 5,286 who came out for the Wisconsin game during the home-opening series in November, back when hopes of a contending season were still high.
Homstol had scored for a 1-1 tie in the first period and a 2-2 tie in the second during Friday’s game, when Nicklin’s 47-save performance was the primary reason for UMD’s hope. When Nicklin twisted his knee on his second save Saturday, Gasparini, the little-used but obviously capable senior backup, went into the game eagerly.
Homstol smacked in a power-play goal for a 1-0 lead in the first period, but Jeff Ulmer tied it for the Sioux. Bois got his masterpiece at 15:43 of the second, and it’s possible that every soul among the 5,247 and a regional television audience, plus those on both benches, might have wondered just how the Bulldogs would find a way to lose this one.
After all, the Sioux had come from behind in four of their last five games with third-period charges. That includes three goals in the last six minutes at Colorado College two weeks ago, and overturning a 5-3 third-period deficit against Minnesota one week ago.
This time, the Bulldogs, who had turned up their intensity to aid their compatriot in the nets, were quite efficient in their own end except for one sequence of two botched clearing tries early in the third period. Sure enough, the Sioux capitalized, when Jason Ulmer knocked in a third rebound for the 2-2 tie.
However, the ‘Dogs refused to cave in, battling to survive as the Sioux outshot them 18-6 in the third period. But Gasparini blocked everything, and the ‘Dogs actually outshot the Sioux 4-2 in the scoreless overtime.
Typically, Gasparini tried to give the credit, rather than receive it.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Gasparini, who is from Grand Forks, N.D., and works out with a lot of the current Sioux players in the sumertime. “I didn’t have to make the saves Brant made last night, but it was fun to play against North Dakota…it was fun to play.”
Blais saw his team lose for the first time after seven straight victories, but was philosophical. “If we’d have won tonight, it might have sent a false message to our guys,” Blais said. “Our guys are acting like they lost. We’d have liked to have won, but we didn’t lose.”
‘DOGS NOTES: The Bulldogs need a couple of victories, soon, to retain any hope of escaping from last place…Next up for UMD is a trip to Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, then a return to the DECC to face Michigan Tech. After that comes a weekend off, then the final home series against Minnesota, and the final season series at Colorado College.
Coach Mike Sertich revised some lines, inserting the rarely used Jeremy Zahn, and even more rarely used Ryan Nosan, as fourth-line wings…The ‘Dogs came out howling Saturday night in their new ceremonial gold jerseys, but without the controversial, Gopher-like, block “M,” which has been removed and replaced by the lettering “Minnesota-Duluth” arcing across the top and bottom, with their individual number in between. There had been some criticism when the jerseys were unveiled, about the obvious similarity to the hated Gophers, and athletic director Bob Corran ordered the revision.
Gasparini, Bulldogs tie Sioux 2-2
Goaltender Tony Gasparini was the unlikely hero of UMD’s unlikely performance Saturday night, and the only thing more difficult than the challenge Gasparini faced was to realize it was a 2-2 tie Saturday night — not the victory that it seemed to be for the Bulldogs, nor the loss it seemed to be to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
Gasparini was thrown into the nets at 5:39 of the first period, after ace goalie Brant Nicklin sprained his left knee twisting on his second save of the game. Nicklin had been the hero Friday night, making 47 saves to almost beat the Sioux, but UMD the tying goal with 25 seconds left, and the game-winner with 1.4 seconds showing and fell 4-3 to the first-place, and No. 1 ranked Sioux.
It seemed impossible that the Bulldogs could revive themselves for another big effort after the crushing end to Friday night’s series opener, but they actually led 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Ryan Homstol and Curtis Bois, and Gasparini made 17 of his 28 saves against a mounting third-period barrage to hold the Sioux to their lowest goal output of the season.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Gasparini, the little-used senior netminder from, of all places, Grand Forks, N.D. “I didn’t have to make the saves Brant made last night. I hope Brant isn’t hurt bad, and gets better by next weekend. But it was fun to play against North Dakota…it was fun to play.”
Sioux coach Dean Blais was philosophical after his team’s record went to 15-1-2 atop the WCHA and 20-2-2 overall — compared to UMD’s 3-14-3 and 6-19-3.
“If we’d have won tonight, it might have sent a false message to our guys,” Blais said. “Give UMD credit. I thought they’d be a little down after the first game, but they played hard and executed well.
“Our guys are acting like they lost. But we’ve had six very emotional games in a row, two at Colorado College, two with the Gophers last weekend, and now these two. We’d have liked to have won, but we didn’t lose.”
Coach Mike Sertich revised some lines, inserting the rarely used Jeremy Zahn, and even more rarely used Ryan Nosan as fourth-line wings, and the ‘Dogs came out howling in their new ceremonial gold jerseys, but without the controversial Gopher-like block “M,” which has been removed and replaced by the lettering “Minnesota-Duluth” arching across the top and bottom, with a small number in between. There had been some criticism when the jerseys were unveiled, about the obvious similarity to the hated Gophers, and athletic director Bob Corran ordered the revision.
Gasparini came in and immediately made a couple of big saves, on Jay Panzer and Jesse Bull, and the Bulldogs rallied in front of him to gain a 1-0 lead on a goal by Homstol at 11:54. Homstol was at the left side when Derek Derow tried to barge out from behind the net. DerHe made it, but lost the puck in traffic, and Homstol slammed it past Karl Goehring.
The Sioux got a 1-1 tie at 18:19 when David Hoogsteen had a clean breakaway, but shot just wide to the right. That was no cause for the ‘Dog defense to relax, becaue in a flash, Tom Philion was on the puck in the right corner and passed to the slot, where Jeff Ulmer scored on Gasparini with a one-timer.
Gasparini stopped everything in the second period, but everything was a mere five shots as the Sioux missed the net with several good chances, and the Bulldogs came at them hard enough to keep them on defense. At 15:43 of the middle period, Shawn Pogreba prevented the puck from leaving the Sioux zone on the right side and whipped a quick pass back in, finding Curtis Bois alone on the left. Bois closed in on Goehring, and beat the WCHA’s top netminder with a short-side wrist shot that glanced in off the crossbar.
The 2-1 lead pumped renewed life into the fans, who may also have figured Friday’s performance would be hard to match. But the 2-1 lead stood until the third period, when, at 3:46, Gasparini made two big saves but was victimized when the Bulldogs failed to clear, and Jason Ulmer finally drilled a third try through a tangle of bodies and into the upper right.
The Sioux came hard after that, outshooting the Bulldogs 18-6 through the third period, but Gasparini was solid and the Bulldogs blocked shots and dived to clear loose pucks, drawing appreciative cheers from the crowd.
North Dakota 1 0 1 0 — 2
UMD 1 1 0 0 — 2
First Period: 1. UMD–Homstol 10 (Derow, Carlson) 11:54, Power Play. 1. ND–Jeff Ulmer 9 (Philion, Hoogsteen) 18:19. Penalties–Medak, UMD (holding) 5:53; Schneekloth, ND (interference) 10:44; Homstol, UMD (hooking) 19:02.
Second Period: 2. UMD–Bois 6 (Pogreba) 15:43. Penalties–Jeff Ulmer, ND (roughing) 10:34; Williamson, ND (hooking) 18:18.
Third Period: 2. ND–Jason Ulmer 5 (DeFauw, Armbrust) 3:46. Penalties–Reierson, UMD (holding) 6:03; Fibiger, UMD (slashing) 8:20.
Overtime: No scoring. Penalties–none.
Saves: ND–Goehring 9 9 6 4–28; UMD–Nicklin 3 x x–3; Gasparini 4 5 17 2 — 28. Power plays: ND 0-4, UMD 1-3. Referee: Mike Schmitt; assistant referees: Gregg Wohlers, Bill Vollbrecht. Attendance–5,247.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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