CC’s Austin scores twice to sink UMD 3-1
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Senior winger Jonny Austin, who came to Colorado College four years ago from International Falls when several other colleges considered him too slight to be an effective Division I player, scored midway through the third period to break a scoreless tie Friday night, then clinched a 3-1 Tiger victory over UMD with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.
The victory, which wasn’t secured until Austin slid a 75-footer into the empty net with 2.8 seconds remaining, gives CC the first of a best-of-three WCHA playoff series before a paid crowd of 7,002 at the World Arena.
“It was the same as last weekend, they battled us right to the end,” said Austin, who has 11 goals for the season. “You’ve got to hand it to them. When it was 0-0 after two periods, we were getting frustrated because we had a lot of chances, but not many great opportunities. But we’ve had a lot of close games in the last few weeks, and we know that’s the way it’s going to be in the playoffs.”
The last-place Bulldogs, who lost 4-3 and 3-2 here a week ago to end the regular season 4-20-4, battled the second-place Tigers (20-8 in the WCHA) on even terms until 11:38 of the third period, when UMD goalie Brant Nicklin made a pair of big saves, the second on Austin, in the slot. Austin played the puck off Nicklin’s pads and lifted a backhander over the fallen goalie, who made 37 saves in an outstanding performance.”
At 1-0, the Bulldogs got a bit of a bad break when Craig Pierce, who had his stick pulled from his hand by Cam Kryway moments earlier, leveled Kryway in the slot and was called for interference at 14:07. The CC power play, stifled all night by the Bulldogs, came through at 15:51, when Paul Manning moved in from right point for a low shot, wide to the right, that Justin Morrison tipped past Nicklin.
Still, but gritty Bulldogs came back, with Shawn Pogreba stickhandling out from the right corner and firing a shot from the circle that glanced in past goaltender Jeff Sanger with 2:35 left.
“I knew we were getting late in the game, and we hadn’t gotten many shots on net, so I just threw it in front,” said Pogreba. “It hit a skate or something, I don’t even know. But it went in.”
That renewed hope for the Bulldogs, who were outshot 40-23, but had cut the deficit to 2-1. But after pulling Nicklin they couldn’t penetrate to get the equalizer, and when the puck was blocked out to center ice, Austin made sure of his shot into the empty net.
The Bulldogs came out totally focused, and played a crisp first period, backchecking to prevent any 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 CC rushes, and spreading the game out offensively by passing or reversing the puck to use the full 100-foot Olympic width of the World Arena.
After the first couple of UMD chances were turned away by CC goalie Sanger, the Tigers got on the power play and forced Nicklin to come up with some big saves. The Tigers had a clear shot advantage early, but the Bulldogs weathered the opening attack and forced the Tigers to shoot from longer range as the scoreless first period progressed.
If there was a striking contrast to most of their games this season, it was that the ‘Dogs countered quickly, turning every transition into an offensive rush. When Cam Kryway’s penalty gave UMD its turn on the power play, the Jeff Scissons line got a few chances, and Mark Gunderson and Judd Medak came out next and got some excellent chances, setting a tempo that gave UMD the edge territorially to the end of the opening period.
The second period also was scoreless, and both teams had a turn at dominating play. UMD, bolstered by an overlapping power play from the first period, got a good chance when Derek Derow and Ryan Homstol collaborated for a chance, then defenseman Craig Pierce moved in from left point and fired one off the right post.
At the other end, Nicklin came up with a spectacular save on Brian Swanson, point blank, but the Bulldogs outshot CC 9-2 in the first half of the period.
When Pierce was penalized, however, CC’s power play got some chances, with Moorhead’s Mark Cullen getting the best one, but shooting a close-range rebound from the right side, only to hit the crossbar instead of the open net.
UMD’s had two more excellent chances in the middle period, but Homstol shot wide left after a set-up, and Colin Anderson feathered a 2-on-1 pass to Curtis Bois, who missed the net. At the same time, the Tigers fired 11 of the last 12 shots on goal in the middle period, but Nicklin came up with all the answers, and the Bulldogs reduced the challenge of upsetting the powerful Tigers to a 20-minute game in the third period.
Lucia’s Tigers see UMD in path to NCAA
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Colorado College coach Don Lucia accused UMD of resorting to germ warfare for their WCHA best-of-three playoff series this weekend.
Lucia was kidding, of course, but when UMD lost 4-3 and 3-2 games at CC last weekend, a half-dozen of the Bulldogs were slowed by a strain of flu that includes headaches more than stomach problems.
“So this week, what happens to us? We get four or five guys down with that same flu,” said Lucia. “We’re hoping they’ll be ready to play, but you never know.”
Among those afflicted are Brian Swanson, CC’s super-center who should be a primary candidate for the Hobey Baker Award. If he played in Boston, or Ann Arbor, or Madison, or the Twin Cities, Swanson would be a cinch, so long as he wasn’t confused with defenseman Scott Swanson, no relation, who is the WCHA’s best defenseman.
For those who only know Don Lucia as one of the elite new guard of coaching, one of the genuinely good, positive, progressive young coaches in the game, it is easy to overlook what must rank as the greatest accomplishment in college hockey coaching history. Just six years ago, Lucia came out of the cold, so to speak, when he left his first head coaching job at Alaska-Fairbanks and came to Colorado College.
That CC team, coached by Brad Buetow, had been picked to finish about third in the league, but it wound up a distant and dead last. So sad were the Tigers that season, that the WCHA coaches were unanimous in ranking CC dead last again the following year, because not only had Buetow been fired, but new coach Don Lucia was coming in too late to really do any recruiting.
So what happened? Lucia led Colorado College to the WCHA championship, and he did it with all the proper values and ethics, with that good-person look in his eye, which tells you immediately that you’re dealing with an honest man, who expects honesty in return. In his second year, Lucia led the Tigers to a second WCHA title, and in his third year, CC won the title yet again — becoming the first team in the WCHA’s long and storied history to ever win three straight WCHA titles. Those fantastic Denver, North Dakota and Michigan Tech teams of decades gone by never could string together three in a row.
He did it by recruiting the kind of players who would be great college players, not being consumed by some egotistical craze that sought future NHLers and overlooked good little players — like Darren Clark of Superior, Toby Petersen of Bloomington. CC hasn’t won the title the last three years, including this one, because North Dakota has beaten the Tigers out, with Dean Blais — another great, young, principled coach — flat out saying he admired and copied Lucia’s method, and put it to use to become the second team to ever win three straight WCHA titles.
Lucia, whose CC Tigers now play in the fabulous new World Arena, which seats 7,343 for hockey, offered a tour of the year-old Olympic-sized facility, which has unexcelled sightlines, an exceptional press box, and a lower middle section reserved for big hitters behind the CC program, who can go on down under the stands to the richly decorated “Penrose Room,” where they can enjoy between-periods camaraderie in secluded comfort, or even go off to the smoking room, with its walk-in cigar humidor and privately owned humidor cubicles for their prized possessions.
Everything is going smoothly for Lucia and the Tigers, but he is not taking the Bulldogs lightly this weekend.
“We played well last weekend,” Lucia said. “Looking at Duluth, Brant Nicklin is as good as any goaltender in the league, maybe the best. They skate well, and Jeff Scissons is a big-time player. They are positive in their specialties [power plays and penalty kills]. And their shots on goal with their opponents is about even.
“Those aren’t the statistics of a last-place team; they are more likely proof of a team that’s been unlucky. If we started the league over tomorrow, there’s no way UMD would finish last.”
Lucia, a Grand Rapids native, is a big fan of UMD coach Mike Sertich, and he’s outspoken about it.
“You know, there are three men I really look up to for influencing my life,” said Lucia. “One is my dad, one is Sertie, and one is Tom Drazenovich, my old football coach in high school. Sertie was my JV coach at Grand Rapids, and I had him as a history teacher in junior high. We won the state championship my sophomore year at Grand Rapids, and Gus Hendrickson and Sertie left the next year to go to UMD.
“Sertie is a tremendous coach, and when he has top talent, he wins. He’s won four WCHA championships in 17 years. I think that’s pretty outstanding. His teams are always very well coached, and they do some unconventional things that other teams are afraid to try. They’ll catch you by surprise doing things like getting their defense involved in the offense, or flying a guy in the neutral zone. But he’s the type of coach who lets his guys play, and play creatively.”
Lucia has stayed in tune with the controversy swirling around the University of Minnesota, and he has heard speculation that has linked North Dakota coach Dean Blais and Lucia as possible successors, if Minnesota decides to replace Doug Woog. Some people suggest Minnesota won’t make a change now, because putting out the multiple brush fires of the hockey program suddenly pale next to having its basketball house on fire right now. Should we be surprised that an athletic department that not only condones but supports what has happened in the deteriorating Minnesota hockey situation would also find a scandalous academic problem rampant in its basketball program? Funny how such problems just seem to link up. Must be coincidence.
The contrast from those problems to a program run by Lucia is amazingly stark. He, of course, is far too classy to do more than shake his head at wonderment as the latest details of Minnesota’s corruption spread nationwide in a flash on Wednesday.
He has taken note of various recruiting debates, because his team once was accused by the Gophers of having older, more experienced players, in a year when the Gophers actually were older.
“We try to get the best players from the USHL, and we do like it if they’re a little more experienced, because it costs $28,000 a year to go to CC, and we think there is less risk of making a mistake in recruiting with players who might be a year older or more experienced,” Lucia said.
“But look at our roster now. We only have five Canadians. And while we have players with junior experience, we also have Toby Petersen from Bloomington Jefferson, Mike Colgan from Rochester Mayo, and Jon Austin from International Falls, all of whom came right out of high school. And we have four other players who played in the USHL, but they played there during their senior year in high school, so they aren’t any older.”
The Tigers, after a strong run, finished second to North Dakota this season. They are primed to make a strong run at the WCHA playoff championship, and should already be a cinch to gain an NCAA tournament berth.
But Lucia isn’t looking for an instant beyond UMD. He knows their coach, he likes their players, and he is aware the Bulldogs are a far better team than their last-place record indicates. He also knows that while his team should be a cinch NCAA entry, UMD finally has put its back up against the wall, and it’s win or start summer vacation early.
Lucia admires Sertich, won’t look past UMD
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Colorado College coach Don Lucia accused UMD of resorting to germ warfare for their WCHA best-of-three playoff series this weekend.
Lucia was kidding, of course, but when UMD lost 4-3 and 3-2 games at CC last weekend, a half-dozen of the Bulldogs were slowed by a strain of flu that includes headaches more than stomach problems.
“So this week, what happens to us? We get four or five guys down with that same flu,” said Lucia. “We’re hoping they’ll be ready to play, but you never know.”
Lucia, whose CC Tigers now play in the fabulous new World Arena, which seats 7,343 for hockey, offered a tour of the year-old Olympic-sized facility, which has unexcelled sightlines, an exceptional press box, and a lower middle section reserved for big hitters behind the CC program, who can go on down under the stands to the richly decorated “Penrose Room,” where they can enjoy between-periods camaraderie in secluded comfort, or even go off to the smoking room, with its walk-in cigar humidor and privately owned humidor cubicles for their prized possessions.
Everything is going smoothly for Lucia and the Tigers, but he is not taking the Bulldogs lightly this weekend.
“We played well last weekend,” Lucia said. “Looking at Duluth, Brant Nicklin is as good as any goaltender in the league, maybe the best. They skate well, and Jeff Scissons is a big-time player. They are positive in their specialties [power plays and penalty kills]. And their shots on goal with their opponents is about even.
“Those aren’t the statistics of a last-place team; they are more likely proof of a team that’s been unlucky. If we started the league over tomorrow, there’s no way UMD would finish last.”
Lucia, a Grand Rapids native, is a big fan of UMD coach Mike Sertich, and he’s outspoken about it.
“You know, there are three men I really look up to for influencing my life,” said Lucia. “One is my dad, one is Sertie, and one is Tom Drazenovich, my old football coach in high school. Sertie was my JV coach at Grand Rapids, and I had him as a history teacher in junior high. We won the state championship my sophomore year at Grand Rapids, and Gus Hendrickson and Sertie left the next year to go to UMD.
“Sertie is a tremendous coach, and when he has top talent, he wins. He’s won four WCHA championships in 17 years. I think that’s pretty outstanding. His teams are always very well coached, and they do some unconventional things that other teams are afraid to try. They’ll catch you by surprise doing things like getting their defense involved in the offense, or flying a guy in the neutral zone. But he’s the type of coach who lets his guys play, and play creatively.”
Lucia has stayed in tune with the controversy swirling around the University of Minnesota, and he has heard speculation that has linked North Dakota coach Dean Blais and Lucia as possible successors, if Minnesota decides to replace Doug Woog.
He notes the recruiting debate, and how his team is accused of having older, more experienced players.
“We try to get the best players from the USHL, and we do like it if they’re older, because it costs $28,000 a year to go to CC, and we think older players are less risk when it comes to making mistakes,” Lucia said.
“But look at our roster now. We only have five Canadians. And while we have players with junior experience, we also have Toby Petersen from Bloomington Jefferson, Mike Colgan from Rochester Mayo, and Jon Austin from International Falls, all of whom came right out of high school. And we have four other players who played in the USHL, but they played there during their senior year in high school, so they aren’t any older.”
The Tigers, after a strong run, finished second to North Dakota during the regular season. They are primed to make a strong run at the WCHA playoff championship, and should already be a cinch to gain an NCAA tournament berth.
But Lucia isn’t looking for an instant beyond UMD. He knows their coach, he likes their players, and he is aware the Bulldogs are a far better team than their last-place record indicates. He also knows that while his team should be a cinch NCAA entry, UMD finally has put its back up against the wall, and it’s win or start summer vacation early.
Greenway, Hibbing pace all-Up North puck team
Viewed from the standpoint of the state tournament, the Up North hockey season may take a beating, what with no entry in the Class AA tournament, where Elk River made it, and Hibbing, Greenway of Coleraine and defending state champion Duluth East didn’t. And, while Hermantown and Silver Bay made it Class A, both lost their first, and second, games in Minneapolis.
However, viewed on the basis of the season, this might have been the best Up North hockey for balanced competitiveness, quantity, and quality.
And, viewed on the basis of the All-Up North team, it obviously was a superb season. There were some tough choices, and some obvious ones, but the beauty of the Up North Network’s all-area team, regardless of class, is that you can make the case for numerous other candidates who deserve to be on the team, but it would be impossible to bump any of the players from the three full units that make up the 18-man squad.
The team is top-heavy with 12 seniors, while three juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen round it out.
And, as long as we’re balancing the team for units, we might as well also be vicarious coaches, and put them onto units.
The first line has Andy Sacchetti, Eveleth’s mercurial centerman, with Proctor’s Jay Dardis and Hermantown’s catalyst, Jon Francisco. Not a bad line, with size, speed, quickness, and scoring punch.
The second line has two ninth-graders, who not only made their teams, but made their teams go! Gino Guyer of Greenway of Coleraine, and Nick Licari of Duluth East have equal doses of skill and great hockey sense, and they are joined by always consistent, always dependable and always threatening Josh Miskovich, another Greenway standout.
The third line has East’s junior standout Ross Carlson, Proctor’s junior scoring flash Aaron Slattengren, and Duluth Central’s Kyle Tomaich. It was Tomaich who came through with a key goal to spring Central’s Section 7A overtime victory over defending state champ Eveleth-Gilbert — the biggest upset in the state at either level — then he climaxed an otherwise unsung year with an impressive game in the CCM Range-Duluth all-star game last Tuesday.
On defense, the supply overran the number of slots, and the six picks meant leaving off some defensemen who would be first-team all-area picks in other years. John Conboy, Silver Bay’s driving force, joins the underrated but always smooth and calculating Beau Geisler of Greenway on the first tandem. Hibbing’s spectacular unit of Rico Fatticci and Steve Suihkonen man the second set. And junior Tony Tomaino, whose arrival turned Marshall into a constant threat, joins John Rodberg, Denfeld’s overlooked but always effective senior.
In goal, the best goaltender in the section, and undoubtedly in the state, is Hibbing sophomore Travis Weber, and he didn’t need the 7AA title game, in which he made 60 saves but lost 2-1 to Elk River, for proof, but that might have been the single best performance by a goalie in the state all year. Second-unit goalie is Greg Buell, who guided Silver Bay into the state tournament through 7A with consistently solid work. Third goalie is Hermantown’s bouncy Allen Knowles, who made 24 saves in a 4-2 conquest of Duluth East — which not only gave Hermantown its first victory over East, but also its first Lake Superior Conference title.
In fact, goaltending is a perfect example of how good Up North hockey was this season. Adam Laaksonen of Cloquet, a tough competitor and an exceptional athlete, deserves congratulations for receiving the Frank Brimsek award from the Mr. Hockey committee as the state’s top goaltender. However, based on consistent play that had the greatest impact on their teams’ success, Weber, Buell and Knowles had better seasons.
Forwards:
Andy Sacchetti, sr., Eveleth-Gilbert
Jay Dardis, sr., Proctor
Jon Francisco, sr., Hermantown
Gino Guyer, fr., Greenway of Coleraine
Nick Licari, fr., Duluth East
Josh Miskovich, sr., Greenway of Coleraine
Ross Carlson, jr., Duluth East
Aaron Slattengren, jr., Proctor
Kyle Tomaich, sr., Duluth Central
Defense:
John Conboy, sr., Silver Bay
Beau Geisler, sr., Greenway of Coleraine
Rico Fatticci, sr., Hibbing
Steve Suihkonen, sr., Hibbing
Tony Tomaino, jr., Duluth Marshall
John Rodberg, sr., Duluth Denfeld
Goalies:
Travis Weber, so., Hibbing
Greg Buell, sr., Silver Bay
Allen Knowles, sr., Hermantown
Dardis leads Duluth-area stars to 7-2 romp
You could say the first Duluth Area vs. Iron Range Area high school senior all-star game was such a rousing success that a good time was had by all, but the Duluth Area stars had a much better time of it, as they sped away to a surprising 7-2 victory.
With a capacity crowd of 1,823 on hand at Wessman Arena — many of whom arrived in time to watch the 6 p.m. skills contest prior to the 7:30 p.m. game — it was evident that the first CCM All-Star game, the brainchild of Ryan Kern, was a huge success.
Jay Dardis of Proctor scored three goals and his centerman, Jon Francisco of Hermantown, had a goal and set up two of the Dardis tallies, while other Duluth goals were scored by Chad Roberg of East, John Conboy of Silver Bay, and Kyle Tomaich of Duluth Central. The Range goals were from Greenway’s Josh Miskovich and Jeff True of Grand Rapids.
Cloquet goaltender Adam Laaksonen blanked the slow-starting Rangers through the first half, and Greg Buell of Silver Bay was outstanding in the second half, including the third period, when the aroused Rangers put on their most determined offense to try to offset a game the Duluth stars were turning into a rout. Duluth outshot the Range 46-36, with the Range getting 15 of its shots in the third period.
If the Iron Range skaters came in as a slight favorite because of their explosive offense and rock-solid defense, that may have contributed to the Duluth Area’s incentive. So did the coaching inspiration of Duluth East’s Mike Randolph and assistant Larry Trachsel.
“We were allowed one practice, and we told the guys from the start that we weren’t doing this to lose,” said Randolph, whose personal fire may have been stoked by the fact that this was the first year in the last six that he and his Greyhounds hadn’t had the state tournament as a finale. “I asked the players how many of them had finished their seasons with a win, and how many had ever finished their season with a win.”
The Range team ate up the skills contest, which consisted of a shootout match for total goals, a hard-shooting contest, in which Rico Fatticci of Hibbing won, and a one-lap speed contest, won by Andy Sacchetti of Eveleth.
But when the game started, the two teams battled evenly and a bit cautiously through the first period, with Dardis scoring the only goal. He blocked a point shot by Troy Korpi of Eveleth and broke up the ice, with the 6-2 Dardis managing to pull away from Greenway’s 6-6 defenseman Adam Johnson just enough to beat Eveleth goaltender Matt Uhan with a bullet from 20 feet.
Uhan came back to thwart two more scoring chances by Dardis, who seemed to be in the middle of the action all night, and he poke-checked Francisco to stop another breakaway, and stopped a good chance by East’s Mike Marshall to hold it to 1-0 at the first intermission.
The Range coaches agreed that the Duluth team surprised them. “We couldn’t get to the net,” said Eveleth-Gilbert head coach Craig Homola.
His assistant, Bob Pazzelli, added: “They played with much more intensity than we did.”
Duluth took charge in the second period, outshooting the Range 18-9 and boosting the lead to 3-0. Robert fed Cloquet’s Dennis Lennartson for a shot, then Roberg scored on the rebound at 2:29. After both sides changed goalies midway through the second 20-minute period, Dardis got loose in front on a power play and stabbed in his own rebound at 15:34 against Greenway goalie Nick Ossefoort.
The Range finally clicked on a neat play when Sacchetti raced in on the right, dropped a pass to Hibbing’s Mike Fatticci, who backhanded a pass to the left side, where Miskovich whistled a one-timer past Buell. But that came at 7:43 of the third period, and at 8:48, Francisco scored with a one-timer off a pass from East’s Nick Serre.
The next three goals were worthy of the pregame hardest-shot contest. Conboy hammered a long rebound in with a big slapshot at 11:19 to make it 5-1. At 14:52, with both sides a man short, Dardis broke out with a long, high pass that Francisco could only deflect, but Francisco chased it down behind the Range net, started in behind, but passed back out on the short side where Dardis blasted another one-timer at 14:52.
Tomaich scored with another missile at 15:15, and the two goals in 23 seconds made it 7-1.
Greenway defenseman Beau Geisler set up a picture goal for the Range to end the scoring, as he moved in from the left point shorthanded, moving in for an excellent scoring chance, and as Buell moved out to confront him, the slick Geisler fed a soft pass beyond him where True had an easy goal at 17:33.
Dardis won a pair of CCM skates as the game’s most valuable player, and Francisco played a strong game, but if it was no surprise that the highest-profile players played well, the game also brought out some surprises.
“Everyone knew that Francisco and Dardis were good, but they were better than I thought. Francisco has great potential, with excellent vision, and speed. And Dardis is a great kid, very coachable, and more polished than I realized,” Randolph said. “But maybe the best thing about this game was for everyone to see how good players like Kyle Tomaich from Central, who has a great attitude and a big heart, and John Rodberg from Denfeld are. Those guys can play the game. I also hought both our goaltenders were excellent — superb.”
It may not have been a state championship, but Randolph and his players found something to take them on a positive road into summer. Or at least into this week’s Great 88 statewide senior competition.
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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