Fergus Falls fails to solve Benilde’s Riddles
Here’s a state hockey tournament “Riddle:” If Benilde-St. Margaret’s wins the Class A championship, who is most likely to score?
Right. The answer to the riddle is Riddle. As in Troy Riddle, but sometimes Jake Riddle.
If there can be such a thing as a “routine” state hockey tournament semifinal victory, Benilde-St. Margaret’s enjoyed one Friday afternoon, sailing past outmanned Fergus Falls 6-0 with two goals each period and a 33-14 cushion in shots. That puts the Red Knights (24-2) into today’s 2 p.m. final against East Grand Forks.
Brothers Troy and Jake Riddle and Joe Schuman led the attack for the Red Knights in the semifinals, with Troy Riddle, the leading scorer in the state, getting two goals after getting all three in the 3-2 victory over Hermantown, to run his two-game total to five and his season total to 52. Schuman also scored twice, while Jake Riddle scored a power-play goal to get the whole thing started. Jake Riddle and Schuman had two assists each, and Troy Riddle had one assist.
After the game, the Riddle brothers were standing together for an interesting comparison. Jake, the sophomore winger, is 6-1 and 180 pounds; Troy, the senior center, is 5-10 and 170.
“We don’t play the same,” said Troy, who occasionally can be found lurking in center ice. “He plays with a lot of heart, takes the body and gets the puck free.
“I felt really comfortable today. Everybody talked about how important our first game was, because we were playing Hermantown, and some thought we were the two best teams, but also just to get our feet going and not be uptight. Today it was different. Jake and I both came into this game feeling ready to go, and we wanted to make sure we played well enough so there’d be no excuses.
“Fergus Falls was definitely a challenge, because they’ve got some talent,” added Troy, “but we think if we can play our game, it’ll be tough for anybody to beat us.”
Benilde came out flying and jumped ahead when Schuman had a chance at the crease and Jake Riddle retrieved the puck beyond the goal line on the right of the net, pulled it back and put it in, 19 seconds into the game’s first power play. Goalie Kevin Ackley got even by robbing Jake Riddle on a break-in later, and Benilde goalie Jake Schuman, a ninth-grader who alternates in the nets, stopped Josh Anderson’s shot and dived to thwart Aaron Olson’s rebound.
It was still a contest at that point, but Troy Riddle rushed up the left side at 13:56, and when the defenseman turned one way to confront him, Riddle cut the other way and scored with a 25-foot wrist shot.
Adam Ahern made it 3-0 at 9:41 of the second period by lifting in a rebound, and Joe Schuman scored on a power play 11 seconds after it started. Schuman’s second goal made it 5-0 at 4:37 of the third, and Troy Riddle scored the final goal, 24 seconds into another power play.
“We figured the key was getting after their defense,” said Fergus Falls coach Brad Bergstrom. “Their defense are so good at the transition game, they’re the ones who get the puck up to those forwards. Trouble was, we couldn’t get to ’em. And then we took three penalties, and they scored three power-play goals, all in about 15 seconds.”
Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Ken Pauly acknowledged that the team focused on the tournament’s first game, so as not to get caught up looking ahead at the final. “Absolutely, the first game is critical,” Pauly said. “If you lose, you go to Mariucci Arena and nobody hears about you. Our kids like the spotlight, and the only way to stay in it is to keep winning.”
And now, of course, Benilde can look ahead to the championship game.
Holy Angels beats Eden Prairie 4-1 in debut
Thirteen saves is not a lot for a goaltender, particularly in a state hockey tournament game, but even though Holy Angels goaltender Justin Eddy didn’t have overall quantity, he came up with the quality saves when it mattered to guide the Stars to a 4-1 victory over Eden Prairie in Thursday’s opening Class AA quarterfinal.
The victory puts Holy Angels (25-1) into tonight’s 7:05 semifinal against Roseau, in its first-ever trip to the state tournament.
Eddy was not used to being the standout on a team that scored a lot of goals to outdistance foes this season. But his exceptional saves early in the third period proved to be the difference.
“They got us running around a little, especially in the third period,” said Greg Trebil, the former Bloomington Jefferson Bantam coach who has put this Holy Angels team together well. “Our goaltender came up big when we neede him right then.”
Eddy shrugged it off, mainly because 13 saves didn’t seem to be as significant as the 24 made by Jon Volp in Eden Prairie’s net.
“That’s what I have to do for my team,” Eddy said. “The reality is that’s my contribution to the team. In most games, I don’t face too many shots, but then there might be a couple places where there’s a bunch of them. I’ve got to stop them.”
The Stars star center Billy Hengen was silenced by Eden Prairie’s quick forwards, but their second line came through got a pair of goals in the second period by Casey Garven and Justin Hauge to take a 2-1 lead. They put the game away when Hengen’s wingers came through in the third period, with Josh Singer scoring midway through the third period, before Adam Kaiser scored into an empty net at the finish.
But back when it was 2-1, and Holy Angels had applied most of the pressure, the Eagles opened the third period with a rush. Sophomore Garrett Smaagaard bolted to the net after winning a left-corner faceoff and shot high off the left crossbar, with the puck glancing behind Eddy, but out — not in. “That was a nice shot,” said Eddy.
Then Mike Erickson, another sophomore, had a point-blank chance with a goal-mouth pass, but Eddy stopped it. “I practice those a lot,” said Eddy, matter-of-factly.
The Eagles pressured for three or four more chances, and Eddy made a couple more exceptional saves. Then the Stars regained their form and escaped from their zone to turn the pressure back the other way.
Eden Prairie took a 1-0 lead when Brian Rassmussen scored a shorthanded goal with 48 seconds left in the first period. Dave Siler had chased down a loose puck on the penalty kill and fed to the slot, where Rassmussen’s quick shot to the upper right glanced down and in off the crossbar.
“That was a nice shot,” said Eddy. “I usually try to come out and challenge, but I followed his body instead of his stick.”
Eden Prairie coach Lee Smith was frustrated. “We’ve got great depth, going with three lines while they mostly used two,” he said. “I thought we could wear them down, but we were really uptight early. We finally played with energy in the third period, but their goalie made some big saves. Then their sniper [Singer] made a great play for their third goal.”
Elk River wins one for the north
Score one for Up North.
This has been a cruel tournament season for Up North hockey teams, with this being the first year in the state tournaement’s 55-year history that no Duluth or Iron Range team made it in Class AA, and with Hermantown and Silver Bay both reaching the Class A tournament, only to be dispatched in two straight games.
But Elk River, the Twin Cities suburban power that won Section 7AA, carried the Up North colors well, whipping Hill-Murray 5-1 in Thursday night’s quarterfinal battle of heavyweights.
The Elks weathered and returned some heavy hitting, got two goals from Joey Bailey, and the usual excellence from junior defenseman Paul Martin, and whipped the Pioneers with three goals in the second period and two more in the third.
After talking to coach Tony Sarsland, who insists the Elks should be in Section 4 where they belong and leave 7 to the Up North teams, it’s obvious that a little of Section 7AA stayed with him, after Elk River beat Duluth East 4-2 in the semifinals and Hibbing in a three-overtime 2-1 final.
“It took me three days to recover from Hibbing, and I didn’t even play,” said Sarsland. He then paid heavy tribute to his first and second lines, stressing their balance, although the first line, of Bailey, center Jed Leonard and sophomore Joel Hanson, scored four goals,
with Bailey getting two, and Stewart’s empty-netter gave the second line one.
“And I could talk all day about Paul Martin,” said Sarsland, who claims his junior defenseman is the best player in the state. “I don’t have words to describe him. The best thing about him is he plays within himself so well. He saw that they were really keying on him, so he moved the puck up to other players, which is what a smart player does.”
All true. And Martin was content to outlet the puck for two-plus periods. The Elks broke the scoreless game when Bailey took Martin’s power-play pass back at the left point, moved along the blue line to find the right hole, then sent a low wrist shot that went cleanly in at 3:15 of the second period. Hill-Murray struck right back, for a power-play goal by Bobby Ammann on a perfect set up across the crease from Andy Nolan.
But Leonard scored at 8:04 and Hanson hammered in a rebound at 12:34, and the Elks had a 3-1 lead at the second intermission.
At the finish, after Trevor Stewart’s empty-net goal with 1:21 left made it 4-1, Martin shows what happens on the outer limits of playing within himself. He took a bank pass off the end boards from Jake Wood, looked up ice, and took off. He cruised across center ice, beating two and three Pioneers, then he carried up the right side to get a step on one of two retreating defensemen. Finally, he cut in sharply toward the net, and as the defender tried to muscle him off, Martin simply slid the puck across the goal mouth and Bailey cashed in with 20 seconds remaining.
Martin, a lanky 6-2 and 165, has nine goals and about 24 assists this season, which isn’t bad, considering he missed six games at the end of the season while playing with a U.S. Select team in the Czech Republic. He came back just in time for sectional play, much to the dismay of East and Hibbing, who both could only marvel at his control of the game.
Goaltender Mitch Glines came up with some big saves, but the Elks repeatedly turned back the Pioneers and then kept them pinned in their own end for much of the third period.
“I thought, in midseason, after we had played a lot of the toughest teams in the state, that this could be the best team in the state, and we might have a chance to win the state title,” said Sarsland.
And now, the Elks are one of only four teams with a shot at it.
Roseau stays calm, holds off Mayo 4-2
Roseau’s No. 1 ranked Rams saw a 2-0 lead disappear in the third period of Thursday’s state Class AA hockey tournament quarterfinals at Target Center. But instead of panicking, the Rams struck back immediately and skated away with a 4-2 victory over Rochester Mayo.
The victory sends Roseau (25-1) into tonight’s 7:05 semifinal against Holy Angels.
The Rams, who outshot Mayo 24-16, seemed to have good command of the game, thanks to a first-period goal by Mike Klema and a second-period tally by David Klema that deflected in off a defenseman’s stick.
Even Andy Canzanello’s power-play goal, which cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the third period, didn’t seem to bother the Rams. But when Sam Everson scored with 3:03 left to give Mayo a 2-2 tie, it got Roseau’s immediate attention.
After the ensuing faceoff, Jesse Modahl tried to maneuver the puck into the slot, and when he got checked off the puck, Josh Olson drilled it into the Mayo goal. The sudden retaliation, just 19 seconds after Mayo had tied it, seemed to snap the Rams back into focus, and they regained control and padded the margin with Mike Klema’s empty-net goal with three seconds left.
“No, there was no panic,” said Roseau coach Bruce Olson. “We never have panicked. That’s just the way this team is — no complaining, no whining.”
Mayo (21-4-1) came into the tournament, as usual, with a strong, well-coached team but without any fanfare from the Twin Cities media. Sophomore Jeffrey Jakaitis, however, inscribed his name in memory with a 30-save performance that kept Roseau from ever pulling away.
“We needed our goaltender to come up big, and he did, even though he’s only a sophomore,” said Mayo coach Lorne Grosso. “I thought we had ’em on the ropes, when we scored to tie it up. But then we gave one up right away; that was not part of my plan.”
Jakaitis was put to the test immediately, and came up with sparkling saves when Josh Olson had a breakaway, then when Modahl had two great solos in a row. On the first one, Modahl shot and Jakaitis saved it. On the second, Modahl carried in deep and tried to deke him, but Jakaitis solved that move, too.
The first Roseau goal came at 11:26, when Mike Klema passed to Derrick Byfuglien at left point, then circled to come up the slot just as the long rebound from Byfuglien’s slapshot caromed out to him. Klema snapped it into the lower left.
David Klema’s goal, at 8:00 of the second, couldn’t have been a more precise deflection goal. Trouble was, Mayo sophomore center Mitch Hanson was trying to block the 45-foot shot by Klema, only to have it tick his stickblade and glance just inside the left post.
Hanson atoned for that unintentional deflection right after that, when he rushed in and fired the puck into the Roseau goal, but it came moments after a teammate had plunged headlong into the goal, so it was disallowed.
Mayo’s two goals were impressive. Canzanello’s power-play goal was a big slapshot into the short side while skating up the left side. And Everson’s equalizer came when he cruised along, just inside the blue line, until he had a defender for a screen, then he snapped a 50-foot wrist shot past Jake Brandt.
But the tie was only temporary.
Sioux, Tigers miss final four with rest of WCHA
MADISON, WIS.
To some, it was an upset when Boston College beat No. 1 ranked North Dakota 3-1 in one quarterfinal of the NCAA West Regional hockey tournament. And some truly perplexing officiating calls stymied Colorado College in a distasteful turnabout that saw Michigan State beat the Tigers 4-3 in the other West Regional quarterfinal.
Meanwhile, the day before out East, Denver blew a 3-0 lead, and a 17-4 edge in shots, and lost 4-3 to Michigan, when the Wolverines outshot Denver 22-1 the rest of the way in their first-round NCAA game. It mattered little that Michigan, the defending champion, would lose 2-1 in overtime to New Hampshire in an East Regional quarterfinal. When Maine thrashed bye-seeded Clarkson 7-2 in the other quarterfinal at Worcester, Mass., the field was set.
When the four finalists convene at the Pond in Anaheim on Thursday, Maine will face Boston College in an all-Hockey East semifinal at 3 p.m. Minnesota time, and Michigan State of the CCHA will face the third Hockey East team, New Hampshire, at 8 p.m. The winners meet for the title on Saturday at 7:30. Three Hockey East teams, and Michigan State, the only one of four CCHA teams to reach the final four, while the WCHA and ECAC will be at home, licking their wounds.
The feeling that stings the most is that only one WCHA team has won the NCAA title over the past seven years. In fact, if you were to seek out the finalists over the past six years plus this one, only two WCHA teams have been among the 14 that have played in the championship game. Only champion North Dakota two years ago, and Colorado College’s runner-up three years ago reached the final since 1992, when Wisconsin lost to Lake Superior State in the final.
North Dakota (32-6-2, but only 3-3 in postseason play), seeded with a bye at Madison, saw its quick-striking offense halted by Boston College’s bigger, but nearly as quick, Eagles. The goals were bunched in the second period. First, Mike Lephart’s shot from the right slot ricocheted off the crossbar and gave Chris Masters the chance to beat North Dakota’s superb sophomore goaltender Karl Goehring on the rebound. Lee Goren tied it for the Sioux when he carried a defender from the blue line to the net but still got his hands free to snap a shot into the extreme upper right.
The winner proved it simply wasn’t North Dakota’s night. The Sioux defense was retreating for a puck that had been sent into their end, but the hopelessly choppy ice caused the puck to skip over a defender’s stick, and Jeff Giuliano bolted past them to gain possession and rip a shot that snared the roof of the net and popped the water bottle straight up.
The top stars on both sides were harnessed all night. The Eagles stopped Jason Blake, while the Sioux prevented Brian Gianta and Jeff Farkas from being factors. Gionta scored into an empty net with 15 seconds to go, but the game revolved around Boston College’s brilliant defense, and 30 saves from Scott Clemmensen.
“We couldn’t get to the net,” said Sioux defenseman Brad Williamson. Jay Panzer, one of nine Sioux seniors, added: “They did a great job of blocking out when we tried to get to the net.”
Coach Dean Blais said: “They kept everything to the outside; I don’t know if we had a 3-on-2 or a 2-on-1. It’s certainly hard to lose, especially when expectations were so high. But give them credit.
“The frustration the players feel is that we’ve just finished one of the best years in North Dakota history, but it leaves a shallow feeling to not get to Anaheim.”
It was the second year in a row that the Sioux were ranked No. 1 but lost in a regional quarterfinal. Last year they lost to Michigan, which went on to win the whole thing. This time they lost a championship-quality game to a team ranked No. 1 in several preseason polls, but one that struggled until the playoffs began. In fact, the Eagles had to get lucky to beat Northern Michigan 2-1 on a pair of power-play goals on Friday, just to get the chance to face North Dakota.
“This was a championship quality game,” said BC coach Jerry York. “We thought, going in, that it would be much more wide–open, a 5-4 type game. The forwards on both teams are explosive and highly skilled.”
For Colorado College, a heroic charge despite injury-filled holes in its roster wound up on the short end against Michigan State. The CCHA Spartans, left alone to take on three Hockey East teams at Anaheim, play a tough style, while the Tigers play a game based on quickness and finesse. It almost seemed as though referee Tim Benedetto got his pregame notes mixed up, and he called several marginal interference calls on CC, while some blatant interference infractions on Michigan State went uncalled.
The Spartans capitalized by using a pair of power-play goals in the third period to vault from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-3 tie. Rubbing salt in the wound, Andrew Hutchinson’s tying goal, with 1:40 left, came after one of five interference calls against the Tigers, and Tiger defenseman Dan Peters said he was flagrantly pushed into his own crease — blatant interference — and interfered with his own goalie, Jeff Sanger’s chance to play the long shot. Adam Hall came back to win it 32 seconds later with a shot that hit Sanger’s glove, popped out, and slid just inside the far, right post.
CC coach Don Lucia, from Grand Rapids, did a good job of keeping his players from getting to Benedetto after the game, or from commenting on the 9-6 edge in penalties his injury-depleted Tigers were awarded. With Darren Clark of Superior and Toby Petersen of Bloomington Jefferson out, and Jon Austin of International Falls having to quit playing on a sprained ankle, the Tigers couldn’t hang on in the face of a 17-5 edge in shots the Spartans compiled in the third period, aided by three power plays.
“We haven’t gotten any key bounces, or key calls, all year,” said defenseman Scott Swanson of Cottage Grove, one of four key seniors and one of eight Minnesotans dressed for CC. “But we feel we deserved a little better than what we got in this one.”
On their best days, both North Dakota and Colorado College were worthy of winning a national championship this season. Instead, they will watch at home with the rest of the WCHA teams as ESPN carries the final four from Anaheim.
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.
For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
Click here for sports