Gophers-Huskies kick off wide-open WCHA Final Five
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.
There is no question that the University of North Dakota is the No. 1 college hockey team in the WCHA, because the Fighting Sioux also are No. 1 in the nation. However, that hardly guarantees success in the WCHA Final Five tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Target Center.
UMD didn’t make it to this year’s Final Five, but there will still be a strong Up North flavor to the event.
In fact, because the Fighting Sioux, coached by International Falls native Dean Blais, are a cinch to make it to the NCAA’s 12-team tournament, which will be announced on Sunday, they might fall into the same trap as numerous previous league champs, who haven’t won the Broadmoor Cup as WCHA playoff champs because they lack the all-out incentive of some other teams. It almost struck the Sioux last weekend, when they were upset 3-2 in overtime by Minnesota State-Mankato, then rebounded to win 3-2 and romp 10-0 in the deciding game on Sunday.
The No. 2 favorite is Colorado College, which has never won the trophy named for its Broadmoor heritage, even though the Tigers were league champs three straight years right before North Dakota won its three straight titles. The Tigers would be a likely favorite, but they are without star junior Toby Petersen, who broke his left leg in Saturday’s 5-4 victory that ended UMD’s season.
Petersen, from Bloomington Jefferson, had missed 17 games earlier this season with a broken right ankle, and he apparently caught a skate which being bumped in an inconsequential-looking sandwich between two Bulldogs in the second period Saturday, and when he twisted, he broke both the tibia (large bone) and fibula (small bone) in his left leg. He had surgery Sunday morning, during which a rod was installed to stabilize the tibia, and a plate was fastened onto the fibula.
“These new skates are so rigid, they’re like ski boots,” said CC coach Don Lucia, a Grand Rapids native. “They give you great support, but when you’re hit or get twisted, something has to give, and it won’t be the skate.”
That puts Petersen out of the lineup, where he joins Darren Clark from Superior, the first-line winger he replaced after his previous injury. Clark was to have further x-rays on his broken arm this week. “I hope I can play by regionals,” he said.
Colorado College also is certain to be invited to the NCAA party, being ranked among the top half-dozen teams all season, and as high as second in the country. But the Tigers, after surviving UMD’s spirited challenge for 3-1 empty-net and 5-4 overtime victories, must play archrival Denver in Friday’s 2:05 p.m. semifinal, and CC split four regular-season games with DU, which reached the Final Five with 2-1 and 4-2 victories over Michigan Tech last weekend.
The toughest challenge at the Final Five will fall to Minnesota and St. Cloud State, which face off Thursday at 7:05 p.m. in the unique first game, between the teams seeded 4-5. Their winner must come right back and play rested and ready North Dakota in Friday’s 7:05 p.m. second semifinal.
Minnesota is trying to make up for a second straight sub-.500 season with an unusual twist. Amid continuing rumors that coach Doug Woog would be replaced, that issue has been put in the background by the current explosion from last week’s St. Paul Pioneer Press’s well-researched blockbuster story disclosing the scandal of as many as 20 basketball players having from 200-400 class papers written for them.
The focus on that has relieved some pressure on Woog, who had reportedly been informed that he needed to bring the Gophers in with a .500 record, get home ice for the playoffs, and make the Final Five. Ironically, with a number of players and their parents privately upset at their treatment by the coach, the players met on their own and created some unity of playing for themselves, and they now could save Woog’s job. Latest speculation is that Minnesota will give Woog one more year, which will be announced prior to next season as a sort of farewell tour.
The Gophers defeated Alaska-Anchorage 4-0 and 1-0 last weekend to reach the Final Five with a 14-17-9 overall record.
“We’re looking at it as though our year doesn’t start till now, anyhow,” said former Duluth East star Dave Spehar, a junior winger for the Gophers. “St. Cloud will be tough, they’ve got a good club, but of course it will be tough to win three games in three nights. But maybe that will be good for us.”
St. Cloud State will be stronger for the game than at any time since Jan. 3. The Huskies split two games with the Gophers, each winning on the other’s rink, then the two teams tied both games of their late-season set. Since then, however, the Huskies have gotten healthy, and went to Wisconsin as the WCHA’s sixth-place team to sweep 5-2 and 3-2 games from the fourth-place Badgers.
“We were able to dress four full lines for the first time since Jan. 3,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “We got Jason Goulet, Matt Bailey and Ryan Frisch all back from injuries. Frisch had a sprained knee, Bailey and Goulet both had serious medial-collateral knee ligament injuries, and we lost Peter Torsen for the season with a knee injury. We also lost John Cullen for the season with shoulder surgery.
“So we had to play 14 games with only nine or 10 forwards. We went 4-2-4 with only three lines and five defensemen, until we ran into Denver and North Dakota, so we were 4-6-4 that way. But it was great to have four lines again, and we were fired up to go to Wisconsin. Our line of George Awada, Al Noga and Goulet scored five goals and got 11 points out of the eight goals in the two games. And this is our fourth straight trip to the Final Five.”
UMD fans will remember the heart-wrenching Final Five preliminary last year, when goalie Brant Nicklin was injured after the Bulldogs had beaten Minnesota to make it, and St. Cloud State ruined a heroic effort by Tony Gasparini with a tying goal in the closing seconds and a victory in overtime.
The Final Five schedule at Target Center:
THURSDAY: Minnesota (14-17-9) vs. St. Cloud State (16-17-5), 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY: Semifinals — Colorado College (27-10-1) vs. Denver (24-12-2), 2:05 p.m.; North Dakota (31-4-2) vs. Minnesota-St. Cloud winner.
SATURDAY: Third-place game, 2:05 p.m.; Championship game, 7:05 p.m.
Cruel ending typified UMD’s hockey season
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Four seconds, no more. In the span of four seconds, all the high hopes, moderate hopes and teeny little hopes that the UMD hockey team had conjured this season were manifested into a final, cruel ending.
Maybe the season of hard work and torment couldn’t have ended any other way. The Bulldogs lost a 3-1, open-net first game of the WCHA playoff series, then rallied for goals by Andy Reierson with 6:40 to play and by Jesse Fibiger with 42 seconds left to gain an improbable 4-4 tie. But the last-place Bulldogs fell 5-4 on Scott Swanson’s overtime goal in Saturday night’s second game.
The celebration was tempered for the Tigers, who had lost star junior Toby Petersen with two broken bones in his left leg, both the tibia and fibula, in a second-period incident where he was caught between two players. His skate edge apparently was set, and the bones snapped, just above the skate boot. The incredible part is that Petersen had missed 17 games with a broken ankle on the other leg earlier this season.
That is a serious jolt to the Tigers hopes of an NCAA title, or even a WCHA Final Five crown this week, but at least the Tigers will be going on. CC coach Don Lucia and several of his players insisted they can’t believe UMD finished last in the WCHA (4-20-4) and won only seven games all season (7-26-4), because the ‘Dogs played so ferociously and skillfully in four straight games the past 10 days against CC, losing 4-3, 3-2, 3-1 and 5-4.
“We got our best effort out of everyone,” said UMD coach Mike Sertich. “They gave me everything they had; they emptied the tank. The way it ended just seemed to fit the whole season.”
The end came after about six minutes of overtime had elapsed.. Most of the 7,089 fans were brought to the edges of the palatial World Arena’s new seats when, after killing an amazingly questionable interference penalty, 75 feet behind the play, earlier in the overtime, UMD’s Ryan Homstol rushed up the right side, made a great move to beat a defender, then cut to the slot, with the puck on his forehand, all alone, to face CC’s freshman goaltender Jeff Sanger.
Homstol ripped a shot, and Sanger came up with his best save of the game, while sprawling to the ice. But a moment later, he made an even bigger one, blocking the rebound try of Jeff Scissons, who earlier had boosted his team-leading tally with his 18th goal, shorthanded.
“Before the overtime, I imagined that we were going to win, and I even thought I’d score the winner,” said Scissons, the top-scoring junior in the WCHA. “And then it happened, just the way it was supposed to, and I got the chance, with nobody even touching me. I’ve got to score that goal.”
But Sanger not only stopped Scissons’ try for his 31st save of the game, but he fed the puck straight out to freshman winger Jesse Heerema, which became the goalie’s fourth assist of the season — all on game-winners.
Brian Swanson, CC’s star senior and a prime Hobey Baker candidate, saw it all happen.
“I was coming back down the middle when Homstol made his move and went in alone,” said Swanson. “I thought, ‘It’s over,’ and thought about having to play a third game. Then I saw Sangie laying out after the save, and he got Jeff’s rebound, too. When he kicked the second one out, I was going to keep coming back, but I saw Jesse was going to get to it, so I took off up the middle.
“Jesse hit me with a pass, tape to tape.”
Four seconds. It wasn’t any more than that, and UMD’s near-certain victory had been swapped for the image of Brian Swanson, CC’s best scorer, flying across the blueline all alone, his bright yellow jersey fluttering in the wake of his speed. From 25 feet, maybe, he cut loose. He didn’t know why, he just did. And he got it all, sending a blur of a missile just over the glove of Brant Nicklin and into the top of the net at 6:17 of overtime.
“Usually I deke,” said Swanson. “In fact, I always deke. I don’t even know why I shot, but I’m glad I did.”
Nicklin, like Scissons, is never one to alibi, or even to accept any excuses made for him. Instead, he demands responsibility. “Yeah, it was a great shot,” he allowed. “But I saw our chances at the other end, and I saw the breakaway coming all the way. I just didn’t stop it.”
Nicklin did, however, stop 44 other CC shots for the night, giving him 81 saves for the two games. He held the Bulldogs in the game even when Justin Morrison and Superior’s Trent Clark scored for a 2-0 CC lead in the first period. After Ryan Nosan got one back with his first goal of the season for the Bulldogs, Cam Kryway scored on a rebound for a 3-1 lead.
The Scissons shorthanded goal cut it to 3-2, but Scott Swanson made it 4-2 on a screened power-play shot in the first minute of the third period. Maybe logic would have dictated that the Bulldogs just go quietly into summer vacation, but this UMD team has never quit, all season.
The goal by Reierson, from the right point, made it 4-3, and in the final minute, UMD coach Mike Sertich called timeout with 46 seconds remaining. He drew up a play for the right-corner faceoff, pulled Nicklin, and sent his troops back out. The faceoff was Scissons against Brian Swanson. And nothing went according to form.
“I was supposed to get the puck into the corner, and let Curtis Bois go in and muck it up,” said Scissons. “But when we lined up, I could see they were going to make it hard for Curtis to get to the corner.”
So Scissons crossed up the plan and instead beat Swanson cleanly on the draw, pulling it all the way back to the right point, where Fibiger immediately scored with a low slapshot, and 41.9 seconds showing on the clock.
“I’ve done fairly well on big draws, and that was the biggest,” said Swanson. “I was pretty upset at myself in the dressing room before the overtime.”
Lucia, breathing a big sigh of relief and still wondering how he can patch up enough players to take a run at the WCHA Final Five this weekend, was able to smile about that tying goal. “Brian just figured that since it was his last game ever at the World Arena,” Lucia said, “he’d make it a little more dramatic with an overtime goal.”
CC ends UMD’s season 5-4 in overtime
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Brian Swanson, Colorado College’s scoring leader and a prime Hobey Baker candidate, broke away on an end-to-end play and scored at 6:17 of sudden-death overtime Saturday night, to give the Tigers a heart-stopping 5-4 victory over UMD before 7,089 fans at the World Arena.
The victory gave CC a sweep of the first-round WCHA playoff series in two games, and propels the Tigers into this week’s WCHA Final Five at Target Center. It also ended the season for the Bulldogs, but they refused to go down without one last, valiant fight.
When the Bulldogs trailed 4-2 with only seven minutes left, it might have seemed like a merciful end to an exasperating season. After all, UMD (7-27-4) was last in the WCHA, while CC (27-10-1) is the WCHA’s second-place team.
But the Bulldogs stubbornly refused to let their season go, and freshman Andy Reierson scored with 6:40 remaining to make it 4-2, and sophomore Jesse Fibiger scored with goaltender Brant Nicklin pulled with another shot from the blue line with only 42 seconds remaining, to send the game into overtime.
For Colorado College, the game had taken a sour turn midway through the second period, when junior star Toby Petersen — who had just recovered from a broke right ankle — got twisted up and fell heavily, and was taken from the ice by stretcher with a reported broken left leg.
The Tigers establishied their offense in the first nine minutes, benefitting from two power plays to outshoot UMD 10-1. At 10:15 of the first period, Mike Stuart threw the puck in front, and Jon Austin shot quickly. Nicklin blocked it, going down, and Justin Morrison chipped a backhander over the fallen goalie for a 1-0 lead.
At 10:58, with the injured Darren Clark watching from the stands, his freshman brother, Trent Clark, carried the puck in from the left corner. UMD’s Shawn Pogreba was all over him, but Clark, from Superior, battled the check until he got to the crease, then slid his shot just inside the left post. With the two goals in 43 seconds, it was the seventh time that CC had scored twice within a minute this season.
The Bulldogs countered at 3:01 of the second period, when Nate Anderson rushed up the left side and slid a pass to Ryan Nosan, who shot into the lower left edge to cut the deficit to 2-1.
At 7:20 of the middle period, Petersen went down with the tragic end to his season, and at 9:00 the Tigers made it 3-1 when Nicklin stopped Scott Swanson’s shot but Cam Kryway smacked in the rebound at the right edge.
That 3-1 deficit looked pretty steep for a UMD team that had settled for scoring either one goal, or less, 13 times this season. But before the period ended, the ‘Dogs made sure this wouldn’t be No. 14.
While killing a penalty, Colin Anderson knocked Brian Swanson down as he tried to score on a rebound at the UMD net, then skated up the left side. When he got within range, Anderson faked a slapshot and slid a pass to the slot, which Jeff Scissons one-timed, and sent into the lower left at 17:16.
That shorthanded goal gave the Bulldogs hope for the third period, but an interference penalty on Nosan with 13 seconds to go in the second period left the Tigers on a power play to open the third, and Scott Swanson scored from center point at 0:58 with a screened shot into the lower left corner.
The Bulldogs survived a later CC power play, and got one of their own that paid off at 13:20, when Andy Reierson scored with a screened shot from the right point that caught the lower left corner.
That again brought the ‘Dogs back within one goal, but a penalty on Mark Gunderson with 2:09 left seemed to doom the ‘Dogs. However, referee Tom Goddard bounced back with a tripping call on CC’s Mark Cullen with 46 seconds left, and UMD took time out. Coach Mike Sertich diagramed what might have been the last chance, and the play took only four seconds, with Scissons pulling a right-corner draw straight back and Fibiger whistling his screened shot past Sanger.
And the Bulldogs, stubborn to relinquish their chance to play, got to overtime.
‘New’ NHL winners sacrifice offensive flair
While passing through Dallas last week, the timing was perfect for me to catch the No. 1 ranked Dallas Stars playing the Edmonton Oilers in a Stanley Cup Playoff game. It was fun to catch up on old acquaintances and see a lot of familiar faces.
One of those mugs was on Brett Hull, and I mentioned to him that I had written a column on Wayne Gretzky’s retirement, and that in it I said that while Gretzky had changed the way the NHL played the game, not all of the changes he inspired have been positive.
Brett raised an eyebrow. “How could you say that?” said Hull, who never shrinks at saying something that might hit a controversial chord.
It led to an interesting discussion about how the game has changed and what player most altered the style of the NHL. Bobby Orr was the most significant player to ever play the game at the NHL level, at least until Gretzky came along. And now, with both of them retired, the debate can rage about which was better. And maybe being the best doesn’t necessarily mean affecting the game the most.
When Bobby Orr played defense for the Boston Bruins, he changed the game completely. As the only defenseman ever to win an NHL scoring title, Orr’s speedy, highly skilled method of playing and dominating a game caused every team in the NHL to seek and deploy puck-carrying, puck-rushing and point-generating defensemen. That trend actually initiated a new phrase — “defensive defenseman” — which would cause the old-timers to chuckle, because before Orr, there were ONLY defensive defensemen.
Every team still has at least a couple defensemen who are good at handling the puck, because breaking the puck out of the defensive zone with a quick, accurate and creative pass remains the most important single defensive play this side of a goaltender’s save.
And then, along came Gretzky. With The Great One as the primary architect, the Edmonton Oilers took over domination of the NHL from the New York Islanders, and they overran defensemen and team-defense schemes with regularity. But there was a different reaction among opposing teams. Every team would have given half the franchise for Gretzky, but finding another just like him, or training one through the junior and minor league ranks, was impossible.
So opposing teams stressed more and more defense. Teams found they couldn’t cover Gretzky because his elusive playmaking style was actually enhanced when you stayed close to him because that meant you were leaving his teammates — and potential pass-receivers — less covered. So they tried covering his teammates, which led to more man-to-man coverage. They forced one forward to stay back, even going so far as to designate which one (as in a left-wing lock system) stayed back. Teams sacrificed some offense for more defense, and that evolved into some teams sacrificing any semblance of offense for total dedication to defense. That’s how the New Jersey Devils won a Stanley Cup.
So now we sit down by the ol’ TV set, armed with proper amounts of popcorn and some form of liquid refreshment, and we watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs of 1999. There’s a couple of games on cable every night, and the divisions alternate, which is sensational for hockey junkies.
We see the Dallas Stars, and we hear the statistic, about how they’ve established the best record by allowing the fewest goals. Must be a mistake. They must mean they SCORED the most goals. This is a team with the flamboyant and speedy Mike Modano, who scored 50 goals the first year that the Dallas Stars supplanted the Minnesota North Stars; the deadly-shooting Brett Hull, who scored 86 goals in 1990-91, the year after he scored 72 goals and the year before he scored 70, and who has scored over 50 goals five times in the past nine years; and Joe Nieuwendyk, who scored 51 goals twice in a row for Calgary powerhouses 10 years ago.
On top of that, they have two extremely creative playmakers behind those stars, in former North Dakota Hobey Baker winner Tony Hrkac and former UMD ace Derek Plante. Those two, however, mainly alternate for each other in the lineup, because the game today demands more rugged, physically imposing players and creative brilliance is appreciated, but less mandatory.
It works. As they say, you could look it up. This season, Modano scored 34 goals, Hull 32 and Nieuwendyk 28, and the Stars were (are?) the best because they have allowed only 168 goals in 82 games.
Look around at the league scoring. Jaromir Jagr led the league with 127 points, but only 44 were goals. Teemu Selanne of Anaheim had an NHL-best 47 goals and a league second-best 107 points. That’s it. Nobody scored as many as 50 goals in the NHL this season. Wayne Gretzky had only nine goals.
That is the biggest after-effect of Gretzky’s splendid 20-year career. Every opponent stressed defensive measures to try to contain Gretzky, to the point that now that Gretzky is gone, all NHL teams are left playing cautious, stay-close, defensive-style hockey. Hull nodded his head in agreement, a nod that explains the philosophy of the Dallas Stars, which is mandatory, successful, and possibly of Stanley Cup winning stuff.
And it’s also too bad, in a way. The Dallas Stars have excellent personnel, and they are extremely patient. They are willing to play cautious, defensive hockey, knowing full well that if both teams get only a half-dozen decent scoring chances, the odds are excellent that the more successful scorers will be wearing Dallas jerseys.
Brett Hull praised the successful style of the Stars, and pointed out how every players is dedicated to close-checking, defensive play. And even the free-spirited Hull has bought into the system. He’s had to.
“I’m now a checker who can score,” said the man who once was a scorer who, despite seeming unbothered by defensive restraints, was the biggest weapon in any NHL team’s arsenal, except for Wayne Gretzky. Imagine what might have been had Gretzky been working his playmaking magic to get the puck to the missile-firing Hull.
But you can only imagine it, as you watch tonight’s game on cable, waiting dramatically for something resembling a scoring chance.
Ah, progress.
Bulldogs set for baseball showdown
No big deal this weekend, maybe just the most important weekend in UMD’s baseball history.
True, the Bulldogs won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball championship in 1992 and 1993 under coach Scott Hanna, but that’s ancient history to this year’s players, most of whom weren’t even in high school when those title chases occurred.
But this weekend, the Bulldogs face Southwest State for doubleheaders at 1:30 p.m. on Friday and 12 noon on Saturday at the UMD field, and the four games will decide the Northern Sun regular season championship, seeding for next weekend’s conference tournament at Morris, and possibly offer an upper hand for an NCAA Division II tournament berth.
That’s all.
In the final week of regular-season play, UMD took its 12-4 record to Bemidji State Tuesday for games that greatly concerned Hanna. Meanwhile, Southwest State was at home with an 11-5 mark to take on Northern State, while Minnesota-Morris was at Wayne State (14-6). Those games would complete Wayne State’s season, while the other contenders have four-game weekends, with Winona State (11-6) going to Bemidji State and the Southwest-UMD showdown.
“Four teams could still win the title, and everything could get switched around,” said Hanna. “Bemidji State is a lot tougher than their record shows, and they lost four to us and four to Southwest State last week.”
The Bulldogs had their 11-game winning streak snapped at Aberdeen last weekend, when they won the first two games, but lost 3-2 in the opener of the second doubleheader on Saturday.
“We were up 2-0 with two outs in the sixth, but lost 3-2,” said Hanna.
UMD bounced back to win the second game, and added two nonconference victories over Wisconsin-Superior on Monday afternoon. The Bulldogs drubbed the Yellowjackets 11-1 and 19-2.
“But we’re not 10 runs better than Superior,” said Hanna. “They had played late Sunday, and didn’t get home until 3 a.m. It was tough for them to come back and play us early [Monday], and we had everything going for us. We play them again next week in Superior, and that’ll be a lot tougher.”
In the sweep over Superior, Ryan Skubic and Matt Joesting led the offense. Skubek went 3-for-5 with his fifth home run of the season, and drove in six runs. Depending on what happened at Bemidji, he’ll be within reach of UMD’s career RBI record of 127 this weekend. Joesting went 4-for-6, also with six RBIs.
The conference championship is important, because there are no guaranteed entries for the NCAA tournament. With Mankato State running away with the North Central Conference championship, a Mankato triumph in the NCC playoff would undoubtedly mean that only Mankato State would be invited to the NCAA. That doesn’t assure the Northern Sun of two — or even one — invitations. But winning the regular-season title might give UMD an outside chance at an NCAA berth even if the Bulldogs were to stumble in the conference tournament.
All that is just conjecture, but it adds up to this weekend being the biggest in memory for the Bulldogs. Nothing less.
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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