(sub lede to column…)
It may seem impossible to beat the events of the past week, for any sports fan Up North.
We had sectional hockey playoffs, with Duluth East and International Falls making it to the state tournament; the UMD women’s hockey team, women’s basketball team and men’s basketball team almost simultaneously pulling off a Twin Cities trifecta, with the women pucksters winning their WCHA playoff for a berth in the national final four, the women cagers winning the first-ever NSIC playoff and the men cagers reaching the final before falling just an eyelash short; Superior making a good showing at the Wisconsin state high school tournament; UWS winning its hockey playoff and now engaging Concordia in an NCAA Division III tournament series in Superior this weekend; and the UMD men’s hockey team beating Minnesota State-Mankato in the emotionally-charged final home game of Mike Sertich’s coaching tenure.
If there is such a thing as a team of destiny, wouldn’t it be great if the UMD men’s hockey team could make a rush, win the playoff series at St. Cloud State and go on to the WCHA Final Five, and push this fateful season as far as possible? Even if that doesn’t happen, however, the UMD men’s hockey situation is guaranteed to keep Up North sports fans focused well into springtime. The selection of Sertich’s replacement is the prime topic of all area sports conversations.
[[[[[Pick up the graf:
I found some such conversations in a Duluth bar. I don’t recommend it, although, being a nondrinker, I spend a fair amount of after-hours time in bars, where it is legal to drink straight grapefruit juice, because some of the great social discourse of our time goes on in barsÂ…
Past week’s playoffs and intrigue promises more to come
What a week. In the last seven days, sports fans Up North had the chance to pay attention to a flurry of impressive events.
On the high school hockey scene, statewide, we had International Falls beat Marshall in the Section 7A final, Hermantown get shocked by Sauk Rapids, and Duluth East beat Cloquet-Esko-Carlton. We also had Elk River lose to Osseo in two overtimes, Eden Prairie upset by Edina in four overtimes, and White Bear Lake upset by Hill-Murray, all of which sets the stage for a state tournament that promises — who-knows-what?
We also had the UMD women’s hockey team, the UMD women’s basketball team and the UMD men’s basketball team go to the Twin Cities and nearly pull off an incredible trifecta. The women’s hockey team won the Women’s-WCHA title, with a magnificent 2-0 victory over Minnesota in the final; the women’s basketball team swept to the championship in the first-ever Northern Sun conference tournament; and the men’s basketball team won their way to the Northern Sun playoff final before falling just short.
Back home, across the harbor, Superior went to the Wisconsin high school hockey tournament, and coach Erik Raygor’s Spartans made a valid bid to return to the state’s hierarchy even without claiming the big trophy. The University of Wisconsin-Superior won its playoff series and now bids for national Division III honors, with a series against Concordia College of Moorhead this weekend in Superior.
The UMD men’s hockey Bulldogs lost the first game to Minnesota State-Mankato, but won the second game, which prevented them from dropping to ninth place. That sends them to St. Cloud State this weekend instead of to North Dakota for a best-of-three playoff series. It was an emotional time, with the UMD seniors playing their last game at home, and Mike Sertich coaching his last home game. If there is such a thing as a team of destiny, wouldn’t it be great if UMD could make a rush, win the series, go on to the WCHA Final Five, and push this fateful season as far as possible?
Of all the events of the past week, the UMD men’s hockey situation is guaranteed to keep Up North sports fans occupied, on into springtime. You can tune in to conversations anywhere — gas stations, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, shopping centers, or anywhere — and you’ll hear people talking about picking Sertich’s replacement as UMD’s head hockey coach.
I found some such conversations in a Duluth bar. I don’t recommend it, although, being a nondrinker, I spend a fair amount of after-hours time in bars, where it is legal to drink straight grapefruit juice, because some of the great social discourse of our time goes on in bars. Stopping in at one such establishment one night in the midst of this fabulous past week, I said hello to a few folks and stopped by a table surrounded by several familiar faces. A couple of the guys were UMD alumni, and they were talking about having been summoned to a meeting at UMD of some alumni to discuss the hockey situation.
The meeting was called by Dale Race, who is the former UMD basketball coach who was athletic director Bob Corran’s first major move a couple years ago. Race moved from basketball coach to directing the newly united UMD booster club. These hockey boosters grumbled that Race had spent most of his tenure as basketball coach ripping hockey and its prominence every time he got near a radio interview, so what was he doing acting like he cared about the hockey program?
One alum said that the consensus in his meeting was clear on five things: 1. The new coach should be a UMD graduate if possible; 2. The new coach should not be a former Gopher; 3. It’s mandatory the new coach should be familiar with the Up North region around Duluth and the Iron Range; 4. The new coach should receive complete support from the boosters — “which Sertich never had,” he said; and 5. “They better not go north of the border,” he added.
Interesting. hard-core UMD alumni welcome all manner of Canadian hockey players to play at UMD as if they were native sons, and they encourage them to stay here and make their future homes here if possible. But there is genuine concern about the intrusion of a Canadian being brought in here to coach. Corran, who came from Calgary to continue UMD’s curious tendency to have only Canadian athletic directors for over 40 years, may not be aware of the intensity of that attitude.
The next day, the search committee that will filter through the list of applicants and come up with the names of finalists was identified. Corran selected two members of the current team: senior center Jeff Scissons, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and junior defenseman Ryan Coole, from Duluth East. He selected someone from the UMD staff: Shannon Miller, the coach of the UMD women’s team, hired by Corran from Calgary, where she was coaching the Canadian Olympic team. And he wanted to hire someone who was an area businessman and a UMD alumnus, so he handled both of those obligations with one choice: Walt Ledingham, a former star winger, who came from Canada but now resides in Duluth. To coordinate this impressive group, Bob Corran named the chairman of the committee: Bob Corran.
Corran had told the Bulldog Club that he would do everything in his power to make this whole process as open as possible to the public. “Transparent” was the word he used. Naming himself chairman seems to fulfill that plan. I know all the people on the committee, and their integrity and credibility is above reproach. I am certain they will do their best to make objective decisions during the interview and selection processes, and I scoff at suggestions that any pressure will be put on Coole as the only Minnesotan in the group. I haven’t run into any of those same alumni since then, so I haven’t heard any snide remarks about the five-person committee having four Canadians and only one “token” American.
Still, if a Canadian coach were to be hustled in, there is no question that some of the local tax-paying, freight-paying, ticket-buying (we hope) populace — while embracing all incoming Canadian players at UMD, and even listening to compact discs of Neil Young and Alanis Morrisette — would have some interesting legal questions about bypassing eminently qualified American candidates.
A day after the committee was named, I got a phone call from a pro scout who had been in Calgary, where the word is that Tim Bothwell, a one-time NHL player at St. Louis, had already been hired as UMD’s next coach. Purely rumor, I’m certain. Rumors like that always fly at times like this. Remember a couple of years ago, the rumor circulated by CBC and then CBS and then Channel 3 in Duluth, saying Shannon Miller had been hired as UMD’s first women’s hockey coach? That announcement came before Jim Knapp — the other finalist for the job — had been given his interview.
Then the newspaper in Calgary ran a story about Tim Bothwell, who had been hired as hockey coach at the University of Calgary by Bob Corran. Bothwell said he had been called by Corran and would consider the UMD coaching job. Just like that — faster than you can ask “is ‘hidden agenda’ hyphenated or two words?” — rumors can spring up. But remember, these are only rumos. Besides, this search committee is too sharp, and has too much integrity, to be manipulated or taken in by any scheme that is soÂ…soÂ…transparent.
What a week it’s been, and what a week to come, filled with state tournaments, playoffs, speculation and intrigue. What more could we ask?
Bulldogs prove superiority for W-WCHA playoff title
BLOOMINGTON, MINN.—Maybe someday in the next few years, the Women’s-WCHA playoffs will be a tight, tense, dramatic affair from start to finish. For this year, however, a better idea would have been to have five of the seven teams hold a playoff, then let UMD and the University of Minnesota play a separate best-of-three series to determine the champion.
The Bulldogs and Gophers survived the preliminaries, to the surprise of no one, and collided Saturday night in a sensational showdown — to the surprise of no one. UMD defeated the Gophers 2-0 behind the brilliant goaltending of Finnish rookie Tuula Puputti, and goals by Navada Russell and Brittny Ralph to add another dazzling chapter to what already has been a storybook first season.
After winning the Women’s-WCHA regular-season title, the Bulldogs add the first-ever W-WCHA trophy to their stockpile of awards, and improved their record to 25-3-3 while — most importantly — assuring themselves of a berth in the final four national championship tournament, to be held March 24-26 at Northeastern University in Boston.
The Gophers (24-4-3) still have a chance to gain an at-large berth in the four-team tournament, because they were ranked third — to UMD’s seventh — in last week’s national rankings. “The ranking don’t mean anything, though, when it comes to the national tournament,” said Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson. “It will all depend on the eastern playoffs.”
True, except that all but one of the eastern teams is destined to also lose in those playoffs, so unless there is a large upset, the Gophers should still hold a high ranking.
UMD, which was rated seventh last week, beat the Gophers when it mattered, and has a 3-1-1 record against their larger rival. The championship game was similar to the 2-2 tie the teams played after a 4-3 Gopher victory in the series at Pioneer Hall last month.
The biggest difference was Puputti, who was flawless in her duel with Minnesota’s Erica Killewald, as UMD outshot Minnesota 38-31.
“Part of our game plan was to use our God-given talent, and share that talent with our teammates,” said UMD coach Shannon Miller. “Part of that means you also have to trust your teammates, and when we trusted Puputti, she came up huge. I anticipated they’d get some breakaways, and she just stopped them.”
The game also required some fine-tuning from the coach, who noted her team was 0-6 on the power play in Friday’s easy 7-1 semifinal victory over Ohio State, Miller shifted her lineup around and moved defenseman Brittny Ralph up front to jam in front of the net, and let Jenny Schmidgall, the nation’s top scorer, man the point along with winger Hanne Sikio. The move worked well, as the power play put on constant pressure much of the game, and Ralph had an outstanding game both on the power plays as well as stepping up to gamble and rush the puck.
Miller also had shifted her lines before the tournament, and the units worked very well, with Schmidgall centering Maria Rooth and Michelle McAteer while Erika Holst centered Hanne Sikio and Jenny Hempel. A key to the game also was Miller’s use of a third line most of the game, with Laurie Alexander, Joanna Eustace and Kellie Frick giving the Bulldogs an edge in depth. Minnesota went mostly with two lines, playing longer shifts, even though the Gopher had to play three straight days — beating Minnesota State-Mankato 10-0 and Wisconsin 5-0 — to get to the title game, while UMD had a first-day bye.
“We played with the heart,” said Puputti, who was voted the tournament’s most valuable player after making acrobatic stops on a dozen of her 31 saves. “It’s nice to be able to win the championship.”
Puputti also was proud of the fact that she had won the team’s “laser tag” competition earlier in the day, which was a means of working out the players while also getting their minds off the title game. The team trekked out to Eagan for the competition, which is sort of a war-like game where combatants shoot each other with harmless laser guns. Perfect preparation for the high sticks and grappling to come.
The Bulldogs came out strong, before a standing-room crowd of over 2,000 at Bloomington Ice Garden. Paid attendance was 1,826, but both finalists had their bands present and the other five teams were also among the throng. UMD outshot the Gophers 13-4 in the forceful first period, and got the all-important first goal when Russell was assisted by Holst and Hempel before firing a screened shot from the left point that got by Killewald at 13:42.
Minnesota stormed back in a very physical display of “no-check” hockey, and outshot UMD 14-12, capitalizing on the aggressive UMD attackers to get several breakaways. Puputti stopped a shorthanded solo by Laura Slominski, and got help when Rooth caught Minnesota goal-scoring star Nadine Muzzerall from behind to prevent a breakaway. Rooth also stickhandled in alone but was stopped by Killewald, but the turning point of the game might have been when Puputti and the ‘Dogs survived a 45-second stretch of playing two-short during a stretch of three consecutive penalties.
“It was important for us to kill that 5-on-3, but we kept our composure,” said Russell. “This was the fifth game in a five-game series with Minnesota. I don’t know if this was the best of the five, just the one that meant the most.”
In the third period, Miller’s pre-game move paid rich dividends when Ralph smacked in a rebound at the left edge of the crease on a power play to stretch the narrow 1-0 lead to a secure 2-0. “Erika Holst walked out of the right corner and got a shot,” said Ralph, who transferred to UMD from Minnesota after last season. “She shot, and all of a sudden, there was the puck, lying in the crease. I thought: ‘Oh my gosh!’ And just knocked it in.”
Did it mean more, coming as it did against Minnesota? “Let’s just say it was icing on the cake,” said Ralph, who now has nine goals for the season.
Ralph has moved up front in past years, but this was the first time Miller had tried it. “We did it this morning, during a 30-minute practice,” Miller said.
Not only did Ralph wind up with a lot of scoring chances and the crucial goal, but she also played her most effective game of the year from defense, stepping up repeatedly with perfect timing to intercept pucks in the neutral zone or to hold the point in the offensive end.
Ralph and Minnesota’s Winny Brodt were the defensemen on the all-tournament team, while Schmidgall, Minnesota’s Tracy Engstrom and Ohio State’s Lindsey Ogren were the forwards and Killewald was all-tournament goalie. That was a politically correct move, because Puputti was most valuable player, and both goaltenders deserved their recognition for the brilliantly played final.
For the Bulldogs, it has been an incredible first season of existence, and the biggest goal of all is still to come.
(cutlines for umd-minnesota women’s hockey pictures…)
Cutlines with pictures from UMD 2-0 over Minnesota in WCHA women’s final:
1/
UMD goaltender Tuula Puputti kick-saves a shot by Minnesota’s Andrea Thomas (27) while UMD’s Pamela Pachal (81) and Jenny Schmidgall prevent Nadine Muzzerall from getting to the rebound. Puputti was named most valuable player after shutting out Minnesota 2-0 for the Women’s-WCHA playoff title Saturday night at Bloomington Ice Gardens.
2/
UMD goaltender Tuula Puputti blocks a shot by Minnesota’s Ronda Curtin (29) as UMD’s Erika Holst defends, and Jenny Hempel (3) invoked a little “incidental contact” to keep Nadine Muzzerall from pursuing the rebound during UMD’s 2-0 victory in Saturday night’s Women’s-WCHA playoff final at Bloomington Ice Gardens.
3/
Brittny Ralph stationed herself at the left edge of the crease for the rebound as UMD’s Erika Holst tried a shot from the right at Minnesota goaltender Erica Killewald, with Gophers Winny Brodt (5) and Laura Slominski (21) defending. Ralph scored the clinching goal in the 2-0 UMD victory.
4/
UMD’s Hanne Sikio congratulated Brittny Ralph (14), who scored a third-period goal to clinch a 2-0 victory over Minnesota in the Women’s-WCHA playoff final. Gopher goaltender Erica Killewald and defenseman Kelly Olson were helpless to prevent the goal, while Erika Holst (8) and Jenny Schmidgall came to celebrate the Bulldog goal.
5/
Pamela Pachal took her turn hoisting the Women’s-WCHA playoff trophy to the rafters of Bloomington Ice Garden, as the UMD players circled the ice after beating Minnesota 2-0 in Saturday night’s championship game, earning an automatic berth in the national final four.
Giles juggles, fine-tunes, to guide Edina into state tourney
The Edina Invitational is possibly the most-prestigious boys hockey tournament of the season — not counting the state tournament, of course. For the Edina Hornets, the Invitational might have been a springboard to the state tournament, but only if you believe in reverse psychology.
At the Edina Invitational, Edina was beaten soundly by first Hill-Murray, then Duluth East, and then by Bloomington Jefferson in round-robin play. This week, at the state Class AA hockey tournament at Target Center, Edina could wind up playing, in order, Hill-Murray, Duluth East and Bloomington Jefferson.
But there is no déjàvu for the Hornets, who are coached for the first year by former UMD and North Star defenseman Curt Giles. Back at the holiday tournament break, the Hornets were a mess. They were an unruly, undisciplined, chopping and nasty bunch to play against, if you believe all the grumbles and whispers of opposing coaches. They certainly were far from a successful team, if you believe the scoresheet.
“One thing I learned from my days as a player, you have to look for one certain thing in order to have a successful team,” said Giles. “That one thing is chemistry. We shifted lines around all year and made a lot of changes, but I think we’ve got it now.”
All the Hornets had to do to get from the first half of the season — which included 6-1 and 6-3 drubbings by Duluth East — to the state tournament was to: 1. find that elusive chemistry that Giles says is all-important, 2. find a goaltender who could deliver consistent backstopping, 3. win their last 12 games, including a Section 6AA championship upset over powerful Eden Prairie, the once-beaten defending section champ, rated No. 2 in the state, and a team that had beaten Edina 5-1 earlier.
Nothing to it. Well, actually, quite a bit to it. The 4-3 victory over Eden Prairie required a miraculous finish to the third period, followed by four overtimes before Steve Cornelius scored the game-winner. That ended a game that lasted 77 minutes and 5 seconds at Mariucci Arena.
“Two years ago, I was in the stands when my brother, Sam, played in the section final at Mariucci Arena,” said Steve Cornelius, who said his game-winning goal was either his eighth or ninth of the season. “That one went six overtimes, and Edina beat Eden Prairie 3-2 in a game that lasted 99 minutes and 39 seconds.”
Steve Cornelius remembers the minutes and seconds of his brother’s game, but he doesn’t know how many goals he has this year. His move up from defense to left wing one-third of the way through the season was one of Giles’ significant moves. Another was elevating junior Chris Kapsen from junior varsity to become the starter about two-thirds of the way through. It took continuing juggles and fine-tunes to gain that elusive chemistry, and it still took a large dose of luck to make this the 23rd year an Edina team has reached the state .
The overtime victory against Eden Prairie was only possible because Edina had a regulation-ending power play while trailing 3-2. An Edina defenseman tried to flip a high, clearing pass out of the Hornet zone with 12 seconds remaining, and an Eden Prairie defenseman impulsively reached up with his stick and ticked the puck as it flew past. The puck went all the way down to the Eden Prairie end, and would have been an icing that would have brought the puck back to the Edina end for a game-ending faceoff. Instead, the high-stick touch took the icing off, and when another Eden Prairie player touched the puck in the Eagle zone, the faceoff was in the right corner of Eden Prairie’s end, with eight seconds left. Dustin Heigl won the faceoff, pulled the puck back to P.J. Atherton at the right point, and he scored with a blistering slapshot with five seconds to go. Two hours later, Cornelius won it in the fourth overtime.
“If I was smart, I’d retire right now,” said Giles, who probably figured he couldn’t ever top that one. “This has nothing to do with the coaches and everything to do with th ekids. No one gave them a chance to win this game. I wanted our team to play well, for their sake, and we always try to stress to them that it’s never over till it’s over.”
Giles coached Bantam hockey in Edina for six years until taking over the high school varsity when Bart Larson retired after last season. It was a long, patient process to get all the pieces assembled on this team.
“We learned a lot of lessons along the way,” said Giles. “We got our rear ends handed to us by teams like Duluth East and Eden Prairie, and we learned a lot of lessons from them.”
Giles pulled an unusual move in the section final, adjusting his three lines. “In the second overtime, I went with two centers and three sets of wings,” he said. He bristled, however, at the suggestion his team had been chippy and used a lot of stickwork earlier in the season. “Our kids played hard, and played physically, and other teams didn’t like it,” said Giles.
Cornelius, who was moved up from defense to left wing about a third of the way through the season, said that it might have been true earlier, but has been part of the adjustments made during the season.
“We lost some pretty big games because we took penalties,” Cornelius said. “We knew we couldn’t do that in the playoffs and expect to win. Our level of play has gone up and up and up since the holiday tournament. Obviously, nobody expected us to do anything, but we’re all together now and we’re doing it for ourselves.
“I think our level of play is starting to peak right now. Our first game against Eden Prairie, when they beat us 5-1, we were a completely different team. I was playing defense. This time, we knew that when Elk River got beat, Eden Prairie was the No. 1 team left, so for us to get into position to go into overtime with them was a huge confidence-builder. Then we had to kill a penalty in the third overtime, and that was unbelievable.”
Cornelius, one of eight seniors on the Hornet team, said that Giles has been a great coach to play for and a careful architect of Edina’s successful run through the playoffs.
“He’s nice, and he’s reasonable,” Cornelius said. “He sets goals and is always positive, but tough. He accepts mistakes as long as you keep trying.”
And, thanks to that four-overtime victory in the 6AA finals, Edina gets its chance to keep trying at the state tournament.
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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