Seawolves already surpass coach’s bold ‘prediction’

When it comes to making predictions, Alaska-Anchorage hockey coach John Hill is pretty careful. “I said before the start of this season that I would go out on a limb and predict we’d double our win total,” said Hill.

That would have required two victories, and the Seawolves already have gone far beyond that, to jump up among the biggest surprises in a surprise-filled WCHA first half. Among the most startling surprises, in no particular order, are WisconsinÂ’s fantastic school-record 14-game unbeaten streak; MinnesotaÂ’s unexpected inability to win consistently; North DakotaÂ’s single defeat and whopping games-in-hand advantage; and St. Cloud StateÂ’s surge to the top of the league in a rebuilding year.

Of those, perhaps the biggest surprises are to see Wisconsin near the top and Minnesota near the bottom of the WCHA, because Minnesota was the consensus preseason pick to win the WCHA, and after all the powerful Badger teams in history, this Wisconsin team was not expected to be a contender.

But there is one other surprise of the first half, which might rank as the biggest, although it is far more subtle: Alaska-Anchorage has won three straight WCHA games, boosting the Seawolves to a 4-6-2 league record, and 7-7-2 overall.

True, that achievement doesnÂ’t have the panache of a record unbeaten streak or a drive for contention, but it does put the Seawolves in the heady atmosphere of being ahead of preseason favorite Minnesota, which is one point behind, at 4-7-1, with a 7-8-1 overall slate. But consider where the Seawolves were coming from.

The significance of this season in Alaska requires going back to last season, when Alaska-Anchorage opened the season by beating arch-rival Alaska-Fairbanks, indicating some promise for coach Hill. But that, as they say, was it for victories by the Seawolves. Anchorage doesnÂ’t see much sun in the long winter months, but things became considerably bleaker when A-A finished 0-22-6 in the WCHA, and 1-28-7 overall.

Back at the start of the season, when Hill facetiously predicted doubling their one-victory record, the Seawolves were struggling, but Hill saw a silver lining. “We have a young team, but we’ve enjoyed going to the rink this year,” he said. The fans in Anchorage also seem to be enjoying it, nearing 4,000 the last couple of weekends, as the program redefines itself.

This season started out with an eerie sameness – another victory over Alaska-Fairbanks, followed by a loss. After losing twice at Minnesota-Duluth, and dropping the first game at Minnesota State-Mankato, the Seawolves captured their first WCHA triumph in two seasons, 2-1 in the rematch at Mankato. There followed a loss and tie against Denver, and a loss and a tie against St. Cloud, then the Seawolves returned home and lost the first game 4-0 to Minnesota.

The turnaround officially happened in a 6-4 victory in the second Gopher game. That led directly to last weekend, when defending WCHA season champion Colorado College came to Anchorage. That made it a big couple of weeks for Hill, who was initiated into the WCHA coaching realm as Don LuciaÂ’s assistant, both at Colorado College and Minnesota, before taking the Anchorage job two seasons ago.

Colorado College was ranked fourth in the country, but Anchorage rose from a 2-0 deficit to sting the Tigers 5-2, thanks to a productive night for the first line. Sophomore Curtis Glencross scored a pure hat trick, while sophomore Chris Fournier had a goal and two assists, and junior John Hopson added three assists. Outshot 33-24, the Seawolves got stout goaltending from Chris King, whose 31 saves anchored the triumph. The next night, Kevin Reiter stepped into the nets and kicked out 40 saves, and Anchorage beat Colorado College again, 3-1.

It is a credit to Hill’s consistency that before victories stopped being impossible to achieve, he never tried to rationalize away losses, and he said – and maybe demanded – that the players weren’t looking at this season as a continuation of a seemingly endless winless streak, overlapping since the end of the 2001-02 season.

After playing hard, but faltering both nights in Duluth, Hill said: “We make some mental mistakes, and when we turn the puck over against good teams, they score. But we had seven guys who played their first WCHA games [at Duluth]. Our defensive corps is especially young.

“This year, we were coming close to clicking on some 2-on-1s. Last year, we weren’t close.”

Amazingly, the Seawolves are suddenly winning, mostly with younger players. Glencross leads the team in scoring with 9-9—18, while Fournier, an Alaska native who transferred home from North Dakota, is second (6-9—15). Third is freshman defenseman Mark Smith (3-8—11).
Still, the Seawolves are the best evidence that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Consider that Anchorage goal-scoring is second-lowest among WCHA teams, with 39 goals representing a feeble average of 2.44 goals per game. And their special teams have hardly been special, ranking the worst in the league. Anchorage has scored 10 power-play goals, which ranks eighth at a 16.4 percent clip, while allowing 18 to opposing power plays, for a 76.9 percent rate. But the Seawolves have yet to score a short-handed goal, while allowing four of them. On top of that, the Seawolves are taking the second-most penalties in the league – not a good idea, when you’re giving up a lot of power-play goals.

But all the bad numbers have been flushed from the Anchorage system like the tide rushing out of Cook Inlet. During the last three games, when the Seawolves have outscored opponents 7-1 during the third periods of the three victories.

The Seawolves arenÂ’t all freshmen and sophomores, either. In fact, one of the most predictable moves Hill might be expected to make is the next time an opponent pulls its goaltender, look for Hill to dispatch senior Dallas Steward. Against Colorado College, Steward scored an empty-net goal both nights.

Despite the turnaround, Hill isnÂ’t ready to predict that the Seawolves will gain home-ice for a first-round playoff slot, but obviously, heÂ’s pretty conservative when it comes to predictions.

Coole, as Husky, proves you CAN go home again

DULUTH, MN. — Part of Minnesota-DuluthÂ’s “home rink advantage” is to strategically locate the student section behind the visiting goal for the first and third periods. With St. Cloud State in town for an early WCHA showdown between unbeaten co-leaders, the student fans did their best, chanting “Bulldog rejectÂ…Bulldog reject…” over and over, in an attempt to rattle goaltender Adam Coole. They had no more success than the Bulldog skaters down below, who peppered Coole with shots throughout both games, but wound up watching the Huskies surround Coole in a dance of jubilation.

If Coole had a different personality, he might have exorcised an irrefutable license to gloat, after returning in triumph from being unceremoniously dumped after two years of toil for his hometown UMD outfit. Instead, displaying an overload of class and character, the highly emotional Coole thanked St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl for providing him a second chance, and tried to keep in perspective the most amazing storybook-quality story in years in the WCHA.

“I always thought about what would be going through my mind if this situation ever came up – what I’d be feeling, what I’d be saying,” said Coole. “I knew coming back here, there would be all the things that I know so well, like the smell of this rink, the color of those jerseys, the faces I was going to see. There’s so much history for me here. I respect them all so much as hockey players, and even more as people. It was so hard not to be part of that team, and all the rituals.

“But I’m so fortunate to get a second chance. A lot of those guys (UMD) mean a lot to me, and my new teammates mean the world to me. I’m so happy to be a Husky.”

Coole had grown up tending goal for Duluth East, where he was named the Mr. Hockey goaltender of the year award as the top high school goalie in Minnesota. He set a couple of records playing for Rochester in the USHL before accepting an offer to come home and tend goal for UMD. It was only natural, because Ryan Coole, his older brother, was a captain and defenseman for the Bulldogs, and his dad, Clark Coole, is the universally liked head of DuluthÂ’s amateur hockey organization.

When UMD hired Scott Sandelin to coach, he gave Adam Coole equal opportunity as a freshman with veteran Rob Anderson, and as the Bulldogs started building from the bottom, their goaltending seemed secure. The next season, with Anderson as a junior and Coole as a sophomore, the light-scoring Bulldogs still couldn’t win, and after a rare weekend where both goalies played poorly, the coaching staff decided to make a move for the future, and recruited two new goalies – Isaac Reichmuth from British Columbia and Josh Johnson from Cloquet.

As luck would have it, Sandelin started alternating Anderson and Coole during the second half of the season, and both played well, as the Bulldogs finished showing great promise. That left a unique impasse. College teams, with 18 scholarships, canÂ’t spend four of them on goaltenders, so something had to give. Anderson was going to be a senior, Coole a junior, and Sandelin convinced Johnson to go to Green Bay for a year of junior hockey in the USHL, but Reichmuth, who had used up his eligibility in junior, had to come in as a freshman.

Possibly impatient for the improvement he was striving for, Sandelin pulled Coole’s scholarship. He was done. And he was devastated. The possibilities were to transfer, or go to a Division III college, or even try his hand at the lowest minor league pro level. At his lowest point, Coole told his dad he was going to quit playing hockey, and just go to college. His brother, Ryan, gave him a boost. “Ryan told me, ‘You’ve got to believe in yourself, because if you don’t, nobody else will,’ ” said Adam.

About then, when he was at the lowest emotional ebb, Adam Coole got contacted by Dahl. He invited Coole to transfer to St. Cloud, sit out a year, during which he could practice, and that all he would guarantee him this season was a chance.

A chance is all Adam Coole ever wanted. He practiced, long and hard, endearing himself to the Huskies with his work ethic, even though he couldnÂ’t play, all last season. He also watched his old teammates, with Rob Anderson as a little-used senior behind flashy freshman Reichmuth, rise to midpack contention in the WCHA.

This season, Dahl told his team he would spend the first few weeks of the season deciding on a No. 1 goaltender by rotating all three goaltenders – returning sophomore Jason Montgomery, freshman Tim Boron, and Coole, the transfer from UMD, who is now a junior. The way the rotation worked out, the Huskies swept Wisconsin, then tied and beat Michigan Tech, then swept two from Princeton to bring a 5-0-1 overall record, 3-0-1 in the WCHA, to face the Bulldogs, who had roared off the upper reaches of the WCHA by sweeping Minnesota and Alaska-Anchorage and led the Huskies by one point for first place.

On Friday, it was CooleÂ’s homecoming night. The last time he had played in the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center was when he beat Anchorage in his last appearance for UMD at the end of the 2001-02 season. The first period was tense, but scoreless, only because Coole dived out from his net to artfully poke-check the puck off Evan SchwabeÂ’s stick on a breakaway. Freshman Brent Hill gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead early in the second period, but Luke Stauffacher and Schwabe came back with close-order goals to lift UMD to a 2-1 lead.

But Mike Doyle tied it midway through the second period, and Konrad Reeder scored early in the third, and then it was up to Coole – who was cool. The Bulldogs fired 35 shots at Coole, 13 in the third period. It was the most shots St. Cloud had yielded all season, but Coole stopped 33 of them, and the Huskies mobbed him when he held on until the final horn for a 3-2 victory.

“Adam did a great job, especially in the last couple of minutes,” said Dahl, after that first game. “You’ve got to have good goaltending, or you’re not going to win. UMD is absolutely the best team we’ve faced, and after what we lost from last year, the fact we’re undefeated after seven games is shocking.”

Dahl was upset about the way his goalie rotation had to end. Montgomery was not on the trip, and Boron, the freshman, told the trainer he didnÂ’t feel well, and it turned out he had a 101-degree fever.

“I’m probably going to have to play Adam again,” said Dahl. “Let’s hope Cooley wants to play again.”

Now, there was an unnecessary concern.

“All of that – the building, the other jerseys, the guys I know so well – weren’t factors,” said Coole, after the first game. “I’m just glad I could just play hockey; if I’d got caught up in it all, I might not have been able to do it. I had always wanted to play at UMD growing up, then I had so many heartbreaking losses in this building that when I got cut, I thought maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. It’s one thing to be sharp, but my team coming out and getting an early goal made it easier.

“When we finally got ahead 3-2, I looked at the clock and saw there was 18 minutes left,” said Coole. “I decided not to look at the clock again…and I made it until 17:30. They had one shift in the third period where we couldn’t get out of our end. That one shift made me know why I run two miles every other day. Now I hope I can come down from all this in time to get a good night’s sleep, and play again.”

The 33 shots UMD had fired Friday were the most St. Cloud State had given up this year, and they couldnÂ’t prevent UMD from firing 43 more on Saturday. It seemed beyond even storybook dimensions to expect Coole to repeat his performance. Especially after UMD got an early goal from Tim Stapleton, at 3:12. But Doyle tied it 1-1 in the last minute of the period, and Dave IanozzoÂ’s power-play goal early in the second gave the Huskies a 2-1 lead on a carryover 5-minute penalty on Marco Peluso, for whacking Coole upside the helmet with his stick in pursuit of a rebound at the side of the cage.

At 11:58 of the middle period, Reichmuth lost a shot by Gary Houseman, whirled and dived toward the net, but couldnÂ’t prevent it from trickling over the goal line. That made it 3-1 St. Cloud, and Sandelin pulled Reichmuth for freshman Johnson. In the third period, UMD took the game over, firing 22 shots and penetrating St. CloudÂ’s defense for goals by Peluso and Stapleton, to gain a 3-3 tie. The fans were chanting, the Bulldogs were flying, and the Huskies appeared to be coming unglued. But Coole remainedÂ…uhÂ…cool, and again held firm.

At 12:11, Doyle was sprung free and scored to restore the Huskies to a 4-3 lead. Coole again held the fort, and with 54 seconds remaining, and Johnson pulled for a sixth attacker, Matt Gens fired a 90-footer into the open-net.

“We may have less stars than in the last 10 years,” said Dahl, “but we’re closer. This team is closer.”

They were particularly close after the final buzzer, when the entire team crowded onto a 10-square-foot piece of ice, crowding Coole up against the glass, almost right below the section where the UMD students had stopped chanting, and walked out unfulfilled.

“There was so much pressure last night, that it was a luxury to just play tonight,” said Coole, who stopped 71 of 76 UMD shots in the two games. “We’ve found ways to win games like this, and you’ve got to give tremendous credit to the leadership of guys like Colin Peters, Matt Hendricks and Ryan LaMere.”

Dahl said he might add Coole, who is 4-0, to the list of those deserving credit, and his hot hand may cause him to alter his rotation. But he wanted no credit for psyching Coole up for the return to Duluth. “I didn’t say a word to Cooley all week,” said Dahl. “You’ve got to have a Ph.D if you want to start talking to goaltenders.”

When Adam Coole talks, he says all the right things. But actions speak louder than his words, and no words were required when Coole took a circuitous route to the bus after SaturdayÂ’s game to walk out to the lower lobby area. A large promotional photo that has adorned the wall for two years is still in place, showing bigger than life-sized UMD goaltender, in full battle dress, poised and ready for action. The goaltender in the picture is Adam Coole, who not only had come home again, but left town with two victories and the realization that the Bulldog jersey doesnÂ’t fit him as well as his Huskies jersey. In fact, it doesnÂ’t fit him at all.

Caig, Reichmuth lead UMD to sweep of Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — Goal-scorers see the world differently than normal people, such as less-productive teammates, or fans, or observers from the press boxes around the WCHA. The question seemed like a logical one, to see what T.J. Caig saw on his decisive shot in sudden-death overtime in the league-opening game at Mariucci Arena, against arch-rival Minnesota, which was bolstered by a weekend-full of ceremonies.

CaigÂ’s two goals helped the Bulldogs top Minnesota 4-3 in overtime, and he tipped in the eventual game-winner midway through SaturdayÂ’s 4-2 series sweeper, and he was named the No. 1 star both nights. Not bad for the 5-11, 200-pounder who came to Minnesota-Duluth as a goal-scorer out of British ColumbiaÂ’s junior league. He became eligible at midseason last year, and his 9 goals, 16 assists were worth 25 points and fifth-best on the Bulldogs, even though he played only half the season.

Caig had scored the opening goal of the game on a power-play bullet, but while teammate Tyler Brosz and Brett Hammond also scored for UMD, those three goals had been offset by Minnesota’s three veteran snipers – Grant Potulny, Thomas Vanek and Troy Riddle.

So the game went to sudden-death overtime, and the puck was loose on the left boards in Minnesota’s zone. Caig gained control as he skated toward the blue line, then he turned left, 90 degrees, as if there was a corner he could follow to keep the puck in the zone. He skated toward the slot, just inside the blue line, and held onto the puck until he was almost straight on, about 45 feet out. There were several bodies between Caig and the goal – enough so goaltender Justin Johnson couldn’t get a glimpse of the puck – but he didn’t even seem to look.

He just held the puck until the right moment, then ripped a shot that glanced off the left pipe, eluding goaltender Justin Johnson and finding the net at 2:55 of the 5-minute session. UMD had a startling 4-3 victory over the two-time defending NCAA champion Gophers, and Caig was asked how much of an opening he saw, or if he saw an opening at all, or if he even looked for an opening.

“I just shot for the short side,” said Caig, with a shrug. “An opening? I don’t know. All I know is when I came around the corner, I knew I was scoring.”

UMD coach Scott Sandelin noted how non-goal-scorers would find a shinpad to hit on a shot like that, but goal-scorers find a way to score. “Caig made a big-time shot,” said Sandelin. “His first goal got there in a hurry, too.”

The 9,639 fans attending the game were there early enough to watch a brief pre-game ceremony with the Gophers raising their 2003 NCAA championship banner, their second in a row. “It’s always nice to win when you’re raising a banner,” said Minnesota goaltender Johnson. “I never saw Caig’s shot, but it went in clean, right off the post.”

A threat every shift, Caig had seven shots for the night and earned the No. 1 star, with Vanek second and UMD goaltender Isaac Reichmuth third. Reichmuth made 35 stops in the face of a Minnesota attack that built a 38-27 edge in shots, and came up with a huge save on Jon Waibel’s breakaway in the second period, and also made a big stop on Vanek. He had no chance on Vanek’s goal, scored after he deked around a defenseman, came in alone and sniped the top right corner. “You never want to give a goal-scorer anyplace to put the puck,” said Reichmuth. “Because he’ll put it there.”

The next night, 10,159 showed up at Mariucci to pay tribute between the first and second periods to former Gopher coach Herb Brooks, who died in a traffic accident on Aug. 11. The Gophers announced an endowed scholarship in Brooks’s name, and unveiled a huge, panoramic mural of Brooks, who led Minnesota to its first three NCAA titles, in 1974, 1976 and 1979. In addition, a circle of some of the players who played on Brooks’s seven Gopher teams ringed center ice and raised sticks in salute to Brooks. Former Gopher and NHL defenseman Bill Butters said Brooks had “made us all men of character.”

But even unveiling the initials “HB” on the Gopher jerseys as well as on the ice behind both nets, the Gophers seemed to lack spark, and the Bulldogs were quick to attack, as Hammond and Tim Stapleton scored to stake UMD to a first-period lead. Minnesota’s only counter was when Gino Guyer scored shorthanded to trim it to 2-1.

Midway through the second period, it was time for another example of the view, according to Caig. Hammond rushed up the left side and dropped a pass for Caig, who couldnÂ’t quite reach it, but lunged to poke it across to defenseman Ryan Geris at center point. As Geris teed up his shot, Caig cruised onward, toward the slot. Geris cut loose with a big slapshot, and Caig deflected it with his stick. It wasnÂ’t necessarily on goal, but it just didnÂ’t matter. The puck glanced off at least one defender and past freshman goalie Kellen Briggs for a 3-1 UMD lead.

Minnesota seemed to snap out of its fog and outshot UMD 17-4 in the third period, but trailing 3-1, the only goal they got past Reichmuth came when Andy Sertich broke in and scored at 9:19. UMD countered that one with 10 seconds left, when Luke Stauffacher hit an empty net to secure a 4-2 victory and an unlikely series sweep.

Again Minnesota outshot UMD, this time 41-24. But Reichmuth’s 39 saves – giving him 74 stops for the weekend – gave him the defensive player of the week award, and No. 2 star of the game. The No. 1 star, of course, was T.J. Caig, who proved once again that goal-scorers may not see openings when they shoot, they just know the puck is going in.

Sioux double ‘Parise factor’ to top UMD in preview

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—Sometimes the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game is just a nice way to give two teams the chance to work out the practice kinks before getting serious about the season. But this year, the game took on a more significant tone, because North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth are not only great rivals, but figured by most to be top contenders to preseason pick Minnesota during the WCHA season.
The game at Ralph Engelstad Arena figured to be North DakotaÂ’s high-scoring offense ignited by sophomore center Zach Parise and high-scoring winger Brandon Bochenski against UMDÂ’s pestering defensive concept, built around sophomore goaltender Isaac Reichmuth.

So how did it work out? North Dakota rallied for the last two goals to win 3-2, and it was no surprise that the first Fighting Sioux player into the interview room was named Parise. The surprise was it was not Zach Parise, a prime threat to win the WCHA scoring championship, but Jordan Parise, ZachÂ’s older brother in real life, but his younger brother scholastically.

Zach did his thing, to be sure, with a magnificent 2-on-1 set-up to Bochenski – the other guy most likely to win the scoring title – to gain a 2-2 tie, leaving it up to freshman Drew Stafford to score the game-winner, with 3:43 remaining.

But at several points, North DakotaÂ’s chances were up to Jordan Parise, North DakotaÂ’s freshman goaltending prospect. His biggest test was a toe save on Nick AndersonÂ’s second-period breakaway, and nine of his 20 saves came in the third period.

“All the freshmen stepped up,” said Jordan Parise, deferring any praise. But he also affirmed that the Sioux goaltending picture must include the rookie whose only nickname so far is “JP,” after his famous, former NHL-playing dad.

The crowd was announced at 10,399, although there were a lot of empty seats on the evening following a huge, last-second 29-28 football victory for North Dakota over St. Cloud State, after the Sioux trailed 28-3 at halftime. Compared to North DakotaÂ’s upset of previously unbeaten St. Cloud, the hockey victory was not really an upset and was only an exhibition, but it was at least as hard-fought — literally.

Several after the whistle scraps led to only two disqualifications among several potential DQs, as Mike Prpich of the Sioux and Marco Peluso of UMD sparred in a battle common to pro hockey but rare in college. They skated away from everyone, casting aside sticks, gloves, and face-masked helmets before a free-swinging tussle that drew an ovation from the crowd. “Not that I condone fighting,” said North Dakota coach Dean Blais, “but that WAS a good one.”

Both teams fought hard to score, too. Reichmuth stood firm with 24 of his 31 saves in the first two periods for UMD, while Jordan Parise had less work, with 12 of his 20 saves in the third period. Parise got the UND call, after returning veteran Jake Brandt was suspended for a game for a misdemeanor violation regarding stolen pull-tabs in his hometown of Roseau, Minn.

“Jordan Parise made two saves right at the start, then on that breakaway, he gave us a chance to win the game,” said Blais. “Reichmuth played good for them, but you expect that, because he’s proven he’s one of the best in the league.”

Reichmuth was primarily responsible for harnessing the big Sioux line of Zach Parise centering freshman Brady Murray and Bochenski, which contributed 13 missiles to North DakotaÂ’s 34-22 shot advantage. He also blanked all eight North Dakota power plays, while UMD went 1-for-6.

For good measure, UMD opened the scoring when Tim Stapleton glanced one in off the far pipe for a shorthanded goal five minutes into the game, meaning the Bulldogs outscored the Sioux 1-0 during the eight Sioux power plays.

Nick Fuher tied it 1-1 when he mishit a 4-on-4 set-up from Colby Geneway and the change-up fooled Reichmuth midway through the first period. Then the teams battled at 1-1 until early in the third.

Junior Lessard put away a Tyler Brosz power-play feed for a 2-1 UMD lead to open the third, but the big Sioux line regained the tie when Parise got the puck from Murray, and ducked up the left boards for a 2-on-1. Parise, who had faked a pass to Bochenski before shooting one off the crossbar on a second-period 2-on-1, learned the easier route to a point by moving in for a shot, then passing across the crease, where Bochenski chipped in a deflection at the right edge.

Bochenski, who scored 35 goals last season, has the resident best Sioux scoring hands, but he might have an understudy in Stafford, whose game-winner came 10 minutes later, when he shot quickly in traffic from point-blank range after Quinn Fyling’s pass out from behind the net. “He’s got great hands,” said Blais. “Stafford might still be 17, or else he just turned 18, but he’s got great hands, and we need some guys who can finish.”

The finish was not pleasing to UMD coach Scott Sandelin, but he shrugged it off. “It was just like I expected,” he said. “Some good, some bad, and it got a little sloppy defensively out there. But there was a lot of intensity, and there’s going to be a lot of these games – just like last year.”

The U.S. hockey family devastated by death of Brooks

Where were you, on the day that hockey died?

Hockey didnÂ’t really die on Monday, August 11, 2003, it just seems like it did, because the life of the architect of the best elements of Minnesota hockey history ended abruptly when Herb Brooks was killed Monday afternoon in a one-vehicle rollover accident on Interstate 35.

Even now, as I type those letters on the computer keyboard on that same Monday night in a hotel room in California, the words seem surreal. The thought of such a tragedy is flat incomprehensible.

Herbie was a private treasure for hockey fans in Minnesota, although we willingly shared him with the rest of the country, and the world, when he coached the 1980 United States Olympic team to the Gold Medal at Lake Placid. It was called the greatest sports achievement of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated, because Brooks took a collection of college players and upset the powerful Soviet Union team 4-3 in the “Miracle on Ice” penultimate game, then also beat Finland to complete an amazing undefeated run to the gold.

The best, most creative tactical mind the game of hockey has ever seen practiced for his worldly stage by coaching the University of Minnesota – his alma mater – to three NCAA championships in a seven-year reign. After capturing the school’s first-ever NCAA crown in 1974, Herbie’s Gophers filled old Williams Arena to the rafters with adoring fans and captivated the entire state with follow-up titles in 1976 and 1979.

He later coached National Hockey League teams, the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota North Stars and, for one brief interim segment, the Pittsburgh Penguins, for whom he had continued to scout and last year was named director of player development.

He coached Team USA in the 2002 Olympics, too. These were all NHLers, and the team was the best team in the tournament until the Gold Medal game, when it lost to an immensely talented Canadian team in the final game and had to settle for silver.

But all of that is stuff you could look up. And all of it – all of it – seems trite next to the devastating loss of Brooks at age 66. He was returning from Giants Ridge, near Biwabik, where he had participated in a Sunday ceremony when the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame honored new inductees and award-winners, which included the whole 1980 team in what may have been little more than an attempt to gain publicity for the Hall. It was enough to cause Brooks to attend, and he stayed for Monday’s fund-raising golf tournament. Brooks played with notables like John Mayasich, but had to leave after 12 holes to drive back to the Twin Cities for an upcoming trip.

He was driving home, on the freeway, Monday afternoon when, authorities said, he went slightly off the road on the right, then cut back from the right lane, which goes to I35W and Minneapolis, to the left lane, which goes to I35E, the St. Paul side, and BrooksÂ’s White Bear Lake home. The van swerved left, crossed all the traffic lanes and veered out of control, rolling over several times into the grassy median. Brooks was thrown from the vehicle and was killed instantly.

The last time I saw Herbie was a week earlier, at the funeral for former St. Paul Pioneer Press sports reporter Gary Olson, who died after a short and ruthless battle with cancer. My wife, Joan, who had once helped Herbie through a painful back ailment with some physical therapy, also spotted Herbie at the funeral. He was 66, but he was one of those men who was forever young, looking not that much different from the 1980 Olympic video clips that show him pacing behind the bench.

“The thought crossed my mind that someday we might be coming to a service like this for Herbie,” Joan said. “But I knew it would be a lot of years away because Herbie still had so much to do.”

Herb and I didnÂ’t get to talk that day, and our usual habit of talking several times a week had been disrupted in the last couple of years since we built a home in Duluth. So I called Herbie the next night, and we talked for over an hour.

We discussed our families, what was going on in our lives, and how he had become embroiled in another of his ideological battles with USA Hockey, which led him to vow never to coach a U.S. team again. HeÂ’d said that before, and, as before, I hoped and figured that things would work out, and that he would someday be appreciated enough by the USA Hockey bureaucracy that they would turn our countryÂ’s youth development over to the greatest mind in U.S. hockey.

We also talked about Mike Randolph, the recently dismissed 15-year hockey coach at Duluth East. Brooks had met with Randolph years ago, and shared some of his favorite coaching tips and tidbits. Brooks kept an eye on EastÂ’s teams often in recent years, and admired the job Randolph did. After we ended our call, he called back at about 10:30 p.m. and said he had just called Randolph and gave him some advice, about taking action to reclaim his good name from the damage inflicted by not having his contract renewed by a principal whose son was once cut as a sophomore by Randolph.

The next day, Randolph said the late-night call was both inspirational and demanding, and that he knew how BrooksÂ’s players must have felt. He also was deeply moved that Herbie would call him to offer his support.

Three days later, it was Monday morning. I caught a plane to California, to test-drive some new vehicles for my automotive columns, at about the same time Herbie started playing his golf round at GiantÂ’s Ridge. A few hours later, I got the chance to drive a new, silver Nissan 350Z roadster during some down-time, and I cruised through the Napa wine-country to the little town of Calistoga. I was in a store, looking for some genuine Calistoga sparkling water, when my cell phone rang.

It was Bruce Brothers, a long-time friend who now is a sports reporter at the Pioneer Press. “Where are you?” he asked. I told him, and he said, “Have you heard any news from back here?” I told him I hadn’t, but I knew something horrible had happened – but what?

Brothers knew that among media folks, I had been the closest to Brooks, and also that we were extremely close friends personally. He said: “Herb Brooks was just killed in a car crash.”

It was like the world stopped spinning. And it will be impossible for the hockey world to ever spin on the same axis again. Herbie was so alive, so passionate about his plans, and about improving the game of hockey. The complexities that made him special were endless, a tapestry of a great athlete, who starred on a state championship St. Paul Johnson team and later for John Mariucci at the University of Minnesota, and an idealistic dreamer and schemer who sought to bring his dreams to life.

He was the last player cut from the 1960 Olympic team, and, years later when Brooks looked back on the 1960 gold medal U.S. team, he’d always give you that little sarcastic grin and say, “Obviously, they cut the right guy.” Brooks played on the 1964 and 1968 U.S. Olympic teams, and always believed that U.S. hockey players had the mental competitiveness to play with and beat the best in the world.

Herbie became Glen SonmorÂ’s assistant coach at Minnesota, and when the Gophers won their way to the NCAA final four in 1971 at Syracuse, N.Y., and athletic director Marsh Ryman said the school couldnÂ’t afford to send Brooks to the tournament, Herbie quit. Just like that. It was a stand on principle that marked Brooks throughout his life. He had strong beliefs, and he would stand up for them, whatever the cost.

For a year, he coached the Minnesota Junior Stars, which later became the St. Paul Vulcans junior team. That season, Sonmor left Minnesota to start the Minnesota Fighting Saints in the World Hockey Association, and new athletic director Paul Giel brought in his old friend Ken Yackel as interim coach. The Gophers finished at the bottom of the WCHA, and Yackel convinced Giel to hire Brooks for the 1972-73 season.

Armed with his mercurial personality, a head for clever psychology and an uncompromising, blatantly candid demeanor, Brooks put the Gophers together, and after one season of rebuilding, Minnesota won its first-ever NCAA hockey title in 1974 in Boston Garden. They won the WCHA the next year and were runner-up to Michigan Tech in the NCAA final, then they won the NCAA title again in 1976 in Denver – meaning they were one game away from winning three straight national titles. All the while, Brooks was carrying out the beloved coach John Mariucci’s dream by using all-Minnesota players.

The 1979 title in Detroit led Gopher fans to assume that national titles would be commonplace, but it took 23 years before the 2002 Gophers won the title, which theyÂ’ve now captured twice in a row.

The Olympic “Miracle on Ice” was a pinnacle, of course, as was winning 100 games in the NHL with the Rangers faster than any previous coach had done, which proved Brooks’s collective, creative style could succeed at that level, as well, even though the tradition-bound NHL of the early ’80s was restrictively confined to skating up and down lanes.

“Sophisticated pond hockey,” Herbie called his favored style. He loved that term, and nothing better characterized his style than gathering a blend of players and turning them loose to improvise and play as creatively as kids do in pick-up games.

But the coaching conquests, and his impact on Minnesota, U.S. and world hockey, never satiated his quest for perfection. At home, he would nurture a garden, pruning and transplanting and positioning plants and flowers until his yard looked like a parkland. As soon as it appeared to be perfect, heÂ’d dig everything up and start over, reorganizing it.

That was Herbie, seeking perfection – and when achieving it, realizing there might be still another, better way. If perfection was attained in one season, there always was another season coming up. In life, as in hockey. His wife, Patti, and his kids, Danny and Kelly, both now married, became conditioned to Herbie’s eccentricities.

Obviously, their world had to be shattered by the tragedy. We in the stateÂ’s hockey community can sympathize with his family. And they have no choice but to let us all suffer the incomprehensible loss along with them.

Later Monday night, I went to dinner with other auto journalists. As we left the restaurant, I looked up, and a huge, full moon was rising over Napa Valley. It was a beautiful sight, and it reminded me of Neil Young’s song, “Helpless,” and the line about the full moon on the rise, and how the magnitude of the universe leaves us all helpless.

People all over the country who were old enough to be cognizant in February of 1980 can still tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when Team USA beat the Soviet Union in the Winter Olympic hockey tournament. Hockey fans all across Minnesota will also remember where they were on August 11, 2003, when they heard that Herbie had been killed.

I was in California, looking at bottled water. Later, gazing at the magnificent moon, I realized life goes on, the world keeps turning, and weÂ’re all helpless to do anything about it. But we can focus on doing our best, and we can persevere.

Herb Brooks changed things he could and was frustrated when he tried to change things he couldnÂ’t. For 66 years, he was impatient, his mind always working to stay one jump ahead of everybody. He did it his way, and he did it well. Now heÂ’s been cut short, and for all we know, his best accomplishments might still have been ahead of him. Because nothing was beyond his reach.

Rest in peace, Herbie.

Next Page »

• 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:
  
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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.