Randolph’s dismissal generates emotional firestorm

—– Commentary —–

It should be nothing but a glorious springtime for hockey fans throughout Minnesota, what with the Gophers winning their second straight menÂ’s NCAA championship, the Minnesota-Duluth women winning an amazing third consecutive NCAA womenÂ’s title, and the Minnesota Wild continuing their mind-boggling crusade through an NHL playoff structure they werenÂ’t even expected to enter.

It is, but not without one enormous glitch. To the complete astonishment of players, parents, fans and casual observers, Mike Randolph was unceremoniously fired as boys hockey coach at Duluth East.

The official phrasing of principal Laurie Knapp’s missive was that the school district was “not renewing” the contract of Randolph, and that the move was being made in the best interests of the student-athletes.

The move has generated questions without answers and criticism without response. The perpetrators are even hiding behind the cloak of “administration,” and the newest catch-phrase of the slickest manipulators: “data-privacy laws.” Because of data privacy laws and the fear of lawsuits, information about students and certain people must go undisclosed, to protect the innocent and/or the victims. The innocent victim in this case, Randolph, is pleading with administrators to give him a reason – any reason – which is tantamount to him waiving the data-privacy restrictions, but his pleas have been met only with silence.

There are some problems here. There are good coaches and bad coaches in all sports, those who succeed and those who fail, those who are popular and those who are despised. To provide a weapon to administrators who can’t find another way to rid themselves of an unsavory coach, the contract is written as a one-year device, which may or may not be renewed each year. The problem is that Randolph might be the best coach in hockey, if not any sport, in the state of Minnesota. There is no valid way to measure such platitudes, but by any tally, Randolph would be among the top 10 – and the other nine might all vote for him.

“If you want to see how good a coach Mike is, all you have to do is look at this past year,” said Pat Guyer, who just announced that he is resigning as coach at Greenway of Coleraine. Guyer meant that East had its lightest array of talent in two decades, struggling to score goals all season, and yet Randolph got them together and reached the state tournament. Randolph declared that the team’s mediocre season was caused by the coaching staff’s failure to come up with a system that would best suit the players. He was not blaming long-time assistants Larry Trachsel and Terry Johnson, but himself. And yet, all the Greyhounds did is reach the state tournament.

His reward was to be told he was not being retained, for the good of the program.

This spring, he returned to his fourth-grade teaching chores at Stowe elementary school, and he ran a youth hockey school for Squirts. He had to limit it to future East 9-10-year-olds this year because too many had signed up. Those from other areas who were excluded this year said they were not upset, but expressed gratitude for the teaching they got from Randolph last year.

Bruce Watkins, director of school operations, came to Stowe elementary school last Tuesday (April 22) and asked Randolph if he would resign. Randolph says Watkins told him if he would resign, the school would put on a huge celebration to honor him and his accomplishments. Randolph said he didn’t want to resign, that he loved coaching. Watkins told him that he would be terminated if he didn’t resign. Randolph said he would do anything he was asked, change anything that was being questioned, but Watkins could give him no reasons for the move. He returned Thursday with a document, essentially firing him, signed by East principal Laurie Knapp – who has been conspicuous by her silence throughout.

The news created a firestorm of verbal response. The outpourings have come from past players, current players, parents of past, present and future players – even down to the parents of 9-year-olds who have seen Randolph work his magic on kids that young, and hoped someday that their sons might play for him.

Winning has never been his primary concern, and yet his teams win. Always. He’s been at Duluth East for 15 years. Back in the 1960s, when Randolph played for the legendary Del Genereau at Duluth Cathedral, East was a powerhouse under Glenn Rolle. The Greyhounds won the state title in 1960, and also made it to state in 1958, ’61, ’64, and then in 1975 – the only time East made it in the 27-year span between Rolle’s tenure and the arrival of Mike Randolph.

Since taking the reins in 1988-89, Randolph produced instant winners. After the Â’Hounds went 18-5 and 18-7 in his first two seasons, they went 22-7 and reached the state tournament final game, losing 5-3 to Hill-Murray. That was the first of eight state tournament trips in a 13-year span in the rugged environment of Section 7 for Randolph-coached East teams. The first seven of those tournament trips came in a 10-year stretch, and all seven times the Greyhounds brought home some hardware for the trophy case.

Twice they won championships, in 1995 and in 1998, and three more times they were runners-up, while taking home the third-place trophy on the other two occasions. In all 15 years Randolph coached, East had a winning record every year for a total record of 308-83-10. The pinnacle years were 1996-97, when they went 26-1-1 and lost only in the state tournament final, and 1997-98, when they were 27-1, meaning they were 53-2-1 over two seasons.

Times got tougher in recent years, as enrollment dipped and Randolph continually toughened an independent schedule that arguably was the toughest in the state, year after year. After being state runner-up in the 2000 tournament, East went 19-8, 17-7-4 and 14-12-4 the last three seasons. If you deduct that combined 50-27-8 means that East recorded an incredible 258-56-2 record in RandolphÂ’s first 12 years.

Winning, however, was never the point of RandolphÂ’s coaching. It is about doing it right, and enjoying the rare skill of extracting the best from his players and then unifying all the parts into a team structure.

Naturally, there also are detractors. Every coach in every sport has critics, and particularly those players who might be cut, and their parents. It cannot go unnoticed that several years ago, B.J. Knapp was cut as a sophomore from the East varsity by Randolph. “He’s a great kid,” said Randolph, recalling B.J. Knapp. “If I was picking the team on whether somebody was a good kid, he definitely would have made it right then.”

But Randolph always has picked his team on the basis of talent, and only after players have gotten a chance to prove themselves in early-season scrimmages and games. Unlike most coaches, who have a preferred style and make all players fit it, Randolph invariably waits until observing scrimmage and game action, then applies a system, anywhere from wide-open to tightly defensive, to put his players in the best position to succeed.

Both Knapp boys obviously would have played at East, at least as juniors or seniors, and a lot of sophomores DON’T make East’s varsity. The Knapps, however, moved shortly after that, and both sons played for Hermantown in later years. Being hockey parents is a challenge, and some deal with the tougher parts differently than others. In most cases, the parent does not become empowered to fire the coach. The refusal of Laurie Knapp to state anything resembling “just cause” raises the ugly specter of such latent motivation.

Callers to sports-talk radio shows have been overwhelmingly supportive of Randolph. One, who identified himself as a parent of a current player, said that he knows there are grumbling parents every year, who say they’d speak up but don’t because it would hurt their son’s chances of playing. “Well, that’s been removed now,” the caller said, “so where are those critics. I haven’t heard one of them say anything.”

One source of criticism, according to those close to the East hockey program, might be goaltender Andrew Messer, one of several goalies who got a chance in varsity games before junior Jake Maida won the primary job at midseason. Messer transferred to Marshall at midseason. Open-enrollment transfers are allowed for anything other than athletic reasons, and a lot of academic transfers are not done at midseason. MesserÂ’s mother is Deb Messer, a very impressive woman who is manager of KDLH-TV, Channel 3 in Duluth.

Curiously, when the Randolph story broke, it was first reported two days later, on Thursday, April 24, in the first newscast of ratings week by – KDLH-TV, Channel 3. Sports anchor Chris Earl didn’t disclose it, but other sources said Deb Messer informed Earl of the dismissal story, after she had reportedly learned of it from Laurie Knapp. That, of course, raises the question of why an allegedly disgruntled parent of a player who transferred from East at midseason would allegedly be informed of the move, allegedly by the school’s principal.

Conspiracy theorists have to love this case. Just as they could feed on other circumstances, such as:

* Why, when this move is reportedly being made in the best interest of the program, were the East players who gathered to go to KnappÂ’s office, reportedly told that what they wanted was irrelevant?

* Why would a school administration be offering the bribe of a “Mike Randolph Day” celebration for resigning to honor a coach who would otherwise be fired because of accusations that have so far remained undisclosed?

* Who might the principal might have in mind as the next East boys coach? Some sinister observers have said that it would be Jim Knapp, Laurie’s husband. He was hired last year as the new coach of the girls high school hockey team at – guess where? – Duluth East. Moving Jim Knapp to the boys head coaching job seems ridiculous, because he is one of the nicest, most universally well-liked people in the game, and he has been during all the years he was a UMD assistant coach.

Meanwhile, Mike Randolph is devastated. All he asks for are some answers, some accusations that he can respond to. There have been behind-the-scenes grumbling about the teamÂ’s annual Christmas wreath sale, but no specific accusations have emerged about a plan that has raised well over $10,000 a year to defray hockey expenses. He has heard that there are parents of players heÂ’s cut, and negativity from boosters of rival schools who have risen to prominence.

All the work, all the hassles, and for a $3,900 annual coaching salary that equates to mere pennies per hour – none of that matters. Mike Randolph would love to have his job back. Businessmen estimated at “hundreds” have been calling school board members and media outlets on Randolph’s behalf. And a rapidly-expanding group of Duluth-area businessmen, parents and hockey boosters already started meeting to plot strategy in hopes of finding a way to restore Randolph’s position.

ItÂ’s a lot like one of those weird television quiz shows: Reinstating Randolph is the only logical and rational answer, but so far nobody has been able to guess the question.

Final Five intensity obscures focus on NCAA invitations

It seems very likely that the WCHA will send four teams, minimum, to the NCAAÂ’s expanded 16-team tournament this season, and the four are virtually certain to be Colorado College, Minnesota, Minnesota State-Mankato, and North Dakota. Those teams just happen to be ready and set to go in the WCHA Final Five playoffs at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul this week.

And even though the NCAA tournament is on the near horizon, the Final Five will be fiercely fought, and command the attention of all five entries, even though the games themselves could go a long way to determining NCAA pairings.

In national rankings, CC is No. 1, Minnesota No. 5, Mankato No. 9 and North Dakota No. 11. There could be more than four WCHA teams making it, because Denver is ranked No. 15 in one poll and 16 in another, and Minnesota-Duluth is the team that flip-flops with Denver, 16th in one poll and 15 in the other. St. Cloud State, also, has received votes. The final selection process must wait until all the college conferences complete their playoffs, and if the right teams lose, teams like UMD and Denver could rise.

The closeness of the WCHA this season, as the nationÂ’s elite college hockey conference, was underscored by the first round of playoffs. Colorado College swept Alaska-Anchorage in two straight, as did Minnesota over Michigan Tech and Minnesota State-Mankato over Wisconsin. The middle series figured to be the toughest, and they were, with North Dakota squeezing past Denver with a pair of 3-2 overtime victories following an opening 4-1 loss, while Minnesota-Duluth beat St. Cloud State 7-3 in the deciding game, after winning 5-4 and losing 3-2 in overtime.

So the pairing for the Final Five are set, with UMD surprising some by reaching the Xcel party, but the Bulldogs (20-14-5) are set to face North Dakota (26-10-5) in ThursdayÂ’s opening game, which will determine the fourth seed for FridayÂ’s semifinals.

On Friday, the UND-UMD winner will face Colorado College (28-5-5) in the first semifinal, while Minnesota (22-8-9) and Minnesota State-Mankato (20-8-10) meet in the 7 p.m. second semifinal.

North Dakota coach Dean Blais said he is happy to be facing his former assistant, Scott Sandelin, the UMD coach. UMD, because of the fragile nature of its rating, is pretty aware that the only way it can reach the NCAA is to sweep three straight games. That would mean beating perennial power North Dakota, then No. 1 CC, and then either Minnesota or Mankato, the teams that tied for second in league play.

Blais said he feels good about the Final Five, but that might be just by comparison to how he felt Sunday, when he was so sick that he said he went out to the players bench with “a bucket,” but retired to the dressing room because of the flu as soon as the National Anthem was played and turned things over to his assistants. He did return to the bench in the third period, and stayed there for the overtime. “I was going nuts watching the first two periods on TV,” said Blais.

The key to the weekend success for the Fighting Sioux came Saturday night. The Sioux had lost 4-1 to Denver in the first game, when the Pioneers scored three early goals. Blais made a goaltending change, bringing in Jake Brandt for a strong relief performance, and came back with Brandt the second and third nights as well. But North Dakota trailed Denver 2-1 late in the game when Blais pulled a bold move.

“We had scored only one goal Friday, and only one more in 56 minutes Saturday,” said Blais. “So when we got a power-play opportunity with over three minutes to go, I pulled the goalie. Brandon Bochenski rifled one in off a defenseman’s shinpad to tie the game. Then Bochenski scored again on a deflection in overtime.”

Without the comeback Saturday, there would have been no Sunday; no wonder Blais wasn’t feeling too well. “It’s a surprise that Denver ended up seventh, but that’s how tough our league is,” he said. “We’re going to have a tough time beating Duluth, then we’ve got to play CC.”

The other semifinal pits two of the strongest teams in the country, as well as the league. Minnesota State-Mankato has lost only one game in its last 23, and needed all of its wiles to get past Wisconsin. “We scored with eight minutes to go to win 2-1,” said Mankato coach Troy Jutting. “Then we were down 4-2 and I made a goaltending change. Wisconsin was up, and we pulled our goalie and scored to tie it, then we won in the second overtime…We seem to play best when our backs are against the wall.

“We know the energy level will be unbelievable at the Xcel Center. Minnesota won the national championship, and they’re playing in their own back yard. It’s basically a road game for us. We’ve been the underdog all year, and we’re the underdog Friday night. But there’s nothing wrong with that role. I don’t think there’s any doubt that we weren’t getting a lot of respect, and we’ve used that during the season.

“But there’s nothing we can do with the computer (for the NCAA pairings), so we’re going up to play the best we can. Colorado College has never won the Broadmoor Trophy, but neither have we.”

Minnesota came through its two game sweep of Michigan Tech in good shape, and Gopher coach Don Lucia said he was moved by Mike Sertich’s decision to retire as Tech coach right after the weekend. “He certainly had a major impact on my life,” said Lucia.

“We’ve come a long way, and we’re excited to get back to Xcel Energy Center,” Lucia added. “We know we’ll have a tight game against Mankato. We played them four times, and we were 1-1-2, and we ended up tied with them for second place. We know that any team that can go through the second half with one loss, and that to the league champion when they clinched the championship, is strong. If there’s one program, and one coach, who have tremendous respect for Mankato, it’s Minnesota.”

Colorado College coach Scott Owens said he intends to enjoy this Final Five more than others, while awaiting the winner of the North Dakota-UMD game.

“We’ve been in position to play that fourth and fifth place game, with an NCAA berth on the bubble,” said Owens. “I know what it’s like to get so pumped up Thursday night because you know that you could end your season right there. Then you have to come right back.

“This year, we don’t have the stress from that pressure, so we can sit back and watch Thursday night’s game. But we’re 1-0-3 against both UND and UMD, and we’ve only been on the smaller sheet one time in 60 days. We haven’t put ourselves in good position in years past, but the Broadmoor Hotel has been a big part of the CC program.”
And the Tigers have put themselves into the perfect position to claim their first Broadmoor Trophy.

Surprising UMD keeps on surprising, reaching Final Five

Undoubtedly, some college hockey observers were surprised when Minnesota-Duluth beat St. Cloud State in a first-round playoff series. But everybody had to be surprised when UMD not only won the series, but finished it off with a rousing 7-3 victory in SundayÂ’s third and deciding game.

The best thing about playing the third game of a three-game playoff series is that it gets a team ready for what is to come in the WCHA Final Five – three games in three days. The suggestion was facetious, and it got the proper response from Scott Sandelin, who is in his third season as coach at Minnesota-Duluth, which just defeated St. Cloud State in three games to advance to the Final Five.

While UMD hadn’t advanced to the Final Five for five years, before Sandelin came on board, no team has ever come from the “play-in” game to win the Final Five. With a 10-team league, the first round pairings determine the five finalists, and teams 4 and 5 play each other on Thursday, with that winner coming right back to face the No. 1 seeded team on Friday. If the 4-5 winner happens to upset the top seed, it then gets to challenge the other semifinal winner – usually the No. 2-3 seeds – for another game on Sunday, the third straight day.

No team has ever come from the 4-5 game to win the Broadmoor Cup as Final Five champion, which also carries an automatic NCAA tournament berth. In fact, the only teams to ever have come from the play-in game to win a semifinal are Michigan Tech in 1996 and Northern Michigan in 1993. Tech’s Huskies beat St. Cloud 4-3 in overtime, then also knocked off league-champ Colorado College 4-3 in the semis – only to fall 7-2 in the final against Minnesota. Northern Michigan beat Tech 4-3 in 1993, then whipped league champ UMD 6-2 in the semifinals, before falling 5-3 to Minnesota in the final.

None of that, of course, matters to Sandelin and the Bulldogs, who have played resolutely through an even-keel 9-3-1 stretch run that includes the dramatic triumph over the Huskies Sunday. Except that if conditioning helps prepare for the grueling task of playing three games in three days, a task even NHL teams arenÂ’t asked to perform, then theyÂ’re prepared.

The only flip-side is that the Bulldogs (20-14-5) will find waiting for them North Dakota (26-10-5) – the team where Sandelin was assistant coach before coming to Duluth. Sandelin said the Sioux no longer are something special for his team to face, although he and Sioux coach Dean Blais remain the closest of friends.

“Scott and I are the best of friends,” Blais affirmed. “But when the puck drops, we’re the worst of enemies.”

But North Dakota also got conditioned for the three-day run, because it took the Fighting Sioux three games to squeeze past Denver, losing 4-1, then winning 3-2 in overtime to square the series and finishing it with another 3-2 victory in overtime. The Sioux inched ahead of Duluth to take fourth place by one point when UMD was surprised by Michigan Tech for a season-ending split.

Still, the Bulldogs, who showed the largest improvement in the WCHA by leaping from ninth to fifth, with an improvement of 17 points in the regular season, brought a quick reward despite being one of the leagueÂ’s youngest teams, with five first-year players in the lineup (forwards Tim Stapleton and T.J. Caig, defensemen Steve Czech and Ryan Geris, and goaltender Isaac Reichmuth) and eight sophomores, with only five seniors and three juniors.

But the improvement doesn’t seem quick to Sandelin. “I hope getting to the Final Five means a lot,” Sandelin said. “We feel this program should be there every year.”

The games against St. Cloud were a lot like the regular season for UMD, meaning the ‘Dogs battled hard every shift, got some key goals chipped in by various players, scrambled to play tough defense, and got good goaltending from both Reichmuth and senior Rob Anderson, who will start Thursday night’s game.

In the first game, Brett Hammond scored his first of two goals only 27 seconds after the opening faceoff, and after Jon Cullen tied it with an amazing, falling-down shot that snuck under Reichmuth from the slot, the Bulldogs broke it open with goals 21 seconds apart by Marco Peluso and defenseman Beau Geisler in the second period, and a goal by Junior Lessard at 6:07 of the middle period for a 4-1 lead.
The Huskies closed it to 4-2, but Hammond scored shorthanded at 3:08 of the third for a 5-2 lead, and Reichmuth withstood later goals, including CullenÂ’s second of the game, to win 5-4.

It was more of the same in the second game, as St. Cloud played much more forcefully, outshooting UMD 40-28, but unable to put the game away, thanks to Rob Anderson’s brilliant goaltending. Anderson, who had escaped from the role of back-up to win four straight second games of series he had played, held the Bulldogs in the game. Caig, in fact, rapped in Nick Anderson’s rebound at the crease to stake UMD to a 1-0 lead, which Peter Szabo offset at 17:24. Stapleton – UMD’s top scorer – scored with a dazzling shorthanded end-to-end rush before the first period ended to make it 2-1.

Matt Hendricks tied it in the second period, then the teams dueled through the scoreless third period and 11 minutes into overtime. At that point, Ryan Malone fielded a bad-bounce flip off the right plexiglass and broke deep on the right, beyond two defenders, then passed perfectly to the goal-mouth, where Mike Doyle lifted a quick shot in at 11:00 for a 3-2 decision.

Sandelin pondered coming right back with Anderson for Sunday’s finale, because he had clearly been sharper than Reichmuth. But he decided to stick with the rotation and go back to his prize rookie. “I decided about 2 a.m.,” said Sandelin.

Reichmuth responded with a sizzling performance, although UMD rippled with strong performances throughout the lineup, outshooting the Huskies 36-25. MaloneÂ’s power-play goal had given St. Cloud a 1-0 start, but Evan Schwabe scored on a Drew Otten rebound for a 1-1 standoff after one period. Then came a series of huge plays, executed by the Bulldogs.

Otten, a hard-working senior who had scored only three goals on the fourth line this season, was penalized early in the period. The Bulldogs killed the penalty, and when Otten came out of the penalty box, he caught a pass from Nick Anderson and scored a huge goal to make it 2-1 at 4:57 – just seven seconds after his penalty ended. Nick Anderson, with his back to the goal, deflected Tim Stapleton’s shot into the lower right on a power play a minute later, and Geisler scored another goal, this time rushing to the net with a pass from Hammond, and UMD had surged to a 4-1 lead.

Malone, who had blown kisses to the derisive UMD fans after scoring to start the game, scored again with a spectacular shorthanded rush at 3:57 of the third, closing it to 4-2, but the Bulldogs were not to be deterred. Hammond, the two-goal star of the first playoff game, scored two more – a power-play tally at 4:40 and a shorthanded goal two minutes later – and it was 6-2. Hendricks converted a neat drop pass from Cullen to bring St. Cloud within 6-3, but Stapleton scored a 100-foot empty-netter with 1:42 to go to secure it.

“The goal by Drew was big, coming out of the penalty box, and the shorthanded goal by Hammond was really big,” said Sandelin. “We got our fourth line to chip in a couple (by Otten and Schwabe), and the more we scored, the better I felt.”

The victory meant the top five seeds advance to the Final Five, where Colorado College remains the favorite, while awaiting the survivor of the UMD-UND clash, and defending NCAA champ Minnesota faces Minnesota State-Mankato in the other semifinal.

But UMD is clearly the Cinderella team in the Final Five. TheyÂ’re just happy to be there, but they havenÂ’t flinched at the task facing them.

“There are no bad teams in the Final Five,” Sandelin said. “The only problem we have is deciding on a goalie. Both have played so well, and Rob has gotten better with every game. So that’s a great problem to have.”

Badgers stand in way of MSU-Mankato season, Final Five

It has been a long season of feeling as though they had to prove themselves, week after week, for the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks, but they continued to do just that, winding up in a second-place tie with Minnesota, behind only Colorado College. In fact, the Mavericks lost only one of their last 21 games, and even that loss gave them a chance to prove themselves anew.

The loss came in the next-to-last week of the regular season, when Mankato took a school record 17 game unbeaten streak to Colorado College and got shot down, 8-1. The next night, CC was whipping the Mavericks again, 6-4 after two periods, when Mankato roared back to win 9-6.

“To come back the second night against what I think is best team in country, was very important to us,” said Mankato coach Troy Jutting, whose team was picked for ninth at the start of the season by rival coaches.

The Mavericks’ reward for such an outstanding season is another chance to prove themselves – this weekend, in a first-round WCHA playoff series against Wisconsin.

“Our students are gone this weekend, but our community is very excited to be hosting playoff series,” said Jutting, who knows, from the season series against the Badgers, that nothing will come easily. “We got an overtime win the first night, and a tie the second at Wisconsin. I think the two teams match up well against each other.

“I didn’t really know where we’d be at the start of the season. We lost a couple good players late in the summer, and I just didn’t know. We started off the year 0-3-2, and I think it took a little time to let it sink in that those guys who left weren’t going to be here. But I knew we had some good kids back. Some stepped up, like Grant Stevenson, and our goaltenders. Things worked out well for us to finish second, and weÂ’ve got home ice to defend.”

ItÂ’s easy to see how Jutting can keep his players humble. It comes naturally. But Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves places Minnesota State-Mankato (15-6-7 in WCHA, 18-8-10 overall) on a pedestal nonetheless.
“We are playing one of the top teams in the WCHA, and they seem to be a team of destiny. They’ve gotten some good senior leadership, and their goaltending has been strong.”

Indeed. Mankato has gotten solid goaltending, but the key for the Mavericks has been the play of linemates Grant Stevenson and Shane Joseph, which has been nothing short of phenomenal. Joseph wound up second in WCHA scoring to Colorado College’s Peter Sejna, with 24 goals and 24 assists for 48 points. Overall, he has 27-30—57, which ranks eighth in the nation on a points per game basis. Stevenson, meanwhile, finished fourth in WCHA scoring at 20-24—44, and passed his linemate to place fifth in national scoring at 24-31—55 in fewer games.

Together, they have been magical. After their comeback victory at CC, Tigers coach Scott Owens said the biggest mistake his team made was to get into a “shinny game” with Minnesota State, which is dangerous, “because they can score,” Owens said.

“We have some concerns,” Jutting said. “But the strengths of our team is very good character. The leadership of seniors like B.J. Abel, and the great job done by Grant Stevenson have been very important. Stevenson didn’t play in the second game at CC, and we held him out this past weekend [against Nebraska-Omaha]. But he’s OK, and should be close to 100 percent now. We lost Joe Bourne, a senior defenseman, last weekend and that hurts because he’s a leader, too.”

Wisconsin (7-17-4, 13-21-4 overall) struggled through the first half of the season, and only started to show signs of life in the last month. Successive weekends against Alaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech gave the Badgers the opening to go 3-0-1, a stretch that was pivotal in climbing over Tech and into eighth place.

“Our goaltending has been one of our better things, because it’s been more consistent,” said Eaves. “In the second half of the season, we haven’t had the big highs and lows. We’re taking care of the puck better. It’s a game of mistakes, and fewer mistakes mean more success.

“We’ve fiddled around with lines so much, I think we’ve finally found some chemistry. That has helped us a lot in the second half. Also, in the second half of the year, our freshmen doubled their points.

“Stepping into this situation, you have expectations, and as you get to know the team, they change. In terms of the type of year this has been, it’s been a real test. You have to learn to control the things you can control. By doing that, you short-term things in the storms. For the most part, we’ve been in close games all year.”

UMD finds no time to celebrate home ice against St. Cloud

There are a lot of things that the University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey team deserves to celebrate this season. There is the play of freshman Isaac Reichmuth in goal, and of freshman Tim Stapleton at center, and the midseason arrival of T.J. Caig, another first-year standout, has bolstered UMDÂ’s once-spotty offense further. The play of senior Pat Francisco has been inspirational up front, and the play of Beau Geisler, a senior who most likely will get another year of eligibility, has been exceptional on defense.

The sum total has been a rise from ninth to fifth by the Bulldogs, and their 32 points, based on a 14-10-4 WCHA record, shows an improvement of 17 points in league play over last season, far and away the best. Minnesota State-Mankato improved 13 points, and North Dakota 10, for comparison.

But there’s no time to celebrate. If the Bulldogs feel smug for 48 hours this weekend, they will be through for the season. Despite their strong run, the ‘Dogs rank either 19th or 20th in the polls, so even though the NCAA has expanded its hockey tournament to 16 teams this season, the only way UMD has a chance to make it is to win this weekend and hope to move up in the rankings, and then do win, or at least make a strong run at winning, the WCHA Final Five – a tall order.

But for now, St. Cloud State presents a strong enough challenge.
“It’s certainly been exciting for us,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “It was a goal to finish in the top five and get home ice. We’ve been pretty consistent all year, with a young team. We got points every weekend, with the exception of Mankato.”

While Reichmuth rendered senior goaltender Rob Anderson to backup duty, Anderson has come on and played spectacular goal the last month, winning the second game in three of the last four series, after Reichmuth seemed to start giving up a few more goals.

“Obviously, Isaac has been the guy in goal most of the season, but we’re in a great situation, now,” said Sandelin. “ Robbie has won his last four starts, and it’s been a tough year for a senior, but I’m very happy for Rob. He got his chance, and never looked back. If our series with St. Cloud goes three games, we definitely will use both goaltenders.

“Up front, we’ve gotten tremendous play out of Tim Stapleton, who led our team in scoring as a freshman. And T.J. Caig, Nick Anderson, and players like Jon Francisco and Luke Stauffacher – a lot of guys have contributed. Balanced team, lot of guys who have overachieved. On defense, Ryan Geris and Steve Czech, who has played every game, have done well as freshmen. Beau Geisler has been our leader, and players like Neil Petruic and Tim Hambly have gotten much better. Jay Hardwick has played almost every game. It’s a pretty good group. They move the puck, and think the game very well.”

While the Bulldogs were rising to contention, the Huskies fell from contention when a succession of injuries finally took a toll. The biggest loss was Ryan Malone, who went out for about two months, first with a pulled groin, then when he returned to the lineup, he suffered a broken kneecap in his first game back and was out another month.

“As a team, we’re pretty excited about putting reg season behind us and getting started again,” said Fred Harbinson, St. Cloud State assistant coach. “We lost 95 man-games to injuries this season, and weÂ’ve been inconsistent. Ryan Malone was out for three series, then back for one. In his first game back, he hurt his knee. HeÂ’s only played 23 games total. He was probably 80-85 percent last weekend, but heÂ’s kept rehabing, and heÂ’s ready to play this weekend.”

When he was healthy, Malone played with Jon Cullen and Joe Motzko on what appeared to be the best line in the WCHA. “Malone played on a line with Cullen and Motzko last week,” said Harbinson. “WeÂ’re definitely a different team with him back in the lineup. But weÂ’ve got a big task going into Duluth. We had great series. We each won two, they had 11 goals and we had 9. Duluth is one of the hardest-working if not THE hardest working team we’ve played all season. On top of that, theyÂ’ve got a great goaltender in Reichmuth. We know we’re going to have to match their work-ethic, otherwise there won’t be a Final Five for us this year.”

Sandelin, while happy to be at home, knows the importance goes only so far. “Quite frankly,” he said, “weÂ’ve been as good on the road as at home. WeÂ’re 9-6-1 on road, 9-7-3 at home. The biggest thing is we’ve cut down our goals-against a lot. Now weÂ’ve got some expectations. But when you have some success, expectations should rise.”

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• 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.