Badgers quick start stuns MSU-Mankato 7-2
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MINN. — A pair of short-handed goals by Jefferson Dahl helped stake Wisconsin to a 4-0 lead and the Badgers skated past Minnesota State-Mankato 7-2 in the first of Thursday’s quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center. The victory gives the Badgers a spot against top-seeded St. Cloud State in Friday’s 2 p.m. semifinal of the WCHA Red Baron Final Five tournament.
The Badgers (20-12-7) who finished tied with Mankato and Denver for fourth in league play, ranked 10th in league scoring, but gave little respect to all-conference goaltender Stephon Williams with an uncharacteristic opening outburst — three goals in the first 8:11. Then they withstood the Mavericks constant attempts to get back in the game, and kept adding goals even while being outshot 40-27.
Asked if the Badgers had scored seven goals in a game before, coach Mike Eaves said: “No. God, no! I don’t know how to coach when we’re ahead.”
Tyler Barnes opened the game with the first of his two goals, picking the puck off the side boards and racing in on a breakaway, and shooting into the upper right corner of the net at 1:03.
Wisconsin's Tyler Barnes sprawled after scoring his second goal and running over Mankato goaltender Stephon Williams, making it 5-2 and knocking Williams out of the game.
”Obviously, it was not the start we wanted,” said first-year Mankato coach Mike Hastings. “We wanted to get at least to the second minute. But credit Wisconsin. I don’t think we reacted too well, but our guys continued to battle. Give Wisconsin credit for taking advantage when we gave them the openings.”
Four minutes after the opening goal, Wisconsin’s Joseph LaBate drew the first penalty of the day, and Dahl scored the first short-handed goal of the day. Ryan Little chipped the puck up the right boards and Dahl gathered it in and sped up the right. When he was unable to turn the corner on the Maverick defenseman, Dahl shot from deep on the right side and beat Williams from nearly an impossible angle at 6:11.
“I didn’t really see any opening,” Dahl said. “I knew I had a step on the defenseman, so I just threw it on net.”
Exactly two minutes after that, Nic Kerdiles scored after a dizzying passing sequence. Barnes, wide on the left, passed to Rob Ramage, who relayed the puck to Mark Zengerle, and his quick feed to Kerdiles in the right circle was met with a one-timer that hit Williams but trickled through for the 3-0 start at 8:11.
“We could have done a better job not letting their guys come in wide open,” said Matt Leitner, defending the goaltender who has bailed out the Mavericks so often this season. “We left him on an island out there.”
Wisconsin's Jefferson Dahl (14) was stopped by Mankato goalie Stephon Williams, but he scored two other short-handed goals.
The Badgers were short-handed again in the second period when Dahl got loose up the right side, but Williams made the move to stop him and his shot hit the short-side post. But moments later, Dahl carried up the right side, 2-on-1 while still on the penalty kill, and he passed back to the traling Jake McCabe in the slot. McCabe one-timed a return pass and Dahl put it away from point-blank range at 8:50 — his seventh goal of the season and fourth against the Mavericks. “The puck just seems to go in for me when we play them,” he said with a shrug.
At 9:37 of the second period, Ramage saw Teddy Blueger approaching on a rush, and when Blueger passed the puck, Ramage, at a glide, and with his stick and elbows down, crashed into him. Video replays disclosed that Blueger’s helmeted head struck Ramage about in the bicep and he went down hard. It was the kind of play that might be a penalty on the running back in next year’s NFL, but this time the officials gave Ramage a penalty then, after conferring, made it a 5-minute major for charging.
The extended power play gave MSU-Mankato the opening, and Jean-Paul LaFontaine sent a no-look behind-the-back pass from deep on the right to Zach Palmquist, who one-timed a shot over goaltender Joel Rumpel to cut Mankato’s deficit to 4-1.
Wisconsin goalie Joel Rumpel stopped MSU-Mankato captain Eriah Hayes in 7-2 Badger victory.
Wisconsin padded it to 5-1, though, on a 4-on-4 situation, when Barnes knocked the puck in on a goal-crashing rush from the right side at 12:24. Williams was injured on the play, and left the game, replaced by Phil Cook. With Ramage still in the box, Eriah Hayes notched another power-play goal to make it 5-2, but that was as close as the Mavericks could get.
Rumpel was red-hot, with 15 saves in the second period and 16 more to blank the Mavericks in the third. Meanwhile, Dahl, a junior from Eau Claire, Wis., appeared to score a hat trick with a deflection at the left pipe at 16:50 of the middle period, but the goal was disallowed, leaving him with two goals and two close misses.
Not that it mattered. Frankie Simonelli and Joseph LaBate scored goals for Wisconsin in the third period and the Badgers cruised into the semifinals.
At 24-13-3, MSU-Mankato came into the day rated No. 8 in the Pairwise calculations, which mimic the NCAA selection committee’s criteria, which should mean that while Wisconsin will undoubtedly slip ahead of them, the Mavericks also should be secure for an NCAA berth on Sunday.
BMW X1 has style, size, power; needs X-Drive, tires
BMW X1 with 2.0-liter turbo four, was quick and agile with rear-drive and Pirelli Cinturatos on dry pavement.
By John Gilbert
When I first had the chance to drive the new BMW X1, I was impressed with the looks and performance, and the diminutive size of the new smaller brother of the X5 and X3 SUVs from BMW’s ever-expanding stable.
It is more compact than most crossover SUVs, but most people don’t need the enormous size of the heftiest vehicles that brought the U.S. auto industry to near the point of capitulation. In many ways, for those who need room for only four occupants and light storage, the smaller the better, because that means better performance and far better fuel economy are attainable. The X1 fit that bill perfectly.
My first drive was last fall at the Midwest Auto Media Association fall rally, and I only drove it briefly. Impressed though I was, I was surprised to learn that the vehicle was only 2-wheel drive, with the rear wheels being the ones that drove the X1 with its front-mounted, 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine supplying plenty of punch for all-wheel drive. Driving as I do predominately in Minnesota, which has long and snowy winters as well as gorgeous summers, having a pickup or utility vehicle with rear-wheel drive should be grounds for incarceration.
I was assured the X1 does come with X-drive, BMW’s slick all-wheel-drive system. That made me eager to get one for a week-long test drive over the winter months.
Traditions generally cross past, present and future boundaries, and every March in Minnesota, a couple of those traditions run smack into each other. One of those is that when it comes time for the state high school hockey or basketball tournaments, a late-season blizzard is the norm. This year, Mother Nature celebrated both of those tournaments — and many of the days in between — with the snowiest March ever. Those heavy snowfalls, of course, afforded extra winter test-driving time.
In automotives, one tradition from the past is that conventional front-engine/rear-drive affords the most exciting and satisfying high-performance “feel” for sporty vehicles. In Minnesota, of course, it snows every once in a while, and when it snows on top of ice, treacherous road conditions can lead to all sorts of slippery, terrifying driving, and nose-heavy front-engines with light-in-the-rear, rear-wheel-drive adds more than just excitement to the mix. When front-wheel-drive vehicles took over, white-knuckle driving in icy conditions ended in Minnesota and other snow-belt states, and all-wheel-drive has taken that sense of security to another dimension.
Even with front or all wheels driving the vehicle, tires are still extremely important to any driver’s peace-of-mind in wintry driving. Most major brands make special all-season or winter tires, with the most popular being the Bridgestone Blizzaks, a softer-compound tire that grips ice, churns through fresh snow, and keeps improving its ability to work well enough on dry pavement without wearing quickly. My favorite winter tires are the Nokian WR or WR-G2, because they have uncompromising tread compound that maintains its flexibility no matter how cold, while high-performance tires tend to harden and have less traction when it’s cold.
Some manufacturers equip their press-fleet vehicles with good all-season tires during winter. Others don’t seem to be aware that there’s a difference. BMW is one of the few companies that stubbornly refuses to change from the all-out handling performance tires it sends on its vehicles, regardless of region. BMW also is one of those German companies that stubbornly held firm on rear-drive vehicles until recently. Now it sells its splendid 3-Series, 5-Series, and even 7-Series sedans with X-drive, and of course its various SUVs also have X-drive. Read more
Final Five just one of week’s attractions
By John Gilbert
Hermantown's own Drew LeBlanc leads St. Cloud State into the Final Five, after a senior year as captain, WCHA Player of the Year, top scorer, all-WCHA first team, WCHA All-Academic, and inspiration behiind the Huskies first WCHA title.
We will wait until next week, after this weekend’s WCHA Final Five, to pay tribute to the best college hockey tournament in the land. Even if you count the NCAA Frozen Four. This will be the last Final Five — the final Final Five — for the WCHA as we know it.
There are six teams in the Final Five, but only five games, which allows the league to keep the popular name. Of the six, Minnesota and Wisconsin are hoping to head for the NCAA tournament next week but then are headed for the Big Ten’s new hockey conference next year. St. Cloud State, North Dakota, and Colorado College are also hoping to win and advance to the NCAA, but for certain, they are going to the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference next fall. Only Minnesota State-Mankato among the Final Five entries will be remaining in the WCHA, which obviously will be undergoing major surgey before next season.
Next year at this time, the new NCHA — UMD, St. Cloud, North Dakota, Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha, Denver and Colorado College — will play their whatever-it’ll-be-called tournament at Target Center in Minneapolis, while the Big Ten Conference — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State — will play their tournament at Xcel Center. Both will run head-to-head on the same weekend.
And all the teams in those two leagues will not care a bit where the remaining teams that make up the WCHA will be playing their tournament. That will be a sad evolution for a league that has been the best college hockey league every year it has existed. But we can worry about that later. For now, let’s get on over to Xcel Center and enjoy the WCHA Final Five for all it’s worth, through Friday semifinals and on to Saturday night’s championship game, with Fan Fest, and all the carnival atmosphere that fans from North Dakota, Wisconsin, St. Cloud, Mankato and Minnesota can stir up.
Savor it. Remember it. Take photos with your cell phone. Because it’s going away.
What a weekend!
Pick your favorite: The WCHA Final Five at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center; the state high school boys basketball tournament at Williams Arena and Target Center; the women’s NCAA Frozen Four at Ridder Arena; the surging Minnesota Wild, on the road but coming home for a Saturday matinee; and, on TV only, the University of Minnesota’s basketball team, which is off in Texas to play UCLA in the massive NCAA men’s tournament. The NCAA likes to call its over-hyped, all-consuming basketball tournament “March Madness,” but we know that the real March Madness is going on right there in River City — also known as the Twin Cities. Let’s count down the attractions, from the bottom up:
- ESPN, which will carry so many basketball games along with every other network, had an impromptu survey, nationwide, in which voters said Minnesota stood the best chance of springing an upset in the first round. Those fans undoubtedly heard of Minnesota beating Indiana, but had no idea of the totally inept shooting and ball-handling perpetrated by the Golden Gophers in virtually all games before and since that magnificent performance. If the Bruins have a couple guys who can run, jump, pass and shoot, the Gophers could be in for a quick exit. On the other hand, Minnesota is the most dangerous kind of tournament foe — a team with considerable skill that is prone to junior-high type mistakes and missed shots, but can, on occasion, get it all together for a good half. And maybe two.
- The Wild can’t play better than they did at Vancouver, in what was the final game between the two as division rivals, before sanity finally returns to the NHL and geographic realignment will put the Wild in with natural rivals like Chicago, Winnipeg, St. Louis, and other Midwestern teams. True, the infusion of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter have meant a world of difference to the Wild. But the addition of rookies like Jonas Brodin, Charlie Coyle, and Jason Zucker also has made a huge impact. Zucker and Coyle are both 21, and Brodin is only 19. Remember when the non-hockey types were claiming that Suter was playing poorly because he was getting paid a lot and didn’t score? Calmly and quietly, Suter has done his thing, playing a lot and partnering with Brodin — a key reason that Brodin appears to be remarkably error-free despite loads of ice-time as Suter’s partner. That leaves key returnees like Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley, Devin Setoguchi, and others with room to perform without the pressure to carry the team. And Matt Cullen, former St. Cloud State and Moorhead High School star, is playing like he’s 26 instead of 36. With Niklas Backstrom hotter than a pistol in goal, and a smothering team defense that has become more than just opportunists on offense, the Wild could make a bid for season and playoff heroics.
- The Gopher women, riding a 39-0 season into the Frozen Four at their home rink Friday and Sunday, should win it. Amanda Kessel and her freshman linemates will score, but watch Megan Bozek, who is a female Paul Coffey back on defense, and Noora Raty, the record-breaking goaltender from Finland. Sure, Boston College will be a tough semifinal foe, and the winner of Mercyhurst and Boston University will provide a worthy final opponent, but when the NCAA decided to save a buck and rank North Dakota No. 8, just so UND could be seeded at Minnesota last Saturday night, it was an atrocity. Recall back on December 8-9, BU came to AMSOIL Arena and UMD played the Terriers to a 2-2 tie, outshooting BU 30-22. The next night they played a stellar 0-0 standoff, with UMD outshooting BU 39-19. Both great games, but my feeling is that North Dakota could have beaten BU, BC, or Mercyhurst, and had UND been sent off to play any of them, then UND would be in the Frozen Four. Instead, they played an amazing triple-overtime classic at Minnesota, with the Gophers winning 3-2 when Mira Jaluso got a shot and Rachel Bona scored on the rebound at 18:51. That means the teams played 118 minutes and 51 seconds, or a mere 1:09 short of playing two entire games back-to-back.
- The boys high school basketball tournament gives the Northland three hopes, although they’ve probably already played by the time you read this. We have Lakeview Christian Academy in Class A, where the more games the Lions play, the more Anders Broman will score, setting the all-time career scoring record up there far enough to perhaps never be broken. In AA, Esko got to state with a Section 7 final victory that will live within those boys all their lives. Here’s the scenario: Esko sees a 10-point lead vanish and Mora goes right past the Eskomos for a 62-60 leadm which becomes 63-60 on a free throw with 8.6 seconds left. Esko’s top gun, Casey Staniger, scored his 25th point on a free throw to cut it to 63-61, then he purposely missed the second shot, and in the melee that followed, Mora knocked the ball out of bounds with 1.1 seconds showing. Decision time. I would want Staniger in position for the last desperation shot, but he is the best passer, and he was sent to pass the ball in to Kory Deadrick inside to try to tie the game. But Deadrick’s path was blocked. With 1.1 seconds to go, Staniger passed to the open kid, ninth-grader Jaxon Turner, who had-not-taken-a-single-shot all game! Staniger, at the top of the key, turned and fired, and the ball went in at the buzzer — a 3-pointer that gave Esko a 64-63 victory. Even the script of Hoosiers couldn’t top that one. The third Northland hope is Grand Rapids, in AAA. The Thunderhawks are hitting on all cylinders, and have a shot to do some serious damage at state.
- The Final Five gives Northland fans one major player to focus on — Drew LeBlanc of Hermantown, the captain and redshirt senior leader of the St. Cloud State Huskies. They’ll be in the 2 p.m. semifinal on Friday, having won their first WCHA season title in their last season in the league. LeBlanc, who suffered a compound fracture to his leg in the 10th game last season. Coach Bob Motzko said that LeBlanc, who had trained hard for a big senior season and passed up the chance to sign a pro contract, came to practice the following Monday in a wheelchair. It took seven months to recover, and when he got the chance for a redshirt repeat of the senior year he had been deprived of, LeBlanc jumped at it. He is the fourth-leading scorer in the WCHA, but more important, his consuming team-first attitude has made him the WCHA Player of the Year, and first-team forward on the all-WCHA team. Going into the Final Five with 13-37–50, he jumped at the opportunity to play with two freshmen, and promptly helped Jonny Brodzinski of Blaine and Kalle Kossila of Finland to matching 32-point seasons. Brodzinski has 21-11–32, and Kossila 15-27–32. Brodzinski, a heavy-shooting former teammate of Minnesota’s Nick Bjugstad, scored his 21 goals so far with a WCHA-leading 20 of them NOT on the power play.
C-Max style, room, economy defy convention
Rarely has a new vehicle been introduced with more confusion and criticism than celebration.
Built for economy and versatlity, C-Max also finds winter no challenge at all.
Hmmm…confusion, criticism, and celebration. Maybe that’s how they came up with the name “C-Max.” Every automaker likes to boast about uniqueness, and how their new product defies categorization, but Ford seems to have mastered the trick with the new C-Max.
It seems to be neither fish nor fowl, car or truck, small minivan or spacious mini car. It comes as a hybrid, or a plug-in hybrid, known as Energi. And it has remarkable interior space for being so compact and small on the outside.
Amid a flurry of quirky or trendy names that feature letters, numbers, or retrospective monickers, Ford has confused U.S. consumers and critics with the new C-Max. When it was first announced, many thought it was a large semi-trailer-hauling truck, and even though it has been available in Europe with conventional engines, when the car magazines and North American Car and Truck of the Year executives made their choices on categorizing, it wound up listed among trucks, and even minivans.
In reality, the C-Max is a cleverly designed and executed small capsule of a car, shaped indeed like a minivan or tiny crossover SUV. It finished third among North American Truck/Utility of the Year candidates, behind the Ram 1500 and the Mazda CX-5, and Motor Trend listed it in its truck preview issue right there with the Tahoes and Rams and Ford cousins like the F150 and Explorers. Ford itself continually draws comparisons to various Toyota Prius models.
Introduced right before the end of the 2012 calendar year, the C-Max appeared to be a blunt instrument in the vast array of small economy vehicles. Rounded off, its capsule shape bears a strong resemblance to the new Escape SUV, or the Focus or Fiesta compact and subcompact, aimed at aerodynamic smoothness.
Prices range from $25,000 to over $30,000 for the fully-equipped plug-in Energi model, but the C-Max performance is what will make it a large-volume seller. You quickly forget how small it is outside when you climb in and find the tall roof providing lots of headroom, adequate rear seat room and spacious cargo area inside the rear hatch, with, of course, expansion via fold-down rear seats. And you can forget it’s a hybrid by how swiftly it accelerates or willingly passes other cars when you drive it even a little aggressively. Read more
Edina’s Hornets buzz Hill-Murray for title
Edina’s players piled on top of goalie Willie Benjamin after beating Hill-Murray 4-2 for the Minnesota AA high school hockey championship.
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MN.
In a Minnesota high school hockey tournament where controversies and shortcomings seemed to be prominent, the best was saved for last, as Edina defeated Hill-Murray 4-2 with an impressive show at both ends of the Xcel Energy Center rink to win the Class AA championship. It was a record eighth state hockey title for the Hornets.
The Hornets (25-6) also won in 1969, 1971,1982, 1984, 1988, 1997 and 2010, and that dismisses the titles the Hornets won as Edina East in 1974, 1978 and 1979. The No. 1 seeded Hill-Murray Pioneers finished 27-3-1, and fell short for the second year in a row in the final, seeking their second title to match the one they earned in 2008.
The title game drew 17,739 fans to Xcel Energy Center, for a tournament total of 117,748 for the annual four-day classic.
The championship game had all the appropriate drama and tension, although after the Hornets spotted Hill-Murray the first of two goals by Josh French, then rattled off four consecutive goals, the question was whether the Pioneers could break through Willie Benjamin’s goaltending again. They did, but couldn’t get the third goal for proximity through a scoreless third period.
Neither team had a weakness and if there were questions whether Hill-Murray could keep up with Edina’s quickness, or whether Edina could survive Hill-Murray’s toughness, both were answered as soon as the puck dropped. Yes, and yes.
The teams waged a high-speed, high-spirited battle for supremacy, where nobody could take a shift off. The good plays were impressive, the goals were colorful, the defensive play was stifling, and even the foul-ups were exciting. When Edina built a 4-1 lead, the Pioneers had just about as many quality scoring chances, but a lot of them bounced over a stick or went just wide of the pipes.
The Pioneers got the first jump, when Josh French caught Zach LaValle’s pass out from behind and took a shot that found its way through Willie Benjamin in the Edina goal at 4:11. The Pioneers took a penalty and Dylan Malmquist tied it 1-1 at 6:31 with a burst of speed up the right side, turning the defense and cutting across in front, where he stuffed his shot at the left edge.
The Hornets gained a burst of adrenaline from the goal and kept the attack going, taking a 2-1 lead at 11:56 when Cullen Munson kicked a rebound ahead as he stepped to the left to elude Pioneer goalie John Dugas, and tucked it in.
In the second period, Munson was the beneficiary of a strong sequence by Bo Brauer, who shot off the right post, chased his glancing blow into the right corner, then darted behind the net before feeding the slot, where Munson quickly put it away at 2:11 for a 3-1 cushion.
As the Hornets proved they could match Hill-Murray’s checking game, the Pioneers turned up their velocity to trade rushes with Edina. But the Hornets kept their rally going, scoring their fourth consecutive goal at 14:31 of the middle period and Anthony Walsh blocked a D-to-D pass and broke free up the middle. Speeding in, Walsh beat Dugas cleanly on teh breakaway and it was 4-1.
It looked like it might turn into a runaway, but only for 45 seconds, and then LaValle moved in on the right side at the other end of the rink, and slid a pass to the slot where French again connected with a shot into the left edge on Benjamin, sending the game into the third period 4-2.
In the third period, however, the Hornets tightened down defensively, turning back repeated Hill-Murray rushes and surviving with Benjamin acrobatically scrambling around and diving to cover loose pucks. The minutes ticked off, and Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner — whose team lost in last year’s final to Benilde-St. Margaret’s — pulled Dugas with over two minutes remaining.
Still, nothing would go in to make that third goal and set up a truly frantic finish. And the Hornets skated to their fans to celebrate their record eighth state hockey championship.
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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