Badgers catch Bulldogs in final minute, win 4-3 in overtime
Dany Heatley’s second goal of the night wrenched potential victory away from UMD with only 32 seconds remaining in regulation, and Dan Boeser scored with 54 seconds to go in sudden-death overtime, giving Wisconsin a stunning 4-3 victory and a sweep of the WCHA series at the DECC.
UMD (1-9) had battled for position through two periods, and claimed a 3-2 lead on Nate Anderson’s second goal of the game, early in the final period. But Wisconsin (7-5), which had put almost constant pressure on goaltender Rob Anderson, made its final flurry of the third period pay off.
After Anderson — who made 47 saves as Wisconsin outshot the Bulldogs 51-23 — had weathered a minute of Badger power play, coach Jeff Sauer pulled goalie Roland Melanson for a a six-skater flurry against four beleaguered defenders. Anderson came up with two or three saves amid the scramble, and when Heatley wound up with the puck wide to the right of the goal, nobody was open, so he just shoveled the puck toward the net, anticipating a possible rebound. He couldn’t have anticipated a goal, but the puck squirted through next to the pipe and slithered across the goal line at 19:28.
The Badgers celebrated, but as the final seconds ticked away, Matt Doman took a roughing penalty to give the Bulldogs a power-play chance to start the 5-minute overtime. They failed to get a shot away, and when the Badgers got back to full strength, they came hard at Anderson again.
After a couple more saves by Anderson, the puck popped out to Boeser, a freshman defenseman who had scored only one goal all season. He moved in, deked to get around a sliding defender, and closed in from the top of the left circle. Anderson came out to challenge him, but Boeser fired a shot past the goalie and just inside the right post. As the Bulldogs slumped to the ice in disbelief, the Badgers mobbed Boeser in a massive celebration at the far end of the DECC.
Wisconsin’s insistence on getting virtually all the shots during long stretches of play meant that sophomore goaltender Rob Anderson would be the key figure for UMD. Anderson accepted the challenge, willingly or not, and the Bulldogs kept playing opportunist to take leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2.
At the 10-minute mark of the first period, Wisconsin had a 10-1 advantage in shots on goal, but the game was scoreless. Then UMD inched ahead 1-0. As Anderson scrambled to get in front of that barrage, UMD got a break when Rob Vega was called for holding, and Badger teammate Kent Davyduke was given a simultaneous penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for whining about the first call. With the two-man advantate, UMD made its second shot count, as Nate Anderson moved in from the right side and got off a shot that hit goalie Graham Melanson and popped up and over him at 12:07.
The Badgers, outshot themselves by a 5-1 count through the last 10 minutes of the opening period, came out with renewed vigor in the second period. The first benefit came at 0:31, when Alex Brooks moved in for a shot from the right circle, and followed it in to score on the rebound for a 1-1 tie.
It stayed 1-1 — thanks to Rob Anderson again — despite the Bulldogs getting off only one shot through the final 15 minutes of the middle period. That shot came at 16:33, when Andy Reierson corralled the puck at the right point and fired a shot that was deflected past Melanson by Jon Franciso for a 2-1 UMD lead.
The 4,446 fans were still celebrating the go-ahead goal when the Badgers got the equalizer 20 seconds later. Matt Murray, who had two goals in Friday night’s 5-4 Badger victory, got free in front for a point-blank try that Rob Anderson blocked, but he had no chance of recovering before Dany Heatley, who had a goal and three assists in the first game, plunked the rebound from the right edge of the crease.
The Badgers outshot UMD 21-4 in that second period, but their 32-10 edge through two periods was worth nothing more than the 2-2 tie going into the third period.
When Nate Anderson broke in on the right side, and fired a shot that beat Melanson low, between his pads, at 2:19, the Bulldogs had their 3-2 lead despite being outshot at the time by 32-11. The ‘Dogs rallied and battled the Badgers evenly through the final session, and appeared headed toward their biggest victory of the season, right up until the final minute.
UMD NOTES/
The Bulldogs played without senior defenseman Ryan Coole, who suffered a concussion in Friday’s 5-4 Wisconsin victory.
Badgers hold off UMD’s closing rally to escape with 5-4 victory
Wisconsin regained a little of its early-season flair Friday night, but just barely, as the Badgers held on against a furious closing attack by UMD before escaping from the DECC with a 5-4 victory in the WCHA series opener.
Actually, the game put on display exactly what the season has been like so far for the Badgers, who won their first seven games, then came to Duluth with a 1-8 record since then. The problem, according to coach Jeff Sauer, has been: “We haven’t been able to score.”
Dany Heatley, the heralded super-sophomore who was the NHL’s second overall draft pick last summer, spent last season becoming the top WCHA freshman, but he was playing alongside center Steve Reinprecht, who is now a rookie in the NHL. Without him, Heatley has struggled. But last night, he scored on a laser-like power-play slapshot in the first period, and assisted on three of the other four Wisconsin goals.
“I probably could have had a couple more, for all the chances I had,” Heatley said.
Sauer was relieved to see the outburst. “I’ve tried Dany everywhere, but we’ve had trouble finding the right combination,” said Sauer. “But he’s a player.”
When Matt Doman scored on Heatley’s third assist, the Badgers had themselves a 5-2 lead and only 2:20 was left to play. That’s when the Bulldogs, who had been alarmingly unassertive defensively all night, put their best foot forward. More accurately, it was their best hands — junior Tommy Nelson — who got them in position for an excruciating finish.
Nelson, who had set up Nate Anderson’s game-opening goal, and had played a strong game all night, got the puck deep in the right corner and zipped a perfect pass across the crease, where Mark Carlson buried a one-timer. That goal came 35 seconds after Doman’s goal, and with only 1:45 to go, but it brought the 4,361 fans back from their trek down the stairways.
Coach Scott Sandelin called timeout, and whatever he told the Bulldogs, he should record it for frequent replay. After the ensuing faceoff, Nelson got the puck to Nate Anderson and he went hard to the net, scoring as a reward for his second effort, to close the gap to one goal. That was at 18:24, nine seconds after Carlson’s goal.
That gave Sandelin time to pull goaltender Rob Anderson for a six-skater finish, bolstered by a penalty to Doman with 16 seconds left. Amazingly, Nelson came up with one more slick play, a pass out from the left corner that found Carlson open at the right circle. Carlson momentarily mishandled the puck, but recovered and got off a good shot, but Roland Melanson stopped it, preserving the victory.
“We were very tentative defensively,” said Sandelin. “We were back on our heels, and we’re best when we’re more aggressive. We were in the right position most of the time, but we didn’t always react to what Wisconsin was doing.”
The Bulldogs got off to a good start. Wisconsin’s Kent Davyduke was called for slashing after only 1:30 had elapsed, and Nate Anderson promptly drilled a screened, 40-foot shot past Melanson from the top of the right circle.
The power-play goal was worth a 1-0 lead that lasted until 8:57, at which time Heatley tied it with a power-play goal, from almost the same spot at the other end, out beyond the right faceoff circle. His slapshot was a blur that goaltender Rob Anderson couldn’t trace.
Nate Anderson almost put UMD back in front later in the opening period when he broke into the zone, cut to his left and fired a shot off the right pipe, but the Bulldogs got the lead anyhow at 17:45 when Jon Francisco ended up all alone at the goal mouth and deposited the puck into the left edge.
The Badgers vaulted from the 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 lead with a pair of close-order goals 37 seconds apart early in the second period. Heatley moved the puck to assist junior Matt Murray — once a walk-on — on both goals, at 4:09 and 4:46. Murray’s first try was thwarted by Rob Anderson from the right circle, but he was free to bolt to the net and he put his own rebound up and over Anderson’s glove for a close-in goal and a 2-2 tie.
Before the shift was over, Heatley rushed in from the right side, timed his pass perfectly, then fed the puck deftly to the left edge, where Murray, closing at full speed, steered it through the defenseless goaltender.
The Bulldogs kept battling for the equalizer, with the best chance on Nelson’s stickhandling exhibition and feed to Andy Reierson, but Melanson came up with the save. That came shortly after UMD defenseman Jesse Fibiger stepped up and flattened the 6-foot-3 Heatley with a jolting shoulder check that injected some life into the crowd.
But the Badgers kept up the offensive pressure in the third period. Kent Davyduke was the beneficiary of some loose defensive play when, after being stopped on the left side, he carried behind the net, circled out on the right side, and, still unencumbered by anyone in a white jersey, he picked his spot and shot it in at 2:06.
Melanson stopped Mark Gunderson’s strong shot, which didn’t seem that important after Doman’s goal boosted the Badger lead to 5-2.
However, the Bulldogs battled back to make it close. “The trouble is,” Sandelin pointed out, “when you lose a 7-1 game, it’s easy to get over it. The ones where you come back and get close enough to win, and fall just short, are the toughest.”
Plan ahead for Super Bowl, and expect the Vikings to win it
The Vikings will win the Super Bowl.
There, it’s been said. I’d like to see them play Oakland, but that’s wide open on the AFC side.
What has happened is that the NFL’s never-ending quest for parity has created a league with all teams as close to equal as possible, aided by free-agency. Teams are so equal that upsets aren’t upsets anymore, and a team that is expected to be real good is assured of losing two or three games along the way. When such a team loses a couple games it should win, that team can end up with a mediocre record, with the fellows from Washington (6-4), Tampa Bay (6-5) and Jacksonville (4-7) submitted as Exhibits A, B and C.
The Minnesota Vikings have emerged as being more than equal, by surprise. They were figured to be about in the middle of the Central Division of the NFC, with the Lions, Packers and Bears, all clustered behind Tampa Bay. The Vikings had lost two quarterbacks (what were their names again?) and some defensive guys, which led coach Dennis Green to be criticized by experts all across the country. The audacity of Green choosing to go with an untried young quarterback also met with hoots and heckles.
Before the season started, I wrote that under the Vikings system, an adequate quarterback could look very good, throwing the ball to Randy Moss and Cris Carter and handing it to Robert Smith. The fact that Daunte Culpepper was a giant who also could run made him more than just adequate in the Vikings’ picture. It was easy to generate debates, and even a few friendly wagers on the issue.
One fellow right in the Duluth Budgeteer News office bet that Culpepper would implode and the Vikings would go 7-9. Another argued that they’d struggle and come in 9-7. I was pretty sure they’d be better than that, so I took 10-6, just to get in on a plan for dinner, with the two losers buying for the winner. The Vikings are 9-2, but I think it would be tasteful, so to speak, to wait a couple more weeks before picking out the restaurant.
As for the Super Bowl Â… True, the Vikings’ defense has given up a lot this season, but they are getting better, and cutting down the opposing points and yards. Besides, look around the league. Who plays great defense anymore? Miami’s defense, and Tampa Bay’s, of course, are impressive, and Baltimore and New Orleans have been stingy. The Vikings have allowed 235 points, which is more than all but the porous Chicago Bears in the Central Division.
But a strange transformation has taken place throughout the NFL along with the parity scheme. The teams that play the best defense seem to have the most trouble scoring. Of the 31 NFL teams, 17 have given up fewer points than the Vikings, 13 have yielded more points so far this season. The Vikings can play decent defense when a big play requires it, as they showed Sunday in overwhelming a good Carolina team, coming up with three straight big plays when Carolina had first and goal at the 1, but had to settle for a field goal.
It was Carolina that just defeated the St. Louis Rams, the team that shocked the Vikings, and the whole league, one year ago. The Cardinals couldn’t handle a team that the Vikings clearly outclassed on Sunday. And it is the Rams who represent the biggest obstacle to the Vikings once playoffs start, because the Rams are one of four teams that have scored more points than the Vikings, and the only one on the NFC side. And the Rams’ defense has given up more points than all but San Francisco in the whole NFL.
Those are pragmatic reasons for picking the Vikings to win the Super Bowl. The best reason is just a simple gut feeling. No other team can strike as quickly, from anywhere, to put points on the board, and the Vikings have a rising crest of confidence on their side. Culpepper has forced critic after critic to swallow preseason words of doom and gloom, first by showing a gutsy ability to run around, over and through opposing defenses, then learning to read and check off to secondary receivers and in selection of alternative plays at the line of scrimmage.
Robert Smith not only is the most articulate and intelligent player in the NFL, he also is the best and most exciting running back in the league. Carter is arrogant and temperamental, but nobody comes through more predictably under pressure, when the pass is coming and crucial yards are necessary. Moss is simply the most gifted receiver in the league, with the ability to outjump any and every defensive back, and the burning desire to catch every pass thrown to him blended with the demand to be thrown to more often.
Green remains indifferent if not unfriendly to the media, but who cares? His players love him, and respond to his orders, and the offensive and defensive coordinators all seem to be on the same page. If the situation arises in a big playoff game this year, we can assume the Vikings won’t “take a knee” and capitulate. When the pressure is on, Culpepper can give the ball to Smith, or pass to Carter or Moss for the big plays, and, if nothing is available, watch for Culpepper to instinctively run at, through and over somebody to get the job done.
Make plans now for your Super Bowl party now. Just remember to wear something purple.
John Gilbert is a sports writer for Murphy McGinnis Newspapers. He can be reached by e-mail at john.gilbert@mx3.com.
Sioux make bid for title; Bulldogs make strides for respectability
The pupil came to study at the foot of the master last weekend. Score two for the master.
UMD coach Scott Sandelin obviously intends to institute the same principles that have made North Dakota the dominant team in the WCHA, principles Sandelin helped enforce during his six years as Blais’ assistant with the Fighting Sioux. It was no surprise that North Dakota beat the Bulldogs both games, 5-3 and 5-2, but both games were hard-fought, showing both how far UMD has come under Sandelin, and also underscoring just how far the Bulldogs have to go.
“It takes a little while to adjust, but I thought we played a little better, and a little smarter,” said Sandelin. “The kids battled and worked hard. We’ve played some good games against some very good teams. But we’re getting better. Instead of getting no bounces, we got some bounces.”
The Bulldogs put up a stirring battle both nights, but dropped to 1-7 in WCHA play, going into this weekend’s nonconference trip to Vermont, where they will play New Hampshire and Vermont. The Fighting Sioux extended their unbeaten surge to seven games (6-0-1), and are 7-2-1, a point behind first-place Minnesota, a team the Sioux beat and tied last week.
Outside of the existing Engelstad Arena, which might be the best college hockey rink in the country, several of the largest cranes ever seen in the nation towered above the erector-set skeletal array of parts a couple of blocks away, which will be the new Engelstad Arena, by FAR the best college hockey arena in the land. It will be an $80-million structure, with 48 suites — 46 of which have already been sold at $28,000 for three years. There will be granite floors with marble inlays, tiled walls, and will have 350 television sets showing the patrons what’s going on, even while they’re at concession stands or in the rest rooms.
Meanwhile, UMD can’t quite match that for off-ice clout. The Bulldogs are still trying to figure out how to get a modest structure built on campus, but that’s far from Sandelin’s concern at present time. He is simply striving for getting his players all headed in the same direction, hopefully the direction North Dakota has been taking for the last four years, during which they’ve won three league titles and a runner-up slot, plus two NCAA championships.
Sandelin has stressed a no-nonsense, work-ethic code of discipline, off the ice and on. For the weekend, the Bulldogs worked consistently hard, but, as Sandelin knows only too well, teams don’t outwork North Dakota under Blais. While the Bulldogs worked hard, the Sioux worked hard and scored goals.
Sophomore goaltender Rob Anderson extricated himself from Sandelin’s doghouse with his performance both nights. He played the first game and was nothing short of spectacular, holding the Bulldogs in the game despite being outshot 44-17, and the outcome was uncertain until Ryan Bayda’s empty-net goal with 16 seconds to go for the 5-3 score.
Mark Carlson, Nate Anderson and Jon Francisco got the goals, bringing UMD back from deficits of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 to make it close. But the Sioux got goals from Bryan Lundbohm — who was inexplicably left alone for several seconds — and fromTim Skarperud, Trevor Hammer, Jason Notermann and Bayda.
After the first game, Sandelin acknowledged that a disciplinary move had rendered Anderson to the second man in the goaltending rotation with freshman Adam Coole just before Game 1 at Minnesota. But, Sandelin obviously wasn’t about to hold any grudge, and when Anderson played well in the second game against Michigan Tech, he gave him his start at North Dakota. In that second Tech game, Sandelin also benched captain Derek Derow and awarded the captaincy to defenseman Andy Reierson.
Derow didn’t exactly come out flying in the first game at North Dakota, and he played sparingly after the first period. Meanwhile, right after the first Sioux game, Michael Miskovich waited in the hallway outside the UMD dressing room to talk to Sandelin. “Miskie wanted to apologize for not keeping the puck in the zone,” said Sandelin.
In the second game, Miskovich was rewarded for his dilligence by scoring the first goal to give UMD a 1-0 lead, and Derow seemed to buy into the message with a hustling performance that began with an assist on the play. However, penalty problems bedeviled the Bulldogs. Ace Sioux defenseman Travis Roche tied it with a power-play goal before the first period ended, and Bayda and Lundbohm made it 3-1 with two more power-play goals on Coole in the second period.
Later in the second period, Coole stopped the goal-crashing rush of Kevin Spiewak but suffered a dislocated thumb in the collision and left the game in pain. Anderson came in and made another spirited effort, blocking all 11 shots he faced in the second period and only yielding a goal by Lundbohm, who swatted a Wes Dorey pass out of the air for a goal midway through the third period.
By then, Tom Nelson had scored to bring UMD within 3-2 to open the third period, and again the Bulldogs came on, making up for a 35-16 shot deficit after two periods with a 15-4 edge themselves in the third. If Lundbohm’s second goal of the game was the clincher, Roche’s second of the game came into an empty net with 28 seconds to go.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” said Lundbohm, a junior from Roseau who boosted his WCHA-leading goal total to 16 goals — same as the total of UMD’s 12 forwards who played Saturday. “They did a good job of not letting us get to the net. We needed to get a couple bounces on the power play to beat ’em.”
UMD’s work-ethic falls 5-2 to UND’s work-plus-goals-ethic
GRAND FORKS, N.D.—Both teams lived up to their WCHA reputations Saturday night: The UMD Bulldogs worked hard, while the North Dakota Fighting Sioux worked hard and scored goals, to claim a 5-2 series-sweeping victory.
“That’s what happens when you have Bryan Lundbohm on your team,” said North Dakota coach Dean Blais.
Lundbohm was the difference, scoring two goals to run his WCHA-leading tally to 16. The 12 skaters who manned UMD’s forward slots last night also have 16, only that’s their total for the season.
Nobody knows better than UMD coach Scott Sandelin that North Dakota, under Blais, simply doesn’t get outworked. You can beat the Sioux, but you can’t outwork them. Sandelin is trying to establish a similar work-ethic in his first year since leaving the Sioux staff, and he has been quite successful.
“It takes a little while to adjust, but I thought we played a little better, and a little smarter,” said Sandelin. “The kids battled and worked hard. We’ve played some good games against some very good teams.”
The difference in the two teams, at this point, is North Dakota’s flashy first line, and its impact on the power play. Bryan Lundbohm, the WCHA’s top goal-scorer, scored his 15th and 16th of the season and assisted on another to provide the margin of victory, after he also had scored one in Friday’s 5-3 North Dakota victory. Ryan Bayda, the sophomore winger on the big line, scored his 10th ,of the season and second of the weekend, and added an assist, while center Jeff Panzer had two assists.
Travis Roche, the superb Sioux sophomore defenseman, departed from his habit of only setting up goals by scoring his first two goals of the season, the second into an empty net.
The Bulldogs put up a stirring battle both nights, but dropped to 1-7 in WCHA play, while the Fighting Sioux extended their unbeaten surge to seven games (6-0-1), and are 7-2-1, a point behind first-place Minnesota, a team the Sioux beat and tied last week.
“You’ve got to give UMD a lot of credit,” said Lundbohm. “Both their goalies played well, and they did a good job of not letting us get to the net. Last night we couldn’t get anything going on the power play, and tonight we needed to get a couple of bounces and three goals on power plays.”
Lundbohm, who scored the actual game-winner in the second period, added an artful goal midway through the third when he deflected a pass from Wes Dorey out of the air and into the net, the only goal Anderson yielded, and an unstoppable one.
“We did a good job of forechecking, and I passed down low to him,” said Lundbohm. “He passed it back to me, and it was a little bit off the ice — maybe 6 inches — and I happened to get my stick on it.”
Right. He just happened to get his stick on it. “Goals like that,” said Sandelin, “go in when you’re winning. But instead of getting no bounces, we got some bounces tonight.”
The Bulldogs stood 5-5 in shots after eight minutes, and Derek Derow fired one off goalie Karl Goehring’s mask on one impressive attempt. Then the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead on Michael Miskovich’s goal at 11:46. It was a small victory for the constant effort put out by the sophomore from Grand Rapids.
The Sioux offset that when they were awarded the only two penalties of the first period, and the Sioux power play took over. Roche moved up from center point and fired a shot that starting UMD goaltender Adam Coole partially blocked, only to be left helpless as the puck trickled into the net behind him at 15:08.
In the second period, the Sioux came out storming, outshooting UMD 21-6 and appearing to settle the issue with two more power-play goals for a 3-1 lead. Bayda scored at 2:37, after Coole had scrambled to make two or three deft saves, but his final dive across the crease couldn’t keep up with the Sioux rapid puck movement had isolated Bayda at the right edge for a quick shot.
At 7:38, Lundbohm deflected a Roche point shot past Coole, and it was 3-1. Coole, a freshman, was injured midway through the second period when he came up with an impressive save on a hard rush by Kevin Spiewak. Coole recovered to make another save, but was shaken up and helped from the ice with what was later diagnosed as a dislocated thumb. Rob Anderson, who had been brilliant in Friday’s loss, came in and blocked all 11 Sioux shots for the remainder of the second period, once again holding the ‘Dogs in the game.
UMD put some pressure on North Dakota in the third period, and Tommy Nelson, who had sat out a fighting suspension Friday, scored at 1:08 of the third to suddenly close the gap to 3-2.
Lundbohm, however, restored some breathing room with a goal at 9:36 with his airborne goal.
Sandelin pulled Anderson with 2:12 to go, for a 6-on-4 power play, Goehring and the Sioux held firm. In the final minute, Roche flipped a shot from center ice that deflected off the stick of UMD’s Mark Carlson and found the empty net for the clincher.
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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