Bulldogs caught short in tight, tough 3-1 opening loss to Gophers
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — UMD’s hockey team was full of surprises Friday night, but new coach Scott Sandelin got a close-up and personal look at the kind of cruel twists that can ruin a big night, and the Bulldogs fell 3-1 in their WCHA opener against arch-rival Minnesota.
The Bulldogs had taken on the highly regarded Gophers and their announced capacity crowd of 9,749 fans — although there were probably at least 1,000 empty seats at Mariucci Arena — and they battled them to a 1-1 standoff through what appeared to be a remarkably one-sided selection of penalty calls by Don Adam.
It wasn’t bad enough that the Bulldogs were absorbing as many hits as they dished out, but were whistled for five of the first seven penalties in the first two periods. The back-breaker came to open the third period, when Adam called rookie defenseman Jay Hardwick for high-sticking at 7:28, then, after one moderate chop to the stick by Jesse Fibiger while killing the penalty, Adam banished Fibiger for slashing at 7:52.
That gave the Gophers a 2-man power play for 1:36, and while the Bulldogs did a near-heroic job of blocking shots and preventing close-in threats, Jeff Taffe played a carom off the end boards and flicked a quick shot in at the right edge of the net at 8:37.
That broke the 1-1 tie, although the Bulldogs kept battling to the end, when Erik Westrum blocked the puck free from Derek Derow and skated in alone to score his second goal of the game into an empty-net for the clincher with 47 seconds left.
“We did a great job of killing penalties, and we even killed most of that 5-on-3, but it killed us,” said Sandelin, who diplomatically said he had not encouraged the officials to help his young Bulldogs practice penalty-killing.
Gopher coach Don Lucia, a Grand Rapids native, said he noticed some changes in the UMD style under Sandelin’s staff. “No question, there’s a lot more influence of shot-blocking, probably from Mark Strobel,” said Lucia. “They tried to play well defensively, and they didn’t have to play aggressively on offense, with their goaltender playing great.”
The goaltender was the first surprise. Sandelin reversed directions on his starting goaltender and went with freshman Adam Coole, after planning, right up until pre-game meal time, to go with sophomore Rob Anderson. “I just went with a gut feeling on the goaltender, and he played tremendously,” said Sandelin.
The next surprise was a stunning one. At 1:44 of the first period, there was a whistle for offside. UMD freshman center Jim Murphy, who had scored two goals against Regina in Sunday’s 9-1 exhibition game, was on a collision course with Gopher Taffe. Murphy pulled his arm up to avoid the impact, but when Taffe hit him, after the whistle, Murphy crumpled to the ice, his left arm broken. Adam gave a penalty on the play — but to UMD’s Tom Nelson, for an inadvertent high stick.
On that power play, no surprise. Westrum circled out to the slot and whistled a screened shot into the upper left corner of the net from 30 feet.
“That got me into the game in a hurry,” said Coole, a former Duluth East netminder. “I got caught looking the wrong way on the screen and never saw the shot. But basically, I said, ‘OK, now I know what it feels like to get scored on.’ It took me a couple more saves, and into the second period, to feel like I belonged here. They had a lot of shots, but a lot of perimeter shots. The guys played really great in front of me, especially the defense.”
The Bulldogs battled back, and the two wingers who sat out Sunday’s game, captain Derek Derow and sophomore Drew Otten, both had a hand in getting the ‘Dogs barking. Derow threw two or three solid bodychecks on his first shift, right after Westrum’s goal, and at 7:50 of the opening period Derow tied the game 1-1 after a stylish rush from UMD’s zone.
Tom Nelson, a junior from Superior, broke out of the UMD end and passed to Nate Anderson, who rushed up the left side. Both Gopher defensemen Ben Tharp and Duluth East grad Nick Angell were back, but Derow came from the bench after changing on the fly. When Tharp and Angell both converged to nail Anderson, he flipped a neat little pass across to Derow, who zoomed in alone and scored on one-time Greenway of Coleraine goaltender Adam Hauser.
“I was kinda late getting into the zone, coming off the bench,” said Derow, who was seeing his first action since missing all of training camp recovering from minor knee surgery. “Nellie had thrown it to Nate and he threw it to me. I brought the puck to my forehand and shot between the goalie’s legs.
“It was tough. They scored twice on the power play, and we didn’t, but 5-on-5, we beat ’em.”
The Gophers outshot UMD in every period, 33-13 for the game, but the Bulldogs were playing their role perfectly, setting up a defensive fortress to guard Coole from having to make any second stops to hold the 1-1 game into the third period. Plus, they were killing all those penalties. UMD wound up with only an 8-6 edge in penalties when three of the last four went against the Gophers.
The UMD coaching staff was mostly perturbed about the last noncall, and they held a very orderly session with Adam about reviewing it on videotape for possible notification of the league office.
Westrum, who has gotten the reputation as a cheapshot operator for three years, and who reportedly has seen the light as Gopher captain, pursued Fibiger to the UMD end boards on an icing call with five minutes left. The whistle blew for the automatic icing, Fibiger pulled up, and Westrum delivered a quick cross-check to send the UMD senior flying awkwardly into the end boards. No penalty was assessed, even though similar checks from behind have been given major and disqualifications in recent years.
That inflamed the Bulldogs more because they had just seen a 1-1 game change because of questionable calls against them.
“Games are decided in the third period, and you’ve got to win the third period,” said Lucia. “All along, I thought we were getting most of the shots, but when it was 1-1, if the puck popped free, that’s all it would take.”
UMD women third in national college hockey ratings
North Dakota retained the No. 1 men’s hockey rating in the country despite having tied its first three games before winning last Saturday for a 1-0-1 weekend at Maine. Wisconsin is second in the country, while Minnesota is seventh and St. Cloud 10th, giving the WCHA four of the top 10 teams in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.
Minnesota is second to Dartmouth with UMD third in the USCHO women’s national ratings, with Wisconsin — this weekend’s UMD foe — rated 10th.
Here are the ratings, prior to this weekend:
USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll
Team (First Place Votes) Record Pts Last
1 North Dakota (22) 1-0-3 564 1
2 Wisconsin (12) 4-0-0 546 3
3 Boston College (3) 2-0-0 506 4
4 Michigan (3) 2-0-2 504 2
5 New Hampshire 2-0-1 429 9
6 Michigan State 1-0-1 377 5
7 Minnesota 2-0-0 295 11
8 Maine 0-1-1 281 8
9 Boston University 0-1-0 200 7
10 St. Cloud 1-0-1 153 12
11 Rensselaer 1-0-0 151 19
12 Lake Superior 3-0-0 150 14
13 Colorado College 2-0-0 144 15
14 St. Lawrence 0-1-0 142 6
15 Cornell 0-0-0 137 10
Others receiving votes: Colgate 104, Nebraska-Omaha 50,
Northeastern 31, Harvard 16, Miami 6, Denver 5,
Northern Michigan 22, Niagara 2, Western Michigan 2,
Air Force 1
USCHO.com Division I Women’s Preseason Poll
October 16, 2000
Team (First Place) Record Pts Last
1 Dartmouth (3) 0-0-0 93 4
2 Minnesota (5) 2-0-0 92 3
3 Minnesota-Duluth (2) 2-0-0 84 2
4 Brown 0-0-0 65 1
5 Harvard 0-0-0 60 5
6 St Lawrence 0-2-0 39 –
7 Northeastern 0-0-0 34 6
8 New Hampshire 0-0-0 30 7
9 Niagara 0-0-0 18 –
10 Wisconsin 2-0-0 13 –
Others receiving votes: Providence 11, Ohio State 6,
Princeton 4, Cornell 1
Bulldogs remain ‘Coole’ for WCHA season opener with Gophers
If the occasion arises where UMD’s Ryan Coole and Minnesota’s Dylan Mills end up battling for the puck along the Mariucci Arena boards this weekend, you can be guaranteed it will be a spirited, rugged scrap. But whichever one wins, watch closely when they separate,
“One of us will probably say something like, ‘Talk to you Sunday,’ ” said Coole.
“I talk to Mills every week,” Coole explained. “We don’t even talk about hockey that much, just about what we’re doing, what’s happening lately.”
Intensity in any WCHA series is extremely high, but this is one of two weekends that rise above the normal level of intensity, when UMD and the Gophers meet. This weekend, the series takes on all sorts of added emphasis, because it’s the first league games for both teams, it’s the first games of new UMD coach Scott Sandelin’s tenure, and it’s the first chunk of evidence of whether the Gophers will return to the role of contender and whether the Bulldogs can rise from the depths to become a challenger.
It’s all that and more for all the Bulldog seniors, eager to lead the turnaround. And for Ryan Coole, a senior defenseman whose personal rivalries already cover the last three seasons, the trip to Mariucci Arena is a highlight of his “farewell tour” of WCHA cities.
“I’m going to enjoy my last year, and savor every trip,” said Coole. “Mariucci is a special place, because that’s where I went to model camp when I was in high school, and sort of established myself.”
Coole and Mills played against each other in Duluth Amateur Hockey Association youth leagues, and played together on the Perkin’s-sponsored Bantam outfit, then went off to high school where they wound up as defensive partners for Duluth East powerhouse teams that won a state championship and, in retrospect, could have won a couple more.
“We were partners for two seasons at East,” Coole said. “He was something else — one of the best I ever played with. It’s funny how things go, but when we were being recruited, it worked out best for both of us to go different directions.”
Mills went off to “the Cities” to join a Gopher program that was undergoing a couple of years of turmoil, culminating in the replacement of Doug Woog by Don Lucia as coach last year. Mills seemed to rise up and prove himself last year, and, while working out with some pro players at Neil Sheehy’s Twin Cities camp late in the summer, Mills already expressed eagerness to get on with this season.
“We’re much closer, and everybody gets along so well on this team,” said Mills. “I think we’ll have a really good year.”
Coole, meanwhile, went to UMD, where the Bulldogs also suffered some setbacks, leading to the replacement of Mike Sertich with Sandelin this season. Coole, however, helped the defense stay solid despite the difficulties, and had an exceptional freshman season as a springboard to three consistent seasons.
“I can’t say enough about the past regime,” said Coole. “But sometimes changes are made. The new coaches have got everybody upbeat. They treat us all like men and expect us to be accountable for our actions, but they want us to go out and be creative. We’ve got a lot of enthusiasm.
“We’ve got 10 great defensemen, too. If somebody goes down, there are more to step in. Right now, Beau Geisler and I are paired. He’s going to be really good, and we already seem to be able to feed off each other.”
That, of course, doesn’t diminish his personal rivalry with his former partner this weekend. The intensity of the rivalry with the Gophers is nowhere near as nasty as it seems from the standpoint of some fans. For Coole, it is, well, “cool.”
“I’d like to win at Mariucci,” said Coole. “We’ve had a couple of ties there, and a couple of games we should have won. But we haven’t won there since I’ve been here.”
Sure enough, the Bulldogs lost 5-3 and 4-0 at Mariucci last season, had a 2-2 tie and a 3-1 loss two years ago, and lost 7-1 and 6-5 his freshman year. That freshman year, however, UMD spanked the Gophers 5-3 and lost 5-1 at the DECC, and climaxed the season by beating Minnesota two out of three in a memorable WCHA playoff series with a 7-3 victory, a 5-0 loss, and a stunning 5-4 victory in the deciding game to end the Gophers season. But going into this season, UMD is 3-10-1 against the Gophers since this crop of seniors started playing.
The rivalry with players like Mills, and the presence of Coole’s brother, freshman goaltendre Adam Coole, as a UMD teammate, add to the whole scenario this time around. On the ice, however, even if Adam Coole was to play goal, Coole probably would exchange more little phrases with Mills.
“I don’t really talk to my brother much, because he’s a goalie,” said Coole. “Goalies are a unique breed. Brant Nicklin was one of my best friends, but I didn’t talk to him much. Because Mills and I both are defensemen, we don’t get much chance to go up against each other 1-on-1. But if we do, we’ll be trying to see who can knock the other one off his feet.”
That would earn bragging rights or heckling privileges the next time they talk to each other. Which will probably be after Saturday night’s game, or else on Sunday.
UMD NOTES/Sandelin said he is inserting Derek Derow and Drew Otten into the lineup after both were held out of Sunday’s 9-1 victory over the University of Regina. Derow will play right wing with cengter Nate Anderson and Tom Nelson, while Otten has been practicing at right wing with center Judd Medak and left wing Mike Miskovich.
‘Dogs open ‘Sandelin era’ with a 9-1 goal outburst over Regina
DULUTH — The Scott Sandelin Era of UMD hockey got off to a bold, free-wheeling start Sunday night in a 9-1 exhibition romp over the University of Regina, and for a while it almost looked too free-wheeling.
The Bulldogs jumped ahead 4-0 in the first period, moving the puck crisply, skating hard and jumping at chances with eagerness. Repeatedly, one of the UMD defensemen zoomed in from the blue line to get a scoring chance as well.
“Yeah,” said Sandelin. “Mark Strobel came down from upstairs and said, ‘Did you tell those guys to go in like that?'”
Sandelin laughed. He hadn’t told the defensemen to gamble offensively, but he didn’t mind, either, that the Bulldogs — returning veterans and newcomers alike — seemed to play with intensity to exorcise the reputation of not being able to score.
In fact, a team that spent the last two years unable to score on purpose scored on Sunday on purpose, by accident, by hard work and by opportunistic strokes of luck. Jim Murphy, a freshman center from St. Paul Johnson by way of Waterloo in the USHL, scored two goals, while his linemates, Jon Francisco and Judd Medak, scored a goal each, and Francisco added three assists for good measure. Other goals came from veterans such as Tom Nelson, Ryan Homstol, Nate Anderson and Jesse Fibiger, and rookies such as Jay Hardwick.
Nelson, a former Superior Spartan, also added three assists for a four-point night.
“There were a lot of positives, I thought,” said Sandelin, after his first game as head coach since taking over for Mike Sertich. “I thought all three goalies played well, and our new guys came through with some goals. It was also good that some of the ‘old guys’ got some goals. Sometimes the game wasn’t all that free-wheeling, but we got to work on our power play and penalty killing.”
The Bulldogs scored five power-play goals and a sixth just after a power play expired before a crowd that might have been curious to see the new team under the new coach. The game drew a crowd of 2,821, undoubtedly affected by the undefeated Vikings football game on home television, and it was the only chance the Bulldogs have as a dress-rehearsal before the upcoming weekend’s WCHA opening series at Minnesota. Regina had played 10 games before coming to Duluth, including games in the Cougars’ league at Manitoba Friday and Saturday.
But having not played didn’t slow the Bulldogs. Captain Derek Derow was held out of the game to fully recover from minor knee surgery, and Drew Otten was among the scratches, which meant the previously light-scoring Bulldogs opened without their top two returning goal-scorers. They responded by outshooting Regina 44-19 and swarmed at the Cougars from the outset. The hustling, aggressive ‘Dogs were held 0-0 for almost a full 10 minutes, then jumped to a 4-0 lead on goals by Homstol and Nate Anderson, both on power plays, and Medak and freshman defenseman Hardwick barely a minute apart later in the session.
None of the goals was what you’d call picturesque, but the early outburst was a promising sign. Homstol scored after rushing up the right side, and his attempt to chip a shot seemed to bounce, off-speed, and fooled goaltender Graham Cook at 9:46. Nate Anderson knocked in a loose puck at 14:27. Medak then went hard to the net to convert a blocked shot by Beau Geisler into the third goal, at 17:01. Hardwick, a freshman from Warroad who is the grandson of former long-time Warroad caoch Dick Roberts, stepped up for a loose puck and carried deep on the left, and when he tried to pass to the crease, the puck glanced in off a Regina defenseman at 18:07.
Sophomore Rob Anderson (from Superior), the incumbent in goal based on experience gained last season, was flawless in the first period, although a 14-4 shot barrage kept the puck at the far end of the DECC rink most of his period.
Sophomore Jason Gregoire had more business in the first six minutes than Rob Anderson had the whole first period, as the Cougars played a much more spirited second period. Murphy, another Bulldog freshman, made it 5-0 with a spin-around shot on a rebound midway through the period, before Regina broke through on a power play at 13:42.
“We had a nice rush and I missed the net,” said Murphy. “Our line had two rebounds, and I knew I had to keep it low and get it on net for a rebound.”
Instead, it went in. Nathan Strueby got the Regina goal, winding up for a big slapshot from the right boards, but UMD, outshooting Regina 13-10 in the second period, had a 5-1 lead.
Adam Coole, a freshman from Duluth East, got the third period, and immediately benefited when Francisco knocked in another goal from the crease at 1:19, and another by Fibiger at 3:44 — both coming on power plays.
The obviously untried power play continued to function well later in the final period, as the Cougars continued a steady tour of the penalty box. While two men up, Nelson smacked in a rebound at 11:40 to make it 8-1, and Murphy got his second goal of his first collegiate game at 13:22, just three seconds after a power play had expired.
“I got the second one on a nice pass from Francisco in the corner,” said Murphy. “He and I and Judd had worked the puck in low, Judd cycled the puck to Frannie, and he made a nice pass to me. It took me two tries to knock it in.”
However, it did go in. Everything went in for the Bulldogs in the game — the perfect start to a new regime.
Holst, Alexander score late goals to lift UMD women to 4-3 win
DULUTH, MINN.—Sometimes winning requires nothing more than the refusal to lose. For the UMD women’s hockey team, Erika Holst and Laurie Alexander came through with third-period goals to lift the Bulldogs from a 3-2 deficit to a 4-3 victory and a sweep of their opening series against St. Lawrence.
The two pivotal goals both came from individual determination. UMD outshot the Saints 44-29 for the game, but Emily Stein, a senior and surprise starter in goal for St. Lawrence, had been almost impossible to beat for over two and a half periods. With 7:46 to play in the third, the 3-2 Saints lead forged on two goals from Shannon Smith was looking more and more valid. Then Holst scored her second of the night, an opportunistic goal to be sure.
“The puck came out to me and I shot,” said Holst, a sophomore center from Nykoping, Sweden. “The puck bounced up in the air, and I was behind the goal line so I tried to bat it out in front. But it hit the goalie’s pads and went in.”
A little luck was the result of Holst’s work, and the score was knotted 3-3.
With 3:58 remaining, and overtime looming, the Bulldogs attacked again. The top two lines couldn’t find the net, so Alexander, a sophomore from Pense, Saskatchewan, carried the puck out from behind the net in heavy traffic. “I got one shot, and we kept hacking at it. She left a little room, and it went in under her pads.”
Was it her biggest goal at a Bulldog? Alexander, who scored three goals as a freshman last season, smiled and said: “I think so, yeah.”
This was a game the Bulldogs seemed almost destined to lose. In Friday’s 7-0 victory, the Bulldogs admitted it might have been different had St. Lawrence scored on repeated early chances. In Saturday’s rematch, the Saints DID score on some of those chances, and it WAS a different game.
Smith, a sophomore from Fernie, British Columbia, solved UMD goaltender Tuula Puputti at 1:05 of the first period to give the Saints a 1-0 lead, and five minutes later, Suzanne Fiacco, a junior from Norwood, N.Y., scored again. The Bulldogs, who played an erratic first period in Friday’s game, played a much better first period in the rematch, but trailed 2-0 because of Stein’s 13 saves. The Saints had used two goaltenders in Friday’s game, neither of whom was Stein, a senior from Nepean, Ontario. She was solid all night in Game 2, and the Bulldogs had to work to crack the scoring column.
“We have two seniors and two freshmen for goaltenders,” said Saints coach Paul Flanagan. “Emily played very well tonight. They’re so strong, but we came out here wanting a tough series, and we got it. Give our kids credit. Last night we fell back on our heels after they scored their third goal. Tonight, we did a better job of checking and staying in our systems.”
If there was a turning point that got the Bulldogs untracked, it was when referee Annette Voracek called a weird penalty on Holst to open the second period. She was squeezing a Saints skater off along the boards right in front of the benches, and the St. Lawrence skater thumped into the padded post separating the two player benches and went down hard. Voracek, from across the rink, called an elbowing penalty on Holst.
“I was mad,” said Holst. “We came out all pumped up for the second period, and 20 seconds into it they called that penalty on me.”
The sophomore from Sweden came out of the penalty box and went right to the net, joining a flurry of action just in time to swat a loose puck past Stein to cut the deficit to 2-1. “I was frustrated, and just after I came out, Jenny Hempel and I came in on the net,” Holst said. “She shot, and the rebound was staying there for me.”
The jump-start got the Bulldogs going, and just 25 seconds later, Brittny Ralph whistled in a shot from the right point for a 2-2 tie.
That score stood until the third period, but nothing was easy for UMD in this one.
Smith carried the puck into the UMD zone, filtered through a gambling defense, and cruised in front, hesitating to let Puputti drop to the ice and then lifting a shot into the upper left corner to reclaim a 3-2 lead for St. Lawrence at 5:32.
That put the pressure squarely on the Bulldogs offense, and, thanks to Holst and Alexander, they responded to gain both a narrow escape and a victory.
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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