Blyleven earned overdue call to Hall
It was a pleasure to watch some of the television highlights put together to honor Bert Blyleven’s long-overdue entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame. It brought back some stirring memories of just how exceptional Blyleven was when he pitched for the Twins in two stretches, covering half of his 22-year Major League career.
Most of the highlights showed Blyleven’s mesmerizing curveball. The righthander would throw that pitch at considerable speed. If the batter was right-handed, he obviously had no interest in swinging at a pitch coming in just behind his shoulder blade. About the time the batter was deciding whether to hit the deck or simply bail out, the ball would start curving, and it would keep curving until it almost looked radar-controlled as it veered across the plate. Usually it would be a called strike, but in some cases a batter would stay with it, and venture a swing. And miss.
If the batter was left-handed, the highlights would show Blyleven firing the pitch in the same place, and the batter would understandably give up on a pitch that was a foot outside. But, sure enough, that amazing trajectory would guide the ball to curve in, invariably catching the outside corner, or maybe more, of the plate.
Everybody knows, or knew, that Blyleven had a deadly curve ball. Years before him, Camilo Pascual had the same sort of curve for the Twins when they first arrived in Minnesota. But the full sweep of Blyleven’s curve, and the greater velocity it carried, made it practically unhitable.
The part of the highlight show I enjoyed the most, however, was when it showed Blyleven throwing his fast ball. He had tremendous velocity on his fast ball, and as it approached the plate, it would sail, up and away to the right. Blyleven was interviewed while those pitches were being shown, and he said that while everybody talks about his curve ball, it was his fast ball that was his best pitch, because not only was it fast enough to blow past some of the best hitters in Major League ball at the time, but it meant those hitters had to be ready for it, and thus would be hopelessly overmatched by the curve.
Blyleven, who does a good job as color commentator on Twins Fox Sports North broadcasts, has been known for his outspoken hostility at the baseball writers who voted and prevented him from making the hall for 14 years. Now that he’s finally made it, he was extremely gracious and cordial in his remarks. However, he was absolutely correct in his first assessment — the writers were wrong, year after year, for not voting Blyleven in long ago.
True, he lost 250 games, while winning 287, but he was on some pretty poor teams during many of his 22 years. With the Twins from 1970-76, and then again after various trades brought him back in 1985, had a 149-138 record during those 11 years. But here are the most meaningful statistics that should have put Blyleven into the Hall years ago: He started 685 games and completed 242 of them; he is ninth among all pitchers in history with 60 shutouts; his 3,701 strikeouts rank him fifth among all pitchers in history.
In this era of pitch-count and specialization, how many of the current Twins pitchers will throw 242 complete games? If you guessed “None,†you’d be right on. How many current Twins pitchers will ever throw 60 shutouts? None, again. Realistically, then, nobody would argue if the top 10 pitchers in shutouts, or the top 10 in strikeouts, all were voted into the Hall of Fame. Blyleven qualifies on both counts, and has been sitting there ninth and fifth for all 14 years he had to wait before getting the call.
Speaking of the Twins, don’t you just love to listen to all the media experts who alternate between pulling hamstrings trying to leap onto the bandwagon, and getting flat feet when jumping off it? Time after time, this season. The Twins made a fantastic run up from the worst record in the Major Leagues to get within striking distance of the Central Division lead. Then they lost twice to Cleveland last week at home, and virtually everybody wrote them off all over again. So they won the next two, to split the four-game series, and everybody was back on the bandwagon. Next, Detroit came to Minneapolis and whipped the Twins twice, and while the Twins came back to win the third game, they lost the fourth, and again the naysayers threw in the towel.
Then it was off to Texas, where the Twins got humiliated 20-6 in a game that, hard to believe, wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Nick Blackburn gave up three in the first, three in the second, and three in the third. They turned the ball over to Jose Mijares, and he escaped the third but gave up five in the fourth. The classic was that Michael Cuddyer, who has moved in from the outfield to play infield when necessary, actually came in to save the beleaguered bullpen and threw a shutout inning — better than any Twins actual pitcher on Monday night.
That 20-6 blowout, of course, signaled the ultimate doomsaying throughout the radio and newspaper cynics in the Twin Cities. Game 2 of the series came around and the Twins, after blowing a 3-0 lead, fell behind 7-3, then improbably rallied dramatically to win 9-8. In the top of the ninth, the Twins caught fire on a pinch-hit double by Jim Thome and a crucial infield-chop single by much-maligned Japanese rookie Tsuyoshi Nishioka, which caught the Twins up at 8-8, setting the stage forJoe Mauer to come off the bench for a 3-2 line drive double to left center to win the game. Joe Nathan closed it with a strong last of the ninth.
The point is, losing a couple games and then winning a couple games was impressive, and coming back from a 20-6 rout for a thrilling 9-8 victory — followed by another victory and then a loss for a four-game split in Texas — has to confuse the bandwagon jumpers. Perhaps the Twins dug themselves too deep a hole to win the pennant, but they have made a fantastic bid to get back into it, and in a 162-game season, it’s absurd for even self-appointed experts to read the scope of the whole season into a bad game or two, or 10. True, the Twins didn’t match up too well against Cleveland and Detroit, and Texas, but those three are among the best teams in the American League this season, and the Twins were 5-7 in the 12-game killer drill against them. Had they pulled out one move victory, they’d have been 6-6. And if they get on a roll, they indeed could catch up.
And if they don’t? Well, we can all just tune out the “experts” and enjoy the quite remarkable entertainment value each game contains. And remember, the Twins already have a better winning percentage than all the naysayers and bandwagon jumpers combined.
WCHA races ahead into unknown
For over 60 years, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association resembled a perfectly-tuned race car, speeding ahead of the pack with efficient precision, while compiling an impressive number of national championships that overwhelm all other college hockey leagues combined. The fact that UMD could rise up from a sputtering fourth-place finish in the WCHA to win its first NCAA title in 2011 is further evidence of the league’s domination.
Then came the Summer of 2011, and some WCHA member schools have willingly chosen to turn off the track in a new direction, swerving down two different avenues, which will either be wildly successful for themselves, or devastatingly harmful for college hockey. Or both.
And UMD is right in the middle of the turmoil.
College hockey interest is intense in Northern Minnesota, and has been cultivated for more than a full generation or two. The pinnacle came in April of 2011 when the UMD Bulldogs won the first NCAA Division 1 men’s hockey championship by any Minnesota team not named Gophers.
Hockey fans all have taken great pride in the WCHA, knowing it is the best college hockey league in the nation — not “one of the best,†as the ill-informed outsiders of the Duluth News-Tribune’s editorial board claimed. Despite defections and revisions over 60 years, the WCHA retained its lofty stature, with UMD becoming part of it. The WCHA will continue to be the best NCAA Division 1 hockey league, untouched, for the next two seasons. And then — the WCHA will be blown to bits.
The WCHA used to encompass all college hockey programs from Michigan west. It totally dominated through the 1970s, survived a major shakeup when Michigan led a withdrawal that also lured Michigan State, Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan out of the WCHA, in order to start the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Teams have come and gone, but the status of the WCHA remained.
Flash forward, and status quo remains for the next two seasons, keeping intact all the colorful rivalries UMD, for example, enjoys with Minnesota, St. Cloud State, Michigan Tech, Bemidji State, North Dakota and the rest of the WCHA. But when hockey starts in the fall of 2013, the league will scatter in three different directions. Solid rivals UMD, Minnesota, and St. Cloud State will all be in different leagues — maybe still playing each other in nonconference games, which will have greatly reduced intensity; maybe not playing at all.
Reality followed rumors that the five current Big Ten teams currently in either the WCHA and CCHA would be joined by a startup program at Penn State, creating a new Big Ten hockey conference. It’s ironic that Michigan is pushing for the Big Ten rivalries, because Michigan kissed off those same heated rivalries with Minnesota and Wisconsin when it left the WCHA.
The reason for reuniting as a Big Ten hockey league may appear to be strictly for potential television revenue, because the Big Ten Network is doing right well broadcasting football and basketball every Saturday, but it would like something to broadcast on Friday nights, too. Hockey fills that bill, although we could make a bet that when Saturdays roll around, how many lousy Big Ten basketball games will ever be bounced off the air to show a great Big Ten hockey game.
Less understood is that the Big Ten strongly urges that any time as many as six Big Ten universities are involved in a sport, they should align in a Big Ten Conference in that sport. When Penn State announced it was starting a hockey program for both men and women, the Nittany Lions became the sixth Big Ten team with hockey. Minnesota, in fact, voted against the concept of a Big Ten hockey league, but had no real choice.
Two years from now, Minnesota and Wisconsin leave the WCHA, and Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State leave the CCHA, joining up with Penn State for a six-team Big Ten league. Four of the six — Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan State — have all been members of the NCAA hockey elite, but in reality, Minnesota and Michigan State have slipped over the last few years. A mass of early pro signings that included five underclassmen on defense caused a temporary slip by Wisconsin this past season, but we can assume Wisconsin will rise back to its previous stature. Questions continue to plague Minnesota and Michigan State returning to elite level. Regardless, Michigan is the only Big Ten school that has remained consistently elite. So the Big Ten hockey league won’t necessarily be an instant member of college hockey’s elite class.
Without Minnesota and Wisconsin two years from now, the WCHA could easily have retained its position as the best league in the nation. North Dakota has stayed at the elite level, and Denver has nearly matched the Fighting Sioux. Colorado College is usually there, and now Nebraska-Omaha has surged up to that status. UMD has risen to that level at least for the present, while St. Cloud State and Bemidji State are close behind, and Minnesota State-Mankato, Alaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech hope to rise.
Right after the Big Ten formation became official, North Dakota seemed to panic a bit, wondering if its position as the No. 1 program in all of college hockey would hold up if the WCHA slipped in  stature by the Big Ten departures. Officials in Grand Forks overlooked the fact that North Dakota could be the lynchpin in assuring the WCHA’s continued prominence, and started examining alternatives to staying in the WCHA. They decided to start a new league, and Denver, CC, and Nebraska-Omaha jumped on board, which led to UMD trying to join, too. Forming a “super†league that would also include Miami of Ohio and, they hope, Notre Dame, became reality. UMD pursued the group and got on board, too. Officially, it will be called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
NCHC teams all are claiming to be looking at the big picture, when in reality that may be their major shortcoming. In their zeal for me-too prominence, nobody seems to care a whit about what would remain as the WCHA, or about the future of NCAA hockey.
UMD, which has been striving for elite status for 50 years, and attained it for a few years in the mid-1980s, now has finally reached its peak by winning its first NCAA championship in men’s hockey this past April. We can only wonder how eager the other defecting WCHA powers, like North Dakota and Denver, would have been to welcome UMD if the Bulldogs hadn’t won their new title. A championship, even a fantastic championship, following a fourth-place finish, hardly chisels a team’s name into the elite category.
Certainly, St. Cloud State, Mankato, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, the two Alaskas, Western Michigan, and Ferris State are far from rejects staying behind. While the Big Ten arrogantly says its winner will get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, so would the NCHC teams, and so will the collection of remaining western teams, whether they call it the WCHA or whatever. And who’s to say the winner of the remaining WCHA wouldn’t be just as good as the NCHC or Big Ten champ in any given year?
College hockey programs don’t seem to realize that with so few teams playing the sport, they are fortunate the NCAA allows them to have a national tournament. It’s also fortunate that the NCAA hockey tournament has become such a major financial success that the “show me the money†lads at the NCAA definitely won’t want to lose it. But some of these programs left behind by the new elite leagues might decide that it’s not worth the expense to keep playing, and if a few schools drop their programs, the future of the NCAA hockey tournament could indeed be jeopardized.
There is one other matter the new leagues haven’t considered. Eastern college hockey teams are clustered in either the ECAC or Hockey East, both of which have elite teams, middle teams, and poor teams, revolving to some extent with the roller-coasters of recruiting and returning crops. So does the WCHA and CCHA. A major reason why the top teams are the best is reflected in their records of usually beating the middle teams, and almost always beating the bottom ones.
Now that the NCHC has isolated six very strong programs, guess what? No matter how good all league teams might be, a couple will have good records up on top, a couple more will be about .500, and a couple others will have poor records at the bottom. A team such as UMD, or Colorado College, or any other in the NCHC, could be one of the 10 best teams in the country, and still finish 5-15 and at the bottom of the NCHC. Will an elite team in an elite league still be considered elite if it goes 5-15 against other elite teams in that league? More than that, a 5-15 team in the NCHC might be stronger than a St. Cloud State or Bemidji State that goes 16-4 to win what’s left of the WCHA, but will the NCAA selection computers discern that quality difference?
Last season, North Dakota, UMD, Nebraska-Omaha, Denver, Colorado College, and Miami of Ohio all were selected for the NCAA’s 16-team tournament field. Those six are all making up the NCHC. But when they all play each other in the same new league, without lowlier teams to fatten their records against, three or four of those teams might be bypassed for teams that aren’t as strong but have better records in less-elite leagues.
I’ve always thought that college hockey programs should be more focused on expanding rather than isolating top teams. They should actively campaign to get programs established at North Dakota State, maybe Minnesota State-Moorhead, which is interested in going D1, plus Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State, to begin with, and then head on down to some California colleges, Arizona State maybe, and even Montana and Wyoming. Minor league pro and/or Major junior hockey has given the sport a base in Seattle, Spokane, Portland and other cities in the Northwest, so college hockey could be easily established. Think what a great league it would be to have Denver, CC, the two Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State combined into a competitive league, with more teams trying to get in.
Without that, and without the sly and possibly sinister way of abandoning honest and worthy rivalries in the WCHA, let’s look at what cooler heads might have sought:
Imagine keeping the WCHA and CCHA intact as they are, and arranging the schedules so that the Big Ten schools stay where they are right now, but all play each other in nonconference games, and then keeping a separate Big Ten standing. A team like Minnesota or Wisconsin could finish fourth or fifth in the WCHA, and still be the Big Ten champion. At playoff time, if they insist, the Big Ten teams could go off into their own Big Ten tournament for a playoff, and seek their own seeding for NCAA tournament entry.
Another scenario might have sent the Big Ten teams off to their own conference, while the remainder of the WCHA and CCHA could get together and form a new truly super league, with two 9-team divisions, and minimal disruption. The Eastern half might include, say, UMD, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Western Michigan, Miami of Ohio, Ferris State, and Notre Dame; the Western half would be North Dakota, St. Cloud State, MSU-Mankato, Nebraska-Omaha, Denver, CC, the two Alaskas, and maybe Air Force Academy. The leagues could play interlocking, with either two or four games each against teams in their own division, and two each against teams from the other division.
Those would be full schedules, which might not leave room to play any of the departed Big Ten teams. Someone from Minnesota scoffed at that, saying all the other teams would still clamor to play the Gophers, proving that arrogance can remain even as quality dissipates. If might be good for Minnesota to learn that, never mind the size and self-absorbed prestige of Big Ten rivals, it will be a lot tougher to fill Mariucci Arena for Ohio State, Penn State and even Michigan State than for UMD, St. Cloud State or North Dakota. And when the Western division fills the centrally located Xcel Center, or large rinks in Omaha, Grand Forks, or Denver for its playoff, and the Eastern half does the same in Detroit, the Big Ten has chosen a higher-seed site for playoffs, which could leave its playoff final in 6,000-seat Yost Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor.
The idea of UMD joining North Dakota in starting their own super NCHC might seem exciting and promising short-term, and every regular season game in the new league will be exciting. But I worry most about the programs being left behind. Whatever transpires, the next two seasons of status-quo WCHA play should be very interesting, as well as highly competitive. The current rivalries might definitely intensify when the self-appointed “elite†teams take on the “castoffs†they’re leaving behind.
Two years from now, that efficient and precise race car speeding down the track, wearing WCHA colors, will change abruptly. The wheels will come off, it might spin out, and it could crash into a wall. If so, that impending crash would have to be attributed to “Driver error.”
Kenyan wins closest Grandma’s finish
Christopher Kipyego, left, edges Teklu Deneke at Grandma's finish.
By John Gilbert
Christopher Kipyego expressed confidence before Grandma’s Marathon that he would win. He said he was confident that he’d win all through the 26.2-mile run down the North Shore, and even in the final steps, after he passed Teklu Deneke on the Canal Park Drive homestretch. Then he took his final step in the race, and only then was he unsure of himself.
“It was so close at the finish that I didn’t know I had won,” said Kipyego, 37, who is from Kenya but now splits his time between his homeland and Zacatecas, Mexico.
Incredibly, Kipyego and Deneke, 31, who is from Ethiopia, hit the finish line side-by-side, step-for-step. Both were credited with unofficial times of 2 hours, 12 minutes, 17 seconds. Race officials immediately declared Kipyego the winner, but it took some time before Kipyego’s official time was listed as 2:12:16.36, to Deneke’s 2:12:16.56 — a margin of two-tenths of a second.
In 1999, Andrew Musava beat Tesfaye Bekele by 4 seconds, which was the record for a close finish until Saturday’s finish. After spending more than 2 hours running 26.2 miles, a margin of 4 seconds seems miniscule. But it seemed enormous once this year’s finish was inscribed in the books.
Those lining the streets could see this would be a close finish, but even those near the finish line couldn’t have anticipated the way the final 30 yards unfolded. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that Kipyego had decided on his own to make the 2011 Grandma’s Marathon the closest finish possible. Having passed Deneke as the two made the final turn, under a decorative arch to come down Canal Park Drive, Kipyego had pulled ahead by a couple of strides.
Then he hesitated, misidentifying the finish line. “I stopped early, because I thought the finish line was 20 meters before,” said Kipyego, who mistook the lines of the timing pad for the finish. “Right away, I saw people up ahead at the finish line, so I went again.”
Two strides from the tape, Chris Kipyego, left, of Kenya strained to hold off Ethiopia's Teklu Deneke.
The 5-foot-6, 123-pound Kipyego recovered in an instant, but he had lost his momentum, while Deneke caught up. A photo taken two strides from the finish showed Deneke just behind Kipyego’s left elbow, but a photo shot just across the finish line showed them exactly side-by-side. In the photo finish, Kipyego’s left shoulder hit the banner and his left foot crossed the line just before Deneke by the slimmest of margins. Had the finish line been two strides farther, Deneke would have won.
Race director Scott Keenan chased after Kipyego to inform him he had won. It was his first victory in a U.S. marathon for Kipyego, who ran his fastest time. “I’m improving,” smiled Kipyego. “I did my best today, at 2:12:17. My best before was 2:12:56.”
Deneke was philosophical about coming so close. “I’m disappointed, but happy with second,” he said. “Only one person wins every race, and I thought I could win this one. You go to every race thinking you can win. We got down to four of us running together in the lead group, and everyone wants to win, so everyone picks up the pace. With one mile to go, I was still thinking of winning, and I was pushing hard the last mile. But I also know I did my best.”
Except for a brief stretch midway through the race, when American Jeff Eggleston, 26, of Flagstaff, Ariz., surprised a leading group of 10 East Africans by catching them from behind and taking the lead for about two miles, it was apparent that this would be another in what has become a traditional victory parade for runners from Kenya. Only Minnesota native Brian Raabe’s surprising victory two years ago broke a string of 15 consecutive triumphs by foreign runners, and 11 of those have been from Kenya.
In fact , Kipyego said “I knew about this race in Kenya before I came here,” noting that Grandma’s is known as a race in the United States that welcomes Kenyan runners. Seven of the 10 runners who led most of the race were from Kenya, and the other three from Ethiopia. The neighboring East African nations have a culture of running distances as the most logical mode of transportation, outside the towns, and while they are rivals, they are friendly and respectful rivals, although Kipyago hadn’t met Deneke until Friday night, at the Radisson Hotel.
“Yesterday, I talked to this guy at the hotel, and he’s a good guy,” said Kipyego, who now splits his time residing with his wife and young son between Kenya and Mexico. “I didn’t know how good he was, and I was surprised when he was in the lead group with us. We didn’t talk during the race.”
He said he’d learned something from each of his four previous attempts at Grandma’s Marathon. His learning reached a peak last year, when he was in the lead of a three-man cluster as they cruised down Superior Street. But when they got to Fifth Avenue West, where the course makes a 90-degree turn down the hill to the harbor, countryman Philemon Kemboi made a third-to-first pass and won, leaving Kipyego second. Kemboi ran into visa problems and was unable to return to defend his title, which may have boosted Kipyego’s confidence.
“This is my fifth Grandma’s, and I know the course,” he said. “My first time here, it was too hot, and I crashed — I collapsed at the finish line. I improved my time in my second Grandma’s, but last year I didn’t improve, so I changed my training a little, and I was more careful in the race.”
The race started near Two Harbors in rainy, dreary conditions, and temperatures didn’t climb as high as 50 until the race was over. The rain subsided, but conditions were less than ideal for the spectators who annually line Highway 61 and London Road and Superior Streeet in Duluth. Nor were they favorable for the East African runners who prefer it much hotter. The cool weather prompted better times and more endurance from many of the runners, but not all of them.
“This was too cold,” Kipyego said, with a smile, as he tugged on the skin on his wrist. “I’m too thin. I had to run the first hour and a half just to get warm.”
After Eggleston caught the leaders at Mile 18, he was unable to sustain his impressive pace and eventually took fifth. But Eggleston, who finished second in the Twin Cities Marathon two years ago, had an impact on the lead group, which quickened its pace. Sammy Malakwen, another Kenya runner, who placed third, moved ahead as the leaders neared Lemon Drop Hill, at 27th Avenue East and London Road, although he couldn’t pull away from Kipyego and Deneke.
Sammy Malakwen led at midrace and battled to take third.
“A different guy would come up and push, which was really good,” said Malakwen. “I started to take the lead on London Road, and I tried to push, push, push. But when I came up the hill, I could feel my muscles tightening. When we came under the bridge for the last stretch, I was 50 meters behind the two leaders. By that time, I was so exhausted and my muscles were cramping, so I knew I had no chance to win. But I had a good view of their finish.”
Kipyego and Malakwen both list Eldoret as their home city in Kenya, and Kipyego said many runners go to Eldoret to train. Kipyego, who won the $10,000 first-place money as well as $1,500 in incentive money from his sub-2:13 time, returned to Zacatecas, Mexico, the day after the marathon, just in time for his son’s third birthday. He said he spends about three months in Mexico, then returns to Kenya to live and train for about three months, where his mother lives on a farm.
“It is our culture to be born not in town,” he said.
It also is Kenya’s culture to run. Kipyego said when he was younger, he ran other track events. “I used to run 800 meters in Kenya, and my best time was a 1:48 when I was 19,” he said. “I ran 3:43 in the 1500, and 3:59 in the mile.”
I asked Kipyego if he had ever run a 200-meter dash, and he said no. I suggested that might have been good practice, because the closest finish in Grandma’s Marathon came down to a 200-meter sprint. He laughed, and agreed. With a little more practice, he could execute his closing 200-meter sprint without the hesitation near the finish line. You’ve heard of “false starts,” but Kipyego won after a “false finish.”
DELELECHA WINS WOMEN’S CROWN
Yehunish Delelecha pulled away to victory in the women's division.
Yihunlish Bekele Delelecha, 29, from Ethiopia, had less drama winning the women’s division by almost a full minute, with a 2:30:39 time to runnerup Everlyne Lagat’s 2:31:32. A group of three women runners pulled ahead of their challengers, but Delelecha got away and won handily over Lagat and third-place Dot McMahan, from Rochester Hills, Mich.
“We were in a group of three at about 19 miles, and then I tried to pull ahead,” said Delelecha, deciding on the move when she suspected her rivals were tiring. “I heard their breath, and that gave me confidence. After I got ahead, I looked back and my lead was about 50 meters. I changed my pace several times. I’d look back, and if I thought anyone was getting closer, I could go faster.”
When asked if anyone ever got close enough to make her speed up, Delelecha smiled and shook her head. She said she spends some time in Washington, D.C., but for nine months she lives in Albuquerque, N.M., “because the weather is similar to Ethiopia.”
The weather along the North Shore Saturday definitely was not similar to the heat of Ethiopia. “It is much cooler here, but good for running,” said Delelecha, who has run, and won, only two marathons this year — Pittsburgh and Grandma’s.
NOTES:Â Eggleston, who was fifth, and sixth-place Matthew Gabrielson of St. Louis Park were the top U.S. runners in the men’s marathon…Third-place Dot McMahan, a Wisconsin native whose parents live in Aitkin, was the top U.S. women’s finisher, and Jennifer Houck, from Wright, and a former St. Scholastica runner now living in Bloomington, placed fifth as the top Minnesotan.
While nobody threatened Dick Beardsley’s 30-year-old record of 2:09 for the full marathon, the top eight finishers in the men’s Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon were under the 2002 record. Derese Deniboba Rashaw won in 1:02:19, starting the day of close finishes by narrowly edging Tesfaye Alemayehu, who clocked 1:02:22, and third-place Fernando Cabada, at 1:02:32. The old record was 1:04:19, set by Ryan Meissen.
Saul Mendoza, of Wimberly, Texas, won his second straight wheelchair marathon and seventh altogether, but never had a closer call than Saturday, when his 1:28:53.4 inched ahead of runner-up Jorge Jimenez, from Spain, who was a half-second back at 1:28:53.9. Mendoza looked a little like an auto racer at the finish as he inched ahead of Jimenez and then sort of casually wheeled over in an effective blocking position to the finish…Amanda McGrory, 25, of Champaign, Ill., won her fifth Grandma’s female wheelchair class in the last six years and shattered her course record by nearly seven seconds. McGrory, who won four straight before not competing in last year’s Grandma’s, clocked a 1:39:30 to erase the record she set in 2007 at 1:46:29.
UMD takes final bow at AMSOIL Arena
UMD goaltender Kenny Reiter watched a video of...Kenny Reiter.
By John Gilbert
Before UMD embarked on its fanciful flight to the NCAA hockey championship, my suggestion to Bulldog fans was to savor every second of it, because no matter how good your team is, there are no guarantees, and the chances to win an NCAA title can be — as the late Waylon Jennings would put it — “far and few between.”
The celebration for the team, a week ago now, at Amsoil Arena, was heartfelt and brief, for a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 3,500. It was less brief for the players, who were honored on a set of bleachers down on the arena floor, with fitting tributes from Mayor Don Ness, new chancellor Lendley C. Black, coach Scott Sandelin, assistant coach Brett Larson, and captain Mike Montgomery.
Then the players went up to the concourse and signed autographs, from about 7 p.m. until after 11 p.m.
Somebody said that they expected more fans than what showed up, but realistically, waiting four days for the official celebration undoubtedly allowed some of the fans to cool off a bit, and there might have been others still at home, swooning.
“Is this starting to settle in with anybody? It’s still a surreal experience for me,” said Montgomery, one of four seniors who played against Michigan in the 3-2 overtime victory.
Captain Mike Montgomery, final pep-talk.
He went on to thank the university for “letting us play hockey and pursue an education at the same time. We got to say goodbye to the DECC and christen this new building. And hopefully, now that we’ve broken the seal, this can be the first of many championships.”
That’s the key. The Bulldogs were winning their first NCAA men’s Division 1 championship in hockey, or in any sport, for that matter. Michigan, on the other hand, was going for its 10th, and has the record for NCAA and Frozen Four appearances. But if you look it up, most of those were in the old days, when the East designated two teams and the West — which later became the WCHA — designated two teams. They’d go somewhere and play each other, semifinals and final. Coach Red Berenson has been running the Wolverines program for 27 years, and he has won only two NCAA championships, despite getting there almost every season.
Michigan’s two titles came in 1996 and 1998, and if you ask Berenson, the 1997 team was his best — the one that had seven 20-goal scorers. But they got beat. The lesson is, you jump at the chance when it comes around, and you don’t waste time thinking that you might have a better chance next season. Consider North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux were the best team in the country down the stretch, right up until losing 2-0 to Michigan in the semifinals. The Sioux players now will tell you that the season was not a success, despite winning the WCHA, the playoffs, the Midwest Regional — because they didn’t win the NCAA championship. Dave Hakstol is one of the best coaches around, and he has taken numerous outstanding Sioux teams to the tournament. But the Sioux have yet to win the NCAA under Hakstol, which seems an aberration.
The Bulldogs won it under coach Scott Sandelin, and they will raise their banner high next season, when, on paper, they could be even stronger.
But as soon as the celebration ended, word came that junior Mike Connolly had signed a pro contract with San Jose, passing up his senior year. The next day, freshman defenseman Justin Faulk signed with Carolina, as expected, and will pass up his final three seasons. Now Sandelin himself is heading off to Penn State to talk to the Nittany Lions about moving there and starting a new program.
If we’ve learned anything from all those years of not winning before winning by surprise this year, we aren’t going to hold our breath until next season. We’ll just wait and see. Meanwhile, we can savor the moments of victory at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, and we can include that celebration at Amsoil Arena.
Duluth Mayor Don Ness and UMD fan Roy Niemi.
Mayor Don Ness spoke first, and talked about how proud the City of Duluth is, and how Governor Mark Dayton had proclaimed that very day, Wednesday, as UMD Bulldog Hockey Day in Minnesota. “As mayor, I get to make a proclamation, too,” Ness said. “I hereby proclaim that on behalf of hockey fans in Duluth, every player on this team with remaining eligibility returns next year and wins another championship.”
Sounded good at the moment, although Ness had heard that Connolly and Faulk were gone to big-money pro contracts.
Chancellor Black, who just took over and must think all is well after his new university won the Division II football title and now the Division I hockey championship, pulled out a sun visor, to which a blond wig had been attached, as he took the podium. He put it on, so that he would show unity with the players on the team, almost all of whom had dyed their hair blond for the playoffs. Black talked about the comments and messages he has received congratulating UMD for the accomplishment, and Bulldog fans for their demeanor.
New chancellor Lendley C. Black fllipped his wig.
“Our last three opponents,” Black continued, “were Michigan, Notre Dame, and Yale. Those are all three outstanding institutions academically as well as athletically. That’s good company to be in…It’s an opportunity for UMD men’s hockey to join and remain among the elite teams of college hockey.”
Brett Larson, former player and now assistant coach, who shaves his head to keep up with a once-receding hairline, took the podium next. “I don’t care what anybody says,” Larson said to chancellor Black. “I think your hair looks great. I’d take it.”
Larson, who recalled the recent pain as assistant coach when UMD lost to Miami of Ohio two yeas ago, also talked about how being part of UMD’s hockey alumni, which is as much a family as the Bulldogs team was this past year. “And I’d like to welcome our seniors into our family,” Larson said.
After Larson and Montgomery talked, Sandelin got his turn. “Brett has been with me for three years,” Sandelin said. “And he hasn’t lost his hair from the job — he started that way.”
Sandelin added how proud he was of his 26-man roster. “This group, some who have been playing since we lost to Miami, last year didn’t get into the tournament,” Sandelin said. “We talked about where the tournament was this year — Saint Paul — and what we’d have to do to get there. They have to deal with me on a daily basis, so give them tremendous credit.
“Some said we were in a slump at the end of the season, but when you’ve never lost two games in a row all season, I don’t know if it could be called a slump.”
That’s us bozos in the media, Scott, I confess. You fooled us by not losing two in a row, but going winless in three straight, with a loss, a tie, and a loss, during a 2-4-2 stretch over the final eight games of the regular season. For a team that had a chance to win the league title, 2-4-2 is a slump, baby.
UMD coach Scott Sandelin was the center of attention.
“I knew this would be big in Duluth, if we could do it,” Sandelin added. “I’ve always believed you could win in Duluth. And this is just a start.”
Then they played highlight videos on Amsoil’s big screen of the NCAA tournament victories, over Union, Yale, Notre Dame, and Michigan. Getting hot at the right time is what matters, once you’ve qualified for the NCAA. North Dakota came to the Frozen Four on a 15-game unbeaten streak, and was shut out in the semifinals. UMD? Well, Scott, we’ll forget that 2-4-2 homestretch, and swap it gladly for a four-game NCAA tournament winning streak.
HIGH SECURITY
Another passing of the torch came Tuesday of this week. On the day the Bulldogs won the NCAA title at Xcel Center, I suggested to the fellow sitting next to me that the Minnesota Wild should sign Justin Fontaine, who was just completing his senior season, and put him to work the next day, Sunday, in their last game of the NHL season against Detroit. Let’s see now,
After ceremony, UMD athletic director Bob Nielsen shook hands with every player.
Fontaine is a skilled and creative puck-mover and goal scorer, and the Wild desperately needs to find a playmaker and goal-scorer…So on Tuesday, their season done, the Wild announced they have signed Fontaine. That makes Fontaine, Mike Connelly, and Faulk — three NCAA champion Bulld0gs heading for, hopefully, the NHL.
Another NHL image came into focus as I was moving through the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International airport security line later Tuesday. I was heading toward a flight to New York for the New York Auto Show, and as we emptied our pockets into the trays for security check, I noticed a very large, dark-skinned, broad-shouldered young man right ahead of me, wrestling to put all the proper items in the trays. I recognized him right away. It was Dustin Byfuglien, the former Roseau kid who burst onto the North American hockey scene last season when he played a vital role as a tough winger or defenseman who also had great hands and could score, helping the Chicago Blackhawks rush through the NHL to win the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
I introduced myself to him as someone who has long been a follower of all things Roseau in hockey, and how at the start of the season, I wrote that the Blackhawks would miss Byfuglien much more than Byfuglien would miss the Blackhawks, after Chicago made its choices of who to protect and who to let go through free agency, and Byfuglien was odd man out. He ended up in Atlanta, where he had a strong season on a team that missed the playoffs. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, only made the playoffs as the West’s No.8 seed on the final day of the season, and only because the Minnesota Wild beat Dallas to let Chicago sneak by.
Not coincidentally, as I was driving from Duluth to Minneapolis last Sunday, I found the Chicago broadcast of the Blackhawks game at Vancouver on satellite radio. The Canucks, who had the best record in all of hockey, had beaten Chicago in Game 1, and they broke from a 2-2 tie with two goals in the third period to take Game 2 4-2. In the closing minutes, Troy Murray, the Hawks color analyst, mentioned that 6-foot-8 John Scott was being sent out to play a key role and give Chicago some much-needed muscle. “He’s trying to fill the role Dustin Byfuglien played last year,” said Murray. “But John Scott is no Dustin Byfuglien.”
Barely one day later, I encountered Byfuglien in the Twin Cities airport, after he spent time trying to find a home for the summer. Byfuglien said he enjoyed playing in Chicago, but he likes Atlanta, too. However, while Atlanta is nice, it isn’t so nice in sweltering summertime. Meanwhile, the Hawks have come from being down 3-0 in games against Vancouver to winning back-to-back blowouts to regain hope against the suddenly shaky Canucks.
Speaking of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, did you catch the Detroit game the other day, when the Red Wings won 4-3 against Phoenix? Pavel Datsyuk scored a goal and set up three others, which is about all the points you can get out of four goals. Interesting that with Sidney Crosby still sidelined by post-concussion problems, the golden boy who has been the only player the NHL has promoted for two years leaves only Alexander Ovechkin of Washington as the East’s best draw. Maybe Ovechkin is the best player even if Crosby and Malkin are back. But in the West, along with Vancouver’s Sedin twins, there are a number of great players. None might be better than Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg of Detroit. Trouble is, Zetterberg missed the whole stretch drive with a knee injury, so that left Datsyuk as possibly the beste individual player in the West. He upheld that theory in the first playoff round, when the Red Wings didn’t have to rush Zetterberg back because they had Phoenix covered in four straight games. Reunited, the two might put on quite a show in the next round.
Regardless, the series I most want to see in the entire playoffs would be Detroit against Vancouver, as long as the Canucks regain their form and get past Chicago. If that happens, Zetterberg rejoins Datsyuk to lead the highly skilled, but aging, Red Wings against the NHL’s newest superpower in Vancouver. Winner take all, and I don’t mean just in that series.
UMD had all the ingredients, plus magic
Kyle Schmidt raced down the ice, then slid feet-first after scoring the winning goal in UMD's first NCAA championship game.
By John Gilbert
How did they do it? How did this UMD men’s hockey team get itself gathered up to win its first-ever NCAA Division I hockey championship. All the right ingredients were there, without question, from speedy and high-scoring forwards to tough and agile defensemen, and on to clutch goaltending — but there were a dozen other teams that had those assets, too, and several of them were, frankly, playing better hockey down the stretch than the Bulldogs. How did it all come together?
Simple. It was “magic.”
That quality can be called a lot of things, from luck, to chemistry, to being a team of destiny. This season’s Bulldogs qualify for all of the above, but it’s easier to simply call it magic. That best explains how, at 3:22 of sudden-death overtime, a senior from Hermantown named Kyle Schmidt skated across in front of the Michigan net, from right to left, having spotted Travis Oleksuk, his centerman, behind the net with the puck. Oleksuk, who had scored earlier himself, passed it out front and in an instant, Schmidt had banged it past goaltender Shawn Hunwick and the demons of 50 years suddenly dissolved. “I saw it go in, and started skating for the other end,” said Schmidt.
The 3-2 victory provided ended a great hockey game, and instead of waiting to be mobbed by his teammates, Schmidt raced down the ice, crossing the far blue line before he threw himself into a feet-first slide, as his teammates on the ice raced after him, only slightly ahead of the rest of the Bulldogs pouring off the bench. For a brief moment, Schmidt was sliding along, all alone, looking up at Xcel Energy Center’s rafters, above the seats filled with 19,222 screaming fans — alone with his magical moment, an isntant before being absolutely mobbed.
“It was amazing,” said Schmidt. “It’s great for the players, coaches, everyone here to win the championship, but I think it’s been ‘way too long coming, for everyone in Duluth, the Twin Ports, anyone Up North, and all UMD fans. To be around 50-some years and not have won it, but to have been so close back in ’84 — 27 years ago — and now to finally bring it home…It’s for everyone. It’s awesome.”
After 50 years of disappointment and frustration, the Bulldogs celebrate an NCAA men's championship.
It was even magical that Kyle Schmidt could summon up the image of the only other time a UMD team made it to the championship game, since he was three years from being born, in 1984. The four-overtime loss to Bowling Green remains a painful memory to all UMD fans who were alive at the time, and, perhaps surprisingly, remains a haunting heartbreak to the players on that team. You could almost feel the pain of that memory lifting as Schmidt went broad-sliding across Xcel Center’s ice surface.
Coach Scott Sandelin said he was speechless, in the post-game interview room. “When I came here 11 years ago, I left a team that won a national championship — actually, two in three years,” said Sandelin, recalling his time as an assistant at North Dakota. “I was willing to accept this challenge because, growing up in Hibbing, I believed you could win here. Sometimes you’ve got to go through some rough patches, and we have. We’ve had a staff that has worked hard, and we’ve recruited some great kids. There are so many good teams, but sometimes the chemistry and things have to go right. You have to get luck. And we certainly had the luck in overtime.”
Sandelin had his own recollection of UMD’s only previous NCAA final, because coach Mike Sertich’s Bulldogs beat North Dakota 3-2 in the semifinal in that 1984 tournament, and Sandelin was a North Dakota defenseman.
“The close call in 1984 comes back, but it stings the players more than me,” said Sertich, who coached UMD to that indelibly inscribed finish, and who returned home from the final step in a sequence of surgical procedures for blood clots that felled him in February, from last summer’s ankle surgery, just in time to see UMD’s 4-3 victory over Notre Dame in last Thursday’s semifinals. “I thought about it for a while, but there were other teams to coach, and I never realized how much it has stayed with guys like Tom Kurvers, and Mark Odnokon, or Norm Maciver, and Billy Watson.”
As a college student, I got serious about watching the UMD hockey program as sports editor of the UMD Statesman, back when they were in the MIAC, running up huge scores against all their opponents, while enjoying the unfair advantage of being able to play in the Curling Club, a wonderful place compared to the outdoor rinks of their competitors. I watched them make the bold move, under Ralph Romano, to Division I and enter the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, where they didn’t win much because they mostly were fighting for their hockey lives against super-powers from North Dakota, Michigan Tech, Denver, and Michigan, plus their good-ol’ Big Brothers from Minnesota. I was there when they opened the DECC and Huffer Christianson recorded a record six assists in an 8-1 debut game against the Gophers.
It took UMD awhile to build up to competitive speed, in the toughest league in the country. Bill Selman had some outstanding teams, and Gus Hendrickson laid the groundwork for his assistant, Mike Sertich, to take over and make his run at league titles in 1984 and 1985. It was the 1983-84 season that left the deepest wound. UMD had a wealth of players, led by the goaltender I rank best of all in Bulldog history — Rick Kosti. He was ably backed up by Jon Downing, but Kosti played 38 games in the 1983-84 season, with a record of 27-9-2 as UMD won its first WCHA championship. Kosti, incidentally, came back and played a school record 45 games the next season, going 33-9-3 for the most wins in a season for any goaltender, as UMD won the title again. Kosti’s 60 career victories are the most for any goalie in UMD history, and he only played two seasons — both WCHA championship seasons, the only ones in UMD history, until the Derek Plante-led Bulldogs won it again in 1992-93.
Forwards on that 1983-84 team included Bill Watson, Mark Odnokon, Skeeter Moore, Mark Baron, Tom Herzig, Bob Lakso, Matt Christensen, Jim Toninato, Sean Toomey, Bruce Fishback, Brian Durand, and Brian Johnson, and the defense was led by Tom Kurvers, Norm Maciver, Jimmie Johnson, Guy Gosselin, Bill Grillo, and Jim Plankers. To know how those players measured up with the rest of the country, consider that Watson scored 35-51–86 that season, numbers he eclipsed a year later with 49-60–109 — UMD’s record for assists and points in a season. Kurvers, meanwhile, as senior captain in 1983-84, scored 18-58–76 from defense, records for assists and points by a defenseman in a season, and he went on to record the most career points for a defenseman at 192 for his four years. Maciver, another magician with the puck, broke Kurvers’ record for most career assists by a defenseman a couple years later with a four-year total of 152. That group of Bulldogs also claimed successive Hobey Baker Awards, with Kurvers winning in 1984 and Watson in 1985.
College hockey is a different world now, but that 1983-84 team was special. Ralph Romano, who coached the first D1 UMD teams before devoting all his time to being athletic director, had suffered a heart attack at a midseason game against Denver, and died. The team carried on, dedicating the rest of the chase to Romano. I had the opportunity to travel to Lake Placid, where I had been for the 1980 Olympics, and this time could enjoy covering UMD — “Minnesota’s Team” — for the Minneapolis Tribune. We rode out on the UMD-commissioned charter flight. The Bulldogs beat North Dakota on Watson’s overtime goal in the semifinals. “People forget that North Dakota had a goaltender named Jon Casey that year,” said Sertich. The next day, Kurvers was named UMD’s first Hobey winner.
Surely, Bowling Green couldn’t cope with this arsenal, although as a fairly objective reporter, no assumptions were made. UMD was cruising along, leading 4-2, but in the Olympic Arena press box, there was no deja vu about 1980. When the U.S. beat the Soviet Union and went on to Olympic Gold, it was truly the Miracle on Ice; this time, the Bulldogs were the best, ranked No. 1 in the country, and they were headed for UMD’s first NCAA title with just about the same amount of “favorite” as the Soviets had in 1980. Oops.
Bowling Green got a goal, closing it to 4-3. That made it tense, for sure, but UMD played it sure-handed, backing off from its prefered attack mode to ride out the closing minutes, as they ticked down to only a couple. A Bowling Green player, unable to attack, threw the puck up the right boards and into the UMD zone. Routinely, Kosti went behind the goal to tee it up for his defensemen. As he got to the end boards, the puck hit a seam in the right-corner boards and the puck glanced crazily directly out to the slot. Before Kosti could react, a Bowling Green skater rapped the puck into the unguarded goal, and it was 4-4. “It was funny, because being there and watching it, there was more of a feeling of disbelief,” said Sertich. “Did I just see what happened? I was more shocked than anything.”
Because UMD had never won an NCAA title, there was still a feeling of unproven underdogs. “No question, the teams that had a tradition of winning national championships play with a little swagger, compared to being awe-struck, the way other teams are,” said Sertich. It wasn’t awe, by then in that championship game, just uncertainty, which swept through the press box like a fog rolling off Lake Superior. It created a hollow feeling, as the teams battled through overtime, because the certainty that the Bulldogs were headed for the national championship was replaced by a sincere hope that they could still prevail. The uncertainty grew through a second overtime, then a third. In the fourth, fatigue was becoming obvious, but suddenly Bowling Green scored. The game was over, and Bowling Green had won 5-4 in four overtimes. Rick Kosti had made 55 saves.
The next year, UMD again won the WCHA and again was the favorite going into Detroit for the Frozen Four, which was “allowed” to be called the Final Four back then.. The Bulldogs faced RPI in the semifinal, and while Kurvers was gone, a new player named Brett Hull had shown up, and Kosti set his record, Watson scored enough to win the Hobey, and surely no ECAC team was going to derail the Bulldogs. But RPI did it, in three overtimes. That left the 1984 team as the only one to get to the final, although the run of great success convinced UMD fans that it would be just a matter of time until one of these great teams would break through.
Bill Watson is now a volunteer assistant coach with the Bulldogs. Tom Kurvers and Norm Maciver work in player personnel and scouting with NHL teams. During the playoffs, it was fun to talk to Kurvers and Maciver about the Bulldogs. They agreed that the greatest natural leader of any Bulldog team was Odnokon — “Ozzie” — who was a forceful winger and a dominant personality. Sertich recalled that on one of his teams, they had a miserable practice after returning to the ice from holiday break. “I lined ’em up and said, ‘Anybody who was NOT out late last night, step forward,’ and nobody did,” said Sertich. “I didn’t realize until later that Odnokon had told the team that they were all going out together, and everyone did. That’s the power he had.”
Flash forward 27 years now, to the Xcel Center press box. Just before the final game was to start, the fellow directing media at the press box entrance came and summoned me because a couple fellows wanted to talk to me. I went out by the elevators, and there they were — Kurvers and Odnokon. We talked for about 5 minutes, then they had to head for their seats. It was one of those sessions where I think they were burning off a little nervous energy, maybe trying to carve through a little of that 27-year-old hangover.
As I returned to my seat, I spotted Kevin Pates, an always-friendly reporter from the Duluth News-Tribune, who’s been covering the Bulldogs for years. I told him I wish I had come and gotten him, because he would have enjoyed saying hello to Kurvers and Odnokon. Pates, who is a diminutive fellow, smiled, and recalled instantly back in that 1983-84 season when Kurvers and Odnokon stopped by his hotel room, allegedly to talk. “They wrapped me up in a blanket, and stuffed me into the shower,” Pates said. Sertich got a laugh out of that: “They ‘mummied’ him,” he said.
Bulldogs celebrate Travis Oleksuk's goal for a 1-1 tie.
If you were betting on it, if you knew that UMD’s mighty first line would be harnessed all night and not only fail to score a goal at even strength or on the power play, and would, in fact, be outscored by Bill Winnett from Michigan’s checking line, you wouldn’t give UMD much of a chance. And if you knew that Michigan would also get a goal to tie the game 2-2 from fourth-line center Jeff Rohrkemper, the odds would slip further. And if you knew the game would broil on into sudden-death overtime, you might have trouble with the realization that just a month earlier, Duluth East and Hermantown had come to the state high school tournament on the same Xcel Energy Center rink, and East in Class AA and Hermantown in Class A both lost — in overtime.
But the Bulldogs got to that overtime by having invented other ways to survive. Travis Oleksuk, junior center on the second line, scored one goal, lifting UMD to a 1-1 tie early in the second period. A few minutes later, Max Tardy, a little-used but highly-skilled freshman from Duluth East, who had been inserted as fourth-line center just before the playoffs, came out on the second power-play unit and scored his first collegiate goal for a 2-1 UMD lead. Michigan tied the game 2-2 later in the second period, and the scoreless third period ended, signalling overtime, and undoubtedly signalling a collective sinking feeling among UMD’s veteran fans. Not again. Not another excruciating, wrenching close call to be snuffed in overtime.
Here’s Michigan, full of high-tempo swagger in pursuit of its 10th NCAA title, and there were the Bulldogs, with no tradition of winning national championships in their arsenal. Time for more magic. Schmidt, whose injury during the East Regional gave coach Scott Sandelin the idea to put Tardy on the second power-play unit as a replacement, had just won the college hockey commissioner’s award as the nation’s unsung hero for the season. It is an award that goes to a hard-working and honest player, but definitely to someone who has managed to play well while avoiding being the guy in the spotlight.
After the initial celebration, the Bulldogs gathered for their historical team picture.
It was Kyle Schmidt, a senior from Hermantown, who spotted Oleksuk’s move behind the net, and went for the slot, and who banged in Oleksuk’s pass. It was a quick, stunning goal. A one-timer, in more ways than one. It sent Schmidt racing to the far end of the rink, to his broadslide that could have been the aftermath of ESPN’s Play of the Day. The goal gave UMD its eighth victory in overtime this season, its first NCAA championship ever, and with the power to eliminate all those demons from 27 years ago, to say nothing of a proper way to celebrate 50 years of Division I hockey. After the game, Kurvers and Odnokon were down at the UMD dressing room, where they could join Watson. The current Bulldogs brought out their trophy, so that Kurvers and Odnokon could heft it for a magical moment.
To win a championship, it takes skill, determination, strong skating, hitting, defense, goaltending, and a tenacious and resilient character. But all of those ingredients can’t do it alone. They also need a little magic.
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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