Wild late additions make team better for playoffs
Playoff season is interesting in all pro sports, but in the National Hockey League, it takes on an entire identity of its own. If you ask any Canadian-bred player, coach, general manager, or, presumably, fan, the answer is unanimous – they would rather do well in playoffs and win the Stanley Cup than win or even dominate throughout the regular season.
In baseball, a team that contends for a divisional pennant, or loses in playoffs, is clearly successful. In pro football, the New England Patriots have done so well over the past two seasons that the entire nation considers them the standard of the NFL – even though they have lost the past two Super Bowls.
But in the NHL, a team that overwhelms its division during regular season play and goes through a round or two of playoffs, considers the season a failure if it doesn’t win the Stanley Cup. Likewise, a team that sputters in seeded 16th is convinced it can make up for a mediocre season by getting hot enough to stickhandle through the minefield of playoffs and take a run at winning the Stanley Cup.
Minnesota hockey fans may be more sophisticated, and more sympathetic, than the standard-issue Canadian NHL zealot, so they already consider this a highly successful season for their division-winning lads. But they also may have overlooked the fact that the Wild are better-suited to making a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup than at any other time in their brief history.
My pick is the Wild to beat the Avs, Peter Forsberg and all, and it will be a series of close, low-scoring games, even though the Wild could win in five.
Briefly, elsewhere around the playoffs, I like Detroit, the league’s top point producer, and a team with Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Niklas Lidstrom, and a goalie tandem of Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, to make short work of Nashville in five. In two extremely difficult match-ups that I think may both go seven, Anaheim will beat Dallas, as wily Brian Burke found a way to keep Teemu Selanne and Scott Neidermayer fresh – give them the first half of the year off! Meanwhile, Chris Pronger proves that if Lidstrom is slowing down at all, he’s ready to assume the mantel of the NHL’s best defenesman. San Jose will beat Calgary, because an inspired and inspirational Joe Thornton will outplay 50-goal-scoring ace Jarome Iginla.
In the East, Montreal should handle Boston in five, and that’s giving the Bruins a chance to win a game, after being swept in all eight meetings this season. I like Ottawa to surprise Pittsburgh, but it will be a wild and goal-filled seven games. Consider the matchup in firepower: Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (24 goals) Evgeni Malkin (47) and Marian Hossa (29) have all the press clippings, while Senators Jason Spezza (34 goals), Dany Heatley (41) and Daniel Alfredsson (40) give Ottawa that edge, 115-100. But Alfredsson must get healthy. Washington will beat Philadelphia, only because Alexander Ovechkin 65-47—112) is the best scorer in the NHL; and New Jersey will once again prove that grit, determination, and Minnesotans named Paul Martin, Zach Parise, and Jamie Langenbrunner will offer enough offense, while Martin Brodeur again proves that age is no requisite in choose the best goaltenders.
Meanwhile, back to the Minnesota Wild. The difference in their series might be late signees – with the Avalanche signing Peter Forsburg, and the Wild signing Chris Simon. If you’ve read anything about Simon, it hasn’t been good. But my suspicion is that better things are coming, from his play, and from the so-far negative media reports.
Through their formative years, the Minnesota Wild have not been realistic challengers for the Cup. The Wild have had good players, led by the electrifying Marian Gaborik, and constantly outstanding goaltending. When they advanced to the Cup semifinals a few years ago, they excited the whole State of Hockey, but they were trying to do it with more hope than substance. Last season, the Wild came close. They lost in the first round, but the series was tough, and the team they lost to was the Anaheim Ducks, which used the victory over the Wild as a springboard to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup. When the Ducks had won it all, Wild fans could go back and appreciate their team even more for the challenge they threw at Anaheim.
The Ducks stretched the parameters of newly restricted NHL rules, and also got by with it. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was great in goal, but the difference in the Ducks was general manager Burke, who once ranged off the wing for the Edina Hornets before a college career at Providence and then an NHL career that has since been eclipsed by his work in league and team administration.
If the Wild can get past a typically strong Colorado Avalanche outfit in the first round, anything can happen. Winning home ice by capturing the division also is an enormous edge, because of the “Team of 18,000†that the Wild boasts about. But the most intriguing thing about the Wild this spring is that their skill players, always impressive, are likely to play at a consistently higher level, home and road, because of a couple curious additions for this season – Sean Hill and Chris Simon.
Adding Hill, a Duluth native, wasn’t controversial, except for the fact that he had to sit out the first half of the season for failing the NHL’s play-enhancing substance test. Hill, who swears he never took such a thing, did have an NHL exclusion for treatment of a personal hormonal imbalance. It may not be that one caused an effect that led to the other, but Hill isn’t a fool, and he would have had to be one to take any illegal substances when he knew he would be under scrutiny for his approved medication. Hill came in as a free-agent from the New York Islanders, where he was among the league leaders in hits and shot-blocking, as well as having a cannon for a shot. Although he was a veteran, he played 23 minutes a game.
Simon’s addition was far more controversial. Never has a pro athlete been brought into the Twin Cities with more ridicule. Both Twin Cities newspapers, all the television sports anchors, and every talk-radio show within broadcasting distance blasted the Wild for taking a player whose reputation has been for going over the edge to assault opponents, leading to suspensions that have been as severe as they have been commonplace.
Everybody agreed the Wild needed to add a free agent star, not a thug. They could have added Peter Forsberg, or Sergei Federov – imagine that – but instead, they signed only Chris Simon, an NHL bad boy convicted long before he could spend a day in Minnesota’s sports-fan court. John Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune immediately set off columnists Pat Reusse, Jim Souhan – do these guys ever read each other’s columns before nearly duplicating them? — and, of course, Sid Hartman.
Russo made up a box with all the horrible things Simon had been suspended for, including being tossed for hammering Jarkko Ruutu. That was the one that stopped me, because only a few weeks earlier, Russo had written that Ruutu was “the most despised player in the NHL.Ââ€
Why? Because he blindsides foes, injures them with cheap hits, and generally escapes notice. That, incidentally, was the common thread running through the list of victims of Chris Simon. Yes, he’s tough. Yes, he seems mild-mannered and soft-spoken away from the game. Yes, he can play the game, and shoot the puck and score some heavy-traffic goals. And, yes, when someone does something particularly nasty and unnoticed to him or a teammate, Chris Simon can blow his cork and do a scary number on the perpetrator.
The Wild have Derek Boogaard, the heavyweight champ of the league, who stood out on the finesse-and-flash Wild team so much that every time he collided with an opponent he seems virtually assured of a ticket to the penalty box. If you go back to last season’s stretch drive, you’ll also recall that Brent Burns, who we’ve had the luxury of watching grow from a gangly teenager to a solid defenseman, added a new dimension by being attacked a couple of times and responding by punching out clearcut victories, which even surprised him. That added toughness has allowed Burns to blossom this year into a league standout.
The Wild bolstered Boogaard and Burns with the addition of Adam Voros, and Todd Fedoruk, two more willing combatants if things get too tough for the finesse guys to dangle. Hill gave the Wild another dimension by making it very uncomfortable to spend any time in front of Niklas Backstrom in the Wild goal. True, Hill didn’t play enough for quite a while, and a 30-something veteran needs to play to retain adequate quickness. When Kurtis Foster broke his leg, tragically, near season’s end, Hill got more ice time, and responded by playing better and better, getting sharper, and even scoring goals in two successive games. He gives the youthful Wild another veteran with playoff savvy, like Keith Carney, with the added edge of blowing people out from in front of the net.
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Then comes Simon. With Boogaard, Voros and Fedoruk, there was a nice balance of toughness to accompany the swift-striking capabilities of Gaborik, Pavel Demitra, Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, and other forwards, giving them room to make their flashy plays. Mikko Koivu is excluded from those needing help to get room, because he has become the prototype Jacques Lemaire forward – gifted offensively, but more important, flawless in his approach to offense, because he first pays dedicated attention to defensive responsibilities.
Now add Simon to the mix, and the Wild not only have a nice balance, they have more than a nasty balance when it comes to playoffs and opponents – such as the Anaheim Ducks – who might decide they can forcefully take a finesses team off its game and into its summer vacation. When I first read the ridicule, the insults, the outright displays of media righteousness against the Wild ever bringing such a thug to the Twin Cities, my first reaction was that with the arrival of Simon, every skater on the Wild team grew another couple inches in the freedom to perform.
The fans had no choice but to react with similar outrage to all the media outpouring, and call-ins and letters to the editor assailed the Wild for bringing in a criminal element to our clean-cut team. Overlooked by the quick-to-rip, the Wild has enough talent – sheer talent – to go all the way. But only if that talent performs to near capacity every night – not just at home, not just against non-physical foes.
We didn’t hear much criticism when a nasty fight broke out right at the end of the regular season, and there was Chris Simon, making short work of a nasty foe who appeared to be wishing he had been a bit less nasty. In fact, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, he of the amazing puck-handling skills, got into the first fight he’d ever been in, after being speared for all to see on videotape but unseen by any of the officials. I am not going to say that Bouchard wouldn’t have fought, had he been speared under other circumstances, but I will say with certainty that it was a lot easier for him to react in a manner that could gain more room – as well as confidence – for himself, because of the presence of a fellow like Simon. And I also enjoyed the reaction of the Team of 18,000, when they roared their approval that Chris Simon had been welcomed into the family.
The media guys who don’t cover/don’t understand hockey assume that talent always wins, so if you have 15 skilled guys, you should add a 16th. Fortunately, general manager Doug Risebrough knows how important it is for skilled players to be able to free-wheel with confidence, at home and on the road, and he landed Simon for bargain-basement help at the trading deadline. Lemaire loves dedicated workers who look at handling the responsible stuff first, and he also loves to have so many highly skilled players to engage and win if a goal-scoring rally is required. But Jacques knows, too, that skilled teams can disappear under physical attack – especially in a playoff series – and that 15 skilled guys can have far more hope for success if they have a few of those less-skilled guys who can cruise around out there like big, hungry sharks, without even having to state the obvious – “You do something nasty to one of my boys, and be prepared to deal with me.Ââ€
A year ago, Lemaire complained that Anaheim seemed to be going beyond the limits of physical play that other teams, including his, seemed to be governed by. The league did nothing, and whether it wanted to or not, the league handed the Cup over to the Ducks.
Lemaire and Risebrough have been crafty in their development of the Wild, but they both adhere to the philosophy that, while they prefer a skating game, if the league is going to allow a bit of extra roughness at playoff time, ’tis better to give than to receive. That’s different for the Stanley Cup, of course, where it’s better to receive. But the two are related, and while it’s still a long-shot, the Wild are built for a major run into springtime.
Long, short, steady Badgers win women’s semifinal
DULUTH, MN. — As Wisconsin’s quest for a third straight Women’s NCAA hockey championship races toward Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. finish line, the Badger odyssey should be titled “The long, the short, and the steady.Ââ€
Those ingredients worked again in Thursday’s 4-1 semifinal victory over No. 1 ranked Harvard, before 3,023 well-entertained fans at the DECC. The long is Jinelle Zaugg, a 6-foor-1 senior wing who scored her 23rd and 24th goals; the short is 5-foot-0 junior center Erika Lawler, whose sparkplug goal ignited a 3-goal second-period outburst that overturned Harvard’s early 1-0 lead; the steady is junior goaltender Jessie Vetter, who simply never has an off-night, and inspires the calm precision of the entire team.
For the Badgers (29-8-3), who rose from the No. 5 seed to eliminate No. 4 Minnesota in the NCAA quarterfinals last week, the victory over No. 1 Harvard leaves only one remaining obstacle, although it’s a formidable one – No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth, which knocked off No. 3 New Hampshire 3-2 in Thursday’s second semifinal. The Badgers have several reasons to feel they owe the Bulldogs one, after losing 5-4 in overtime to UMD in the WCHA playoff final to expand the season deficit against the Bulldogs to 1-4.
On the other hand, Wisconsin beat UMD 4-1 in last year’s NCAA final for the second Badger NCAA title in succession, and only one other team has ever won three straight NCAA women’s hockey trophies, and that was UMD, in the first three NCAA tournaments ever held.
Coach Mark Johnson’s words were careful to his players after the first period, when the Badgers trailed Harvard 1-0, and looked sorely in need of some inspiration. There were no harsh words, no fire and brimstone. Johnson told them simply to relax and enjoy themselves. “I told the team it’s fun to participate, but we came here to do more than participate,†said Johnson. “My whole mission is to get them to relax and play the way they can, the way they have all year.Ââ€
Actions, however, were needed to support the coach’s words, and Erika Lawler’s name and action are one and the same. “The first shift of any period is always big,†said Lawler. “You want to get everybody going – back in the game.Ââ€
Lawler was asked if she is really 5-feet tall, because she makes UMD’s 5-foot-4 Emmanuelle Blais look like a monster by comparison. “She IS a monster,†cracked Lawler, whose unassisted goal opened the second period, and changed the game completely around.
After the puck dropped to start the second period, Lawler pounced on a loose puck, swung out from behind the goal line and scored at 0:18 – tying the game and untying the knotted up Badger attack. “Erika’s goal at the start of the second period changed our energy level, and our bench,†said Johnson. “It calmed everybody down, and when we got two delayed penalties, we capitalized.Ââ€
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Harvard came into the semifinals with the No. 1 rank and a superb 32-1. The only loss was 4-1 to New Hampshire, which also was the only time the Crimson had given up more than two goals in a game. Until Thursday. Harvard gained the upper hand when Jenny Brine deflected in a power-play goal at 4:42 of the first period. But Vetter stopped everything after that, including several more chances at the goal-mouth by Brine.
Lawler’s goal not only was the equalizer, it was almost immediately followed by another goal at 2:25 by Jasmine Giles, and then Zaugg’s first, at 6:56.
Harvard coach Katey Stone called time out right then, and while the Crimson got settled down, the damage was done.
“My hat’s off to Wisconsin,†said Stone, whose team’s dream season ended 32-2. “They’re highly battle-tested I’d say, but I thought we were in it until they made it 4-1. We definitely weren’t as sharp as we’ve been. When they scored those three goals, we backed up a little bit, and that’s not the kind of team we are.Ââ€
At 3-1, Harvard was still a threat, but at 3:15 of the third period, Zaugg finished a picture-perfect scoring play that swept from end to end. Mallory Deluce started it with a rink-wide pass to Meghan Duggan, breaking up the right boards. Duggan carried into the Crimson zone, passing with perfect precision across the slot where Zaugg, coming off the left wing, smacked a one-timer past goaltender Christina Kessler.
“We’re excited,†said Johnson. “We get to practice tomorrow. And we get another chance to play, in the last game of the year, and another opportunity to play for a championship.Ââ€
And that captured the long and short of it. And the steady.
UMD beats Lakers,, adversity to gain women’s semis
If you wanted to check off the reasons why the University of Minnesota-Duluth women’s hockey team would fail to reach this week’s Frozen Four, there were several.
They were young and surprisingly rattled against Mercyhurst in their NCAA regional match; they fell behind by 1-0, 2-1, and then 3-2 in the third period; they were still without freshman star Iya Gavrilova, who has been held out of a dozen games for an NCAA investigation into whether she was eligible to continue leading the WCHA in scoring; they lost Saara Tuominen to a left knee injury, after the recently returned captain had spent two months recovering from a right knee injury.
But there is something about this Bulldogs team, some undefined chemistry that seems to prompt top players to come through and unsung players to rise up and also come through, and it happened again against Mercyhurst, when Karine Demeule and Emmanuelle Blais came up with the biggest of big plays, and UMD toppled the Lakers 5-4.
The victory sends UMD (32-4-1) into Thursday’s NCAA Frozen Four semifinals against New Hampshire (32-4-1), a 3-2 overtime winner against St. Lawrence in its regional, at the 8 p.m. Nightcap at the DECC. Wisconsin (28-8-3) which beat Minnesota 3-2 on Mallory Deluce’s overtime goal, will face top-ranked Harvard (32-1), which whipped Dartmouth 5-1 to reach Duluth.
Every team faces adversity, and every team has its stars and its unsung heroes, but none of the other four finalists pulled all of those elements out of a hat and just kept winning, the way coach Shannon Miller did with the Bulldogs
“It was an awesome game for us,†said Miller. “It was huge, because it was do-or-die. We have a young team that had a little trouble with the pressure Mercyhurst put on us. We had qujite a fight in our own zone.
“Our players were so tight, it almost cost us the game,†said Miller, who recognized the problem and understood it immediately. “I’ve been through so many big games, as have my assistants, Caroline Ouellette and Julie Chu, but this team is so young, they haven’t been through games like this. After the first period, I just said yes, it’s a big game, but let’s relax and try to have some fun.Ââ€
Certainly, sophomore goaltender Kim Martin has been the mainstay in all of UMD’s success this season, and she remains a deserving member of the three finalists for the Patty Katzmaier Award. She was under heavy fire from Mercyhurst, but she came through with 25 saves, many of them crucial, despite giving up more goals than she usually allowed in two weekends.
In Gavrilova’s absence, fellow freshmen Haley Irwin and Laura Fridfinnson have come through as scoring leaders, and Fridfinnson came through again, with two big goals, but otherwise the big guns were stopped by Laura Hosier and the Mercyhurst defense. Tuominen, since returning to action and getting up to speed the last three weeks, hurt her knee in the first period. She told Miller she would try to play with the knee braced in the second period, but should move from center to wing, and after two shifts in the second period, she left the game. Her status for the Frozen Four is doubtful, at best.
UMD’s defense had been thoroughly impressive in carrying the Bulldogs past Wisconsin in a 5-4 overtime thriller in the WCHA Final Faceoff playoff final, but that defensive corps, as a group, was set back on its heels and turned the puck over to the dangerous Mercyhurst forwards with frightening and uncharacteristic regularity – part of those opening jitters. It started on the opening shift, when Meghan Agosta – also a Katsmaier finalist – got free for a shot, and scored with her own rebound while all along in front after just 22 seconds.
If the Bulldogs were stunned, the Irwin-Blais-Fridfinnson line was ignited to action. Blais sped up the right side and jammed a goal-mouth pass that Fridfinnson stuffed past Hosier at 0:48. Any idea of a battle of defenses was gone in the 1-1 opening minute. It settled down after that, but Mercyhurst went back ahead 2-1 when Valerie Chouinard scored a power-play goal at 18:37, converting her own rebound.
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The Bulldogs, at that point, looked rattled. When Fridfinnson’s solo dash midway through the second period was halted by Agosta’s hook, and UMD’s power play failed to click, things looked bleak. It got bleaker when Erin Olson went off for a penalty at 14:07. That’s when Demeule came up with possibly the play of the game.
Demeule, the only UMD senior, has been a vital role-player for the Bulldogs all season. She took over the captaincy with Tuominen out, and while she is not the swiftest skater, or possesses the hardest shot, she is an invaluable source of inspiration, which was never more evident than in the Mercyhurst game.
Out on the penalty kill, Demeule’s shot ended up behind the net. Agosta, who Miller called the best player on the ice in the game, went behind her net to start a power-play rush. Demeule sensed a chance and went after her. Agosta looked up, and in that moment the game turned.
“I had the puck between my stick and skate just off the boards,†said Agosta. “But I couldn’t quite get my stick on it.Ââ€
Demeule swiped it clean, and swung out on the left side of the net for a quick wraparound try that went through the legs of the startled goaltender. “It wasn’t a garbage goal, for once,†smiled Demeule after scoring her 15th goal of the season. “It probably was the most important of my goals. It changes the tempo of the game a little to score shorthanded.Ââ€
Miller said: “Karine’s goal on the penalty kill was the best goal of the game – it changed the entire game for us.Ââ€
It tied the game 2-2, and sent it to the third period with UMD in good position. But the UMD defense again lapsed, casually going back after the puck and allowing Agosta to speed right past them all and get to the puck first. She zipped a pass out to center point, and Natalie Payne beat Martin with a screened shot at 3:08, restoring Mercyhurst to a 3-2 lead.
As Miller juggled lines, giving extra duty to Tawni Mattila and Demeule, the Bulldogs extra work on special teams proved valuable again. Irwin had the puck deep o a power play and got the puck to Fridfinnson, who scored her second of the game and 20th of the season for a 3-3 tie at 8:19.
Then it was up to Blais, a speedy sophomore playing with freshmen Fridfinnson and Irwin, and she was positioned in front to deflect Heidi Pelttari’s screened shot from the right point, for a power-play goal at 10:21 that gave UMD a 4-3 lead – its first of the game. Mercyhurst regrouped during a timeout, and charged again, but with 3:07 remaining, Blais got loose up the right boards, with three defenders falling back. With a burst of speed, Blais cut across the slot and outflanked the defense, cutting back toward the net and snapping a shot into the left edge for her 16th goal and a 5-3 lead.
“I don’t know how I got by them, I just tried to use my speed,†said Blais. “After I cut to the left, at the end, it was just the goalie left. This is so exciting – the most exciting. They’re a really good team. No team is going to give it to you easy, but we played so well. I got the hard hat, but a lot of players could have had it. Our third line played super.Ââ€
That was Mattila, Demeule and Erin Olson. Mercyhurst, the seventh seed in the NCAA pairings, kept coming hard, and it was then that a subtle play by Demeule proved her value beyond the score sheet. UMD had escaped its zone, and a couple of deflected passes got the puck sliding toward the Mercyhurst blue line, while several Bulldogs went for a change. Demeule put all her energy into a last burst, and dived across the blue line to poke the puck ahead, so it would go deep into the zone and out of immediate danger.
As the final seconds ticked away, the Bulldogs could finally relax – although they shouldn’t have. Kim Martin was left alone when Vicki Bendus snapped one last shot that caught the right edge of the netting just as the horn sounded. The goal was ruled good, at 19:59, although time was up. It closed the final score to 5-4, and left the exhausted but happy Bulldogs realizing they can’t take anything for granted.
The Bulldogs stay at home for the Frozen Four, and while New Hampshire and Harvard will offer as much or more challenge than the familiar Badgers, the last time UMD was home for the national tournament they won their third in a row, beating Harvard in overtime in the third NCAA national women’s tournament ever conducted.
UMD home, Badgers face Gophers in women’s NCAA
The University of Minnesota-Duluth captured the women’s hockey version of a hat trick by winning the WCHA-Women’s Final Faceoff, right after winning the WCHA regular season title, and then gaining a home-ice slot for the NCAA women’s hockey tournament. The news was also good – but with an asterisk – for both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers and Gophers joined UMD to give the WCHA-Women their anticipated three entries in the eight-team NCAA field, but it came at the price of facing off against each other in a first-round NCAA pairing.
The NCAA selection committee’s pairings are believed to have followed precisely the rating of the NCAA Selection Committee. Other ratings can list what they want subjectively, but the NCAA’s own rating is the one that matters, and while the committee could have altered its rating to avoid familiar foes from meeting, it apparently stayed on form.
That meant No. 1 Harvard would be at home against No. 8 Dartmouth, No. 2 UMD will be host to No. 7 Mercyhurst, No. 3 New Hampshire is at home against No. 6 St. Lawrence, and No. 4 Minnesota is at home against No. 5 Wisconsin. All four match-ups are one-game eliminations, to be held Saturday.
There are no easy matchups, no “gimmes†into next week’s Frozen Four in Duluth. Obviously, Harvard (31-1) is favored over Dartmouth (18-8-6), and New Hampshire (32-3-1) is favored over St. Lawrence (28-9-1), but UMD’s superb 31-4-1 cinches nothing against a Mercyhurst (26-7-3) team that was rated No. 1 when UMD tied and beat them 3-1 in an early-season series.
And Minnesota (27-6-4), of course, got the least of the bargains for being one of the top four seeds, because even home ice doesn’t make the Gophers chore easy against Wisconsin (27-8-3), which has lost to the Gophers only once in five meetings – completing a 3-1-1 mark with a 4-3 thriller in the WCHA semifinals, before losing the 5-4 overtime battle to UMD.
Minnesota’s loss in the Final Faceoff in Duluth was created by two goals apiece from 6-foot-1 Jinelle Zaugg and 5-foot-0 Erika Lawler, and came despite outshooting the Badgers 28-21, while the Gophers were led by two goals from Gigi Marvin, whose last-second try for the equalizer was disallowed for being batted in by hand by teammate Whitney Graft.
“That was the best game I’ve seen her play in three years,†said coach-of-the-year Brad Frost of his ace junior. “She was flying, playing strong defense, and creating offense every shift.Ââ€
As for the pairings, Frost had mixed emotions. “Our goal was to finish in the top four so we could host the first round of NCAAs,†he said. “But up until this point, there had never been interconference matches in the first round. For sure, the WCHA wanted to avoid playing each other. On one hand, this pairing prevents the WCHA from having any chance of getting three of the Frozen Four spots, but on the other hand, it also assures one of us of getting to the Frozen Four.Ââ€
For that matter, Harvard and Dartmouth are both ECAC teams, which means two of the four pairings will be between teams from the same conference. Also, UMD has played both Mercyhurst and St. Lawrence – and, in fact, the lower rating of both those teams was at least partially due to UMD sweeping two games at St. Lawrence, and tying and beating Mercyhurst.
The Minnesota contingent was concerned that if Wisconsin had beaten UMD in the title game of the Final Faceoff, the Badgers might have slipped ahead of Minnesota. That would have given the Badgers home ice in Madison, and perhaps sent the Gophers out east for a quarterfinal game. Everybody concerned anticipated the NCAA would, as usual, attempt to avoid interconference matchups, or games between teams that had played each other already, but the pairings proved otherwise.
It is also a factor that the women don’t generate the same sort of revenue the men’s NCAA tournament and Frozen Four do, and the pairings now assure three bus trips with only Mercyhurst needikng to fly to Duluth. For the Bulldogs, that game means they will be able to stay in the friendly confines of the DECC, where they happened to play their last two league series, the first round of league playoffs, the Final Faceoff, and now the NCAA quarterfinal, and then the Frozen Four. By then, the ice will come out of the DECC about the same time the ice goes out of the Lake Superior harbor.
Unusual goals at the crease were the order of the weekend at the Final Faceoff. UMD jumped ahead of St. Cloud State 4-0 with a three-goal burst midway through the second period, as Elin Holmlov and Haley Irwin scored twice each in an eventual 9-0 romp.
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Along with Graft’s batted-in disallowed goal, the second semifinal featured Lawler scoring a goal when she crashed into the Minnesota net and the puck went in off her body as she slid into goalie Kim Hanlon.
In the final, UMD jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period, with the third goal coming as Holmlov, at the right of the net, got her stick on the puck and managed to pull it back and tuck it in while falling face down on the ice. UMD raced off to 3-0 and 4-1 leads, but The Badgers rallied back, finally attaining a 4-4 tie when Meghan Duggan slid into goaltender Kim Martin, jarring the puck loose, and Mallory Deluce rapped the suddenly uncovered puck in at the crease with 2:49 remaining, for a 4-4 tie.
In what almost appears to be an effort to cut down on icings, the officials let about a dozen missed long passes go without calling icing. The last of those bothered the Badgers, because the puck never came out of the Badger zone, with Heidi Pelttieri shooting, and freshman Haley Irwin retrieving the blocked shot and sending a screened wrist shot past Jessie Vetter at 6:32 of overtime for a 5-4 victory and the league playoff title.
The all-tournament team consisted of Irwin, who had 3-2—5 in the two games as one of the forwards, Myriam Trepanier, who had 1-5—6 with her rocket-shooting from the point, and Jocelyn Larocque, who had three assists, and goaltender Martin, all from UMD; plus Jinelle Zaugg, who had four goals, from Wisconsin; and Marvin, who had two goals in Minnesota’s game, as the other two forwards. Elin Holmlov of UMD was named tournament most valuable player, after she scored 3-1—4 in the two games, some of them while on her skates.
Trepanier, whose hard shots were decisive during much of her junior year, but particularly in the playoffs, said, “I’ve been practicing a lot, working on getting my shot through from the point. And it’s taken a lot of practice – as my teammates know, because of all the times I hit their helmets, shoulder pads and bodies.Ââ€
While UMD won the league playoff trophy, they now go after bigger game, and whether WCHA teams are paired against each other or not, the fact remains that they have won all seven national tournaments held so far – with UMD winning the first three, Minnesota the next two, and Wisconsin the most recent two.
As far as Minnesota and Wisconsin are concerned, maybe the Final Faceoff should be renamed the “Final Faceoff until next week,†because the tense battle they had in the league semifinal will have an immediate sequel at Ridder Arena, with a trip to the Frozen Four attached. And with three entries, WCHA supporters can have a reasonable hope that the league will extend its national championship mastery to eight straight years.
Zaugg, Lawler lift Badgers past Marvin, Gopher women
If you stand Jinelle Zaugg next to Erika Lawler, the difference is readily evident, because Zaugg is 6-foot-1 and Lawler is 5-foot-0 – maybe. But side by side on the winner’s podium Saturday, they were pretty nearly identical, after each of them scored twice to lift Wisconsin to a 4-3 victory over Minnesota in the second semifinal of the WCHA Women’s Final Faceoff.
Wisconsin spotted the Golden Gophers the opening goal, then Zaugg tied it, with Lawler striking twice in the second period to build a 3-1 lead. Minnesota, with WCHA most valuable player Gigi Marvin scoring twice, caught up at 3-3, but Zaugg won it with her second of the game on a power play at 11:05 of the third period.
The outcome hinged on a Gopher nongoal with the clock literally ticking into the last second of regulation. Marvin swung into the left corner aware it was desperation time, and flung the puck toward the crease. Whitney Graft was there, but her only option was to put her hand out and virtually punch the puck into the goal. After review, it was disallowed for having been directed in by hand.
The victory puts the two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers at 21-5-3 and sets them squarely in Sunday’s 1 p.m. championship game against Minnesota-Duluth at the DECC. For the Gophers (21-6-2) it is a return down I35 to await Sunday afternoon’s NCAA selection announcement to see where they might be placed. All three teams are secure among the top eight for NCAA spots, but opponents and sites are still to be determined.
“It’s a thrill to get the opportunity to play for the championship,†said Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, whose Badgers move from one archrival to another. “All four games we’ve had with UMD have been extremely close, and I expect this one to be another.Ââ€
Minnesota, which nipped Wisconsin for second place in league play on the basis of a final-game 2-2 tie, outshot the Badgers 28-21, and followed the lead of Marvin, who seemed to rise to hyperspeed when the Gophers needed a lift. Marvin opened the game’s scoring at 14:07 of the first period, when she moved in to the right circle and drilled a shot past goaltender Jessi Vetter.
Two minutes later Wisconsin attacked and Zaugg, stationed deep on the left, fielded the puck as it came off the end boards and snapped a shot that glanced in on the short side against goalie Kim Hanlon.
In the second period, Lawler put the Badgers up 2-1 by one-timing a pass out from behind the net by Hillary Knight, at 1:15. It stayed 2-1 until the last three minutes of the middle session. At that point, Lawler exchanged passes and broke for the net. As she closed in, the always-hustling Lawler lost her footing and slid, crashing into Hanlon at the goal. When they unpiled, the puck was in the net, and Lawler got credit for the goal for a 3-1 lead, at 17:44.
“I hit Angie Kesely in the slot and was going to the net,†said Lawler. “I didn’t know she was passing it back, and I guess I tipped it in. I didn’t know it went in until afterward.Ââ€
But at 18:55, Marvin scored with a quick shot and the Gophers were down only 3-2. “It’s playoffs, and yeah, we lost the game, but it was fun,†said Marvin.
Ross said, “Gigi got her line going, and they caused a lot of problems for Wisconsin.Ââ€
At 6:42 of the third period, Minnesota tied it when Dagney Willey shot from the right point. The shot was wide to the right, but it came off the end boards right to where Jen Schoulis was stationed, and she jammed it in before Vetter could cover.
A critical play came at 9:19, when Minnesota was called for too many players on the ice. Not only did the penalty stall the Gopher momentum, but it gave the perfect opportunity to Zaugg to play opportunist. Mallory Deluce won the left corner faceoff, but the puck popped loose to the slot. Zaugg slammed a one-timer – right in – at 11:05.
Vetter and the Badgers held firm from then on, against repeated Gopher rushes, including the final minute, when Hanlon was pulled for an extra skater.
In the interview room, Vetter, at 5-foot-8, looked about normal size. Next to her were Zaugg, who towered over Lawler. The three of them proved, however, that the Badgers have every dimension covered.
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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