CC nears WCHA title as Bachman turns into overdrive
In the long and storied hockey history of Colorado College, no goaltender ever had recorded back-to-back shutouts in road games. Until now.
With first place in the WCHA on the line, and only three weekends remaining in the regular season, Richard Bachman took things into his own hands, gloved though they were. Bachman, a freshman, who hadn’t practiced all week because of the death of his grandmother, showed up in Duluth just after midnight Friday, and proceeded to blank the UMD Bulldogs 3-0 and 4-0 in his first time ever inside the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
That sent CC into this weekend’s series against Minnesota State-Mankato, and the season-ending home-and-home set against Denver, needing only one point in the last four games to outdistance North Dakota and three points to eliminate Denver for the MacNaughton Cup.
The UMD weekend solidified Bachman’s grip on both meaningful goaltending statistics, and he’s done it without even a hyphenated first name. His 1.68 goals-against mark is best, with North Dakota’s Jean-Philippe Lamoureux second at 1.88. That, however, is a measurement of team defense. More impressive is his personal save percentage, which is .938 – solidly first, ahead of Michigan Tech’s Michael-Lee Teslak.
“He’s the main reason we’re in first place,†said coach Scott Owens. “We don’t apologize for that.Ââ€
Why would they? The Tigers have been at or near the top of the WCHA all season, but they had their final idle weekend the previous week, and onrushing North Dakota caught CC for first place. But with three weekends left, CC had two games-in-hand. With North Dakota idle, those games-in-hand were literally in hand – on the DECC ice.
“I hadn’t been inside the arena, but I knew it was a small rink, so I figured they’d be shooting from all angles,†said Bachman. “I thought UMD played really good. But we’ve been playing solidly all year, including our power play, and penalty-killing.Ââ€
UMD coach Scott Sandelin had said he thought Denver was the toughest team his Bulldogs had faced in the first half of the season. “But in the second half, it’s not even close,†said Sandelin. “They’ve got good speed up front, with some skilled players who can make something happen, they have good defense – and I think Jack Hillen is one of the top defensemen in the league – and they’ve obviously goa a good goaltender.Ââ€
From CC’s standpoint, the biggest question coming into the league was the Tigers goaltending position. From UMD’s standpoint, Bachman should be declared an unfair advantage, freshman or not. When the Bulldogs were swept at CC early in the season, Bachman shut them out 3-0 with 34 saves.
But UMD had a chance to claim a home-ice position, and should have been at full intensity for the rematch at the DECC. Instead, Bachman stoned them 3-0 again, making 31 saves. The ‘Dawgs came out with renewed fire in the second game, but Bachman stopped all 29 shots and the Tigers won 4-0.
True, goals are required to win games, and the Bulldogs have been specifically goal-challenged all season. The Tigers are not, although it wasn’t until the second period that Scott McCulloch broke the scoreless tie by smacking a Jimmy Kilpatrick pass into the net at 8:12 of the second period. Twenty-five seconds later, the Bulldogs turned the puck over and Mike Testwuide fed Chad Rau a perfect pass and his 1-timer made it 2-0. Andreas Vlassopoulos made it 3-0 in the third period with both teams a man short.
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UMD hustled and pressed for shots, but Bachman never let them in. Nothing ruffled him. That, too, is understandable. He is from Highland Ranch, Colo., but he went away to private school in Massachusetts, then played junior hockey in the U.S. Hockey League, for Cedar Rapids.
“I was a little concerned about my first start in Colorado, after four years of being away,†Bachman said. “But the fans were very supportive, and I just found my rhythm. We’ve got such great defense, I was able to settle into the league pretty well.Ââ€
In the second game, Eric Walsky scored midway through the first period after a neat pass exchange with Matt Overman on a 2-on-1. Then Rau scored again, rifling a power-play 1-timer from the top of the left circle that glanced off the inside of Alex Stalock’s left leg and glanced in for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
Rau scored again, his third of the weekend and 22nd of the season, on a second-period power play, with Jack Hillen and Vlassopoulos both assisting on both Rau goals. Midway through the third period, Hillen moved in from left point, hesitated, then shot a hard pass toward the right of the net, and Kilpatrick deflected it in for the 4-0 final.
Bachman had 29 saves, meaning he now has shut out UMD for three straight games, and 197 minutes and 46 seconds going back to the last Bulldog goal, in the first game of the earlier series at CC.
“When North Dakota caught us, we knew we had a couple of games in hand,†Bachman said. “Our focus, coming off the bye week, was that we really needed these two wins. Our forwards played really well, and I didn’t have many hard shots.Ââ€
Hard or less than hard, he stopped them all.
It has been a trying week for Bachman. His grandmother’s death in Salt Lake City meant he was with his familyand hadn’t practiced all week.
“We knew Duluth would come out hard, and we took a licking,†said Owens. “You can’t help but hit in this rink. But I thought our quickness showed. And Bachman played with confidence and stood tall.Ââ€
WCHA women’s ‘Big Three’ face final-week drama
The players on the Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota and Wisconsin women’s hockey teams enjoy the heightened intensity whenever they play each other, creating a grudging mutual-admiration society among the Women’s WCHA “Big Three.†However, as the season hurtles into its final weekend, all three would prefer to end up playing only one, rather than both, of their favorite rivals in the league playoffs.
Of course, that possibility can only come for one of the three — the season champion. If all things follow form, which is far from guaranteed, the other two most likely will collide in the semifinals of the WCHA’s newly named “Final Face-Off,” with that winner then playing the season champion. All of the Big Three know it’s far easier to beat one of the others than both of them, on successive days.
That’s why the spotlight of the final weekend is shining both on Ridder Arena and the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. At Ridder, two-time defending NCAA champion Wisconsin faces Minnesota in a Saturday-Sunday set of matinees. The Badgers (19-5-2) trail the Gophers (21-4-4) by three points, so they need to sweep in order to catch, and bypass, the Gophers. To do so they’ll have to stop a 21-game undefeated streak by Minnesota (19-0-2).
Meanwhile, up at the DECC, UMD (22-4) is clinging to a one-point lead over Minnesota going into another Saturday-Sunday series, against St. Cloud State (11-11-4). UMD has its destiny in its own hands, and can secure the title by sweeping the Huskies, regardless of what happens in the Minnesota-Wisconsin series. St. Cloud State, however, is a solid fourth in the league, with senior goaltender Kendall Newell standing in the way of the Bulldogs. Newell lost a close opening-night game to UMD, but later she and the Huskies upset the Gophers with a 4-4 tie and 2-1 victory, and surprised the Badgers 2-1 for an early-season split.
UMD’s players and coaching staff are all aware that if the Bulldogs stumble, Minnesota could easily vault past them by sweeping the Badgers. The Bulldogs had last weekend off to heal up some ailments, and will get star sophomore Saara Tuominen back from a knee injury that has kept her out since January. But the status of freshman Iya Gavrilova from Russia, who supplanted the injured Tuominen as team-leading scorer, remains in limbo. A question arose about her NCAA eligibility when a report circulated that she played in an alleged “professional†league in Russia.
The report may have been inspired by an off-hand comment reported in the Duluth News-Tribune in January, saying she played on a pro team. Gavrilova moved 2,500 miles from her Siberian home and reportedly got a stipend of about $500 a month to play on a sports institute team in Moscow. The word “professional” carries all sorts of connotations. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, the top Soviet men’s league was simply called the Elite League. Players were supported in the communist society, and they were always considered amateurs by the Olympic Committee, and their top players annually formed the slick USSR teams that dominated World Championships as well as Olympic tournaments.
When the Soviet Union broke up, and players started coming to the “professional” NHL, that term acquired a certain cachet, and some Europeans started calling their top leagues professional. There are no professional women’s leagues in Canada or the U.S., which are clearly the dominant two women’s hockey powers. Nor are there any in Sweden or Finland, the next tier of female hockey development. Russia has never been considered better than fifth-best in women’s world hockey, and with only 300 women playing hockey in all of Russia – roughly the same number of female players as in the city of Duluth, the concept of Russia having “pro” women’s leagues or teams is ridiculous.
The NCAA precludes professional players from collegiate eligibility, but exceptions are readily granted for participants in Olympic development programs. Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell, Jenny (Schmidgall) Potter, Angie Ruggiero, and Julie Chu did that for the U.S. team that was gathered together for expense-paid years, then returned to their colleges, after the Winter Olympics. Similarly, Gavrilova prepared for and played on the 2006 Russian women’s Olympic team. Still, the matter awaits resolution and Gavrilova has been withheld from the last two UMD series.
Meanwhile, the teams WCHA rivals refer to as “the Big Three†have beaten up on each other all season, and all three of them established impressive streaks — as long as they weren’t playing each other.
Minnesota is on a record hot streak, having won 11 straight, and going undefeated in 21 games — dating back to a 5-0 loss at UMD on November 17. A 3-0 Minnesota victory in the rematch the next day started the record streak for the Gophers. But Minnesota hasn’t played another of the “big three†since then, until this weekend.
In turn, UMD hadn’t lost since that 3-0 Gopher game, compiling a 16-game winning streak — until Wisconsin topped the Bulldogs 3-2 two weeks ago to snap the streak. That victory gave Wisconsin an 11-game winning streak, dating back to when they were swept by the Bulldogs in December in Madison. But one day after Wisconsin stopped the UMD streak, UMD returned the favor, beating the Badgers 3-2 to end Wisconsin’s streak.
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The Badgers started a new streak with a pair of shutouts over Bemidji State last weekend, while UMD was idle.
In a scheduling oddity, the Gophers played UMD all four times — sweeping the Bulldogs 3-1, 5-1 at Ridder in October — and also played Wisconsin twice, losing 3-0 before rallying for a 3-2 victory and a split of their early November series at Madison.
Minnesota stands 3-1 ledger against UMD, and 1-1 against Wisconsin, for a 4-2 record in those games. UMD is 4-4, having gone 3-1 against Wisconsin and 1-3 against Minnesota. And Wisconsin, which is 1-3 against UMD and 1-1 with Minnesota, is 2-4, but could make all three teams 4-4 in their competition if they could sweep.
The tightness at the top carries over to national competition as well. UMD ranks No. 3, Minnesota No. 4 and Wisconsin No. 5 in the national polls, although UMD is No. 2 to Harvard in the pairwise computer simulation of NCAA selection procedures. In overall stature, UMD is 25-4-1, Minnesota 25-4-3, and Wisconsin 23-7.
Until the split with Wisconsin, UMD’s only three losses all season were to the Gophers. The Bulldogs tied and won in an early series to knock Mercyhurst out of the No. 1 national rating, and swept two games at highly-rated St. Lawrence, earning the highest rank among the Big Three.
This weekend’s games command full attention, however, with strong league playoffs ramifications. While UMD, Minnesota and Wisconsin will be favored to get past first-round foes, once they reach the WCHA Final Face-Off in Duluth, the top-seeded team gets to avoid the other two until the final.
If, for example, UMD holds on to take first, and playoff form follows the seeding, Wisconsin and Minnesota would have to meet in the semifinals.However, in a scenario with Minnesota sweeping Wisconsin, and UMD winning and tying St. Cloud, the Gophers and Bulldogs would end up tied for first, and Minnesota would be No. 1 seed for the playoffs on the strength of the season edge over UMD.
All three are likely to be invited to the eight-team NCAA tournament, selected after league playoffs, and the playoffs obviously can affect the seeding, because only one team can win all the games in the WCHA playoffs. Outside of the “Big Three,†a team like St. Cloud, Ohio State or MSU-Mankato could fight its way into an NCAA spot with an upsurge in the playoffs, to give the West four entries.
Just added incentive on the final weekend of the regular season.
Gophers struggle through 1-1 tie, then beat UMD 2-1
The stage was set for a wild and exciting series when Minnesota journeyed north to face Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. The Duluth Entertainment Convention Center was filled to its 5,364 capacity both nights, both teams were primed for the heightened passion of their long-standing rivalry, and both also faced the pressure to overcome the inconsistency that had prevented anything resembling a hot streak.
The willing fans, however, mostly sat in silence as UMD never led all weekend, and the teams struggled to a 1-1 tie through overtime in the first game, before Minnesota held on to claim a 2-1 victory.
“Three goals, three points,†said Gopher coach Don Lucia, with an ironic smile, as if thinking back to the explosive offensive teams he coached to the last two MacNaughton Cup league titles.
But this is a different season, and the only hot streaks were put together by guys named Alex, as in Alex Stalock and Alex Kangas – the opposing goaltenders. UMD goaltender Alex Stalock was named WCHA defensive player of the week for stopping 62 of 65 Gopher shots for the weekend, a .954 save-percentage. But Minnesota’s Alex Kangas was named league freshman of the week for stoppng 43 of 45 Bulldog shots – a .956 save-percentage for the weekend.
There was none of the scintillating, edge-of-your-seat action that has been traditional since the Bulldogs and Gophers first started mixing it up in WCHA battles in 1965. Sometimes one team was stronger, but regardless, the fireworks on the ice were sure to supersede their status and records. This time, the series was decidedly dull. But for Minnesota, that was a good thing.
Minnesota’s hopes to rise for a chance at home-ice for the WCHA playoffs were boosted, because the loss dropped UMD to 6-7-5, while the Gophers rose to 6-8-2.
“No question, if we’d lost up here, home ice was probably out of the question,†said Lucia. “There weren’t a lot of good scoring chances either game, but I thought our goaltender and defense played well. We know we’ve got to win ugly, that’s for sure.Ââ€
Even one loss in the second game at Duluth would have rendered Minnesota seven points behind UMD. Instead, the victory lifts them to within three points of the still-fourth-place Bulldogs. Instead, Minnesota, Michigan Tech and Wisconsin are all 6-8-2, tied for the fifth and final home-ice spot at playoff time. It is a tie that may not stay for long, because Minnesota goes from one rival in Duluth to another rival at Wisconsin this weekend.
The Gophers had gone to Duluth trailing UMD by five points. The Bulldogs, who got off to a 3-0-1 start by sweeping St. Cloud State and gaining a victory and a tie against Michigan Tech, had combined Stalock’s goaltending and a smart and consistent defense to cling to third or fourth place in the WCHA standings, even while sputtering after that 3-0-1 start to a 3-6-3 segment, then battled to stay at .500. Minnesota opened 0-4 in league play against Colorado College and Denver, then won three straight, but stumbled through a 2-4-1 run to reach this series 5-8-1.
Minnesota returned its top five scoring forwards, but were stymied by injuries and slumps, and then had Kyle Okposo jump ship to sign a pro contract during Christmas break. Jay Barriball, last year’s leading scorer as a freshman, has been a study in frustration, working hard but simply not scoring, with only three goals. Blake Wheeler and Ben Gordon are 1-2, with 12 and 8 goals, respectively, but Wheeler has never scored more than one goal in a game all season, and in league play, he has only 7 while Gordon has 4.
Minnesota-Duluth, on the other hand, was led by the 1-2 punch of sophomores Mason Raymond and Matt Niskanen last year, and both signed. Raymond is playing with Vancouver and Niskanen has been the surprising success story on defense for the Dallas Stars. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have not found anyone to replace either, and they’ve had to scrap for every goal.
“We’re not good enough to have any passengers,†said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We’re not overly skilled, so we have to work harder.Ââ€
Work ethics and goaltending prevailed in the first game, and nothing was easy. Early in the second period, Barriball broke deep on the right and threw a late pass across the slot. Defenseman Derek Peltier was there, got his stick on the shot from the left edge, and somehow sent the puck back across the crease, missing the net.
“When we missed that one, I knew it would be a long night,” said Lucia. “That one was like setting the puck on the end of the pier, and missing Lake Superior.”
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Minnesota broke through at 1:16 of the third period when Wheeler carried up the left side and flipped a shot for a potential tip by Mike Howe. It appeared that Stalock blocked the shot and that Howe missed the tip but got a piece of Stalock in the crease. Stalock tried to recover in time for the rebound, but Gordon smacked it in.
“I saw Wheels throw it to the net and I just managed to get my stick on it,†said Gordon, who is from International Falls, Minn. “Felt good to get one, because there were a lot of Up North people here. It’s a small rink with a lot of big guys – it wasn’t pretty, and we’re not happy with the tie.Ââ€
Minnesota’s defense had been dangerously shaky all season, but it embarked on its strongest weekend against UMD, blanking the Dawgs until the first shot they got in the third period, after 8:44. Drew Akins glanced a shot off the right side of the net, hustled to retrieve his own rebound and fed to the goal-mouth, where Matt McKnight converted for the 1-1 tie. Minnesota outshot UMD 27-20, but the goaltenders held the score firmly.
The tie may have hinged on the Gophers escaping a lapse in discipline, when Evan Kaufmann and Derek Peltier went off for successive penalties 37 seconds apart late in the third period. Two men short for 1:22, but Wheeler put on a stirring display of penalty killing, singlehandedly turning back repeated UMD rushes in the neutral zone and putting the puck back in deep for almost a full minute.
The second game may have seemed likely to erupt, but not this year, and not with these two combatants. Coach’s son Tony Lucia played oppertunist midway through the first period. Kevin Wehrs shot from inside the left point, and the puck made a perfect ricochet off the blade of UMD defenseman Jason Garrison’s stick, deflecting to the slot where Lucia one-timed it into the upper right corner as though a teammate had fed him.
Mike Carman, whose ineligibility the first semester didn’t help Minnesota’s cause, helped it a ton at 5:31 of the second period when Barriball rushed in deep on the left. His first pass attempt was to Mike Hoeffel, but it was blocked right back to him. For his second try, Barriball spotted Carman catching up to the rush and fed him for a one-timer from the slot for a 2-0 lead.
It stayed that way until 9:02 of the third period when Garrison, who has a bullet for a shot, finally got one through from the right point on a power play. Kangas never moved and UMD was within 2-1. Stalock made some more strong saves until he came out for an extra skater in the final minute, but Kangas and the Gophers held on.
“It was a big game for both teams,†said Sandelin, afterward. “They played hard, with more desperation and urgency.Ââ€
Wheeler said: “We’ve had our share of tough losses. We blew a three-goal lead in the third period at St. Cloud last weekend. We knew it would be a rock ’em, sock ’em weekend up here.Ââ€
Minnesota scored first in both games, meaning the Gophers have scored the first goal in 20 of their 26 games this season. Strangely enough, while outscoring teams 24-13 in the first period and 27-20 in the second, the Gophers have been outscored 34-18 in the third periods. And if the light-scoring Bulldogs are suffering with 42 goals and 48 goals-against in their league games, Minnesota has an even more anemic 37 goals with 44 goals-against in two fewer league games.
And while Garrison’s goal was big for UMD at the time, it wasn’t like either team could count on its power play for much help. Minnesota’s power play is only at 11.3 percent, and UMD’s at a flat 10.0.
It is possible that nothing was really decided on that 15-below-zero weekend in Duluth. Maybe it will all still be hanging in the balance when UMD plays at Minnesota on the final weekend of the season. Chances are, whatever happens in that series, the goaltenders will play a major role.
Denver sweep leaves Gophers with first 0-4 start
Denver University needed all of its considerable assets, from great leadership and a focused unity to a bit of comic relief, to claim 5-1, 4-1 victories at Mariucci Arena that were as lopsided as they were rare.
It was the first sweep for the Pioneers at Minnesota in 13 seasons, since Dec. 10-11, 1994, and Denver had only beaten Minnesota once in the previous six games on any rink, coming into last weekend. Also, the Golden Gophers had never started a WCHA race 0-4, which they are after Denver’s vctories vaulted the Pioneers to 3-1 in league play and 6-2 overall.
Goaltender Peter Mannino, one of only three seniors on the club along with captain Andrew Thomas on defense and winger Tom May, has seen the highs and lows,. He guided the Pioneers to an NCAA championship as tournament most valuable player in his freshman season, but then Denver was left out by wrenching near-misses of the last two NCAA tournaments.
Mannino stopped 37 of 38 Minnesota shots in the Friday game, and 32 of 33 in the Sunday matinee rematch, for a 97.2-percent weekend that lowered his goals-against mark to 1.50 for the season, and raised his save percentage to .940. There are fewer statistcis to indicate Mannino’s value as a quiet leader.
On the other end of the spectrum is Tyler Bozak, a freshman who led the British Columbia junior league in scoring last season, but who had only one goal in Denver’s first six games. Bozak broke loose at Mariucci, notching his second goal in the first game, then scoring three goals – call it a “hard-hat trick†— in the 4-1 rematch. His first goal was pivotal, tying the score 1-1 late in the first period, and his second two came in the third period, both shorthanded, and the last one into an empty net. The two shorthanded goals gave Denver a 2-0 edge during 10 futile Minnesota power plays, which ran the Gophers to an 0-for-30 drought covering the last seven games.
Bozak’s first Sunday goal was worthy of a highlight-film, or at least the start of a new television show “The WCHA’s Funniest Videos.Ââ€
Trailing 1-0, Bozak was moving to his right at the edge of the slot, wide open. He swung hard at a shot from 15 feet out, and freshman goaltender Alex Kangas dropped to his knees. But the puck didn’t hit him. It was still slithering along on the ice, because Bozak had completely fanned on his shot. Before Kangas could recover, Bozak did, stepping to his right to regain possession and deposit the puck behind the goalie into the open net from a slightly wider angle.
Bozak, a freshman from Regina, Saskatchewan, is more comfortable facing opposing goaltenders than the media that engulfed him after the second-game hat trick. He was wearing the celebratory team hard hat, awarded to the key player. (Mannino wore it after the first game.) After Bozak answered all the questions, somebody jokingly asked if he had been practicing his “fake shot†on his first goal. Pausing just an instant, Bozak spotted an escape route from the embarrassing moment, and he went for it. “Yeah, I’ve used that before,†he said, with a straight face. “When you fake a shot like that, you see where the goalie is going to go.Ââ€
The media members dutifully recorded his comments. Later, he was asked if he also takes mulligans when he golfs. Bozak laughed, and he acknowledged that it was probably the first time he had ever scored a goal after completely whiffing on his shot. “Luckily, it worked out for a goal,†he said.
The rest of his hat trick proved all three goals were the kind that seem to be the private domain of pure goal-scorers. The game stood 2-1 when Bozak was out on the penalty kill. A pass came to Minnesota defenseman Cade Fairchild at center-point, and Bozak lunged to poke it past him, scoring on a breakaway, with a deceptive little leg kick before snapping his shot over Kangas’s glove and into the upper right corner.
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Kangas was pulled during a 5-minute major called with 5:09 remaining, and Bozak got the puck on the left boards, almost casually knocking it bouncing like a grounder to shortstop, into the middle of the open net 75 feet away, with 1:53 to go.
“These were huge wins for us, especially coming in here, where they don’t lose much at home,†Bozak said.
Mannino didn’t give up a goal until Denver had five in the first game, but Minnesota gained a 1-0 lead on Blake Wheeler’s goal midway through the first period of the second game. The play started when Mannino went behind the net to clear the puck. He saw Evan Kaufmann coming through the right corner on the forecheck, so he changed his mind and reversed it to the left. Tony Lucia was coming there, however, and quickly passed to Kaufmann, who fed in front for Wheeler’s quick shot. Mannino got back to the crease in time, but was not pleased with the goal.
Mannino allowed nothing more, and the Pioneers took the game over. Bozak’s first goal, then a determined, second-effort rebound goal by Rhett Rakhshani, vaulted the Pioneers ahead 2-1 before the first period ended. Rakhshani also found the weekend to his liking, having scored his first goal of the season along with two assists in the first game, when Tyler Ruegsegger scored two, and Brock Trotter and Bozak one each, and scoring again in the second game.
“Every game is so important,†said Rakhshani. “Especially when you realize what happened to us last year, missing out on the tournament by only one game. We’ve got scoring threats on every line, and our penalty killing has been great. But Mannino is a good part of that penalty kill – if you get it past us, you still have to get it past him.Ââ€
Mannino admitted that he “tried to reverse the puck†on the Minnesota goal, but he was reluctant to talk about a later play, when he came out of the net to clear the puck, but fed it to another Gopher for a quick shot. Mannino quickly retreated and come up with a big save.
“He apologized to the team for that pass,†said Gwozdecky. “That’s the kind of leader he is. They didn’t even score on the play. He’s responded to many challenges when the rest of the team has screwed up.Ââ€
Coach George Gwozdecky said he appreciated his team getting rewarded for hard work, and in his assessment the Pioneers “won five of the six perods†in the series. He also said he was relieved to have swept the Gophers while they are perhaps pressing too hard to score. “When they start scoring, somebody else can be their victims,†he said.
The Pioneers seem much more focused on the start of their season, and part of it is the way last season ended. “Last year, we were one-hundredth of a percentage point away from qualifying for the NCAA tournament,†Gwozdecky said. “If we had won one more game, we not only would have been in, we’d have been a No. 2 seed in the West Regional.Ââ€
This team, from the leadership to the team unity, work ethic, and colorful scorers, appears determined to leave nothing to the chance of hair-splitting NCAA selection computers.
Ross, McKenzie lift Gopher women to sweep UMD
The stimulation of the 10th year anniversary of their program’s existence, and a tribute to beloved equipment manager Bonnie Olein, who died of cancer earlier in the week, meant a lot to the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team. But seniors Bobbi Ross and Erica McKenzie made certain that the emotion remained focused on Minnesota-Duluth, their favored – and favorite – opponent.
Minnesota won 3-1 and 5-1 to sweep their No. 1 ranked and previously unbeaten Bulldogs out of Ridder Arena to turn the WCHA standings from a potential runaway back into a scramble. Ross, who is in her third season as captain, scored three goals for the weekend — including two shorthanded goals in the first game — and added three assists, while linemate and penalty-killing buddy McKenzie had two goals and three assists for the weekend – including yet another shorthanded goal in the second game.
“Erica and I communicate well out there,†said Ross. “She did a great job on the penalty kill, and we always know where the other one is at.Ââ€
McKenzie concurred.Ââ€We see each other well out there,†McKenzie said. “It seemed as though we kind of hit each other with passes pretty well.Ââ€
The sweep was startling enough, but the manner of the sweep was more remarkable. Brad Frost, in an interim year as head coach after Laura Halldorson surprisingly stepped down before the season, decided to pass up junior Kim Hanlon and start freshman Jenny Lura in goal. She did the job so well that she got a repeat chance in the second game.
The series started a pivotal month for Minnesota, which includes six consecutive make-or-break games – two against UMD, then two at Wisconsin, then two more at UMD. It was pivotal not only because UMD had started 5-0-1, and 4-0 with four shutouts in WCHA play, to claim the No. 1 rank in the country, but because a curious lack of fire had prevailed when the Gophers followed two nonconference victories by tying and losing against St. Cloud State, and splitting with Ohio State to stand 1-2-1 in a sputtering Women’s-WCHA start.
“It was an emotional time for us,†said Minnesota coach Brad Frost. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I think it helped we were playing Duluth. They bring out the best in us because our rivalry is so good.Ââ€
Ross said: “Now we know how we can play, and nothing else will be acceptable. We dug ourselves a bit of a hole with our first four games, and we had a great weekend. But it means nothing if we don’t follow it up.Ââ€
McKenzie concurred. “There was a lot going on, and it could have been distracting, but we knew we had a few huge weekends coming up,†said McKenzie. “The biggest thing is that we were playing Duluth. Whenever we play Duluth, whether they’re No. 1 or No. 20, both teams are always ready to play.Ââ€
The big plans for the weekend included Halldorson rounding up players from Minnesota’s early seasons, to be introduced on the ice and to be available for autographs to celebrate a decade of Gopher women’s hockey. The weekend also was dedicated to cancer awareness, in hopes of honoring Bonnie Olein, a former Minnesota softball player who had worked at the university for 30 years, and had been equipment manager for every Gopher women’s hockey team until cancer forced her to quit earlier this year. Tragically, Olein lost her battle to cancer on the Tuesday preceding the weekend, so the series instead became a memorial tribute. The entire Minnesota team attended Olein’s funeral Saturday morning before the second game of the series.
Ross and McKenzie worked their magic on virtually ever turn on the ice, making sure that the Gophers gained sufficient reward for two strong efforts. The Gophers still had to perform on the ice, because two losses in the series would have rendered Minnesota effectively out of contention at 1-4-1 while UMD would have been 7-0-1. Instead, the Golden Gophers rise to 3-2-1 and UMD slides to 4-2 in WCHA games.
“Against St. Cloud State and Ohio State, we’d play well, but then we defensively let them back into the games,†said Frost., after the first game. “Tonight, six people on the ice took over. The way we played tonight is the way we have to play.Ââ€
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The first game was properly intense through a scoreless first period, then Ross scored shorthanded, set up by a pass from McKenzie, and after UMD’s Emmanuelle Blais tied it less than a minute later, Ross fed Rachel Drazen, a defenseman who sat out last season after transfering from UMD, and she barged through the defense to make it 2-1 with a power play goal before the second period ended.
Despite being outshot 43-20 for the game, the Bulldogs still lurked close at 2-1 and needed only to make one play when they went on the power play in the closing minutes. But McKenzie outhustled the Bulldogs to the puck in the UMD corner and fed Ross for her second shorthanded goal of the game to clinch the 3-1 victory.
Obviously, UMD would come snarling back in the rematch . Or, maybe not. Not if Ross and McKenzie could do anything about it. This time McKenzie opened the game with a shorthanded goal, taking a feed from Ross, cutting to her right at the crease, and backhanding the puck past goaltender Kim Martin. McKenzie made it 2-0 on another Ross assist as the Gophers took a 3-0 lead in the first period. Ross, from McKenzie of course, scored to open the second period as Minnesota built a 5-0 lead through two sessions and cruised to a 5-1 romp for the sweep.
“The Gophers had a ton of emotion, and we played like we didn’t have much to compete for,†said UMD coach Shannon Miller. “I didn’t really yell between periods, because it seemed to me were were drained. If the players have something left and play poorly, believe me, I’ll yell and scream. But the tank was empty.Ââ€
There seemed to be a lack of the usual hostility between the two, all right. “Oh, the first game was plenty intense, with tension every shift,†said Ross. “But it was less hostile. They were very classy, and they approached us before the game and said they were sorry about us losing our equipment manager.Ââ€
Minnesota dominated play even more in the second game, outshooting the Bulldogs 35-26 and jumping ahead 3-0 in the first period and making it 5-0 by the second intermission.
“Duluth ramped it up for the second game, and that’s a credit to them,†said Frost. “But once we got the first goal, then we killed a 5-on-3 power play, we were on a roll. After getting two ‘shorties’ in the first game and the first one tonight, it was such a confidence-builder to come out and play 120 minutes as well as we did.Ââ€
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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