Badgers work overtime at UMD to win women’s WCHA

There may be more dramatic games in the upcoming Women’s WCHA and NCAA tournaments, but if not, Wisconsin’s pivotal pair of overtime games at Minnesota-Duluth on the first weekend in February will suffice. It took two nights of near-perfect hockey for the Badgers to fight off the Bulldogs for a 1-1 deadlock, followed by a 2-1 sudden-death Wisconsin victory that earned the Badgers their second straight WCHA title.

The Badgers knew they would be in for a severe test at the DECC, because UMD is the only team to have inflicted a loss on the newest edition of the Big Red Machine this season. That came in a 2-0 victory back about Thanksgiving time, and Wisconsin came back to win 1-0 the next night, and start a run that has now reached 12-0-3. That runs the Badgers up to a 19-1-4 season, and an amazing 25-1-4 overall ledger.

The showdown series of the season was exactly that, as Wisconsin needed at least three points in the two games to capture its second straight league title, and UMD was the only team that could still overtake the Badgers – who last year followed the WCHA title by also winning the league playoff and the NCAA women’s hockey championship.

Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson enjoyed watching the game, and games, and while his team’s second straight WCHA crown seemed only an exponent of the spectacle of the games themselves, Johnson also knows there are more challenges to come. He also said he rather enjoys Wisconsin’s No. 2 rank in national polls, behind Mercyhurst – Mercyhurst? – because it leaves an extra carrot of incentive dangling out ahead, and the WCHA’s fierce competition gives its top teams an edge.

“I told my team that both teams will benefit from this,” said Johnson. “This was typical of a playoff or NCAA game. Look at the games we’ve had with Duluth. We’ve had to battle at both ends of the ice, and our games have been 2-0, 1-0, 1-1, and 2-1. Duluth has the capacity of beating anyone.”

Asked about Mercyhurst, Johnson was typically diplomatic. “They’re No. 1, and that’s fine,” he said. “But whoever gets there from our league will benefit from this.”

The weekend was a showcase of tense, playoff hockey. In the first game, UMD scored a last-minute goal to tie the Badgers 1-1, as UMD freshman goaltender Kim Martin dueled Jessie Vetter through 65 minutes. Martin had by far the tougher duty, making 32 saves, while the Badgers smothered the Bulldogs to make VetterÂ’s night easier, with only 13 stops.

UMD, still playing without four injured regulars, including dynamic senior and offensive catalyst Jessica Koizumi, played a much stronger game in the Saturday rematch. Thanks to goaltender Riitta Schaublin, who more than upheld her end of senior night with 39 saves, the Bulldogs traded rushes with the smooth-running Badger machine for almost the entire game, following the same script with a late goal to forge a 1-1 tie for the second night in a row.

The games were so fast and clean that they could have been penalty-free, but both teams seemed frustrated with referee Jay MendelÂ’s selection of penalties, not the least of which was a tripping call to UMD defenseman Ashly Waggoner at 1:14 of the five-minute overtime. Still, UMD freshman Emmanuelle Blais was the recipient of a rare Wisconsin turnover 15 feet in front of the Badger goal, and she had a startling shorthanded open break, but Wisconsin senior Christine Dufour came up with a huge save, her 28th of the game.

“I almost had a heart attack,” said Johnson. “But our goalie makes the big save.”

Moments later, Meaghan Mikkelson fed an outlet pass ahead to Meghan Duggan, who relayed a perfect feed to Jinelle Zaugg, a 6-foot-1 junior winger with a reach that seems to be the only thing longer than her great skating stride. Zaugg was crossing the neutral zone, left to right, at full speed when she caught the pass, and UMD coach Shannon Miller said later: “I knew we were in trouble as soon as she caught that pass, because she has such great reach.”

Zaugg cut into the UMD zone, outflanked the retreating defense, and cut across the goal-mouth, right to left. Schaublin, a 6-footer with great reach herself, stayed with her almost all the way to the far, left pipe – almost. Zaugg sent her forehand shot just between Schaublin’s skate and the left pipe for a power-play goal at 2:02 of the overtime, and Wisconsin had secured a 2-1 victory.

Oh, and by the way, the WCHA season championship along with it.
Not that you’d know it by talking to coach Johnson after the game, because the game itself was all-consuming. “It was a good play all around, with 27 (Mikkelson) moving the puck up to 7 (Duggan), and she got it over to Jinelle. She had speed and momentum, and she’s got that long reach, and she needed every bit of it.”

Maybe using numbers is the easiest way to keep his Meaghan/Meghan combination straight, but they are typical of the consistently outstanding style of play Johnson has installed with the Badgers in every zone. They can defuse an equal opponent, and smother a lesser one. They defend their net with poise and precision, with a blue line crew led by co-captain Bobby-Jo Slusar and Mikkelson, both seniors. The two have been vital to the offense – Mikkelson with 8-29—36, and Slusar with 10-17—27 – while the other four defensemen haven’t scored a single goal, but they defend goaltenders Vetter and Dufour mightily.

Up front, Sara Bauer – one of six seniors on the team and last year’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner – has been both an inspirational and productive leader with 18-34—52, while her junior left winger, Zaugg, a junior, is one of five homestate Wisconsin players, is the team’s goal-scoring leader with 21-15—36. Freshman right winger Duggan stands at 20-19—39 after her goal and assist in the 2-1 victory. The other three lines contribute great balance and also show the benefit of Johnson’s smooth-fitting machine, whether breaking out of their end, sweeping across the neutral zone, or pinning foes into the offensive end with a stifling and supportive forecheck.

Bauer is only 5-foot-3, almost a foot shorter than Zaugg, but Bauer doesn’t look short, not with Erika Lawler coming out at center on the following shift. Lawler, a sophomore, is only 5-foot-0, but adds a quick, smart impact. She has 7-23—30, with her 23rd assist on the first goal in the Saturday game, when she recovered the puck on a rush and fed Duggan, who carried in on the left side and drilled a perfect shot, high to the far side, to beat Schaublin with 59 seconds remaining in the first period.

That goal, giving Wisconsin a 1-0 lead, climaxed a stirring period. The Badgers had a 12-11 edge in shots, and, as Johnson said, “They could put a video of that away as a showcase for women’s hockey.”
The 1-0 lead stood through the second and third periods, although Schaublin had to be brilliant to stop repeated attacks in the scoreless second period, when Wisconsin had a 16-5 edge in shots. It was 12-12 in the third. “For the first four or five minutes of the game, we had a good pace, but then in the next seven or eight minutes, they had four real good scoring chances,” said Johnson, recalling the flow of the game as if he had it on video inside his head.
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From UMDÂ’s standpoint, the Senior Night performance was highly emotional, although sophomore Michaela Lanzl, a 5-foot-2 speedster from German, had an outstanding weekend and accounted for many of UMD’s best threats. “We have no superstars on this team, just a super team,” said coach Miller. “We still have four players out, and with the depleted roster we had, this was a great weekend for us. We had to go and go, push and push. We gave it everything we had, and IÂ’ll take it – going into overtime both nights against Wisconsin.”

The two games were similar, but different. In the first game, Emily Kranz beat Martin with a high backhander from the right side after one of dozens of scrambles at the UMD crease, and the goal came with 2:03 left in the first period. Martin then held the fort, as Wisconsin buttoned the Bulldogs into their own end, outshooting them 9-1 in the period. UMD didnÂ’t get its first shot of the third period until midway through, meaning the Â’Dawgs got only one shot for a full 30-minute span in the middle of the game.

“They outplayed us, and outshot us,” Miller said. “But sometimes you could have 100 shots and not score, but as long as it stayed 1-0, we didn’t need a lot of shots – we just needed one goal.”

The break came when Wisconsin iced the puck, a rare flaw, in the final minute. Miller got Martin out of the game for a sixth attacker. “First, you obviously have to win the draw, then get the shot through,” said Miller.

Saara Tuominen, a freshman from Finland, won the right corner faceoff, and got the puck to Elin Holmlov, a freshman forward from Sweden who was at center point. After countless UMD shots had been blocked by WisconsinÂ’s bunching defense, Holmlov found an opening and sent a hard wrist shot through traffic. Vetter spotted the puck late, but blocked the shot. But Noemie Marin, another of UMDÂ’s seniors, backhanded the rebound in with 47 seconds remaining for the 1-1 tie.

The second game similarities were that Duggan also gave Wisconsin a 1-0 lead late in the first period, and UMD again scored late in the third, this time when Tawni Mattila won a right-corner faceoff, and the puck got bunted back to Finnish freshman Heidi Pelttari, who fired a shot. The puck came out to Karine Demeule, whose 11th goal of the season was the 1-1 equalizer.

This time, however, Zaugg brought victory to the Badgers.
“Again we ended up with a faceoff in our end, and now it’s tied,” said the relieved Johnson. “The game had everything – two senior goaltenders, one from Quebec (Dufour) and the other (Schaublin) from Switzerland, battling each other toe-to-toe. And after two games, it took a power-play goal in overtime for one team to win.”

That one team was Wisconsin, and the victory, slim as it was, was all that separated two teams that had battled 1-1-1 for the season until that overtime. And while the two teams might renew their rich and intense rivalry at playoff time, or in the NCAA tournament, or both, that slim victory on the first weekend of February was good enough for the WCHA championship.

DOT Line leads Fighting Sioux to sweep of Gophers

Ryan Duncan, Jonathan Toews and T.J. Oshie of North Dakota are not related, but if they were, theyÂ’d be Siamese triplets. Joined at the heads and hands.

After three months of creating mostly questions, the best forward line in the nation is supplying the University of North Dakota hockey team with some good answers. If you happened to be inside Mariucci Arena last weekend, you realized this weekÂ’s WCHA Offensive Player of the Week should be the Duncan-Toews-Oshie line. Yes, itÂ’s possible to have co-winners of the award, so why not co-co-winners? It would make sense, because the top Fighting Sioux line is impossible to separate.

The three quick, and extremely skilled sophomores seem to read each otherÂ’s minds, and their hands simply react to share the puck with spectacular passes. Their play led North Dakota to resounding 5-3 and 7-3 victories at Minnesota, for a sweep over the No. 1 ranked Golden Gophers.

The Sioux are far more than just one line, of course, and they are quick to point to their teammates, and particularly goaltender Philippe Lamoureux for credit. But in the case of these guys, “just one line” is a misnomer. Maybe they should be called the “DOT” line – for Duncan-Oshie-Toews. It also works because if the Fighting Sioux are to make their familiar second-half surge to national puck prominence this season, all they need to do is sign on the Dotted Line.

In Friday’s 5-3 victory, North Dakota fell behind 2-0, then stunned the first of two standing-room-only crowds at Mariucci into silence by volleying five consecutive goals past Kellen Briggs. Of the five, the Dotted Line scored three of them, punctuated by five assists. On Saturday, when the Sioux shelled Jeff Frazee with three first-period goals, and then tormented Briggs some more with two more in both the second and third periods, the Dotted Line got four of them, with five more assists. For the weekend, then, the trio snapped passes around to leave their signature on 7 goals and 9 assists for 16 points. Duncan scored 4-3—7, Oshie 2-2—4, and Toews 1-4—5, with virtually every point a reward for some spectacular and inseparable passing plays.

Duncan now has scored 21 goals-15 assists—36 points for the season, and Oshie has 9-20—29, and Toews 7-18—25. Duncan’s totals are outstanding, and his 21 goals lead the nation, as do his 16 WCHA-game goals lead the league.

“They’re the best line I’ve seen,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “If they play like this the rest of the season, they’ll all have 25 goals.”

Any other questions?

Well, yes. Where the heck has this line been all season? Going into the season, that line was the reason some observers thought the Fighting Sioux would win the WCHA title, even thought the coaches picked them only for third, behind Minnesota and defending NCAA champion Wisconsin. Their prolific output at Minnesota – which produced the first Fighting Sioux sweep at Minnesota since Feb. 15-16, 1980, but where have Oshie and Toews been, after remarkable freshman seasons? Why weren’t they scoring, when the Fighting Sioux followed up a strong 4-1-1 start in the WCHA by suffering through a painful 1-8 plunge that dropped them down below also-ran status, to a 5-9-1 league record that dropped them hopelessly out of contention, and out of any discussion for home-ice in the playoffs. About that time, Minnesota was on a nation’s best 22-game unbeaten streak to take command of the WCHA race.

The Gophers didn’t lose the nation’s No. 1 rank by splitting at Wisconsin, and then splitting against Denver. But suddenly, they didn’t bounce back from a Friday loss and were swept by North Dakota, which means the Golden Gophers have lost four of six to let Denver and St. Cloud State move back into contention. And, as if to supply yet another answer to whether the Fighting Sioux will be heard from this season, North Dakota has finally risen to 9-9-2 in the WCHA – even .500 – and is 6-0-1 for the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation.

As for the magical DOT line, all three are strikingly different, although they share a basic humility as easily as they share the puck. Duncan, who is from Calgary and played at Salmon Arm in the British Columbia Junior League, is 5-foot-6 and 158 pounds. After the Saturday game, a Twin Cities reporter, perhaps baiting him, asked Duncan if he thought the Gophers were over-rated. “I wouldn’t say they’re over-rated,” said Duncan. “I would say we had been under-achieving. We played well on other weekends, we just didn’t seem to get the breaks. These were a huge two wins for us. We came into a tough arena and won two big games.”

As for playing with Toews and Oshie, Duncan, who is a free agent, said: “It’s great. Those guys are first-round draft picks, and they’re going to make a lot of money some day.”

Oshie is a 6-foot, 188-pounder from Warroad, Minn., who was a first-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues, and who scored 24-21—45 as a freshman last year, leading the nation with nine game-winning goals. He also agreed that the Gophers were far from over-rated. “They’ve earned it,” he said. And the Sioux?

“We came together on December 17, when Michigan Tech swept us,” said Oshie. “We realized right then we had to change what we were doing. No, I don’t think we were taking it easy because we had come on so strong at the end of last season. As the start, we just had nobody grinding. We were not playing with a lot of grit. We might have four going, instead of five, on a shift. Or two going instead of three.
“Maybe me and Jon [Toews] felt like we had to do too much. But this weekend will definitely help us out and be a springboard for us the rest of the way.”

Toews, who is 6-foot-2, 202-pounder from Winnipeg, was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, and scored 22-17—39 as a freshman last season, as the Sioux reached the Frozen Four before losing a semifinal 6-5 thriller to Boston College. He helped beat Team USA in the recent World Junior Tournament when he scored three consecutive goals on a three-round shootout that decided a 2-1 victory for Canada.

“We lost five key players from last year’s team,” said Toews. “With those guys, it was easy for T.J., Ryan and me to fly under the radar a little. This year, we got off to a slow start by not doing the little things. Now, we’re doing them.

“I played better at the World Juniors than I had been. I got something like 4 goals and 2 assists,” Toews added. “When I got back, it was more of a mental thing for me. Obviously, your body is tired, but it’s such a mental boost, I was excited to get back. We played with a lot of confidence this weekend, and we’ve got to use this and keep playing the way we are. Our line is firing on the power play, and no one really worries who does what, because somebody will come through.”

To hear Oshie and Toews talk, they worked hard but just had a lot of bad luck the first half. Nice try, guys, but the shroud of trying to avoid any alibi and now be explained, because theyÂ’ve recovered, but Oshie and Toews were pretty much taken off their game while trying to play through serious injuries. Oshie was trying to grip his stick after suffering a broken thumb at the start of the season, Toews missed nine games overall, most of them with a shoulder injury, and he came back to play but wasnÂ’t 100 percent.

“They’ve all played that hard all season, but they haven’t had the rewards until last Saturday night,” said coach Dave Hakstol, referring to a game when North Dakota fell behind Bemidji State 2-0 before roaring back for a 6-3 victory.

Once Hakstol knew that his interrogator was aware of the seriousness of the Oshie and Toews injuries, he acknowledged that they had been severely hampered through the first half of the season. “Those guys compete every game,” said Hakstol. “But Toews and Oshie are just now getting back to 100 percent. It wasn’t like Toews had a great World Junior tournament because he got healthy – he didn’t get healthy until it was over. Their energy is back, both mentally and physically. But it was hard getting through those injuries.”

Getting the big line clicking again gives the Sioux a positive bottom line. Or, make it DOTted Line. When things started going their way, nothing could stop them. Saturday, for example, they came out flying, with freshman Darcy Zajac scoring on a swift counter-rush 2-on-1 with a short-side bullet at 6:16. Barely a minute later, Chay Genoway got the puck after turning back another Gopher rush, and after he carried into the Minnesota zone, the puck was poke-checked off his stick. But Toews arrived just in time to keep it in at the blue line, and fed Duncan, a left-hand shooter deep on the right, and DuncanÂ’s short-side goal made it 2-0.
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A very interesting byplay followed. Mike Howe of Minnesota broke hard for the net on a power play, lowered his shoulder and barreled into Lamoureux. Instead of a penalty, referee Jon Campion called Genoway for holding less than a minute later, and Erik Johnson scored for Minnesota on the two-man power play. Five minutes later, Ryan Stoa scored another power play goal, and then Howe boosted the Gophers to a 3-2 lead on yet another power-play goal. For the game, Minnesota had a 12-5 edge in power plays, and for the weekend series, it was 23-10. But compared to the first half of the season, that sort of adversity was nothing. Instead of being knocked flat, North Dakota bounced back. Literally.

Robbie Bina got the puck while killing yet another penalty with 1:13 remaining in the wild first period, and as he took a step across his own goal line, he flung a long clearing attempt on goal. The puck sailed down the ice, bounced twice, and, when goaltender Jeff Frazee dropped to his knees in the crease, it took a bad-hop and went over his shoulder and into the left edge – a 165-foot fluke goal, which tied the game 3-3. Lucia sent Kellen Briggs in to relieve Frazee for the second period, but the Fighting Sioux were flying again.

With Duncan deep on the right and Oshie deep on the left, the Sioux power play always seemed to have one — or both — open for the good-angle, off-hand shot. Duncan connected from deep on the right for a power-play goal at 11:29 of the second period to put North Dakota up 4-3, although nobody could know it would eventually stand up as the winner. Erik Fabian tucked in a wraparound on Briggs 24 seconds later, and the Sioux were up 5-3.

That left it to the third period, but Oshie, a right-handed shooter deep on the left, one-timed a Duncan pass for a power play goal at 5:13, and Oshie converted a highlight-film pass from Toews, with Duncan also assisting, to make it 7-3 midway through the period.

Lamoureux was solid in goal, the Sioux defense was hustling, everybody chipped in – and the Sioux signed off on the Dotted Line.

Gophers, Sioux, Huskies carry WCHA hopes into NCAA

The WCHA has high hopes for capturing its sixth consecutive NCAA hockey championship when the tournament begins this weekend, and Minnesota, North Dakota and St. Cloud State clearly stand as the best three teams in the league when it comes to accomplishing that feat.

Minnesota won the league and playoff championships, and is the No. 1 seed at the West Regional at Denver when the Golden Gophers (30-9-3) take on at-large challenger Air Force Academy (19-15-5) in Saturday’s match. North Dakota (22-13-5) the 3-2 overtime loser to Minnesota in the league Final Five title game, remains the hottest team in the WCHA, if not the country, and stands as favorite against Michigan (26-13-1) in the other West semifinal.

That is a colorful foursome. Minnesota coach Don Lucia and Air Force coach Frank Serratore are longtime close friends, dating back to when Lucia played high school hockey at Grand Rapids, and Serratore tended goal for Greenway of Coleraine, seven miles to the east. Their wives, Joyce Lucia and Carol Serratore, are extremely close friends and will sit together while their husbands’ teams battle on the Denver ice below. Lucia’s son, Tony, plays for the Gophers, while the Serratore family includes twin boys, Tom and Tim, who are solid 16-year-old prospects.

Also, North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol, who is attempting to lead the Fighting Sioux to their third straight Frozen Four, was a defenseman and captain of the Minnesota Moose in the International League when Serratore was their coach. That’s a tight clique for Michigan coach Red Berenson to try to break through.

St. Cloud State (22-10-7), meanwhile, made a strong run at Minnesota in the league stretch-run, then got worn down a bit in playoffs, concluding with two stinging losses in the Final Five. But the Huskies should have everything back in place in time for the East Regional at Rochester, N.Y., as No. 2 seed to take on Maine (21-14-2) in a Friday semifinal, while Clarkson (25-8-5) is No. 1 seeded and faces Massachusetts (20-12-5) in the other semi.

That leaves the Northeast regional at Manchester, N.H., where New Hampshire (26-10-2) is top seed and meets Miami of Ohio (23-13-4) in one Saturday semifinal, with No. 2 Boston College (26-11-1) meeting St. Lawrence (23-13-2) in the other, and the Midwest Regional at Grand Rapids, Mich. which opens with Friday night semifinals pitting No. 1 Notre Dame (31-6-3) against Alabama-Huntsville (13-19-3), and No. 2 Boston University (26-11-1) against Michigan State (22-13-3) in the other.

What’s wrong with that picture?

Nothing is wrong, it would seem, for the teams that made it. Except for the unfortunate setting that finds that if Minnesota and North Dakota both win semifinal games, they would meet each other to recreate the classic battle they waged in the WCHA Final Five championship game with only the winner advancing to the Frozen Four in St. Louis two weeks later. Too bad, if that happens, that such a time-capsule match couldn’t be played on the larger stage of a potential national championship showdown.

It’s true that St. Cloud State ranks on paper as favorite against a very good Maine team, and the Huskies did whip top-seeded Clarkson, from the ECAC, in a 4-0, 7-2 series in November, that could give the WCHA two spots in the Frozen Four. The Huskies had a rugged three-game test before ousting Minnesota-Duluth in three overtimes, which may have left them drained during two hotly contested games against North Dakota and Wisconsin at the Final Five.

Wisconsin, by winning two of three games at the Final Five, was too good too late to be considered as a team worthy of defending its NCAA championship. “I know there’s a lot of No,. 1 seeds relieved that they don’t have to play the defending NCAA champs, with that goaltender (Brian Elliott) and the way they’re playing right now,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia, noting that the Badgers finished with an 8-3-2 flourish.

So after such a hotly contested season, only three survivors move on, and both Minnesota and North Dakota will be pulling for St. Cloud State to make it, and undoubtedly, if the Gophers and Fighting Sioux meet again, whichever one doesn’t win will grudgingly hope its conqueror will go on to bring more fame to the WCHA.

There’s always the chance for a potential NCAA final between St. Cloud State, with star goaltender Bobby Goepfert and a team-oriented attack led by Andreas Nodl and Andrew Gordon, and either Minnesota, behind the freshman duo of Kyle Okposo and Jay Barriball and the suddenly hot Blake Wheeler, or North Dakota, with its fabulous first line of Jonathan Toews centering T.J. Oshie and player-of-the-year Ryan Duncan.

But that’s far off. For now, the three tournament teams can set aside the fact that the WCHA’s intensely competitive season hurt the league when it came to the NCAA selection committee’s criteria. The case could be made that Denver, Michigan Tech, Colorado College, and late-charging Wisconsin could have been strong NCAA tournament entries.

As strong as that argument is, consider that Hockey East has five teams in the 16-team NCAA field, with New Hampshire and Boston College favored to meet in the Northeast final, Maine and Massachusetts getting half the chances in the East, and Boston University standing as a strong threat as No. 2 seed in the Midwest.

And the CCHA has four teams in the field, with No. 1 ranked Notre Dame and No. 3 seed Michigan State good shots at meeting in the Midwest final, while Michigan could overthrow the WCHA in the West Regional, and Miami is a long-shot, but could prove tough, in the Northeast.

Only the ECAC, with Clarkson in the East and St. Lawrence in the Northeast, has fewer than the WCHA’s three entries, once the mandatory selections of the Atlantic Hockey winner (Air Force) and the College Hockey America tournament winner (Alabama-Huntsville) were selected. Their selections bumped Denver, Michigan Tech, and other WCHA candidates out of the field.

Moreover, there is the suspicion that the selection committee is still stung by the fact that the Frozen Four two years ago was comprised of four WCHA teams at Columbus, Ohio, which was great for WCHA bragging rights, but didn’t do much to spread the wealth of college hockey beyond its cult-following level in the NCAA’s view.

Nobody expects the NCAA committee, or its computerized selection process, from doing any favors for the WCHA — although another case could be made that winning five straight championships might deserve extra merit — but it also doesn’t seem fair to punish the WCHA for its excellence. After all, when the WCHA foursome all reached the Frozen Four two years ago, all four of them had to win two tough regional games to earn their places.

This season, the WCHA teams compiled a 51-22-6 record against nonconference opponents. Minnesota was 8-1, including victories over Michigan (8-2), Michigan State, and Alabama-Huntsville, and a season-opening loss to Maine. St. Cloud State was 6-0, including the two victories over Clarkson, North Dakota was 6-2, including a victory over St. Lawrence, and two October losses against Maine.

While limiting the WCHA to three teams may seem an injustice, a greater injustice might be to put Minnesota, ranked No. 2 behind Notre Dame in the country, and No. 1 in the Pairwise computer rankings, and North Dakota, a team that rose from an injury-hampered first half to lose only twice in 21 games since Christmas (15-2-4) before falling 3-2 to Minnesota in the league playoff final, into the same regional.

It would have been easy to place North Dakota in the Midwest, or the Northeast, for that matter. In fact, in any season, the best and possibly only way to measure if one league has an edge over the others would be to disperse its teams to as many different regionals as possible. And it would only seem fair that since Hockey East, which last won the title six years ago, and the CCHA, which last won nine years ago, both have the chance to win three of the four regions, the WCHA should have a similar opportunity.

Did we mention that the WCHA might deserve more respect than to have its top team and its hottest team clash in the same regional? To recount, the WCHA has won the last five NCAA championships in a row, six of the last seven, and seven of the last 10…But now it seems the NCAA’s selection process is penalizing the WCHA for its success.

Gophers, Denver split may foretell playoff showdown

The WCHA Final Five is a couple of months away, and the NCAA tournament is farther still, but Minnesota and Denver already have given a fair approximation of the potential such future clashes could hold, if the Gophers and Pioneers happen to run into each other in such pivotal settings.

Great goaltending, tough defenses, and dangerously quick forwards make both teams formidable, and are the reasons both are at the top of the WCHA standings. Of course, Minnesota still has a stranglehold on the MacNaughton Cup chase with 10 games remaining, because at 13-2-3, the Golden Gophers had 29 points and Denver, at 10-6-2, had 22. It would take a Minnesota collapse for Denver to catch up, and then thereÂ’s St. Cloud State, intervening at 10-4-4 for 24 points.

“I don’t think we’ve even talked about the league championship,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “One of the reasons is that in the ’01-02 season, we put so much emphasis on it, it sapped a lot of our gas.”

True, the 2001-02 Denver team might have been the most powerful in Gwozdecky’s regime, but as top seed, it was upset by bottom-seeded Michigan, in a West Regional at Ann Arbor, and Minnesota – guess who? – went on to win its first of two straight NCAA titles. Denver, reducing emphasis on the league chase, won the next two NCAA titles, before Wisconsin won last year. So Denver and Minnesota, winners of four of the last five NCAA crowns, have a history.

All of that put further emphasis on their series at Mariucci Arena January 19-20. It was the only meeting between the two, and as luck would have it in this seemingly Golden Gopher season, the games were in Minneapolis. The Gophers – who had just had a 22-game overall unbeaten streak snapped – held a 21-game home unbeaten streak (17-0-4) at Mariucci Arena, and Denver hadn’t won a game there since November of 2003.

Both teams had lost mightily after last season, with Hobey Baker winner Matt Carle departing DenverÂ’s defense and Paul Stastny doing the same to the Pioneers top line to sign a pro contract, just as Minnesota had lost ace forwards Ryan Potulny, Phil Kessel, and Danny Irmen. In the exchange, Denver has struggled to score, except for junior Ryan Dingle and freshmen Brock Trotter and Tyler Ruegsegger, while MinnesotaÂ’s potent incoming freshmen like Kyle Okposo and Jay Barriball have reinforced returning scorers like Blake Wheeler and Ben Gordon, while defenseman Alex Goligoski has triggered much of the offense.

Bolstered by rock-solid play from senior captain Mike Vannelli and juniors Goligoski and junior Derek Peltier, freshmen Erik Johnson (6-foot-4) and David Fischer (6-foot-3) have added clout to the defense. The result has been solid protection that has made senior Kellen Briggs and sophomore Jeff Frazee look almost unbeatable in goal. Their fantastic statistics led one Twin Cities newspaper to preface the series with a huge feature on how Minnesota might boast the best goaltending tandem in the nation – overlooking the detail that Denver’s senior Glenn Fisher and junior Peter Mannino aren’t exactly chopped liver, and they have two (count ’em, 2) NCAA trophies to prove it.

Gwozdecky smirked his familiar smirk about that piece before the first game, while Fisher claimed he hadnÂ’t been aware of it. Nonetheless, the Gophers and a standing-room throng of 10,119 quickly became aware of FisherÂ’s ability when he went out and stopped all 31 Minnesota shots for a stunning 1-0 shutout against Briggs. The result left both with sparkling .935 save percentage marks for the season, with FisherÂ’s 1.92 goals-against record just a tad behind BriggsÂ’s 1.72 mark.

The only goal of the game came midway through the second period of a tense, scoreless duel, when freshman defenseman Keith Seabrook blasted a shot from the blue line that Geoff Paukovich deflected artfully past Briggs, who came up with the other 22 Denver shots. That goal came on a power play that had been whistled when Minnesota freshman Jim OÂ’Brien sprinted in from the right side, veered through the crease while Fisher was focused on the puck on the left side, and OÂ’Brien caught Fisher with a blind-side elbow to the facemask. FisherÂ’s head snapped back, and he dropped to the ice. Referee Todd Anderson immediately called OÂ’Brien for goaltender interference at 8:58, and the goal came at 10:04.

It was clear by video replays in the press box, also viewed by referee supervisor Greg Shepherd, that there was a clear impact, which may have been embellished by Fisher, but that didn’t prevent further intrigue for the rest of the weekend. Later, for example, a Gopher television interviewer shouted a few things at Anderson, and in the following week he was summarily dismissed by Fox Sports North. A Minneapolis Star Tribune account of the game inexplicably said replays showed there was no contact, and quoted Gopher coach Don Lucia as saying he had seen “the whiff,” and claimed Fisher could have been penalized for taking a dive.

Fisher, calmly facing a herd of reporters after the game, said: “He caught me with his elbow. It may not have looked bad from upstairs, but I was watching the puck, and you don’t expect to get hit in there [the crease].”

A few other goaltenders around the WCHA might have suggested to Fisher that he should be anticipating that the Gophers, who are the best in the league at going to the net with abandon, seem to occasionally let their trajectory and velocity carry through the crease. But both goaltenders had great saves to reflect on.

Briggs came up with an enormous save midway through the third period, when Dingle, an elusive, 18-goal scoring centerman, got a breakaway. “The puck rolled on me just a little,” said Dingle. “And Briggs saw that and made a great play.”

Fisher stymied a Gordon breakaway in the first period (“He faked to his backhand, and tried to go 5-hole,” Fisher said), but made his best save to end the game, although he didn’t appear to be credited with a save. He had blocked a shot in heavy traffic, when the 6-foot-4 Wheeler – who might be the best in the league at planting his body at the edge of the crease to be in position for tips and rebounds and also blocking the goaltender’s field of view – was wide open just to the right of the net. The rebound went right to Wheeler, who had to wait for the puck to settle to the ice. That gave Fisher a chance to dive across, and defenseman Andrew Thomas dived across behind him in the crease. Wheeler shot, and it appeared Fisher’s thrusted stick deflected the shot up and over the goal with the final second ticking off the clock. The shot chart on the scoreboard didn’t change, as the statistician apparently thought Wheeler simply shot two feet over the net from point-blank range.

“Yeah, I got my stick on it to deflect it,” said Fisher. “I had an extra second to get across, so we got lucky. I don’t think about shutouts, but when we played Lowell, they got a goal with 4.3 seconds left to ruin a shutout, and I thought of that at the end.”

Lucia said: “We had some good scoring chances, and it was a hard-fought game with a lot of 1-on-1 battles. But we had 10 freshman or sophomore forwards out there, and when you play good teams with good goaltenders, you’re going to have games like that.”

Denver, of course, also had 10 freshman or sophomore skaters in the lineup, and MinnesotaÂ’s freshmen (Okposo, Barriball) and sophomores (Wheeler, Ryan Stoa) are its scoring leaders.

The most prophetic line after the 1-0 opener was by Gwozdecky. “Those were two pretty good heavyweights going at it tonight,” the Denver coach said. “Early on, and late in the game, we got bottled up a little, but we beat a very good team in their building. Briggs and Frazee have been outstanding all season, and their numbers and results speak for themselves. But would I trade Fisher and Mannino for them? No.”

On to Game 2, and some REAL fireworks. Frazee went to the Minnesota nets, and Fisher played again, because Mannino, who has by far the best career save percentage of the four, at .920 over three years, including two NCAA title games, was still a notch away from being 100 percent recovered from a knee injury.

The second game was more of a goaltending nightmare than a duel, and the night belonged to Mike Vannelli, Minnesota’s soft-spoken senior defenseman and captain. Okposo scored his team-leading 15th goal in the first period for a 1-0 Minnesota lead at 5:42, and by then, Denver already had been whistled for four penalties and Minnesota five – setting a tone of animosity for the game. And especially for the opening period.

Tempers may have been ready to flare up, and if they needed a spark to ignite, it came at 15:45. Jim OÂ’Brien, the wayward kamikazee skater from Game 1, raced up the right side amid some traffic, but he broke free of a checker as he veered toward the net and crashed heavily, face-to-face, into Fisher. Gopher loyalists insisted that O’Brien was cross-checked into the crease, but replays showed he was clear of any contact and made no effort to alter his chosen course — as if the shortest distance to wherever he was going went through the crease.

If Fisher hadnÂ’t anticipated being run in the crease in the first game, he proved a quick learner, as he beat several teammates to jump on OÂ’Brien just as both teams engaged in a long and spirited tussle. While the officials struggled to pry bodies apart in the crease, the most punches were being thrown out in the faceoff circle, where MinnesotaÂ’s Ben Gordon and DenverÂ’s J.P. Testwuide grappled, then fell to the ice, with Testwuide winding up on top and hurling enough punches for a TKO.

Testwuide and Gordon got fighting majors, and while a couple others got misconducts, OÂ’Brien got a charging penalty, and Fisher was penalized for slashing. For the game, Minnesota had 19 penalties for 60 minutes and Denver 18 penalties for 55 minutes, and the impact on the game was that Denver went 3-for-9 and Minnesota 2-for-7 on power plays. But the 1-0 goaltending duel flared into scoring bursts in the second period.

Justin Bostrom tipped freshman defenseman David FischerÂ’s screened point shot past Fisher at 6:58 of the second for a 2-0 Minnesota lead. Thirty-one seconds later, as a delayed penalty was signaled against Denver, Vannelli moved in from center point, deking around one defender, then firing a shot that was blocked by diving defenseman Chris Butler. Vannelli retrieved the blocked puck and stepped to his right, firing again to hit the upper right corner from 15 feet for a 3-0 Gopher bulge.

Brock Trotter got one back for the Pioneers just 19 seconds after that, backhanding in a rebound at the right edge of the crease, his 12th of the season, to make it a three-goal flurry in a 52-second span of the game. Five minutes later, SeabrookÂ’s power-play shot from the left point hit Frazee and trickled through to cut it to 3-2.

Before the second period ended, Minnesota went on a two-man power play, and Vannelli moved in from the right point and fired a shot into the left edge of the net, with the shot glancing off a defender to get past a screened Fisher at 17:46. Still on the power play, Vannelli moved to center point and blasted a long one-timer past the screened Fisher at 18:22.

Hats came sailing out of the packed Mariucci Arena stands for the hat trick, which was rare for a defenseman, if not for a Vannelli. MikeÂ’s dad, Tommy Vannelli, was a star center on two Minnesota NCAA championship teams under Herb Brooks back in 1974 and 1976.

With the three-goal lead restored at 5-2, the Gophers seemed in full control. But Chris Butler scored on a power play with four seconds left in the second period to bring Denver back to 5-3.
When the Gopher cheerleaders came out to do their customary formations prior to the third period, they all wore baseball caps selected from the large assortment that had been cleared off the ice for VannelliÂ’s hat trick.

Midway through the third period, any Gopher celebrating was traded for tension, as Geoff Paukovich scored from the left side for another power-play goal, and it was 5-4. Denver, which outshot the Gophers 45-36, couldnÂ’t come up with the equalizer, and the 5-4 score held for the split.
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“It was one of those games,” said Gwozdecky. “Both teams were a little testy at first, and there were times where the game was hanging on the brink of being a blowout. It was like two pretty good heavyweight fighters going at it.”

This time, the fighting analogy was even more appropriate. And it sounded as if the White House speech writer was handing scripts to both coaches.

“It was one of those games,” said Lucia. “It was probably entertaining for the fans, because it was two good teams that went hard, toe-to-toe, at each other.”

Vannelli said his last hat trick was “in Peewee or Bantam, I don’t know.” He deferred the usual questions about how youthful the Gophers are, with Vannelli and Briggs the only seniors.

“It’s unfair to put all the pressure on the freshmen to score,” said Vannelli, who singlehandedly relieved that pressure. “Our forwards were really working the puck down low, then got it up top to me. On my second goal, I saw the open left side and tried to hit it, and I think the puck glanced off one of their sticks. On the last one, I just tried to shoot as hard as I could.

“Denver is a great team, and they’ve won a couple of national championships recently. It was really a battle, both games were really physical. After last night, we could sense it would be a little intense tonight.”

Both coaches anticipate a possible meeting on down the road a ways. “They’re a terrific team,” Gwozdecky said of the Gophers. “We knew after being beaten, they’d come out like this, and play with more energy, just like every teamin this league does. There were positives for both teams to take from this series. Minnesota keeps their seven-point lead over us, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we run into them again, at the end of the season.”

Lucia said: “Denver has a good team, with third and fourth lines that are mature, big, strong checkers, good defense, and great goaltending. Will we see them again this year? I hope so. It was a good way for us to learn how hard we have to compete.”

Two heavyweights, slugging it out with skill, skating, defense, goaltending, and, occasionally, by slugging it out.

UMD survives slump, injuries to regain elite form

There was nothing coach Shannon Miller could do. At the start of the season, it appeared her University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey team might have the talent and depth to challenge defending league and NCAA champion Wisconsin for WomenÂ’s-WCHA supremacy. But the first half of the season saw the Bulldogs hop from problem to problem, and suffer enough losses to let Wisconsin get away, and Minnesota assume second place. Then the injuries came.

Before the break, the biggest problem facing Miller seemed to be how to reorganize her most skilled players so they could mesh into a more consistent and balanced attack. Some played well, some misfired. First linemates and close friends Jessica Koizumi and Noemie Marin both were racking up the points, but most of them seemed to be in individual outbursts. Rarely were they making the kind of creative plays that could inspire the team. That made it easier for foes to shut down the Bulldogs, and they definitely did get shut down.

After issuing Wisconsin its first loss of the season, 2-0, the Bulldogs lost 1-0 in the second game at Madison. Next, they lost 3-1 and 4-0 at Harvard. Back home, they dropped the first game against Ohio State, 3-0. That meant the Bulldogs had lost four straight – unheard of for Miller’s elite program – but also, a very talented lineup had scored only one goal in four games after being shut out the other three.

That puzzling slump dropped UMD down to around 10th in national rankings, although when Miller shook up the forward lines, they seemed to get things back in order by rebounding to whip Ohio State 9-1 in the second game. But then came the month off, so instead of building on their new-found inspiration, they scattered for a break.

When the Bulldogs opened the second half of the season with a 3-3 tie and 2-1 victory against Niagara, the revised lineup showed nine players missing with injuries or recovery from surgery, and a tenth – speedy sophomore Michaela Lanzl – was back home playing for her native Germany in a holiday tournament.

“We lost Kim Martin at the Four Nations Cup,” said Miller, starting her recount with the freshman and former Swedish Olympic star who aggravated an old leg injury. “We got Elin Holmlov back for one game at 100 percent against Ohio State, then she went home to Sweden and hurt her backÂ…Sara OÂ’Toole suffered a back injury in the first game against Niagara…And Samantha Hough twisted her knee while dancing.”

Miller was asked if she was not about to outlaw dancing, was she reconsidering her willingness to send her players back to assorted countries for mid-season tournament play.

“No way, it’s what’s best for them and for hockey,” Miller said. “These players are some of the best young players in the world. They need to come here to get better than they might get in their own countries, then they need to go home and help their countries. You’ve got to look globally at the big picture. I’ve coached seven years at the national level.

“We have had to take a different look at how we play. With so many players out, we’ve had to adapt. I like to take risks defensively to score goals, but, given our situation, we’ve had to concentrate on defense-first. We’ve stressed backchecking, pulling together, and our team spirit has been outstanding.”

A pivotal factor in UMD’s second half is the return to form by goaltender Riitta Schaublin, who anchored the sweep against St. Cloud State, and another sweep at Bemidji State, which gave the Bulldogs a five-game winning streak. At the same time, Minnesota had lost twice at home to Wisconsin to drop into a tie with UMD for second, then dropped out of that tie by losing both games at Minnesota State-Mankato – against a Mavericks team that had only beaten the Gophers once previously in seven seasons.

That brought UMD back into second place as the primary threat to WisconsinÂ’s league pace-setters. Not that it would be easy. UMD next goes to Ohio State, where itÂ’s a safe bet to assume the Buckeyes will remember their winning streak ending in that 9-1 disaster at UMDÂ’s hands. After that, UMD goes home to face Wisconsin and Minnesota in two of the seasonÂ’s most intriguing series.

To rise to 14-5-1, the Bulldogs had to take a circuitous route. A St. Cloud State team anxious to move up into WCHA contention was a stiff test. The Bulldogs trailed 2-1 after two periods, then erupted to put three goals past senior goaltender Laurie St. Jacques in the third period, before tacking on an empty-netter for a 4-2 victory.

St. Cloud coach Jeff Giesen continued to play his three-goalie musical chairs game the next night, and he almost hit on an upset winner when he tabbed junior Kendall Newell. All three goalies have had their bright moments this season, so Giesen has rotated those two with junior Carmen Lizee. The difference is that Newell – who proved to be a UMD nemesis last season – has had her best games against Wisconsin and UMD, the best two teams the Huskies have faced.

UMD stormed the Huskies net from start to finish. After outshooting the Huskies 31-27 in the first game, the ’Dawgs had a 35-17 edge in the second, but Newell stopped everything, artfully steering rebounds away from the shark-like UMD forwards, and stopping 34 UMD shots until the final one got away. It wasn’t a fluke, but it indicates the kind of pressure UMD was applying. Lanzl, right at the crease, deflected a center-point shot by Jaime Rassmussen that struck Newell on the inside of her left arm, rebounding to land in the left side of the crease – to Newell’s right. Before she could cover it, Lanzl, who was sprawling to the ice, poked in the loose puck with 4:48 left, and UMD escaped with a 1-0 sweeper.

The problem facing St. Cloud coach Jeff Giesen is picking the right goalie on the right night. At Ohio State, Giesen started Newell but the Buckeyes scored three in the first period and Lizee relieved to hold a 3-3 tie. The next night, Lizee started and gave up five before St. Jacques relieved and yielded just one goal in a 6-1 loss.

Interestingly, in the rotation, St. Jacques has won four games, Lizee three, and Newell only one. St. Jacques’ victories were over Robert Morris, Bemidji State, Boston University and Vermont. Lizee has beaten Ohio State twice, early in the season, and Vermont. Newell, whose only victory was against Minnesota State-Mankato, lost 2-1 in overtime to Wisconsin and later fashioned 2-2 and 3-3 ties against the top-rated Badgers, and adds that 1-0 nail-biting loss at UMD. So against Wisconsin and UMD, the top two teams in the WCHA, Lizee gave up two goals in one game, a 2-0 loss to UMD. St. Jacques was nicked for 16 goals in three games – two against UMD and two periods against Wisconsin, while Newell gave up only nine goals in five games – four against Wisconsin and the gem at Duluth.

At UMD, Miller has had no concerns about which goaltender to use. Martin and Schaublin were splitting duties early, and when Schaublin seemed to lose her focus, Martin took over. Now Martin is out, and Schaublin has taken back the job that won her All-America honors last year.

“I got into a real bad slump,” said Schaublin, after blanking St. Cloud. “It was mental. Kim came in, but that wasn’t the problem. I had one bad game, a really horrible game against Mankato, and it broke my confidence. I lost my cockiness. It affected me everywhere in life. I don’t know what it was, and it came back gradually. Finally, I believe in myself again.”

If Schaublin has regained her confidence, the Bulldogs can regain their swagger during the stretch run. And MillerÂ’s patience may pay off, especially if a few of those missing jerseys start returning to the lineup.

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• 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.
  
  For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
  
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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.