UMD’s win streak too brief to escape WCHA cellar
The unbeaten streaks put together by Minnesota and St. Cloud State were by far the longest in all of college hockey this season, and when they finally came to an end — just a few minutes apart — the honor of the nation’s longest streak went to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, ironoically.
UMD had struggled with that other kind of streak as they set new standards for futility during the first half of the season. The Bulldogs were intensely competitive in almost every game, but they almost invariably played just well enough to lose. The ‘Dogs were victims of both of those record streaks while being swept by the Gophers and Huskies, but they ended the first half with a meager 2-10-2 record, solidly in last place in the highly competitive WCHA.
The Bulldogs’ struggles stood up as one of the WCHA’s biggest surprises this season, because UMD had been picked by rival coaches and other WCHA observers to be a solid, middle-of-the-pack team, and a contender for playoff home-ice if not the regular-season title. When the Bulldogs started the second half anew, they actually earned the honor of replacing Minnesota and St. Cloud State by establishing what proved to be the nation’s longest winning streak. But that achievement was short-lived — too short to lift the Bulldogs out of the WCHA cellar.
Going into the weekend of January 12-13, Minnesota had ridden the nationÂ’s longest undefeated streak to command of the No. 1 rank in the country. The Golden Gophers had lost their opening game 3-1 to Maine in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game, then reeled off a 22-game unbeaten streak, registering a 19-0-3 stretch that somehow withstood even the loss of five prime players, who joined Team USA for the World Junior tournament.
Snap! Wisconsin All-American goaltender Brian Elliott was at his sharpest, and the Badgers played a near-flawless game for a 2-1 victory in the first game of that series in Madison. Former Duluth East winger Ross Carlson scored both goals for the Badgers, and hit two pipes as well.
The news of Wisconsin ending the Minnesota streak meant that the longest unbeaten streak in the nation became the property of St. Cloud State, which had clearly been the surprise success story of the league through the first half. The Huskies stumbled at the start, then got a tie at North Dakota, then tied Minnesota both nights of a home-and-home series. The three straight ties were considered upsets, but the Huskies followed by winning 12 straight games.
St. Cloud’s 12-0-3 unbeaten streak of 15 games was a worthy replacement for Minnesota’s 22-game stretch, but it lasted only a matter of minutes. The Huskies were favored at home in the National Hockey Center, entertaining long-time archrival Minnesota State-Mankato, but the Mavericks and Huskies had been at each others throats through parallel lifetimes in Division II football, basketball and all other sports, so with both of them emerging as Division I hockey programs, the old rivalry only gained in intensity. Sure enough, Minnesota StateÂ’s last-place status in the WCHA meant as little as St. Cloud StateÂ’s 15-game unbeaten streak when the two teams collided. Mankato won 6-4, with St. Cloud’s loss following Minnesota’s loss by only a few minutes.
Almost simultaneously, the nationÂ’s two longest streaks were snapped. Strangely enough, yet another game on that same night featured Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs had lost five straight games, and had gone 1-8 until they found a way to beat Bowling Green, the CCHA’s last-place team, in the third-place game of a tournament at Ohio State over Christmas. They rode that semblance of momentum to a pair of narrow victories over Michigan Tech 2-1 in overtime and 5-3 when they opened the second half of WCHA play back at the DECC. Tech, after a quite-impressive array of upsets during the first half, fell back with the two setbacks, while UMD suddenly saw hope.
So on that same January 12 night, playing at home in the DECC, UMD spotted Colorado College a 2-0 head start and then beat the Tigers 4-3 for their most dramatic victory of the season, winning on Jeff McFarlandÂ’s goal, with 2:22 remaining. Goaltender Josh Johnson, who seemed the forgotten man during most of the first half of the season while freshman Alex Stalock carried the load, was victimized by CCÂ’s fast start, but he toughened as the Bulldogs came back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to capture the same kind of late victory they had given away with troubling frequency.
The victory allowed UMD to keep pace with Minnesota State-Mankato, and to climb within one point of Michigan Tech, and it also meant that the Bulldogs had won four straight games. Because the lengthy streaks of both Minnesota and St. Cloud State had ended that night, UMD’s modest four-game winning streak became the longest in the nation.
The honor lasted one day.
The next night, things looked good for a Bulldog sweep. Mason Raymond, who had scored the third UMD goal in the first game, scored a first-period goal for a 1-0 lead, and added his third goal of the weekend by poking in a power-play rebound early in the second for a 2-0 UMD lead. Stalock protected the lead by stopping all 16 CC shots through two periods, and continued his mastery until midway through the third period.
At that point, the Tigers woke up and UMD found itself facing that old, familiar feeling. Brandon Polich smacked in a power-play rebound at 10:45. Then Polich, behind the net, passed out front to Braydon Cox for the tying goal at 14:10. Bill Sweatt, who had scored the first goal in FridayÂ’s game, scored the Saturday game-winner at with 1:27 remaining on another power play. With Stalock pulled, UMD attacked, but Cox flung a long shot into an open net for his second goal of the night with 59 seconds left. The Tigers had won 4-2, scoring all four goals during an 18-shot barrage in the final period. And, for the third time in 24 hours, the nationÂ’s longest winning streak was over.
“You couldnÂ’t really get mad,†said Scott Owens, Colorado College coach. “We played pretty well. UMD played up to the form people expected of them all season. I think you saw two pretty good college hockey games this weekend. Coming back to win was good for us, because every point in this league is huge. ItÂ’s been a struggle for us to score since Christmas. But Matt Zaba made a pretty good save right before we scored, and it was nice for Polich to get that one up here, and then Billy got the game-winner.Ââ€
Zaba, who got a night off when sophomore Drew OÂ’Connell manned the nets against FridayÂ’s determined UMD rally, was solid throughout the second game, even when trailing 2-0 after two periods. Raymond, clearly one of the leagueÂ’s elite players, snapped a 15-footer past him from the left side for his first goal, and the second one came when Zaba blocked a long shot and landed next to the goaltender. Zaba never saw it. Raymond pounced, and poked it in.
“It was a tough game,†said Zaba. “They came at us hard, but we expected it.Ââ€
For UMD, it was a letdown, another in a season of such letdowns. With veteran defensemen Jason Garrison and Ryan Geris out, the ‘Dogs had five freshman or sophomore defensemen, along with freshman netminder Stalock, but nobody was looking for alibis. UMD stayed in a tie for last with Minnesota State-Mankato, which also lost its rematch at St. Cloud State.
UMDÂ’s record has featured a number of games when they found a way to lose in the closing minutes, but they came away from the CC series by suffering a power outage at St. Cloud, losing 6-0 while failing to get a single shot until the Huskies had gone ahead 3-0 in the second period. In the second game, UMD turned up the intensity, but wound up losing 6-5, even though Raymond assisted on all five goals in an amazing night.
Unfortunately for UMD, Minnesota State-Mankato was idle, so the Bulldogs dropped to 5-13-2 and sole possession of last place. The amazing thing about UMDÂ’s season-long struggle is that opponents — most prominently Minnesota, St. Cloud State, and Denver, the league’s top three teams — keep insisting that UMD will catch fire before the season is over. They stress that the Bulldogs have good talent, seem to be well-coached, are getting good goaltending, and just have been unlucky in so many close losses.
The Bulldogs, for example, led the Gophers 2-1 until Mike Vannelli’s third-period goal, then Tyler Hirsch, who is no longer with the Gophers, scored the winner at 0:49 of overtime.
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UMD lost 5-2 at Bemidji State, in a nonconference series, but came storming back to jump ahead in the rematch, back at the DECC. By chance, a promotion asked fans to bring stuffed animals, which would be donated for Christmas to a children’s charity. The idea was cleared with the WCHA to allow fans to hurl the toys onto the ice after UMD’s first goal, and UMD players quickly cleaned them up, although there was undoubtedly a break in potential momentum. UMD went up 2-0, and more fans tossed more animals onto the ice. The officials then warned the fans via the public address announcer that any more tossing of animals on the ice would result in a penalty to UMD. Sure enough, UMD got a third goal, and one tiny youngster, sitting down at ice level, who had tried and failed to toss his stuffed toy over the glass after the first two goals, tried one more time and made it. The officials penalized the Bulldogs, and by the end of the power play, the Beavers had seized the momentum, and scored four third-period goals for a dramatic and exciting 6-5 victory.
Bad luck? Maybe. But it’s also possible that UMD’s plumbing for misfortune set new standards by actually seeing a sure victory turn around because of a stuffed animal.
UMD’s struggles are also remarkable because Raymond has played extremely well, while Bryan McGregor has been the surprise of the team with a career season as a senior, and sophomore Matt Niskanen has been outstanding offensively from defense. Behind the youthful but eager defense, Stalock has been sensational in parts of his freshman goaltending season. That seems like enough assets for at least be a middle-of-the-pack presence, and certainly more than a last-place standing would indicate.
Meanwhile, Minnesota went into the leagueÂ’s halfway point in control of first place, and it remained unclear who might emerge to challenge the Golden Gophers. After Minnesota had bounced back to beat Wisconsin in the second game at Madison, the Gophers returned home and lost a scintillating 1-0 game to Denver goaltender Glenn Fisher, before again rebounding for a 5-4 victory in the second game.
Two splits on two straight weekends did nothing to knock the Gophers out of the No. 1 national rank, and the Gophers still threatened to run away with the league title, at 13-2-3. Denver and St. Cloud State are locked in a duel to see who has the best shot at second – the Huskies climbing to 10-4-4 with the sweep over UMD, and Denver at 10-6-2. Colorado College, at 10-6, is right there, too, but almost flying under the radar. Those four are solidly ahead of fifth-place Wisconsin and North Dakota, which are leading the rest of the group but looking up in pursuit of .500.
At the other end of the standings, UMD got the reprieve of a weekend off, but at 5-13-2, being idle was hardly the best way to try to catch Michigan Tech, Minnesota State-Mankato, and Alaska-Anchorage, for a possible escape from last place.
Fighting Sioux stun Huskies 6-2 to reach Final Five final
SAINT PAUL, MN. — The popular theory that the University of North
Dakota is playing the best hockey in the country at the right time was verified Friday afternoon, when 17,511 fans at Xcel Center saw the Fighting Sioux whip St. Cloud State 6-2 in the first semifinal of the WCHA Final Five tournament.
Not only does it keep the Sioux sizzling, with a 15-2-4 record since
Christmas, but the Sioux dismantled a St. Cloud State team that had, itself, been one of the hottest teams in the nation. Beyond that, the six goals came against Bobby Goepfert, just named first-team all-WCHA goaltender, and a Hobey Baker finalist. Next up, of course, is a Saturday night date with arch-rival Minnesota, as North Dakota tries to duplicate the playoff crown it won a year ago.
The Fighting Sioux have been built on a concept of a spectacular first
line, with Jonathan Toews centering T.J. Oshie and Ryan Duncan on what is clearly the best forward unit in the country. Toews got the first and fourth goals against the Huskies. However, a second line, just put together by coach Dave Hakstol in the last week, was every bit as impressive as the first unit.
Chris VandeVelde, a freshman who was just installed on the second line
despite having only one goal, scored twice and assisted on a goal by winger Matt Watkins, while Chris Porter, one of only two seniors in the explosive Sioux lineup, added the final goal and stabilizes the trio at right wing.
The Sioux were typically humble afterward, while the Huskies were
unrestrained in their praise for North Dakota.
“I felt pretty good,” said Goepfert, who faced many triple-A quality
shots among the 35 the Sioux fired. “They’re a good team, and that first line is really special. They made plays when I thought I had good coverage.”
Huskies winger Andrew Gordon, who set up Andreas Nodl for a 1-1 tie, and scored himself to make it a 3-2 game in the second period, was overwhelmed. “At this time of year, after playing 40 games and getting physically beaten down, the way they’re playing is incredible,” said Gordon. “They come at you 110 miles per hour, all the time. They’re peaking at the right time.”
The first goal of the game didn’t come until a North Dakota power play
at 16:20, when Toews came out from the end boards on the right, and humbly said he just threw the puck at the net, when actually he spotted a tiny opening at the extreme upper right corner and zapped a missile into the only hole Goepfert left.
The Huskies tied the game when freshman Andreas Nodl converted an Andrew Gordon feed from behind the goal, with a quick step to his backhand eluding goaltender Philippe Lamoureux at 4:09 of the second. Then the second line went to work, scoring just 1:10 later on a rush by Porter, up the right side. He fed Watkins, who one-timed a return to Watkins for a quick shot. Goepfert blocked it, but VandeVelde — a state tournament star on the same ice two years ago for Moorhead High School — cashed in the rebound.
Four minutes after that, the Sioux made it 3-1 when Watkins caught
Taylor Chorney’s rink-wide pass for another good shot, another good save, and another rebound goal plunked by VandeVelde.
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The Huskies came back again, when Gordon scored on a power play at 10:06 of the wide-open second period, cutting it to 3-2. But Toews padded the lead with yet another rebound after Oshie had outraced the defense for a loose puck, and a whirling shot from the right side at 12:29, and VandeVeld fed out from behind the net for Watkins to score again at 13:12. The two goals in 43 seconds boosted the score to 5-2, and the Sioux coasted through the third period, with Porter getting the only goal.
“We’ve been gettting better every game, and we don’t look at it as being on a roll, just trying to get better every game,” said Toews, one of 11 sophomores, and the middle man on the all-soph super-line.
St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko said: “I thought Bobby Goepfert played well
tonight. For a 6-2 loss, we did a lot of things well. Bobby had a great first period, and toews made an unbelievable play to make it 1-0. We tied the game, then we turned it over twice, and they scored both times. They’ve got something going up there. The top line is so good, and the other lines work so hard…They’re going awfully good right now.
“The think I like about North Dakota is their forwards skate straight
ahead,” Motzko added. “You never see them backing off. We were on our way to getting there, then they got that short-handed goal, right when we thought we were there.”
That would be the second Toews goal, which is listed, officially, as a
short-handed goal, but Andrew Kozek’s penalty had expired at 12:28 —
one second before Toews scored. The mistake is understandable, however. The Sioux are playing so well, and throwing the puck around with such rapid precision, that it often appears they’re playing with an extra man.
Gophers elude upset, face tests at Final Five
Ben Gordon was one of the chosen few University of Minnesota hockey players who stepped outside the Mariucci Arena dressing room to express renewed hope – as well as some relief – after the Gophers ducked past Alaska-Anchorage 3-1 in the deciding third game of their WCHA playoff series.
Gordon’s dark hair is now a somewhat unusual shade of blond, intending, perhaps, to be gold in the Golden Gophers’ attempt to take the hair-dyeing approach to playoff unity. It pretty well clashed with his still-dark eyebrows, but it got to the roots of his hair, as a backdrop for Gordon attempting to get to the root of MinnesotaÂ’s late-season difficulties.
“Tonight was a big step,†said Gordon, a veteran as a junior on a MacNaughton Cup-champion Minnesota squad that has only two seniors, Mike Vannelli and Kellen Briggs. “It was our first crucial game, because we had to win it to go to the Final Five, and that is definitely something we want to do.
“It wasnÂ’t really do or die for us, but we want to be in the Final Five, and our goal was to play hard for a full game, because pretty soon, it is going to be do or die.Ââ€
Minnesota has been a curious team over the last couple of months. The Golden Gophers had built up a lot of Pairwise equity over a 22-game unbeaten streak, enough to secure the league championship despite going only 8-8 before SundayÂ’s third-game decider against the Seawolves. A 9-8 record in their last 17 is hardly impressive, but the Gophers held the No. 1 spot in the Pairwise computer ratings, which mimic the NCAA’s computer system used in making selections for the 16-team tournament that starts next week.
Had the Gophers lost to Anchorage, they still would have gone to the NCAA as a high seed, as would St. Cloud State and North Dakota. But Denver and Michigan Tech are right on the bubble, being ranked in a tie for 14th, while Colorado College stands 18th and Wisconsin 20th. So the first round of the playoffs were definitely do or die for Anchorage, Minnesota-Duluth, Colorado College, Minnesota State-Mankato, Wisconsin. Denver and Tech also could be questionable, because automatic seeds from outside conferences bump 14th seeds to 16th, and potential upsets from the major four conferences could bump them further.
So Tech needs to improve its status at the Final Five, and Wisconsin needs to win it to gain the automatic NCAA berth the playoff title contains. Wisconsin, the defending NCAA champ, but a seventh-place finisher in the league, went to Denver and stunned the fourth-place Pioneers 3-2 and 2-1, while fifth-place Michigan Tech surprised Colorado College 2-1 in overtime, then lost 2-0, but came back to win 1-0 in SundayÂ’s finale.
Third-place North Dakota was the only WCHA team that won according to form, beating eighth-place Mankato 5-2 and 2-1. Elsewhere, ninth-place UMD gave it a great shot, winning at St. Cloud State 3-1, losing 3-2 in overtime, then the teams battled through three overtimes before the Huskies prevailed 3-2 on Sunday.
The reshuffling means Wisconsin and Michigan Tech will play in Thursday’s play-in game at Xcel Center – both needing to win three straight games to be sure of an automatic NCAA berth. That winner will face Minnesota in Friday night’s semifinal. North Dakota and St. Cloud State will meet Friday afternoon in the first semifinal.
Minnesota’s triumph over last-place Anchorage may have indicated how tough the WCHA is this season, but it also left the question of whether the wheels have come off the Gopher express – and if so, whether there is time to get them back on and aligned before the NCAA tournament.
The Gophers whipped Anchorage 6-2 Friday, and were cruising along 1-0 Saturday until the Seawolves struck late for a tie, and won it 2-1 in overtime. That forced Game 3, and Kevin Clarke gave Anchorage a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes, a lead that held until 4:22 of the second, when Gordon scored with a slick pass from Jay Barriball on a power play for the equalizer. Mike Carman got the actual game-winner, with a quick shot off Ryan FlynnsÂ’s neat pass midway through the third period.
But the Gophers didnÂ’t really put the Seawolves away until 1:25 remained. Killing a penalty, Tony Lucia rushed in and fired a shot that glanced up off Anchorage goaltender Nathan Lawson and hit the glass, bouncing high in the air. Lawson whirled around and looked up, and Minnesota’s approaching Kyle Okposo also looked up. They looked like a pair of infielders who had lost the ball in the lights. But when the puck hit the ice, Okposo spotted it first and whacked it past Lawson for a shorthaned goal and a 3-1 victory.
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The fact that Okposo seemed to find his missing goal-scoring touch in the series, and that Barriball continued his strong play, means freshmen, including Lucia and Carman, may reignite the Gopher offense. Okposo leads the team in goals with 19, while Barriball has 18, and the two freshmen are tied for the team points lead at 39.
Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak, whose team offered hope for the future with its spirited run at the league champs, was buoyed by his Seawolves resilience, despite being outshot 29-12 in the deciding game.
“They played extremely well, and they were going to play that way all weekend,†said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “Last night (in Game 2) we played well for two periods, but went into a shell in the third. Tonight, I think we decided to just shut up and play – just go out and compete.Ââ€
Lucia didn’t need reminding that last year, the Gophers were riding high as the No. 1 team in the country, but lost 8-7 to St. Cloud State in the WCHA semifinals, then dropped a 4-0 game to Wisconsin in the third-place game – a game that was a springboard for the Badgers to take off and go all the way to the NCAA title, while Minnesota was eliminated by Holy Cross in the first NCAA game. The Crusaders were better than Westerners realized, but the Gophers haven’t lived it down yet.
“But this is a different team, and a different year,†said Lucia. “We really gave up nothing all weekend. In the Final Five, we mainly have to start playing with rhythm.Ââ€
Some of the Gophers donÂ’t think thereÂ’s a problem. Carman, who joins Barriball and Okposo as freshmen who have become go-to skaters in the Minnesota offense, said: “WeÂ’ve been struggling on offense the last two weekends. I think itÂ’s just jitters. Everyone gets Â’em.Ââ€
Gordon, however, has been through it before. And he didn’t deny that there are some parallels to last year for this year’s Gophers – such as starting strong, running off at No. 1 in the country for weeks on end, then faltering at the finish.
“ItÂ’s a long season,†said Gordon. “We came out hot, and I donÂ’t think anyone expected us to win as much as we did. But in the second half, I think it was going to our heads. Now itÂ’s a battle to get out of the hole.Ââ€
Maybe that’s the analogy with the golden-dyed hair – something that more purposely has gone to the Gophers’ heads. Gordon intimated that he probably would be rinsing out the dye as soon as the playoffs are over.
“I’m not sure they’d let me back home into International Falls this way,†he laughed.
And, of course, Gordon and the Gophers hope they won’t be doing any rinsing away of hair dye for three more weeks – until after the NCAA tournament.
Badger women get back-up goals to claim title
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of Minnesota womenÂ’s hockey team was playing for its life Sunday afternoon, and impressively shut down WisconsinÂ’s top scorers with a single goal. But Mark Johnson, coach of the No. 1 ranked Badgers, urged contributions from his third and fourth unit support players, a pair of little-known home-staters came through with the goals to boost the Badgers to a 3-1 victory at Ridder Arena and the WomenÂ’s WCHA playoff championship.
Freshman fourth-line center Emily Kranz, from the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wis., broke a 1-1 tie with her fifth goal of the season midway through the second period, and, while the Badgers eliminated MinnesotaÂ’s opportunities with stifling efficiency in the third period, third-unit sophomore defenseman Rachel Bible, from Black River Falls, Wis., scored an opportunistic clincher at 6:50. It was BibleÂ’s second goal of the season, and sheÂ’s obviously specializing in playoff goals, because her first goal was last weekend, in the WCHA playoff series sweep against North Dakota.
“We spent so much of the first 10 minutes on the power play, we werenÂ’t playing a lot of people,†said Johnson. “So I went to the players and said we needed something from our second group – our third and fourth liners. Emily scored, and that gives you some energy. And Bible scored last week, so I told her that if she keeps scoring, I may have to move her up to forward.Ââ€
The victory gives Wisconsin a pretty impressive resume. The Badgers all season have been defending WCHA, WCHA playoff, and NCAA champions, and now, at 33-1-4, they are current WCHA and WCHA playoff champions, and the unknown of the NCAA coming next. Minnesota, meanwhile, is 23-12-1, and despite playing well enough to upend Minnesota-Duluth 3-2 in overtime in SaturdayÂ’s semifinals, and giving the Badgers all they could contend with, coach Laura Halldorson and her players left Ridder Arena skeptical of their chances to reach the eight-team NCAA field.
“IÂ’m proud of my teamÂ’s effort, and this weekend was very positive for us, the way we held together,†said Halldorson. “But this emphasizes the importance of the entire season – you canÂ’t wait till the end. We put ourselves into position to have to win to get in. The feeling in our locker room was that we had played our last game.Ââ€
An hour after the game, Halldorson’s pessimism was proven correct. Wisconsin and UMD both were selected to the NCAA tournament, but the Gophers were not. Wisconsin, the No. 1 seed, will be host to Harvard (23-7-2). In the same bracket, No. 4 New Hampshire will be host to St. Lawrence (28-7-3), while in the other bracket, UMD (22-10-4) will go to No. 2 Mercyhurst (32-1-3), and No. 3 Dartmouth (27-4-2) will be host to Boston College (23-9-2). The UMD game is March 9, the other three March 10. Winners advance to Lake Placid for the March 16 semifinals.
Going into the weekend, Wisconsin was rated No. 1, but UMD was only seventh, and Minnesota ninth. Despite some Eastern teams losing in their playoffs, the Pairwise ratings didnÂ’t change much. UMD, in fact, didnÂ’t move up one notch when the Bulldogs beat Minnesota 7-1 and 5-1 two weeks ago, although the losses dropped the Gophers from eighth to ninth. So beating UMD and playing well against Wisconsin didn’t lift the Gophers back up. “We needed to gain ground,†said Halldorson.
Still, it appears that the WCHA — the league that has won all six NCAA championships so far — gets much respect for having the toughest league in its most competitive season. And nobody among the 1,157 fans at Ridder, or on the Wisconsin, UMD and Minnesota rosters, can be convinced that Minnesota, and possibly Ohio State, didn’t deserve more consideration.
Similarly, nobody questions why Wisconsin is ranked No. 1. When Minnesota captain Bobbi Ross scored a startling shorthanded goal at 16:53 of the first period, it was the first goal Wisconsin’s pair of alternating goaltenders had allowed if 324 minutes and 6 seconds – a span that goes back seven games to the third period of a 3-2 victory over Ohio State on Feb. 11. Since then, and up through Saturday’s 4-0 squelching of Ohio State by Jessie Vetter, Wisconsin had piled up five straight shutouts, and senior Christine Dufour wasn’t about to let in anything else Sunday.
“IÂ’m not big on statistics and records,†Johnson said. “I didnÂ’t even know we had a shutout streak until somebody told me about it today. Now IÂ’m being asked about giving up a goal.Ââ€
Wisconsin yielded the goal amid nine shots to the aroused Gophers in the 1-1 first period, then the clamped down to yield six in the second, and – when Minnesota’s NCAA future was hanging in the balance on its home rink – the Gophers could manage only two shots in the third period.
“We never questioned that we had a really good chance to win,†said Ross. “We played two really good periods, but in the third, Wisconsin got more defensive, and took away a lot of our chances.Ââ€
Wisconsin star Sara Bauer, a tiny, soft-spoken, 5-foot-3 center who does something of a Wonder Woman transition whenever she pulls on hockey skates, was too humble to even comment when asked about being named tournament most valuable player right after being honored as the WCHA’s player of the year for the second year in a row. But she acknowledged that the Badgers never seem to wear out in games. “As the game wears on, we feel like we can compete on a higher level,†Bauer said.
The Badgers had beaten Minnesota 3-1 before the teams tied 3-3 in October in Madison, and swept 4-1 and 3-0 games from the Gophers at Ridder in January, but the Gophers were in the midst of an intensely determined weekend, knowing their only certain path to the NCAA was to win the final and gain an automatic berth as playoff champion.
So it was not going to be an easy game for the Badgers, who had lost only one game all season – to UMD. Minnesota didn’t help its cause by starting out too aggressively, earning five of six first-period penalties, including the first three. When Dagney Willey and oRoss went off in succession in the first three minutes, it gave the Badgers a two-skater advantage, and they made quick work of it.
Jinelle Zaugg had the puck deep in the right corner and passed to the slot, where WCHA freshman-of-the-year Meghan Duggan slammed a one-timer past goaltender Kim Hanlon for her 24th goal of a freshman-of-the-year season, and a 1-0 lead at 3:30.
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The Gophers kept taking penalties, but capitalized themselves at 16:53 of the opening period, when Wisconsin’s senior Meaghan Mikkelson – the league defensive player of the year – tried to pass from behind her net to start a power-play breakout, but she almost completely whiffed, and the puck skidded slowly out front on the left side of the goal. Gopher penalty-killer Brittany Francis tried to get a shot away, and when the puck glanced out front, it was to the always-dangerous Ross, who wound up alone at the crease. She stepped to her right to elude goaltender Dufour, and tucked the puck in at the right post for a shorthanded goal and a 1-1 tie. “I waited, and outwaited the goaltender and put it behind her,†said Ross.
With a 9-5 edge in shots in the first period despite spending 10 minutes in the penalty box, the Gophers had a chance to go ahead on an early second-period power play, but the Badgers turned up the intensity of their defensive posture and held firm. Midway through the second period, fourth-liner Kranz came up a huge goal. She stole the puck in front and shot, then stayed after the blocked puck as she moved right to left, patiently waiting for goaltender Kim Hanlon to drop before lifting her shot over her and in at 10:58.
After that, the Badgers rarely allowed the Gophers to stir up any promising scoring chances, until Andrea Nichols nearly scored late in the second period. No team is more poised holding a 2-1 type lead than the Badgers, and they simply stifled Minnesota in the final period.
Then they left it to another member of their support cast to clinch it, when Bible moved up to join a scramble in the slot. Zaugg had sent the puck out front, and third-line winger Phoebe Monteleone tried to reach it on her backhand, but as Gopher defender Whitney Graft restrained her, Bible reached past her and knocked it in.
“It was very important to us to come out of this weekend with two games against hungry teams that had their season on the line,†said Johnson. “ItÂ’s a long season, starting back on September 15, and now itÂ’s March. Everybody sees what happens on the ice, but what nobody sees is what happens off-ice, with the conditioning, and the things these players have to do to prepare themselves to be consistent and to improve over the course of the season.Ââ€
Newell disrupts sweep, but Bulldogs gain semis
On paper, it appears that the WomenÂ’s WCHA playoffs followed form to create the most competitive league semifinals in the leagueÂ’s history. Top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Wisconsin faces the strongest Ohio State team in that programÂ’s history, followed by the second semi between storied rivals Minnesota-Duluth, the No. 2 seed, and Minnesota, No. 4, on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.
Form did follow, for Wisconsin, which dispatched North Dakota, for Minnesota, which eliminated Bemidji State, and for Ohio State, which narrowly edged past highly competitive Minnesota State-Mankato – all with two straight victories. Little on the form chart, however, could prepare Minnesota-Duluth for needing three games to escape after an upset loss at the hands of St. Cloud State’s “secret weapon†goaltender Kendall Newell, to squeeze past St. Cloud State in three games.
UMD coach Shannon Miller said sheÂ’s eager for the semifinal match against the Golden Gophers, the team UMD swept to clinch second place two weeks ago, and who remain the main hurdle between the Bulldogs and a potential NCAA tournament berth.
“I love playing the Gophers,†said Miller. “ThatÂ’s who weÂ’ve always wanted to play.Ââ€
There may have been some relief amid her enthusiasm, just to get to this weekendÂ’s semifinals. Seventh-place St. Cloud State was 0-10-2 against the top three finishers in the WCHA, but the Bulldogs knew all about Newell, after her sensational performance in a long scoreless game that wound up a 1-0 UMD victory in January. But Newell, a junior from Phoenix, Ariz., never touched the ice again after that 1-0 UMD loss, sitting out the last five weeks of the WCHA season for reasons known only to first-year Huskies coach Jeff Giesen.
Newell is part of a three-goaltender routine with senior Lauri St. Jacques and junior Carman Lizee, and unlocking the hunches of a hockey coach choosing which goalie to play would take a master safe-cracker who does psycho-analysis on the side. In the coachÂ’s defense, all three goalies have played well at times, and St. Jacques had the most victories, with six.
To say NewellÂ’s season looks irregular is an understatement. She started three of the first five games, then sat out 12 straight, started four in a row, sat two, played the 1-0 classic in Duluth, then sat the next 11, while St. Jacques started nine and Lizee two.
The most compelling statistic going into the playoffs was that in the 12 games against Wisconsin, UMD, and Minnesota, Newell had a remarkable 1.98 goals-against average, a .944 save percentage, with an 0-2-2 record in five games, having stung No. 1 Wisconsin with an overtime loss and two overtime ties. St. Jacques was 0-6 with a 5.59 goals-against and an .828 save percentage, and Lizee was 0-2, with 2.78 and .905 stats.
Giesen decided to go with St. Jacques, and she played well enough with 32 saves, after the Bulldogs jumped to an early lead. Freshman Emmanuelle Blais spotted a gap at the short-side post and drilled a narrow-angle shot from deep in the left corner at 4:36. The Bulldogs sailed off from a 1-1 deadlock to a 4-1 lead when Karine Demeule and Saara Tuominen scored in the second period, and Jessica Koizumi converted a slick pass from Michaela Lanzl midway through the third.
The gritty Huskies, who administered a solid physical thumping to the speedy Bulldogs, rallied up on a daring gamble by Giesen. He pulled St. Jacques with 4:50 remaining and the Huskies trailing 4-1, but on a two-skater power play. Laura Fast scored on the 6-on-3 with 4:50 remaining. He pulled St. Jacques again for the final minute, and St. Cloud’s offensive leader Holly Roberts – who had scored the first-period goal – set up Caitlin Hogan with 25 seconds left. But UMD senior goalie Riitta Schaublin held on for the 4-3 victory.
With the end of the season looming as certain as the 12-inch blizzard blowing in off Lake Superior, Giesen turned to Newell, who didnÂ’t know sheÂ’d play until “about 10 a.m. that day,†she said. “I was so anxious and excited and ready to goÂ…I just kept talking to myself, feeding myself positive thoughts, and focusing on making the first save. After about the first 8 minutes of the game I had finally calmed down and settled into my rhythm, and I felt good.Ââ€
UMD helped her find that rhythm, firing the first six shots of the game. “I really don’t remember many scoring chances, I just remember my nerves were going nuts and I was just so focused on calming myself and getting into a routine,†said Newell.
Laura Fast scored with a Roberts power-play pass at 5:38 when UMD freshman goalie Kim Martin got tangled up behind the net, and the Huskies had their first lead of the series at 1-0. With their confidence shooting to a peak, the Huskies traded rushes with the talented Bulldogs. Roberts scored herself with a big slapshot on another power play late in the period for a 2-0 lead, while Newell stopped all 11 UMD shots. The 2-0 lead lasted until Lanzl knocked in her own blocked pass midway through the second period.
“Lanzl went to pass across, and Brita Schroeder made a great play and blocked the pass,†said Newell. “I was playing the pass across and moving with it, and the failed pass went back to Lanzl, right on her tape, and she banked it off the outside of my knee as I was trying to get back.Ââ€
But that was it. Newell regained her touch to block everything else, ending up with 35 saves, and when Roberts found an empty net with 1:25 to go, the Huskies had a stunning 3-1 victory to square the series 1-1. That forced Game 3 on Sunday afternoon, again at Mars-Lakeview Arena because the UMD men and high school sectional semifinals filled the DECC.
Newell got the start again in Game 3, but things were markedly different from the opening faceoff. The Bulldogs, naturally, played much more intensely. “Our backs were against the wall for the first time,†said UMD coach Shannon Miller. “The key was, we didnÂ’t get lured into a football game, like in the first two games.Ââ€
While the Huskies were effectively physical through the first two games, referee Dan Lick called the penalties even, 12-12 in Game 1, and 8-8 in Game 2, which drew MillerÂ’s ire, particularly after freshman defenseman Sara Murray, called the most improved player on the team by Miller a week earlier, was tripped and hurtled into the boards, suffering a broken ankle that ended her season in Game 2. Lick tightened things up in Game 3, under the watchful eye of officiating supervisor Greg Shepherd, calling the first six penalties against St. Cloud State. By the time Lick switched, and issued four straight penalties to UMD, the Bulldogs had a 2-0 lead. For the game, the Huskies had nine penalties to UMDÂ’s six.
Marin, UMDÂ’s tireless offensive leader, scored her 22nd goal of the season at 1:13 of the first period. “The first goal was huge,†said Miller, “because everybody had a little bit of nervousness.Ââ€
The power-play parade helped, too, and Blais, a slender and lightning-quick freshman from Montreal, drilled a one-timer from wide to the left on a two-skater power play midway through the first session. After scoring seven goals through the first 29 games of her freshman season, Blais made it 2-0 by registering her sixth goal in five games. Blais scored her eighth goal in the second game at North Dakota, scored the first two goals in a 7-1 rout against Minnesota, then added another in the 5-1 second Gopher game, on the final regular-season weekend. She also scored the first goal in playoff Game 1, before her 13th of the season became the ultimate game-winner in Game 3.
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Newell survived several flurries in the second period, used her glove to rob Blais on a breakaway, and, two power plays later, came up with the save when Jessica Koizumi passed to the crease and Tuominen deftly redirected it between her own legs.
“If we would have gotten a goal at that point I feel like we would have been a little bit more confident to claw back into the game,†said Newell. “We weathered the second period fairly well and were getting out of it without a goal, and then the funny bounce came. ItÂ’s always hard allowing a goal with under a minute and a half left in a period.Ââ€
But Newell’s luck ran out when Blais was credited with another goal at 19:23 of the second period, after her hard power-play pass to the right circle hit a defenderÂ’s skate and the ricochet slithered just inside the right post, beating the diving Newell. The goal later was awarded to Saara Tuominen.
The Huskies, still alive with the 3-0 deficit in the third period, got a goal from Meaghan Pezoni, who rifled a great shot into the upper right corner past Kim Martin at 12:21. Newell remained the story of the weekend, but the Bulldogs were not to be denied, and secured the victory when Tawni Mattila scored at 13:58 of the third period, and Marin scored her 23rd on a breakaway that turned into a goal-crashing tally at 16:53.
“When it was 3-1, it was only because of Newell,†said Miller. “She was outstanding in Game 2, and she kept them in it again.Ââ€
Giesen seemed unable to take any solace in his teamÂ’s strong run at UMD. It was suggested to the coach that the Huskies had played hard enough to take the action to the Bulldogs through much of the series. “We always play hard,†he said. “WeÂ’ve proven we can play with anybody.Ââ€
It was further suggested to Giesen that after surviving several flurries, and making some spectacular saves, Newell had given the Huskies a chance to win again in Game 3. “I would like to see a few more saves,†said Giesen. “I looked up one time, and they had two goals, and only 12 shots.Ââ€
Since the Huskies wound up with one goal on 22 shots, only a shutout could have prevented their season from ending 12-18-7. UMD, meanwhile, heads for Ridder Arena and a semifinal date with the Gophers, complete with a 6-1 finishing run, a 22-9-4 overall record, a No. 7 national rank – and a large sigh of relief.
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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