Newell disrupts sweep, but Bulldogs gain semis

April 12, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
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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. “That’s who we’ve always wanted to play.”

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 didn’t know she’d play until “about 10 a.m. that day,” she said. “I was so anxious and excited and ready to go…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.”

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.”

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 didn’t get lured into a football game, like in the first two games.”

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, UMD’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.”

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. It’s always hard allowing a goal with under a minute and a half left in a period.”

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.”

Giesen seemed unable to take any solace in his team’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. “We’ve proven we can play with anybody.”

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.”

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.

Grand Rapids-Greenway rivals join in girls state effort

April 12, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
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Northern Minnesota dominated the boys state hockey tournament for several decades, up until Edina and Bloomington Jefferson wrested control from the Iron Range. But in girls hockey, the North has been slow to develop, with only a few Hibbing, Cloquet, Bemidji and Warroad teams rising above a thin crop.

Section 7AA proved very competitive this season, however, capped when the combined Grand Rapids-Greenway team tripped Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 2-1 in overtime in the final to emerge as the latest challenger to the Twin Cities powerhouses.

Grand Rapids and Greenway of Coleraine merged into one team. Interesting.

The two have been the fiercest of state rivals in boys hockey – right up there with the more storied Roseau-Warroad rivalry. But Roseau and Warroad are 20 miles apart across the borderland. On the West end of the Iron Range, Grand Rapids is the paper-mill town that has jokingly been called “the Edina of the Range,” while Coleraine is only seven miles east and is the start of the hard-core Iron Range. Greenway High School is located in Coleraine, but it draws its students from nearby Bovey, Calumet, Nashwauk, Keewatin, Marble, and various other tiny but once-thriving mining towns.

When Grand Rapids faced Cloquet-Esko-Carlton at the Mars-Lakeview Arena in Duluth, it was interesting to see the Grand Rapids kids sitting in the end section, and the green-and-white jacketed Greenway students in the second section. Emily EricksonÂ’s second-period goal had put Grand Rapids-Greenway ahead 1-0, but midway through the third period, Leanne Gittings of Cloquet smacked in a goal against sophomore Grand Rapids-Greenway goaltender Jessica Havel, tying the game 1-1.

As overtime loomed, the Grand Rapids fans started the usual and traditional, if trite, chant, “We’ve got spirit, yes we do; we’ve got spirit, how about you…” After about the third time that the Lightning fans tried it and the Cloquet fans predictably responded, the Greenway fans stood and cheered with their new partners. If Grand Rapids and Greenway fans can stand together and cheer, no wonder their combined girls hockey team proved strong enough to make it to state with a 21-7 record.

Molly Arola, a sophomore, scored after just 21 seconds of sudden-death overtime to send the Lightning to state. It wonÂ’t hurt the season-long unification of the team that Arola and Erickson are two of the six players from the Greenway school district playing on the team, along with Marina Guyer and Haley Guyer, as well as Emily Erickson and Hana Johnson. The remaining 14 team members are Grand Rapids girls. The amalgamation is interesting, because of some of the traditional names involved. The Guyer name is legendary from Greenway, while Markie DeGrio, Maggie Rothstein, Natalie Newton, and Kayla Clafton are some of the familiar last names from Grand Rapids boys hockey teams of a generation ago.

Grand Rapids teams had to change their name from Indians to the more politically correct Thunderhawks a decade ago, and Greenway, which is the Raiders, came together under the name Lightning.

“There’s been no problem putting this team together,” said coach Pat Rendle. “This is the first time we’ve ever gone to state, but there’s a lot we hadn’t done before that this team accomplished – like beating Hibbing, and beating Cloquet.”

At the time, Rendle was familiar with Wayzata, which had upset defending champion and undefeated Eden Prairie, snapping the Eagles 57-game winning streak 3-2 in the Section 6 semifinals. He also was familiar with Edina, from the same section, and was ready to face either. “Edina thumped us, and we lost to Wayzata by a goal,” said Rendle. “But we’re a much better team now.”

However, both Wayzata and Edina met the same fate as Eden Prairie, and Benilde-St. Margaret’s emerged as the Section 6 champion, and will ascend to the favorite’s role with a 24-3-1 record when it faces Grand Rapids-Greenway at 1 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Class AA tournament. In fact, assessing the tournament might require looking back to the Schwann Cup, which doesn’t have any connection with the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament – either girls or boys – and is really a strong cross-reference of top teams that hopes to capitalize on the state tournament to make a little money over the Christmas break.

But this year, it could be a likely harbinger of what will happen, particularly in the girls tournaments. Benilde-St. MargaretÂ’s whipped Blake 6-2 in the Schwann championship game of the girls Blue Division for top-rated teams, and anyone witnessing that one will not be surprised that both teams are in the state tournament. In fact, Benilde is the favorite in Class AA, while Blake is the choice in Class A.

There, thatÂ’s settled.

Actually, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 24-3-1 record represents Section 6 in Class AA for larger schools, and that stands as the best record – particularly after a string of upsets sidelined highly regarded No. 1 ranked Eden Prairie, and No. 2 rated Edina on the same night. So when the Red Knights take the ice Thursday at 1 p.m. against Grand Rapids-Greenway, they will do so as prohibitive favorites in AA.
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The first AA game has Burnsville against North Metro, at 11 a.m. Thursday, while the opening night session will have Bemidji facing Stillwater at 6, and Roseville against Rochester Mayo at 8. Roseville looks like the team hitting a peak at the right time, and with the best chance of getting to the final out of the lower bracket.
Benilde is led by the scoring prowess of seniors Amanda Trunzo, who recorded 42-43—85 for statistics, and Shannon Reilly, a hard-shooting defenseman, plus goaltender Amanda Nagel.

The girls tournament kicks off Wednesday, with the Class A opening round, where Blake puts a 23-4 record out against Breck – also 23-4 – in the 11 a.m. opening game. The battle between long-standing private-school rivals should be interesting, but Blake has not lost since its Christmas break 6-2 setback against Benilde at the Schwann final.

If Benilde and Blake go on to win their championships, everyone will wish for a meeting between the two. Even though they met in that Schwann final. That night, Blake goaltender Rachel Bowens-Rubin had an uncharacteristic bad night, and it was 6-2 after two periods, when she was pulled for ninth-grader Chloe Billadeau, who played brilliantly in shutting out the Red Knights the rest of the way.

Beyond that, Benilde goaltender Nagel proved her value by repeatedly stopping Blake’s aggressive attackers. The Chute Sister act for Blake is, alone, worth the price of admission. Senior Katharine Chute has 38-34—72, and was picked as the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Metro Player of the Year. She is tall, lanky, and elusive. If there is a more dynamic player on the rink, it is sophomore Margaret Chute, who seems to be wherever the puck is at the right time.

They stand to make Blake the favorite in Class A, but Breck, and others, have the credentials to win it all.

After the Blake-Breck game at 11, Alexandria, with the best record in the field at 25-2, will find out at 1 p.m. how much that record is worth against perennial Northern power Hibbing, which has the shakiest record in the field at 14-11-2. The opening night bracket in A finds Crookston (23-3-1) facing Marshall (21-7) at 6 p.m., followed by the 8 p.m. finale between Farmington (21-5-1) and Austin (24-3).

There is only slim hope that the Northern Minnesota teams can swipe a championship, although Hibbing and Alexandria are present in Class A, and Bemidji knows its way around Class AA – along with Grand Rapids-Greenway, the new kids on the block, from an old traditional pair of Iron Range rivals.

UMD women a-Blais, leave Gophers becalmed

April 12, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
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Nobody personifies the University of Minnesota-DuluthÂ’s fantastic hockey weekend, and the whole Bulldog women’s season for that matter, better than Emmanuelle Blais. The slim and quick freshman winger from Montreal became the calm before the storm for the Bulldogs. Or maybe the calm DURING the storm.

Blais scored three goals and set up two more, all of them at pivotal points, as she set the tempo for a goal-scoring festival that trampled arch-rival Minnesota 7-1 and 5-1 in their season-ending series to decide second place in the WCHA.

The season-long struggle with injuries is over, and just about everybody got back in time to celebrate. “We’re the little engine that could,” said UMD coach Shannon Miller. “We wanted to beat ’em, and we did; we wanted to sweep ’em, and we did.”

Finishing second means a 19-6-3 league record (20-8-4 overall) and the playoff chance to play host to seventh-place St. Cloud State this weekend, a team UMD has beaten four times, and outscored 13-2. “Now that we have our depth back, our focus is going to be on ourselves,” said Miller.

Blais wonÂ’t be taking anything for granted, but sheÂ’s a different player now. She had worked hard all season, and looked good in speedy flashes while scoring eight goals this season and filling a support role as a freshman. When the injuries got up to eight or nine missing players, she had to play more and acquired more responsibility. She was pressing a little, or a lot, right up until the season-ending series against the Gophers. Then everything changed.

“I got to play more when we had players injured,” Blais said. “But really, the difference was that I had a talk with coach Ouellette.”
That would be Caroline Ouellette, former UMD and Canadian Olympic star who this year joined Joakim Flygh as an assistant coach. Ouellette is also French-Canadian, so, on UMDÂ’s multi-national roster, she speaks the language for Blais, in more ways than one.

“I had the chance to play with her before,” said Blais. “So I know her. She didn’t really tell me what to do, we just talked, but it really helped me. When we came into this weekend, I didn’t have anything in my mind. My problem is that I had thought too much before. She told me to just not think about anything, to be more calm.”

If Blais was calm, she seriously jangled the Gophers nerves.
Miller kept Blais with Saara Tuominen, a center from Finland and another of the seven freshmen in the lineup, and left wing Jessica Koizumi, just back from a knee injury but still braced heavily. The setting for the games was changed to Mars-Lakeview Arena, because the usual DECC was being used for a boat show. A bright and shiny facility that seats only 1,500, Mars-Lakeview is the newest arena in Duluth, located at Marshall High School, just above Skyline Drive.

Game one, introductions over, tension high, first minute of play. Tuominen won a left corner faceoff and took the puck behind the Minnesota goal, passing out front. Blais smacked it past goaltender Kim Hanlon, and UMD led 1-0 at 1:00. The standing-room crowd went properly wild, waving banners and all.

A minute later, Minnesota takes a penalty. Miller sends Blais right back out and – bang – she scores again, knocking in a loose puck after Noemie Marin’s shot from the right side. It was 2-0, and Blais had her ninth and 10th goals of the season when the game was only 2:38 old.

If she was still calm, she was the only calm one in the building. Minnesota, bristling with skilled players, was pinned into its own end by the supercharged Bulldogs, although the game stayed 2-0 until 8:37 of the second period. Then Marin scored, making a great move to her backhand to beat a defenseman coming out of the left corner. Barely a minute later, Michaela Lanzl got the puck deep on the left boards, carried to the net and jammed a shot off Hanlon and in to make it 4-0. With 31 seconds to go in the rousing second period, it was Blais again, this time sending a perfect pass to Tuominen, whose one-timer from the slot hit Hanlon and trickled through, making it 5-0 at the second intermission.

Minnesota got one, when Erica McKenzie raced up the left side and beat UMD freshman and former Swedish Olympic star Kim Martin with a low shot at 6:52 of the third period. Obviously, 5-1 was still substantial, but Elin Holmlov, another freshman from Sweden, scored midway through the final period, and added another goal five minutes later after Marin’s slick drop pass – her third assist of the night.

UMD coasted home 7-1 to a victory that meant Minnesota could not catch the Bulldogs for second place. So aroused were the Bulldogs that even though their edge in shots was only 34-25, they had a whopping 72-48 edge in total attempts. Somebody, believe it or not, asked Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson afterward what she thought about UMDÂ’s DEFENSE!

After a pause, Halldorson said: “I was more impressed with their offense. We never got anything going. We got outplayed, and it was a disappointing loss, but usually they get pretty fired up to play us.”
Miller said she loved the arena atmosphere. “The fans were great, with all the signs and the cowbells,” she said. “Our entire team is finally back together, and we came out and we jumped. Any time you play a great opponent, you want to put them on their heels. We did that.”
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Everybody in the building knew that the Gophers would come out more forcefully on Sunday, and that Game 2 would be different. They did, but it wasnÂ’t.

Kim Martin stopped all 10 first-period shots by the Gophers, and started “Blaising” at 6:37, when Blais fed Tuominen for a goal and a 1-0 head start. It was a much tougher and much closer game, and it stayed 1-0 until 17:25, when Lanzl, a speedy sophomore who was Germany’s best player in the 2006 Olympics, raced up the right side, cut in hard and did a neat little hop-step over a defenseman’s stick, shooting as she landed. “Five hole,” said Lanzl. “She went down, and there was nobody else with me, so I shot. This atmosphere is so great.”

Just like Saturday, Sunday afternoonÂ’s rematch started 2-0 in the first period. And, just like Saturday, the Bulldogs volleyed in three more in the second, including one in the last minute, to make it 5-0. The decisive third goal came at 1:34 of the middle period, when Jill Sales fed Tuominen, who hit Blais, who was blazing up the left side. She ducked by a checker to turn a 2-on-2 into a 2-on-1, and when she cut for the goal, she looked to pass, then snapped a shot that beat Hanlon cleanly to the short side, making it 3-0.

Midway through the second period, Lanzl swiped the puck and passed to Marin, who walked in on the right and scored for a 4-0 count. At 19:10, Sara O’Toole – another returnee from rehab – came off the bench on a late change and somehow hid at the Gopher blue line. Ashly Waggoner passed her the puck and O’Toole cruised in to score on the solo dash to make it 5-0.

The Gophers kept battling, outshooting UMD 11-5 in the third period, and getting a goal when Dagney Willey scored with each team a skater short. When it was over, Minnesota had outshot UMD 33-23, but Martin had stopped 32 of them. “We played a lot better, a lot harder,” said Halldorson. “It was closer than a 5-1 game.”

But it seemed like 5-1 to Hanlon, who missed 14 games early in the season, and has had to play every game since fellow sophomore Brittony Chartier left school to return to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, at midseason. She recalled watching from the sidelines when Minnesota beat UMD 5-1 and 1-0 on the first weekend in November.

“I remember watching,” she said. “But now, all of us need to show up at the same time. They’re fast, and they use their speed to their advantage. I didn’t play as well as I could have, but they made a lot of great plays.”

Those great plays were rare when the injuries led to some UMD inconsistency during a 1-7-1 stretch before Christmas. But the Bulldogs seemed to regain more than just good health, as they moved the puck freely, passing with more sharp precision than at any time this season. With playoffs coming up, the resurgence couldn’t have come at a better time. Same for the experience. It may still say “freshman” after names like Emmanuelle Blais, Saara Tuominen, Elin Holmlov, and defensemen Sarah Murray, Jaime Rasmussen, and Heidi Pelttari, and goaltender Kim Martin – but all of them are remaining calm, and playing like hard-core veterans.

Playoff critics can’t diminish Twins magical season

April 12, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
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Had it been a movie, the end of the Minnesota Twins 2006 regular season would have been panned for being too unrealistic. It defied logic, as well as normal baseball style, for a team to rise from two months of ineptitude to start the season and finish in improbably glory as the Central Division champions on – make that after – their final game was over.

True, getting swept in three straight games by Oakland in the playoffs took some of the wind out of the billowing sails that had carried the Twins into post-season. But it canÂ’t take away from the captivating season finish.

Consider that by the time the Twins had lost their first 33 games, they had won only 25. By the time they had lost their next 33 games, they had won 71 games. Amazingly, you could almost separate the season in halves with those records – 25-33, then 71-33.

But at the start, with favored Chicago flying high, and surprising Detroit flying higher, the Twins seemed to be falling apart, right out of the box. If you recall, even Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau werenÂ’t hitting well, and Torii Hunter seemed to be swinging wildly. Twin Cities columnists and talk-show ravers agreed that Mauer may never be the great hitter once envisioned, and that Morneau might never be the power hitter many had hoped for. They also said Michael Cuddyer would never really have a position to call home.

Johan Santana had a fantastic year overall, but he did not have a fantastic first month. Brad Radke had problems getting his off-speed stuff in the location he wanted, and Carlos Silva seemed to have acquired a tendency to hit the fat part of opposing bats with frightening regularity. In the field, guys named Castro and Batista at short and third were OK, but never better than just OK, and the Twins lineup sounded more like a CNN compilation of Latin American dictators than an American League contender. Meanwhile, left-fielder Shannon Stewart went down with a continuation of his recent injury-spattered career.

In apparent desperation, the Twins seemed to turn to the future. Santana started pitching like his old, dominant self. Radke finally found some consistency, but was far off his game. Watching Radke pitch at his best is like watching a skilled artist bring together all the hues and shades and organizational concepts to create another masterpiece. We didnÂ’t know at the time that he had a crack in his shoulder and a torn labrum.

The turning point for the Twins? There were several.

Mauer, of course, was the peopleÂ’s choice behind the net. Turning 23, and really in only his second full season, Mauer started hitting first. His average rose, and he hit the ball to all parts of the field. By the time the rest of the Twins started to hit with any regularity, Mauer was almost up to .400, and being rightly called the best hitter in baseball.

A young left-hander named Francisco Lariano emerged, and, typically, was not allowed to pitch other than in middle relief by cautious, formula-following manager Ron Gardenhire. When he finally got to start, he was the star of the staff, and may have inspired SantanaÂ’s game to rise a notch.

Bringing up players cut at training camp has to be a difficult task, and there was no reason to believe that Nick Punto could do anything much at third, or that Jason Bartlett was ready to step in at short. They not only played well, they made brilliant, game-saving plays every game. With Luis Castillo sharp at second, and Morneau becoming ever-better at first, the infield suddenly was solidified.

Hunter, after missing some action when he cracked his ankle on one of his wall-climbing attempts in center field, didn’t help much in the first half. But Hunter’s all-consuming personality and that giant smile may have been the key to the camaraderie that engulfed the Twins. The word “chemistry” is overused in sports, but it was never more valid than when the Twins became a team where the whole was far better than the sum of its parts.

As Stewart went out, Hunter was hurt, and Radke tried to find his problem, a pitching staff that started out with the hope of Santana-Radke-Silva, became a starting rotation where Boof Bonser, Matt Garza, Scott Baker, and reliever Pat Neshek stepped in. A bullpen staff led by closer Joe Nathan set new standards for effectiveness.

About that time, Morneau started hitting the ball. Hard. And out of the park. He surged to become the first player in the current era to hit 30 home runs for the Twins. With Mauer never slowing down, the two M-and-M boys led the way. Mauer with his classic swing, and Morneau, with his suddenly emerging power swing. Between them, Cuddyer, who had become an exceptional force with his strong right arm in right field, came through with clutch hits and key RBIs.

A pivot point in the Twins rise was when they closed in on the White Sox, for second, and their manager, Ozzie Guillen, made the unheard of comment: “I like my team, but I really like that team over there.” He named the obvious stars, but he also liked the little guys – the Punto, Bartlett types – and called them piranhas. That became another watchword for the Twins. If the big sharks don’t get you, the piranhas will. It seemed that the more players went down, the more persistent and resilient the Twins became. Bartlett, batting ninth in the lineup, was hitting nearly .320, and day after day, the Twins would fabricate a way to win.

Still, the Detroit Tigers who had been doormats for decades, showed no signs of faltering. For about six weeks, it seemed the Twins would keep winning, but fail to close the gap with the leaders. But they persevered, and they overtook the White Sox. Then, in the final month, Detroit started to stumble. Impossible as it seemed, the Twins closed in.

Mauer, sometimes appearing weary, got a few days off, and Morneau, once he got to 33 homers, quit hitting homers. Just about then, Torii Hunter caught fire. Running and leaping with his usual abandon to make catches in the outfield, Hunter also started hitting the ball into the seats. He, too, reached the 30 plateau for home runs, and if you broke down the last month, he probably was the Twins best clutch hitter in that stretch.

None of that prepared us for the magnificent finish. The Twins had tied the Tigers for first place, and the final three-game series for both teams, in their respective home ballparks, would decide the title. Against the tough White Sox, the Twins struggled, and lost a game. Then another. Detroit, playing last place Kansas City at home, blew a 5-0 lead and lost, then made a spirited comeback in the second game, but lost again.

The drama of the season finale was actually threefold. The Twins would either finish second, or tied for first – which would equal second – or somehow win the crown. Mauer, batting .347, had none other than the Yankees Derek Jeter on his tail, at .346. The final games started, all around the country. Jeter got a hit in his first at-bat, Mauer struck out. That left the two tied for first in batting.

Silva, meanwhile, pitched his best game in two months and the Twins took command against the White Sox. In MauerÂ’s second at-bat, he drilled a double to left. Word came that Jeter was by then 1-for-3. The mood was slightly subdued, because Detroit was hammering Kansas City, so the title seemed out of the question. Kansas City got a couple runs, so at least it wouldnÂ’t be 7-0 in Detroit, and it closed to 7-4 on the scoreboard at the Metrodome.

Mauer stepped in for his third at-bat. The count was 1-and-1, when suddenly an enormous roar filled the Dome. Mauer, startled, stepped out, refocused, and stepped back in. What had happened was the crowd saw the scoreboard change to show that somehow, some way, Kansas City had taken an 8-7 lead in the top of the eight at Detroit. In the next instant, Mauer drilled another hit to left, making him 2-for-3, and cinching the batting title. Jeter was 1-for-5.

The best was yet to come, of course. The Tigers tied the KC game 8-8, and after winning 5-1, the Twins celebrated, then headed for the clubhouse. But they returned, because the big screen in the Metrodome started to show the remainder of the Detroit-Kansas City game. About 35,000 of the crowd of 45,000 stayed to watch. The Twins returned to their dugout, and their wives and kids sat in the visiting dugout. Hunter led the cheers, “Let’s go, Royals…”

You donÂ’t see scenes like that in pro sports these days. And when Kansas City rallied to beat Tigers 10-8 in 12 innings, the celebration was incredible in the Metrodome.

The euphoria was partly due to the seeming obsession with winning the title and thus avoiding a first-round playoff match with the Yankees. By winning, the Twins would duck the Yankees, and play Oakland, instead. The Tigers, as the wild card, would face the Yanks. At the time, my feeling was “Be careful what you wish for.” With Yankee ace Randy Johnson a questionable performer in the first round best-of-five, and the possibility of facing the Yankees with Johnson in the best-of-seven league final round, it seemed facing the Yankees first might be preferable.
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The rest, as they say, is history. Santana, who had not been as sharp in the last month as earlier in the season, did not shut out the Athletics, who won 3-2. The Athletics won Game 2 5-2 in the Metrodome, and the columnists and talk show ravers were united in ripping Torii Hunter for missing a diving catch that turned into a game-changing inside-the-park home run. Going out to Oakland, the Twins continued to not hit very well, and gave Radke one last start. It was a close game, but the Twins didnÂ’t hit, and they made three errors, their bullpen lost its invincibility, and their season was over.

The faltering Tigers, meanwhile, went from being bombed in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium to whip the Yankees in the next three games. So Detroit, rising from a five-game losing streak at the worst possible time, advanced to face Oakland, while the Yankees and the Twins went home.

The most disturbing thing of the playoffs is the continued criticism of Torii Hunter, who is perhaps the gameÂ’s best center fielder. Game after game, Hunter makes ESPNÂ’s list with spectacular catches in center, either going up and over the fences to rob home runs, or diving to spear would-be hits in front of him. For those who didnÂ’t see the play live, when it appeared on Sports Center you thought that here was another fabulous catch by Hunter. It was a shock to see that the ball somehow sliced just away from his diving glove, missing it by maybe two inches and skipping to the wall as Hunter sprawled on the grass.

Various critics have said the move was ill-conceived, bad judgment, a terrible error, that he missed it by five feet(!), and it ruined the series, if not the whole season, and possibly was at the root of terrorism, global warming and world hunger. Enough, already. The guys with the press passes are going to suggest that they know how to play that slicing line drive better than Hunter.

In reality, even a three-game sweep at the hands of Oakland canÂ’t take away the magnificent and totally captivating season the Twins had in 2006. And when it comes to deciding whether to dive for a ball or not, IÂ’ll take Torii Hunter, any day, over the second-guessers in the press box.

Just once it would be nice to read, or hear, that the Twins had a magical season, an incredible finish, and then just flat got beat by an Oakland team that was at the top of its game. Sometimes, no matter how much skill and magic youÂ’ve got, you just happen to get beat. ThatÂ’s why they play the game.

Twins stadium stampede tramples public, logic

April 12, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Sports 

The Minnesota Twins will get a new, open-air, boutique stadium in downtown Minneapolis. And the University of Minnesota football Gophers (remember them?) will also get a new, open-air stadium. We know for certain that next year, after the legislators figure the people will have softened their feelings about this yearÂ’s decisions, the Minnesota Vikings also will get a new, open-air stadium.

Maybe the turmoil and raving has cooled to the point where some logic might be applied to the situation.

I am all for the outdoors, just as I am a lover of all sports – especially hockey and motorsports, but also including everything from baseball-football-basketball to the more off-beat, such as soccer, and track, and anything else where good competition can be enjoyed. I might pass up going to a game in any sport to participate myself in a ballgame or some active family endeavor. But, major league sports are a definite attraction.

LetÂ’s declare that football is meant to be played outside. Even in Minnesota. ESPECIALLY in Minnesota. Baseball is meant to be played outside, too, although a closeable roof seems like a no-brainer, when 20-25 of the 81 home games might be affected by inclement weather.

By inclement weather, I don’t mean a nagging drizzle, in which baseball can still be played – albeit with concerns that someone named Mauer, or Morneau, or Santana doesn’t slip and injure something. I’m referring to the near-freezing, hard drizzle, where the game might go on, but fans will simply choose to not attend. Sports columnists and broadcasters, sitting inside their heated and cooled press boxes, keep urging us that they could still play a ballgame in bad weather. But it’s the fans that matter.

Many fans will choose alternatives to sitting outside in miserable weather, and columnist/broadcasters sheltered by air-conditioned, food-and-drink-filled press boxes have no business demanding that fans should brave the elements that sportswriters and broadcasters never face at a game. Maybe we should build a retractable roof over the grandstands, and the field, and leave the press box uncovered. See how those fingers can work those computer keys in a little drizzle, or some sleet.

The most distasteful part of the Twins stadium issue was the outright panic generated by what amounted to media-supported blackmail. The Twins would leave for sure if we didn’t build them a stadium, we were told. Remember, they raved, weÂ’re not building it for Carl Pohlad and the Twins, weÂ’re building it for ourselves, so that we can continue to enjoy major league baseball in our own boutiquey little stadium.

When the issue stalled, stadium forces whined that public money built the Guthrie, although they conveniently avoided carrying out the comparison, because one private owner doesn’t control every event in the Guthrie and serves as the only beneficiary of 100 percent of the revenue.

Remember, now, IÂ’m a sports guy, and I prefer outdoor baseball and football, and always did. That goes back to the time when some of the same people coerced us to build the indoor Metrodome. So IÂ’d love to see the right deal on the right stadium. The media continued to push the stadium as our way of living up to other major U.S. cities, which virtually all have built new stadiums.

Overlooked in the debate by all was a nugget brought out by Pat Kessler, on WCCO-TV’s “Reality Check,” which cuts through the flak and hyperbole on major issues. Kessler said researching the 11 years that the Twins have been professionally lobbying the legislature and the populace for a new stadium, he found that a total of 14 new major league baseball stadiums have been, or are being, built. Three of those 14 were financed 100 percent by team owners. Can you imagine that? The remaining 11 are financed on an average of 50 percent by team owners.

Altogether, that’s an average of about 60 percent owners’ money for each of the last 14 new stadiums, folks. In Minnesota, Carl Pohlad, billionaire extraordinaire, owns the Twins and could easily afford to build the entire stadium by himself, yet he somehow manipulated a deal where he would pay 25 percent. Not 100 percent, not 60 percent, not 50 percent, but only one-fourth of the new playground for his boys – even though Pohlad and the Twins stand to make all the profit from tickets, concessions, and ad revenue at the new stadium.

Did the stadium-pushing media fail to do the same research as WCCO-TV? Or, worse, they did the research but decided not to offer the results that didn’t boost their stance. We canÂ’t blame Carl. He made his millions, which became billions, by banking, where you maneuver and manipulate to take what you can get, without any needless spending, and without letting up anybody indebted to you. Carl did it well, and apparently, heÂ’s still doing it. He gambled, and held out, figuring his patience would allow the media to finally whip itself into a frenzy. Sure enough, they have helped stampede baseball fans and the legislature into believing that their constituents — the taxpaying publilc — would agree that it was a good thing for them to be socked for 75 percent of the expense.

It would have been very interesting if the legislature had said, “OK Carl, we’ll pay for half of a new stadium, and if you want it, you pay for the other half.” Or, how about if Carl pays his one-fourth, but then pays himself for building the suites, which will make him huge earnings? At the very least, perhaps Pohlad could have been embarrassed into kicking in for a retractable roof.

As the media stampede gained momentum, anyone who hesitated to jump on their bandwagon was ridiculed for trying to run the Twins out of town. Columnists and broadcasters blasted legislators with outrageous accusations that were almost slanderous. The targets included thoughtful legislators who merely wanted to figure out a more rational way to finance a new stadium. They certainly wanted the Twins to have a new playground, but also felt compelled to stay in harmony with their constituents.

But the media surge immediately branded them as trying to run the Twins out of town with their hesitancy.

Three decades ago, when the Twins, Vikings, and Gopher football team all clamored for a new, indoor stadium, I didnÂ’t like the move, although it made some sense for baseball to escape the changeable Minnesota elements for air-regulated 70-degree conditions under a roof. Baseball is best played outdoors, but in a major league season now starting in April and finishing in October, there is the risk of some cold, drizzly, even snowy and sometimes wind-chilly days.

Postponements are a pain – even if doubleheaders are great. Expansion means that teams don’t often return for another trip to make up lost games. So the benefits of playing outside most of June, July and August, become shaky on the few foul-weather days in those months, and during the many foul-weather days in April, May, September and October. A roof makes some sense, and a retractable roof – regardless of the expense – makes the most sense of all.

The current plan left an interesting trail. Not long ago, tunnel-visioned people in the sports media assumed that all citizens shared their zeal, so they clamored for surveys and sought a public referendum for various sports causes. Surprise! The tax-paying public has unfailingly voted down any such public financing of private-owner-team stadiums. So this time, the zealots excluded the voters and insisted that there couldnÂ’t be any referendum. They said the people elected those legislators and councilors, so let them now do their work and decide for the voters. They knew, of course, that it is far easier to intimidate a few legislators than to coerce a herd of people anxious to not spend their money to build a playpen for billionaire owners and millionaire players.
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The media tirades came from younger types who canÂ’t remember the past, and from older fellas, confident they had already outlived most of the folks who recall their identical tirades that the Twins and Vikings would move if we didnÂ’t build them an indoor stadium. Some of us still remember.

Almost everybody in Minnesota, including non-sports-fans, wants the Twins and Vikings to stay in Minnesota. Frankly, I donÂ’t foresee either of them moving anywhere. But for some reason, almost every sports broadcaster and columnist seemed to buy into and contribute to the Twins-will-leave-this-time-for-sure campaign.

The issue became one of legislative votes, but it wasnÂ’t simply for or against public financing. The vote, we heard, was either in favor of guaranteeing billionaire owner Carl Pohlad a chance to gain fabulous wealth, over and above his already stupendous wealth, or to vote in favor of the Twins leaving Minnesota. LetÂ’s see, voting for or against a public gift makes sense; suggesting the vote was for a public subsidy or to force a major league sports franchise to leave was Ridiculous.

Last time all this happened, we laughed at the absurdity of the threats, but agreed to build the Metrodome because there was some merit to escaping the elements. This time the majority didnÂ’t laugh, but for some reason, enough legislators bought into the plan even while their constituents seemed to see through the blackmail. Using such an unreasonable and invalid method to secure the needed votes – by the narrowest of margins – seemed bizarre. But then we’re living in an era where, if a gane of Saudi Arabian extremists commits a terrorist act against the United States, our government would respond almost immediately by going to war…with Iraq.

So the legislature passed a Twins Stadium bill for downtown Minneapolis, beyond Target Center. First Avenue is elbow-to-elbow with people almost every night, as the trendy younger folks hustle off to neat restaurants, bars, night clubs and concert venues. Years ago, an attempt to clean up Hennepin Avenue pushed the less-desirable element to First Avenue, but when First Avenue became the trendiest spot in town, where were the homeless, the drug-dealers, the muggers, supposed to go? They migrated back to Hennepin Avenue. As they say, everybodyÂ’s got to be somewhere, and short of eradicating them, solutions seem scarce.

So the pushers of the new stadium, who had repeatedly said that Minneapolis needs the stadium down past Target Center, in order to save the city from the hassles of recent increases in murders, muggings, drug-dealings, street crime, and the nuisance of pan-handlers. Those untidy happenings occur less in Minneapolis than in other major cities, but itÂ’s an issue, nonetheless.

Apparently, the stadium advocates have it figured out, because theyÂ’ve assured us that the street people and the homeless and the bad element will disappear, just because thereÂ’s a ball game tonight. Hopefully, the muggers will be responsible enough to not rob those fans of their umbrellas.

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  • About the Author

    John GilbertJohn 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.